Returning to CPIT city campus

Officially allowed to return to the CPIT city campus from 1st April with some courses starting today 4th April. I had been into the campus several times in the last fortnight, the first time, to collect personal belongings (wallet, cell phone, keys) and then a couple of brief visits last week to tidy up the office and to meet with other staff. Each time, a fleeting visit, with entry via the Moorhouse road entrance and a quick walk through the empty campus with very few signs of visible damage. Attended the staff safety briefing late last week which featured one of the consultant structural engineers. It was very reassuring as he pointed out the few places where there were signs (cracks, fallen plaster, buildings which have shifted up or down in relation to each other) and explained the structural implications.

This morning, a totally different perspective as I biked in via the border of the cordoned off red zone. Many collapsed buildings and the ones not yet demolished, are fenced off. Most of the old brick buildings housing various panel beaters, auto mechanics, familiar cafes and other shops no longer exist physically. So the blocks East (the Catholic basilica, still standing but just) and North and North West of the polytechnic, basically now a wasteland of piles of brick and debris. A list of the over 100 buildings to be demolished featured in the Saturday newspapers.

Options for rebuilding abound, including making the city more sustainable, future transport options, a blog discussing alternatives etc. There will be much to do in the future but old and familiar Christchurch city landscape is now gone.

Personal content management and mobiles

I was catching up on reading as preparation for writing a couple of papers for conferences. The concept of personal content management (PCM) came up via doing a Google search. Personal content management can be thought of as being a subset of personal information management (PIM). One way of bringing together personal information would be via mindmap tools like personal brain.

However, I was more interested in mobile versions of PCM and this dissertation on facilitating personal content management in smart phones by Antti Aaltonen provided useful reading. Antti is also one of the authors of a book on personal content experience: managing digital life in the mobile age which is a report on the work on a group on Nokia researchers. This site is always a good one to keep up with the latest on mobile technology.

The book covers a good overview of development in the past decade on an increase in mobility of people and their devices along with the growth and increasing importance being placed on personally generated content. Factors which enhance the development of PCMs include the ability to access content, share this content and through this sharing re-live the experiences stored. Confidence that the content will not disappear & that it can be kept private if required. Seeing the content as part of a bigger whole and being able to exploit ‘mobility, metadata and context’ to further extend on personally created content. Good links can be made with the concept of PCMs, eportfolios and narratives. This book actually uses five personas (two 16 year old students, a 28 year old activist, a 40 year old artist and a 56 year old plumber) through out the book to help explain the concepts introduced.

Of interest was the motivation towards mobility explained by our innate desire to be mobile (new nomads) and our short attention spans (five seconds!). I have recommended the book to the library and will do a more thorough evaluation of the book when it arrives.