Talking Business is a podcast review of the Australian economy, presented by seasoned business journalists Leon Gettler and Garry Barker, produced in association with the RMIT College of Business. It features interviews with prominent business leaders and expert analysis from RMIT academics.

Dissecting the numbers on labour prices and inflation

RMIT economist Jonathan Boymal joins Leon and Garry to talk about the low wage price increases and cost of living increases.

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Talking Business Podcasts on iTunes

Garry Barker and Leon Gettler both have established careers with ‘The Age’ newspaper, where Garry Barker is its Technology Editor, and Leon Gettler is a Senior Business Journalist. Gettler also works freelance on a number of other publications.

Talking Business is a podcast review of the Australian economy, presented by seasoned business journalists Leon Gettler and Garry Barker, produced in association with the RMIT College of Business. It features interviews with prominent business leaders and expert analysis from RMIT academics.

Why the bad news on unemployment isn’t so bad after all

In this podcast, economist Sinclair Davidson looks at the latest unemployment figures. He says the rise to 5.3% is not as bad as it seems because it shows the job market is picking up with more people looking for work.

Press play to listen.

Talking Business Podcasts on iTunes

Garry Barker and Leon Gettler both have established careers with ‘The Age’ newspaper, where Garry Barker is its Technology Editor, and Leon Gettler is a Senior Business Journalist. Gettler also works freelance on a number of other publications.

Talking Business is a podcast review of the Australian economy, presented by seasoned business journalists Leon Gettler and Garry Barker, produced in association with the RMIT College of Business. It features interviews with prominent business leaders and expert analysis from RMIT academics.

Craig Scroggie of Symantec discusses cyber security

This week’s episode of Talking Business features an interview with Craig Scroggie, vice-president and managing director for the Pacific of Symantec, the world’s largest data security company. Mr Scroggie talks about the changes that technology has wrought on the world, the opportunities it has brought for business, education, healthcare, entertainment and individuals and the growing criminal practices – fraud, identity theft and more – that lurk in its darker corners and threaten us all.

Press play to listen.

Talking Business Podcasts on iTunes

Garry Barker and Leon Gettler both have established careers with ‘The Age’ newspaper, where Garry Barker is its Technology Editor, and Leon Gettler is a Senior Business Journalist. Gettler also works freelance on a number of other publications.

Talking Business is a podcast review of the Australian economy, presented by seasoned business journalists Leon Gettler and Garry Barker, produced in association with the RMIT College of Business. It features interviews with prominent business leaders and expert analysis from RMIT academics.

This week in news…

In this week’s podcast:

• Garry and Leon talk about the RBA holding interest rates at 4.5%. Despite that, evidence suggests that inflation is building a head of steam and economists expect interest rates of 5% by the end of the year.
• House prices in major capital cities jumped 20% according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, retail trade grew slowly, residential building approvals fell and sales of new homes have fallen to their lowest level since January 2009. The services industry is also shrinking. Still, Australia has recorded its biggest-ever monthly trade surplus at more than $3 billion, buoyed by surging coal and iron ore exports. With the mining boom, Rio Tinto’s net profit has tripled.
• Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is back in the black, boosted by the hit movie Avatar, but Tabcorp’s profits are down 10%. Engineering company Downer EDI has ejected its second chief executive in three years while ISP iiNet has acquired the consumer division of AAPT from Telecom NZ for $60 million.
• American retailer Gap will open its first Australian store at Chadstone on August 26. Meanwhile, Graincorp and AWB have announced a multi-billion dollar merger to create Australia’s largest grain export company.
• Analysts say the booming Indian economy faces an energy crunch and that will boost the price of Australian coal.
• The outer western Melbourne suburb of Braybrook will see the starting point for a hardware battle between Woolworths and Bunnings.
• Sigma Pharmaceuticals gets another suitor.
• David Jones is being sued for $37 million for allegations of sexual misconduct, but the company says it will fight the legal action.
• Delegates at the Diggers and Dealers mining forum have been told to vote for the Liberals.
• Optus has completed an upgrade of its cable network to give it a competitive advantage over Telstra.
• Hills Industries has reported a four-fold increase in profits, NAB has revised its takeover plan for AXA Asia Pacific and Opposition leader Tony Abbott has modified his parental leave plan to appease big business.
• Fortescue Metals predicts that iron ore prices could drop by 25%.

Press play to listen.

Talking Business Podcasts on iTunes

Garry Barker and Leon Gettler both have established careers with ‘The Age’ newspaper, where Garry Barker is its Technology Editor, and Leon Gettler is a Senior Business Journalist. Gettler also works freelance on a number of other publications.

