In the week between Christmas and New Year I didn’t write anything for anyone, I didn’t do any podcasts, I didn’t appear in the media anywhere, and I didn’t receive any corporate largesse. I’m just posting this post so the numerical sequence of “Weekly Wrap” posts is consistent.
Weekly Wrap 29
A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets — which was another slow week again this week, since it’s the lead-up to Christmas.
Articles
- It’s the NBN Corporate Plan, not a crystal ball, for ABC Unleashed. Ah, the National Broadband Network, political issue of the year! No sooner had the NBN Co Limited Corporate Plan 2010-2013 been released than the critics started whinging that it didn’t answer every single question.
- It’s network neutrality, but it’s neutered, for Crikey, covering initial reaction to the US Federal Communication Commission’s new rules.
- 2010 on the internet: the empire strikes back, for Crikey. Yes, an end-of-year wrap-up.
Podcasts
- Patch Monday episode 70, “2010: IT’s year of domination”. An extended panel discussion reviewing 2010 and making a few predictions for 2011. My guests are: Mick Liubinskas, co-founder of Australian start-up incubator Pollenizer and, back in the day, head of marketing and business development for infamous music sharing site Kazaa; columnist and author Paul Wallbank; and Jeff Waugh, open-source developer, strategist and advocate, and political tragic.
Media Appearances
- On Wednesday I did another brief spot with Paul Turton on ABC Radio Statewide NSW. We spoke about Avatar being the most-pirated movie of 2010 and the UK allowing Twitter in the courtroom, more than a year after Australia did.
Corporate Largesse
None. It all seemed to wrap up last week. It’s going to be a bleak holiday season. Please send packages of food and drink.
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: My Christmas card from 2007, recycled because I didn’t get around to doing anything new this year. I made the tinsel antlers for my good friend the Snarky Platypus, who continues to use them to this day. Photograph by Trinn (’Pong) Suwannapha.]
Weekly Wrap 28
A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets — which this week wasn’t very much at all because I lost a couple of days returning from San Francisco.
Articles
None this week.
Podcasts
- Patch Monday episode 69, “Service goes social, but how?”. Based on material recorded at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce event in San Francisco, this episode includes a chat with Fergus Griffin, vice president of product marketing for Salesforce.com’s Service Cloud product.
Media Appearances
- On Wednesday I did another brief spot with Paul Turton on ABC Radio Statewide NSW.
Corporate Largesse
- On Friday I had lunch aboard the South Steyne at Darling Harbour, courtesy of Watterson Marketing Communication.
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: Since I didn’t take any photographs this week, here’s one of the rather serious seagulls they have in San Francisco.]
Weekly Wrap 27
A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets — very late this week because I just couldn’t be arsed doing blog posts while I was in San Francisco. But here’s the summary of last week. On Wednesday. So I’ll refund your goddam subscription fees.
Articles
- WikiLeaks in the clouds: why attempts to shut down Assange will fail, for Crikey.
- Wikileaks could gag sources: Clinton, for ZDNet.com.au. That’s Bill Clinton, who apparently used to be “president” of some place called “America”.
- Letter from: San Francisco, and Bill Clinton on instability, sustainability … and WikiLeaks, for Crikey. Well, this is what happens when you end up in a room with 15,000 people.
Podcasts
- Patch Monday episode 68, “Wikileaks: the survival lessons”. A panel discussion with network engineer Mark Newton — he described WikiLeaks as “a bespoke cloud-based CDN [content distribution network] that is enabled by the Streisand Effect” — information security specialist Crispin Harris, and platform architect Benno Rice.
Media Appearances
None. What wrong with you people?
Corporate Largesse
Where do you start? This week was all about me travelling to San Francisco as a guest of Salesforce.com. So they paid my airfares, accommodation, food and drink throughout the event, and “networking functions” at the W Hotel and the Palace Hotel. Plus they gave me a Flip HD video camera, a scarf, a t-shirt, a universal power plug thingy and a can of whipped cream. Don’t ask.
