Category: Web 2.0

News Ltd CEO John Hartigan gave a speech today. Inquisitr coverage here.

Interestingly he gave some data on The Punch

The Punch has taken off like a rocket since it was launched in May ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú our target was to achieve traffic of 80,000 users in the first month. It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s actually achieved almost 200,000.

Now let me say upfront that I actually like the idea (even if after today I don’t like Hartigan) and I’ve already said I hope the site does well.

But here’s the thing: even with the force of the News Ltd sites backing it (they regularly link in posts as well as other promos) they’ve managed 200,000 something… I say something, because users could mean anything, such as page views, uniques etc… indeed, that Hartigan quotes such a figure shows how detached he is to the online world.

Hartigan is right though, takes a while to establish a site, but likewise when you’ve got the cross-promotional power of News Ltd, 200,000 is surprisingly low.

Mumbrella did a story earlier in the week comparing The Punch to Crikey, but let me stretch that out a bit.

oh wait, I’m just a lowly blogger with no qualifications to run a site (apparently a Commerce Degree in Marketing and ECommerce doesn’t count.)

For the record, I’ve actually held conversations on adding to our content with official wire-like content in the last few weeks. Nothing to announce yet, but we may be expanding our celebrity coverage, and our use of images… more soon 🙂

See previous post for context.

So I finally conceded that the only way I’d jump to the first position was to get a phone line connected. We take possession on the 2nd (July, it’s the 29th June as I type this) and it turns out that Telstra can connect a physical line on the 3rd.

So once you’ve got an actual line (with days notice) getting ADSL2+ is easy, although getting ADSL2+ Naked is still hard. Spoke to Internode, who resell Telstra ports for ADSL2+. 5-10 days, guaranteed, because Telstra does it. If it was their own Naked ADSL…limited to no ports, 20+ days (like iiNet and more).

The key to get ADSL2+ connected at a new place is to connect the phone line with Telstra, and then connect the ADSL2+ with a Telstra reseller. You can switch to others later, but you can’t match 5-10 days 🙂

Mind you, this is all sorts of wrong, but to some degree it’s always been the case. Telstra connections have always had priority in an exchange over non-Telstra connections. I might be connecting with Internode, but it’s a Telstra wholesale connection.

I wrote on Sunday asking what Channel Nine’s role was in the Chk-Chk-Boom Girl scam. Chk-Chk-Boom Girl appeared on A Current Affair (ACA) last night, and you’ve probably never seen a softer interview.

Clare Werbeloff claimed on camera that she saw a camera, and ran up to it, and magically came up with a story about coming out of a tattoo parlor, and seeing a range of “wogs” shooting each other.

The premise was so thin as to be throw up worthy. Seriously: people just run up to cameras and make up an eyewitness statement for a shooting? I respect and understand that our fame obsessed society has changed norms, but there’s putting yourself in front of a camera, and then there’s giving a false account.

Now lets remember: 2 days before the mainstream media exposed the fraud on Sunday, a story surfaced on Mumbrella that pointed to other sites that said that Claire was working for a PR agency. That same PR agency worked at the same address as the PR agent she supposedly took on days after her video went viral. The original post included a photo that might have included Claire in a group PR agency photo. A later post clearly showed a photo of Claire, seemingly in the same location, waving money.

The reason I’m posting this today, and not after ACA yesterday is I’d wished that the ABC’s Media Watch might have picked it up. I’ve only just watched Media Watch now (Tuesday) and they didn’t. Indeed no one has outside of the original it’s a scam, she ran up to the camera spin.

But it’s bollocks.

The next question comes to News Ltd, who took two days to report the scam. Originally I questioned Nine’s role, but after watching the ACA report interview a News Ltd writer, more questions come up. Did News Ltd know about the scam days before? What was the deal with a News Ltd “blogger” being used in the ACA piece?

I have learned, maybe the hard way that the team at News.com.au is mostly smart, reasonable, and dare I say it: people just like us, so I make the suggestion with no prejudice. But the why still remains: they would have known Friday, it’s one thing I can credit the team at News Digital for: they’re very good at picking stuff up. So why Sunday, and more importantly why not the deeper questions.

And that applies to all Australian MSM outlets: why aren’t you asking the deep questions. Why aren’t you digging into her relationships with PR, and that goes for the ABC, and Media Watch as well.

One things for sure: the real story is getting a more “journalistic” treatment in the new media. What say you MSM to that.

What does it say about our country that our best viral video exports are usually bogans? I’ll leave that argument for another day.

If you haven’t seen it yet, this video is so big at the moment that News.com.au has a related story as its current lead (image above)….ironically (well, maybe not) with a Corey Worthington story close at hand 🙂

Turns out though that we may have been had. According to Mumbrella, Clare Werbeloff is working for PR agency The Project, who specialize in youth (or should that be yuuf) marketing. There’s even picture evidence. More here.

On Nick Hodge’s excellent video podcast last night, noted futurist Mark Pesce said (and I quote) that I should “shut the fuck up.”

He’s entitled to his views, but it’s what he said around it that I take offense at (and the reason I’m writing this post), in particular the idea that I ignore the excellent work done by a range of Australian startups when I don’t. I’ve never met Mark, let alone swapped an email with him, so I find his claims bizarre to say the least given he had never read my views (outside of one post), nor asked me about them. Australia has a vibrant startup community, full of people who are succeeding despite the lack of support (specifically a vibrant VC community that invests in web based startups.) Not only have I had the privilege of meeting many fine people in the community, I’ve also written about them.

