Ontology

Book Club: [White Nights](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1772910.White_Nights) by Fyodor Dostoevsky Step into the quiet glow of sleepless streets and fleeting connection in White Nights, Dostoevsky’s tender, introspective tale of longing and imagination. Set over four luminous nights in St. Petersburg, the novella follows a solitary dreamer whose carefully constructed inner world is disrupted when he meets Nastenka, a young woman caught between hope and heartbreak. As their nocturnal conversations unfold, White Nights explores the fragile beauty of human connection—how intimacy can bloom suddenly, how love can be imagined as much as it is lived, and how solitude can both protect and imprison us. Dostoevsky captures the ache of yearning with remarkable sensitivity, tracing the line between fantasy and reality, courage and retreat. Quiet yet emotionally resonant, White Nights is a meditation on loneliness, romantic idealism, and the moments—brief but transformative—that leave an indelible mark on our inner lives. It asks what it means to truly see another person, even if only for a night. Discussion Points: How does the dreamer’s inner world shape his understanding of love and connection? In what ways do the “white nights” function as a metaphor for emotional intensity, impermanence, or illusion? How does Dostoevsky portray loneliness—as a refuge, a wound, or both? What role does honesty (or the lack of it) play in the relationship between the dreamer and Nastenka? Is White Nights ultimately a story of heartbreak, growth, or quiet hope—and why?

Come along and join in a relaxed evening of dev and tech talk, drinks and dinner.

Thank you for the support at our last event featuring a great pair of speakers, with many turning up to see Will Law visiting our shores. We have a plan to run a more regular meetup over the next year at Kick Streaming HQ in Easygo with several events being mapped out across 2026. Our talks in the February meetup feature three leaders in Video Technology Industry Talks tonight are from two leaders in Video Technology Industry **[Brad Hughes (US) - Senior Engineering Manager @ Amazon IVS](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradhughes/)** *Enhanced RTMP and HLS Present: Synchronized Vertical and Horizontal Video* **[Alan Rogers - Staff Software Engineer in Video @ Canva](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanjrogers/)** *Video Sync: The Art of Ignoring Messages* **[Brenton Ough - CEO & Co-Founder @ Touchstream](https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentonough/)** *An update on CMSD-MQA- featured in Denver Mile-High Video conference* Easygo – 271 Collins Street Melbourne Tuesday 24 February, 6:00–8:00pm RSVP is essential for Easygo building access **Sponsors** Our thanks to **Easygo** for hosting and sponsoring pizza + drinks at the venue. Melbourne Video Technology is a volunteer group, as part of many groups independently run around the world. Tonight’s hosts will be: Jeremy Brown, Nick MacPherson and James Broberg

Two thirty-minute presentations followed by Beer & Pizza Speakers: ## From Bits to Collisions: Breaking and Defending Railway OT This session introduces **OT-Security-Lab**, a hands-on railway SCADA/PLC security lab that shows how cyber attacks can create real physical impacts. By simulating safety logic, control registers, and legacy protocols like Modbus TCP, the lab demonstrates how attackers can manipulate OT systems without exploits or malware. It also highlights how Blue Teams can detect these behaviors, helping bridge the gap between IT security and real-world OT environments. Bio: Christian Azuero is a cybersecurity specialist and Technical System Consultant at BMM Testlabs with over five years of experience across firewall auditing, threat detection, DFIR, and regulatory compliance. He designs hands-on Blue-Team and CTF learning environments, including the Hacker Escape Room platform used by students and cybersecurity communities across Australia. Christian holds an MSc in Network & Security from Monash University and multiple industry certifications, and is passionate about making cybersecurity and OT education accessible, practical, and fun.

