Tech Stream

Tech Stream 029

4 September 2009

Listen and download: MP3

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.

We start the program with the week’s technology news then jump into the much debated topic of internet addiction.  The audio from this section of the program is from Triple J’s daily youth current affairs show Hack.  They are online at abc.net.au/triplej/hack . Irene Scott speaks with Michael, a 25 year old IT worker and Kate O’Toole introduces us to Andrew Campbell, a cyber-psychologist from Sydney University.

The Science Show on Radio Australia has a great feature on internet addiction called Hooked on the Net which covers China as well.

We then look at the new roll-out of an undersea fiber-optic telecommunications networks in the Pacific and we speak with Remi Galasso from SPIN SA and Simon Cooper from Tata Communications. Full interviews with Simon and Remi are in a previous Tech Stream blog post.

Next we meet Matthew Landaeur, one of the founders of OpenAustralia and also their lead developer. The website, openaustralia.org has been setup in Australia to help ordinary people find out what their elected representatives in federal parliament are up to.  There’s a full interview in a previous Tech Stream blog post as well.

And we finish with a look at the gaming news coming out of Blizzcon 2009, the annual event put on by Blizzard to spruik their incredibly popular games franchises like World of Warcraft and Diablo.  Mike Bantick from iTWire and the Byte Into It podcast is on board for the first time with the lowdown on Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 and a new WOW expansion.  You can pick up his in depth coverage of Blizzcon over at iTWire.