9 to 5

I’ve rejoined the masses in the daily routine of work. No longer is every day a weekday and every day a weekend. No longer am I working dawn to dusk on my own projects. I now have to rush out of the house to cram into a train to be at work on time. But this is a good thing. The work I’m doing promises to be extremely satisfying on a personal and altruistic level.

One of the election promises of our state premier was to connect classrooms with the latest technology and (as I understand it) update the curriculum to take advantage of these technologies. The concept focuses on interactive whiteboards (think traditional whiteboard on a PC) and videoconferencing. With these, classes can join together to discuss key issues, remote students can join classes not offered in their local school, classes can go on virtual excursions to places they wouldn’t otherwise afford to go (Great Barrier Reef, Ayers Rock, NASA) and students can meet peers from other cultures and share life views. It’s an excellent initiative to broaden the education and to open minds in the children in this state.

My job is to help the Department of Education make this all work. They currently support a modest number of videoconferencing systems, although they manage all the calls themselves, but the number is going to grow to 5000, more than twice the known install base of any organisation in the world. We’ll have to set up their architecture, policies and processes to scale for the new initiative and it has to be done quickly. This may give me less time to write in the near future, but I’m comfortable with that. Besides, it’s good to have an income again.

2 comments

  1. Congrats on being a productive member of society again. I’d complain about how my taxes were used to support you, you lowlife, but they weren’t so I won’t.

  2. Yes, it’s true. I can no longer claim to be an international bum. But even if you were paying taxes in Australia, you wouldn’t have been supporting me. I’ve been looking after myself, thank you very much!

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