I do find it odd though that a futurist who earlier in the interview spoke about reading so extensively doesn’t understand the meaning of context as well.

This post was in the context of the Future Summit, an event that was suppose to be a show case of Australia’s biggest and brightest leaders. If we accept that underlying premise of it representing the best, tech doesn’t have a bright future in this country because they don’t get it. Conversations I had the day after that post horrified me even more and confirmed what I had written. Tech, and particularly web based startups just aren’t on the radar for these people. The idea that millions are employed directly and indirectly in web based industries in the United States is foreign to them. I can’t help that they don’t get it, but stating that they don’t is stating fact.

That is in no way to say that Australian startups don’t exist today, or more will emerge tomorrow: they will because of bright people like Mick Liubinskas at Pollenizer (a company I should note that builds projects for other startups), but likewise given what I heard, the Australian web startup industry will remain at its current low and slow rate (again, we have startups, but we’re not even close to a range of other comparable countries by volume.)

But Pesce wasn’t there. A few smart people in the room (and there was some) doesn’t balance the sheer weight of tech ignorance from the rest.

Pesce also claims incorrectly that I’m some how a big Government interventionist, again having never once spoken to me. Quite the contrary, and this can be confirmed by many others (including Bronwen Clune who heard me speak on this over lunch at the Summit), or in the submission I made yesterday to Elias Bizannes who is compiling submissions for the Government on the question “what do we need to tell Australia’s Government to build our tech industry?”

Indeed Pesce and I agree: Government should get out of the way, and direct Government support isn’t necessarily the answer either.

But here’s the part Pesce either doesn’t understand, or is ignoring: we don’t have a level playing field, and this is holding us back. Here’s part of what I wrote in my submission:

The Government needs to level the playing field when it comes to investment within the various sectors of ICT, and with investment opportunities outside the sector. That can come in two forms: removal of investment incentives in sectors that currently receive it, or the extension of investment incentives to those that currently miss out, specifically web focused companies. For example, there are tax incentives offered currently in areas such as Biotech and Blue Gum trees, but not in web based industries (tax credits, R+D etc). The problem today is simple: those with money to invest favor those investments that offer tax incentives over investments that don’t.

Then there’s the CGT problem vs the United States

The Government should consider reviewing CGT, in particular with consideration to CGT deferment on rollover where the capital gain is reinvested in ICT, and more specifically web based industries. This has been cited in the United States as being one of the big drivers behind the VC industry there (I can provide references later if required.)

Government does have a role here, and that’s in creating a favorable environment for investment in web based startups. Even if you hate Government intervention like Pesce does, you can’t ignore the role of Government in the United Sates in creating a favorable investment environment that has fueled the growth of web startups, particularly in the San Francisco Bay region.

The alternative of course is Government intervention and spending. It’s not my preferred outcome, but it is a point strongly argued by others. If CGT and incentive reforms can’t be undertaken to create a favorable investment environment, only then do I become a supporter of direct Government intervention. Consider that millions, billions have been spent on legacy industries such as clothing and car making. If only a small amount of that money was allocated to supporting local web industries, it has to help.

I’ll guess I’ll shut the fuck up now, because I don’t know what I’m talking about. PS: we were up one spot on the Top 100 Australian Web Startups yesterday.

Repeat after me….repeat after me….polly want a cracker….. least that’s what we got with tonights budget when it came to the NBN.

Mentioned by Wayne Swan, and naturally trumpeted by Stephen Conroy (in a press release) new funding for the NBN itself in this years budget was….wait for it….$0.

You don’t have to believe me though: here’s the direct link. The $4.7b was allocated and announced LAST YEAR. We’re still missing the other $38.3 billion….

There was one new NBN related item though, and up front its actually a good thing: $250m for the regional backbone blackspots program.

Also in non-capital items was an allocation of $53.2 billion for pre NBN rollout functions, including the feasibility study for the NBN, with delivery of the report due “early 2010.” What is odd is that this is new funding: why wasn’t the feasibility study costed in the original $4.7b? what else hasn’t been budgeted?

Funding of $53.2 million in 2009?¢‚Ǩ‚Äò10 will be provided to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy to conduct an implementation study into the NBN that will examine detailed engineering, commercial and structural issues and report by early 2010. The funding will also support the department in the early implementation of a network in Tasmania, implementation of the regional backbone blackspots program, and development of legislation and a regulatory framework.

Censorship

There was absolutely no mention of the Great Firewall of Australia in this years budget from what I could see. The program had a 4 year allocation last year, so needs no mention if there are no changes.

However, there were a couple of things to note. ACMA is closing its Perth and Adelaide offices in a move that will save over $2m. The budget line item only says that the roles these offices currently undertake will be absorbed by other offices. Employment numbers aren’t broken out, so we don’t know if this means less people, but you’d guess possibly less. Likewise, no idea what the Perth and Adelaide offices do, for example face to face contact, admin..no idea.

In the AG portfolio there’s no mention of additional funding for the classification board. This is surprising, because the implementation of internet censorship will increase the board’s workload.

The funding stripped from the AFP to fight child porn, and given to the filter instead has not been reinstated. There was no child porn fighting related budget items in AG or BCDE.