A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. It was another massive week of writing this week, including a trip to Melbourne.

Podcasts

• Patch Monday episode 98, “Games, crime, porn and Facebook (laws)” A long chat with Peter Black, lecturer in media and internet law at Queensland University of Technology about R10+ computer games, a legislated right to privacy, the spread of “voluntary” internet filtering against the Interpol blacklist, laws relating to cybercrime, and calls to bring Facebook under control. It was recorded at the Hotel Gearin in Katoomba.

Articles

• Politics of NBN pricing: comparing potatoes and pomegranates, Crikey, 25 July 2011.
• Poll-driven knee-jerk reactions: the latest political craze, ABC Drum Opinion, 25 July 2011.
• Cyber Storm III security exercise key findings released, CSO, 25 July 2011.
• The keyboard is dead, Technology Spectator, 26 July 2011.
• Skills shortage risks NBN benefits: NetApp, ZDNet Australia, 27 July 2011.
• Media’s internet cluelessness is unacceptable and they will die, Crikey, 28 July 2011.
• ‘Impossible’ new wireless tech an NBN-killer? Not quite, not yet, Crikey, 29 July 2011.

These next few articles are all from the IBM Pulse 11 event in Melbourne. As the disclosure below points out, I travelled to this event as IBM’s guest.

• IBM pushes Tivoli for cows and guns, ZDNet Australia, 27 July 2011. I’m particularly pleased with this headline, which is a reference to the Dana Lyons song, Cows with Guns.
• IBM tech intercepts packets to control apps, ZDNet Australia, 28 July 2011.
• Telstra GOC saves $1.5m with single sign-on, ZDNet Australia, 28 July 2011.
• IBM halves Woolworths maintenance calls, ZDNet Australia, 28 July 2011.

Media Appearances

• On Wednesday I was on ABC Triple’s national current affairs program Hack talking about LulzSec and Anonymous calling for a boycott of PayPal.
• Also on Wednesday, I was interviewed by ABC Radio’s PM program on the hack of a wholesale internet service provider that was widely reported as a hack of the National Broadband Network.
• On Friday I was interviewed by SBS TV’s World News about the the UK High Court decision to order the country’s largest internet service provider BT to block access to a website that provides links to pirated movies.

Geekery

• Over at my business Prussia.Net we launched the new Australian website for Guild Guitars. It’s built in WordPress.

Corporate Largesse

• On Tuesday I attended a briefing for media and analysts at Bilson’s Restaurant in Sydney where NetApp paid for the food and drink.
• On Wednesday and Thursday I attended IBM’s Pulse 2011 event in Melbourne as IBM’s guest. They paid for airfares, taxis, accommodation and various meals.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

[Photo: Skyscrapers ay Circular Quay, Sydney, photographed from the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 29 July 2011.]

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. Last week was busy enough, but this week was even busier. Something’s gotta give.

Podcasts

• Patch Monday episode 94, “ISP filtering goes ‘voluntary’”. Even though Australia’s controversial mandatory internet filtering program is at least two years away from being implemented, internet service providers will soon start filtering child exploitation material on a voluntary basis. My guests are Peter Black, who teaches internet and media law at the Queensland University of Technology; Network engineer Mark Newton; Lyle Shelton, chief of staff of the Australian Christian Lobby.

Articles

• The only NBN monopoly seems to be on ignorance, for ABC Drum Opinion. My response to opponents of the National Broadband Network claiming that it’ll destroy competition in the telecommunications industry.
• Internet filtering isn’t compulsory, but everyone will volunteer, for Crikey, covering the recent news the “voluntary” of filtering of the internet will soon begin in Australia, covering child exploitation material only.
• Voluntary filtering removes the controversy, for CSO. In this op-ed I explain how the voluntary filtering makes sense technically and politically, if not necessarily for effective child protection.
• Drug spam rules, thanks to WikiPharmacy: Symantec, for CSO. It’s a shame I didn’t notice that my headline is a crash blossom.
• If Facebook killed Myspace will Google+ kill THE social network? Crikey. At rather short notice, when I’d already been up very early to wrote two other articles, I was asked to write a piece covering the news of both Google launching Google+ and Myspace being sold for UD 35 million and how that’d affect Facebook. This is what resulted.
• Interpol blacklist goes live in Canberra, for ZDNet Australia. “Voluntary” internet filtering started on Friday.

Media Appearances

Two radio spots this week, and a guest appearance on someone else’s podcast.

