Industry and Academia working together at RMIT

On August 28th, I was invited to attend the Media and Communications Industry Forum at RMIT, where industry representatives from across the spectrum of technology, design, research, cultural institutions and business gathered with departmental representatives from across RMIT, lead by Professor Margaret Gardner AO, Vice-Chancellor and President of RMIT.

Photo courtesy of RMIT

The focus of our gathering was on the impact of mobile on media and communications. RMIT wanted to hear from the different industry representatives our particular point of view around this space and to discuss the implications this might have on the programs and curriculum needs that RMIT offers.

We were asked to come with some key points that we felt were critical parts of the equation. I thought about this from the perspective of preparing students for either designing in this space or providing service, support or enablement of it:

1.  Deep understanding of people, contexts, cultures and ways of living:  This has to be about people, with technology as enabler and mediator.  Practitioners in this space – either designing and creating products and services for this space, or utilising it, benefit from the theoretical, cultural, observational and synthesis skills of an anthropologist and the human behavioural, cognitive and social dynamic skills of a psychologist.

2. Moving away from utility and transaction to creating and making:  Utility will not go away, but utility can be embedded within a space which allows people to take advantage of what they observe, to create meaning with what they have, and to be makers rather than just consumers.

3. Importance of ubiquity:  Making technology fade into the fabric of life rather than being the focus. For as much as mobile purports to connect us across the distances, it ends up creating barriers between people as well. We will need to find a way to remove those barriers so that we can foster true connection rather than the technology being such an obvious midpoint.

I’m curious – what might you have offered as key things to bring to the table?