Tech Stream
Archive for September, 2009
Tech Stream 032
25 September 2009
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The Screen Worlds exhibition at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, ACMI. You can see the giant, white Lara Croft mentioned in this week’s program.
In the Tech Stream this week we’re looking at the use of social media and internet communications technology to connect virtual and physical spaces: from art galleries to government forums. We’ll also meet Yiying Lu, creator of the iconic Twitter “Fail Whale”, whose first solo exhibition also includes augmented reality technology. And come for a guided tour of a new exhibit at ACMI, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, which has videogames as a major focus. Download or stream the program via the MP3 link above or find out more after the jump.
Lars from Google in the Nightlife
22 September 2009
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Brother Lars and Jens Rasmussen are the brains behind the now ubiquitous online navigation system Google Maps. Their mapping technology company, Where 2 Technologies, was bought by Google in 2004 and they were brought into the fold to turn their ideas into what we now know as Google Maps. Soon they were thinking of new ideas to pursue, and are now following Jens’ suggestion to create a new way to communicate online. That tool, developed in Sydney, is called Google Wave. It was unveiled earlier this year and will be opened up to a select few users at the end of the month.
Lars Rasmussen joined Tony Delroy and Pall Wallbank in ABC Local Radio’s Nightlife program on Thursday last week. He fielded calls from listeners and spoke at length about the development of Google Maps and gave some fresh insights into Google Wave.
I posted on twitter that this interview was happening and got some requests to hear it. Tony and his team were kind enough to allow me to post an edited highlights of the program which you can hear via the MP3 link above.
The video Lars mentions toward the 17 minute mark is below. Be warned, it goes for over an hour and there’s some Google Kool-aid being passed around at times:
And ABC Fora featured a video with Lars Rasmussen in July which you can find here or watch below:
Tech Stream 031
18 September 2009
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Photo from Flickr by Martin Hopkins.
The splitting of Telstra, 3D technology in the loungeroom and does the iPhone stack up as gaming platform? It’s in the Tech Stream, program #31. Full details after the jump or get stuck straight in with the MP3 link above.
Australian government proposes Telstra split
16 September 2009
The Australian Government announced yesterday that they were seeking to overhaul telecommunications regulation in the country, and that it was their “clear desire for Telstra to structurally separate, on a voluntary and cooperative basis.” The company faces restrictions on it’s business, like access to advanced wireless spectrum, if it does not split its retail and wholesale arms.
The media release from Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is available here and coverage of the announcement is on ABC Online at Conroy Moves to Split Telstra and on ABC TV’s Lateline last night at Telstra Forced to Split. Stephen Conroy also spoke with Fran Kelly on ABC Radio National Breakfast this morning about how the decision fits within the government’s vision for the National Broadband Network.
Shares in the company took a dive on the news and Telstra shareholders weren’t over the moon at the announcement, with chief executive of the Australian Shareholders’ Association Stuart Wilson telling ABC News that “It’s a situation where Telstra shareholders have purchased shares in good faith off the Government and then only a few years later the Government changes the rules and sets all sorts of limitations on Telstra to the point where profitability will be affected.”
Analysts like Paul Budde (speaking here to The World Today) are enthusiastic about the news and Telstra’s competitors have also reacted positively to Stephen Conroy’s announcement. Optus welcomed the idea of a split in Telstra’s business, with their director of government and corporate affairs, Maha Krishnapillai, telling ABC Radio’s PM:
“This is a great piece of microeconomic reform by the Federal Government. Very clearly they are getting a competitive advantage today. They have 60 per cent margins on their fixed communications networks. They make sure that it is as difficult and litigious as possible to access those networks. They make sure that the quality of those services, let alone access to the IT systems from everything from billing to provisioning to turning on services, is as difficult as possible. So it isn’t just price. It is in fact equivalence of access to those services.” MP3 Audio link
ZDNet have more of the industry’s response and AM this morning reports that Australia’s consumer competition watchdog, the ACCC, is welcoming the breakup of Telstra with their chairman Graeme Samuel saying that consumers will be the winners if the companies splits:
“…there’s 21 million Australian consumers, about 16 million of them are using some form of telecommunications service and they are the big winners because at long last we’re seeing competition quite clearly infused into the telecommunication sector.” MP3 Audio link
But what does Telstra themselves make of it all? Well their CEO David Thodey said in a statement that they were disappointed with the direction the government wants to go in but would play ball. ZDNet also have more on this, and we’ll have more in the Tech Stream on Friday.
