We’re using the Bang the Table ideas tool to capture suggestions from the community about how we can recover from COVID-19 and reimagine the city.
Historical Maps of Adelaide and SA
I love working on new technologies like chatbots, drones and augmented reality, but I’m even more passionate about our history and heritage and making it available through electronic means. Here’s a little content piece we’ve done recently: an online collection of historical maps, charts and plans of Adelaide and SA, drawn from the City Archives…
Australia Quiz via MS Teams to keep up morale during COVID-19
I ran an Australia quiz via MS Teams this week. A bit of a morale booster for people working from home due to COVID-19. Here are the slides:
Adelaide Living Podcast Ep. 8 – Michelle Perugini
The eighth episode of our Adelaide Living podcast is now available and features local femtech entrepreneur Michelle Perugini, co-founder of AI fertility startup Life Whisperer. Michelle and her colleagues have pioneered a system that uses imaging and artificial intelligence to identify the most viable embryos for IVF. After a 3 year business journey, the first…
Minecraft Adelaide on NITV website…but not in a positive light
Our Minecraft Adelaide project has attracted some negative criticism. The following article appears on the NITV website: https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2020/05/31/computer-game-project-draws-fire-undermining-adelaides-true-history For my part, there was no ill intent, or deliberate aim to exclude the Kaurna nation, in the work that we have done to date. Our Minecraft worlds were built in January/February and we chose to release…
Every video doesn’t need to be a masterpiece
The City of Melbourne posted this earlier today… https://www.facebook.com/cityofmelbourne/videos/679590365936310/ Shot on a mobile phone. No dialogue. No branding. Bit jumpy in places. Very simple audio track. But very effective – because it is timely, topical, informational and tells a story. Some people argue that this sort of product reflects poorly on an organisation’s brand. I…
City of Adelaide podcast covered in SA Life magazine
We got a nice write up in SA Life magazine for the Adelaide Living podcast. Here’s the text: Among the latest arrivals on the South Australian scene is Cityof Adelaide’s Adelaide Living, launched in January this year andhosted by Dr Christina Hagger. Produced by Radio Adelaide’s Podcast Works, Adelaide Living has so far featured interviews…
Context statements added to the City of Adelaide website
As the City of Adelaide website is a series of ‘destinations’ – different subdomains intended for different audiences – it’s important to provide some distinction between them, and some understanding of context for users when they first arrive. So we’ve made a small change to provide context through some on-page statements that have been baked…
Blog post about our chatbot project from Hopstay
The City of Adelaide’s AI chatbot partner is Australian-French startup, Hopstay. Started by a pair of Adelaide entrepreneurs, Hopstay won an international French Government competition to establish their business in a tech incubator in Paris. Nice work if you can get it! We’ve worked with Hopstay over the past 18 months to build an experimental…
Why I hate it when people say: ‘we need to build an app’
I hate it when people say ‘we need to build an app’. Here’s why… Reason #1 – They should stop thinking up ‘solutions’ before understanding the ‘problem’ (if indeed there is a problem) When you say ‘we need to build an app’, you’re focusing on the ‘solution’ before understanding ‘why’ an app is required. As…
Arrr, me hearties – MS Teams frivolity
Liz went above and beyond again. Pirate hat with a galleon in the background. Very nice.
Content marketing for Ramadan
Story-telling and digital content marketing are key pillars of our marketing strategy at the City of Adelaide. Take for example this great piece by my colleague Skye Murtagh about Ramadan. Skye reached out to members of Adelaide’s Muslim community to find out how they experience Ramadan in Adelaide, how it differs from their birth countries,…
Minecraft Adelaide now available in Education Edition
Our Minecraft project continues to grow and improve. We’ve now published versions of our Adelaide worlds in ‘Microsoft Minecraft Education Edition’, providing better access for schools and students. The two worlds are now available in Java, Bedrock, Portable (iPad/Android tablet) and Education versions from https://www.cityofadelaide.com.au/minecraft
Video conference stitch up
The fun and games continue on Microsoft Teams…. This morning I joined our regular team meeting and was greeted by my own head looking back at me five times over. Cheeky buggers.
City of Adelaide digital program covered in CMO magazine
We’ve been featured in a piece in CMO Magazine, with the editor interviewing the boss, Ian Hill, about our digital program. URL to the article is: https://www.cmo.com.au/article/679012/how-city-adelaide-marketers-using-digital-content-drive-engagement/ Here’s the full text of the article: How City of Adelaide marketers are using digital and content to drive engagement Director of growth shares the digital innovations and…
Funnel visualisation for UPark Plus
We’ve just released a new parking product called UPark Plus. Good timing – we released it during COVID-19 as a ‘touchless parking’ option and attached a cheap $8 parking offer for parking in the CBD. Uptake has been pretty good. To create a UPark Plus account, it’s necessary to sign up on the UPark website…
Easy English Guide for COVID-19
The sheer volume of COVID-19 information out there makes it difficult for most people to absorb and comprehend, let alone those members of our community who have low English literacy, or have vision or cognitive impairments. To help, we’ve just published an “Easy English” guide on our website that explains which City of Adelaide services…
Chatbot case study from Hopstay
Hopstay have put together a nice case study PDF about the City of Adelaide chatbot.
Adelaide Living Podcast Ep.7 is live: Damon Gameau
You might recognise his face from his roles in films like ‘The Tracker’ and ‘Balibo’, or TV shows like ‘The Kettering Incident’, ‘Love My Way’ and ‘Underbelly’, but Adelaide-born Damon Gameau has found his true path behind the camera, as a filmmaker. His latest doco, ‘2040’, tackles the subject of the effects of climate change with a…
Minecraft Adelaide covered in Sunday Mail
The City of Adelaide’s Minecraft ‘Adelaide 2021’ world was covered in an article in yesterday’s Sunday Mail. Kudos to Jonathon Bailey and Josh Roberts, who together are the driving force behind our Minecraft project. Jonathan is a final-year Maths student at the University of Adelaide and worked on the project as a work experience student…