As BikeTank approaches its third week I am really impressed with the energy and participation it enjoys as people come together at u.lab to try to encourage the use of bikes, plan better infrastructure and take shared action in ensuring a sustainable future for Sydney city.
Here are some images that hopefully tell some more of the story, i.e. what, where, who, how, when:
So apart from my personal interest in the outcomes from all of this why am I going?
There are several reasons:
I think it is a great initiative by several academics from across a number of faculties within UTS and I think we in UTS Library should be supportive of such steps. (Yes, that is a big hint for some of you reading this.)
I'd like to learn more about the whole Design Thinking process by seeing it in action. I reckon that most adults learn more about a process by being immersed in it than attending a seminar or workshop.
BikeTank is also about Social Innovation and a sustainable future. Those two concepts are critical to our future at UTS Library as we plan a future Library at the heart of our city campus. As well as implementing new technologies including ASRS, RFID and vastly improved online discovery (not just search but true discovery!) and building a grand new modern library that isn't primarily a book storage facility, we need to evolve as an organisation and imagine and develop a new service model. I reckon that we'd be pretty well served by a similarly inclusive and collaborative process. So here is my vision for that:
It is a credit to Director Iain Sinclair and the cast. The staging of the final act is a superb demonstration of the power that theatre has to being the written word to life. The set design by Rufus Didwiszus just has to be seen. I was amazed. See it before it closes on 11 September.
I took some photos at a recent (Sydney) Design Thinking Drinks event at Digital Eskimo. This Flickr set brings together a few thoughts of mine with deeper content created by many others and linked throughout the set in the text beneath the images. Take a look (on Flickr, so you can see the links and read all the text).
I wandered around with a friend just after dawn on a week day to get a better view of some of these amazing installations. And recently I've been going through all of the images and adding the titles and artists' names. I'm nearly finished.
This tour was organised by the Historic Houses Trust of NSW. I'm very grateful to them for encouraging us to get out and see these buildings and stunning views.
I gave a talk to staff of the Australian Museum about our Wallwisher feedback board today. On the way back I took the opportunity to take a few images with my new camera. I'm still learning about its use and all of its features. The morning wasn't too cold but it was really still and clear. The sky was a vivid blue and made a perfect background. I'm enjoying just being in Sydney with all it has to offer and my work at UTS Library.
I hope you all stayed up late waiting for this. It was a late night. And I must say that tonight Rage is playing the worst music I've heard in ages (apart from the stuff after 5.30 am). Terrible guest programming. So tonight I went out to two flicks at the 2010 Sydney Film Festival. Firstly there was the Australian premier of The Tree at the State Theatre. It is a decent film about loss, grief, imagination, families and country Queensland. As I've recently lost my brother in an accident it was all a bit close to the bone for me. Everyone is going to say it is beautiful, poetic and lyrical, but I'm not so sure. There was a lot I liked, but overall, I don't think it grabbed me or convinced me. Sorry. After that we walked down Macquarie Street to look at all the Vivid lights and then entered the Sydney Opera House for Nosferatuwith Darth Vargus. The band and score were excellent as were the sound effects by Miss Death. Jamie Leonarder's introduction just went on for too long. And for me the film is just pretty corny. It may well be historically significant, but I'm glad we didn't have to sit through it without the amusing live soundtrack. Even so I fell asleep a number of times. I have to add that the seats in both venues were excellent and I had heaps of leg room. You cannot say that about all film venues in Sydney, especially some old cinemas in Oxford St.
Just a quickie! Kathryn Greenhill has created a list of all the bloggers we know that are taking part in the 30 posts in 30 days challenge. She is way clever.
(The image to the right is Jessica Watson's tiny boat at the Australian National Maritime Museum on a rainy day last week.)
Oh, and just in case you've not yet seen it, here is Kate Bunker's Netvibes page of widgets for all the blogs participating in this challenge. Even Kathryn thinks Kate is clever.
