on a good note

cc licensed flickr photo shared by glsims99

We all need warm and fuzzy moments in our work to keep us coming back for more and today I had one of those.

The thing I love most about my job at UNSW is getting out in the Faculties in response to calls from teachers with passion who are seeking to do innovation things with, lets say, some of the less structured and more collaborative technologies.

Today I met with an academic from Law and her small clutch of enthusiastic, motivated graduates who are setting up a wikispace for the clinician unit. They are using the platform as a resource and communication hub for refugee advocacy groups and individuals. The space will grow over time as groups of students move through the unit and onto their lives in law. No one in the group had used a wiki previously.

As you can imagine they will be balancing an open forum, varied viewpoints and I suspect at times dissent. There was discussion around roles, access, archives, RSS, notifications, moderation, connections. It was interesting to hear the group calm one student who clearly was being pushed beyond her boundaries around openness.

And with a one hour Q&A, demo and general kick start they're away. I'll be looking forward to watching the progress.