Category: Politics

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Talking the dotcom collapse on Balls Radio, FM 99.3

In tonight’s spot on Phil Dobbie’s Balls Radio, we spoke about what I reckon is the impending burst of the second dotcom bubble.

The conversation was triggered by news that internet entrepreneur Peter Thiel has sold 20.1 million of his Facebook shares, almost his entire shareholding.

Given that he’s a serious internet investor — he was co-founder of PayPal and is now an angel investor — this is a pretty significant signal. And some of Twitter’s current desperation is, I reckon, further sign that the bubble will burst.

Here’s the audio of my segment. If you’d like more, Mr Dobbie has posted the full episode.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:04 — 6.0MB)

You can of course hear us talk live every Tuesday night from 7pm AEST on Sydney’s FM 99.3 Northside Radio.

I’m fairly sure that copyright remains with Mr Dobbie rather than being transferred to Northside Radio, but I’ll figure that out later.

[Update 3 September 2012: Edited to add link to full podcast episode.

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Talking NBN propaganda on Balls Radio, FM 99.3

On 14 August 2012, in my regular spot on Phil Dobbie’s Balls Radio, we spoke about the political misinformation surrounding Australia’s National Broadband Network.

The conversation was triggered by the previous week’s release of NBN Co’s updated corporate plan. The estimated capital cost had increased by 3.9%. Even before you take into account the many variations, this is within what any sensible accountant would call a more than acceptable variation.

Yet in the media this was almost universally reported as a “cost blowout”. Pathetic. I was angry. I’ve got a piece coming soon at ABC’s The Drum. This conversation is more or less a prelude.

Here’s the audio of my segment. If you’d like more, Mr Dobbie has posted the full episode.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:17 — 4.5MB)

You can of course hear us talk live every Tuesday night from 7pm AEST on Sydney’s FM 99.3 Northside Radio.

I’m fairly sure that copyright remains with Mr Dobbie rather than being transferred to Northside Radio, but I’ll figure that out later.

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Talking regulating social media on ABC Radio National

On Thursday 9 August I had the very great pleasure of discussing the regulation of social media with the ABC’s Waleed Aly.

As I’ve been writing these catch-up posts today, I’ve become aware that there’s been quite a bit of media commentary on this topic lately. People are seeing Bad Things happening online and want to Make It Stop.

Even my own small media involvement has seen this topic come up, since the beginning of July, at Crikey, ABC Local Radio, Balls Radio and probably elsewhere. It almost makes me want to use Gerry Anderson’s special machine.

Actually it’s all been fun. But what makes this conversation stand out is that Mr Aly is a bloody intelligent bloke, witty and incisive all at once. As just one example, here’s the observation with which he ended the interview.

Anyone who wanted to have the power to read people’s minds, I think, has the internet and now realises that power might be something more of a curse.

While the conversation took as its starting-point the outrage over the discovery of a Facebook page full of offensive jokes about Aboriginal people, we also talk about Facebook’s inconsistency in enforcing their own rules, and I call for Stephen Fry’s program QI to be taken off television.

ABC Radio has posted their version of the audio at Regulating social media, where for some reason they fail to mention my involvement. Here’s mine.

Both versions start off with a brief interview with Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner, Helen Szoke. My interview starts at around 6 minutes 40 seconds.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (7.1MB)

The audio is of course ©2012 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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Talking bullying and Twitter laws on Balls Radio, FM 99.3

On 7 August 2012, in my regular spot on Phil Dobbie’s Balls Radio, I vented some thoughts about so-called cyber-bullying and the inevitable call for yet more silly ad hoc laws.

The conversation bounced off the topics I’d discussed in the previous day’s Patch Monday podcast, namely the reaction to the trolling of an Olympic athlete, but also covered a little bit of the future of Twitter itself.

Here’s the audio of my segment. If you’d like more, Mr Dobbie has posted the full episode.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:35 — 5.1MB)

You can of course hear us talk live every Tuesday night from 7pm AEST on Sydney’s FM 99.3 Northside Radio.

I’m fairly sure that copyright remains with Mr Dobbie rather than being transferred to Northside Radio, but I’ll figure that out later.

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Talking malware and stuff on Balls Radio, FM 99.3

Here’s last night’s regular spot on Phil Dobbie’s Balls Radio from FM 99.3 Northside Radio in Sydney.

I waffled on disjointedly about stuff that was on my mind after this week’s Patch Monday podcast — that is, how midway through 2012 it looks like all this talk of cyberwar is rubbish — and something about dental floss.

Here’s the audio of my segment. If you’d like more, Mr Dobbie has posted the full episode.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:34 — 4.6MB)

I’m fairly sure that copyright remains with Mr Dobbie rather than being transferred to Northside Radio, but I’ll figure that out later.

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And for the trifecta, I’m speaking at ACCAN’s conference

Since I’m blogging about my forthcoming speaking engagements, I should probably also mention that I’m on a panel at ACCAN’s National Conference on 5 to 6 September.

ACCAN is the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, and the panel I’m on is called “Privacy & Security”.

Privacy dilemmas are getting bigger every year as more of our lives and essential information are moving online. This discussion will explore online privacy and security policies. A top tech journalist [that’s me!] will examine whether there is such a thing as privacy in the online world, and a broadband services expert will explain the key privacy and security challenges likely faced in providing medical and other services over broadband.

The other panellists are Nigel Waters from the University of New South Wales’ Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre and Dean Economou from NICTA.

So, privacy and security. That seems to be my gig now…