The Earl of Wentworth is debasing himself
Turnbull has already been forced to make too many political compromises to prevail against a man who has never given in ... nor faced the voters on election day. Quigley is the real deal. And the sooner the Earl of Wentworth realises that, the better.
Conroy’s wrong on net filtering
Take the money allocated to the technical path and distribute it across the other goals of the overall cyber safety policy of the government, and we'll all be in a better place.
Why data breach reporting should be mandatory
As we move forward in this era of online transactions and social media, there’s a need for security and privacy legislation to keep pace. Most importantly, there’s a need for Australians to feel confident that their personal information is being kept safe by those we entrust it to.
Internet: ignorance is the real threat
In the 21st century it should be utterly unacceptable to elect representatives who wilfully fail to understand how our country has changed in the presence of technology.
Laptops for schools should have been iPads
Let's not kid ourselves that this was the right choice. Had the politicians waited several years and spent its money on tablets instead, Australia's education system would have been the envy of the entire world.
Why AFACT is wrong (and always will be)
The expression ‘copyright theft’ is a paradox: it is impossible to take away a person’s right to copy information or ideas. ‘Theft’ is used to misinform the public, media and, most importantly, lawmakers, in order to outlaw what many see as perfectly normal behaviour.
Oh dear: Telstra’s cyber-safety quadrants
We think Australia's telcos might be taking cyber-safety a little too seriously, if this video by Telstra is any indication.
Premises passed the only useful NBN measurement
The National Broadband Network Company and the Federal Government should standardise on the "premises passed" statistic to measure the network's progress and stop using the confusing and amorphous "premises commenced or completed" measurement to provide concrete detail on how well it is progressing against its network rollout targets.
Multi-dwelling units a major issue for the NBN
The experiencein Hong Kong and Singapore suggests that NBN Co. in Australia will ultimately be able to gain access to most – but maybe not all – multi-dwelling units with recalcitrant owners to complete its network rollout, but doing so will require the patience of Job and might take a lot longer than anyone thought.
Media companies don’t get it: Open market = sales
The running gag on the interwebs is that Aussies are the best BitTorrent downloaders in the world. When will companies realise that there are people willing to pay for content, and that piracy is a market correction to supply an obvious demand?
Victoria is ‘gun shy’ on big IT projects
We may be at the end of a major IT project era until the Government’s confidence in its ability to successfully deliver large IT-enabled transformation projects is restored.
Is Australia facing another ICS-style IT disaster?
As I have watched the Australian Taxation Office's troubled IT Change Program sink to new and disturbing lows over the past few months, I can't help but be reminded of that other Federal Government IT initiative that cost the nation so much -- both financially and in others' confidence in our ability to drive major IT projects.
Rip-off: NBN business plans miss the point
The infrastructure being deployed as part of the National Broadband Network isn’t just for consumers; it will also be used extensively by businesses and non-profit organisations. But the business-focused NBN plans released so far don’t deliver on the network’s promise; being little more than more extensive versions of NBN consumer plans.
Tiny niche ISPs join the NBN market
When you think about competition on the National Broadband Network, you normally think about major telcos like Telstra, Optus and iiNet battling it out to win Australia's broadband spend. But the truth is that a large number of very small ISPs have already joined the NBN market and are also competing.
Is our SAP user group too close to SAP?
I’d love to hear from some IT managers and CIOs out there about what they think of SAUG’s latest moves. Is it just me, or this one vendor relationship that is a little too close?
The election is over: Now the FTTP campaign begins
Malcolm Turnbull's arrogant response to a petition calling for the Coalition to support Labor's NBN policy shows the Coalition still hasn't learnt the lesson activists rammed down Labor's throat in the previous Internet filter and data retention debacles: People power can get unpopular policies changed.
Pro-NBN fanbois have fallen into bad habits
Like mindless junkies scrabbling for their latest fix, the virulent community of pro-NBN extremists in Australia's technology sector will do or say almost anything to prove the Coalition's NBN policy to be completely worthless, despite the fact that it shares most of its fundamental principles with Labor's own superior broadband vision.
FactCheck: will regional internet users pay more under the Coalition’s NBN plan?
Both major parties are trying to convince voters that their plan is better than their competitor’s. So, is it true that the Coalition’s broadband plan will cost more for regional households and businesses?
Anti-piracy scheme throws users to the legal wolves
The anti-piracy scheme proposed by the ISP industry this afternoon as a response to online copyright infringement through platforms like BitTorrent opens the door for content owners to start taking hundreds of thousands of Australians to court for minor offences such as downloading a handful of films or TV episodes.
Google: Filter could legitimise overseas censorship
While Google views comparisons of Australia’s filtering proposal to China's censorship regime as unhelpful and inappropriate, we also worry that the Government’s plans to enforce mandatory filtering could legitimise government censorship elsewhere, and is a first step away from free expression and a free and open Internet.
Without civil liberties, government is just a criminal racket
Even if we choose to believe Senator Stephen Conroy's claim that this is only about protecting us from inadvertent access to child abuse material, once the system is in place, could a government resist the temptation not to extent the scope just a little bit? And a little bit more?
Oh dear: There is a StarCraft II truck driving around Brisbane
Title says it all, really. The game launches on Monday.
First impressions of the new Realestate.com.au
Certainly they could have done more, and I am not a fan of everything that they have changed but with the number one site in the space you have to be mindful of the "If it ain't broke don’t fix it" rule.
Oh dear: NBN, ABC and … 4chan?
After our recent article on a pamphlet drop by NBN Tasmania, some readers have suggested the fledgling Taswegian company might have gone a bit far with its logo.
The politics of unshackling the NBN from politics
A long-term industry has been shackled to three-year political terms for far too long. The only way to unshackle NBN from politics is to get government out of the marketplace where it exists. Of course, the legacy of sunk costs will make this difficult. But by the time we stop bickering about the latest lot of reports, it will be time to deal with the next communications technology problem.
Hypocrisy: Turnbull’s NBN board choices belie his Labor criticism
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has spent much of the past year telling anybody who will listen that NBN Co's board needs more directors with actual telco network construction experience. Yet the candidates he's appointed or been reported to have approached so far for board positions cannot claim that background, and several have close ties to Turnbull's own Liberal Party.
Connecting to Australia’s first digital technology curriculum
Australia finally has its first digital technology curriculum which is mandatory for all Australian children from Foundation, the name replacing kindergarten, to Year 8.
Fact Check: Is ridesharing no safer than hitchhiking?
The claim that ridesharing is no safer than hitchhiking is not supported by empirical data. Much of the data used by critics of Uber rely on anecdotal data and media reports to support their view ridesharing puts passengers at personal risk.
Why are media giants so afraid of technology?
What our media companies should take from the popularity of piracy, even in Australia, is how this new medium (the big, bad Internet) can be used as a distribution channel for the new generation of media consumer.
Electronic voting may be risky, but what about vote counting?
The right technologies, deployed in the right way, can assist with speeding up vote counts without putting the integrity of our voting system at risk. The place for that technology is not as a replacement for the paper ballot.
Oh dear: Filter issue dogs Kate Lundy
You can't blame Kate Lundy for trying. The Labor Senator is one of the most enlightened in her party when it comes to technology, and while she doesn't always agree with some of its policies, she tries to make the best of a bad situation.
Server vendors’ days are numbered
This week I had a conversation with an Australian chief information officer which I considered both profoundly interesting -- but also extremely disturbing.
The Change Program is a failure … and that’s not all
There is absolutely no question that the Change Program is a failure. It's over budget by hundreds of millions of dollars, it's late, and by late I mean publicly announced "delayed" so many times that it's hard to remember what decade it's meant to be delivered. And now we hear that the first instalment of the software has miserably failed the very customers who paid for it.
What now after the Dallas Buyers Club pirate claim is rejected as ‘surreal’?
Time and again, Australians have shown they are willing to pay for reasonably priced and accessible content. Copyright owners who try to extort money from downloaders are going about this the wrong way.
Oh dear: Telstra comes to the mountain
It's safe to say that Australia's largest telco Telstra hasn't exactly had the *best* of relationships with the fiery denizens that reside in the deep and swirling waters known as Whirlpool. And who can blame it?
R18+ rating added for videogames … but are children protected?
New guidelines for the classification of videogames have been released by Federal Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare and, despite being a step in the right direction, the revisions are largely disappointing and a missed opportunity.
Calm down, Australian intelligence forces are just doing their job
Revelations about Australia’s alleged spy network in Asia and listening posts in our embassies across the Pacific might be diplomatically awkward. But it doesn’t mean intelligence agencies have “gone rogue”.
iiNet’s Hollywood ending: what does its court victory mean for copyright law?
In what is being billed as iiNet versus Hollywood, the Australian internet service provider has come out an apparent winner after the High Court dismissed a copyright infringement case brought by industry movie studios. Nicolas Suzor, lecturer, Faculty of Law at Queensland University of Technology, explains the decision and what it means.
Burned by their own hubris: Every party to the Kogan Mobile fiasco brought their...
There are no victims in this complete debacle: Like the fated heroes of the Greek tragedies, every party involved in the Kogan Mobile catastrophe brought their own injury on themselves.
BT FTTN rollout shows what Australia could have had
The success of BT's fibre to the node rollout must come as a stark reminder of what could have been achieved in Australia over the past eight years if the various players had stopped their incessant, poisoned infighting on the broadband issue.
