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!
Last month I took part in a fascinating discussion about the impact of social media and related breakthroughs at Consilium [PDF], an invitation-only annual conference put together by the Centre for Independent Studies. Here’s part of what I said.
Continue reading “Consilium: Social media is destroying society? Good!”
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.
Today I’m catching up on a fortnight of blog posts, so for now my summary of the week Monday 6 to Sunday 12 August 2012 will including nothing but the facts, ma’am.
Personal observations about the last fortnight or so will follow within the next 48 hours or so.
None.
[Photo: Ready in TARDIS 1, a photo taken in one of the TARDIS audio booths at ABC Radio’s Sydney headquarters in Ultimo.]
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.
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.
While the Facebook IPO Roadshow rolls on, the company is trying a bunch of experiments — both to search for new revenue streams and to maintain the buzz. One of them is paying $2 to have your post highlighted.
The numbers in the story don’t surprise me. Typically a Facebook user’s posts are only seen by around 12% of their followers, depending on whether Facebook’s secret-sauce algorithm decides whether you’re a sufficiently close friend or the topic is of sufficient interest to the viewer.
Why not let people pay money to change that?
I could tell from the tone of his voice that ABC 702 Sydney host Richard Glover did not approve.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.7MB)
The audio is of course ©2012 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, but as usual I’m posting it here as an archive.