Panels

Indigenous Use of Information Technology Panel

Susan Beetson

Susan Beetson has a Bachelor of Information Technology degree in Data Communications and Information Systems and a Bachelor of Information Technology Honours Degree (1st Class), both from Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane.

Her employment experience extends over 18 years in Information Technology Management, IT Project Management, Web Design & Development and more recently lecturing and tutoring in Information Sciences and Indigenous studies.

Susan is completing her PhD - researching in the area of Community Informatics, specifically - communities of practice within social media. Central to Community leadership and ownership in research is the relationship to every day lived realities of Community and people. In this context, Susan’s research explores avenues for virtual resourcing for Community members and business initiatives through deliberate cultural and social connections within social media.

While her PhD studies are full time, Susan works with family and Community Elders & Senior members to strengthen whole of Community access and availability of computers, technology and infrastructure within her home Community.

Darlene Hoskins-McKenzie

Darlene Hoskins-McKenzie is an Aboriginal woman of Gandangara (Eora), Yuin, Anawan (Kamilaroi) Biripi/ Worimi and Dungutti descent. She is a fulltime PhD candidate at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). Darlene's thesis is about Aboriginal ways of using information technology in community to create educational pathways.
 
Darlene grew up on the La Perouse Aboriginal Reserve, Sydney, and later on the South Coast of New South Wales. Darlene is a member of the Tranby Aboriginal College, Glebe and also a member of the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council. Her family have been extensively involved in the struggle and recognition of Aboriginal people rights in NSW for many years.
 
Darlene is currently working on establishing an Aboriginal Information, Communication & Technology Centre at the first privatised univeristy
campus styled vocational, educational & training centre, located in the Illawarra region of NSW. Her research interests include how Aboriginal people use ICT in their everyday ways of being and doing, in particular its use in the representation of  'Aboriginality', in its many forms, and how ICT can be tranformed by the inclusion of Aboriginal presence and content, rather than its ongoing exlusion via the digital divide and information poverty.

Dr Aaron Corn
Aaron Corn holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Australian National University. He is Co-Director the National Recording Project for Indigenous Performance in Australia, which responds to Indigenous aspirations to develop new strategies for cultural survival in the Digital Age, and fosters a broad network of cultural practitioners, curators and scholars that meets at the annual Symposium on Indigenous Music and Dance. He presently holds an ARC Future Fellowship for work on the application of Semantic Web techniques to organising knowledge in digital archives for endangered cultural resources. His recent book, Reflections and Voices, explores the leadership and creative agency of Mandawuy Yunupingu in Yothu Yindi, and was the basis for an ABC Radio National documentary that won Silver for Best Music Documentary at the New York Festivals Radio Program and Promotion Awards for the 2011 World's Best Radio Programs.

Industry Panel: Organisational Culture and design


Workplace User Experience - Staff are users too...

The panel discussion will aim to create an understanding for why there is such a discrepancy between the quality of the user experiences we are left to deal with in most workplaces and the user experiences we encounter as customers, consumers and technology users outside of work. We will try and look at possible reasons for this situation and its consequences.

We want to explore what a workplace user experience could or should be today and how far away from this we are in reality. Furthermore it would be great to arrive at some ideas and solutions on how to improve the status quo or at least how to create some attention for this issue and help decision makers understand how an organisation will benefit from a better workplace user experience.

We were able to convince three high-calibre panellists to share their thoughts and experiences with us:

Ash Alluri (User Experience Consultant, Visual Jazz, Sydney)

Damien Gallagher (Senior ICT Consultant/Program Director, Melbourne)

James Robertson (Author/Owner/MD, Step Two Designs, Sydney)

Panel Convenor:
Florian Nachreiner (Senior UX Designer, Medibank Private, Melbourne)