• On Wednesday I spoke with ABC Gold Coast about Google+ and how it’ll affect Facebook. There’s audio at the link.
• On Thursday I was talking about information security for business on Phil Dobbie’s BTalk podcast.
• On Friday I was talking about Myspace, Google+ and Facebook on ABC 774 Melbourne. Again, there’s audio at the link.

Corporate Largesse

None. I am reliably informed that the drought will be broken next week.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

[Photo: A misty dawn at Bunjaree Cottages, 1 July 2011. This is the view from Roselle Cottage, not normally rented to the punters. The much-battered camera in my phone does not do this scene justice.]

Australia’s mandatory internet filter is at least two years away, but Telstra and Optus are only weeks from implementing their “voluntary” equivalents. Where are we up to with this controversial issue?

That’s what I covered in yesterday’s Patch Monday podcast for ZDNet Australia. And as I explained on the weekend, I’m returning to my habit of doing a blog post here for each episode.

For this internet filtering update, I spoke with Peter Black, who teaches internet and media law at the Queensland University of Technology; network engineer Mark Newton; and Lyle Shelton, chief of staff for the Australian Christian Lobby.

You can listen below. But it’s probably better for my stats if you listen at ZDNet Australia or subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe in iTunes.

Since this podcast was recorded, we’ve discovered that Primus isn’t so sure about voluntary filtering any more. They were the third ISP to commit to the plan last year. However the Internet Industry Association (IIA) has said most Australian ISPs will filter via the Interpol list this year.

Previous podcast on this issue covered the meaning of the Refused Classification content category, Senator Conroy’s announcement of the strategy in July 2010, and the apparent fact that parents don’t act on their cybersafety fears.

Please let me know what you think. Comments below. We accept audio comments too. Either Skype to stilgherrian or phone Sydney +61 2 8011 3733.

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. Well, a fortnightly summary today, because I forgot to do a post like this last week. Sigh.

Actually, a lot of this relates to the federal election here in Australia, so you’d better digest it all now before you vote today. Hurry up!

Articles

• The broadband battle: what will they really deliver? for Crikey, explaining the two rather different broadband policies on offer in today’s election from Labor and the Liberal-National Coalition.
• Coalition broadband: a wireless tower in every street for Crikey, quoting some material from the Patch Monday podcast about how wireless broadband works and what it would require to deliver fibre-equivalent services via wireless.

Podcasts

• Patch Monday episode 52, “Media laws dying for digital update” with guest Peter Black from the Queensland University of Technology.
• Patch Monday episode 53, “Understanding the broadband election” with guest Narelle Clark, a network engineering consultant who’s most recent gig was as research director of the CSIRO’s Networking Technologies Laboratory. She’s also vice-president of the Internet Society of Australia and on the board of trustees for the Internet Society globally.
• A Series of Tubes episode 115. Host Richard Chirgwin talks with Anup Changaroth of Ciena Networks about gigabit fibre networks, the product life cycle, and the value of Layer 2 carrier networks, and me about broadband policy.

Media Appearances

• Talking Twitter and the election on Syn Radio.
• Email is dead, what next?, the TechLines webcast in which I’m on-screen for about a minute as I ask a question near the end of the program.

[Photo: Tights are not pants, Enmore Road. Further proof, Ladies, that tights are indeed not pants. Not even if you're also wearing heels.]

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets.

Articles

• Crikey Clarifier: What is cloud computing? for Crikey. They needed a quick overview of the whole concept, given that it blipped up in the Australian Financial Review as the Next Big Thing.

Podcasts

• Patch Monday episode 48 in which I chat about “Conroy’s filter masterstroke”. With an election due to be announced today, Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, has I think succeeded in taking the toxic topic of ISP-level internet filtering off the table by announcing a comprehensive review of the Refused Classification category. I chat through the implications with Peter Black, who teaches internet law at the Queensland University of Technology.
• The interview I recorded last week for A Series of Tubes will be scrapped, as events have moved on. There will be an episode next week, ‘cos we’ve booked a recording session for Tuesday morning.

[Photo: "Blurry at Museum station", Sydney, taken on 14 July 2010.]

The iiNet decision was clearly the biggest IT news story last week, so this week’s Patch Monday podcast includes a comprehensive explanation.

My special guest is Peter Black, who teaches internet law at the Queensland University of Technology. But before you get to listen to him, you can endure my summary of Justice Dennis Cowdroy’s full decision.

You can listen below. But it’s probably better for my stats if you listen at ZDNet Australia or subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe in iTunes.

