“That ‘This is Not Art’ thing this weekend, it’s like a fucking freak show walking past,” says the old guy in the yellow-tiled front bar of The Clarendon Hotel.
Continue reading “Letter from Newcastle”Letter from Newcastle
Am I John Birmingham’s inappropriate Muse?
I seem to have some really odd Special Powers. I can walk into a strange pub, buy the last few tickets for the meat raffle, and win — much to the chagrin of the regulars. I can also create inappropriate mental images which then persist.
Like “masturbating to tentacle pr0n”.
Yesterday, I made an offhand comment on Twitter to writer John Birmingham (pictured), who had the misfortune of having to watch the Hey Hey It’s Saturday reunion special last night.
This morning, his column Hey, it wasn’t that bad, quotes me by name.
It is, as I say, a Special Power.
“Do Journos Do it Better?”
The reprobates in the photo are me and my fellow panellists at forthcoming the Media140 Sydney conference, where we’ve been given the topic “Do Journos Do it Better? Journalists in SocMedia Communities.” Look out, folks!
From left to right, that’s freelance journalist, columnist and blogger Mia Freedman; new media consultant and recovering journalist Bronwen Clune; Valerio Veo, who heads up online news and current affairs at SBS; social media consultant Laurel Papworth; and me.
Now I’m hoping the discussion doesn’t degenerate back into those tedious bloggers versus journalists arguments from last year. Certainly by year’s end they seemed to have faded. And we do seem to have a more switched-on panel. But we’ll see.
Actually the full conference program looks good, with everyone from ABC managing director Mark Scott and Crikey editor Jonathan Green to… oh, look for yourself.
Media140 Sydney is on 5 and 6 November 2009 at the ABC’s Eugene Goossens’ Hall in Ultimo. Early-bird bookings at $145 close today have been extended to 5 October.
Talking Government 2.0 on Radio National
Further to my appearance on Radio National’s Future Tense talking Telstra and corporate transparency, last week a little more of my recorded interview was used in their program on Participatory democracy, Web 2.0 and the Government 2.0 Taskforce.
My main point was that people will expect the Government 2.0 Taskforce to do a lot of things — especially given their massive brief — and yet they’ll be disbanded at the end of the year.
There are going to be expectations that there’ll be something really significant to put on the table by Christmas, and yet it’s all uncertain. The uncertainties in all this are incredible. We’re expecting this group of people to essentially solve all of the problems of government 2.0 and have this grand road map in just a few months. It’s an enormous bullet point list of stuff that they’ve got to achieve. And now that people are starting to look at it, they’re realising we’re only at the very early stages of people starting to agree on what the questions might mean, let alone what the answers might look at. And my gut feeling is people are starting to be a bit hesitant about ‘Hey, are we actually going to get something of value at the end of this, or is it just another of the Rudd government’s talkfests to make it look like we’ve got something happening but there’s no real end result?’ I mean the Australia 2020 Summit, did we ever get anything really concrete out of that?
Duncan Riley essentially agreed. But I found the response from Nicholas Gruen, who chairs the Taskforce, interesting.
Gruen says that unlike most government inquiries — and he’s been on eight — this time the recommendations aren’t the important thing. It’s more about educating everyone — including the public service and politicians.
Click through to the program for the full transcript or, for a limited time at least, to listen to the podcast.
Risk, Fear and Paranoia: Perspective, People!
Penny Sharpe MLC asked me to say something controversial at her NSW Sphere event back on 4 September. Here it is. The full video and transcript (below) of my somewhat rambling discussion of the challenges facing the Government 2.0 revolution.
Hi. I’m Stilgherrian, and I’m avoiding the whole projection thing today.
My presentation, the long name was “Risk, Fear and Paranoia: Perspective, People!”, and I just want to spend a few minutes throwing in some ideas which might trigger some discussion point around those, those words.
Continue reading “Risk, Fear and Paranoia: Perspective, People!”
Is this viral marketing? And whither Stilgherrian Live?
![Photo of Cnut sticker with Still Gherrian Live [sic] added](https://stilgherrian.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/cnut_stilgherrian_clare_640w.jpg "Photo of Cnut sticker with Still Gherrian Live [sic] added")
“I almost laughed in the dunny. Props on your viral marketing,” said Dan Animal when he originally posted this photo.
Taken in the men’s toilet at The Clare Hotel on Broadway, Sydney, it shows a sticker reading “Cnut” to which someone’s added “Still Gherrian Live” [sic]. Is it my marketing? Nah, I’d at least have spelled my own name right. And, as Dan noted, I’d have included a web address too.
Now what’s actually happening with Stilgherrian Live, you might ask?
To be honest, I’m not sure. I haven’t been enjoying doing the program as much lately, and it does take up a bunch of time. I want to do something, but I’m not sure what. There is a certain… malaise. Perhaps you have some ideas?