Australian women in Macedonia

Australians have had a relationship with Macedonia since the earliest days of European settlement. A little explored aspect of this is the activities of Australian women in Macedonia, before the days of cheap transport and mass tourism. These women were nurses with the Australian and British forces on the Macedonian Front of 1916–1918. Others were humanitarian relief workers, assisting survivors of the Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocides (1914–1924) to rebuild their health and their lives. Virtually forgotten are Red Cross medical staff involved in repatriating refugees during the bloody Hellenic Civil War (1946–1949). All these remarkable individuals lived extraordinary lives in answering the “call from Macedonia”, as the Apostle Paul once expressed it. They also left us a unique collection of photographs, letters and other documents of their experiences: the people they met, the places they visited, the experiences they enjoyed and endured

“Remember the Greek and Armenian Refugee Children”: South Australian relief efforts in the Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian Genocides

Even the most sweeping mega-narratives are composed of collections of micro-narratives, the stories of actions and experiences of individuals. By blending the stories of individuals and organisations from South Australia with the events that swept the Hellenic world in the first part of the 20th century, the result is a powerful testament to the ability of individuals to enact change under any circumstance. When it is taken into account that these efforts to collect money, food and clothing occurred at a time when South Australia was endeavouring to recover from World War One, the story of the campaign to save lives on the other side of the globe becomes even more amazing. South Australian efforts on behalf of the genocide survivors — either through humanitarian relief or through active rescue — are one of the “lighter” aspects of the history of the Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian Genocides. Rev. James E. Cresswell, Ethel Cooper and their supporters serve as reminders that even amidst the darkest episodes of human existence, there are sparks of light. Despite being enveloped by inhumanity, some retained their humanity

Greeks

An account of the history of Sydney's Greek community

Friends in Crisis: Anzacs and Hellenism

Across numerous conflicts in the first half of the 20th century, Aus­tralians and New Zealanders were at the side of Hellenism: World War One, the Asia Minor Campaign (1919-1922), and the relief efforts after the Hel­lenic, Armenian and Assyrian Genocides. Beyond their battlefield record, these Anzacs and others from the Antipodes provided substantial practical and moral support for a people going through successive major crises. 2014 marked the Centenary of the outbreak of World War One, and the commencement of four years of commemorative activity to mark a se­ries of centenaries related to Australia and the Great War. Across numerous conflicts in the first half of the 20th century, Australians and New Zealand­ers were at the side of Hellenism: World War One, the Asia Minor Campaign (1919-1922), and the relief efforts after the Hellenic, Armenian and As­syrian Genocides. Beyond their battlefield record, these Anzacs and others from the Antipodes provided substantial practical and moral support for a people going through successive major crises. The crises that conflict trig­gered within Hellenism present some stark parallels with the Crisis within the Hellenic Republic since 2010, and some lessons unlearned. With a pro-British elected Prime Minister (Eleutherios Venizelos) and a pro-German monarch (King Konstantinos), the Hellenic Kingdom spent the years of World War One mired in a deep political and social crisis, following the triumphs of the Balkans Wars of October 1912-February 1913. The ideological and strategic chasm between the two men was a major contributing factor to the loss of millions of lives in the Genocide of the Hellenes as well as the loss of territories in Thrace and Anatolia promised to the Hellenic state by the victorious Entente powers. Just as the crisis which has wracked the Helladic state since 2010, the period 1916-1926 was as much about social and economic strategies as it was about political ideologies. Throughout the period, Australians and New Zealanders sacrificed time, effort, money, property and, sometimes, their very lives, in order to reach out to people on the other side of the world who were in desperate need. Their experiences provide a very different perspective on the tradition of Australian humanitarianism and the historiography of Hellenism in crisis. The response to footage of natural disasters such as the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami of 2004 is a recent example of Antipodean generosity to human beings in need. The inhabitants of Terra Australis (the ‘Great South Land’) and Aotearoa (the Land of the Long, White Cloud) were disproportionately generous. The stories of individual Australians and New Zealanders provide powerful testament to the ability of individuals to change the course of history. The involvement of Anzacs, their families and associates ‘un-frame’ Hellenic history by re-integrating it into its international context. From 1914 the authorities in the Ottoman Turkish Empire implemented a plan of unprecedented forced demographic change. Known today as the Genocides of the Hellenes, Armenians and Assyrians, the plan called for the physical elimination of the indigenous non-Muslim populations of the Empire as the only means of securing their state’s territorial integrity

Division of labour and sharing of knowledge for synchronous collaborative information retrieval

Synchronous collaborative information retrieval (SCIR) is concerned with supporting two or more users who search together at the same time in order to satisfy a shared information need. SCIR systems represent a paradigmatic shift in the way we view information retrieval, moving from an individual to a group process and as such the development of novel IR techniques is needed to support this. In this article we present what we believe are two key concepts for the development of effective SCIR namely division of labour (DoL) and sharing of knowledge (SoK). Together these concepts enable coordinated SCIR such that redundancy across group members is reduced whilst enabling each group member to benefit from the discoveries of their collaborators. In this article we outline techniques from state-of-the-art SCIR systems which support these two concepts, primarily through the provision of awareness widgets. We then outline some of our own work into system-mediated techniques for division of labour and sharing of knowledge in SCIR. Finally we conclude with a discussion on some possible future trends for these two coordination techniques

Aegean Eucalypts

The subject of this study is both historical and political in nature. In light of the current debate on the involvement of Australian troops in the US-led occupation of Iraq, we need to always keep in the back of minds the fact that history, the past, IS the present ISthe future. We cannot understand why events such as September 11 unfold the way they do without understanding what has already occurred. As a great philosopher once said, ‘He who forgets the past, is doomed to repeat it.’ Hence by exploring Hellenic andAustralian history, we are exploring ourselves as Australian Hellenes