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 comparison of real American men with the idealised version portrayed in advertising in a storefront on Market St, San Francisco.]
Weekly Wrap 26
A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets and in the media and so on and so forth.
Articles
- WikiLeaks slammed by Wikipedia co-founder, disrupted by hacker, for Crikey. A summary of the verbal and network-borne attacks on WikiLeaks — at least as they were when this article was written on 29 November. A lot has happened since.
- Cloud could be ‘privacy enhancing’: Pilgrim, for ZDNet.com.au. “Pilgrim” in this case is Timothy Pilgrim, Australia’s Privacy Commissioner.
- Note to The Australian: Twitter is not a newspaper, for Crikey. This article was triggered by several recent events, including the defamation allegation made by Oz editor Chris Mitchell against journalism academic Julie Posetti. One of the journalists mentioned by name, media writer Sally Jackson, believes the article is biased and calls it a “hatchet job”.
Podcasts
- Patch Monday episode 67, “Cybercrime: the FBI’s worldview”. Edited highlights of a presentation to the eCrime Symposium by Will Blevins, the FBI’s assistant legal attaché to Australia for cybercrime issues.
- A Series of Tubes episode 120. Richard Chirgwin and I have a long chat about the National Broadband Network. Was the business case document worth the wait? Is there a black hole in the NBN financials? What’s the product roadmap? And what about this Points of Interconnect issue?
Media Appearances
None.
Corporate Largesse
- The International Association of Privacy Professionals – Australian and New Zealand (iappANZ) fed me while I attended their conference.
- Viewsonic provided food and drink at The Arthouse Hotel for the launch of their ViewPad 7 Android tablet.
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: Low-grade reindeer is low-grade, taken earlier today at the Broadway Shopping Centre, Sydney.]
Weekly Wrap 25
A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets and in the media and so on and so forth — and this week it seems like I’ve been consuming more food and drink than producing media.
Articles
- NBN Co business case — truly a curiously inadequate document, for Crikey. The “curiously inadequate” line is a quote from opposition spokesperson Malcolm Turnbull’s blog post about the rather odd NBN Co Business Case Summary [3MB PDF], which contains neither business nor case. This article will sit behind the Crikey paywall for two weeks, but you can register for a free trial. Or you can comment over here.
- “Gadgets: a geek’s Christmas”, part of the Crikey Weekender Christmas Guide 2010 [2.9MB PDF]. This was actually published on 19 November but I forgot to mention it last week. So sue me.
Podcasts
- Patch Monday episode 66, “Inside the internet’s China syndrome”. A conversation with infosec specialist Crispin Harris about that story of China supposedly hijacking 15% of the world’s internet traffic for 18 minutes back in April. Needless to say, the story is somewhat of an exaggeration. I’m pleased with the opening montage on the program.
Media Appearances
None.
Corporate Largesse
With six bullet points in this section — four of them from the one day! — and it still being November, there’s clear evidence that my liver may not survive until the actual day of Christmas. Wish me luck.
- The Australian Communication Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) fed me lunch while I gave them a briefing on the National Broadband Network on Tuesday. My largess to them is probably worth more than theirs to me.
- I had cakes and other sweet items while attending the eCrime Symposium on Thursday. The organisers also gave me a bottle of Yering Station pinot noir.
- AARNet paid for lunch at Est Restaurant while their CEO Chris Hancock gave us a briefing on their plans on Thursday.
- Nate Cochrane, editor in chief for some of Haymarket Media’s mastheads in Australia including iTnews.com.au, bought me a couple of beers while we discussed the media industry in Australia and the future of journalism.
- I popped into a drinks session being staged by Securis Global, and they bought me a couple of beers.
- Continuing the busy Thursday, I went to the CBS Interactive Christmas Party at The Italian Village in The Rocks. ZDNet.com.au is one of their mastheads and I file stories for them, so I’m not sure if this actually counts. But someone from one of Microsoft’s PR firms bought me a double scotch, so that definitely counts.
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 platform sign at Erskineville station, Sydney. I have no idea why I took this photograph, so obviously you need to see it too.]