Affiliations

The following are organisations that I am affiliated with in some or other capacity at the moment:

The Computing Research Centre of the Open University

I started work towards a PhD at the Open University in late 2008. My research is formally in the field of Human Computer Interaction, within the department of Computing and associated with the CRC. The research however draws from the multi-disciplinary crossover of computer science (CSCW, HCI) with critical social theory, transaction cost economics and political theory, and so I am co-supervised from within the Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance.

Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training

I am a technical and research associate of the CCIRDT, where I have collaborated with Mike Gurstein on CI projects. I also pitch in as editorial and technical assistant for the Journal of Community Informatics. JoCI is an open access publication which has run on the Open Journal System platform since 2004.

The Woodshed Studio

As tecchie and digital media consultant, I am director, and occasionally head up development projects at the Woodshed Studio, (previously trading as ZenFx).

EcoAfrica Environmental Consultants

I previously worked as technical director for EcoAfrica, and still get involved as associate consultant on projects where online tools are involved. EcoAfrica are an environmental and development consultancy. In their own words: “an interdisciplinary team of professionals focusing on environmental and social issues [who] work hand in hand with government, NGOs, private sector and communities to achieve sustainable natural resource management, by sharing knowledge and facilitating equitable development.”

They do incredibly diverse work, but stay focused on a core goal: involving people at community level in the decisions and policy processes which impact the environment which they ultimately are the custodians of.

Francois Odendaal Productions

FOP are closely associated with EcoAfrica. They focus on media – photography, documentary films and books which explore the interface between people, culture and the environment. I have collaborated with FOP as underwater camera operator, photographer, production assistant, trainer and digital media consultant.

It is exciting to see video increasingly used as informal, spur of the moment communication medium. The potential for video to be a contextually rich two way channel, e.g. in stakeholder participation, has barely been explored in the developing world. In regions known for strong oral tradition, video provides a more natural way to communicate than writing – and people with limited literacy can equally judge the message and delivery.