Locatrix is again playing host to an enthusiastic internship program in 2011, with Griffith University final-year Engineering student Kelvin Leung becoming a recent addition to the Locatrix team. Read more

Locatrix was delighted to again be asked by the GSMA to support the program by running demonstrations on the booth, and gave hundreds of presentations to delegates of our Developer Portal solution, which provides an immediate application support program for network APIs. Read more

Locatrix is again selected by Telstra for the technology solution behind it’s new innovative Facebook audio service, Blurtl. Read more

Locatrix Communications will be showcasing our solutions at next week’s Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. Read more

Welcome to 2011! I hope you, your family and friends enjoyed a peaceful and happy festive season.

I had planned to bring you a celebratory Position Update this month, filled with positive news about Locatrix Communications, and looking towards the year ahead. However, following the flooding that occurred in South-East Queensland last week, damaging thousands of properties and changing tens of thousands of lives, it just didn’t feel appropriate. Instead, we’ve decided to publish a brief perspective of the disaster and also to provide suggestions for how our friends both in Australia and overseas can contribute to Queensland’s rebuilding effort.

I received dozens of e-mails and text messages asking how we fared in the floods. In summary, we’re fine – though we did have to close our Brisbane office for much of last week, with power outages and road closures impacting the CBD. And while the extended Locatrix family experienced some property damage and extended power outages, I’m relieved to report that everyone is safe and well. I’m also pleased that our primary hosted services facility wasn’t impacted, maintaining 100% uptime for our customers during the flood period. Our office regained power on Sunday afternoon, and we were able to resume normal operations on Monday morning.

There’s many news sites and archives containing photographs and video imagery of the flood and its aftermath, some examples are here and here. But we each saw first-hand evidence of mother nature’s ferocity that will remain with us for the rest of our lives.

How You Can Help

Thousands of Queenslanders were and continue to be severely impacted by the floods. The Australian Red Cross is on the ground in 25 locations across the state managing and assisting with evacuation centres. It is also assisting to manage the Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal, which as of Sunday has raised more than A$85 million to help those most in need. Please consider contributing to these efforts by donating if you can, as every amount will help restore a sense of normalcy to people’s lives.

Back to Normal

Next month, we promise to be back with a much more positive Position Update, including new customer and product announcements, and details of where we will be exhibiting at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Until then, I wish you a happy and safe January.