The ACCC is falling too far in love with the NBN
In rubber-stamping the uncompetitive $800 million deal which Optus has signed with NBN Co, the national competition regulator has signalled a disturbing loss of independence and an obsequious willingness to make the Federal Government's National Broadband Network project succeed at all costs.
The real reason The Hoff is in Sydney
Delimiter can exclusively reveal that the iconic American actor has been in Australia for the past six months, on a secretive mission to aid Australia's technology sector in its quest to finally overtake Silicon Valley and become the premiere global market for technology companies.
Building a financial system for a cashless age
If the Financial System Inquiry is to achieve its aim of helping to promote growth and productivity in the Australian economy it will need to focus strongly on electronic payments.
Turnbull again misleads public on NBN
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has this week made a number of misleading and factually inaccurate statements in a series of interviews and comments about the Government's National Broadband Network project, on topics ranging from the technology used in the project to its cost and retail broadband prices.
How long can Atlassian stay Australian?
We're not going to build a great Australian technology sector if we constantly have our eyes tuned towards the Silicon Valley stars and our hearts tuned towards the pages of the Wall St Journal and TechCrunch. That can only be done if we reinvest constantly in the Australian market, base our companies here, refuse to be acquired by US multinationals and maintain the Australian rage.
Free to fail: Why corporates are learning to love venture capital
Opening a venture capital branch seems to be the new “thing” in the corporate world. While Telstra and Westpac are the new big national players, Google is clearly ahead of the curve, with two distinct venture capital firms: the newly launched Google Capital and the five-year-old Google Ventures. But why are so many companies, across a range of sectors, now running to open their own venture capital funds?
Beyond Silicon Valley: Start-up hubs in Australia’s backyard
The next Atlassian could be started by a pair of Chinese students studying right now in Melbourne, or an Australian-born Vietnamese or Indian entrepreneur who can leverage transnational family connections and build a fast-growing company.
Now it gets interesting: Australia has its first digitally literate Prime Minister
Australia has never before in its history had a digitally literate Prime Minister of the likes of Malcolm Turnbull.
Will smart meters benefit consumers?
There are pros and cons of all forms of roll-outs. Network led geographic roll-outs may offer economies of scale but retailer led roll-outs may allow for more effective targeting of smart meters (for example, large users could get meters first). Whoever rolls out smart meters however, it is the consumer who will pay the costs. Consumers, therefore, should see some benefits.
How much did Gillard’s endorsement cost IBM?
This morning IBM achieved what can only be described as a sensational marketing coup: It convinced Australia's Prime Minister to get up on a stage and enthusiastically sing the praises of its corporate brand in front of a national audience.
The RBA state-sponsored hack attack (or phishing for a story)
You’ll have seen the fallout this week regarding a so-called “spearphishing” attack on the Reserve Bank of Australia in 2011. As with most media reports on cyber-attacks, this one appears to have been overhyped. So what really happened?
Power plays: Vendors court Thodey
If you watched closely, you could see a thousand naked power plays being performed yesterday during Telstra chief executive David Thodey's speech to the Trans-Tasman Business Circle.
How important will NBN contention ratios be?
Will cheaper ISPs provide a degraded level of service on the NBN compared to 'premium' ISPs, through the use of poorer contention ratios? We'll look at both sides of the issue in this follow-up article on the future of retail ISP competition under the NBN.
Australian Amazon datacentre? Or just a CDN node?
There's simply no way that Australia will see an Amazon datacentre presence consisting of anything like the same scale that the company has deployed in the US, Europe, or even Japan. What we will see is likely something like Amazon Edge, plus a little bit on the side. Datacentre rollouts are more complex than headlines would make them out to be -- and so are commercial decisions for a company as big as Amazon Web Services.
FTTN or FTTP? Both. The NBN should be hybrid.
It's time to get away from the Fibre to the Premises/Fibre to the Node debate, writes Progressive Democratic Party director and IT consultant Michael Berry, and acknowledge that Australia's National Broadband Network should include elements of both.
Red underpants? Yes, Minister, says Hackett
It looks as if Internode founder Simon Hackett has taken Communications Minister Stephen Conroy’s infamous “red underpants” comments a little seriously, if this photo from CommsDay’s Melbourne Congress this morning is any indication. Oh, dear.
Higher 100Mbps uptake will spur NBN price cuts
If Australians continue to buy 100Mbps NBN services at the current rate, it is likely that the real-world consumer cost of accessing the NBN will come down substantially over time, as the network will pay for its own construction much faster than the National Broadband Network Company had been anticipating.
AGIMO needs a little Obama magic
It's hard to imagine AGIMO getting to the point where it has the direct support and interest of Australia's Prime Minister of the day in its efforts. But, if we've learnt anything from Vivek Kundra in the US, it's that this kind of executive-level buy-in is possible.
McAfee is calm, collected … and doomed
The bug that McAfee suffered last week has the potential to very seriously undermine its business prospects in Australia in the medium term.
Memo to Minister Turnbull: NBN dissent is “democracy”
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull needs to stop engaging in attacks on those who support a Fibre to the Premises model for the NBN and commit to an open and transparent review process for the network, according to telecommunications blogger and IT technician James Archer.
Australia desperately needs stable telco policy
The long-term nature of infrastructure investment and the squabbling of the past half-decade has made it increasingly clear that a bi-partisan approach to telecommunications policy is needed in Australia. The only difficulty may be convincing our arrogant, indecisive, stubborn and incredibly own-party blinkered political leaders that they should sit across the table from each other and discuss the issue like adults.
Australia Post digital delivery may yield few returns to spender
The big question is whether digital mail is a solution looking for a problem that hasn’t already been solved. Here, I am not convinced. The technology to achieve a digital mailbox using ordinary email with digital signatures and encryption has been around for a very long time.
Small business missing the mobile, social, cloud revolution
Most companies that live and breathe the online revolution are not tech startups, but smart smaller firms that use online tools to run their core business better: to cut costs, reach customers and suppliers, innovate and get more control. Many others, however, are falling behind, according to a new Grattan Institute discussion paper.
Save the NBN Kevin, you’re our only hope
The fate of the National Broadband Network now rests squarely in the hands of Kevin Rudd. If the former Prime Minister wins power back from Julia Gillard, Labor has a chance of retaining power at the next election and continuing the NBN rollout. If he fails to do so, most commentators agree, Gillard will be annihilated and Abbott will scrap the project wholesale.
Commission of Audit: Digital disruption needed (business as usual not an option)
What does it take to deliver on a digital transformation agenda that the National Commission of Audit has explicitly described as “not business as usual”? As we transition from a 60 to 100 year old operating model of government, a fundamental re-imagining of what is meant by “public service” is needed.
Who owns footy rights? Optus web copyright victory explained
Yesterday’s Federal Court ruling that Optus customers are able to view sporting matches minutes after they are streamed live without breaching copyright is a landmark decision that alters our understanding of copyright law, and has significant implications for the AFL’s broadcasting rights deal.
“Destructive forces” unravelling NBN, says Budde
"Destructive forces" at work in a "highly polarised political environment" are starting to "unravel" Labor's National Broadband Network project, veteran analyst Paul Budde said yesterday, with the new Coalition Government having boxed itself into a corner on the issue and end users set to suffer from a nightmarish situation akin to a "Pandora's Box" of problems.
Wi-Fi patent has driven CSIRO money mad
The CSIRO should give up its pointless chase of global technology giants and telcos, and let sleeping laptops lie.
As laptop scheme ends, what next for families and learning?
The computers for schools program, which involved federal funding for the supply of laptops to high school students, is set to end in June. The program was a central piece of the former government’s “digital revolution” but is being discontinued by the current government. The end of the program is already having consequences for schools and for families.
The great NBN sell-off has already begun
NBN Co, we hardly knew ye. Make no mistake: Tony Abbott's new Coalition Government does not want to own a national broadband monopoly. The process of selling NBN Co to the private sector has already begun, and will be accelerated over the next several years.
Is there any future for Telstra at all?
I couldn't help but get the impression that these negotiations, whichever way they come out, give every sign of being Telstra's "last hurrah" as a relevancy in Australian communications.
Turnbull’s Quigley slander is flatly offensive
Malcolm Turnbull’s dogged attacks on the highly capable and transparent chief executive of the National Broadband Company are without basis and run contrary to the Shadow Communications Minister’s public call recently for truth, leadership and responsibility to re-enter Australia’s political sphere.
Reality check: Telstra 4G not aimed at the NBN
Those claiming that Telstra's 4G mobile broadband rollout is a shot across the bow of the fibre National Broadband Network need to take a chill pill and look a bit harder at what the company is really aiming to achieve with the project: Freed up capacity on its existing mobile infrastructure to deal with existing demand.
Making Don Malone an offer he can’t refuse
This week we're running a series of articles looking at why it's unlikely that iiNet will be acquired anytime soon, despite Amcom's decision to divest its 23 percent stake in the ISP. Yesterday we looked at potential buyers; today we're looking at iiNet's executive team.
Morrow must receive the dignity that Quigley never did
Those opposed to the Coalition's rival broadband policy must not step over the line into offensiveness in their pursuit of NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow over past failures at US utility Pacific Gas & Electric. The better path of valor would be to treat Morrow with the same level of respect and dignity that his predecessor Mike Quigley deserved, but never got.
