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Latest centre for Monash based in IT Faculty

19 September 2007

The memory of Jean Whyte to live on through libraries and information management following her bequest to the Faculty of IT, in particular in relation to librarianship, archives and records and a range of research activities. Picture courtesy of Monpix.

The Centre for Organisational and Social Informatics (COSI) was officially launched by Professor Edwina Cornish, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, at a function held at Caulfield campus last week, with 80 academics, practitioners and community representatives in attendance.

The centre is home to approximately 50 researchers who aim to contribute to the development of individuals, organisations and society through human-centred design and the deployment and the creative use of ICT in organisations and society.

The centre conducts an integrated set of popular programs in research, research training, graduate education, and professional and community engagement.

Research is organised according to six interrelated programs, including Foundations of Organisational and Social Informatics, Health Informatics, eGovernment, eResearch, eDemocracy and Business Informatics.

Successful projects range from the creation of a portal for online support of breast cancer patients, to designing a system to encourage the digital capture of Koorie oral heritage.

In addition to a core commitment of publishing research results in the highest quality scholarly journals, the centre will use its website as a key resource for academics, professionals, industry and community stakeholders.

Centre staff will maintain their high level of organising involvement in major academic conferences and journals, as well as industry and community forums.

For instance, two events are planned for Monash South Africa and the Prato Centre in Italy in the near future.

In October a workshop in South Africa will seek to harness local enthusiasm for a project to use mobile phones for development purposes, to encourage small business and social interactions for poverty alleviation, and raise the awareness of young South Africans to the value of information literacy.

At the Prato Centre in Italy in November another workshop will bring together the local commune, textile business leaders, and the migrant Chinese community to discuss shared concerns about building community capital in Prato in a consensual way.

The special launch, held at the Caulfield campus, on 11 September, confirmed the extensive support for the faculty and the research done through its many researchers and projects.

In recognition of the wonderful work being done by a research group in the Centre into librarianship, archives, and record-keeping, the event also officially launched the Jean Whyte Fund.

The Fund is sponsored by a bequest from Professor Jean Whyte, foundation Professor of Librarianship at Monash.

A first grant from the Fund will support the publication of her biography, and other innovative projects in information management will follow.

Emeritus Professor Don Schauder, until recently the Professor of Information Management, was formally recognised for his contribution to the University and research.

A toast to the newly awarded Emeritus Professor was made by Mr Ross Gibbs, Director General of the National Archives of Australia. Professor Schauder's current research interests bolster COSI objectives.