Corporate Blogging at Telstra Exchange
One of the great things about writing your own blog is the freedom. You get to choose the style, the format and the frequency of posting. You get to set the rules of the blog, and so long as your employer is supportive of private blogging, there’s scope for discussing pretty much any topic – even those that may be work related.
But as a writer, there’s a different challenge in writing for a specific audience or in a particular format. This is part of the reason I’ve become an official blogger at Telstra Exchange (TEX). Writing for TEX means pushing ones self to write to someone else’s requirements.
For example, whilst conciseness is something I strive for , my more analytical posts tend to be around a thousand words, or even longer. By contrast, the recommended word count for TEX is about half that. Sticking to the suggested limits requires careful selection of both the blog topic and the key points to be covered. It’s a challenge, but being able to work within the guidelines and still produce a post I’m happy with is quite rewarding.
The other reason for blogging at TEX is exposure. My first post at TEX was a review of Kindle for Android, and in one afternoon it’s generated more comments, likes and shares than anything posted on MinimalState. TEX looks like being a good platform for building a personal blogging brand, which can hopefully be leveraged to boost the profile of MinimalState.
So whilst there will still be new and original posts appearing here at MinimalSate, I’ll also be directing readers to posts on TEX. And if you have any suggestions for topics you’d like to see covered here or at TEX, please let me know.
Will GetUp!’s satire GetIt! in trouble?
With an election likely to be called in the next few months, advocacy group GetUp! has launched a campaign encouraging people to ensure they are enrolled to vote. A key element of this campaign is a YouTube clip portraying the electoral battle as if it were the latest Hollywood action movie.
The clip is cleverly put together – superimposing the faces of political figures on to the bodies of Hollywood action heroes amd tying together action sequences with a dramatic soundtrack interspaced by political ‘sound-bites’. It looks and feels like a genuine Hollywood movie trailer, no doubt helped by the fact that GetUp! have utilised footage from actual blockbusters such as The Matrix and The Fifth Element.
Which raises the question of whether this video will land GetUp! trouble for copyright infringement?
Hetero sex scandal?
One day, public figures being gay and/or enjoying sex won’t be newsworthy. Unfortunately for David Campbell, that day is yet to dawn. As Channel Seven demonstrated earlier this year, for some journalists and the audience they serve, that combination is still seen as scandalous.
When the David Campbell story broke, LE pointed out the mixed messages being sent out on this topic. At the same time some members of the media where busy berating Jason Akermanis for discouraging gay AFL players from coming out, “gay sex scandal” was rapidly becoming the headline of the day as the David Campbell story escalated.
Seven’s original story was accompanied by allegations Campbell had misused his ministerial car in order to attend “Kens at Kensington” and that he had been at “Kens” during the debacle involving the closure of the F3 freeway. It was subsequently shown that the car and F3 allegation were false.
Channel Seven defended their actions as being in the public interest, claiming the public had a right to know that ”Mr Campbell was leading a double life unknown to his family and had campaigned for election as a family man including sending Christmas cards with a photograph of his wife and children.” They also alleged that Campbell’s actions put him in a position where he may be blackmailed.
Both of these arguments are relatively weak justifications for Seven’s actions.
Tags: David Campbell, discrimination, NSW, politics, Seven, sexuality
Will telcos have Apple on their faces?
Last Friday, Apple was forced to acknowledge an embarrassing flaw in the iPhone operating system, a flaw present since the release of the original iPhone. As embarrassing as this is for Apple, some mobile network operators may also find this latest development leaves them with … Apple on their faces.
Losing the filter without losing face
This week the Australian Labor Party installed Julia Gillard as its new leader, making her the first female Prime Minister of Australia. This change in leadership provides the government with an opportunity to change its approach to certain policy issues without losing (quite so much) face.
The new PM has wasted no time in seizing the opportunity to change the governments approach to negotiating with the mining industry over the resource super profit tax (RSPT). The question now is – what other policy areas could benefit from an opportune change of tack?
Within the telecoms and technology arena, there have been two hot topics for the ALP led government since it came to power – the National Broadband Network (NBN) and internet censorship.
This week, an in principle agreement was finally reached with Telstra in regards to the company’s involvement with the NBN. Given the size of the agreement ($11bn) and the benefits of the deal to NBN Co (access to Telstra’s infrastructure and customers), the government is unlikely to substantially change things too much in this arena. With an election expected in the next few months, the government needs the NBN to be an election promise showing tangible progress – not just another pipe dream causing conflicts like the RSPT.
On the other hand – internet censorship continues to be a problem area for the government. Like the NBN, progress has been slow. So slow there’s speculation that the enabling legislation may be delayed until after the election. But like the NBN, internet censorship was an election promise and the escalating rhetoric from Senator Conroy (the responsible minister) had put the government in a position where it risked losing face if it yielded to criticism of the proposal.
But Julia Gillard’s ascension to the role of PM offers an opportunity for the government to rethink this policy. If Senator Conroy where moved on as part of a Cabinet reshuffle, a new Communications Minister could potentially seek alternate methods of delivering the spirit of the policy – without imposing mandatory internet censorship on all Australians.
