I've been lurking for a few weeks now, getting a sense of the group and waiting for an opportunity to hop into the discussion so here it goes...<br><br>I have a music composition background, though I've just completed a phd at the Centre for Ideas at the University of Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts with the title of 'Stigmergic Collaboration: A theoretical framework for mass collaboration'. The thesis investigates collaboration generally in order to theorise large-scale collective creativity (
e.g. Wikipedia, open source software and projects such as <a href="http://drawball.com">drawball.com</a>). The primary framework I have employed to these ends is stigmergy - the biological mechanism first studied in ants and termites which explains the 'coordination paradox', that individually such creatures seem to be behaving in a random fashion, but collectively they are able to achieve incredible feats of organisation. Stigmergy explains this by exploring the capacity that agents may have to make changes to the environment which in turn illicit further changes (both within/upon the environment and behaviorally). The thesis is currently under examination and I'm still anxiously awaiting feedback :-7... During the course of my candidature I ran a number of online collaborations as creative projects, most notably perhaps
<a href="http://metacollab.net">http://metacollab.net</a> - a collaboration on collaboration theory which is still slowly ticking away.<br><br>I'm currently doing a large amount of teaching at the Centre for Ideas (common curriculum subjects on theory / contextual studies for artists as well as cross disciplinary collaboration), the University of Melbourne's music faculty (teaching composition, orchestration & computing for musician subjects), and in the University of Melbourne's media and communications program, running the course, Media Futures & New Technologies, - see
<a href="http://www.unimelb.edu.au/HB/subjects/100-221.html">http://www.unimelb.edu.au/HB/subjects/100-221.html</a><br><br>I've taken on a lot until I hear back about the phd and can then start applying for new posts and projects mainly because I have 1 year old identical twin boys and my partner is at home looking after them - so i gotta work my butt off! :-) Along those lines, I'm not sure how active a contributor I'll be able to be until semester finishes, though I'll do my best (these days i seem barely able to cope with the tyranny of email)!
<br><br>Glad to join your midsts!<br>mark elliott<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>-----<br>Mark Elliott<br>PhD Candidate <br><br>The Centre for Ideas<br>Victorian College of the Arts<br>The University of Melbourne<br>234 St Kilda Rd
<br>SOUTHBANK 3006<br>Victoria, Australia<br><br>Mob: 0421 978 501<br><a href="http://mark-elliott.net/">http://mark-elliott.net/</a>, <a href="http://metacollab.net/">http://metacollab.net/</a><br><a href="mailto:me@mark-elliott.net">
me@mark-elliott.net</a>