Talking Business is a podcast review of the Australian economy, presented by seasoned business journalists Leon Gettler and Garry Barker, produced in association with the RMIT College of Business. It features interviews with prominent business leaders and expert analysis from RMIT academics.

Australia’s pensioner boom: What does an older society mean for the economy?

RMIT economist Alberto Posso looks at the rapid increase in over-65-year-olds, which is three times more than the increase in younger people. He says this will put pressure on dependency ratios and economic growth. He says cuts to immigration are bad for the economy because they will put further pressure on dependency ratios.

Press play to listen.

Talking Business Podcasts on iTunes

Garry Barker and Leon Gettler both have established careers with ‘The Age’ newspaper, where Garry Barker is its Technology Editor, and Leon Gettler is a Senior Business Journalist. Gettler also works freelance on a number of other publications.

Talking Business is a podcast review of the Australian economy, presented by seasoned business journalists Leon Gettler and Garry Barker, produced in association with the RMIT College of Business. It features interviews with prominent business leaders and expert analysis from RMIT academics.

Michael Lawrey on the upgrades ahead for Telstra

In this podcast, Leon and Garry talk with Michael Lawrey, Executive Director for Networks and Technology for Telstra.  Lawrey talks about the promise and opportunities of fibre optic technology, what we call high speed broadband, and the changes we can expect to see as Telstra moves away from being a provider of telecommunications infrastructure and becomes a service provider, and what those services might be.

Press play to listen.

Talking Business Podcasts on iTunes

Garry Barker and Leon Gettler both have established careers with ‘The Age’ newspaper, where Garry Barker is its Technology Editor, and Leon Gettler is a Senior Business Journalist. Gettler also works freelance on a number of other publications.

Lonely Planet’s lowly beginning was a guide to what’s known as the Hippie Trail, which traces the routes taken by low-cost travellers in the sixties and seventies throughout Asia. This became popular with young backpackers from Europe and Australasia, who embraced the hippie modes of transport and philosophy of thrift.

Now Lonely Planet is leading the way in another avenue; “augmented reality” Compass Guides for Android users.

The application determines the user’s location via GPS and when the camera is used to scan the surroundings, information labels about points of interest pop up on the screen.

As a new paradigm in travel applications, Lonely Planet is testing the water with coverage of 25 popular US, Asian and European cities. It’s difficult to believe this innovative app won’t be wildly popular, however.

The cities are Amsterdam, Bangkok, Barcelona, Beijing, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Paris, Prague, Rome, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Vancouver, Boston, Chicago, LA, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC.

“This is one of the most innovative things we’ve launched and we’re really excited to see how people use this application,” said Matthew Cashmore, the Innovation and Ecosystems Manager for Lonely Planet. “The application pinpoints your exact location so that when you find yourself in a new city and want to know what there is to see and do around you, just look through the camera and a wealth of Lonely Planet information on the best destinations, accommodation, sites, bars and restaurants appear stuck like posted notes to points of interest around you.”

The Android’s built in compass allows the user to learn the direction and distance to the listed destinations. The Google Android store is selling the application for $4.99 USD, and it is back-compatible with all Androids back to the G1.

While we haven’t been able to source vision for the product, the app technology was built in conjunction with Mobilizy, the company behind user generated content AR app Wikitude. To fully understands how it works, watch the video.

Augmented Reality Travel App — Wikitude

In the fruit and vegetable aisle, organic produce was labelled as such, and an unattractive bunch of specimens they were, too. The tomatoes looked like they’d been bludgeoned from the bush with a nail-studded bat and kicked all the way to the store. The potatoes had obviously been in a brawl with the onions. Great chunks had been bitten out of the celery by some fell beast with infected teeth. The shrunken apples had an air of forlorn jaundice, seeming to beg for a swift end.

Next to the organic selection was an area labelled traditionally grown. The contrast was like night and day. Plump, full fruits and veggies bursting with vibrant, stunning colour were arrayed in neat, uniform rows, all exactly the same size, with unblemished skins and wearing what only can be described as a lofty sneer in the direction of the organic section.

They were magnificent. They looked like glossy air-brushed magazine advertisements.

Curious, I asked a shop assistant what was meant by “traditionally grown”? Were these organic too, albeit with careful handlers and a more rigorous selection procedure? I was informed that “traditionally grown” means the producers get to use chemicals and genetic modification techniques. Y’know, like normal.

I really didn’t know what to say to that.