The only winner from the IT price hike inquiry is Ed Husic
The price hike inquiry has already benefited one individual very strongly: Ed Husic, the passionate first term MP who may very well be leading Labor's broadband portfolio following the Federal Election.
Oh dear: Conroy watched the soccer during the spill
Draped in the colours of his favoured soccer teams (Chelsea and the Socceroos), Conroy made it clear he was quite busy on the night of the spill.
A code of ethics in IT: just lip service or something with bite?
The emissions scandal that has rocked the car maker Volkswagen has again raised the issue of ethical standards in the tech industry. Reports so far say the company is pointing finger at the “unlawful behaviour of engineers and technicians involved in engine development”. But that’s led to questions about the strength of any codes or practice or ethics that such operators are supposed to comply with. So are such codes any good or are they just words? Here two software experts present both sides of the argument.
Was the Coalition’s Huawei debate just political theatre?
If you believe everything you read, over the past several weeks a ferocious debate took place between senior Government Ministers about whether Huawei should be allowed to bid for National Broadband Network contracts. But the discipline and unity historically displayed by Tony Abbott's Cabinet hints at a more nuanced process, and one that may have all just been for show.
Goddamnit, just make Malcolm Turnbull Comms Minister already
For all the sweet love of Jesus that everyone knows you hold in your godfearing soul, Mr Abbott, forgive Malcolm Turnbull just enough to make him Communications Minister.
Senate circus shows politics has no place in NBN
As Stephen Conroy interrogated the incoming NBN Co chief Ziggy Switkowski in last week’s Senate hearing into the network’s rollout, it became increasingly clear that politics is getting in the way of good policy.
Five reasons Australian email belongs in the cloud
If your company or organisation is not currently considering migrating its email systems onto a cloud computing platform, then you're in danger of being left behind.
How seriously should we take Ruslan Kogan?
As we said before, Ruslan Kogan is a talented, visionary and successful entrepreneur who deserves our attention. But the events of the past few weeks have demonstrated we simply cannot take the maverick businessman at his word -- because he has done little over the past week to back up some very large and very public claims with hard evidence.
BigPond broadband is cheap as chips
I stumbled upon a shocking and unbelievable truth when casually browsing around the websites of several of Australia's top internet service providers this afternoon.
Aussie Govts don’t know how to buy open source
There is huge potential for governments to reduce costs and increase community value by embracing the collaborative technologies of Open Source and Open Standards. But in order to achieve this, governments need to make fundamental changes to funding practices in order to recognise the cross-agency value of collaborative technologies.
WA shared services disaster a warning to others
The decision by the West Australian (WA) government to abandon its shared corporate services is a salutary reminder of the governance realities of the Westminster system of government. Portfolio and agency autonomy is the dominant force whatever the desires of central agencies and the grand plans cooked up for them by consultants. Just because benefits appear compelling in a spreadsheet does not mean that they can be realised in practice.
A change in Australia’s web rules would open up the .au space
If you want to register an Australian web address, your options may be about to change due to a review of domain name policy that is currently underway.
Google shouldn’t stop collecting Wi-Fi data
Google's decision to stop its Street View cars collecting harmless data on the location of Wi-Fi hotspots (including in Australia) is an over-reaction to the baseless concerns of a few privacy experts and should be reversed.
The truth about politicians and technology policy
The recent adult rating for computer games debate has raised a concept that I’ve alluded to a few times in the media recently (and if you’re unlucky enough to be someone who knows me in a private sense, you’ll have had it there too), namely the dichotomy of what democracy means – how politicians view it and how everyone else does.
Bevan and Baxter: Two more for the NBN board
Last week we proposed Internode founder Simon Hackett as a prime candidate to sit on NBN Co’s newly refreshed board under Tony Abbott’s new Coalition Government. Today we add two new prospective names to the list: PIPE Networks’ influential founders Bevan Slattery and Steve Baxter.
Why NBN prices will be higher (by Malcolm Turnbull)
In this post, Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull responds to the claim that broadband pricing will not increase under Labor's National Broadband Network plan.
Curmudgeon: 3D smartphones have no depth of feel
3D smartphones won't succeed as gaming or content consumption devices, but that doesn't mean they won't find their niche.
Anti-NBN junkies need to go to rehab
Like the junkie who can't quite quit their harmful habit, the haters of the NBN project just refuse to give up the object of their fervent hatred, fumbling around in the dark continuously for their next fix; the next flawed argument that might just prove once and for all that the project is a dud.
The Australian public cares about privacy: Do politicians?
Two documents released this week highlight divergent views among the community and politicians.
NBN Senate Committee politicised from start
The Senate's move to force senior executives from the National Broadband Network Company to appear before its new NBN committee starkly demonstrates the extreme degree of politicisation which the NBN project as a whole is subject to.
Why I didn’t expect AFACT to appeal
The plot of AFACT vs iiNet is very similar to that of gritty Baltimore drama The Wire -- only without so many guns.
NBN petition and the backlash: When does democracy speak?
Malcolm Turnbull may believe that democracy has spoken; but now is the time for democracy to shout back.
My first iPad experience
This morning I held the iPad for the first time. It was not the romantic moment I had hoped for. It felt heavier than I expected and a little smaller. But then I turned it on and after it flipped every which way, I found myself staring at SmartCompany. It looked so slick!
Westpac: A case study for the complex cloud
Until we start to have more complex debates about cloud computing, Australian CIOs will face great challenges in explaining the right path forward for their organisation to senior executives such as CEOs and CFOs. Because right now, 'cloud' covers so much under one umbrella that many CIOs are switching off when they hear the term used ... while most CEOs and CFOs no doubt think, when they think about the cloud, that it's a catch-all solution to every problem.
Stop the personal attacks, now (by Mike Quigley)
The past week has seen the debate over the National Broadband Network take a disappointing turn. It has moved away from arguments over the pros and cons of building a ubiquitous network available to every premise in Australia to an unfounded attack on the integrity of myself as the chief executive of NBN Co and on my chief financial officer, Jean-Pascal Beaufret.
The iiBorg are assimilating all NBN competition
You can easily imagine what coffee meetings with Michael Malone must be like these days. "Resistance is futile," the leader of the growing iiBorg empire would sternly tell anyone brave enough to enter his company's headquarters. "You will be assimilated. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own."
Monitor, Police, Control: Australian Attorney-Generals’ war on the Internet
Australia's two most recent Attorneys-General distinguished themselves during their tenure by demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of the dynamics of the modern Internet; seeking to monitor, control and contain it at all costs. Now they've both announced plans to quit politics. Will our next chief lawmaker do any better?
Chekhov’s gun: Why Hackett had to fire Internode
Reality check: Simon Hackett didn't sell Internode because of the National Broadband Network. He didn't sell it to cash out. And he certainly didn't sell it to take Internode to the next stage of its development. He sold it because one man -- no matter how strong -- can only hold up a visionary ideal for so long, and twenty years of doing so is more than enough.
The NBN should be opt-out — not opt-in
There are already plenty of good reasons why all Australians should have to actively opt-out from having their houses connected to the NBN, rather than having to opt-in.
Cost benefit rationality of the false NBN dichotomy
The truth is -- as Malcolm Turnbull has been at pains to point out, to his peril -- that the private sector has stood willing and able to replace and upgrade vast chunks of Australia's ageing yet still very functional telecommunications infrastructure for some time– as long as that ever tricky requirement falls into place – regulatory certainty.
How to understand NAB’s core banking strategy
If you follow Australia’s banking technology scene closely, no doubt you’ve probably become quite confused over the past four or so years about the National Australia Bank’s core banking overhaul strategy and how precisely it is actually put together and progressing; and you wouldn’t be the only one. But if you delve a little under the surface it all becomes clear.
Abandoning the “National” Broadband Network label
It is no longer appropriate in 2014 for Australians to refer to the Coalition's radically watered down version of Labor's pet telecommunications initiative as the "National" Broadband Network project, given the fact that it will leave the long-term future of up to a third of Australians' broadband services in doubt.
Hospital attack shows the risk of still running Windows XP
A virus attack on the computer system of one of Melbourne’s largest hospital networks is cause for concern because it affected machines running Microsoft’s Windows XP, an operating system no longer supported by the software giant.
Relax: Conroy’s filter can be safely ignored
The government does not care, in the least, whether you reconfigure your system to bypass the filter, or teach a hundred people to each teach a hundred others to do it.
Anti-piracy lobby still suffering from self-delusion
Most Australians understand that the only solution to the nation's record Internet piracy rates is for the film and TV industry to follow the music, book and gaming sectors and make their content available online in a timely, affordable and convenient manner. But that's a truth rights holders and their lobbyists seem unwilling to accept.
Implementation study gets the NBN numbers wrong
The McKinsey-KPMG national broadband network implementation study released last week by Stephen Conroy is deeply flawed. Even if we overlook very optimistic assumptions and logical inconsistencies, its fatal flaw is that it fails Finance 101.
How can small booksellers get ahead with eBooks?
If B&T and Blio can work out a format and DRM regime that won’t annoy the long-suffering consumers already overburdened with DRM, incompatible devices and numerous apps required to read a book, having friendly local sellers onside may be the secret ingredient in winning the format wars!
