I’m leaving Delimiter

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Hi everyone,

hope your week is going well!

Today I have some rather sudden and important news for you all.

I am leaving Delimiter.

In point of fact, I have already left Delimiter.

This week I started a new full-time role as a Business/Writer Editor for the Canberra-headquartered specialist ICT consulting organisation CTO Group.

As such, this article will be the last one that I will write for Delimiter.

Firstly, I wanted to apologise for the sudden nature of this announcement. I had planned to make this announcement at least several weeks in advance so that all Delimiter readers would have time to adjust to the news.

However, events behind the scenes have moved rather too quickly for that, and so I haven’t been able to grant readers this notice.

Right now you’re probably wondering: “What the hell? What happened? What’s going on?”

In essence, I’ve been pondering this kind of shift for the past several months.

As many readers will be aware, I have already left Delimiter once. The site shut down for 12 months from July 2014 as I took an advisor position working for Greens Senator Scott Ludlam.

When that role came to an end in July 2015, I rebooted Delimiter because at the time I felt that I had significant unfinished business with the Federal Parliament.

Burning issues such as the National Broadband Network, Data Retention and Internet Piracy were still festering within Parliament House, and I felt that it would strongly serve the public interest to have a dedicated technology reporter in Canberra reporting on how Australia’s political sector dealt with such topics.

As it turns out, over the past 12 months, I have achieved my aim in significantly raising the profile of these issues.

Issues such as the NBN, data retention and Internet surveillance, piracy and the future of Australia’s technology, startup and even video gaming sectors are now front of mind for many of Australia’s politicians and political parties. We may not always like the policies that some of these parties put forward, but there is no doubt the issues are being very seriously considered.

And I can confidently say that many of the fantastic journalists in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery are now very aware of the importance of these issues.

I would be lying if I said that I felt that the job of writing about these issues was done; it’s not.

But I would also be lying if I felt the same degree of personal drive to write about these issues that I did even 12 months ago.

Every journalist, every writer — every creative professional of any type — must, by the very nature of their work, continue growing and learning, if they are to be true to themselves and maintain their integrity.

At this point, and especially with all that I have been through over the past 12 months, I feel as though I have done everything I want to do as a technology journalist. I have written every article that I have ever wanted to write in this field, and, I hope, I have made a difference. I have tried to do my job as a journalist and hold those in power to account.

With this year’s Federal Election done and dusted, it feels like a good time to tap out and leave this task to the many other talented journalists in this field.

As I pondered this issue over the past several months, I realised that my next step was quite logical.

As a journalist, I have written about the governance of major IT projects and IT services delivery for many years, and I would have to say that this is something I care deeply about. I hate seeing major IT projects and IT services engagements going off the rails, and I have a passion for trying to help them succeed, and do so within budget and on time.

So now I will have a subtle change of emphasis; my aim is to move directly into working directly on the governance and project management processes of major IT projects and IT services processes, rather than reporting on them as a journalist.

CTO Group is a clear leader in this space, especially in Canberra, and I feel that it will be a privilege to work for the company. I am undertaking training in these areas and enjoying what I am learning very much.

To be very clear, this new role means that I will no longer be a journalist. I will not be writing new articles, investigating issues or contacting sources. I have now left that work behind and shifted into a new role.

So now you probably have some questions. I’ll try and answer them here.

Firstly, what will happen with Delimiter?

It’s not clear yet, due to the rapid nature of my move. A number of discussions are continuing behind the scenes. While that process progresses, the site will continue to publish articles penned by my excellent writing contractor Daniel Palmer, as well as syndicated pieces.

I will let readers know when a final direction is chosen, especially the many readers who have become paid members of the site. In the event that the site does not continue as it is, obviously the undelivered portions of those memberships will be reimbursed.

Please get in contact if you or your company are interested in being involved in the future of Delimiter.

Secondly, what will happen with my forthcoming book, The Frustrated State, which analyses the history of technology policy in Australia?

It will proceed as planned. I’ve written too much of it to abandon it now.

And in fact, I plan to eventually publish other books (mainly science fiction and fantasy novels) over the coming decades as well.

