Personal Information

Family Details

To paraphrase a science-fiction writer I read (Orson Scott Card) I am a:

husband for 26 years with Dawn, an ordained priest and school chaplain in the Anglican Church of Australia;
father to Mark (now 23) and Iain (now 20 );
christian
feminist
lapsed 'cellist (I really should practice more often)
vegetarian
environmentalist
Myers-Briggs: INTJ
and left-hander.

My Visual DNA is this:

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If I were a poem, I'd be this...

I am the sonnet, never quickly thrilled;
Not prone to overstated gushing praise
Nor yet to seething rants and anger, filled
With overstretched opinions to rephrase;
But on the other hand, not fond of fools,
And thus, not fond of people, on the whole;
And holding to the sound and useful rules,
Not those that seek unjustified control.
I'm balanced, measured, sensible (at least,
I think I am, and usually I'm right);
And when more ostentatious types have ceased,
I'm still around, and doing, still, alright.
In short, I'm calm and rational and stable -
Or, well, I am, as much as I am able.

What Poetry Form Are You?

Given all those blessings, being paid by the university to do what I enjoy doing anyway (read, think, and plan) is a bonus.

The family menagerie currently consists of the chooks, Aung San Suu Kyi, our independent Burmese cat who is being held under house arrest, and Sascha the Saluki.

Interests

My favourite ways to spend my time are activities with the family, growing fruit and vegetables in the back garden, reading, and playing the 'cello.

The sporting activities I enjoy doing most are cross-country skiing (yes, there is usually enough snow in my part of Australia to do this, in winter anyway, although global warming is seeing this diminish), and cycling. Cycling is how I get to work. Like most people, I find it difficult to motivate myself to exercise, so riding the 16 kilometers (10 miles) to work is the best way for me to stay fit.

My father was also an academic and took the family when he went overseas on sabbatical leave. This means that I was lucky enough to live in a number of different places while growing up, including Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Manchester in the United Kingdom and Uppsala in Sweden.

Qualifications

Bachelor of Arts with first-class honours, majors in Germanic Languages and Linguistics, Melbourne University, 1980. Thesis topic: Een computer-analyse van een nederlandse landelijk roman (A computer analysis of a Dutch regional novel) - in PDF.
Graduate Diploma in computer science, Melbourne University, 1983.
Master of Arts (by research). Thesis topic: A Computer-assisted analysis of characterisation in Virginia Woolfs “The Waves”, Melbourne University, 1989.
Ph. D. Thesis topic: Hypermedia Online Publishing - The Transformation of the Scholarly Journal, Monash University, 1999. The submitted version of my thesis is available as a 2.3 MB PDF, and an HTML document set.

Professional Memberships

MACS, PCP - Member of the Australian Computer Society and Practicing Computer Professional.

Member, VALA: Libraries, Technology and the Future

Current Employment

I am currently employed as the Director and Chief Architect of the Australian ResearCH Enabling enviRonment (ARCHER) project. I am on secondment from my substantive position as Foundation Director, Department of Information Management and Strategic Planning in the Division of Information Technology Services at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Until 1999 I was a Senior Lecturer in Information Management in the School of Computing and Mathematics at Deakin University.

Last modified: Monday, 15-Oct-2007 06:47:41 MST