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Building the Foundation
Nicola Forbes | April 7, 2010Open Forum’s featured forum topic for this month is “Building Surveying and Spatial Capabilities”. I would like to consider a fresh angle to this topic by looking at the term “building”.
A strong foundation is a prerequisite to any building work. In New South Wales, the surveying and spatial capabilities upon which we rely have been built up in a relatively short time through hard won knowledge, experience and sheer hard work.
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National Compact heralds period of constructive engagement
Dr Ron Edwards | April 7, 2010The National Compact heralds a new era of collaboration between Government and the Third (not-for-profit) Sector.
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The Market Fever Index, issue 4
patrickcallioni | April 5, 2010Last month, the index stood at 122 (2273 items, with 2065 in the previous month and 1939 items originally). This month, perhaps because of Easter or perhaps because the smart money is now moving towards real estate, the index fell back to cover only 908 items, which gives us a value of just under 47.
To see if there is anything real going on, I will now also use a broader sample, changing the search to encompass the whole world. This search produces a total of 374,000 hits for the week in question, which now becomes our baseline or 100.
Let’s see what happens next month, with both series.
Meanwhile, my new book is out. Here is what Amazon says about Waves of Change: Managing Global Trends in the Financial Services Industry.
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Interview with Coralie Wales President Chronic Pain Australia
Coralie Wales | April 1, 2010Why did you originally decide to found Chronic Pain Australia?
I was working as a counsellor specialising in pain, and found I was receiving a distressing volume of calls from people who were at risk of suicide because they were at their wits’ end dealing with their chronic pain. When I looked for an appropriate community organisation to refer these people to for ongoing support I couldn’t find one. Someone had to do it!
What have been the most important milestones for the organisation since then?
In the beginning we focused on getting the infrastructure in place we needed to be in a sustainable position to help people. We have volunteers all over the country and it’s important we keep them safe.
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Big Issue lanches Womens’ Subscription Enterprise
Natalie Susman | March 31, 2010There are 110 000 homeless people in Australia every night. 46,000 of them are women, many of whom have children.
I began working with The Big Issue in 2008, initially leading the Marketing and Communications Team on the Homeless World Cup before becoming the Head of Corporate Affairs for the organisation.
One thing that became quite apparent early on for me was that while the Street Magazine Enterprise (whereby vendors sell The Big Issue magazine on the streets of Australia’s capital cities) showed remarkable outcomes for homeless and marginalised vendors, it predominantly worked well for men.
With women making up nearly 40% of Australia’s homeless population there certainly was a need to establish a viable and sustainable social enterprise that worked for them also.
The Big Issue has been operating in Australia since 1996 and has successfully worked in helping thousands of homeless and disadvantaged Australians to help themselves.
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Two days in Washington DC looking at the future of privacy
Malcolm Crompton | March 31, 2010Two significant events took place in Washington DC on 16 and 17 March 2010 and I was privileged to attend them both.The first was a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. It was broadcast from the National Press Club of America and featured a panel of distinguished speakers debating "The Future of the Privacy Profession". The celebration also launched a new IAPP publication, "A Call for Agility: The Next-Generation Privacy Professional".
The panellists each drew out different aspects of a surprisingly unified view on what will happen over the next ten years.
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National Compact welcomes 100 Partners
editor | March 30, 2010
Today, the National Compact welcomes Drug Free Ambassadors Australia as the 100th organisation to sign up as a Compact Partner. This significant milestone comes only 12 days since the Compact was launched by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at Parliament House on 17 March 2010. -
Five Ways to Flourish!
Clive Leach | March 29, 2010In February I attended the 2nd Australian Positive Psychology & Well-being Conference at Monash University. It was fascinating to learn more about the evidence-based practice being undertaken in these fields and how it is really beginning to influence social, economic, education, health and business policy. The key take-away for me however was from a presentation by Felicia Huppert from the University of Cambridge Well-being Institute.
Felicia talked about the recent research and work that has been done to define, measure and promote flourishing within the population. The findings add tremendous value to my work as a coach and facilitator but I believe they are equally relevant to parents, managers, teachers, workplace colleagues – in fact anyone who wants the very best for those around them!
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A Greenhouse Gas Trajectory Change-Enabler
Andrew Jones | March 29, 2010The Fifth World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was this week the location of the launch of the Global Greenhouse Gas Standard for cities, enabling a common approach for cities to calculate greenhouse gas emissions within their boundaries. The Standard was launched by UNEP, UN-HABITAT and the World Bank.
The Standard builds on a number of existing protocols and methodologies, including the WBCSD, ICLEI and IPCC, and a host of existing efforts by cities to estimate baseline emissions and apply emissions accounting tools.
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Harmony Day Celebrating Diverse Australia
Shaun Hazeldine | March 27, 2010Just how rich a multicultural society we are is borne out by official statistics: more than half of all Australians in the 2006 Census claimed non-Australian ancestry. Collectively, we speak more than 200 languages and come from about the same number of birthplaces.
Harmony Day, 21 March 2010 , was a day when people all over the country acknowledged the enormously valuable contribution of the many diverse cultures to the nation that is Australia today. Harmony Day coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
According to the last census, 24 per cent of the Australia population was born overseas, 40 per cent have one or both parents born overseas and over 60 per cent have at least two different ethnic origins. More than two million Australians (or about 14 per cent of those aged over five) speak a language other than English at home.
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UncategorisedSURVEY: UTS research Gov2.0 trials
editor | March 25, 2010If you have taken part in any online government consultation during the past year – state or federal – Open Forum and the University of Technology Sydney would like to hear about your experiences. Read more, or go straight to the quick survey.
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Diverse cultures strengthen Australia’s sporting culture
Melinda Turner | March 24, 2010Many people from migrant and refugee backgrounds are enthusiastic about sport and recreation. Like other Australians, they want to participate in a supported and structured way.
According to the key findings of the Sports Participation report published in 2005 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics people from culturally diverse backgrounds are two-thirds less likely to participate in sport than other Australians. This discrepancy can be attributed to cultural differences, a lack of awareness and, sometimes, the institutional attitudes of some sporting bodies.
This means many people are missing out on all of the health and social benefits of sport that others enjoy. It also means that at the both grassroots and elite level Australian sports are missing out on the greater participation rates and skills which people from culturally diverse backgrounds have to offer.