Please, let me know what you think. We now accept audio comments too. Either Skype to “stilgherrian” or phone Sydney 02 8011 3733.

I’ve been taking time out across the Easter weekend to ponder my future. As part of that, I’ve started collecting other people’s impressions of me.

There’s three key issues. One, I need to simplify the massive range of media projects I’m doing or have dreamed up, and cut them back to what’s actually possible to achieve. Two, I have to find the right balance between income-generating media projects, purely playful or “public service” media projects which don’t earn money, and perhaps still a few geek-related things which do pay well. Three, how to reach this state of nirvana without pissing off clients or screwing up my cashflows.

Tricky, eh?

Anyway, more on that anon.

Thanks to that Internet thing, I’ve found a few curious descriptions of me already. Can you provide any others?

These are all much better than what it says on About Stilgherrian, “a Sydney-based consultant working at the intersection of the Internet, media and information technology”.

• “Perhaps one of Australia’s best tech writers”, Duncan Riley.
• “Known to some as the Rove [McManus] of the Streaming Web”, Matthew Hodgson.
• “The Bert Newton of Aussie social media”, @paininthenet.
• One of “Australia’s most interesting Twitter users”, a “fiercely opinionated blogger and former broadcaster”, news.com.au.
• “Always charming & erudite”, Kate Carruthers, though Peter Black disagreed, claiming “‘offensive or provocative’ is a better fit”.
• “Serial pest”, Verity Pravda.
• “God amongst men”, Laurel Papworth

I don’t consider myself a “journalist”, but have sometimes used “writer”. I’ve never liked the word “blogger”. And none of those things really describe the full gamut of what I do anyway. But then, as I say, maybe the gamut is too wide.

So, what other descriptions of me can you remember seeing? How would you explain me to your friends?

[Photo: Stilgherrian photographed at Kelly's On King by Miss Wired.]

[This article was first published in Crikey on Monday 2 March. Nothing's changed since then.]

The villain gets thrown off the cliff. He bounces off the rocks into the river and his limp, bleeding form is flushed downstream. Hurrah! But just as our heroes down their first celebratory drinks, the door bursts open and the villain is back — soaking wet and angrier than ever…

“The Government’s plan to introduce mandatory internet censorship has effectively been scuttled,” wrote Asher Moses last Thursday when independent Senator Nick Xenophon withdrew support for the Rudd government’s internet “filtering” plans. Opponents of Senator Conroy’s scheme popped open the virtual champagne and started sending congratulatory messages to anti-censorship lobbyists.

But as blogger Kieran Salsone’s headline put it, “Twitterati blow load over Xenophon: Lobbyists still without cigarette”. Despite Senator Xenophon’s announcement, nothing has actually changed and Senator Conroy has yet to comment.

True, any legislation would need support in the Senate from the Coalition or all seven minor party and independent senators. With the Coalition expressing grave reservations and calling the proposal insulting, and with the Greens and now Xenophon opposed too, any legislation would be blocked.

Blocked, that is, unless someone changes their mind.

While the Greens will presumably hold fast, it’s conceivable that Coalition senators could cross the floor, and Senator Xenophon’s position on almost any issue can be rather, um, flexible. Currently his highly-evolved political nostrils detect the whiff of unpopularity emanating from Senator Conroy’s direction — how could anyone miss it? But the wind may shift again. Particularly if the recently-emboldened Xenophon of the Murray is tossed another few hundred mind-changing millions.

Internet filtering could even be introduced without legislation — though that’s a more difficult path.

Dale Clapperton from Electronic Frontiers Australia reckons it’s possible through various ministerial and department actions — but it’d be hard work, requiring the cooperation of the Internet Industry Association in introducing a new Internet Industry Code of Practice. Even then it could be vetoed in the Senate.

As Peter Black, who lectures in internet law at QUT, told Crikey, “It certainly would be difficult — both legally and politically — to do without legislation, but it may be possible if the government can get the cooperation of the IIA (which may well not be forthcoming).”

Difficult or not, PM reported on Friday that “the minister is still looking into whether the filter would require legislation, or could be implemented through another means.”

Despite ever-mounting opposition, Senator Conroy isn’t saying die just yet. Not until after the trial results mid-year, anyway. Assuming he’s still Minister then.

Thanks to Microsoft’s Nick Hodge, you can view videos of Matt Bai’s keynote address, Panel 1 on Blogging, social networks, political movements and the media with Annabel Crabb, Peter Black and Mark Textor, and Panel 2 on Politics 2.0: information technology and the future of political campaigning with Joe Hockey, Senator Andrew Bartlett, Senator Kate Lundy and Antony Green.