This weeks topic: Mindsight - Seeing without Eyes **Event Info:** The purpose of this gathering is to get together as an inclusive Spiritual Playgroup without any set agenda. We will talk and discuss spiritual topics as well as exchange knowledge, skills, abilities, gifts and healing modalities to help each other unlock our highest potential. The evening is broken up into parts, starting with a group meditation, followed by an activity, then a tea break, finishing with group discussion Every level of experience and background is welcomed, whether you are just starting out with spirituality and want to explore more, or you are a veteran and want to share your wisdom with others. If you are new and don't know anyone, please come talk to me, I can introduce you to regulars. **Topics can include:** Spirituality, esotericism, metaphysics, philosophy, psychic abilities/gifts/intuition, mediumship, working with energy, working with spiritual guides/beings, healing/energy healing, health, wellbeing, mysticism, theosophy, shamanism, starseeds and many others. Whatever comes up during our gatherings, everyone is encouraged to suggest topics and participate. You are welcome to share any spiritual/healing/metaphysical knowledge, experiences, talents that you have with the group or simply enjoy the company of like-minded people & learn from each other through these sessions. **This group is for you if:** -You want to explore spirituality in a fun, laid back setting. -You are looking to unlock deeper aspects of yourself. -You are looking to unlock your intuition/gifts. -You are looking for your calling/purpose/how to be of service. -You want to reach a higher level of self-awareness and apply it to your everyday life. -You are looking to meet and make friends with other like-minded people. -You want to help anchor the spiritual energies. -You enjoy spiritual discussions. -You want to help others. This group is open and accepting of everyone looking to learn or help others, any disrespect will not be tolerated and you will be asked to leave. Keep in mind that this group is not religion based. **What to bring:** -A bottle of water -Optionally feel free to bring a snack but we do ask that you keep the place clean. -$5 contribution which helps cover the cost of the facility **Amenities provided:** -Chairs -Kitchen for tea/coffee/snacks -Toilets **Location:** Level 1/234 Flinders Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000 **Getting there:** It is a short 3 minute walk from Flinders Street Station, with nearby tram stops as well. There is a parking lot on Flinders Lane as well if you are coming by car, which is 20$ flat rate for the night if you book online (otherwise it is 25$). **Important note:** The event has a capped attendance, and as such we ask that you only RSVP as attending if you know you are able to make it. If you can no longer attend, please change your RSVP to not attending, to allow others to attend. This meetup is also posted on another meetup group, so numbers here do not reflect complete attendance. Kind Regards, Emile and Gunnel Facilitators / your hosts: Gunnel Watkins is a board member of The Melbourne Theosophical Society, she has a background in Transpersonal Art Therapy and is a practicing artist. Emile has been hosting this group via Meetup Group [https://www.meetup.com/melbourne-spirituality-personal-growth-meditation-meetup/events/260755046/](https://www.meetup.com/melbourne-spirituality-personal-growth-meditation-meetup/events/260755046/)

Andrew Herd is facilitator of the KM Landscape, a volunteer effort to capture the broad vocabulary of KM and related terms and reduce the confusion around shared concepts around the world in our discipline. As part of this work, some amazing and diverse thinking has been shared and out of that Andrew started to realise that a lot of knowledge concepts can be boiled down to two distinct areas: transactional and relational. He started with the DIKW pyramid with Data and Information being transactional and Knowledge and Wisdom being Relational but he has take the concept far beyond there and this month we are kicking off the year getting our heads around why automating the transaction world with AI might leave some pretty big gaps to fill and what we are KM professionals can do about it. This event is hybrid with Andrew joining online from Belgium. Thanks again to MinterEllison, who host the amazing space we meet in each month. **Session Details:** * **Date & Time:** 6:00pm AEDST, Fourth Wednesday of each month * **Format:** Virtual session on Teams * **Agenda:** * 6-6:30 pm networking * 6:30-7:45pm exploration of the topic * 7:45-8pm wrap up * 8pm dinner for those interested. KMLF has run monthly, almost uninterrupted since 1998, serving the Victorian Knowledge Management community with close ties to Change Mgt, Records Mgt, Information Governance and Academic communities.

