Web Directions Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Years ago I used to love listening to 2SER Radio in the afternoons, I think it was between 1pm and 4pm, when every afternoon a couple of different presenters would come in and play some of the finest music radio I have ever heard. Just good, interesting, largely dance oriented music, presented by people with no agenda except to share their knowledge and passion. Among my favourite afternoons – The Mothership Connection – the people from Clan Analog used to have a show as well – was a show called The Paradigm shift, put together by two guys who called themselves Sub Bass Snarl. You can actually still catch the show now at the later time of Mondays from 8.30 to 10.00pm.

I don’t know why I was surprised last year when I first made the connection between “Seb Chan, the guy from Sub Bass Snarl” and “Seb Chan, the guy who works at the Powerhouse Museum”. Because really, I should have realised by now that interesting people continue to do interesting things throughout their lives, not just when they are young and free.

The Powerhouse, in no small part due to the work of Seb, have become genuine Australian pioneers in using social media in the museum context. With the launch of their OPAC 2.0 search tool, back in June 2006 their site started tracking and responding to user behaviour, increasing serendipitous discovery during searches. They also allow user generated tagging of the collection, profoundly changing the way this collection is accessed online every day for the better. Seb spoke about this project extensively in his presentation at Web Directions South last year.

As well as being a practitioner, Sebastian is a great sharer of information: I’m very much looking forward to the workshop he is presenting in Canberra this upcoming May – Social Media and Government. Events like this really don’t happen every day in Australia, and will be well worth a visit to our nation’s capital in the early Winter.