Google has lost its startup culture … and its mojo
The departure of high-profile and long-serving senior managers Kate Vale and Lars Rasmussen from Google Australia this month represents more than just the typical losses of a couple of mid-level employees to greener pastures.
Oh dear: Mario gets jiggy with it
When Nintendo invited us to a harbour cruise to celebrate the launch of its flagship new game Super Mario Galaxy 2, we knew it was going to be big. After all, the Japanese gaming giant pulled out all the stops and organised Ministry of Sound's DJ Goodwill to "mash a mix of Mario tunes".
Trolling our way to national security
Yesterday's Daily Telegraph features a call to action – an Internet petition to stop trolling (the media definition of any offensive or deliberately hurtful behaviour online, not the traditional definition). This is both terrible journalism and falling for a trap.
“Way of the future”: Turnbull confirms “optimised” NBN rollout model
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull today confirmed the Federal Government would follow NBN Co's recommendation in adopting an "optimised" model for deploying the National Broadband Network "sooner, cheaper and more affordably", in a move that will see the company roll out the "maximum" amount of existing network infrastructure.
At least two web browsers for every Australian desktop: It should be mandatory
In mid-2008, a government staffer at an employee town hall meeting being held by the US State Department got up to ask Secretary of State Hilary Clinton what appeared to be a rather unusual question for the venue. "Can you please let the staff use an alternative web browser called Firefox?" asked public affairs officer Jim Finkle.
Before this decade is OUT: What if the “giants of the web” designed government...
What have we learnt from the past decade of "government online"? And what could we learn from the giants of the web? This is an examination of how an understanding of complex systems, risk and common patterns can be applied in an economy-wide effort of breakthrough innovation to drive the digital transformation of government service delivery over the next decade.
Dark day for the ACCC as it abandons competition
The Government and the NBN Co have decided to use our taxes to buy out Optus' competition just as they have done with Telstra’s HFC. A black day indeed for the ACCC and competition in Australia.
Forget ‘cloud-first’: Australia’s public sector is following the globe into ‘cloud-only’
Burned by a decade's worth of failures of major on-premises IT projects, 2013 was the year that Australia's State Governments almost universally declared they would take a "cloud-first" approach to IT procurement. But there are already signs that the next stage of this process is underway, and that "cloud-first" may inevitably become "cloud-only".
Loyal to a fault: Switkowski is deeply Turnbull’s man
Ziggy Switkowski's first substantial public appearance since being appointed NBN Co chief executive has starkly demonstrated just how different he is from his predecessor, Mike Quigley, and just how strictly he will adhere to the guidelines which his patron, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, has set for him.
Tasmania’s dirty bunyip not the last
There's more dodgy laws in the swamp where Tasmania's ridiculous electoral online comment legislation came from.
Telstra’s ticking clock
NBN Co is trying to negotiate a deal based on a conviction that Telstra's copper network has already been massively devalued, while Telstra is trying to negotiate an outcome that salvages some of that value.
Five ways NZ is smarter than Australia on broadband
In Australia, poking fun at our New Zealand cousins has become more than just a hobby over the years; these days it enjoys the status of a national sport. However, when it becomes to broadband, the situation has been turned on its head: New Zealand is doing everything right that we are doing wrong. Here's five ways the Kiwis are smarter than us in this critical area.
Five reasons Australians should quit Facebook
Is this a company that Australia should be supporting? Not in my book.
How does fibre over powerlines stack up against other potential NBN technologies?
Tasmania’s assertive push to keep up deployment of optical fibre, and make it cost effective by using overhead rollout, makes a lot of sense. In urban areas, no other technology has a feasible lifetime beyond 2025, and many of the existing broadband technologies are already obsolete with no hope of evolution. It will work for the vast majority of urban areas.
Where’s My Jetpack? An awesomely epic rant by Australia’s new CTO
If you have even the slightest interest in government IT or technology project management, we recommend you sit down with a cup of tea and your tablet and read this epic rant by Australia's new chief technology officer John Sheridan. It's worth it.
AFL rights: Optus, Telstra in a techno-legal time warp
The danger here is that regulators go with a business-friendly commercial fix, rather than regulation in the public interest. At the heart of capitalist property law is the right to exploit: just ask Optus.
Fact check: The NBN wasn’t a “media stunt”
Free market thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs recently claimed Labor’s flagship National Broadband Network project was drawn up purely as a “media stunt” to drum up publicity for the Government. Unfortunately, this is a factually inaccurate statement, and here’s the evidence to prove it.
Australians still overwhelmingly support the NBN
Research from the University of Melbourne shows that Australians still overwhelmingly support Labor's National Broadband Network project, despite the fact that the same research shows newspapers have been overwhelmingly negative about the project.
Election rant 5: Can we even use a Terabyte a month?
The Coalition got a lot of things wrong with its election broadband policy, wireless being the chief one. But Finance Spokesperson Andrew Robb got one thing dead right: Australia's telecommunications market has not failed.
Telstra Health will hold Australians’ cancer details, so we need to ensure their privacy...
Clearly, the cancer screening registry contract is only the first of the potential outsourcing of health programs. It creates a precedent that needs to be right.
BlackBerry tablet too little, too late for corporate Australia
This is the reality that Blackberry maker is currently facing in the Australian marketplace. Its products are no longer considered hot in the minds of executives in either the business or government sectors.
ISP filtering policy is not evidence-based
The principle objection I have is that the policy mandates that ISPs spend a huge sum of money to deploy and maintain masses of new infrastructure. Whether this burden is passed onto Australians via taxes or via increased ISP fees, we will end up paying for it. We will end up paying, and it won't do anything.
Turnbull’s MTM CBN should not be a monopoly
The only way for Labor's all-fibre National Broadband Network to sensibly function was for it to be a legislated infrastructure monopoly. But the Coalition's watered-down, multi-technology alternative is a very different kettle of fish, and consumers will clearly benefit if rival telcos such as Telstra, Optus and TPG are allowed to overbuild portions of the network.
Apple’s Samsung lawsuit raises wider patent questions
The mobile patent wars, it seems, have reached Australian shores.
Macquarie opens kimono on IT operations
One of Australia's largest but most secretive IT end user organisations has this week given industry observers a tantalising glimpse of its broad IT strategy, including staff restructuring across the board, back-office systems integrations and offshoring moves.
Four Corners report short on technical detail
When is Australia's technology sector going to get the full picture on what went on at BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue?
The Australian IT sector needs a stronger voice
The call for a technology policy think tank is opportune and probably long overdue. The Australian IT industry is a massive industry, a huge success story for Australia, and well deserving of its own voice.
Australia Post, Telstra and the ‘dying business’ dilemma
Who would run a former government-owned monopoly these days? In the last week, Australia Post’s Ahmed Fahour announced 900 administration jobs were to go from its Melbourne operations, while last week Telstra’s David Thodey recounted discussions from his recent trip to the US, where he was told his “business model is dead”.
UK piracy ruling will affect Australia
It’s only a matter of time before the internet is fully regulated in Australia. The English High Court decision brings this reality one step closer.
Australian IT security firms should stop scaremongering
I was disappointed yesterday morning to read yet another scaremongering plea for business dressed up as an informed commentary piece by a high-profile member of Australia's IT security community.
The Westpac dialectic: IT outsourcing and warring narratives
At a certain point, corporate-speak becomes more than an abstraction. It becomes more than a useful metaphor. It becomes something which is simply undesirable in the honest relationship between an employer and and an employee. It becomes something which is all-too pervasive in our media-saturated society. It becomes ... spin.
Gershon funds must remain quarantined
The Australian ICT Policy Reform online petition is seeking support from the Australian ICT industry to call on both the Gillard Government and the Opposition to maintain quarantining of the agreed savings identified as a result of the Gershon review. These funds should remain available for re-investment by the Australian Public Service to enhance existing service delivery for all Australians and provide an opportunity for ICT driven innovation within the public sector.
Dated Treasury advice does not invalidate the NBN
If there is one thing we can absolutely rely on with respect to the debate about the National Broadband Network, it is that every week, some minor interest group, technically illiterate Coalition politician or blow-in journalist will find some new and completely spurious reason why the project shouldn't go ahead.
‘Cloud first’ a circuit-breaker, says Ovum
Taking a “cloud-first” policy has the potential to act as game changer to allow departments and agencies to break out of their current restrictive ICT procurement practices, technology analyst firm Ovum said this week, as discussion continues to swirl about how Australian governments are handling the new cloud computing paradigm.
Labor’s NBN is a natural monopoly, but the Coalition’s is not
The argument made by respected competition expert, academic and executive Fred Hilmer several weeks ago that the National Broadband Network is not a "natural monopoly" is somewhat convincing, but ultimately falls short by failing to acknowledge specific factors relevant to competition in the telecommunications sector.
Who’s open sourcing in Australian government?
Unfortunately though in Australia we don't seem to have any comprehensive list of which governments and councils are creating and releasing open source materials. So e-government expert Craig Thomler has created a spreadsheet, which he'll add to over time, of open sourcing going on across the Australian public sector.
The Kobo eReader: What you need to know
My personal opinion is this is the best project we can expect to see in the market in the short to medium term, and should be successful for Borders Australia.