I’d like to finally take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved with Delimiter, especially those who have contributed over the past 12 months. Organisations such as Rombii, the Code Co, Pagely and many others have been key to the success of the site.

To my colleagues in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery, thank you for all that you have taught me, and keep on fighting the good fight. This is an endless task, but a worthy one.

And, of course, I’d like to conclude this article by thanking the readers. You are the ones who have made this whole thing worthwhile. I have once again lived and breathed your lives and debates over the past 12 months, and it has been a privilege to do so. We have achieved much together.

I know this is confusing and has come out of the blue. It’s been a difficult decision for me, but I know I have made the right choice.

Stay tuned while we sort out what the future of Delimiter may be without me. And wish me luck as I hop back to the other side of the fence; to the world of technology where my career originally began. The place where most of you are already ;)

Cheers,

Renai

84 COMMENTS

  1. “Live long and prosper”, or is it “So long and thanks for all the fish”!

    Perhaps Karina Keisler can start penning NBN pieces under an assumed name – but they would need to be more regular than annually.

        • Renai for PM I say!

          Well done, mate- no one better could be hoped for in the trenches!!

          The resource bottlenecks are coming and not too many subjects raised Australias absolute fall toward total idiocy than this one… I dare say we will all remember the name, “..Renai!”, with much revered kindness.

          A tribute is called for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGftIcp2SC0

          Keep smiling: this country was good to our parents and well,… we do have the memories at the very least one is quite happy to forcibly suppose!!!

  2. Fuck, no really fuck!

    Delimiter is pretty much the only ICT publication in Australia providing consistently good coverage. The rest as are spotty at best. :-(

    How about handing over the reins to Nick Ross, at lest we know he’ll bring the required forensic analysis Australian ICT deserves to the role?

    • +1 , we are losing a really good thing here.

      Nick Ross seems to already have a role with PC World.

      • Maybe if he’s only tied to a 12 month contract he might be interested in taking it up next year – but Nick did something along these lines in the past, didn’t he? Would he even want to return to running a site like this?

        • I dare say no. Who would? The patience of Job wasn’t a phrase coined by the worlds most printed book for nothing ya know!! The history of the world turned on printing such things but that’s about enough from me…..

    • Delimiter is pretty much the only ICT publication in Australia providing consistently good coverage. The rest as are spotty at best. :-(

      Nailed it.

    • +1

      Nick Ross would be good.

      Nick Ross + David Braue as reporters;
      Would be awesome :D,(a bloke can dream).

      Later, RIPP :)

  3. Oh no, not again Renai!!

    In all seriousness, we will miss you. Thank you for fighting the good fighting and holding companies to account (especially NBN Co). All the best in your new role.

    Nothing against Daniel, but usually we just get a rehashed articles from other websites that are days late. Who is going to be brave enough to write about NBN leaks? :)

    I bet NBN Co are celebrating this news.

  4. Bugger. This is disappointing. This site was one of the few that always felt truly “independent”.

    Good luck in your endeavours Renai. Sad to see you go.

  5. Richard sends his best regards. He has offered to take over as the main Delimiter writer. He promises unbiased articles that take fibre internet seriously. He promises to be in touch with reality.

  6. Well that sucks… Thanks for all your efforts, they have been greatly appreciated.
    Best of luck with the new role, hopefully you get the satisfaction out of it that reporting had ceased to deliver.

  7. If you are going to leave, now is as good as time as any. The election being over and won by the LNP, the direction of the NBN is pretty much set in stone and I doubt anything written now will change that or the mess that it has become. Malcolm has got his way and nothing will stop him from bringing Australia’s communications network to a grinding halt.

    I wish you well for your future endeavours and personally thank you for ‘helping to fight the good fight’. We will all look back on this time of change and shake our collective heads on what the NBN could have been. I am still running into otherwise knowledgeable people who have no idea of the destruction of the fibre network by the LNP. The public is catching on, but unfortunately it is now too late.

    • “Malcolm has got his way and nothing will stop him from bringing Australia’s communications network to a grinding halt.”
      The only reason to keep this site up as far as public political concerns go would be to contribute to the replacement of Turnbull before he is eligible for the larger pension, as he did to Abbott. Unfortunately nothing really seems to be on the horizon in that regard.

