The award recognises “significant and influential contributions to the development of computer-mediated communications and to the empowerment of individuals in using computers and the Internet.”

Michael was a keynote speaker at the VALA 2008 conference in Melbourne earlier this month.

We at the Information Futures Commission were delighted to welcome Michael to the Melbourne University campus, where he delivered the second Information Futures Forum lecture for 2008 — a video of Michael’s presentation is available online.

Missed the forums? No worries — you can ‘attend’ online instead. Videos of both the forums are now available on the Information Futures Commission’s main web site.

We started the forum series with Richard Katz, Vice-President of EDUCAUSE. Richard explored the disruptive effects of information and communication technologies on higher education — from how we communicate routinely with colleagues to questioning the fundamental notion of ‘the university.’

The second Information Futures Forum was presented by Professor Michael Geist of the University of Ottawa. Michael is a leading advocate of providing open access to scholarly information, and an expert on copyright law. I could not attend Michael Geist’s lecture, Unlocking Access – the case for Open Access publishing, so I’m looking forward to hearing what he had to say.

Huge thanks to Jon Peacocke, Ian Shiel,  Ben Loveridge and the rest of the Digital Media Services team for their fabulous video recording and production work.