This Thursday 29th September we’ll be hearing from John Seed – Australian environmentalist, director of the Rainforest Information Centre, recipient of an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to conservation and the environment and prominent figure in the Deep Ecology movement.

Deep Ecology is a philosophy of nature that invites us to experience ourselves as part of the living Earth, rather than separate from it, and supports us to find our own role in powerfully protecting the planet.

The late Arne Naess, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy from Oslo University, Norway who coined the term “deep ecology” pointed out that our “ecological ideas are not enough to protect the Earth, we need ecological identity, ecological self”.

Through music, film and poetry, John will show us how to nourish our ecological identity and align ourselves with Earth.

When: Thursday 29th September from 6:00pm
Where: Our studio – Level 2, 44 Foster St, Surry Hills
RSVP: Through Eventbrite by Tuesday 27th September

RSVP now

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Dr. David Vincent, head of International Programs at Carbon Trust and an actual P.h.D. carrying scientist, is visiting Australia hot on the heels of self proclaimed Nobel laurette Lord Monckton. Last Thursday 11th February, we heard his thoughts about climate skepticism and how small businesses could position themselves for the imminent low carbon economy.

David is currently in Australia on a mission to inspire our small to medium business (SME) owners to start thinking about ways to prepare themselves for the move to a low carbon economy.

Carbon reduction will create significant business opportunities, and not just for the bigger players in the market. Because of their trademark flexibility, innovation and close ties with the community, SMEs are ideally positioned to leverage the low carbon economy for growth.

Carbon Trust has already done some great work with businesses in the UK, helping them identify effective and affordable ways to reduce their carbon footprints, develop low carbon technologies and, ultimately, lower costs.

This DE Talk was presented in collaboration with the British High Commission, and held at a new venue, Object Gallery, where we are currently exhibiting for the State.Respond exhibition.

To see photos from the event, please visit our Flickr page.

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The Indigenous Stock Exchange and the great Indigenous website swindle

It was a pleasure to hear Professor Peter Botsman and Rob Chewying share their insights and experiences at our most recent DE Talk.

Professor Peter Botsman, a groundbreaking academic, public policy leader, and a core member of the Indigenous Stock Exchange (ISX), introduced us to an urgent issue: companies that are selling utterly useless websites to Indigenous communities, misleading and scamming aspiring business people. He also, along with Rob Chewying, founder of Chewying’s Lawn and Horticulture, a for profit social business providing lawn and horticulture services in the Shoalhaven region, introduced us to the Indigenous Stock Exchange (ISX), a free market for listing Indigenous business ideas, products, investment opportunities and people.

To view the video from this event, please click here.

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It was a pleasure to hear Sherre DeLys and Kate Gauld from Pool share their insights and experiences at our most recent DE Talk.

Click on the video above for highlights of the talk.

Pool is emerging after a year of experimentation (it launched in August 2008) and its great to see that all kinds of possibilities are being explored and collaborative efforts are coming to fruition. Pool is allowing the creative community to connect and explore new ways of collaborating with each other and with the ABC.

Working within a less than ideal framework and with a limited budget, Sherre and Kate are leveraging ABC archives into the public domain, setting up projects with Radio National shows – 360, The Night Air, Sound Quality and Bush Telegraph, and cracking open ways to revitalise tired radio formats to find out what listeners would like to hear.

In the Pool you can use ABC archival commons material, engage in direct conversation with Radio National presenters and upload your original new material for others to enjoy and give feedback, amongst many other functions that are yet to be fully explored. POOL has engaged some unexpected parties to license their work as creative commons material – the Sydney Symphony Orchestra are planning to release some 30-second recordings to Creative Commons to drop into the Pool for all to use.

Kate and Sherre explained their current focus on education and research to forge partnerships with universities. This is important to assist universities incorporate curriculum material for the ‘social media producer’ role developing within digital media. They are looking at approaching the most active of Pool users to become site moderators might be picked from (for more on this topic read Digital Eskimo’s White Paper on the role of seeding in social design).

Pool and ACiD (Australasian Cooperative Research Centre for Interaction Design) are partnering in ongoing research into the impact of the creative commons license on traditional media, and helping people dive into the rich amount of material in the cultural commons. The site has formed a special community – it’s friendly and supportive, and the contribution of the user is not for the ABC’s taking – it’s about sharing rather than harvesting content. The discussion turned many times to what conditions might prove to be the tipping point where the Pool community takes hold and begins self-seeding.

Pool showed us what’s happening on the cutting edge of this user-generated project, and while raising uncertainties and debates that continue to brew – Digital Eskimo feels privileged to have been able to facilitate the discussion.

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Ronan gave us an entertaining and thoughtful insight into being a triple j journalist, the opportunities and limitations as a reporter for the national broadcaster, and the interaction of radio and online media.

Reporting for the Hack program, he would travel to remote towns and city streets.  Hack speaks to a young audience and attempts to hit on issues that young people take to heart – music downloads, cyber-bullying, drugs. Ronan explained that the internet lets the Hack team monitor surges in interest in certain topics and use the email feedback from listeners to feed follow-on stories, be it pornography, working girls or truckies.

For Hack, Ronan would often interview people who felt they were maligned, ignored or misrepresented, yet he also needed to deal with mistrust of the ABC as ‘left-leaning’ especially in his chase for political stories.

The DE Talks audience threw in questions about radio’s future in this period of flux for traditional media. Ronan told us that interviews were increasingly augmented by video and photos for viewing online. He also insisted that though radio’s popularity continues, there is a need for recognition that young people with broadcasting tools at their disposal can set their own agenda.

When covering the Palm Island riots of 2005, he explained that traditional authority figures were not necessarily the best sources because of their wariness of journalists. Young people Ronan approached on the street more often spoke up and used the opportunity to talk about what they saw happening.

We rounded out the evening with discussion on how youth are highly attuned to the use and abuse of their public image, engaging in the conversation of their times on Facebook and MySpace and social networking enabling people to coalesce around their most important issues.

Watch the video here.

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Michael was working at an Australian law firm when he got a call from Barack Obama’s team to take a job as a political campaigner.

He was thrown in to the thick of the campaign; speaking at university rallies, giving stump speeches at conventions, lecturing on policies and organising outreach programs as he was promoted through the ranks of the Obama political machine.

The DE Talk featured some fascinating insights into the campaign that changed America. The Q&A was particularly interesting as we brought the insights back home to the Australian context. Michael is returning to the US to join the administration and continue his work for President Obama .

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Our first DE Talk* speaker was  Sohail Dahdal: an award winning filmmaker, new media artist and interactive designer. He’s been described by AFTRS as “a leading force in bridging the gap between the new forms of interactive multimedia and the traditional art of filmmaking.”

Sohail spoke about one of his recent projects: the online component of First Australians; a powerful, moving and innovative online experience that compliments the historically important documentary series screened on SBS in October 2008. If you’re interested in the process one must go through to get a large scale online production off the ground through funding bodies like SBS in Australia then the Q&A at the end will be of particular interest.

We are also looking to help Sohail and SBS spread the message that this tool is for Indigenous Australians to tell their stories. There are great features allowing the uploading and editing of stories. So get the word out. We’d also like your help in letting people know about this, all Aussies need to interact with this and learn more about this country’s past so …

Visit the web site and learn then twitter, blog, email, im chat, and tell every Australian that you know.

*Digital Eskimo is hosting a series of fresh and stimulating talks to inspire you. We want to create an opportunity for people with a passion for design and sustainability to gather, listen to a short talk, have a lively chat and take away new ideas to spread through our community.

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