Tech Stream
Archive for the ‘ Conferences’ Category
Tech Stream 026
14 August 2009
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Kong Pharith’s solar-powered electric jeep hits the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Solar and other renewable energy sources could one day be powering all of our cars. At least that’s the long-term hope for those who understand the impacts that the current methods for powering our vehicles has on the planet.
In the Tech Stream this week we hear about the battery technology which is making this future possible now; the rollout of an electric vehicle recharge network in Australia and how an industrious inventor in Cambodia decided he couldn’t wait any longer so built his own solar-powered electric jeep (see the photo above). More details after the jump, or follow the MP3 link above to hear the program right away.
A Festival for the Indie Game
14 August 2009
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Photo from Flickr by gnackgnackgnack (Patrick Brosset).
I had a chance this week to meet with the co-director of Freeplay 2009, an independent games festival taking place today and tomorrow at the State Library in Melbourne. Paul Callaghan and his partner Eve Penford-Dennis are running the event for the first time and have pulled together over 20 guest speakers from a range of gaming and creative disciplines. Freeplay started in 2004 and exists, in their own words, to “provide opportunities for Victorian and interstate independent developers, educators, and industry practitioners to interact with each other and their audience in an environment designed to stimulate debate, share new ideas, explore theories, and take part in discussions on the creative direction of the medium.”
You can listen to the chat I had with Freeplay co-director Paul Callaghan, who is also a game developer and freelance writer himself, via the MP3 link at the top of this story. We talked, among other things, about changes in the local gaming industry since 2004 and the opportunities available to independent developers in Australia to pursue their creative interests and collaborate with creative people outside their industry.
Tech Stream 018
19 June 2009
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PNG school children in Gaire, outside Port Moresby, trying out their new OLPC laptops in June last year. Photo from Flickr.
In the Tech Stream this week: Twitter connects the world to the post-election protests in Iran; the latest mobiles on display at CommunicAsia in Singapore; online vigilantes shutdown racism on Facebook; ICANN’s Dr Paul Twomey on the future of internet domain names; the One-Laptop-Per-Child scheme expands in the Pacific; and Bajo from Good Game joins us to chat about Infamous, the latest ‘open-world’ video game. Listen with the MP3 link above, full details after the jump…
Tech Stream 017
12 June 2009
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A WiMAX USB dongle. Photo from Flickr by Hirotomo Oi
In the Tech Stream this week we get serious about our games. The Good Game team return from the E3 games expo with news of motion sensor technology which could allow us to throw away our controllers; and we’re joined by “Serious Games” experts Noah Falstein and Dr Ian Bogost who are in Australia for a conference on Serious Games in Sydney. You can listen to their full interview on a previous post.
We also look at the rollout of WiMAX wireless broadband in Fiji and Papua new Guinea… and tech-journo Danny Gorog join us with the lowdown on the new iPhone 3Gs and OS3.0 mobile operating system which was announced at Apple’s WWDC on Monday.
You can listen to the full Tech Stream program with the MP3 link above or the “Listen Now” link on the right. Feel free to comment on any of these stories or suggest something we can follow up in future programs. You can also subscribe to the podcast too!
Serious Games
11 June 2009
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A serious game is computer or video game that is designed primarily for a purpose other than entertainment. And the X Media Lab in Sydney is holding Australia’s first ever conference on Serious Games this week. It kicks off tomorrow (Friday) and I had a chance to speak with two of the conference participants:
Noah Falstein, who is often referred to as the ‘father of serious games’. Noah has worked for Dreamworks Interactive among many other places and is a Board Member of the Serious Games Summit in the United States and President of The Inspiracy.
And Dr Ian Bogost a videogame designer, critic, and researcher. He’s an Associate Professor at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and Founding Partner of Persuasive Games.
I spoke with both men separately about serious games and general trends in interactive entertainment. They have some truly fascinating things to say. To listen just follow the MP3 at the top of this post.
Good Game on ABC TV are currently running an initiative with Screen Australia to develop a serious game. More about it here.
Good Game at E3
11 June 2009
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Flickr photo from E3 games expo by Daniel Brunner.
The team at Good Game on ABC TV spent last week in the United States at E3, the entertainment expo and trade show for the computer and video games industry. I spoke with Jeremy Ray (aka Junglist) and Janet Carr (aka ‘Syd’) about their time at E3, and about the games and gaming technology that caught their imagination. Use the MP3 link above to listen.
Tech Stream 013
15 May 2009
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In the Tech Stream this week we’re at CeBIT Australia 2009, which is a massive information and communications technology (ICT) event in Sydney. I’ve been posting, tweeting and filing audio from the conference all week, and today we catch up with Dr David Skellern from NICTA; Peter Harrison from Austrade; Geoff McQueen from Hiive Systems; the Australian and New Zealand web development teams battling in the FullCodePress competition; and finally Christoper Hire from 2ThinkNow who sums up some of the ideas and discussions that took place at CeBIT.
We’ll have more from the conference and exhibition next week as well. Thanks to all the people who helped organise interviews for me, or gave up their time to speak with me during the week.
You can listen to the full Tech Stream program with the MP3 link above or the “Listen Now” link on the right. Feel free to comment on any of these stories or suggest something we can follow up in future programs. You can also subscribe to the podcast too!
CeBIT: Webciety and Hiive
15 May 2009
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I spent a lot of time at CeBIT Australia 2009 in the Webciety area and met a lot of the teams whose web-based services were on display. Next week in the Tech Stream we’ll meet up with two of them, Travellr and Devnet, but the buzz this year was around Hiive Systems. The Australian startup won this year’s “Early Innovation” award for their service and client tracking software, Affinity. Their founder and Managing Director is Geoff McQueen and I somehow managed to drag him away from prospective clients to talk about Hiive Systems and the Webciety concept. You can listen to our chat with the MP3 link at the top of the story.
The Future of Conferences
15 May 2009
The Future Tense program this week have been looking at the changing nature of conferences:
The word ‘conference’ is synonymous with bad food, hard chairs and boring speakers. At least it is for many of us. But it doesn’t have to be that way and, in fact, it’s already changing. We speak with three conferencing professionals about conferences past and future and the way the industry is adapting to meet changing consumer expectations.
You can listen and download the audio from the program or read the transcript.
