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auDA has great opportunity to reinforce its role in our digitally-enabled future, but needs to understand that disunity is death

By ANNE HURLEY | 27 May 2018

Having watched with interest the unfolding debate over the future of auDA – the organisation charged with managing the Internet domain name space here on behalf of the federal government – I was delighted to recently be invited to join its new Consultation Model Working Group.

auDA has drawn together a group of 16 members, which includes a broad range of people with knowledge and expertise in the running of the Internet in this country over many years.  Continue reading “auDA has great opportunity to reinforce its role in our digitally-enabled future, but needs to understand that disunity is death”

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Consultation group to help reshape Internet domain names management

By LAURIE PATTON | 17 May 2018

With three months to develop new processes to redress historical weaknesses the company managing Australia’s Internet domain names has created a broad-based consultative group to guide the process.

This week saw the first meeting of what .au Domain Administration Limited, commonly known as auDA, calls its Consultation Model Working Group. auDA is the organisation charged with overseeing the Internet domain name space in Australia. If you have a website you’ll have dealt with one of the numerous companies that sell domain names to the public. They all operate under the authority and supervision of auDA.

Continue reading “Consultation group to help reshape Internet domain names management”

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Populists, demagogues and celebrities. Challenges for progressive campaigning in the age of Trump — 2018 Frank Walker memorial lecture

By BRUCE HAWKER | 15 May 2018

If there is a common denominator to the reforms Frank Walker introduced it is that they were aimed at improving the lot of the men, women and children in our society who are least able to defend themselves – the dispossessed and marginalised minorities. The very people who Donald Trump targets, defames and demonises. In all my years in politics, I cannot recall another state politician with such a consistently strong record of empowering the powerless. And this conviction made Frank a difficult person for his own cabinet colleagues to handle. Continue reading “Populists, demagogues and celebrities. Challenges for progressive campaigning in the age of Trump — 2018 Frank Walker memorial lecture”

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Bill Morrow slams the door and kicks the dog as he prepares to log off from his dud NBN

By LAURIE PATTON | 29 April 2018

The head of the trouble-plagued NBN, Bill Morrow, is departing. And he’s finally come clean – conceding that reusing Telstra’s ageing copper wires is creating major problems.

In a paper published by NBN Co last week, Morrow admits that fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) is causing lower speeds and more dropouts than the fibre that was originally being rolled out. He also acknowledges that there are too many dissatisfied NBN customers. Continue reading “Bill Morrow slams the door and kicks the dog as he prepares to log off from his dud NBN”

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Goodbye Bill Morrow, the NBN Nero, who fiddled and raged as it buffered

By LAURIE PATTON | 6 April 2018

With complaints about the NBN’s shonky and inadequate service at an all-time high, and after having made compromises that have “rolled his stomach”, NBN Co CEO Bill Morrow has decided to jump this sinking ship two years before the project’s completion.

Morrow’s tenure in charge of the operation has – to say the least – been turbulent, with the belligerent American being happy to defame and disparage his critics. So long as it’s under the cloak of Parliamentary Privilege. Continue reading “Goodbye Bill Morrow, the NBN Nero, who fiddled and raged as it buffered”

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No balls. How Cricket Australia lost the media game

By LAURIE PATTON | 4 April 2018

The on-field actions of a player created a crisis for Cricket Australia. However, its own mishandling of the affair – especially in its dealing with the media – added to an unfolding debacle. For years to come, world travel for Australians will involve tolerating jokes, and worse, about being from a nation of cheats.

The thing about cricket is one minute you’re the attack team, the next you’re in defence. Each stage of the game requires appropriate tactics. It’s pretty much the same when it comes to media management. You need to know the rules and you need a game plan.

Continue reading “No balls. How Cricket Australia lost the media game”

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Will 5G replace Ethernet?

By TELCO SOLUTIONS | 20 March 2018

As we utilise mobile technology on a wider scale in the future, the need for faster and more reliable connectivity has never been so important. 5G is the next generation of wireless networking technology and, in short, promises to deliver ultra-fast speeds and responsiveness to connect everything around us without interruption. Continue reading “Will 5G replace Ethernet?”

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Unpopulate or perish — revisiting the Whitlam decentralisation vision in a digital age

One day a rooster, the next day a feather duster!

By LAURIE PATTON | 5 December 2017

On the 45th anniversary of the election of the Whitlam Government let’s reflect on a forward-thinking policy that deserves revisiting for a digitally-enabled world – decentralisation.

It’s predicted that pretty soon 90 percent of all Australians will live in our capital cities. But does it makes sense for most of us to be jammed into a handful of increasingly overcrowded population centres? Continue reading “Unpopulate or perish — revisiting the Whitlam decentralisation vision in a digital age”