Robyn's Service Seeker mission

Robyn Karlsen is one of the longest serving members of the Infoxchange team. She manages Service Seeker, Australia's most extensive electronic directory of community support services.

Service Seeker provides access to almost 340,000 health, welfare and community services – from family and youth support to disability services, drug and alcohol counselling, education, recreation, health services and community groups.

Robyn and the Service Seeker team constantly update this information so it can be used by the public and people working in the community sector.

Robyn has been at Infoxchange since 1990. She was a university student studying community development when she met Infoxchange founder Andrew Mahar, who was a guest lecturer.

“He inspired us all to believe that we could change the world,” she recalls.

Robyn got to know Andrew from street marches to lobby for the rights of the homeless and joined him to work on a Housing Bulletin Board Network as part of a student placement.

The housing network led to the establishment of Infoxchange, a not-for profit organisation dedicated to using technology for social justice.

Robyn has been at Infoxchange from the start and says its mission of “technology for social justice” has always sat well with her. 

“Funding was always a big challenge though and we had to convince people that technology had a place in the community sector,” she says.

When Robyn started the Service Seeker health and welfare directory had 480 records. It now it has over 340,000 records. 

Robyn says she gets great satisfaction from looking at the Service Seeker usage statistics and seeing that people are using the products. “Most people here at Infoxchange are passionate about their job and about what we create,” she says. 

“There are lots of great ideas and energy. I love my job.

“People usually work in the not-for-profit sector because they believe in a cause and for me that makes my job more rewarding.”

Visit Service Seeker to find a service or add your service or community group