Directors Comments

Welcome to the last edition of our newsletter for 2008.  It is hard to believe we are at the end of yet another year. The CeCC team has recently completed a number of initatives including,the delivery of spatial services website (inter-operative web-based GIS)  for Corangamite Catchment Management Authority, the national launch of the Australian Tourism Accreditation Program (capacity building for tourism enterprises), and completion of a number of online surveys which have being built for a number of clients.

The team are extremely busy leading up to Christmas trying to finalise projects before the holdiays, and we look forwad to launching new sites in December including Sashas EQ, GIS - interoperative site and the new Federation of Community Legal Centres website.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our clients and their families a wonderful Christmas and New Year and we look forward to working with you again in 2009.

Helen Thompson
Director - CeCC

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Staff News

We would like to welcome Jenna MacLeod to our team, Daina and Andrew's first child born on 19th Nov.  We would also like to congratulate Craig and Amy Briody who are expecting their first child in March next year and also Kara and her partner David who are expecting their second child in April.    Well done to Rebecca who competed in the Pink Triathlon in Melbourne to help raise funds for Breast Cancer.

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Client News

IPOL

The Institute for Professional and Organisational Learning (IPOL) have successfully launched the IPOL development directory, allowing university staff to register for development programs. To view the current programs offered by IPOL, click  here

Planning Quality and Review Directorate 

CeCC have developed a working prototype of a University Policy review manager leveraging existing Docbook Manager technology.

The product will include comprehensive workflow management across a large number of UoB  policies and procedures , and the published output will be easier to find than before with the introduction of more powerful search options.

This prototype has been developed in conjunction with the Planning, Quality and Review Directorate (PQR) and is scheduled to be made live in  March 2009.

ATAP Launch  - Eureka Sky Deck

The long-awaited national tourism accreditation program was launched on 31st October at a celebration at the Eureka Sky Deck, attended by Helen Thompson and Andrew MacLeod of CeCC.

The Australian Tourism Accreditation Program (www.atap.net.au) has been based on services which were successfully piloted through a University of Ballarat, AusIndustry funded, pilot.  After the two year pilot a decision was made to create a national online program, designed to ease the process of a tourism business becoming accredited. CeCC has been fundamental in developing the underlying technical platforms for the new program. The Australian Tourism Accreditation Program has since evolved as a national business development program that is based on quality assurance principles. It addresses many of the issues that are covered in the development of a business plan with a focus on those elements which are key to the day to day function of any tourism operation.

From the users themsevles,

Kakadu Tours - Jo Paterson
"The online accreditation system is very simple to use. It is easy to follow and user-friendly. Having started the accreditation process manually initially, a process that seemed daunting is now as simple as logging on and following the steps. It hs cut the time taken to complete accreditation process by half."

Click here to learn more

Grains of Truth

The 'Grains Research and Development Corporation' (GRCD) is a giant of the World's grain corporations, with a mission to invest in innovation for the greatest benefit of its primary stakeholders-graingrowers-and the Australian Government. CeCC will be working very closely with GRDC over the coming months using a selection of their content managment products to create a Final Reports Publishing Sytem (FRPS) for them. CeCC have a long standing relationship with and committment to, rural and regional enterprises, and this project exposes CeCC's excellent capabilities to a national audience.

Click here to read an article from the Enterprise Connections magazine and learn more about this exciting project.

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Contracted Research

Wendouree West Case Study

Education Minister Bronwyn Pike launched a University of Ballarat report on the Thursday 13th November. The report written by Craig Marshall and Helen Thompson ofthe Centre for eCommerce & Communications (CeCC) was entitledNeighbourhood Renewal through community engagement and education: Wendouree West case study. The reportfollowed the development of the Wendouree West Community Learning Hub. An exciting new facility that brings together important education, health and community services all in the one location for residents in Wendouree West.

Ms Pike said "The report highlights the power of what can be achieved through collaboration between a passionate and strong community, government, and local agencies".

It recognises that just as a quality education requires a combination of many things including good curriculum, good teachers and good infrastructure, communities also require a variety of high quality local services and Wendouree West now have them in the one location.

To view the media release pleaseclick here.

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Upcoming Events

Bisnet Breakfast
Tuesday 2nd December

BisNet is Ballarat’s longest running business networking forum, operating for over 15 years. BisNet breakfasts provide SMEs with the opportunity to hear from a range of business and industry professionals.

Region: Ballarat
Location: The Alexandria on Lydiard, Lydiard St Nth, Ballarat
Contact: Regional Development Victoria, Phone: 03 5320 5900, Fax: 03 5320 5998

Ballarat ICT for Women Network - Thursday 4th December

This will be the final networking event for 2008.