Conroy needs to grow a set and censure Fifield for his NBN OPD nonsense
Stephen Conroy needs to stop dithering about with wishy washy attempts to extract basic information from the closed shop that the NBN company has become under the Coalition and actually use the full powers of the Senate to hold the Government to account over the tragic mess it has made of the project.
Conroy vs Lundy: A 14-year comparison study
It's important to look back at the history since Conroy and Lundy both joined the Senate in 1996 to learn why one has maintained a strong reputation in Australia's technology sector while the other is having theirs torn further into shreds every day.
Explainer: what is 4G?
If you’re looking to buy a new smartphone or computer you’ve probably seen advertisements and offers for 4G-compatible devices. You might even own a 4G-compatible device already. But just what is 4G? How does it compare to existing 3G networks? And what is the current availability of 4G networks in Australia?
Google – and everyone else – wins by High Court decision
The High Court has ruled that Google did not engage in misleading and deceptive conduct when it published a number of advertisements created by its AdWords program. Does this mean that the advertisements themselves were not misleading and deceptive? No! Everyone agrees that they were. Rather, the decision clarifies the law for publishers, including those using the internet.
Samsung beats Apple: But what does it mean?
Australian judges have responded quickly and intelligently. The courts have explicitly based their decisions on perceptions of community benefit and on a coherent interpretation of what the national Parliament, through the Patents Act 1990, wants the law to do. The latest decision shows that patent law is working, and working well.
Watching the detectives: the case for restricting access to your social media data
Let’s hasten slowly in considering calls to free the state from administrative inconveniences such as warrants and rules of evidence.
Can Australia afford the Coalition’s NBN?
At a whopping two-thirds of the cost of the vastly-superior FTTP NBN, the Coalition’s NBN stacks up as waste of money.
Mod chip or freedom to choose?
Sony’s legal case to stop a handful of tiny Australian retailers distributing a device – known as a ‘mod chip’ – which would allow consumers a much higher level of control of the PlayStation 3 hardware is only one example of the dominance which this approach is gaining.
TV Now: Why the AFL should be grateful
More eyeballs in front of live sport broadcasts are what matter. The AFL should be encouraging people to watch their product. Trying to stop them is just completely counter-productive.
CommBank’s deep innovation is redefining our notion of what a bank is
The remarkable wave of technological innovation emanating from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is forcing Australians to redefine their fundamental concept of what a bank is, and reimagine what their basic relationship to such an institution should be.
Should Victoria pay for injured man’s Wii?
Ridiculing the Wii Fit as a video game in 2010 just makes politicians look silly. My aching muscles and -- by now, no doubt -- millions of people around the world using the device to make their daily health just that little bit better would argue it is much more.
Dear Stephen, your site is broken
Someone -- probably someone in your IT department that is left over from when Helen Coonan was the minister -- has put this bit of code that will remove the word "ISP filtering" from your list of most popular tags.
Will hidden taxes and competitive pressures make the NBN unsustainable?
Is the National Broadband Network sustainable? I do not mean this in a technical sense. While I am wary of the government using taxpayers' money to ‘pick winners’ in technology, there are many people better placed than I am to crystal ball gaze into the best technology for the internet. Rather is the NBN economically sustainable?
iiNet’s BoB Lite: Insecure by design
While testing iiNet's new Bob Lite integrated ADSL router yesterday, I became aware that it ships with an extremely insecure default Wi-Fi setup.
NBN plans trapped in an ADSL framework
From the quota included to shaping speeds, from what is considered 'on-net' traffic and even the inclusion of dial-up backups, the release of NBN pricing plans by iiNet, Internode and Exetel betrays nothing so much as that thinking on NBN pricing is still trapped in a paradigm where ADSL broadband is the norm.
The analyst firm of the future
I believe that the future of the large ICT analyst houses is inextricably tied to the innumerable boutiques that exist in every market that is geographically and economically relevant to the ICT industry.
How to keep more girls in IT at schools if we’re to close the...
The world is increasingly embracing digital technology, and so too are our schools. But many girls are still missing out on developing IT and programming skills.
Don’t sue us for search: Google’s unnecessary safe harbour appeal
A brief review of the history of Australian safe harbour legislation and recent ISP-related case laws in the US shows the best way to provide legal certainty for online intermediaries would be to introduce “fair use” exceptions alone. More safe harbour rules aren’t needed at this stage.
NBN study release a major Greens victory
It is perhaps fitting that as Minchin is leaving the stage, Greens Senator Ludlam is emerging as the defacto Shadow Communications Minister, in the absence of Opposition will to engage in the portfolio.
Peter Dutton MP are you for or against the filter?
Peter, seriously if you cared what I thought you would notice I am not overly interested in a stock standard response letter. I get that from my bank and let me tell you I don’t like them much.
Conduct unbecoming: How NBN spite has damaged the Turnbull brand
Many Australians believe the man dubbed the Earl of Wentworth will eventually be back to take the Prime Ministership, after being ousted from the Liberal leadership in December 2009; or possibly to become Australia's first President. But three years of dogged and at times spiteful opposition to one of Australia's most popular policies have taken their toll on Malcolm Turnbull in the view of some segments of the Australian population.
Ten reasons Gillard should promote Conroy
Senator Stephen Conroy has done such a good job as Communications Minister that he should be promoted to take over the Finance Ministry even before incumbent Lindsay Tanner retires at the next election.
Optus’ NBN deal gives it an unfair advantage
Optus' $800 million National Broadband Network deal is an unnecessary and unsavoury sweetheart arrangement which smacks of favouritism and will deliver Optus a war chest with which to attack smaller rivals like iiNet, TPG and Internode; rivals which will not be paid to migrate their customers onto the NBN.
Reality check: ISPs do not understand content
Australian ISPs, regulators and the Government need to take a step back and stop fooling themselves that future telecommunications competition will rest on ISPs' ability to provide bundled video content services to users. The reality is that ISPs aren't good at this task and customers don't want them to do it.
Valleys, alleys and roundabouts: Innovating beyond a precinct
In Australia, the Australian Technology Park in Sydney, Parkville Knowledge Precinct in Melbourne, and Kelvin Grove Urban Village in Brisbane are certainly emerging urban knowledge precincts.
Conroy can safely ignore Tony Smith
As a journalist I have attended thousands of presentations, speeches and debates, and rarely have I encountered a speaker as stultifyingly boring as Tony Smith.
Is Nintendo being too harsh?
All I’m saying, Nintendo, is that the law and order thing is fine … but maybe your princess is in another castle?
Will the green shoots of Australian innovation policy be cut off prematurely?
Understandably, new governments have an interest in putting their own stamp on policy, particularly in areas as critical to our future as research and innovation, but sometimes continuity and re-badging is preferable to scorched earth.
I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore. Let’s fix...
For far too long, Australia's political sector has gotten technology policy completely wrong. I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore. Let's take Delimiter into the Canberra Press Gallery and literally write the book on tech policy while we're there.
Give Turnbull a break, he’s a funny bastard
This intelligent, responsive, charismatic, technologically savvy and ambitious politician is currently barking up the wrong tree with respect to the NBN and feeding the public a lot of crap about speeds -- even if his financial arguments are sound. But the last thing I want to say about Turnbull, is, let's give the poor man a break.
Oh dear: CommBank CIO’s divided heart
Commonwealth Bank technology chief Michael Harte got some humdinger questions after his lunch speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) last week.
“Incredible” NBN debate stuck in “yesterday’s logic”, says Budde
Respected telecommunications analyst Paul Budde has called for a more constructive debate about Australia's future broadband needs, arguing that the current national conversation over the issue of the National Broadband Network is stuck using "yesterday's logic" as it fails to plan for the needs of a future only five to ten years away.
Good news, flyers: ‘Flight mode’ is safe during take-off and landing
Earlier this year, the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) put together a panel of aviation experts to look at whether personal electronic devices (PEDs) could be used on planes without compromising safety. The results are in: the committee is recommending that electronic devices – such as tablets, e-readers and other PEDs – be allowed during all phases of flight (including take-off and landing).
You talkin’ to me? Gerry Harvey’s one-man, online retail debate
Online retail promises or threatens to greatly change how Australians buy and sell over the next few years. However it works out, I hope that Gerry Harvey is around a fair bit longer, saying things to provoke and amuse us.
Facebook continues to stonewall Australia
When you hold unimaginable personal details about much of the civilised world, you need to be transparent about how you use that information. Any other approach will eventually see you relegated to the dustbin of corporate history.
RTFM: How to keep CIOs under control
Chief information officers never seem to understand. It doesn't matter if the servers are up or down -- that's a user problem. The real issue is whether they are configured properly in the first place. The system must be perfect, pristine. Users pollute that nirvana.
Customers dumping fibre for 4G in Japan
There is now serious evidence emerging that the arrival of high-speed LTE (4G) mobile networks coupled with the smartphone and tablet boom is creating serious problems for fibre to the home operators in some markets such as Japan.
Joe Hockey and Kate Lundy: A new Democrats
It is interesting that Hockey falls for one of the Conroy confusions. Refused Classification is not the same as illegal. It seems that Joe, in defence of liberty, thinks that it should be his job as a parent to decide what otherwise refused classification material his kids see.
