Its been a long journey for LGEO Research and myself over the past 9 months. If I was pregnant, I’d have a baby right now! Well, let’s consider LGEO Research to be my baby and my baby has gone through a wonderful 9 months growing and learning from the inside and finally now my baby is being released to the world to deliver all the knowledge that has been consumed.

What’s even greater is, LGEO Research will continue to grow and learn just as it has before, but hopefully the process will be faster and able to reach even more people than before. These next few months ahead, LGEO Research has plans already put in place to be ‘Here, There and Everywhere! So be sure to keep a close eye on the blog. It will a busy few months of accelerated growth.

So this was my first ‘gig’ at a conference. Have to say I was really shaking in my heels but glad to say I manage to pull through it with the support of a wonderful group of people who were very supportive and interactive throughout my session. Thank you to all who were there in my session. I really enjoyed talking to you all.

ScotWeb2 was certainly a different experience from any other unconference I’ve been to. Usually an unconference would consist of a big group but this event was quite an intimate one, which I believe worked towards their advantage.

This was the snipet about the event just in case you’d like to know what it was all about!

Digital Democracy has been working for two years with the Burmese community in Thailand,Bangladesh, India, and China as well as with resettled Burmese populations in Indiana, Washington, DC and New York. D2 staff have published and presented research on Burma with an emphasis on technology use by displaced Burmese groups. In addition to Burmaʼs borders, we have conducted research in Cuba, Armenia, Mali, Zimbabwe,South Africa, and Israel.

This interview covers the following issues and questions:

Steven talks about his most recent project – Neighbourhood to neighbour engagement.
Steven talks about how local authorities get involved within this online neighbourhood.
Citizen to citizen engagement and value.
Does the local authority make themselves known as an authority to the public within the online community?
Mix of email and online forum.
What are the main tools that you use? Groupserver.org
People need to choose their own technology.
What does it mean to you to have an open government?

Hey there, I thought this was such a proud moment for the twitterati’s when one of our own has made in to the top 10 (no 5 to exact) of The Independent list on the most influential bloggers on Twitter with 3,327 followers… and of course after this.. counting…

I met Peter while I was in NYC attending the Participation Camp (PCamp) and Personal Democracy Forum 09. Its funny how it might seem that I just bumped into him on the street but actually we were on our way back from PCamp and walking towards the subway when I asked Peter if I could do a quick video interview with him. And he was kind enough to agree to do so eventhough the rain was starting to pour ! (Thank you Peter!). We talked about alot of different things.

So, a few weeks ago I was in Olympia attending the Building Perfect Council Websites ‘09 (#pcw09) to conduct a workshop on social media (which was alot of fun by the way ! ). While I was there, I managed to interview Robin Christopherson (Head of Accessibility) and Diana Robinson (Sales and Marketing Manager) from AbilityNet . I’m hoping to gain more knowledge on accessible websites as I go along. So hopefully LGEO Research will feature more news on AbilityNet in the future to keep local authority website developers up-to-date on how to make their websites more accessible.

What are the tangible benefits of online learning? … Show me the money ! !

According to Paul, local authorities and organizations have been throwing money away for years on face-to-face training and they don’t care because when it comes down to evaluation they only care about 3 things…

Was lunch any good?
Could I get parking?
Was there a good crack around the break?

But when it comes to online training, we start to evaluate the tangible benefits i.e.

Did we save any money?
Were there tangible benefits to the organization and how long did it last for?

If there was one area I’m very aware and concerned about in health care, it would definitely be mental health care. I have had various of experiences dealing with mental health issues among students while I was a sub warden and I also have very good friends who suffer from with bipolar disorder and anxiety disorder. I have also experienced living with people with bulimia, anorexia (who also always used to cut herself to relieve the pain) and was on alot of anti-depressents at the tender age of 20. Its certainly made me more aware of hard it is to live with a mental illness and what a daunting task everyday life could be for them.