Tech Stream 030
11 September 2009
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The Beatles Rock Band Game (MTV/Harmonix)
Everything is Fab in the Tech Stream this week. We’re in Port Moresby for PacInet 2009, a Pacific internet conference; all the latest on the week’s iPod and iTunes updates from Apple; and Bajo straps on his little plastic guitar for a review of the highly anticipated Beatles Rock Band video game. Listen via the MP3 link above or keep jumping for more details…
Just for the RCRD
11 September 2009
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One of the region’s biggest music industry events wraps up in Brisbane, Australia today. The Big Sound 2009 conference featured three days of panels, workshops and artist showcases for local, national and international music industry representatives. There were opportunities for networking, learning and debate, with much of the latter focusing on the future of the music industry.
One of the international guests at Big Sound was Elliot Aronow, the creative director and co-founder of RCRD LBL which descibes itself as “a network of online record labels and blogs serving up fresh new music downloads and exclusive content curated by our team of editors and partner labels every day”.
I had a chance to meet Elliot while he was in Melbourne this week and we got talking about the philosophies underpinning the way RCRD LBL operates and a range of other topics around music, mobile, streaming, free content, copyright, twitter, social media and the value of curators.
You can hear the discussion via the MP3 link above, or start discovering some new music at rcrdlbl.com
Tech Stream 029
4 September 2009
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Photo from Flickr by John Johnston.
In the Tech Stream this week we ask whether internet addiction is a clinical disorder; the lowdown on Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 from Blizzard’s annual conference; how new undersea cable networks in the Pacific could deliver high-speed, affordable broadband internet to the region; and look at how the goings on in Australian parliament are being documented and shared in a way that enhances our experience of democracy. Jump straight into the program with the MP3 link above or read on for more details.
A Pacific Superhighway
4 September 2009
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Undersea internet telecommunications cables, managed by Tata Communications. The full map is online here.
Internet access in the Pacific is frustrating slow and expensive. This is mainly due to most of the internet traffic being routed through satellites. But that is set to change. A new undersea fiber-optic cable, part of SPIN, South pacific Information Network, should provide internet users in French Polynesia and New Caledonia, as well as the countries in between, with high-speed, affordable broadband. I spoke about the new network with Remi Galasso, CEO of SPIN SA.
We also caught up with Simon Cooper from Tata Communications this week. We spoke about how Guam was turning into a telecommunications hot-spot, with multiple undersea internet cables connecting it to Asia and Australia. Their communications network played a big part in picking up the internet traffic in the region during the recent typhoon near Taiwan which affected some other undersea cables supplying telecommunications into the region.
You can hear both Simon Cooper and Remi Galasso in the MP3 link at the top of this blog post. We’ve had stories on these undersea internet cables in the Pacific in Tech Stream #25 and also back in March this year.
Open Australia
4 September 2009
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Australia’s House of Representatives in Parliament House, Canberra. Photo from Flickr by Hengest.
A new website, run by volunteers, has been setup in Australia to help ordinary people find out what their elected representatives in federal parliament are up to. But it aims to do this in an easy way, by being able to do things like search by keywords, setup email alerts for particular subjects, or just grab the data wholesale and use it yourself.
openaustralia.org was launched in 2008 and I spoke about the project with Matthew Landaeur, one of the founders of OpenAustralia and also their lead developer. Follow the MP3 link at the top of this story to hear the interview.
There’s also another great text interview with Matthew at Web Directions South and I attended a recent Public Sphere event which looked at ICT & Creative Industry development. A wrap up of that event, including all the virtual participation, is on the website of Australian Senator Kate Lundy.