Has Apple’s iPhone jumped the shark?
Apple only has a brief interval of time in which to attract our middle class attention with shiny new toys before we start to feel guilty for not joining the faster, broader and increasingly more innovative and open Android upgrade cycle.
Verizon Wireless vs Telstra: The great mobile rip-off continues
Does the recent announcement by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) of a new code of practice to prevent bill shock for “long-suffering telco customers”, and improve product marketing practices, bring Australia up to par with its international cousins? In a word: no.
Huawei’s NBN blockout raises fundamental questions
As I have argued for several years now – and Alexander Downer himself has stated in recent weeks – the argument that Huawei is some sort of quasi-intelligence gathering arm of the Beijing government is so ludicrous that it should scarcely be tolerated in serious company.
Why NBN ISPs won’t all perform the same
opinion This week, Exetel chief executive John Linton made the audacious claim that all ISPs reselling National Broadband Network services would deliver the exact same performance to customers. However, I believe the claim to be broadly wrong – and in this article I’ll attempt to demonstrate why.
Australia’s ICT industry is fierce and strong
Australia's second technology boom is upon us, and things will never be the same again.
Turnbull: NBN is a business, not a public good
Dealing as they are with other people’s money, trustees as they are for the financial security of generations to come, Governments must be rigorously transparent and accountable in their investment decisions.
Oh dear: The iAbbott cometh
Ah, YouTube. We love you so.
Oh dear: Masterchef contestants at Telstra with giant Apple tree
Looks like contestants from Ten's Masterchef show are already at Telstra's flagship T-Life store in Sydney's CBD preparing for the launch of the iPhone 4 at midnight tonight.
NBN: Is $109 the magic triple play price?
Most of Australia's major fixed-line telcos have standardised their pricing on mid-range bundled broadband, telephone and IPTV plans around the $109 mark.
Google’s US-centricity is starting to grate
In short, if Google Australia wants to take the high road, it has to earn it and show Australia that its local presence is not just a sales and marketing office.
Don’t privatise the NBN
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy should do more than just remove from the NBN legislation the option for it to be a retailer – he should put in a clause that it will never raise equity or be privatised.
Oh dear: Is there some form of CS5 event coming up?
Judging from its Twitter account, it looks like someone at Adobe Australia and New Zealand has been told to drum up support for the company’s upcoming launch of its Creative Suite 5 products (Photoshop, InDesign and so on).
Cyber breach at the Bureau of Meteorology: The who, what and how, of the...
If the hackers were state-sponsored Chinese hackers such as the People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398, then the target of the hack would have been wide-ranging but possibly focused on information related to Australian defence and security services and capabilities.
Warning: Telstra is killing off Australia’s mobile competition
In five years' time, just how much market share will Telstra have in Australia's mobile phone industry? If it keeps on adding 900,000 new mobile connections every six months while its rivals do diddly squat, I would have to say the answer will be: Most of it.
myGov has potential but is far from finished
MyGov – or something like it – is part of a 21st century government. It is the way of the future. But it needs careful development, testing, and selling.
Reality check: The Coalition’s fibre on demand plan is a pipe dream
Those broadband speed freaks holding out hope that the Coalition's pledge to provide 'fibre on demand' services will save them from life in the slow lane in a fibre to the node future need to take a cold shower and wake up to reality. 'Fibre on demand' is nothing but an fluffy ephemeral dream which has no chance of becoming reality in the short- to medium-term under the Coalition's National Broadband Network vision.
History is the key to understanding Huawei
Up until last week, many Australians were probably unaware of Chinese telcommunications company Huawei. But the decision by the federal government to ban Huawei from any involvement in the National Broadband Network has shone the spotlight on the company and its remarkable rise to prominence.
Cloud services first: A next-generation shared services policy for government
Cloud services break the cycle of agency investment in dedicated ICT solutions that are difficult or impossible to share. In contrast, each procurement of cloud services incrementally develops the capacity of the vendor to offer the same service to other agencies. A policy position of “cloud services first” is a strategic commitment by government to the development of the next generation of shared services.
iiNet and Netspace? Hell, it’s about time
Having known the principals at both the ISPs -- iiNet chief Michael Malone and Netspace MD Stuart Marburg -- for some time, I would be surprised if the pair hadn't flirted occasionally with the idea of a merger on and off for the past decade.
I tried to buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab … but failed
The scene: Deep in the dungeon of a Federal Government agency. Our protagonist, a mild mannered government worker by day, intrepid reporter at night, sees the Delimiter article on Vodafone releasing the Samsung Galaxy Tab on this date! Hallelujah!
We like e-readers – but library users are still borrowing books
What place do e-readers – and in particular ebooks – hold in the reading behaviour of Australia’s 10 million public library borrowers? There are some 181 million items loaned every year by the nation’s 1,500 public libraries, branches, mobile libraries and other service points but, according to the latest survey-based report from the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), for the majority of these libraries, ebook loans represent less than 1% of the total.
House Foxtel: Unbowed, Unbent and Unreasonable
The argument by pay television giant Foxtel that the launch of its new Play IPTV streaming video service will cause Australians' objections about the lack of legitimate access to popular shows such as Game of Thrones to "vanish" is nothing short of ridiculous and strongly indicates that the company still has no idea why the nation is so frustrated with it.
A shake-up in Australia’s busy TV industry as Quickflix calls in the administrators
If Quickflix does fold or get absorbed by another local service, how many local services will survive? We may also see global VoD services taking over the local services.
Turnbull’s ‘agnostic’ approach could restore faith in the NBN
My frank assessment is that we will probably see a lot more fibre being delivered than we were expecting under the new government. DSL technologies on copper will be exploited where these can deliver a better connection than existing arrangements, even if it means these customers wait longer for their inevitable fibre connection.
Myer fail displays appalling IT, business incompetency
The week-long outage of Myer's website starkly displays the fact that the company and its outsourcing partner IBM had failed to properly develop and test their infrastructure or put in place the most basic disaster recovery and business continuity plan, as well as highlighting the incredible immaturity of online retailing in Australia.
Lock down cybersecurity or face another Heartbleed – or worse
The recently released Commission of Audit report recommends that the Australian government needs to become “digital by default”. The continued shift to digital service delivery is intended to reduce costs, improve quality of service and provide greater transparency. But it will also open up new vulnerabilities to cyber attacks that could be used to access secure and confidential data, compromise the integrity of trusted authorities and disrupt critical services.
Why EA will be great for Firemint
Criticising Firemint for simply doing the necessary in order to release the best work they possibly can is unfair and ultimately gets in the way of what should be the number one aim of anybody in the game development industry, regardless of their business circumstances: creating the most awesome games possible.
It will take more than being ‘bouncy’ to fix Australia’s innovation system
It is a good sign that Turnbull is upbeat about innovation; but he appears not to understand that innovation is not a matter of pressing the right button and expecting that change will happen.
The ABC must now deal with its NBN problem
Over the past month, the evidence has become overwhelming that the ABC is actively censoring coverage of the National Broadband Network issue in a way that runs counter to the public interest. The broadcaster must now face the issue squarely and deal with it head-on, or run the risk of losing credibility with its highly informed and vocal audience.
iiNet’s IPTV is three times the cost of Telstra’s
opinion Like any competitive industry, Australia’s broadband market has been characterised by a certain predictable dynamic for some time now.
First, customers become frustrated by...
Forget e-health, the NBN is a big, fat, entertainment machine
What the supporters of the NBN should be doing is heavily promoting the reasons that an average, wage-earning family would have for the NBN. And that argument, simply, is entertainment.
R18+ game classification: The quest continues
The battle for an R18+ classification for videogames in Australia has been something of an epic, but the journey’s not over yet. There are still plenty more rocks and potholes to navigate before we start seeing R18+ games in local stores.
Elephant in the ballroom: Ignoring privacy in the Federal Election
In this election campaign the major parties are carefully dancing round an elephant in the ballroom. The elephant is big and a bit frightening. Its name is privacy policy.
Tassie Liberal leader should take Conroy hard line
I've got one message for new Tasmanian Liberal Premier Will Hodgman: Stop letting Stephen Conroy get away with whatever he wants in your state and provide some scrutiny on the National Broadband Network process.
Why AGIMO’s open source policy will change nothing
Open source does not fit the framework which proprietary vendors have painstakingly installed in the minds of organisations like AGIMO over the decades. It's taken time, but Microsoft already won that war.
“Technology-neutral policy” can be a dangerous fallacy
"Technology-neutral policy" is a useful but treacherous concept that has led many Australian politicians into making poor decisions about important technology issues over the past decade. It's still a very useful framework, but it's time this theory was re-examined by our policymakers in light of those failures and the importance of learning from the past to better inform the future.
NBN competition will rest almost solely on price
Retail competition on the National Broadband Network will rest almost solely on price, in my opinion, as the importance of other differentiating factors between telcos like Telstra, Optus, TPG and iiNet will diminish almost to zero. And here's why.
It’ll always be Quigley’s NBN
Mike Quigley last week exited the role of NBN Co chief executive the way he held it: With a relentless, implacable dignity. But the executive will leave more behind him than just a memory; like Steve Jobs with Apple, Quigley's legacy will be the company and project that grew from infancy around him. Australia's greatest ever infrastructure rollout will forever bear his mark; and NBN Co's culture will forever be coloured with his impeccable personal integrity.
