Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. 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!
Mark Scott, Managing Director of the ABC, used his Annual Media Studies Lecture at La Trobe University to explain how the government’s proposed National Broadband Network will change the entire media landscape. Television, music, newspapers, the journalism — the lot. Crikey published the entire text of the speech. It’s worth a read. Twice.
RuddNet Day 3. The armchair-expert “network engineers” who infest Whirlpool, people who’ve never built a network more complex than the one linking their porn stash to the TV, are suddenly spouting off about national-scale infrastructure not just there but everywhere. Pity their friends.
So began the article I wrote for Crikey on Thursday 9 April.
As John Safran once said, thanks to the internet, “We can all now chip in and pool our ignorance.” The Dunning-Kruger Effect operates full force. As always.
And nowhere was that ignorance better represented than on Twitter.
I’m such a hypocrite. I’ve previously slagged off journalists for simply copying comments from Twitter without adding any value. And this piece is, essentially, a summary of what’s been said on Twitter. Oh dear. Anyway, you too can be a journalist by following the same technique. The Crikey piece explains how.
You can use Twitter Search to find every tweet mentioning “nbn”. But for a richer experience, the much prettier Twitterfall lets you view an animated twitterstream, pearls of wisdom dropping as Manna from Heaven.
Just imagine. With the NBN it won’t just be typed words, you’ll be able to see and hear all this in living colour and surround sound. Ah, $43 billion…
I’ll probably have a summary of some of the better commentary when I return to work mode on Tuesday.
On this week’s A Series of Tubes podcast I quite naturally spoke about the National Broadband Network proposal. Richard Chirgwin also interviewed m.net Research Director Dr Marisa Maio Mackay about what’s changing the way we use mobile data services. Sorry about the late notice, but I’ve actually been having a relaxing time away over Easter in my Sekrit Eyrie.
Another media appearance! I’ll be on community radio’s media affairs program The Fourth Estate this week. It’ll be broadcast in Sydney on 2SER 107.3 FM tomorrow (Good Friday) morning at 0900, and on other community stations around the country, as well as a podcast. “Check your local program guides”, as they say.
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.
There’s bound to be more. Much more. This is a huge story. I’ll try to provide the choice links.
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.