The next few weeks look like being a very interesting period indeed.
Tags: censorship, Julia Gillard, NBN, NBN Co, Stephen Conroy, Telstra
NBN not mandatory for ‘smart grids’
One of the claimed benefits of the national broadband network (NBN) is that it will act as an enabler for ‘smart grids’. ’Smart grids’ have been described as electricity distribution networks that:
“use sensors, meters, digital controls and analytic tools to automate, monitor and control the two-way flow of energy across operations—from power plant to plug. A power company can optimize grid performance, prevent outages, restore outages faster and allow consumers to manage energy usage right down to the individual networked appliance. Smart grids can also incorporate new sustainable energies such as wind and solar generation, and interact locally with distributed power sources, or plug-in electric vehicles.” (IBM 30/11/2009)
In his NBN advocacy, Senator Conroy has claimed smart grids can make a significant contribution to helping Australia reduce carbon emissions, and that broadband is an important enabler of future smart grids in Australia.
But do we need the NBN to implement smart grids? Recent developments would suggest not.
The current ‘smart meter’ roll out in Victoria will rely on wireless connectivity for transmitting data from the meters. Likewise, the planned ‘smart grid’ deployment in NSW by Energy Australia also utilise wireless.[1] Both these initiatives will be deployed ahead of the NBN roll out, utilising technology that is available now. Electricity companies therefore clearly have economically viable options already for monitoring and managing their networks – without the NBN.
From the consumer perspective, it’s also questionable how much of an improvement the NBN can make. Power monitoring tools like Google’s Powermeter are capable of functioning over current internet connections. The main barrier to greater adoption of household energy monitoring tools, like Google Powermeter, would seem to be the lack of participation by Australian energy companies. This is something that may change as their smart meter roll outs progress.
All this suggests the NBN isn’t really a mandatory requirement for ‘smart grid’ deployments. While there may be large benefits through the enablement of smart grids via broadband, the incremental contribution of the NBN may not be as large as the government is hoping.
Notes:
[1] Interestingly, both the NSW and Victorian deployments will utilise WiMAX, facilitated by 2.3 Ghz spectrum purchases from Wireless Broadband Australia.
NBN Study: Were the right questions asked?
Earlier this month, the Australian government released the implementation study for the National Broadband Network. The scope of the study was to:
“advise Government on how best to implement its stated policy objectives, not to evaluate those objectives, given that the policies have already been agreed by Government. This report therefore focuses on translating high-level policy objectives into tangible actions for both Government and NBN Co to implement. Explicitly, it does not:
- Evaluate Government’s policy objectives;
- Evaluate the decision to implement the NBN via the establishment of NBN Co;
- Undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the macro-economic and social benefits that would result from the implementation of a superfast broadband network.” (NBN Implementation Study, 06/05/2010)
The report is clearly directed at answering the question of how to deliver the NBN in a way that meets the governments policy objectives. It very explicitly states that out of scope is if the NBN should be built, or built according to the governments objectives.
There’s a couple of ways to look at the decision to define the scope this way.
Tags: KIQ, KPMG, McKinsey, NBN, Stephen Conroy
Telstra’s first Android is mostly Desirable
Just over a year ago, Optus brought the first Android phone to Australia in the form of the HTC Dream. Now Telstra has joined the Android ranks with the launch of the HTC Desire. This recent addition to HTC’s Android lineup is an impressive device and after two weeks of use, the verdict is “mostly desirable”.
So what makes this phone so desirable? And why the qualification of “mostly”?
Internet censorship: not dead, just sleeping
With the Australian government delaying introduction of its internet censorship legislation, there’s been some speculation that the policy may be dead. The more likely scenario however is that the policy has simply gone in to hibernation until after the Federal election. Despite the media and blogosphere cries of “backflip”, this is a smart tactical move.
Tactically, delaying the legislation makes sense. Pushing it through before the election risks continuing the distracting public feud with the government’s critics. Delaying until after the election gives the ALP a range of options.
Should the ALP fail to hold a majority in the Senate following the next election, ‘net censorship may once again become a political bargaining chip. Family First are strong supporters of mandatory ISP filtering, and have previously called for the scope of the filter to be widened. By contrast, The Green’s remain strongly opposed to the policy and are calling for it to be scrapped altogether. Depending on which minor (or major) party the ALP wishes to woo, internet filtering may go ahead in it’s current form (Family First?) or be modified in some form to make it more tolerable (The Greens?, Coalition?).
Holding this controversial policy over until after the next election is a smart move by the ALP and makes the Senate vote at the next election even more interesting for both supporters and opponents of this policy.
Tags: ALP, censorship, election, Family First, free speech, politics, Stephen Conroy, The Greens
DSL Downtime
A brief apology for the lack of recent posting. My DSL connection has been unusable since Thursday 23rd and is continuing to experience slow/no data flow issues. Blogging will probably be quite light on until the issue is resolved.
