tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56078869700039389042011-07-30T23:04:52.651-07:00free spaceDr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comBlogger341100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-81541127904606078662011-03-06T02:30:00.000-08:002011-03-06T02:34:35.902-08:00

How do you know if you are happy? my daughter asked. I know I feel better than I used to, she said, but I don’t know if that means I’m happy now. I suppose she meant what if this is it, and I’m not appreciating it, and then it passes? It’s important to know what happy is, and savour it. What I know, I said, is that happiness is in the present, in every moment, in many separate moments.

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-9884394350652292162011-02-22T15:58:00.000-08:002011-02-27T19:47:05.264-08:00

ISTINCTIVE There's something a bit perverse about having started a thing with a life of its own, and then making a snap decision to abandon it. So having said I was off to WordPress in a way that sounded like "I may be some time...." I feel as though I'm creating a lost orphan leaving this one behind to fend for itself. Maybe I can blog in two places... until I get the hang of the "301

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-5596258635978980562011-02-18T19:07:00.000-08:002011-02-22T15:59:10.993-08:00

It had to happen - you can't really be at WordCamp and still be using Blogger. If I've learned nothing else today, it's that there's no point in blogging unless you do what you can to maximise searchability. So I'm off to http://float2.wordpress.com/ ...

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-1399474067606173262011-02-18T13:02:00.000-08:002011-02-18T13:16:15.821-08:00

Gwen Walton-Wegener talks at WordCamp about Minimonos, a kids blogging and game site - "MiniMonos is a virtual world for children, focused on sustainability, generosity, community and fun. We're based in New Zealand". Walton-Wegener opines that kids who are online are more likely to be writing generally. Encouraging blogging brings about interesting developments such as kids enjoying having the

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-85940239570657114562011-02-18T12:38:00.000-08:002011-02-23T00:33:38.492-08:00

irst speaker Vaughn Davis (The Goat Farm) at the third NZ WordCamp at Te Papa Tongarewa talks about How to publish a bestseller for nothing, without being Alison Holst. Well OK it's easy, says Vaughn, to publish in NZ if you are a cook or an All Black. But if you're not a cultural icon and you have views to share, Twitter will only get you so far - you still can't beat the credibility that a

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-85051033666540910342010-10-27T02:33:00.000-07:002011-02-23T00:34:32.639-08:00

nteresting to hear what's going on among a highly specialised group of researchers in CI. Thinking how much more successful such a research network could be, for building critical mass in (especially) new and rapidly changing research fields. For goodness sake, here we all are re-inventing the wheel - yet even with my "other" hat on as having a central interest in e-Learning strategy (including

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-55632389641162228952010-10-27T01:27:00.000-07:002011-02-23T00:35:48.117-08:00

Doug Schuler's keynote at today's conference opening leads me to think the research activity I've engaged in in recent years, as well as the extension of it through the role I take at Unitec (strategically orienting itself very much toward serving community needs) and now being an invited member of the Auckland Computers in Homes Steering Group, positions me well within the ambit of the CIRN

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-75874655052119176332010-06-02T03:25:00.000-07:002010-06-02T03:32:36.667-07:00

Notes from Nick and Mark’s “insights,stories and lessons from inside one of the biggest stories of recent months: the multiple outages that hit Telecom’s XT network.” PRiNZ conference “Taming the Tiger” 28-29 May 2010Often funny and dry, Nick and Mark offered a list of the key elements of crisis communication management – lessons learned from having to deal with several “outages” of the XT

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-78137892169025553842010-05-27T01:38:00.000-07:002010-05-27T03:32:20.485-07:00

At the PRiNZ conference today, high points include hearing more about "conversational marketing" from Jake Pearce, who finished his presentation with video about the t-shirt company Threadless Jake's illustration of how success can be built on making people feel as though they are part of the business - they have a stake in it. Threadless is one of the fastest-growing companies in the US. They

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-3438564747431513422010-05-20T01:24:00.001-07:002010-05-20T02:05:58.952-07:00

Hello blog, I'm back. I left you in a sort of cryogenic freeze for a while. Now I find you still here, waiting patiently. Don't deserve you, do I. Let me thaw you out, breathe a fog of words over you. I see it's been almost a year since I left you to fend for yourself. I've shrugged a few monkeys off my back that weighed heavier and heavier for a while. Life returns to something more like

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-36581298199322887102009-05-24T14:59:00.000-07:002009-05-24T16:00:01.598-07:00

But Charlie Balch on the airI (Association of Internet Researchers) mailing list notes the pitfalls of word of mouth marketing. "We need a new term. Viral marketing doesn't fit" says Charlie, referring to a report in the Washington Post late last week. Amazon.com customer reviewers ran hilariously wild with the life-changing powers of a t-shirt featuring three wolves. Customers can be wise to all