The discussion topic for this meetup will be identity and whether or not history is a necessary condition for consciousness as Dretske proposed. James

**Important notice - Please use this link to register for the meetup** **https://luma.com/w01uummz** **Site Reliability Engineers vs Platform Engineers: Who Owns What?** Join us for a dynamic panel discussion exploring the evolving landscape of infrastructure and operations roles in modern tech organizations. As companies scale and technology stacks grow more complex, the lines between Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and Platform Engineering can blur, overlap, or diverge entirely depending on organisational needs. This session brings together practitioners from both disciplines to unpack the core responsibilities, shared territories, and distinct ownership areas of each role. But here's where it gets interesting: ownership boundaries vary dramatically across organizations. At some companies, SREs build the platform. At others, Platform Engineers handle production reliability. Many teams share responsibilities for Kubernetes, observability tools, infrastructure as code, and deployment automation. Company size, maturity, culture, and technical stack all influence how these roles are defined and what each team owns. Our panelists will discuss real-world examples of how their organizations have drawn these boundaries, where collaboration is essential, where conflicts arise, and how to think about structuring these teams for success in your own context. Whether you're an SRE, Platform Engineer, engineering leader, or simply curious about these evolving disciplines, you'll leave with clarity on the distinctions, insights on common patterns, and practical perspectives on making these roles work together effectively.

Welcome to 2026!! We need a second speaker please - if you are doing anything cool let us know Melbourne(at)serverless.org.au and we can get you on the agenda! Even for a future month if you are not quite ready yet. THANKS TO MANTEL GROUP for sponsoring the location & refreshments again! Thanks also to PROGRAMMABLE - we have tickets to give away for people who attend the meetup this month! Please get in touch ASAP if you would like to talk at a future event, send us an email at Melbourne(at)serverless.org.au for more info! First time speakers are more than welcome and we can provide you assistance if you need with your presentation beforehand. Please reach out Melbourne(at)serverless.org.au. It can be a regular talk, lightning talk, demo, workshop, whatever is your thing our community will love it - as long as it is serverless related! Venue: MANTEL GROUP, Level 2, 452 Flinders St. Melbourne Look for the signs! Agenda 5:30 PM - Doors Open! 6:00 PM - Welcome from the organizers / housekeeping 6:05 PM - **"Build vs Buy - how LLMs are shifting the scales" - By Liam Johnston, Lead Consultant, V2 AI** This talk examines how LLMs are fundamentally changing the build vs buy calculus. Through a real project - a crossword generator using AI for clues and algorithms for word-fitting across 300k words - we'll explore why projects that were impossible side quests two years ago are now weekend builds. 6:35 PM - Pizza & Networking 7:00 PM - **"Middle age serverless – Step Function maturation" by Warwick Wilson from the Department of Transport and Planning.** Warwick will share some updates on his AWS Step Functions in spatial data distribution systems which he presented a couple of years back. It looks very interesting! 7:30 PM - Networking and finish the Pizza! 8:00 PM - Door Close, see you next time!

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 You will need to scan your ID at the door to get a visitor badge. **Abstract** *Spec-Driven Development with GitHub Spec-Kit: From Intent to Implementation* Spec-driven development flips the traditional workflow on its head: instead of code being the source of truth, the specification becomes the backbone of design, collaboration, and delivery. In this session, we’ll explore how GitHub Spec-Kit enables teams to treat specifications as first-class artifacts—living documents that drive architecture, implementation, and verification. You’ll learn how Spec-Kit helps teams clearly express intent using structured, version-controlled specs that live alongside code. We’ll walk through a practical workflow that starts with defining system behavior and constraints, then progressively refines those specs into testable, automatable outcomes. Along the way, we’ll show how specs can reduce ambiguity, improve cross-functional collaboration, and make design decisions explicit before a single line of production code is written. This talk will cover: --What spec-driven development is (and what it isn’t) --How GitHub Spec-Kit fits into modern developer workflows --Using specs to align product, engineering, and AI-assisted development --Real-world examples of turning specs into implementations with confidence Whether you’re building greenfield systems, integrating AI into your stack, or trying to reduce costly rework, spec-driven development offers a scalable way to move faster without sacrificing clarity. Attendees will leave with concrete patterns and a clear mental model for adopting GitHub Spec-Kit in their own projects. **YouTube Link** TBA

