We believe in community

I had the privilege of attending the Local Government Web Network’s first conference last week. About 80 people from a number of local government councils attended to hear from the likes of some of Australia’s brightest minds, from John Allsopp and Cameron Adams to Ruth Ellison and Lachlan Hardy.

I remember what it was like being a web professional in government over a decade ago — isolated and unsure as to whether I was doing things the right way. I was largely self-taught back then, picking up my skills by osmosis as the web evolved out of its first Lynx text browser into pages and graphics displayed in Mosaic. Fortunately, these people have a strong community led by Diana Mounter and Reem Abdelaty to learn from others’ experiences, as well as have access to the expertise of the wider web-professionals community.

My own contribution to this great event was a presentation on intranets and the importance of remembering that people are its centre and not technology.

You can also download the PDF slides directly from SlideShare and I’m hoping to add an audio slidecast very soon.

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