      • I don’t really think MT is worried about the pension at all (what with the Cayman island war-chest of investments lol), its more about being PM (prestige) so even if he gets the larger amount losing the PM ship soon thereafter would still be a pretty big deal for him imho.

  8. Translation: I’m exhausted from fighting an unwinnable fight, the Pay Wall wasn’t earning me anything and I’ve decided to go and earn a living.

    Tbh I’m not surprised, you’ve done an admirable job.

    Good luck mate!

  9. Best of wishes in your new career. I can understand your desire for a change – there’s only so many times you can call out the same deceit.
    Perhaps you could do one last article explaining what CTO group actually does – I looked at their webpage and am none the wiser.

    • David, the other strange thing is that the whois record for ctogroup.com.au says the site is registered to CTO GROUP PTY LTD with ACN 145397502 and represented by kane.fillingham@ctogroup.com.au. A quick look at the ASIC site says that the company has Status: Deregistered and Date deregistered: 13/11/2013. Two and a half years is quite a while to be functioning while deregistered. There are two registered business names from 2012 (NSW BN98622268 and ACT F00143875). Make sure you get paid Renai. Something seems strange here.

  10. Thanks for coming back to Delimiter at such an important point a year ago and for all the important work you’ve put in since.

    Good luck in the next venture and I look forward to reading the Frustrated State!

  11. Renai, as a passionate Delimiter reader I wish you every success in your new position.

    My first thought was, how can you leave Delimiter. For the moment, you *are* Delimiter. But I also have the view that with this election result, particular issues have been largely put to bed for now, even if it is the completely wrong outcome. Once again, politics just got in the way.

    All the best.

  12. Best wishes Renai. Sorry to see you go but I’m sure we’ll be hearing from you again. Will be seriously missing your insightful daily articles.

  13. Maybe sell it to NBN Co. They could then use it for propaganda and direct any ad and subscription revenue to the LNP.

  14. Well, good thing I never bought that $129 subscription… turns out even the 6 month subscription would have been a waste!

  15. Best of luck Renai, you know we’ll all miss you!!

    If you find the time, I’d be really interested to still see the odd article from you on your thoughts on switching careers, and things you’ve learned on IT governance and project/service delivery!

  16. Good luck Renai, thanks for covering the NBNco and now the GimpCo saga as best you could without any political bias.

  17. Thanks again Renai, you gave a voice to a forgotten segment of the IT industry with Delimiter. I look forward to reading The Frustrated State, knowing that the frustration won’t be going away anytime soon. I guess you’re reached the limits of one journalist saying the MTM is rubbish.

  18. I find it mildly interesting that with 35 comments (as of 2:15), not one of the LNP shills has posted anything yet.

    • BS! They’re too busy basking in their post election glory and mandate to implement the NBN MTM – or hunting down the people who disclosed info on national security issues like when some of us will get an internet connection that we were promised and are paying for.

      @GongGav, how often do you fanbois want forum comments, quarterly? Hell, why not weekly?! Daily?

      • Hehe. Every 15 minutes will do fine…

        Was more a reflection that they have usually made their presence felt by now so was interesting (mildly at that) that they couldnt be arsed wishing Renai good luck.

        Come to think of it, neither did I though…

        Best of luck Renai, dont forget us.

    • I find it mildly interesting that with 35 comments (as of 2:15), not one of the LNP shills has posted anything yet.

      I expect they’ll see this as good news, they can go back the The Australian now…

    • “not one of the LNP shills has posted anything yet.”

      It didn’t take to long…

      Richard has now posted and also tried to incite/troll people in the same post;

      Pretty pathetic really… Trolling on a goodbye thread is just plain sad.

      Richard (19/07/2016 at 4:13 pm)
      Quote: “The foul-mouthed, squealing, uninformed, taxpayers dependent fiberartzi will likely head to WP. Enjoy it;-)”

      Later, RIPP :)

      • Pretty pathetic really…

        Given his history were you honestly expecting him to post something reasonable?

        • Well technically they weren’t the first ones to cast said stone in this thread.

          ….. GLHF Renai you will be missed!

          • You’re comparing the odd light-hearted, make Richard editor style joke above etc., by some, to what Richard wrote?

