I meet with design thinkers, services designers and social innovators every week and we are starting to get them to help us prepare our library for its exciting future model. The model is fueled by the implementation of new technologies like ASRS and RFID, but we also realise that we need to change as an organisation and develop a new service model that fully realises the potential offered by these technologies. We are starting small and our first project to be facilitated by one of these designers (Grant Young from Zumio) will be an in house sustainability initiative. More on that when it gets going.

So Grant tweets the other day about a book he was given. Being the nosey parker that I am, I quickly looked it up on our catalogue and found that we had it here, so now I’m reading it too: Tim Brown’s Change by Design. It is an easy read, using story-telling to get across the experience of some case studies, and a couple of things have struck me as particularly relevant so far. One was all about trust in a section of the first chapter called cultures of innovation. Here is the quote and now you’ll see why I used the above image from a talk I did way back in 2009:

A culture that believes it is better to ask forgiveness afterward rather than permission before, that rewards people for success but gives them permission to fail, has removed one of the main obstacles to the formation of new ideas.

At UTS I’ve been lucky enough to work for Dr Alex Byrne for over two years now. That is exactly how he operates and I’ve enjoyed that culture and tried hard to encourage my unit to work together in the same manner. If you work somewhere that doesn’t even allow you to speak up before checking with your boss first or if that is how you manage your own organisation, then something is seriously wrong with that picture.

I downloaded their new EP Not Just Friends from iTunes Store almost as soon as I got home. It features their single In the Summer that is getting some airplay on Triple J now.

The Middle East were a complete surprise. I know their music from their self-titled EP and the more recent album I Want That You Are Always Happy, but in concert I think their music is much deeper, heavier and it has so much more energy. They really seem to enjoy playing and performing and right from the first note it was clear that they had a really big sound and stage presence. As with their album there was heaps of variety in the playing with most band members playing several instruments as they wandered through their amazing repertoire. To me it seemed that they had a long background in live performance and after having seen them now it seems their studio recordings, whilst beautiful, just don’t capture the energy and richness they display on stage. They’re brilliant.

Red Riders also really enjoyed playing their concert. They seemed to treat it all as a celebration of their musical history and they dropped a couple of hints that it isn’t all completely over. They will probably do some individual work or reform in another combination. Guitarist Brad Heald is back with The Vines. I hope all that talent just isn’t wasted.

I think I mostly enjoyed the music they played in the second half of this gig (from Drown in Colours) when Brad replaced Adrian Deutsch on stage. His guitar work on Tomorrow/Today and Ordinary is very special. Tomorrow/Today was probably my highlight from this performance. I’d rate Drown in Colours as one of the best albums I own. They are (or maybe were now) such an under-rated band.

Red Riders: Drown in Colour. I’m off to see their last ever concert at the Oxford Art Factory on Saturday night too!

The Falling Joys at the OAF last Saturday night (10 June 2011).

The Naked & Famous: Passive Me, Aggressive You

Death Cab for Cutie: Codes and Keys. See video above.

The Middle East at the Metro in Sydney tonight.

The Cure: Reflections at the Sydney Opera House.

Jeff Buckley.