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AGM 2012

2012-03-04T10:12:25Z

Directors Alexander Hayes, Geoff Lubich and Leo Gaggl met on the 21st February 2012 on the grounds of the University of Sydney to conduct the third Annual General Meeting for Streamfolio Pty. Ltd.

Apologies were accepted from Director, Craig Lubich.

During this AGM the following strategic principles were outlined as at the core of activities and focus for Streamfolio over the next 12 months:

Financials - quarterly statements issued and ratified by Directors;
Web services - integration of web services for a unified domain presence;
Media - continued use of social networking applications and electronic newsletter as primary modes of advertising product and services;
Research - continued vetting of publications that contain or include Streamfolio interests;
Services - workshops, presentations and projects at commercial rates;
Development - mobile application for Streamfolio, open build program for Streamfolio platform;
Administration - development of advanced template proformas

During this meeting it was acknowledged:

the impact of the GFC on consumers confidence;
the continued respect and goodwill build by Streamfolio with loyal clients;
need for streamlined services given personal commitments of Directors;
enthusiasm for the principles underpinning Streamfolio, Rich Media Portfolio;
service timeliness in retaining market share

At the conclusion of this AGM meeting it was also noted and agreed that each Director will retain the following titles and roles with the company for the forseeable future:

Geoff Lubich - Products Manager -
Alexander Hayes - Operations Manager - Research & Promotion
Leo Gaggl - Systems Manager - Infrastructure & Development
Craig Lubich - Finance Manager - Strategic Advice

Surveillance In Everyday Life

2012-03-04T09:14:11Z

[ image: mobology ]

Alexander Hayes, Geoff Lubich and Leo Gaggl, Directors at Streamfolio Pty. Ltd. attended recently the "Surveillance In / And Everyday Life" Conference, 20th and 21st February, 2012 at the University of Sydney.

"...The event, [to be] held in The University of Sydney's state of the art Law School Building, will bring together key international scholars, policy makers, practitioners, artists and social commentators to discuss the social, cultural, historical, political, legal, economic and technical dimensions of surveillance."

Alexander Hayes presented a paper titled, "Location Enabled Body Worn Technologies In The Education Sector" presenting three cases of where location enabled technologies have been used recently in an educational context, namely medical, language and law enforcement sectors. Direct acknowledgement was made of Geoff Lubich's role as a lead innovator in this area of wearable technologies and educative arrangement. Likewise the Streamfolio video portfolio platform was mentioned a number of times as a complementary adjunct to these technologies.

The conference provided an opportunity to consider the pervasive nature of surveillant technologies, the impacts these technologies are having upon communities and the perceived / actual implications surveillance based activities imbue for individuals globally. The program of presenters /speakers was diverse with attendees also from many differing countries and walks of life.

On the 22nd February, Alexander, Geoff and Leo also attended the 6th Annual Workshop of the Social Implications of National Security sponsored by the Research Network of the Secure Australia (RNSA), the Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention (CTCP) and support from The University of Wollongong. The workshop was titled "Sousveillance and the Social Implications of Point of View Technologies in the Law Enforcement Sector".

The program for this event demonstrates the super-human efforts made by Convenors, Associate Professor Katina Michael and Dr. M.G. Michael to stage an inclusive, diversely informed and cross-sector interrogation of where and how sousveillant activities now play a significant part in contemporary policing across Australia.

Again, the workshop provided a rich array of presentations from differing perspectives, positions and pardon-the-pun...points-of-view.

In attendance at this event were Simon Brown, Leigh Blackall, Elias Dib, Brad Stokes, Tim Burns and Stephan Ridgway.

Photos for the event are available.

Recordings will be made available through this post in the near future.

AUPOV 2011

2011-05-10T05:00:19Z

[ image : robynjay ]

Greeting folks.

I've been asked by Michael Coghlan today regarding whether the AUPOV event which we had planned to hold bi-annually ( times up ) bringing together practitioners, developers, suppliers and most importantly educators employing the use of these technologies in their creative engagement with learners...is going to happen.

The answer is yes !

The response in 2009 to this event was overwhelmingly positive and I'm sure those that attended found it to be a valuable inaugural entry into the world of point-of-view within an educational context.

Associate Professor Katina Michael from the University of Wollongong, Faculty of Informatics has kindly indicated that there is a possibility of negotiating a meeting space in 2011 within which invited speakers and symposium guests can meet and discuss the burning issues, the challenges and the implications these technologies pose now and into the future within an educational context ( and others ).

