Presentation notes - 7th International Conference on Communities and Technologies

I recently returned home to Brisbane, Australia after a whirlwind trip to Limerick, Ireland. It was a pleasure to present our Work-in-Progress paper at the 7th International Conference on Communities and Technologies as previously, previously posted by Gordon. This paper focused on our technology stewardship model for inclusive innovation.

I was the final presenter on the first day of the conference (June 29, 2015). The day kicked off with reflective initial keynote with Michael Gurstein, who initially developed the field of community informatics and is the editor of the Journal of Community Informatics. It was a full day, with a diverse range of presenters and lively panel discussion on communities and technologies. Despite being at the end of the day, participants remained engaged and there were a number of questions and comments on our presentation. 

The attendees & other presenters, being from a C&T and community informatics perspective, commented that our current technology stewardship model may build sponsor capacity more than community capacity. Another participant queried whether tech stewards were leaned on too heavily, asking "what happens if you develop highly capable tech steward, but then they leave?" Though critical, there was an overall positive reception to the presentation, the project and technology stewardship. 

The session chair wondered whether we had planned to develop a community of practice among tech stewards themselves, which is part of our future tech steward training plans.  

Would be nice to work towards a full paper at this conference next year.