I’m not a big fan of food that’s been messed with on a genetic level or liberally doused with Agent Orange. Not because I’m an organic snob who reckons foods raised the old-fashioned way are worth the price hike (the old-fashioned way, in this case, being pre-traditional), but because no one really knows the potential hazards of ingesting such combinations.

I’m no scientist, but we know from previous experience what happens when one upsets just one small part of an organic system, whether it be a single organism or an entire ecology. Problems snowball and we wonder what happened. Then inevitably things start dying, often including us.

One step that might be in the right direction is a new food decontamination process that uses low-energy beams of electrons rather than chemicals or heat. Australia’s largest research agency CSIRO is teaming up with two German organisations, Fraunhofer Institute for Electron Beam and Plasma Technology and service company, EVONTA-Service GmbH, to investigate the use of such beams in decontaminating powdered foodstuffs, as well as fresh produce.

“It helps retain foods’ fresh flavour, odour and nutrients, which can be damaged by traditional heat treatment or by applying chemicals,” said CSIRO scientist, Dr Kai Knoerzer. “As a result of this international partnership, CSIRO will lead the development and application of low-energy electron beam processing in the Australian food industry.”

This certainly is promising news. Especially if CSIRO discovers that messing with food on an atomic level is perfectly safe. If it also provides an organic vegetable that doesn’t look like it might attack small animals, I’ll also be gracing my shopping bag with organic more often.

Stefan Abrutat is an award-winning freelance writer, blogger and editor in a wide variety of fields, from sports to science, the philosophy of science, humourism, history, travel and food. Image by justin (Justin Hall)

The Readers’ Choice Index was created to provide an opportunity for Anthill readers to vote on SMART 100 applications, in one of three ways:

1. Hit the VOTE UP button: Placed on the top left of each applicant’s profile page (1 point)
2. Trigger a Reaction: Re-Tweet, Like on Facebook, Reactions to comments, etc (2 points)
3. Leave a Comment: Words of encouragement. Anonymous comments were excluded (3 points)

At the conclusion of the Readers’ Choice component, we promised to tally up the results and create an Index according to the votes of our readers.

What we didn’t expect to receive was a lesson in social media marketing.

Why did we conduct the Readers’ Choice this way?

Let’s be frank. Readers’ Choice Awards are usually conducted for two reasons.

The first is to provide readers with a voice. This is obviously a good thing. It takes the decision making process away from a few and gives it to many.

The second is to raise awareness. In our world, that could also be interpreted to mean, ‘get more traffic’.

As such, we acknowledge that many award programs often end up becoming (for want of a better description) media sanctioned popularity contests. And with acknowledgement comes acceptance.

So, rather than rail against this hard fact (Oh, the inequity!), we decided to ignore our internal cynics (the ones in our brains, not just the ones in our office) and reward voters according to the effort they put in to reach their own networks.

That’s right, we empowered our entrants to kick start the marketing for us.

And, to state the obvious, if success is built on marketing flair (even partially), these 10 are likely to have a bright future.

And the winners are…

To read more about Cardlimbo, click here.

Next week, we intend to reveal the full list along with the final ranking for the SMART 100 Index. What is interesting for now is the observation that four of our Top 10 Readers’ Choice Winners also feature within the Top 20 of the final SMART 100 Index, as determined by our ‘maven’ judging process. (We’ll tell you which ones next week.)

The reach of these bright sparks

A surprising observation was that the Top 10 Readers’ Choice winners generated almost twice as many social media reactions than the remaining participants in the SMART 100 combined.

Top 10 Total Reaction: 2,151
Remaining Participants Combined: 1,259

To see how they ranked according to our maven judges, click here.

In a recent poll by product-comparison website Compare Broadband, 37% Of 313 random participants admitted to having downloaded content illegally.

In addition, 29% said they regularly download illegal content over the Internet. “Regularly” was defined in the poll as having downloaded more than 10 pirated files.

The survey results came out as a high-profile copyright case works its way through the Australian legal system.

A federal court in February cleared Internet service provider iiNet of copyright infringment after being sued by a group of film studios and broadcasters. The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) appealed that decision; that appeal is being heard this month in Federal Court.

iiNET Piracy Case

Justice Dennis Cowdroy ruled in February that the Perth-based ISP should bear no liability for third parties’ copyright infringement. AFACT contends iiNet was aware of copyright violations committed on its network and failed to prevent them.

The participants in the Compare Broadband survey were told their responses would be anonymous and confidential, so one might conclude the poll’s results are optimistically low. Indeed, some may see 63% of Australians having never downloaded content illegally as a positive result.

