Tag: stephen conroy

Is Australia a digital laggard? It just might be, at least on one benchmark: labour productivity. An Australian worker today is only 84% as productive as his American counterpart, down from 92% in 1998, according to CSIRO’s Dr. Ian Oppermann.

Cloud computing might just be what the doctor ordered. Or so Australia believes as it launched a National Telework Week on Monday with what many might consider a very modest goal – doubling teleworkers in the country to 12% by 2020.

Five minutes of overheard conversation in any Australian watering hole or bus-shelter this week will tell you that Tony Abbott is a misogynistic mad monk and that Julia Gillard is a political assassin controlled by faceless apparatchik of the union movement. But are these the factors that will steer Australia in a direction that will create an economically secure and culturally harmonious nation for decades to come?

Five minutes of overheard conversation in any Australian watering hole or bus-shelter this week will tell you that Tony Abbott is a misogynistic mad monk and that Julia Gillard is a political assassin controlled by faceless apparatchik of the union movement. But are these the factors that will steer Australia in a direction that will create an economically secure and culturally harmonious nation for decades to come?

According to internet broadband comparison site Compare Broadband, 75% of Australians would switch service providers should they elect to implement the Government's voluntary filter. 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.

According to internet broadband comparison site Compare Broadband, 75% of Australians would switch service providers should they elect to implement the Government's voluntary filter. 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.

A recent project in Arizona, USA to install Wifi hotspot on school buses has turn a rowdy bus ride into a "rolling study hall", reports the New York Times. While the Internet is often blamed for causing a whole heap of teenager problems, what's available on the internet seems irrelevant when it comes down to changing their behaviour.

Sure, they may have the coordination of an engineer in O-week and the optical capabilities of Arthur Dent after three Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters but that didn't stop Australia's web glitterati (Or is that 'clickerati'?) from donning their best converse sneakers, their thickest of black horn rimmed glasses and their favourite irony fuelled Threadless tees to party hard at the Peninsula Function Centre in Melbourne's Docklands.

Sure, they may have the coordination of an engineer in O-week and the optical capabilities of Arthur Dent after three Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters but that didn't stop Australia's web glitterati (Or is that 'clickerati'?) from donning their best converse sneakers, their thickest of black horn rimmed glasses and their favourite irony fuelled Threadless tees to party hard at the Peninsula Function Centre in Melbourne's Docklands.

Hulu is a website that offers commercial-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies from NBC, Fox and many other networks and studios. It topped Fast Company's Top 100 Innovators list for 2009, beating both Google and GE. It is a rival to YouTube (offering full episodes, rather than 10 minute teasers), threatens Apple's strategy for renting and selling video content online (as a logical extension of iTunes) and in April signed a deal with Disney that sent shivers down the spines of television and studio executives the world over (those execs with spines, anyway).

Hulu is a website that offers commercial-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies from NBC, Fox and many other networks and studios. It topped Fast Company's Top 100 Innovators list for 2009, beating both Google and GE. It is a rival to YouTube (offering full episodes, rather than 10 minute teasers), threatens Apple's strategy for renting and selling video content online (as a logical extension of iTunes) and in April signed a deal with Disney that sent shivers down the spines of television and studio executives the world over (those execs with spines, anyway).