Guest speakers will share their stories on how leadng edgetechnologies have transformed their workplace and changed how they do business on a daily basis.

Region: Ballarat
Location: Greenhill Enterprise Centre Conference Room, University of Ballarat, Mt Helen Campus
Contact: Taryn Davies, Phone: (03) 5327 6158, Fax: (03) 5327 9033

Australian Conference on Knowledge Management and Intelligent Decision Support (ACKMIDS)

The ACKMIDS Conference will explore the issues emerging from the type of beneficial collaboration that can be derived from the exploitation of ICTs and knowledge management jointly. It will energise community managers, policy makers at all levels of government, and researchers with their current thinking about practice of KM and community informatics. Please visit the Web page for further information.

Region: Ballarat
Location: Caro Centre, University of Ballarat, Mt Helen Campus.
Contact: Kara Hodgson, Phone: 61 3 53 27 9314, Fax: 61 3 5327 9033,

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Training News

The second half of this year has been very quite on the CeCC training front with only a couple of training session taking place since June this year.

On Monday the 28th of July CeCC met with Peter Whitefield from SED Consulting to deliver training in using the ‘Lime Survey’ software for the management purposes of their online survey that they were conducting in conjunction with Ballarat ICT.

The ‘Lime Survey’ software is a tool that CeCC makes available to all clients that want to run an online survey. For more information in relation to this service click here.

The Institute for Professional and Organisational Learning (IPOL) Webdav and Online Application Admin Training

On Wednesday the 10th of September 2008 CeCC conducted both Webdav and Online Application Admin Training for IPOL’s administration staff members Janet Dennis and Marilyn Trahar.

The IPOL website and online application system was developed by CeCC to assist IPOL with the organising and registration processes of the programs that it offers.

This was a unique training session for CeCC to be involved in as it combined training for both the University of Ballarat’s Webdav systems and training in a customised CeCC built system. For more information about IPOL visit their website http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ipol.

For all CeCC training enquires contact Craig Briody (Web Developer and Training Officer) on 53279319 or email training@cecc.com.au

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Recent Events

CECC CLIENT FORUM

CeCC held its fifth annual Client Forum and Networking Session on Friday 15th August 2008.

This year’s forum was opened by the University of Ballarat'sVice-Chancellor, Professor David Battersby and was attended by representatives from CeCC’s diverse client group, University representatives as well as several prospective clients - who gathered to share information on recent progress and new online services innovations which have been implemented over the last twelve months.   To read more about the forum and client presentations click the following link  CeCC Client Forum

CECC 10 yr ANNIVERSARY DINNER

CeCC celebrated 10 years of business on August 15th with an anniversary dinner held at the Alexandria on Lydiard.

A number of current and past staff and clients turned out to celebrate the milestone of ten years in business, which is quiet an achievement for an IT company. In such a fast passed andever changing industry may IT companies come and go, so it is a testament to CeCC that they have survived this long and currently stand as a respected IT business and important facet of the University of Ballarat.

Click here to read more and view pictures of the night

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR EXPORTERS WORKSHOP

Recently the Ballarat ICT Cluster held the ‘Financial Assistance for Exporters’ Workshop with presenters from associated organisations leading the workshop.

ICT members with personal or business interest in the complexities of exporting attended the workshop to have their questions answered- and were very impressed at the variety of speakers from both Government and non-government agencies that were available to do their utmost to assist.  To read more about the workshop click here

Be Safe in Cyber Space - Tuesday 11th November

The "Be Safe in Cyber Space" forum aims to discuss issues and ideas about the level of safety that is currently being used and what could or should be done to make Cyber Spacea safer place for reional youth. To learn more or register your interestclick here

Ballarat Tech Park & Ballarat IT Specialists Networking Event - Tuesday 18th November

The University of Ballarat Technology Park and Ballarat IT SpecialistsNetworking Eventsbring together ICT professionals and other stakeholders from Ballarat and region.Eventsare held on the third Tuesday of each month during 2008. This month we welcome Dan Bright, Managing Director of Interpath, a local bio tech enterprise. To learn more or register your interestclick here

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Product Updates

DOCBOOK MANAGER

Docbook Manager continues to add new strings to its bow with the use of the product for the PQR and AUQA projects. New features introduced into Docbook Manager for these projects include:

• Catalogues allow in depth categorisation of multiple documents.
• Comprehensive workflow system allows macro and  micro level document review processes.
  
• The workflow system allows the reporting of review progress in a calendar view and an annotated timeline view.
• Advanced document managent options allow the assigning of document editors, owners and authorisers.
  

Gallery Manager in Content Builder

Is on its way!  This will allow you to set up and manage your own photo gallery on your webiste.  The gallery manager will auto re-size and optimise images for the webiste.
More to come in 2009.

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