Fair suck of the sav, Blizzard
Blizzard, I suggest that you need to put at least one character in StarCraft II with an Australian accent. The Protoss seem a bit up themselves and the Zerg are quite weird, so it would have to be a Terran character.
The iPhone 15 is (almost) unimaginable
With half the worlds population now connected by mobile phone and even short periods of time disconnected from the global network leaving many with withdrawal symptoms, the next stage of human evolution is approaching fast and if you're having trouble keeping up, look to nature.
Oh dear: Phil Burgess is … totally a bikie
We knew that former Telstra group managing director of public policy and communications Phil Burgess -- one of former CEO Sol Trujillo's team of 'amigos' had taken a trip with his son on Harleys during a US spring break. But we didn't have the evidence, until now.
Um, HP? You might want to kill the TouchPad ads
Um, HP? You might want to stop advertising the TouchPad, seeing as your exclusive Australian partner Harvey Norman has now run out of stock following the $98 fire sale and you’re not planning to make any more. I know it’s short notice, but surely something can be done about this series of ads plastered around the country?
What it means: Five key points from the Senate’s Digital Currency report
Last week the Senate Standing Committee on Economics handed down a detailed report following its inquiry into Australia’s emerging digital or crypto-currency sector. The release was hailed as a “watershed” moment for this financial technology — here’s why it matters, in five succinct points.
Why Michael Harte is worth $4.2 million
Harte is paid millions of dollars each year not because they run IT infrastructure and make technology strategy decisions. The truth is the modern CIO role is evolving to become more akin to the head of operations in many organisations -- with broad responsibility for ensuring that all aspects of a company's systems meet operational outcomes.
Australia needs a cloud computing regulator
It is time that the Australian ICT Industry created an appropriate regulatory model for cloud computing and once again showed the world its ability to create resilient and innovative environments for effective business -- just as was done when the G8 turned to the APRA model as the basis for global financial regulation.
Vodafone should buy iiNet before TPG can
The exit of Michael Malone from the company he founded 20 years ago has re-opened long-running speculation that top-tier broadband player iiNet could be acquired, and it's a valid idea. But the telco most suited to buying the powerhouse from Perth is not hostile rival TPG; it's ailing mobile telco Vodafone, which still has plenty of cash up its sleeves.
TPG’s $69.99 unlimited plan shows the NBN future
The $69.99 unlimited plan revealed by cut-rate ISP TPG yesterday shows what the future of broadband plans on the National Broadband Network will look like, and it's not good news for premium ISPs such as Telstra, Optus and iiNet.
Did AGIMO censor Reinecke’s Gershon review?
When a Government entity blacks out a portion of a public document, it always sparks intense speculation as to what has been censored and why. Is the hidden information dangerous for Australia's enemies to know? Commercial in confidence? Or simply slightly embarassing?
NBN: Where do we go from here?
The National Broadband initiative is an opportunity to see if we can manage a more evolved form of government where people can elect the representatives that represent their ideological views, but with the knowledge that the country will be governed in a non-dogmatic way and with greater participation.
Apple Pay no sure thing in mobile payments race
Evidence both the incumbents and disruptors face challenges in non-traditional payments.
Telstra’s 3G network is dying in CBDs
Popularity has its downside. Reports from around Australia over the past week have made it very clear that Telstra's flagship Next G network is often struggling to function at all in the CBDs of capital cities such as Sydney and Melbourne during peak load times, leaving customers in the lurch without any access to wireless broadband.
Why Vodafone customers are a pack of lazy whingers
Don’t whinge about the company which is providing you with poor service, then sue them, and finally, demand the Government do something about their security problems. It’s an open, competitive market, people. DUMP THEIR ASS AND PICK ANOTHER PROVIDER. How hard can it be? Really, Vodafone customers, how long will it take you to realise you can go elsewhere?
eBook price war: The impact on Australia
News that there is a price drop for the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook has done the rounds with the tech pundits and Twitterverse. But we Aussies need to ask, is the price war good for us?
Coalition NBN will suffer in the long term: Experts
The federal Coalition’s new A$30 billion plan for “fast, affordable” broadband is a quick-fix strategy, which is likely to cost more and be less reliable long-term, according to experts.
Oh dear: Optus’ “theatrical” 3G USB modems
We have always known Optus was a big fan of the higher forms of performance art, with its sponsorship of the Cirque du Soleil and even the penchant of its chief executive Paul O’Sullivan for cracking Telstra jokes on stage. But we didn’t know that even its USB modems were involved in the performance.
Conroy’s filter: To be or not to be?
Two and a half years ago, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced a significant delay to Labor's controversial mandatory Internet filter project, pending a review into the Refused Classification category of content which the filter was to block.The results of that review were published yesterday and contain very little guidance for the Minister. What will Conroy do now?
Obamacare web fiasco won’t be the last big IT fail
The uncomfortable reality is that no one really knows how to design or manage large, complex IT projects.
Wake up and smell the democracy, Stilgherrian
I couldn’t help but laugh when I read Stilgherrian’s rant on ABC Unleashed yesterday about how Australia’s “digital elites” may understand technology but somehow don’t get how the apparently unbelievably complicated world of Federal politics works.
Turnbull’s NBN hiring spree is pure election fodder
Like the fictional Frank Underwood’s ‘America Works’ program, the massive nbn hiring spree unveiled by Malcolm Turnbull in the wee hours of this morning is pure election fodder — a beguiling program designed to demonstrate to the electorate that the reigning Government is instantly responsible for thousands of new jobs.
Freeplay reminds us videogames matter: The ‘culture’ debate is over
Videogames are already here, are already culturally and politically active, and have been for quite some time. We no longer need to debate if they deserve a spot at the cultural dinner table. We just need to recognise they are already there.
Dirty dealings: Suddenly, corruption is an issue in Australia’s technology sector
It's something which nobody wants to talk about, but which everybody knows is going on. A number of very high profile cases have starkly demonstrated over the past several years that dishonest and unethical behaviour in some cases extending as far as corrupt practice is on the rise in Australia’s technology sector.
Apple iTax: Made in Ireland, designed in the US
Apple, famous for its innovative products, is equally creative in its tax structure. From 2009 to 2012, it successfully sheltered US$44 billion from being taxed anywhere in the world, including sales generated in Australia.
Atkinson: Are gamers celebrating too soon?
It may take another couple of elections before those in favour of game censorship run out of credits.
$1.4m of Bitcoin stolen. Another tale from the cyber frontier of … Hornsby, NSW?
In another episode of the ongoing rollercoaster of a story that is Bitcoin, about 4,100 of them have been stolen from an online bitcoin wallet site inputs.io. What makes this particular story more interesting is the fact that the person behind the site inputs.io is allegedly an 18 year old Australian going by the alias “TradeFortress” living in Hornsby, NSW.
The Kindle Fire will storm Australia in 2012
Prediction: When Amazon's Kindle Fire launches in Australia next year, it will very quickly become the second most popular tablet locally behind Apple's dominant iPad, easily eclipsing rival offerings from the likes of Samsung, Motorola, Research in Motion and more.
4G comments taken out of context, says Hockey
Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has described as "inaccurate and misleading" an article published by Delimiter which highlighted claims Hockey had made that 4G mobile broadband had the potential to be "far superior" than the NBN, claiming his comments were taken out of context.
Internet control: Conroy’s not fooling anyone
Today, Senator Conroy has was asked about the crisis in Egypt, where a desperate government cut internet access in order to hinder protestors. The minister in response declared his undying love for an Internet free of government control and assured us that such a thing could never happen in Australia.
Oh dear: How Lotus can win Qantas back
Delimiter is prepared to bet that the Lotus Notes camp wasn't happy to learn in February that Qantas had decided to switch sides and was now playing for the Exchange team. But not everyone took the decision lying down.
Telstra has finally sealed its own doom
Telstra's management will come to regret its $11 billion deal with NBN Co signed this afternoon as the most disastrous decision it has ever made in the telco's long and tortured history in Australia's telecommunications sector.
The NBN, service providers and you … what could go wrong?
The NBN will provide Australians with a raft of exciting new opportunities. For services providers, it will provide a much-needed chance to improve their customer relations and procedures. And who wouldn’t welcome that?
Help us fact-check Turnbull’s NBN comments
Delimiter invites readers to help us fact-check an important and lengthy policy statement by Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Let's get to the truth of the matter, together.
Delimiter (draft) Statement of Principles
As regular Delimiter readers will know, I have made mistakes in the past. Not all of the articles I have written have been on...
Refer the matter to an “Online Retail Forum”?Yes, Minister.
As a complete waste of time, as Sir Humphrey would no doubt say, Conroy's Online Retail Forum will be a stunning success. I'm fairly sure that everyone's answer to whether or not it should be held will arrive shortly: "Yes, Minister".
Online retailers yet to harness big social data
A large volume of social media data gets created on a daily basis from these customer service interactions. Companies need to be examining both the volumes of unstructured social media data created by their own processes as well as by their competitors for a better understanding of necessary process improvements.
Oh dear: Optus didn’t learn from Telstra’s mistake
If there’s one thing that Delimiter finds amusing, it’s when history repeats itself. As it so often does in Australia’s fickle telecommunications industry.