But Compare Broadband contends that even if one out of three people is partaking in illegal downloads, it is a real problem for the copyright owners.

“I’m not surprised that 37% of people have downloaded illegal content in the past, but I am surprised that 29% of people have downloaded more than 10 illegal files,” said Scott Kennedy, Compare Broadband general manager. “It seems that once you get the bug, you are likely to become a serial offender.”

Image by opensourceway

After a five year period of researching and developing its software, Enforcer Enterprise, 123educateme concluded that if an employee spends more than an hour a workday on non-work tasks, it could cost their employer more than $6,200 a year.

If that figure is expanded to account for the population of Australia, the amount of lost productivity could amount to a staggering $5 billion.

According to Roger Manu, CEO of 123educateme, “Previously, bosses either had to completely cut employees’ access to non-work programs and internet sites, or just accept that some employees were time wasters.”

In an attempt to moderate social media’s growing monopoly on our attention spans , 123educateme has created a product designed to regulate the amount of time employees spend on non-work-related sites.

“Enforcer Enterprise creates a new middle ground where managers can allocate employees some free time on work computers, for example 30 minutes a day, to do what they please. However, once that time has expired, employees can only access those programs and internet sites related to their job.

“From talking to bosses, we know that most are happy to allow employees to use computers during work time for non-work related purposes, from internet banking and paying bills, to making travel bookings or using Facebook. But they’re frustrated when they see individuals wasting inordinate amounts of time surfing the web.”

Should employers moderate how much time we spend on social media at work?

Stefan Abrutat is an award-winning freelance writer, blogger and editor in a wide variety of fields, from sports to science, the philosophy of science, humourism, history, travel and food.

“This year Enterprize received a record number of entries from entrepreneurs in diverse sectors throughout Australia, which demonstrates Australia’s commitment to producing innovative ideas, products and business models,” said Prof. Iain Watson, head of the business school.

Last year’s winner was CoolMe, a disposable personal cooling device designed to be worn under protective clothing or as a recovery device to counteract heat stress. Other recent winners were Bilexys (2008), which marketed a treatment technology that treats wastewater as a resource, and Codesion (2007), which helps industry overcome geographic boundaries and is the largest worldwide provider of hosted, open-source system centre configuration management.

This year’s finalists must submit a full business plan by 15 September 2010 and meet the judges for interviews on 22 September 2010. The big finale takes place 20 October at Brisbane’s State Library of Queensland, where each finalist will pitch to an audience of venture capitalists and angel investors. The winner will be announced at the end of the day.

The seven finalists and their concepts:

Aviator (Queensland):

Commercialising the development of hands-free control systems, allowing the user to harness the freedom of their mind.

Vaxxas (Queensland):

Developing a needle-free vaccine delivery solution, the Nanopatch, which, in work to date, has demonstrated unprecedented performance in amplifying vaccine efficacy by 150-fold.

Lachesis (New South Wales):

A start-up venture to commercialise a cuffless, compact device that can simultaneously monitor heart rate, blood oxygen levels, mean arterial blood pressure, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure.

Counselink (Victoria):

An e-health service targeting the $4.1 billion Australian allied health profession, enabling electronic health records and communications and remote pre-diagnosis.

KneeCo (Queensland):

Commercialising an Actiform product for the repair of damaged and torn menisci knee ligaments.

ReadCloud (New South Wales):

Technology that turns laptops and mobile devices into e-book readers.

Southern Innovation (Victoria):

Its core technology, SI-Toro, aims to improve the performance of radiation detectors.

Image by Alosh Bennett

This comes at a time when three of Australia’s largest ISPs, iPrimus, Optus and Bigpond, have agreed to filter out child abuse and child pornography as part of the Government’s system.

Whereas the official list is more wide-ranging, subjects that fall into legal and/or moral grey areas, such as abortion, drugs and terrorism, have not been addressed by the three ISPs.

The outcomes of the survey suggest that Australians bristle under government censorship.And this is something that the ISPs seem to be only too aware of.

The general manager of Compare Broadband, Scott Kennedy, said in a statement to media:

“It is not surprising that Australians do not want to be told what they can and can’t access online. If, as the poll suggests, 75% of people start to leave their ISP due to the filter being applied it is hard to see the ISPs continuing with the voluntary trial. The government may well need the co-operation of all ISPs in order for this voluntary scheme to be a success, unless they choose to enact the mandatory internet filter anyway.”