I'm writing this today with the mission burning firmly in my mind and I have some surprises for my network in store with what this will look like, who WE will invite, who is selected to present and so on. With a budget resembling a budgie in an empty cage but pregnant with loneliness I will be calling on people who I admire, respect and value to join me in composing a program and mobilising this initiative forward.

Dates, times and the overall plan will emerge within the next two weeks.

Please keep your eye on this site for updates.

Start tagging things ' aupov11 '.

Positive Growth

2011-05-05T03:02:18Z

Changes

Streamfolio has for the last three years been in an establishment phase where systems, communication protocols and development priorities have dominated our thinking space. We would like to now announce a positive, critical and forward step for Streamfolio in 2011.

Transition

In the transition from EDUPOV Pty. Ltd. to Streamfolio Pty Ltd there came a recognition that the Streamfolio video portfolio is core and central to the company focus and provides all clients and customers with an easy to use video portfolio facility that interfaces with all the camera types we also market - see our EDUTechStock website.

There has also recently been a recognition from within the Directorship of Streamfolio Pty Ltd. that a re-structure of those priorities would mean changes in the day-to-day activities of the company. To ensure this restructure is as smooth as possible we have exhaustively prepared and expedited these changes with actions in mind.

Actions - Change in Tenets

In a meeting held between Directors last week there were a list of subsequent decisions and actions following which will change the nature of our client engagement for the next 12 months including;

Establish, grow and maintain a private invitation only network facility for our Clients and invited industry representatives
Provide a digital open feedback communication facility ( QA Feedback) for all of our Clients
Restructure the Streamfolio platform to focus on ease of use for Clients
Open development notes for public view of upcoming features for Streamfolio platform
Monthly newsletter to existing Clients only
Engagement in media industry and government policy development as to the use of rich media in an educational context
Research into the implications inherent with the use of PoV and video portfolio development in the education sector

Network

Alexander Hayes has been for the last two years employment full time by Streamfolio Pty Ltd as Operations Manager. As of Monday 18th April Alexander Hayes will return to his role as Streamfolio Director. All day-to-day operations of the company are now being shared across the Directorship and overseen on a daily basis by Geoff Lubich.

Alexander will now in his role as 25% Director build the networked infrastructures, marketing and communication facilities of Streamfolio Pty Ltd that will take Streamfolio into 2012 and beyond. Our new networking facility also provides any Streamfolio Client with an invitation only access to a growing base of support, rich discussions around the use of video portfolio's in a variety of sectors and powerful help resources for those employing PoV in their respective organisations.

Development

The Streamfolio Video Portfolio platform will continue to be developed in the first instance for our Streamfolio.net public facility. This facility is specifically designed to provide individual users with a video portfolio facility where they can network with others in a secure environment.

We are also very interested of course in working with organisations who are considering integrating a video portfolio facility with an existing or new web presence. This service can be negotiated, contractually project managed and with service costs unique to an organisations needs.

New Clients

We welcome the Australasian Disability Professionals organisation to our growing list of completely integrated and host social networking and video portfolio enhanced facilities as a Client. ADP will use the Streamfolio ELGG video portfolio integrtaion with their 300+ members across Austral-asia.

Our priority otherwise this year will be to concentrate our development and engagement on improving all aspects of the robustness of our unique solution for organisations and industry alike.

Upcoming Events

Our participation in a number of networking events and industry specific events will showcase the applied use of Streamfolio - a marked change from our days of constantly talking about it's potential !

Please visit our updated website to view our new service accords and our updated business case examples.

Service

One of the main facts raised in our feedback from Clients in the last year is our recognised need to improve upon our Service communications. We know that a network facility that puts our Clients in contact with each other will provide for us a deeper understanding how to support this service development.

Feedback

Please make comment on this post or visit our contact page to send us direct and private feedback. We welcome that !

University of Canberra

2011-04-09T00:32:33Z

Last Friday 1st April 2011 ( the joke was on me) I met with Leigh Blackall, Open Commons Co-ordinator at University of Canberra, ACT Australia.

We also met with Alan Arnold, Program Leader, Learning Environments from the Teaching and Learning Centre who was quick to interrogate the reasons for my visit and was a powerhouse of information when it came to the dependencies UC has when it comes to offering students rich media platform access.