Aaron’s Army fights the Trans-Pacific Partnership
The case of Aaron Swartz highlights the need for a reconsideration of punitive and excessive intellectual property enforcement provisions in trade agreements.
Tick tock, NBN Co. Where are the rollout stats?
By continually declining to release hard statistics about how the rollout and uptake of its network are proceeding, the National Broadband Network Company risks portraying itself as exactly the kind of negligent and overly bureaucratic monopoly which the Federal Opposition has long accused it of being.
‘Shelved’? No. Data retention will be back
Yesterday it was widely reported that the Federal Government had 'shelved' its data retention plans, walking away from the controversial proposal to monitor all Australians' communications. But the reality is the complete opposite: Data retention is still being actively considered as a policy and will shortly return to plague Australia once again.
Voluntary filter: Why I’m dumping Telstra
I cannot and will not be a party to online censorship, and that is why I left Telstra.
Sir Humphrey Appleby on the internet filter
To understand the situation that we find ourselves in regarding the internet filter, we need to refer to the great political textbook of our age: Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister.
E-Health announcement is really bizarre and very incomplete
As with all such announcements the only thing that is missing is any detail. Until that becomes clear this is so much hot air. Worryingly, the lack of information on the following issues leave one wondering just how seriously all this has been planned and developed.
One step forward, two steps back: Govt cloud policy displays classic ignorance
The Federal Government has taken many positive steps forward in the past year with respect to freeing up its departments and agencies to adopt the new class of cloud computing technologies. But the release of an overly bureaucratic policy this month on offshore data storage has the potential to set that progress back substantially, relying as it does on several outdated concepts of risk management in IT projects.
Why the Apple iPad will change the face of healthcare
In the healthcare setting, and no doubt numerous other settings also, those added inches make a significant difference.
Surviving the zombie apocalypse: the DayZ experiment
Amid the resurgent popularity of zombies in recent years – think The Walking Dead, I Am Legend, Shaun of the Dead and so on – the 2011 publication of Dan Drezner’s Theories of International Politics and Zombies showed we might be able to learn something useful from the lumbering horde. In short, Drezner poses the question: how would we deal with a zombie outbreak?
A voice in mainstream media on NBN
Senior Victorian IT professional George Fong encourages fellow technologists to get involved in commenting on the National Broadband Network, after the success of a segment he was involved with on 3AW last week.
Oh dear: Conroy claims “nude DSL” is taking off
Biting wit proved the flavour of the night at a Senate Estimates Committee hearing in Canberra tonight as Communications Minister Stephen Conroy faced off against the acid tongue of Liberal Senator Mary Jo Fisher and and that of others, in an caustic five-hour marathon question and answer session in which Conroy referred to the popular new phenomenon of "nude DSL".
Apple and the enterprise – Are you ready?
Apple isn't ready for the enterprise. Apple has been ready for years. Now, the enterprise is ready for Apple.
Caption contest: Gillard and her Apple iPad
Gillard with iPad!
Turnbull needs evidence for FTTN claims
A consensus is developing amongst National Broadband Network commentators that Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull needs to provide more evidence that Fibre to the Node is the best style of broadband infrastructure rollout for Australia's long-term telecommunications needs.
Does IT matter … in Australian supermarkets?
But leading with technology doesn’t mean throwing technology at the problem. You need to do something different with it. That’s the challenge for Woolworths.
What Apple’s incredible quarter means for Australia
$46 billion in revenue. 64 percent quarter on quarter growth. 37 million iPhones shipped. Apple just stunned the world with some incredible financial growth over the last three months of 2011. But what do these results mean for Australia?
The Cyber Security Strategy is only a small step in the right direction
Our reliance on technology is now a given and cybersecurity is as important a consideration as protecting our health, food and water sources and general environment. From that perspective, the cybersecurity strategy is a welcome but very small step in the right direction.
It’s too soon for Windows 8
Many organisations upgrading to Windows 7 probably clandestinely expect their new desktop operating system to last as long as the last one -- a decade or so.
Oh dear: Telstra exec banter and Yes, Minister
At Delimiter we're big fans of iTnews weekly video the Crunch. This week's episode refers to the bantering we reported on between Telstra chief information officer John McInerney and chief technology officer Hugh Bradlow, as well as some rather unusual footage of NSW Education Minister Verity Firth at an Adobe event.
Biggest ever? Optus penalty just another “parking fine”
It’s possible to view the Optus penalty this week as nothing more than a cost of doing business, a slap on the wrist, a quick 10min in the corner of the room with its face to the wall. This isn’t a substantial fine — and it shouldn’t be treated as such.
Does the NBN even need a voice port?
If there is one thing which has always surprised me about the National Broadband Network project, it is the dogged insistence of the network's designers on building a legacy voice telephony port into what is supposed to be next-generation infrastructure.
Oh dear: Customer service, NetRegistry-style
It was apparent right from the start of this Whirlpool thread that NetRegistry chief operating officer Brett Fenton wasn't having a good day.
On folly, freedom and filters
Hannah has been using the Internet since she was four ... When Hannah uses the Internet, she uses a connection at home that is completely unfiltered, neither by the router we use nor by activating the fairly comprehensive parental controls that come as a standard part of modern operating systems. She has administrator access to the machine she uses and she also knows and understands how to access and manage the home network.
Five ways the NBN is better than Google Fiber
This week Google finally launched its Google Fiber service in the US. But don't be lured by the company's sweet, sweet promises of cheap, unlimited fibre broadband to your home. Australia's National Broadband Network will be five times as good as Google Fiber. And here's why.
An overview of Officeworks’ eBook readers
My recommendation, if you don’t care about buying books through Australian eBook stores is that the Pico and Stash are very good value. If you do want to purchase commercial books in Australia, this is not the device to use with our DCMA-inspired Free Trade Agreement legislation.
4G: How Telstra will ROFLstomp Optus, VHA
When the reality of a working LTE deployment hits Australia through late 2011, with all mobile phone owners increasingly being smartphone owners ... Telstra's Next G network will become nothing short of irresistable.
Let’s talk about Telstra and the NBN … again
Telstra's "threats" of competing with an alternative access strategy are this time all nonsense. They can't get enough wireless out there, they have major building access issues with HFC and they should be cricified by sharehlders if they try to over-invest in their PSTN.
I don’t know how to cover the NBN anymore
Australia's National Broadband Network project is now in uncharted territory. Beyond a joke, beyond a politicised mess, and even beyond farce, the incredibly inconsistent handling of the project by Liberal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has led it far outside the bounds of rational discourse or intelligent consideration.
When will Labor get serious about supporting its NBN policy?
The independent pro-fibre National Broadband Network movement is doing a far better job of promoting Labor's Fibre to the Premises-based NBN policy than Labor itself. When is Labor going to wake from its slumber and start supporting this scrappy but energetic grassroots network of activists?
Oh dear: Microsoft, SAP chiefs can’t spell
oh dear You’d think after graduating to the top of the pile and being appointed to run the Australian divisions of global technology giants like Microsoft and SAP, you’d be able to get simple spelling right. Apparently not, judging by several tweets by Microsoft’s Asia-Pac chief Tracey Fellows.
Coalition hasn’t addressed basic NBN policy issues
Fibre to the node isn't intrinsically a bad solution for Australia's broadband needs. But when you compare it to Labor's more visionary fibre to the premises plan, the differences between the two start to become starkly apparent. Australia deserves a whole lot better than what an incoming Coalition government will serve up to us.
Badly designed contracts doom public IT projects to failure
IT contracts often obscure objectives through technological jargon, man hours and deadlines. If business objectives and outcomes were better stated in contracts there would be clear and obvious accountability. When there is a common understanding of success the more likely are successful outcomes.
McAfee clients: do you have the guts?
McAfee customers whose systems went down yesterday should demand they get given money or an extended licence for the time they had to spend fixing the problem.
Politically and functionally, Turnbull’s first 100 days have been a disaster
It's hard to imagine how things could have gone worse for Malcolm Turnbull in his first three months as Communications Minister. With the public rapidly turning on the Earl of Wentworth over his horribly unpopular new NBN policy, a growing perception that he's stacking NBN Co with partisan staff and a lack of transparency verging on the hypocritical, it's hard to find positives for the Earl of Wentworth from his initial period in office. Turnbull is truly fumbling the catch on both political and functional levels.
Have iiNet’s acquisitions helped or harmed competition?
Has iiNet's ongoing series of acquisitions harmed or helped the development of market competition in Australia's telecommunications sector? It's a difficult and complex question -- and one which we will attempt to answer in this in-depth analysis of the situation.
Optus’ stagnation begs leadership change
After seven years of leading Optus and many more in senior leadership positions at the telco before his ascension, O'Sullivan obviously still relishes his role and has a passion for the telecommunications industry. But he no longer has the energy to stay on the bleeding edge which the sector habitually operates on.
iPad telco plans will sting Australians
Steve Jobs may have created a new category of electronic device. But he’s also created a new category of wireless broadband plan to go with it.
The Coalition’s policy is a sensible NBN alternative
The Coalition's rival policy is a sensible alternative to Labor's National Broadband Network project, based soundly on its traditional principles of liberalism and support for the free market, but also pragmatically taking into account the situation which the the current Federal Government will leave the Coalition with if it takes power in September.