Another week, another hole appearing in the Rudd government’s plans for pervasive Internet censorship. I’m in Crikey today with a piece headlined So Conroy’s Internet filter won’t block political speech, eh?

It begins:

“Freedom of speech is fundamentally important in a democratic society and there has never been any suggestion that the Australian Government would seek to block political content,” intoned Senator Stephen Conroy on Tuesday.

Yet the very next day, ACMA added a page from what’s arguably a political website to its secret blacklist of Internet nasties.

The page is part of an anti-abortion website which claims to include “everything schools, government, and abortion clinics are afraid to tell or show you”. Yes, photos of dismembered fetuses designed to scare women out of having an abortion. Before you click through, be warned: it is confronting. Here’s the blacklisted page.

The piece goes on to argue that while you may or may not agree with the political stance or tactics of the anti-abortionists, they’re within their rights to express their political views, and express them strongly. The article isn’t behind the paywall, so read on…

The article also quotes Peter Black, who lectures in Internet law at QUT and blogs at Freedom to Differ. The full text of his commentary is over the jump.

Peter writes:

The ACMA classifying this anti-abortion website as prohibited content or potential prohibited content highlights several serious flaws inherent in the policy to filter the internet.

First, it is indicative of the difficulty associated with defining “political speech”. Legal scholars, judges and philosophers have wrestled with the boundaries of political speech for centuries, from John Milton to Alexander Meikeljohn, and it ludicrous to suggest that the ACMA or the Government is magically imbued with the ability to determine which websites have an element of political content and which do not. And nor should that be the role of the ACMA or the Government. Citizens in a liberal democracy should be lawfully able to inform themselves on matters that are of political interest of them, and not have the debate framed or restricted by Government classification.

Second, it demonstrates the inflexibility of the classification standards. It is probable that this website does indeed constitute prohibited content or potential prohibited content under the Broadcasting Services Act, but that is only because the definitions in the Act inevitably treat all content in the same way; the same standard applies to political and non-political content.

Third, it is a good example of the dangers inherent in prior restraint. Once a website like this gets added to the blacklist is becomes impossible for Australian citizens to determine for themselves whether this website should be banned or not. The proposed filter means that the public cannot review the decisions made by the ACMA or the Government. This lack of accountability should be very troubling to anyone living in a liberal democracy.

Ultimately the fate of this website is an illustrative example of the dangers inherent in any Government censorship scheme. Issues of political speech, classification and accountability are without doubt both complex and important, and any notion that they can be adequately addressed and balanced by a Government regulator engaging in prior restraint is somewhere between being unbelievably naive and downright dangerous.

I don’t agree with the anti-abortionists. I think their tactics are unnecessarily confrontationist and have the potential to cause psychological harm to vulnerable young women. Nevertheless, they’re entitled to express their political views.

Australian is (supposedly) a Western liberal democracy. We fought and won World War II to defend our freedoms. I may not like my political opponents’ ideas, but suppressing their views, rather than debating and defeating them, is worse. Far worse.

There’s so many links here that for the blog version I’ll put them all “below the fold”. Happy reading!

