"A liar." "Sneering, sarcastic, patronising, grudge-bearing." "The most incompetent excuse for a communications minister in living memory."
Not the words of disgrunted punters in the pub, but the opinion of leading IT industry executives and commentators about Australia's communications minister, Stephen Conroy.
Relations between the ICT industry and the minister have been dire for a long time. Now the ill sentiment is escalating at such a rate that several commentators are wondering if it's time for Sentator Conroy to step down.
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Monday, May 31, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
The Disclosure Dilemma
Yet another Facebook glitch, a new Twitter hack, and online privacy is again making headlines.
People increasingly want to share personal information with friends, but keeping this data private and secure is proving difficult. Managing intricate privacy controls on sites such as Facebook is one issue. But even without technical threats, there's still the problem that any person who can access your data or profile or tweets can leak them to an unauthorised third party. Can you really trust your "friends"?
Even deleting your data is problematic. For a start, a lot of social networking material gets cached all over Google and shows up high in search results. Facebook does have a mechanism for deleting accounts but it isn't immediate. An account stays in "deactivate mode" for two weeks and only then will it be deleted. Experts even suggest putting safe, fake data in your profile before you delete it, in case it does get retained - beyond your knowledge and control - on a remote server somewhere.
Read more here
People increasingly want to share personal information with friends, but keeping this data private and secure is proving difficult. Managing intricate privacy controls on sites such as Facebook is one issue. But even without technical threats, there's still the problem that any person who can access your data or profile or tweets can leak them to an unauthorised third party. Can you really trust your "friends"?
Even deleting your data is problematic. For a start, a lot of social networking material gets cached all over Google and shows up high in search results. Facebook does have a mechanism for deleting accounts but it isn't immediate. An account stays in "deactivate mode" for two weeks and only then will it be deleted. Experts even suggest putting safe, fake data in your profile before you delete it, in case it does get retained - beyond your knowledge and control - on a remote server somewhere.
Read more here
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Playing Games
This Friday is shaping up to be D-Day for Australia's gamers.
The attorney-generals of the six states will meet to decide whether adults will be finally allowed to play videogames considered unsuitable for younger teenagers.
The current problem is that Australia doesn't have an R18+ rating for video games. This means that any game ruled not suitable for fifteen-year-olds or under is banned from sale. Unlike films, magazines, books and other types of media: video games have never had an adult rating available.
Read more here
The attorney-generals of the six states will meet to decide whether adults will be finally allowed to play videogames considered unsuitable for younger teenagers.
The current problem is that Australia doesn't have an R18+ rating for video games. This means that any game ruled not suitable for fifteen-year-olds or under is banned from sale. Unlike films, magazines, books and other types of media: video games have never had an adult rating available.
Read more here
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Filter: the Future
So we know that the internet filter is a wrong and terrible idea, but the government is going to do it anyway. What might happen once the Great Firewall of Australia goes up?
1. Daily leakage of the blacklist
Even before the filter arrived, ACMA's secret blacklist was leaked - multiple times - to Wikileaks. Expect it to go up on a daily basis. The people with access to it will also be those most likely to (a) oppose censorship (b) be able to get and leak the list and (c) know how to cover their tracks securely when doing so.
2. The Big Ban campaign
Anti-censorship groups are already lining up a lig list of technically "prohibited" sites to bombard ACMA with. The idea is that the more numerous and mainstream the sites that get banned (for example the Amazon listing to euthanasia book The Peaceful Pill), the more public opposition to the filter will grow, and the more workable it will become.
Find out more likely reactions here
1. Daily leakage of the blacklist
Even before the filter arrived, ACMA's secret blacklist was leaked - multiple times - to Wikileaks. Expect it to go up on a daily basis. The people with access to it will also be those most likely to (a) oppose censorship (b) be able to get and leak the list and (c) know how to cover their tracks securely when doing so.
2. The Big Ban campaign
Anti-censorship groups are already lining up a lig list of technically "prohibited" sites to bombard ACMA with. The idea is that the more numerous and mainstream the sites that get banned (for example the Amazon listing to euthanasia book The Peaceful Pill), the more public opposition to the filter will grow, and the more workable it will become.
Find out more likely reactions here
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Bebo: Bye bye or buyer?
News that AOL plans to shut or sell struggling social network Bebo will surprise no one. It's more of a surprise that so many social networks still strive on in the face of huge market dominance by a few players. Even once-dominant MySpace is undergoing yet another revamp to try and close the widening gap with front-runner Facebook.
But without the huge resources that News Corp-owned MySpace enjoys, the only option for many smaller networks will be to find a specific niche, to evolve into a specialised service, or to merge.
Read more here
But without the huge resources that News Corp-owned MySpace enjoys, the only option for many smaller networks will be to find a specific niche, to evolve into a specialised service, or to merge.
Read more here
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The curse of late adopters
Some years ago there was a UK comedy sketch featuring a middle-aged father who enters the room as his children are watching Top of the Pops. "Hey what's this? It's got a good beat!" he says, and begins a dancing display akin to a moonwalking walrus.
And this is exactly what we see with the Internet. With every single advance, every single innovation, every single new trend. While most people quietly start using these services: communicating with friends, sharing videos, starting interest groups, there is a whole host of antiquated walruses who fling themselves loudly and obnoxiously at every new technology in some misguided attempt to be "down with the kidz".
Read more here
And this is exactly what we see with the Internet. With every single advance, every single innovation, every single new trend. While most people quietly start using these services: communicating with friends, sharing videos, starting interest groups, there is a whole host of antiquated walruses who fling themselves loudly and obnoxiously at every new technology in some misguided attempt to be "down with the kidz".
Read more here
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
iPhone, iHype
Amongst all the frenzied speculation and rumour-mongering over Apple's predicted new tablet computer, there's been little comment on one key issue. Will the device function as a standalone computer or will it remain essentially a semi-parasitic pod?
Read more here
Read more here
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