I would like to say that Sonja Bernhardt and I go way back, unfortunately I cannot. Since I have been corresponding with Sonja through the WA Web Awards over several months, I can honestly say that I feel that we do have some common interests. I have had the opportunity to ask Sonja some probing questions to find out more about her, her passions and what it is like to be a judge for the WA Web Awards.
Helen: Hi Sonja, thanks for giving me some time to find out more about you. You have been introduced to “The Edge” audience as “smart, punchy and intelligent”. For people who may be thinking “what is this lady on about” can you give us an idea of your main areas of interest not only for ICT but the web in particular?
Sonja: My ICT background is pretty much software and implementations as such my key area of interest is software as a service and using collaborative tools not only for software delivery but for business operations.
My passion lies in the fact that ICT in general and the web in particular are here to stay and if people do not actively engage themselves with the growing web presence and amazing tools they will not be able to participate fully in society. They will restrict their career and advancement opportunities and social opportunities.
Basically my philosophy is reality and reason based as such fact, logic, truth and ‘what is’ are fundamental to how I think and how I present.
The punchy refers to I am more than happy to point out truths and am not afraid to poke, and hit points many people prefer to evade or pretend do not exist. My key aims are to provoke thinking and kick off discussions and debates about the topics.
If people walk away from my presentation talking and thinking (even if it is ‘I do not agree with her’) then to me that is a great success!
Helen: So you are coming over for the “Edge of the Web” and facilitating an interactive presentation about women in ICT and why intervention programs haven’t worked. Have you used any Web 2.0 and social networking sites to promote the women role models to young women thinking about a career in ICT let alone the web?
Sonja: Absolutely yes my latest is www.passionit.info Web 2.0 has made life much easier when trying to get the message out to diverse communities.
I have been voluntarily designing, creating and implementing intervention/outreach programs for over a decade. More than 5 years ago I came up with an idea of a project that I was unable to implement at that time – because the tools to do so were not available. When web 2.0 hit I realised that I could now connect easily to the world and use VOIP communications that allowed me to collabratively connect and run my project. The end result is Doing IT Around the World – Where in total 36 technology loving women from 27 countries came together to produce online, virtual resources for education and information including the “Doing IT Around the World Album Series” and the “August 11 – A Day in the Life of… Diary”. The Albums and Diary are available for free download from www.passionit.info
Although using web and web tools did not stop at the deliverables – web meeting rooms, e-newsletters, web content management systems were used to manage the project ….and better than that I sourced role models for the project on social networking sites such as facebook, plaxo and lots from linkedin.
Plus videos relating to the project are now populating a number of the new media sites
One of the BEST things about this project was thanks to the readily available and highly valuable web 2.0 tools I was able to deliver the entire project for approximately $50. Past project have ranged from a few thousand to over $80,000 to deliver!
Helen: How successful has this been, or is it early days yet?
Sonja: Early days however already very successful – unlike one other project I ran a few years ago “Screen Goddess’ that hit the world wide media with almost unmanageable web hits and initial site visitors (eg 3 million hits within a 24 hour period), plus a DOS attack on the site, Doing IT has been every day strong and steady and truly across the globe (with more than 60 countries accessing the site), as the news is spreading I expect traffic will remain strong as steady as the online tools are actively used by schools and universities and corporates across the world.
We have a rss feed on the site you can checkout the global coverage to date and as it increases.
Helen: So in your Bio, it mentions that ThoughtWare has developed a Governance, Risk Management and Compliance software solution. Can you give us an overview of what this program is exactly and can you get in on the Web?
i.on my solutions are a Software as a Service model – .NET, SQL enterprise application hosted on our dedicated secure server.
i.on my helps micro businesses through to large enterprises:
- Know what to do — Interpret the regulations, standards, contracts, trading agreements and policies for your environment.
- Know what you do — Understand and document your policies, processes and controls.
- Do what you say — Monitor for compliance and changes over time.
- Say what you know — Report as required.
The web site www.ionmy.com.au has lots of info including free audio ad visual guides.
Interestingly we demonstrate this product to prospective clients using ‘gotomeeting’ a web meeting place – this not only saves time but it also saves significant travel costs, which for us a small business is a major productivity and business tool – made only possible by it’s web availability.
Helen: What industries do you think this software may be of use to? Can you name names?
Sonja: It’s basically one product different skins and industry specific table differences. Key industries are Aged Care, School and Child Care however i.on my solutions are of real value to any industry that is experiencing increasing compliance issues – we also include neat functionality such as environment footprint analyser and corporate social responsibility as well as the expected oh&s, hazard, risk management, accreditation and governance capability.
Because it includes centralized web available document library, sophisticated work flow and alert/reminder messaging system plus a newly added discussion forum i.on my is a key productivity tool for businesses.
Helen: On another note you are a judge for this year’s WA Web Awards. Is it difficult being a judge of a web awards program such as the WAWAs without having the web techie skill set and if so how do you approach it?
Sonja: If we’re not designers of web sites we are all users of web sites – therefore to me I used USER EXPERIENCE, user experience user experience. Ultimately the success of a web site lives in the overall user experience. As a user with some but not detail technical backend knowledge the front end experience defined my judging comments. If backends did not work then that was easy as functions failed to operateJ
PS I Absolutely loved it. In fact I have to admit I ended up purchasing some products from some of the sites and have bookmarked others for future purchases.
Helen: Well thanks once again for your time Sonja, see you at “The Edge”.
Sonja: Totally looking forward to it.