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-22112025086169927982009-05-21T21:42:00.000-07:002009-05-21T21:59:05.513-07:00

This week the PR Institute of NZ (PRiNZ) conference, Kiwi & Proud, foregrounded the role of social media and Web 2.0 in the work of PR practitioners, steering toward a theme of how the PR industry can assist Brand NZ. John Bell of Ogilvy PR, a keynote videoconferenced in, was a dynamic start to the day. It’s an exciting and slightly scary world. Enthused about ramping up my activities by finally

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-14250482694085477442009-04-17T00:51:00.000-07:002009-04-17T01:26:22.755-07:00

We’re enjoying the response to media censorship by the military government in Fiji. “Man gets on bus” and “watching paint dry” are some creative responses from The Fiji Daily Post to the clampdown on press freedom. Meanwhile in New Zealand the press pages are filled with breathless reporting on the guilty plea of Tony Veitch, sports journalist, now convicted for injuring his former girlfriend

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-7913322579266259482009-03-13T01:37:00.000-07:002009-03-19T00:50:01.613-07:00

Rain fell today on the seated crowd, the marquees, the stand of ti-tree behind, and the empty paved forecourt of our new whare, Ngakau Mahaki, in the marae complex called Te Noho Kotahitanga. It gusted in beneath the canopies of canvas, and the umbrellas. Gleaming wet warriors issued a challenge; there was the calling of a woman, of women, and the inching forward of the guests, the manuhiri.The

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-10145230198890794052009-02-24T15:56:00.001-08:002009-02-24T15:59:09.426-08:00

This week the birds are flying north. On an eggshell blue morning I catch sight of strings of them in formation, reeling and unreeling like the tail of a kite or slow motion billowing of silk used in rhythmic gymnastics. Mostly, the strings of 40 - 100 birds look like a wide ‘V’. So many squadrons, one shifting and fluttering after the other, an avian assault on the warmer Pacific.Seasonal

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-11779306175315687252009-02-06T21:10:00.000-08:002009-02-06T21:34:45.233-08:00

Even my Siamese cat complains and lies wilting in the shade. Vaguely affronted that conditions could so fail to be to his liking, he asks for distractions such as food, which he then finds also fail to please, so another lie down is called for.In weather like this… I learned to ride a pushbike as a child of maybe seven. We lived in a very small provincial NZ town in a farming district. The

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-63758116059986785982009-01-22T14:01:00.000-08:002009-01-22T14:16:18.426-08:00

A claim that we were in the presence of greatness at the Leonard Cohen concert last night is easy to defend. First, the instrument: his voice was extraordinary after all these years, from the first spirited bars of "Dance Me to the End of Love" when the honeyed tones filled the stadium with ease, yet with intimacy (singing only to me, surely), to the prayerful intoning of the poems "A Thousand

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-42179012542691857852009-01-08T13:29:00.000-08:002009-01-08T13:35:12.088-08:00

Thought for the day: the NZ Herald reports today "Warm air coming across the Tasman Sea has been blamed for the scorching temperatures (in NZ yesterday), which went into the 30s in several North Island centres" (...and unofficially topped 40C..)

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-14161669883228914892009-01-07T23:18:00.000-08:002009-01-07T23:33:09.686-08:00

The first days of 2009 in Auckland are a blur of spectacular summer days, still nights, and the sweet sense of a few last hurrahs before we begin the serious business of handling a recession. Reluctantly back at my desk, I join a few hardy souls at my place of work scanning the figures, attempting to divine whether an economic downturn will bring increased interest in higher education – that is,

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-53761958813290552922008-11-04T00:41:00.000-08:002008-11-04T01:07:31.055-08:00

So why on earth do people stll forward urban legends? Does it not seem somewhat implausible to read that microwaving food "...causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food"? If it were true, would there not have been mass poisonings throughout the microwave-prevalent reaches of the world, hospitals overflowing and doctors perplexed, with an accompanying

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-68913987115309505122008-10-23T18:35:00.000-07:002008-10-23T18:47:34.708-07:00

The Association of Internet Researchers conference theme “Re-thinking community, re-thinking place” proved apt in Copenhagen October 15 – 18, with scores of papers and powerful keynotes reflecting in different ways on the complementarity of online and offline community. While once we might have considered space to be losing importance, as digital media freed us from the constraints of geography,

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-35647606862473702742008-10-16T06:42:00.000-07:002008-10-16T07:40:50.468-07:00

Hearing about the aesthetic difference between a photo and a picture, at a 'Digital Images & Photos Online' session at the Association of Internet Researchers conference...that a picture makes us focus on the affective character of everyday life, while a photo just gives us the object. With this in mind, I'll spare you all the photos, and give you a picture representing the everyday for me this

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-12152677440736168592008-10-10T06:05:00.000-07:002008-10-10T13:17:43.668-07:00

