Stilgherrian » link http://stilgherrian.com All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris. Vive les poissons rouges sauvages! Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:34:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 en © stil@stilgherrian.com () stil@stilgherrian.com() 1440 Live Internet broadcasts from Stilgherrian. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris. stil@stilgherrian.com No no http://stilgherrian.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/sla_144w.jpg Stilgherrian http://stilgherrian.com 144 144 Stupid email disclaimers: don’t use them! http://stilgherrian.com/internet/stupid-email-disclaimers-dont-use-them/ http://stilgherrian.com/internet/stupid-email-disclaimers-dont-use-them/#comments Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:23:30 +0000 Stilgherrian http://stilgherrian.com/?p=1922 Over on the Link mailing list, there’s been a brief discussion on those legal disclaimers people put into email signatures. Brief summary: they’re stupid.

These disclaimers have never been tested in a courtroom, and in some circumstances they could even reduce your legal protection. However, I reckon the key issue for a business is “branding”.

Do you really want your communication with clients, suppliers and associates to look like your relationship will be defined by lawyers? That you routinely send “confidential” email to the wrong people and have to ask for it to be deleted? That you or your staff won’t actually stand behind what you say in an email because it’s not “confirmed in writing”? That your reaction when things go wrong is to sue someone?

Please, empower your staff to speak with authority. Get your act together so you don’t make lame mistakes to begin with. And have the confidence and honesty to stand behind what you say, wherever and however you say it.

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]]> http://stilgherrian.com/internet/stupid-email-disclaimers-dont-use-them/feed/ Covering the Federal Budget for Crikey http://stilgherrian.com/politics/covering-the-federal-budget-for-crikey/ http://stilgherrian.com/politics/covering-the-federal-budget-for-crikey/#comments Tue, 13 May 2008 00:43:27 +0000 Stilgherrian http://stilgherrian.com/?p=1607 Crikey logo

Joy (I think). I’m part of Crikey’s commentary team for Australia’s 2008 Federal Budget to be announced tonight at 7.30pm Sydney time. It’s the first budget for Chairman Rudd’s Labor government, and the first for treasurer Wayne Swan, so it’s bound to interesting.

My role — at least as I understand it, ‘cos I haven’t actually spoken with my editor yet — is to look at it from a geek perspective. That’ll include, I imagine, issues I’ve previously covered for Crikey: Internet censorship, the ABC’s move into Internet TV, social media, the national broadband network…

But what else should I look out for?

When I asked on the Link mailing list, here’s a partial list of the suggestions I got:

  • Functional separation of Telstra into wholesale / retail / pay TV entities.
  • The laptops for schools program — what hardware? networking? training? maintenance?
  • Copyrights & patents, including government-funded enforcement of music copyrights — something the music industry has been lobbying for.
  • Assistance for IT startups, both hardware and software.

I’m also wondering just how forward-looking the budget will be. The brain cells are already firing. What can you add to the list?

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