            Richard (19/07/2016 at 4:13 pm) Quote: “The foul-mouthed, squealing, uninformed, taxpayers dependent fiberartzi will likely head to WP. Enjoy it;-)”

            Totally different; One seeks to make people giggle,(happy) the other by Richard, seeks to directly troll for comments by inciting negative emotions from an agressively abusive post against most of the delimiter posters.

            Later, RIPP :)

      • Did we hurt the know-nothing, brain-dead troll’s feelings?

        awwwwwww …… diddums ?

  19. Good luck with the new job.

    I hope you are right about other Canberra journalists are becoming (slightly) more tech concerned. They seem to be letting Malcolm’s $20 billion MTM blowout pass without scrutiny. Not to mention Turnbull’s repeated blanket statement that he single handedly brought order out of the “chaotic” NBN he inherited. See last nigh’t 7.30 Report in which the assertion went unchallenged.

  20. All the best Renai. Having a trusted source of information is rare given the amount of bias, BS and spin that usually accompany articles. This trusted source will be missed.

  21. Best of luck in your new venture Renai. I am no “Tech Head” but enjoy reading your articles particularly the NBN articles.

  22. Putting your recent qualification to good use. IT sector a wonderful career, doing infinitely better than writing about it. Best of luck, it’s been enlightening.

    The foul-mouthed, squealing, uninformed, taxpayers dependent fiberartzi will likely head to WP. Enjoy it;-)

    • Where will you get your fix? You’ve been banned on most tech forms. You’d probably do well on a white surpremist forum, hey love a bit of hate speach

      • Better off joining up with the blue-rinse set knitting group. They can gossip all they like there without hurting anyone, except for their own integrity.

      • Yeah, he comes across as just being very business oriented with no actual life/family experience/baring at all.

        Maybe you’d be happier in the US Richard? I’m not sure Australia or Europe would be your “cup of tea”…

        • “Maybe you’d be happier in the US Richard?”

          I don’t think so.

          If he come over here with his attitude, he would find himself dragged into an dark alley and beat up on a daily basis.

  23. Renai – Wishing you all the best :)

    Try to get someone decent to keep Delimiter up though for tech news and as an unbiased, keep the bastards honest/accountable,(re. comms atleast) website.

    Not many websites/journalists not drinking nbn/lnp koolaid, or influenced by uncle Rupert, writing/publishing, decent researched articles around on a regular basis.

    David Braue & Nick Ross mentioned by others above, would make decent writers/editors for the site, if they were interested.

    Have fun with your new career :)

    Later, RIPP.

  24. Two wishes…
    “Fair Winds and Following Seas”
    “So long and thanks for all the fish…”

  25. Oh no. I just bought a subscription not long ago. I don’t have any other paid subscriptions for IT newsletters because they simply aren’t the quality of what Renai produces. I hope the cut off date for subscription refunds starts today as I am not interested in a different writer. It is not what I invested in.
    Ask the best in the future Renai.
    Hope your new challenges turn out to be all you want them to be.

  26. As an IT enthusiast and professional journalist, you will be missed, Renai.

    Perhaps Delimiter can serve as street-cred and you could do some guest columns for some mainstream media too. While we all like to criticise some publications, perhaps you could present some balance or even (gasp) educate some of Murdoch’s readers? In any case, I’m sure we’d all love to see your well considered opinions in front of an even bigger audience. Just a thought…

  27. Shame to see you go, I hope delimiter is around for a long time, there really isn’t an alternative/replacement.

  28. You know what I’m going to miss the most? A sensible, informed place for discussion. Thanks for the playground, Renai, it will be missed.

    To all the commenters who have added such tremendous value to these discussions, thank you for your thoughts and your time – much respect. And good luck out there – we’re in for a bumpy few decades – few are aware of just how much the world is about to change after the events of the past few months.

    Cya ’round (but don’t expect to recognise me ;-)

    UG / TrevorX

  29. Well damnit… I was wondering why there was a change of articles as of late =/

    Guy goes off overseas and comes back to see Renai has left again xD

    A heck of a lot late.. but good luck on the new gig Renai. Aus IT coverage won’t be the same w/ you off again!

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