If the 75% hold true to their word, any adoption of a censorship scheme could see an exodus from the listed ISPs to less restrictive providers such as iiNet, Internode, TPG, or Exetel.

A year-long delay in execution of the possible mandatory filter has been implemented by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy in light of these and other findings. The Government will endeavour to review the RC classification to regional Ministers, pending this weekend’s election outcome.

Stefan Abrutat is an award-winning freelance writer, blogger and editor in a wide variety of fields, from sports to science, the philosophy of science, humourism, history, travel and food. Image by celebdu

The application, which was Google’s attempt to amalgamate the social and business networking of Facebook and LinkedIn with a computing platform and wikis, failed to attract the kind of attention Google hoped on its release on May 19th, 2010.

With its lack of a definitive use or market, its ambiguity was seen as its strength, but also its shortcoming. Most of the facilities of the application were available separately elsewhere in more accessible formats.

According to Jonathan Yarmis, in a report from Ovrum, the independent telecoms analyst:

“The ongoing growth of things like Facebook and Twitter probably killed Wave, as conversations that might have taken place there instead migrated to either a social platform (Facebook) or a more conversational tool (Twitter).”

“Even Google Buzz played a role in Wave’s death as the two were somewhat similarly targeted but Buzz, being more Twitter-like, was easier to understand and embrace.”

One thing is for sure, though. One learns a lot more from a failure than from a success, so this could actually play to Google’s advantage. Additionally, a socially-enabled collaboration platform is most likely on the way, as the nature of this particular market is constantly, and quickly, expanding and evolving.

And that platform will, just as likely, have its roots in the lessons learned from Google Wave.

“If and when Google introduces its platform (and really, it’s just a question of when), this would have obsoleted (sic) Wave anyhow. This way they just put a bullet in it now, so when they introduce the next platform, the focus isn’t on how this co-exists with Wave, or what this means for Wave, or anything like that. Wave is gone, will be quickly forgotten, and when Google does the next thing, for the most part no one will focus on Wave.”

I don’t know about you, but it’s refreshing when a company as successful as Google fails at something. It reminds us we’re all mortal, and infallibility doesn’t exist. Having said that, I can’t see how Google, innovative as they are, won’t turn the knowledge gleaned from this situation to its advantage.

Tweet

Stefan Abrutat is an award-winning freelance writer, blogger and editor in a wide variety of fields, from sports to science, the philosophy of science, humourism, history, travel and food.

My ears begin to taper elvishly. My eyebrows arch inquisitively. I embrace a peculiar affection for sticking my head into an upturned bowl. I develop a fondness for soaring arias and cavorting with semi-clad women of an arable hue.

But I have been corrupted by an unnatural relationship with television in my youth.

Nanotechnology is, in fact, a very real and viable area of research that has produced some intriguing working examples.

Specifically, research in nanotechnology addresses tiny atomic machinery mere nanometres across, where a few individual atoms (one nanometre is a billionth of a metre, or about six carbon atoms long) are precisely assembled in simple structures or to glean very exact chemical reactions. Results so far include tiny molecular motors that can drive a propeller, and nanowires that can conduct electricity.

The potential is unlimited, with fanciful notions such as tiny autonomous medical robots able to perform the most precise of surgeries by being actually injected into the body. (Remember Fantastic Voyage? Like that but with nano-bots instead of Raquel Welch.)

In pursuance of this exciting field, last month the Australian National Fabrication Facility unveiled its new $63 million Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication. Features include the largest clean room in the Southern Hemisphere.

Richard Marles, Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Industry opened the site:

“This $63 million facility will position Australia at the cutting edge of R&D and in a prime position to become a world leader in commercial nanotechnology.

“It is a joint effort with the Australian and Victorian Governments and a consortium comprising Monash, Deakin, La Trobe, Melbourne and Swinburne universities, RMIT, CSIRO and MiniFab Australia Pty Ltd all contributing funds.

“The centre will be open to researchers, from Australia and overseas, and to industry.

“The clean room will allow scientists to work with materials at the microscopic level to produce the next generation of technology.

“These facilities are highly collaborative in nature, enabling excellent research and the translation of research outcomes into national benefit.”

Sensible words. Although it is regrettable that not once did the Parliamentary Secretary describe nanotechnology in a way that us Trekkies might appreciate. After could be described as, “It’s life Jim. But not as we know it.”

Stefan Abrutat is an award-winning freelance writer, blogger and editor in a wide variety of fields, from sports to science, the philosophy of science, humourism, history, travel and food. Image by TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³ (Gisela Giardino)