
Knowledge economy and knowledge work consultant, web strategist, information architect and social networking evangelist
Canberra Area, Australia

Knowledge economy and knowledge work consultant, web strategist, information architect and social networking evangelist
Canberra Area, Australia
Stephen Collins is the Founder and Chief Troublemaker at acidlabs.
He is a frequently self-appointed tricky problem solver driven by a need to help people and organisations effect change in their capacity to retain, distribute and share knowledge. He enjoys facilitating positive organisational cultural change around breaking down siloed, selfish attitudes to knowledge. Stephen is more than a little passionate about leveraging great social applications as a way to help people and organisations do their jobs better.
He is equally able to think at 40000′ and down among the weeds and deals with challenges creatively with more than a touch of the maverick, approaching them as a way to improve intellectual agility while adding real value for his clients.
Stephen writes on matters (mostly) related to the work of acidlabs at the acidlabs blog. He also blogs at thoughtglue.com, an online resource for knowledge workers and their leaders and is a contributor at Web Worker Daily. He is a member of the Social Media Collective, a diverse group of bloggers, consultants, investors, journalists and analysts who represent the Web’s best thinking on social media, marketing and Web 2.0.
Stephen is a member of the Information Architecture Institute and Usability Professionals Association and is also a life member of Electronic Frontiers Australia and an Electronic Frontier Foundation member.
Social computing as a tool to effect change in organisational knowledge sharing, the Knowledge Worker 2.0 and their place in 21st Century business, teaching, sharing, collaborating, information architecture and user experience, getting stuff done and having a good time while we do it and solving problems in a unique way.
(Partnership; 201-500 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
2008 — Present (less than a year)
In 2007, The Age of Conversation brought together 103 authors from 10 countries to explore a single topic -- how social media is changing marketing from a monologue to a dialogue.
In 2008, The Age of Conversation: Why Don’t People Get It? will bring together 275 authors from around the globe to address several themes around transmission of messages and introduction of change.
All proceeds of this book will be donated to Variety, the Children's Charity.
(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)
January 2007 — Present (1 year 5 months)
BarCamp is an international network of unconferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies and social protocols.
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)
September 2006 — Present (1 year 9 months)
Working with clients to build social media and social networking strategies and knowledge and information sharing strategies around open communities inside, outside and through organisational walls. Advising and mentoring on adoption of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 tools to accompany those strategies.
Also providing strategic user experience and information architecture services and mentoring for clients addressing user needs across the product development life-cycle.
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; SMX; Information Technology and Services industry)
April 2006 — January 2007 (10 months)
Provide strategic consulting services to a diverse range of clients on issues such as information architecture, user experience and business systems suitability.
(Government Agency; 1001-5000 employees; Internet industry)
November 2005 — March 2006 (5 months)
Managed the application development team providing the web based solution for the Departments grants application system. DITRs grants system, administered by AusIndustry, is worth nearly $2 billion each year. This role entailed project and client management, business analysis, team leading and staff mentoring and a significant level of technical expertise with Departmental web application and back end systems.
(Government Agency; 1001-5000 employees; Computer & Network Security industry)
March 2005 — November 2005 (9 months)
Provided technical advice to business stakeholders on likely security impacts of ongoing and proposed activity, particularly with respect to hardware, network and application vulnerabilities. This was a multidisciplinary role, touching on a wide range of Departmental business including ensuring government and international standards for IT Security were implemented in departmental IT projects, developing and providing policy advice on IT security impacts of activity conducted, conducting ICT security audits of departmental systems and sites using industry standard and custom tools, aiding in investigation of security breaches from internal and external sources and participation in several departmental and multi-jurisdictional committees as an ICT Security representative.
(Government Agency; 1001-5000 employees; Internet industry)
November 2003 — March 2005 (1 year 5 months)
Provided project management, client management, business analysis and solutions architecture advice to clients requiring web application development and content management services. Led the team of web applications developers providing services to Departmental internal clients for the development and implementation of customised content management systems and websites. Responsible for introducing a standardised toolset among all web applications development teams encompassing development environment, coding standard based on W3C and vendor best practice, source code management, issues management and project methodology based on the Rational Unified Process.
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
May 2000 — November 2003 (3 years 7 months)
Senior technical lead on several major government client web application projects including successful roll-outs for Department of Industry Tourism and Resources (internet, intranet, content management and documentation), Department of Health and Aging (HealthInsite, content management and documentation), AusIndustry (internet, intranet, content management and documentation) and Department of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff (intranet, content management and documentation).
(Government Agency; 201-500 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
December 1998 — May 2000 (1 year 6 months)
Led a small team involved in a major Intranet redevelopment. When completed the site provided web-based interfaces to project management, reporting, personnel and other business tools. Other responsibilities and achievements included successful implementation of intranet site for DHA utilising ColdFusion, SQL Server and IIS 4, technical management of all web development for DHA, development of corporate policy for use of all internet-based technologies, reporting to senior management on internet technology development issues and involvement at management level in several teams planning web-integration of business processes.
(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
June 1997 — December 1998 (1 year 7 months)
Provided ongoing management and improvement of Tech Pacific websites including Internet, Extranet and Intranet sites. Specific achievements included successful implementation of industry leading e-commerce warehouse solution coupled with full redevelopment of company website for Tech Pacific Australia using Speedware OrderChannel, development of business process logic for e-commerce implementation, maintenance of web servers on several Sun Solaris/Unix based web servers running Netscape Enterprise Server 3.0.
BA, Professional Writing, 1987 — 1991
knowledge work, knowledge economy, social computing, web 2.0, enterprise 2.0, consulting, strategy, thought leadership, information architecture, usability, accessibility, web standards, getting things done, rugby union
Web Standards Group, IIM National Conference 2007, Coworking , BarCamp, Social Media Collective, Office 2.0 Conference, DataPortability, E2EF Conference, Oz-IA 2007, Creative Skills Training Council, LinkedIn Bloggers, St Clare of Assisi School Council, Web Directions, WebDU