**Caller: Frank Buschelmann** **Band: The Rosenthorns** **Big Scioty Contra Dance** **temporarily returning to our long ago location for Jan-March - First Congregational Church, 444 E. Broad St., Columbus 43215** WHAT IS CONTRA DANCING? Picture the Grand Ball scenes like you’ve seen in period films such as “Pride and Prejudice”, where the dancers are lined up in long lines, across from each other. That’s English Country Dancing, the predecessor of contra dancing. Now, add moves like “swing your partner” and “do-si-do,” like you’ve seen in square dancing. Set it to fabulous, high energy, live music with fiddles, guitars, percussion and more, alá “Riverdance.” Finally, set the whole scene down in the middle of Woodstock, with a hip, groovy atmosphere, a bit of tie-dye, and hints of counter-culture attitude. THAT’s Contra Dancing! Wear cool and comfortable clothes (you will get warm) and clean shoes that won't mark up our nice wood floor. Be sure to come for the beginner's lesson from 7:30 - 8:00, followed by dancing 8:00 - 10:30. All dances are taught; we will help you learn! Beginners always welcome, no need to bring a partner. Cost is $10.00 adults, $5.00 ages 12-26. Under 12 free. Free parking in church lot. For more information contact me or check out our website: [www.bigscioty.com](http://www.bigscioty.com/) Please bring your own refillable water bottle. Snacks to share are always welcome!

Join the Columbus AI community for our quarterly gathering — a casual, community-focused evening where everyone has a chance to share, learn, and connect. These open mic–style events give anyone in the community up to **5 minutes** to present a project, share a tool, pose a question, or offer a perspective on the evolving AI space. No slides required — just a welcoming space to exchange ideas and keep the local AI conversation moving. If you’d like to take the stage, message **Chris (the organizer)** with a **title and short description** of what you’d like to share. Whether you’re deep in the field or just getting curious, come connect with others building and exploring AI in Columbus. Sponsored by [Transform Labs](https://www.transformlabs.com/services)

It’s time to take control of your mental health. How do you get rid of stress, anxiety and uncertainty? These emotions are buried deep in your reactive mind. Find out what the reactive mind is, and in the process find yourself. Have you ever suffered from a traumatic experience, a deep loss or been through a painful breakup? Has your ability to communicate suffered as a result? And after that, even though you "moved on" did you find that things were never quite the same? Have you ever looked at childhood photos, or reminisced your early life and wondered where that happiness and spark went? Are your emotions out of your own control? Have you ever felt, even if you aren’t aware of it, that possibly you are getting in your own way of your happiness and success? How does this affect your self-confidence? Find out what is at the root of all stress, anxiety, depression and self-doubt. Find out how and why you hold yourself back from achieving your goals and having the life you have dreamed of. As soon as you learn what is at the root of these unwanted conditions, you’ll see it is something you can DO something about. You will not be labeled or categorized at this MeetUp.

This meeting will be an open discussion about the book "an Immense World" by Ed Yong

Feeling down? Sometimes depressed? Can't focus? Negativity & stress? Recent losses? Creativity in career and personal life hindered by mental blocks? Sometimes we never fully recover from traumatic experiences. Whether it was yesterday, last week or a year ago, traumatic experiences - a loss of a loved one, losing a job, a breakup - can leave you scarred. You talk about it and feel a little better, but it never goes away. After you hang up the phone, it's still there; the sadness, the cloud, the over-thinking, the worry, the guilt. You try to focus, but you're blocked. You try to look forward into new experiences, new relationships but a cloud is hanging over you, casting a shadow on what you once considered a bright, cheerful future. What happened to your courage? Your strength of character? You're 'why not' attitude? Whoever said 'time heals' must have had a special time machine, because after weeks, months, years, you're wondering - when exactly does that kick in? Sometimes it seems like drinking or drugs are the way to go. But they wear off, and now the problem is still there with added side effects from the drugs. At this free local Meetup event we will talk about: * What causes grief, anxiety and depression to become chronic. * Is it possible to regain your joy and happiness even after traumatic experiences? * How to break away from negativity and focus on the future * What are the steps to take to get control of your mind and your emotions? Learn about a safe, gentle, do-it-yourself counseling that can be done in the comfort of your own home. Let's explore safe, effective solutions for healing from traumatic experiences. Be sure to click on the red "Attend" button below to come to the event. We look forward to seeing you there. This group is sponsored by the Dianetics & Scientology Life Improvement Center.

We will show a variety of methods for building agents that run in Microsoft Foundry. This covers the different types of agents: Prompt, Multi, and Hosted, as well as the development lifecycle using evals and traces.