• The Recently Deflowered Girl | found_objects: Reproduction of a sweetly funny book from 1965 featuring illustrations by one of my favourite cartoonists, Edward Gorey.
• The “misunderestimated” president? | BBC News: A collection of George W Bush’s “best” mis-speaks.
• Ada Lovelace Day | PledgeBank: On 24 March, celebrate and promote women in technology by publishing an item about an unsung heroine. I’ll be doing something.
• People Who Deserve It: As the tagline says, “socially responsible reasons to punch someone in the face.”
• The internet's undersea world: A map of all the sub-ocean data cables, showing where the recent breaks in the Mediterranean caused problems — and how few links Australia really has.
• All’s fair in battle of ideas | theage.com.au: A nice analysis of the issues surrounding the Quadrant hoax.
• Tools for News: “Don’t be a tool. Use one.” Show this site to your legacy journalists. Then sack them.
• Weather pages, internet banking banned by Queensland employers | Herald Sun: Queensland government employees are finding that over-zealous Internet filters are hampering their ability to do their jobs, blocking email which includes medical terminology an even classifying the weather forecast as “entertainment”.
• Australia’s 20 Worst Cases of Censorship and Moral Outrage in 2008 | Somebody Think Of The Children: Again, what it says.
• 30 Excellent WordPress Video Tutorials | Six Revisions: What it says.
• Do Not Want: Bindi Irwin Doll | The Inquisitr: Poor 10yo Bindi Irwin is being turned into a marketing platform. Yes, dolls. I find this truly disgusting. Maybe we can release her back into the wild soon?
• Teens who pledge virginity just as likely to have sex | theage.com.au: Teens have just as much sex whether they’ve entered into an “abstinence pledge” or not. But if thy haven’t been taught about contraception, they don’t use it. Gosh.
• Business Survival needs good IT People | Wrapt in Web: In the current economic crisis, companies who don’t have the strategic stuff like IT and social media sorted out will be the ones which die, argues Alistair Nicholson.
• US consumer confidence at all-time low | Business Day: They’ve been keeping records of consumer confidence in the US since 1967, and this is the lowest they’ve ever been.
• Australia, the once-and-future wireless king? | CNN Money: A Fortune Tech Daily puff piece on Telstra’s Next G wireless broadband network. Yes, Next G is a world leader, but reading this you’d never know that anyone's ever said a bad word about the company.
• Can The Internet Save The World? | newmatilda.com: “The global economy might be melting faster than Greenland but not all the news is grim. Technological advances mean that democracy and citizen journalism are surging, writes Barry Saunders in a review of the year online.”
• Model for the 21st century newsroom pt.6: new journalists for new information flows | Online Journalism Blog: An interesting model for how a future newsroom might be structured, and the roles for journalists.
• Modbook | Axiotron: Hanging out for a Tabletmac? Can haz one now, with this clever MacBook Pro conversion service.
• Best of the web in 2008 | Peter Black’s Freedom to Differ: The first post in Peter Black’s end-of-year wrap, for some reason he’s listed my website as one of the 5 best for 2008. Mad fool. He does link to some other fascinating stuff though.

The forum is at the UNSW Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre from 10am Sydney time on Thursday 27 November, through to 2.30pm, and there’s a fantastic array of speakers.

There’s three sessions: technical and social/legal to set the bounds of what’s actually possible, and then one focussing on how we actually protect the interests of children given this background — both preventing children seeing “inappropriate material” and stamping out child pornography.

The CoveritLive live blog tool should appear immediately below this paragraph — at least if you’re looking at this in a compatible web browser.

I’ll be taking comments and questions during the forum, but do feel free to add them here now, or after the sessions are over.

Thanks to Microsoft’s Nick Hodge, you can view videos of Matt Bai’s keynote address, Panel 1 on Blogging, social networks, political movements and the media with Annabel Crabb, Peter Black and Mark Textor, and Panel 2 on Politics 2.0: information technology and the future of political campaigning with Joe Hockey, Senator Andrew Bartlett, Senator Kate Lundy and Antony Green.

You can also trawl back through the Twitter stream using Summize.com. There’s a lot of material, though, so unless you’re a complete political junkie and want to read through it while listening to the discussions you may want to wait for my essay.

[Disclosure: I was in Canberra as a guest of Microsoft.]

As previously warned, I’m in Canberra for tomorrow’s Politics & Technology Forum as a guest of that little husband-and-wife firm called Microsoft.

I’ve repeated the programme below, but right now my head is spinning with ideas. PubCamp Sydney was bad enough, what with conversations coming left, right and centre. And I watched the Twitter stream from Melbourne’s event yesterday — and I’m still processing the thoughts.

But this…!

My Twitter stream will use the hashtag #poltech and you’ll be able to track everything at Summize.com.

Meanwhile, tonight I’ll be reading, thinking and pondering over a quiet drink courtesy of that minibar over there [points]. If I have any amazing insights I’ll let you know.

I may even so an impromptu Stilgherrian Live Alpha later this evening. Watch Twitter for the announcement.

Politics & Technology Forum Programme

Keynote: Matt Bai, political writer for the New York Times magazine.

Panel 1: “Blogging, social networks, political movements and the media”, with Brett Solomon from GetUp!; Annabel Crabb from the Sydney Morning Herald; Peter Black from QUT; spin doctor Mark Textor of Crosby Textor, who ran the Howard government’s failed re-election campaign; and the editor of Crikey Jonathan Green.

Panel 2: “Politics 2.0: information technology and the future of political campaigning”, with Joe Hockey, the Liberal member for North Sydney; Senator Andrew Bartlett of the Australian Democrats; Labor Senator Kate Lundy (ACT); and election analyst extraordinaire Antony Green.

[P.S. Is Matt Bai the person to whom someone first said "kthxbai"?]