James Hornitzky

My work is at the intersection of systems and doing good. Ever since I was little I've loved games; Stratego, Talisman, Checkers, Chess, and almost every video game I've played. I've also got an underlying belief in trying to help others and to build a better society. The intersection of these is creating systems that change the world for everyone, so that we can create a better world for following generations.

Here's a collection of my own self-directed projects. Most are experiments aimed at an intersection of a new technology and a new use case; an example of small-scale quick innovation. I'm a believer in open source and have benefited greatly from the work of others, so I aim to open source the majority of my projects.

Taking the approach of the entire problem space as a complex system (i.e. the business model, the users, the technology, and the broader operating environment), I've worked on a few projects that have had significant real world impact:

• Headstart — A platform that helps tens of thousands of people find the free mental health services they need, every month.
• Reground Impact Reporting — Impact tracker and report system built for Reground's circular economy clients. Delivers personalised impact reports to thousands of Reground's customers every month, which they use to track their progress to sustainability goals.
• G-MEDSS — A questionnaire and drug burden index score calculator used in clinical trials examining pharmacists' approach to prescription and patient care. First trialled in Australia, then modified and deployed in Canada.
• Musica Viva in Schools — A custom built learning platform for teachers and school students. Used in thousands of schools across Australia to help primary and secondary students learn music.
• System 7 and Childcare Centre Desktop — Two related platforms used by thousands of childcare centres around Australia. Significantly reduces the strain of administration on childcare centre staff.

The term system is a broad one. Just like video games, which come with varying goals and modes of gameplay, so too are there many different systems we encounter in life. Businesses in particular are complex systems that have people, processes and technologies with various interactions that lead to unpredictable, dynamic outcomes. This view was largely formed through two experiences:

• Launching, growing, merging and exiting my own digital agency. Being in business teaches you a lot of lessons through trial and error, particularly if you have not a lot of experience at the start. The entire journey really helped me to see not just the technology as a system, but the way you manage sales, clients, finances, performance reviews etc as overlapping systems. Understanding the key elements of each domain and how they link together or affect other parts is fascinating, very dynamic and quite unpredictable.
• Building on this idea, I worked with a client on a system that automatically assigns and delegates tasks based on a graph-based representation of the organisation and its priorities. I think this was an ingenious system as it forced business leaders to strongly define their goals and priorities, and then would ensure that all tasks rolled up to deliver on those priorities. If the organisation needed to change priorities, the system would automatically recalculate the weights of the tasks and reassign them appropriately. As you can imagine, the interface design was also a very interesting puzzle and one I really enjoyed working on.