Australian Politicians … editing Wikipedia and spending big on redundant Internet filters
(I’m back in Perth, and …) All over the world the WikiScanner has been uncovering interesting trails and tails of previously unnamed Wikipedia editors. PerthNow quickly jumped on the bandwagon and discovered the the Office of Australia’s Prime Minister has been busy:
The Prime Minister’s staff has been editing Wikipedia to remove details that might be damaging to the Government in the lead-up to the election. Staff in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet have made 126 edits on subjects ranging from the children overboard affair to the Treasurer Peter Costello, Fairfax reports.
So, too, has Australia’s Department of Defense, although they’ve gone into Wiki lockdown while the Department figures out exactly who was changing what (or working out how to spin that story, at any rate). The PM’s office have supposedly launched an internal inquiry, but I’m sure any interesting findings (whatever that might entail) won’t quite surface until the 07 elections are done, anyway!
At the same time, the long-awaited Federally-funded NetAlert website, which is supposed to educate and arm parents, children and teachers to the dangers of life in a networked culture, has finally been released. Sadly, though, the keystone of NetAlert are free family internet filters, which have been poorly received and for the most part, don’t appear to work.
PS Running WikiScanner past the University of Western Australia IP Address is far less exciting; there is one big Portishead fan, a few rants about masturbation, but that’s the juiciest we’ve got!
Update: Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer takes the cake with his thoughts on Wikipedia:
“My sort of recollection of Wikipedia sites is they are a bit, sort of, a bit anti-government, they are sort of a bit negative about people in the government,” Mr Downer said today. “That is my recollection of them, so maybe we should fire people up to edit them – but I know they have editorial control at Wikipedia so it probably wouldn’t help.”
It’s such a delight to have such informed politicians leading this country. *sigh*
Off the Grid!
I’m on leave, and Emily and I are away, until August 24th. More to the point, we’re going to be completely without internet connectivity (partially by choice, more by circumstance), so I’m going to be completely off the grid until we get back to Perth. So, please don’t take offence if emails go unanswered or moderated comments don’t appear in the meantime … I’ll get to most stuff within a couple of days after August 24th. Until then, enjoy this little picture I took of a little memento from our honeymoon …
The image shows a few rocks and pebbles that made their way from a park in Venice to our bedroom in Perth!
Propel Arts – Pollinate Forum – ‘MySpace is better than Yours’ – Monday, August 27th
When I get back to Perth, one of the first things I’m doing is speaking as part of the next Propel Arts Pollinate Forum. It’s a free event for anyone under 25 years of age (but don’t forget to register) and $10 for older folk. Here’s the details:
MYSPACE IS BETTER THAN YOURS – POLLINATE FORUM
MONDAY 27 August
– skills development for ALL young artists –
Our next Pollinate is fast approaching and it asks the question: Is MySpace is better than Yours?
Join Propelarts and a group of young artists, arts workers and young people on Monday 27 August to discuss the digital age and its transformation of the arts space as we know it. Helping us take a look at issues around promoting your arts online will be:
Dr Tama Leaver: Tama is an academic from the University of Western Australia, who’ll be talking about the trends and theories of digital spaces.
Bonnie Davies: Bonnie is more than comfortable with new technologies. She’ll talk about some of the creative possibilities they offer and what she has learnt in working for the media artists of PVI collective.
David Hodgkinson: Our Propelarts treasurer is also a qualified lawyer, and for this Pollinate, he’ll help unravel the legal ramifications of putting your art online.
Lots of interesting discussion and tips and tricks for getting your message out there! Check out Propelarts at www.propelarts.org.au and RSVP to Maeve on 9328 5855 / maeve@propelarts.org.au.
… see you there! …
Where: Minter Ellison, Level 49 Central Park, 152-158 St Georges Terrace, Perth
Date: Monday, 27 August from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Topic: MySpace is better than Yours – promoting your arts on the internet
Cost: Free for Propelarts members and all people 25 or under. Otherwise, $10
I hope to see at least a few readers of this blog there! 🙂
links for 2007-08-15
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Is marrying one woman in the material world, and another -or at least her avatar – in Second Life cheating or polygamy? That’s the question in this WSJ article on the ‘fuzziness’ of the line between game-life and the outside world.
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“…the Internet broadens the field of civic engagement. Young people from across the [US] nation are invited to engage in community and public service and they do so in significant numbers.”
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Cutting out the middle person (ie record companies) between bands and fans should make more money for bands and cost less for fans.
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Students do Google, but not by any means as much as the backlash against student over-use of search engines would suggest!
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Matthew Kirschenbaum looks at the pros and cons of digital composition. “Today nearly all literature is “born digital” in the sense that at some point in its composition, probably very early, the text is entered with a word processor, saved on a hard dri
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“Comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, whose programs were once among the most viewed on YouTube, were requested by the video site to give testimony in legal proceedings as it fights a $1 billion lawsuit by Viacom Inc , according to court filings.”
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QUT academics John Hookham and Gary MacLennan, suspended over public disparagement of a PhD candidate’s proposal, “argue that QUT punished them because of their political opposition to post-modernism” …
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“The social networks mushrooming over the internet are a rich source of information for young people choosing a university. “
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“A general method for the generation of natural language narrative is described. It allows the
expression, or narrative discourse, to vary independently of the underlying events and existents
that are the narrative’s content. “ -
“Cardiff University has reprimanded more than 20 bio-sciences students over comments made on the social networking site Facebook. … making offensive remarks about biosciences lecturer … and using the site to share information about coursework.”
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A 13-year old Titantic fan has spotted Russian state TV trying to use footage from the blockbuster as actual footage in a news story. [Via]
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Australian Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, now has 5000 Facebook friends, the limit currently allowed. Rudd’s Facebook success is part of his canny “Kevin07” campaign which features substantial online engagement.
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Despite the traditional and legally mandatory “cooling off” period in which political parties cannot advertise in mainstream media for 3 days before a national election, online presence and social networks are challenging those boundaries…
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Margaret Robertson: “The debate around video games and violence rears its head every few months. But are the right questions being asked?”
links for 2007-08-12
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“Before they blog, upload a video to YouTube, or even play a game of World of Warcraft, members of the British military first have to get approval from superior officers, if there’s any hint that defense matters might come up.”
Who Owns Web2.0?
The answer to ‘who owns web2.0?’ should probably be ‘everyone who uses it’, but a recent post by Amy Webb uses a very simple but important image to remind us all that convergence isn’t just a technical or cultural term, it’s an industrial gameplan for everyone from Google and Yahoo to Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp:
(Click image to expand.)
[Via Steve Rubel & Amy Gahran]
Tama Leaver dot Net by Tama Leaver is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.