Leigh has always challenged me on a number of fronts principally:

open accord - letting knowledge loose
learner autonomy - user centred education
real tools - networked learning platforms
restructuring - de-commisioning redundant infrastructures including processes

What I arrived with on Friday was two things; my passion for learner centred, user autonomous accreditation processes and Streamfolio - a growing, commercial, education focussed tool.

The video above details a very hasty 3 minute summary of our discussions and is a screen-capture of Leigh and I recording live into Streamfolio. I used Camtasia for Mac. to save and aggregate this via Youtube fulfilling one of the things Leigh asked of Streamfolio....could video creations actually be downloaded and openly shared elsewhere.

I'm intending following this up with screencasts of Streamfolio platform attributes and the advantages of using it with learners and educators alike within the context and sensitive to the needs of their unique contexts.

Ever the lush idealist hey ?

Rich Communities of Practice

2011-04-08T02:10:28Z

This morning I met with Matthew Hutchence, Faculty Business Co-ordinator , Business Arts & Information Technology at TAFE NSW Western Institute, Orange NSW Australia.

The image above was taken as a screenshot from a live recording of Matthew and I sitting in the office in Orange NSW Australia.

The premise of the meeting was to introduce Matthew to Streamfolio given that for the last two years we have discussed the concepts governing or influencing social media consumption in a vocational training context. Our conversations have often been animated as we have both been involved in programs, projects and trials with learners and educators alike that have covered all bases in adult education inherent with the politics and funding factors that allow for innovative "ideal" educative arrangement.

We accessed a live connection with Geoff Lubich who was driving his vehicle through sunny Perth, Western Australia. Geoff was able to stream his location, his video and his oral dialogue which we were able to view with ease from our PC here in rural Orange NSW Australia. geoff described why Streamfolio has distinct advantages over open web transmission ( IP and privacy related challenges) and Geoff was also able to demonstrate first hand how this facility of a video portfolio could be used to enhance both synchronous and asynchronous connection in the field.

The exciting part of the discussion centred around Matthews ideas as to how the combination of Streamfolio and the ELGG platform which we use as a foundation for networking could be used in the context of three up-coming Communities of Practice he is managing, principally located at the engagement strategies that could be employed to welcome, support, guide and sustain learner engagement over time and using virtual technologies.

Matthew has stated that he can see merit in the attributes of Streamfolio that ensure:

user centred autonomous private creation and sharing of material
groups related engagement with file data accompaniment
rich networking
ease of creation, recording and sharing of rich media
secure access and peer focussed relatedness around data
personalisation of the user space

These concur with some of the findings that have been discussed and explored ( in a differing context) with Val Evans's Care Skills project with the Australian Flexible Learning Framework and Community Colleges in mid to north NSW Australia.

As Matthew emphasised in our discussions the positive prospects here are the combination of a social networking base within which individuals can choose to join groups and areas of interest as well as maintain a personal portfolio space. The challenge that individuals face are halved when they can begin communicating with others virtually with ease.

That brings us to the concept of a Community of Practice.....and what having video connection and creation tools will provide for those participating in those COPS.

Business Case Example - Moderation

2011-04-05T03:24:10Z

[ image : stephanridgway ]

Moderation is a process that subjects completed assessments to a rigorous review process by subject specialists to ensure that the assessments meet all the requirements of the learning outcome.

Learners and Assessors can benefit form each owning a Streamfolio account and providing easy to share digital evidence showing process and performance. Assessors can each access, replay, download the video evidence with ease.

Requirements

All Education & Training organisations are required to moderate the assessments used to determine competency within all areas where training is undertaken, Documentation of this process is required to be generated and made available on demand for audit purposes.

Streamfolio makes it exceptionally easy for an Auditor to demand review of learning evidence for up to 7 years after it was created.

Provision

Streamfolio provides any organisation with:

Hosted Infrastructure - secure online and mobile accessible (play) electronic repository of video that is user controlled, accessible by any internet connection
Security of Data - triple redundancy backup and secure data transfer protocols;
Access - immediate world wide internet access, secure login, data upload and creation tools, secure sharing, access logs, live recording;
Efficiency - provides the ability for virtual participants to join physical participants in a moderation session to view the same video in real time;
Benefits - reduces travel and accommodations costs, expands workforce capacity, reduces workplace downtime......

Business Case Example - Performance Support

2011-04-04T01:40:47Z

[ image : danielfoster437 ]

A highly specialised piece of machinery is not operating as it should at a factory in Sydney Australia. The machine is manufactured in Germany and the specialist needed to repair the machine would need to be flown from Germany to Sydney at great expense.

