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!
I’ve just registered the Internet domain topic9.com.au, where I’ll set up a blog to discuss topic number 9 of the Australia 2020 Summit: “The future of Australian governance: renewed democracy, a more open government (including the role of the media), the structure of the Federation and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.”
I won’t have time to do anything with it until (probably) tomorrow evening. Meanwhile, can you suggest people who might be interesting contributors?
In October 2007 I wrote: “The next time someone says we’re experiencing Australia’s ‘first internet election’ or our ‘first YouTube election’, slap them. Slap them very hard.” Now UTS research into the 2007 federal election further illustrates the point.
As ZDNet News reports, only two-thirds of the sitting federal members and senators had a personal website, and only 1 in 10 had a MySpace page — though personally I object to MySpace being the touchstone.
The study also revealed only 6.6 percent had a blog, 5.75 percent had posted one or more videos on YouTube, 3.5 percent had a Facebook site and only 3.1 percent had a podcast, as at 20 November 2007.
But of those that did find their way online a large percentage failed to go beyond traditional one-way communication.
Much more in the full story. Hat-tip to Peter Black.
Brenda Aynsley wonders whether the Australia 2020 Summit will be something like the TED forum. No, it won’t be. TED is about engendering understandings. Australia 2020 must eventually produce some policy outcomes. Nevertheless, this gives me an opportunity to say that TED is wonderful and you should look at some of the lectures and presentations.
Professor Klerfell, director of The Link Institute, has announced the “Link 100” — one hundred online ambassadors for the Australia 2020 Summit who will attend via Wi-Fi linked workstations. Chairman Rudd, meanwhile, has announced that the Summit will be funded from MPs’ salaries, “since it is normally the job of MPs to come up with policy ideas for Australia’s future, the MPs have decided that their pay for the week the forum will be donated to pay for the event.”
Bloggerati is running a straw poll on who should go to the Australia 2020 Summit. Some people have been shameless whoring their vote link. So shall I. Click here to vote for me, using the “Vote” button when you get there. It isn’t part of any official process, but it might help someone summarise something, somehow.
Chairman Rudd’s got a clever strategy going, unless it’s just a coincidence. The usually-secret Red Book warns of approaching “challenges” like climate change, an aging population and the economic growth of India and China. Then we announce the Australia 2020 Summit.
As any management consultant will tell you, develop a shared vision and folks will endure short-term pain — like interest rate rises and having to change the light bulbs.
Actually I’m not that cynical about it. I’m quietly enthused. After a decade of Howard’s backward-looking short-term thinking we seriously need to look to the future. Fast. Of course, back when Barry Jones was science minister we had a permanent organisation to keep watch, the Commission for the Future. Maybe I’ll read Lessons from the Australian Commission for the Future: 1986-1998 [PDF file] when I get the time. But I digress…
If Chairman Rudd wants 1000 of our “best and brightest” in Canberra on 19-20 April, who should they be?
It’s flattering that Nick Hodge and Peter Black nominated me, bless their sycophantic little hearts. And I’ve already gained four votes at Bloggerati. I’d love to be part of this Summit, sure, because I’d be Fighting the Hallucinating Goldfish hands on. However I have a few more modest suggestions…
Continue reading “So, who’s for Chairman Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit?”