Some days just work out right. Last Thursday week was one of them.
Early in the day, I bumped into Glenn Archer, the CIO of DEEWR whilst walking in Parliament House who mentioned Andrea Di Maio was in Canberra for the day. I asked Glenn if he could ask whether we could arrange a meeting at short notice. We found half an hour or so to swap notes on Gov2.0 in Australia which was very interesting. Andrea’s research at Gartner is widely read and he has informed policy thinking relating to government’s online presence for years. It was lovely to chat to him and compare notes about what is happening around the world.
Then, Pia (Waugh, my adviser) arranged to meet with the OLPC Director of Oceania, Michael Hutak, who was in town with Dr Jimmie Rodgers, the Director Deneral of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) meeting Government representatives. SPC is a United Nations supported organisation that deals with infrastructure and support for the Pacific Island countries and territories, including everything from broadband to health and welfare. This presented a fortuitous opportunity to get an update with OLPC Pacific region initiatives, and chat about the challenges of delivering quality Internet access throughout the Pacific.
Michael provided me with two fact sheets. A one-pager about OLPC Oceania, and a 27 page document about OLPC in the Solomon Islands. He said progress was going well:
“With projects up and running now in seven Pacific countries, and with official requests from the governments of at least 8 more, the ideas and possibilities offered by OLPC are starting to take hold in the region. It’s been a slow build, but with the commitment to put education at the centre of Australia’s foreign aid program, we can see the opportunity to make real gains in improving the quality of basic education in the Pacific in the coming years.”
Both fortuitous meetings with very little notice: it doesn’t happen like that very often but it shows the value of being flexible. 
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Hi Senator Lundy,
You should check the various news forums on the web. PM Gillard’s decision to keep Senator Conroy in his portfolio has been met with widespread and deepseated resentment.
I would strongly encourage you to take up with PM Gillard privately the depth of feeling against Senator Conroy and the Internet Filter in the community. Thousands of votes will be lost to the Greens right across Australia, my own being one of them.
Regards,
Crispy