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!
In a week when many of Australia’s political journalists and commentators have once again proven themselves inadequate for the job, I revisit a proposal first made in February 2012.
Continue reading “The 9pm Recycled Edict 2: A Modest Proposal”
My week of Monday 15 to Sunday 21 March was a sleepy one, and at the end quite moist as the Great Sog continued. The wet weather and the ongoing adjustments to my brain meds led me to have a more… relaxed week. There’s a great podcast though.
Continue reading “Weekly Wrap 564: Sog, pod, and magpies again”
My week of Monday 31 October to Sunday 6 November 2016 was quieter than the previous two, deliberately, and I’m grateful for that.
None, but check out the week ahead. There’ll be three!
None.
It’s a busy one, punctuated by travel from Sydney up to Bunjaree Cottages in the Blue Mountains on Tuesday afternoon, and travel back down on Thursday.
I’m finishing an op-ed for SBS TV. I’m finishing the production of three podcasts, namely The 9pm Edict Public House Forum 4, and two episodes of Corrupted Nerds from the Ruxcon information security conference. And I’m writing at least one piece for ZDNet.
On top of that, there’s work on the various geek-for-hire projects.
None of this work has been allocated to specific days. There’s still some uncertainty, including a chance the travel might be cancelled.
This information is now on the new calendar page, Stilgherrian in Public.
Update 7 November 2016: Edited to reflect schedule changes.
[Photo: The dragon is sleeping, being a decaying roof in Lilyfield in Sydney’s inner west, photographed on 6 November 2016.]
Last week Collective Shout activist and campaigns manager Caitlin Roper told her story of the horrific misogynist abuse she’d received online, and what can most politely be called a disappointing response from the police.
I reluctantly went to the police station, already knowing that threats against women online are not regarded as a priority. “Why don’t you just close down your account?” asked the officer taking my statement.
I explained how I used Twitter in the course of my work for a non-profit organisation. She pressed further — “but why do you need to use it?” — as if it was somehow unreasonable for me to believe I had as much right as anyone to access social media without threats
…
Another colleague went to the police after one man described how he intended to mutilate her body and dissolve it in acid. The police officer suggested that the internet was “not a very nice place”, and maybe she should stay off it.
Last night, ABC TV’s Lateline did a follow-up story, the reported being John Stewart, and I provided a few comments.
It’s interesting that the one piece they used was about the internet putting everyone right next to everyone else:
It’s simply that within the past people were in communities, that were mostly made up of people like them or people they grew up with. If there was a violent part of town or a red-light district or whatever it might be, and you didn’t want to go there or you didn’t want to know about it, well you just didn’t go there. The problem is now on the internet all of that is right next to you as well and people are shocked by this. They’re suddenly discovering that there are people not like them. They have different attitudes to women, different attitudes to acceptable language, to religion, to class, to sporting teams, to clothing as we’ve seen in the media lately. Everything.
I also said that thanks to the internet, we are now building a global society, and yet policing is organised on a regional or even local basis.
While these women, and so many others, have experienced appalling abuse, in most cases there’s no credible threat. Even if the police cranked up the mechanisms of transnational police cooperation, there’d be little chance of a prosecution leading to a conviction. Their lack of follow-up reflects that unfortunate reality, as well as many police officers’ unfamiliarity with online life.
I daresay I’ll have further thoughts in this, because this story certainly isn’t going away.
Yes, I know they spelt my name wrong. Yes, I know they said “social media commentator”.
I’ve just realised I didn’t post a link to last week’s Patch Monday podcast, How can women win in IT? There it is now.
“The greatest challenge to implementing social media within any organisation is the willingness for that organisation to accept the cultural change that will ultimately occur. And occur dramatically and at a rapid pace. Social media holds a mirror up to an organization from the external customers/clients/constituents that shows an authentic, and sometimes unexpected, face.” — Nick Hodge
“I’d add that that face is almost always unexpected.” — Mark Pesce (in private conversation)
Clearly I’m not going to get anything else written until I respond to The Gnome Situation. I’ve been reading the comments and mulling possible responses for days. It’s getting in the way of actual, productive work. So here we go.
No. I will not be removing Gnaomi from my desk.
Discussing an issue as important as rape through the proxy of an anthropomorphised piece of clay seems, to me, a poor tactic. Nor will I compromise the actual or perceived independence of my media output, no matter how worthy the cause.
There’ll probably be people at ActionAid who won’t like or understand that outcome, so here’s the long explanation…