Scientists are used to coping with complexity, but when what they publicly talk about is subject to polarisation along political lines, debate can get very messy. In April, a group of science communicators gathered in Brisbane to talk about the dangers and opportunities inherent in the use of social media. As Matthew da Silva reports, many of them are still learning the ropes of productive online communication.
Does the iPad have what it takes to save the newspaper industry? That’s what Matthew da Silva asked a number of leading experts in the fields of digital media and mobile technology. As he reports, expert opinion is so far mixed – but one thing is certain: it’s up to news companies to capitalise on innovation by understanding their readers’ rapidly evolving lifestyles.
It’s not every day that a blokey developer quits his day job to sell custom-designed shoes online. In fact, such a move might seem like entrepreneurial madness, especially when you consider the sea of demanding Carrie Bradshaws such a business is likely to attract. Matthew da Silva talks to Mike Knapp, co-founder of Shoes of Prey, to see what made him quit Google and dip his toe into the foot business.
Two days of desert highways, roadside dining, sleep deprivation and feverish coding by 25 strangers delivered two web startups and a whole lot more, writes Matthew da Silva.
Swiss information architect Oliver Reichenstein introduced the 450 attendees at last month’s Fairfax-sponsored Media 2010 conference to tputh.com, a curatedlink mashup posing as a newspaper website. Matthew da Silvacaught up with him in a lull between presentations.
How is the media handling the digital ecosphere? Matthew da Silva discussed the view from the wall with key players in attendance at last month’s Media 2010 conference, a Sydney ideas forum sponsored by Fairfax Digital.
Plans by Silex Systems Limited to buy the assets of Solar Systems, the Melbourne-based solar energy company that was placed into administration last September, injects life into a cherished plan, but uncertainty persists. Government support is in the offing and, worse for engineers, the technology remains unproven at utility scale.
Some weeks ago, Sydney-based tech reporter Renai LeMay tweeted his plans to leave ZDNet Australia. He then told us, on the day after Australia Day, that he had launched Delimiter, a technology news wire service in direct competition with the AAP. A week on from launch, Matthew da Silva chatted with LeMay about why he did it and how it’s going.
With visiting foreigners comprising up to one-third of all higher education students in New South Wales and Victoria, it’s clear that educating international students is big business in Australia. However, as Matthew da Silva and Mingming Feng report, Australia’s educational institutions have far more appetite for international student tuition than local employers have for hiring these students as legitimate employees, causing young foreigners to reconsider Australia as their educational destination of choice.
Olde-tyme writers dropped sleepers into their work, lines only later generations would have the nous to decode. Matthew da Silva intrepidly delves into bookish bombs that fizzled.
Cafés and other physical retail businesses aren’t generally thought to be reliant on high-tech gadgets. But as Matthew da Silva discovers over one too many espressos, wherever hot milk signals profitability, a house laptop is never far away.
It was the fastest car in its class in the 3,000-kilometre Global Green Challenge, but the engineering students who threw their time and talents into Sunswift IV to win their race to Adelaide face future uncertainty in our fragile renewable-energy sector.
You don’t have to be a Vulcan to grok the good stuff that can come out of an international mind-meld as big as Global Entrepreneurship Week. Matthew da Silva sits down with the organisers and profiles some inspiring young entrepreneurial attendees.
All of us would applaud moves toward greater openness and transparency in government, but is the bureaucracy ready to reveal all its cards by making hard-to-find data available in web and mobile device software applications?
We’ve seen Facebook’s remarkable growth statistics and we’ve read sceptical remarks in the media. But how do real people actually use Facebook? And is all that tabbing, tweaking, clicking, checking, linking, liking, posting and perusing just part of a self-absorbed quest for attention by lonely people?
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