As a descendant of Danish immigrants to NZ, it was an odd but somehow happy experience to walk down into the departure lounge at Bangkok Airport about a day ago to board my flight to Copenhagen to find that most of the large gathering of waiting passengers - 90% of them fair-haired - actually looked as though they could be my cousins! All the conversation I could hear was Scandinavian and by

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-17626783762854307052008-09-30T19:04:00.000-07:002008-09-30T19:30:40.414-07:00

Interesting in light of the ERA journal rankings exercise in Australia: this, from Jeremy Hunsinger via the IAMCR....Journals under Threat: A Joint Response from History of Science,Technology and Medicine EditorsWe live in an age of metrics. All around us, things are being standardized, quantified, measured. Scholars concerned with the work of science and technology must regard this as a

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-90791166336007343762008-09-28T19:20:00.000-07:002008-09-28T19:53:35.256-07:00

In NZ, the election campaign (polling on 8 November)is well and truly into a serious phase, with Helen Clark and John Key now neck and neck according to latest polls. Clark scored well on early impressions by pitching the Labour campaign at the question of trust, playing neatly to the fact that Key has an unfortunate shiftiness and hesitancy compared to Clarke's calm, unwavering, if wooden

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-49985102099318656652008-09-17T03:05:00.000-07:002008-09-18T03:49:20.389-07:00

There seem to be many versions of this apocalyptic YouTube presentation – the UK one seems better than others.They originate with a 2006 piece called Did You Know 2.0......which includes this hoary old reference:"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."I’ve seen this reference to Einstein many times ..never quite grasped it: do we create problems

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-78507677214003574402008-09-15T22:52:00.000-07:002008-09-16T19:38:39.594-07:00

…is my phrase du jour. I can relate readily to the idea that “cloud" services …offload computing or data storage functions to someone else's server, allowing e-mail, photos, or documents to be accessed anywhere….” In using delicious.com for my bookmarks, web-based e-mail, blogging and a clutch of social networking sites, I am being liberated from the constraints of hardware. Cool. I look

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-2228223197761370202008-09-14T19:52:00.000-07:002008-09-15T02:45:31.918-07:00

...at 'receiver' online, a nice art garden to rest your eyes. Works best if you move the mouse over the image. If you haven't read receiver, you might enjoy it. In its early days, maybe 4 years ago, it didn't have the vodafone tag.Thought for the day: "Home is where I'm wired less." I wish...

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-26790581420451364402008-09-14T00:06:00.000-07:002008-09-14T00:29:23.853-07:00

Two days after the news that one of my offspring and partner are to spend four months in Brisbane working to save money, a strong migration flow from NZ to Australia featured in the Weekend Herald’s “The Ozzification of NZ”. The estimated number of NZ citizens living in Australia is now 450,000, roughly 2% of the Australian population, and 12% of New Zealand’s. The Herald (13 September, page B2

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-8154109587244696432008-09-13T21:34:00.000-07:002008-09-13T21:50:04.431-07:00

David Byrne & Brian Eno's album Everything That Happens makes for an enjoyable listen, especially if you were young-ish during the heyday of Talking Heads...

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-36486532497604496482008-09-12T20:17:00.000-07:002008-09-12T20:23:02.425-07:00

Hey they've got an idea to blow the debate about humanities, arts and social sciences funding out of the water in the US, according to The Onion - secure big bucks for the construction of a poem....

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-36604892110061257652008-09-08T21:15:00.000-07:002008-09-10T19:26:05.485-07:00

I arrived in Canberra expecting the proposed journal rankings to be the hot issue, closely followed by the “Excellence in Research for Australia” (ERA) initiative – offspring of the late and not-much-lamented Research Quality Framework (RQF). As it turned out, neither of these were preoccupations. Nevertheless it seems to me, wearing a trans-Tasman hat as I do, that we should look at the issues

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-20143598984894789032008-09-04T18:54:00.000-07:002008-09-10T19:04:25.295-07:00

Just because of what, and where, it was ... a dinner in the airy 1920s setting of the Members' Dining Room in Canberra's Old Parliament House on an evening in Spring ... the gathering of some 150 articulate CHASS people fuelled by copious wine and, on the whole, very good food achieved much for themselves, their fields of interest and their organisations. It fair bubbled along. But enough of the

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607886970003938904.post-36669453838154268932008-09-04T03:14:00.000-07:002008-09-10T18:47:44.920-07:00

The Council for the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences (CHASS) event in Canberra 2-3 September was a full-on programme of reflections on the centrality of "the HASS disciplines" to solutions for today's big problems. If this is a given, then the HASS sector should be lobbying for a more equitable slice of the research funding pie, so that the science and technology sector is not defining and

Dr Jocelyn Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14071515081338081196noreply@blogger.com