Author: Stilgherrian

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The National Broadband Network, Day 2

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It’s the second day of the RuddNet, and everyone’s still getting their heads around it. Here’s a few quick reads to orient you to this… yes… this, the largest infrastructure project in Australia’s history. If it happens.

  1. NBN: Pricey, but it’s building for the long term, my main Crikey piece covering my thoughts today. Well, some of them.
  2. Crikey Clarifier: National Broadband Network, Part 2, discussing the key differences between fixed and wireless broadband, and the structure of “the Internet industry”. (Part 1 was yesterday.)
  3. Secret team kept even ministers in the dark, in which Fairfax’s Chief Political Correspondent Phillip Coorey provides some background.
  4. Super-fast trip to a world full of surprises, Mark Pesce’s op-ed about the possibilities.
  5. Kevin Rudd’s partner, comparing RuddNet with the politics of Australia’s first wireless telegraphy link to London. The more things change etc.

There’s bound to be more. Much more. This is a huge story. I’ll try to provide the choice links.

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Here’s my Triple J appearance

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If you missed my live radio appearance on Triple J’s Hack yesterday, you can catch it at their website. It’s Tuesday’s edition. Yes, that does mean the streams and MP3 file will disappear next week, but I’m sure we can find some way to, um, liberate it. It’s worth listening to just for the astounding interview with Senator Stephen Conroy.

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Senator Conroy and me on Triple J’s Hack

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Yesterday’s edition of Hack on Triple J is worth listening to not just because I’m on it, but because Senator Stephen Conroy finally makes an appearance. Some of this answers are… curious, to say the least. You run a trial and then define what you were looking for? I’ll post more later, including a transcript of the relevant pieces. Meanwhile you can listen to the podcast.

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Triple J Hack on NBN

I’ll be on radio Triple J’s current affairs program Hack this evening. They’re covering the National Broadband Network announcement from 5.30pm AEST. I believe I’ll be live in the studio after they’ve done all the set-piece interviews up front. You can access a live stream from the Triple J website.

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WTF? National Broadband Network as FTTP!

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Yes, the story of the day is the astounding news that Australia’s new National Broadband Network will be 100Mbit/second Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) — and government-owned!

I’m part of Crikey‘s massive coverage, which kicks off with an editorial, Bernard Keane’s Huge, historic and nationalised: broadband goes ballistic and Fibre To The Node becomes Fibre To The Nerd.

My contributions are A massive and much-needed catch-up and Crikey Clarifier: National Broadband Network.

My friend and colleague Mark Pesce also has 100 million bits per second: you call that fast? And there’s plenty more — some of which is behind the paywall.

As Bernard Keane says, “It will take days — perhaps weeks or months — to work through all the possibilities of this, technically, commercially and politically.”

It’s also a massive face-saver for the minister, Senator Stephen Conroy. Instead of being sacked for screwing up the original tendering process, he’s being given command of the biggest infrastructure project in Australia’s history. Just why does he get this lifeline, I wonder?

This is a massive shift in Australia’s communications policy. Stay tuned.

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The future of “quality” journalism

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Amazing! A bunch of media people gathered at the ABC’s Sydney headquarters last week to discuss the future of journalism, and not one of them whinged about those awful bloggers. Hurrah! Unlike July 2008, when journos were still looking for someone to blame, the debate has finally moved on.

That’s how my piece for Crikey today begins. It’s an overview of the ABC forum I was at the other day.

Quotes from Crikey publisher Eric Beecher, Alan Kohler, News Limited’s Campbell Reid, UTS journalism lecturer Wendy Bacon and former leader of the Libery Party, John Hewson.