Tech Stream
Posts Tagged ‘ Politics’
Tech Stream 043
12 March 2010
Listen and download: MP3
A new type of solar module promising greater efficiency and reduced costs. Image from Technique Solar.
This week in the Tech Stream, the latest on the National Broadband Network in Australia. We’ll find out why there is opposition to the government’s plan to split Telstra, which it argues is essential to creating a more level playing field. A new undersea internet cable is being built to link New Zealand and the US, but could it also connect countries in the Pacific along the way?
We’ll shine a light on new solar panels, developed in Australia, that promise to be more efficient and cheaper to produce than current technology. And an update on the Mariposa botnet and calls for computer manufacturers to be held responsible for selling products vulnerable to attacks from cyber criminals. Finally Bajo joins us with a review of the multiplayer-focused war-game Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Full details after the jump, or follow the MP3 link above to hear the program.
Tech Stream 032
25 September 2009
Listen and download: MP3
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.
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.
Iran: Activism and Social Media
16 June 2009
ABC News Online has just launched a special feature with coverage of the political unrest in Iran and how social media tools like Flickr, Youtube and Twitter are being used to broadcast eyewitness reports of violence and protests. But internet users and activists in the country say that the government is blocking access to these kind of sites and disrupting transmission of SMS text messages. There’s more at ABC News Online, including integration of twitter and flickr streams.
Serious Games
11 June 2009
Listen and download: MP3
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.
Social web blocked in China
3 June 2009
China is blocking access to social networking and social media websites ahead of the 20th anniversary of a bloody crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Sites like Twitter, Hotmail and Flickr were blocked on Tuesday and Microsoft also reported that access was blocked to their new Bing search engine.
The story is being covered today by Radio Australia News who report that internet users filled chatrooms with protest after access to Twitter was denied on Tuesday. And Reuters reports that “Access to video-sharing site YouTube, owned by Google, has been blocked in China since March, after overseas Tibetan groups posted graphic footage of China’s crackdown on protests by Tibetans in 2008.”
The Tech Dynasty blog on CNET Asia also covered the blocks yesterday and says that “anyone in China who spends any amount of time online has weathered these blocks before” and so has recommended some good sites to overcome them. There are also unconfirmed reports on Twitter that the #gfw (great firewall of China) has been removed from the ‘trending topics’ section. We’ll have more in the Tech Stream program, on Radio Australia news and on our own Tech Stream twitter feed.
UPDATE 05/06/2009: Connect Asia covered this on Thursday morning, you can hear Steve Holland’s story from this link, and ABC News Online provided excellent coverage of the anniversary.
CeBIT: Innovate now
12 May 2009
I’ve spent the morning at CeBIT Australia 2009, which kicked off today in Sydney with a keynote address from Stephen Conroy, Australia’s Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. The Minister opened the trade fair by saying that technology and innovation would play a substantial part in the recovery from the current recession.
File sharing update
6 May 2009
Reuters is reporting that a recent poll shows the Swedish Pirate Party has enough support to win a seat in the European parliament. The party, which has no official ties to the file-sharing website Pirate Bay, wants to “deregulate copyright, abolish the patent system and a decrease the level of surveillance of the Internet”. We speculated on their chances in an earlier Tech Stream program, but I remain skeptical that they will get the numbers in the upcoming vote. Imagine the feathers ruffled if they do get up!
Last week The Guardian (among others) reported that the lawyers defending the four men behind Pirate Bay had applied for a retrial, after it came out that the presiding judge, Tomas Norstrom, was a member of various copyright protection trade bodies in Sweden. And Ars Technica today makes an interesting observation that Google’s search algorithm is proposing links to .torrent files when TV shows are searched for. The Pirate Bay founders had argued (unsuccessfully) that their service was no different to Google’s and it will be interesting to see how the world’s largest search engine responds to the results.
Finally, IT journalist Patrick Gray offered his opinion and analysis of the future of peer-to-peer file sharing at ABC online on Monday. It is worth a read, and has stirred some interesting debates at the bottom. Unfortunately the comments on the story have closed.
Tech Stream 009
17 April 2009
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Thai army readies for offensive [Nicolas Asfouri, AFP]
We’re in Fiji and Thailand this week looking at media censorship, internet snooping and the dangers of blogging during political unrest.
Unrest in Fiji and blogging in the Pacific
15 April 2009
Our In The Loop program is starting a new segment looking at blogs and bloggers in the Pacific. You can listen to the first interview that Clement and Isabelle have done with Dennis Tokunai from the tubuans and dukduks blog based in Papua New Guinea. Follow this MP3 link to hear his thoughts on blogging about political and cultural issues, some of his own favourite blogs and how you can learn more about a place by reading the blogs created there.