Υποστήριξη μηχανισμών ενημερότητας και αξιολόγησης σε συνεργατικές εφαρμογές εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευσης και σε εικονικά περιβάλλοντα μάθησης

Η διδακτορική έρευνα επικεντρώθηκε στην περιοχή της ομαδικής εργασίας με τη βοήθεια του υπολογιστή (Computer Supported Cooperative Work), την ανάπτυξη συνεργατικών εφαρμογών (Groupware), καθώς και στη δυνατότητα ενημέρωσης κάθε μέλους της ομάδας για τις ενέργειες των υπολοίπων (Workspace Awareness). Ειδικότερα μελετήθηκε ο σχεδιασμός συνεργατικών εφαρμογών (σύγχρονων ή ασύγχρονων) που μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν στην εκπαιδευτική διαδικασία, δηλαδή εφαρμογών που βασίζονται στη συνεργασία των μελών μιας ομάδας που τις χρησιμοποιεί. Στα πλαίσια τέτοιων εφαρμογών, εξετάσθηκαν διάφοροι τρόποι που σκοπό έχουν τη δυνατότητα ενημέρωσης (awareness) κάθε μέλους μιας ομάδας που χρησιμοποιεί την εφαρμογή, για το ποια εργασία πραγματοποιείται εκείνη τη στιγμή από ένα άλλο μέλος της ίδιας ομάδας. Το ενδιαφέρον εντοπίστηκε σε εφαρμογές που χρησιμοποιούν το Διαδίκτυο (Internet) σαν μέσο μεταφοράς δεδομένων λόγω του ότι είναι ευρέως διαδεδομένο, φθηνό στη χρήση του και έχει τεράστιο πλήθος “φρέσκων” πληροφοριών που είναι εύκολα προσβάσιμες. Αναλύθηκαν τα προβλήματα που ανακύπτουν στο σχεδιασμό και την ανάπτυξη συνεργατικών εφαρμογών και παρουσιάστηκαν θέματα που χρειάζονται περαιτέρω έρευνα. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, η έρευνα επικεντρώθηκε στην ανεύρεση μηχανισμών ενημέρωσης κάθε μέλους μιας ομάδας για τις σελίδες του Παγκόσμιου Ιστού που έχουν διατρέξει τα υπόλοιπα μέλη της ομάδας. Με τον τρόπο αυτό ευνοείται ο καλύτερος συντονισμός και η αποφυγή επαναληπτικών ενεργειών (δηλ. το άνοιγμα της ίδιας σελίδας από πολλά μέλη της ομάδας). Έτσι, η από κοινού εργασία ολοκληρώνεται γρηγορότερα και αναλύεται περισσότερο αφού θα γίνει επεξεργασία περισσοτέρων διαφορετικών σελίδων. Στην κατεύθυνση αυτή, αρχικά υλοποιήθηκε ο Βοηθός Συνεργατικής Αναζήτησης στον Παγκόσμιο Ιστό (Web Collaborative Searching Assistant – WCSA), μια εφαρμογή που έχει σαν κύριο θέμα τη συνεργασία ομάδας δια μέσου της ενημερότητας για τις σελίδες του Παγκόσμιου Ιστού που έχουν επισκεφτεί τα μέλη της ομάδας (Group Member URL Traversal Awareness – GMUTA). Στη συνέχεια, η εφαρμογή δοκιμάστηκε στην πράξη από ομάδες χρηστών για να διερευνηθεί η αποτελεσματικότητά της ως προς τις αρχικές υποθέσεις και η ευχρηστία της. Τα αποτελέσματα της πειραματικής αξιολόγησης έδειξαν ότι η εργασία με τη λειτουργία της GMUTA βοήθησε τους χρήστες να δουν ένα σημαντικά μεγαλύτερο αριθμό διαφορετικών ιστοσελίδων σε σύγκριση με εκείνους που δε διέθεταν τη λειτουργία αυτή (στο ίδιο χρονικό διάστημα). Στο μέλλον, θα πρέπει να βελτιωθεί η ευχρηστία της εφαρμογής στη διεπαφή με το χρήστη και να ξεπεραστεί ο περιορισμός στη λειτουργία της που απαγορεύει δύο ή περισσότερα μέλη της ίδιας ομάδας να δουλεύουν στον ίδιο υπολογιστή

Efficient cooperative searching on the Web: system design and evaluation

The World Wide Web provides a convenient and inexpensive infrastructure for Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. Groupware systems allow distant users to work together in a shared virtual workspace. Awareness of group members’ actions is a basic feature and key functionality for groupware. Many times a group of people work together researching information on the Web about a topic. This type of collaboration can be decomposed into two tasks. First, team members have to access, process and filter by importance the Web pages gathered. Second, they have to synthesize and present them either as a whole in the form of a report, or in an organized way in the form of Web directories. A key issue that strongly affects this particular type of cooperative work is the revisiting of pages and, consequently, the time spent on accessing and processing the same information sources, which may be relevant or not to the topic. We propose group member URL traversal awareness (GMUTA) as significant functionality for Web-based collaboration tools in order to avoid conflicting or repetitive actions by group members. We then present a prototype system we developed, the Web Collaborative Searching Assistant (WCSA), which exploits GMUTA and helps distributed croup members to work more efficiently. Experimental evaluation of the WCSA indicated that the functionality provided overcomes the above-mentioned problem, improves searching efficiency and adds substantial value to the collaboration. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved