I had no idea this was happening tonight, but when I looked up and saw this smiley face I was BLOWN AWAY. Apparently, we’re seeing Venus, Jupiter and a thin three-day-old crescent moon. What the photo doesn’t show, though, is how amazingly bright all three appear against the stars in the sky. Venus and Jupiter look so bright, you’d almost think they are about to land on you. Is this Jesus looking down on me? Have I been wrong all along???
Last night at BTUB I met Michael Meloni from Somebody Think Of The Children (along with lots of other great people) and we were talking (of course) about the Australian government’s absurd plan to filter the internet.
I’ve been wondering over the last few months about what we, the Internet community, can do to alter the decision of the Rudd government on this issue. Signing petitions and writing letters to the Minister are great, but I suspect they aren’t enough to change the course he’s on. This morning I was reading Howard Zinn’s awesome “A People’s History Of The United States” and he was discussing the many strikes that occurred in the USA during the 19th century and I started wondering if a strike is one way we can get politicians to take notice of our concerns.
If the IT and Internet community in Australia went on a general strike over the issue of Internet censorship, I have no doubt that we could cause many Australian businesses and government agencies pain. A strike by the IT/Internet community would also generate a lot of press.
Then I started wondering how we’d mobilize the community. We don’t have a union or any kind of genuine organization. There are groups like AIMIA and the AIIA but I seriously doubt they would support any kind of industrial action, nor do they represent many people working in the industry.
So we need to organize and mobilize. We need to create a single focus point for action. Any ideas?
I’m no Trekkie by any means but even I think this looks pretty cool.
Just realized that today is the 4th anniversary of G’Day World and therefore also the 4th anniversary of podcasting in Australia. A lot has changed in four years! And I’ve been fortunate enough to produce over 350 episodes and interview some amazing people. Thank you everyone for tuning in and for the continual support and encouragement.
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Today’s interview features Wayne Denning, Managing Director of Brisbane-based media company, Carbon Media.
I caught up with Wayne to chat about the issues currently surrounding Aboriginal people in Australia and what I feel is a particularly insidious form of racism on the part of most white Australians. As a former manager at ATSIC and now the owner of a media company that produces a lot of indigenous programming, Wayne has insights into the reality of the current situation and he shared some of those with me over coffee at a local cafe near QUT.