Each day that the machine is not operating to capacity costs the factory $10,000. Technical staff at the factory have the skills base to repair the machine but not the knowledge needed to ensure that the job is completed to the required industry standards and in a timely, supervised manner.

Requirements

The factory needs immediate support to reach a solution that results in fast turn around on machine repairs. This solution should be cost effective, on demand and repeatable as required.

The manufacturer of the machine needs immediate access to the Technicians undertaking the repairs. This would ideally include live video recording and sharing between repair staff and manufacturers service staff that can be recorded if required.

Provision

Streamfolio provides for both parties the ability to connect in real time and:

Infrastructure - secure online video portfolio system
Access - access anywhere anytime from an internet connection
Efficiency - low cost, immediate share and access to live recorded video showing the specific problems for the machine which can be accessed and re-used as required
Benefits - provides retainable and repayable video procedures

Business Case Example - Improving Mental Health

2011-03-30T11:50:44Z

[ image - spolyak ]

Scenario

An peak industry body has a large number of employees who work remotely from their immediate families for extended periods of time. During this time away they are separated geographically, physically and emotionally from their partners and loved ones.

Clinical research has shown that this separation can have a dramatic affect of the mental health of both the employees and those they are separated from.

Requirements

The Industry peak body is obliged to protect the interests and well being of it's members and seeks to ensure compliance under the statutes of law and governance to provide employees in this industry with access to services and systems that manage or eliminate these affects.

The Employer has an obligation to administer and provide flexible and always accessible appropriate services and connections for the employee to use during recreational downtime. The Employee has access to internet based connectivity and requires only a secure username and login to participate in activities that bridge the divides which in turn acts as a positive motivation and relationship building activity with their respective families.

The Family of the Employee benefits from real time connection, access to information and rewarding life based experiences.

Provision

Streamfolio provides the Employee, Employer, Industry Body and Families with:

Infrastructure - secure online and mobile accessible electronic repository of digital data that is user controlled, accessible via any internet connection with triple redundancy backup and secure data transfer protocols and long term storage of user data
Access - immediate world wide internet access, secure login, data upload and creation tools, secure sharing, social networking, live recording & broadcasting capability
Efficiency - low cost, per-user monthly, 6 month or annual accounts or customised organisational specific installs including themes, plugins and single sign on systems interoperability
Benefits - connects families with employees, allows for remote participation in important events and ensures both synchronous and asynchronous access in a private setting

Business Case Example - Recognised Prior Learning

2011-03-30T03:32:05Z

[image : rachel-ammarette ]

Scenario

An applicant for a trainee position within a Hairdressing Institute wishes to apply for recognition of prior learning in a number of competency areas in which the applicant has had industry experience and has a significant amount of digital based evidence of recent unaccredited workplace experience. The rural location where the applicant lives means that assessment and validation is a challenge for those supervising the Traineeship.

Requirements

A registered Training Organisation (RTO) provides service under contract to ensure the validation of the Applicants evidence using processes, checks and industry guidelines. The applicant is required to provide this evidence in a format that can be accessed and retained by the RTO to ensure compliance and to demonstrate he competency to be awarded certification.

The Employer is not usually under any contractual obligation to provide the setting for the Applicant however in this case they have agreed to provide the applicant with time release to undertake the RPL process remotely whilst still the workplace setting. The validation process for this digital evidence must be retained and may involve remote assessors who are in a number of geographical locations who come together for validation and moderation of the presented evidence. Auditors have been known toe more interrogative of evidence produced for validation and assessment methodologies in this industry area.

Provision

Streamfolio provides the Applicant, Assessor, RTO and Auditors with:

Infrastructure - secure online and mobile accessible electronic repository of digital data that is user controlled, accessible via any internet connection with triple redundancy backup and secure data transfer protocols and long term storage of user data
Access - immediate world wide internet access, secure login, data upload and creation tools, secure sharing, live recording & broadcasting capability
Efficiency - low cost, per-user monthly, 6 month or annual accounts or customised organisational specific installs including themes, plugins and single sign on systems interoperability
Benefits- reduces bottom line travel and accommodation costs, provides retainable and repayable rich media evidence, expands workforce capacity, reduces workplace downtime, environmental impact reduction, ensures flexible learning for trainers, assessors and learners