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Usability, User Control, Safety and Privacy – Help is at hand!
Malcolm Crompton | July 8, 2011We have seen the incredible impact of the iPhone and iPad on the every day lives of so many of us. Overnight, they completely reset our expectations of benchmark usability.
As a result, many of us are collecting and sharing more information than ever before. Including personal information.
But what are the safety implications of this new ease and appeal?
Like a new, fast car, are we being seduced into driving too fast? Do these new devices have sufficient safety features and are we sufficiently well educated and experienced to drive at the new speeds available to us?
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Australia to announce carbon tax of $23, say media reports
PawasArora | July 7, 2011The Australian government is set to announced a carbon tax of $23 as the government concluded political negotiations with all the parties recently. Prime Minister Julia Gillard had led the negotiations with the Greens and Independents on several issues regarding the proposed carbon tax.
Among other decisions taken during the negotiations, use of petrol by cars, light vehicles and small businesses has been exempted from the carbon tax. However, heavy commercial vehicles such as trucks have not been exempted. It is expected that public transport might eventually been affected by the carbon tax.
Doing Business in Singapore & Australia: Carrot vs Stick
Michael Coomer | July 7, 2011Nearly four years ago, I began the process of moving the base of my business from Australia to Singapore, and I haven’t looked back. I am by no means the first person to make the observation that Singapore is a great environment in which to run a company.
The fight against corruption: protecting brand Australia
Matthew Tukaki | July 6, 2011Possibly, for the first time in the history of business in Australia, we may see a series of prosecutions that specifically look at corrupt misconduct by an Australian organisation and its officials outside of the country.
Securency International, a maker of Polymer bank notes and partly owned by Australia’s Reserve Bank, is at the centre of a scandal involving tens of millions of dollars across multiple countries.
At the heart of the allegations lies the intent of officials to use third parties to secure lucrative contracts – in some cases, it would appear third parties who already have dubious reputations when it comes to doing business. While this is not a new event, we have seen bribery and corruption allegations come from the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) and sanction busting in Iraq, what is new is the possibility that these allegations could lead to prosecutions which could lead to convictions.
Hints of hypocrisy
patrickcallioni | July 5, 2011It is only human to abhor a trait in others which we fear might be alive in oneself. In my case, that is hypocrisy. It is something I watch out for in my own behaviour, generally successfully, though not always.
Because of that, I have finely developed antennae to help me detect this trait in others. Here are a few examples.
First, states such as Western Australia and Queensland, which, having been mendicant states for decades, dependent on the charity of others – mainly New South Wales and Victoria – suddenly forget the charity extended to them when they become rich as a result of a geological accident that has given them rich ores to mine and export. In fact, their sin is triple, because it blends ingratitude, hypocrisy and hubris, hubris because they should know that there is no certainty in this world and today’s rich state might be tomorrow’s mendicant state, again.
Social Networking: LinkedIn, or left out
Elise Keeling | July 4, 2011If your business hasn’t dabbled in social networking sites then chances are you’re missing out on enormous online audiences.
Privacy has made it onto the agenda of world leaders
Malcolm Crompton | June 29, 2011It seems to have been a long time coming, but as predicted earlier in Getting closer to Base Camp: the sherpa’s are unpacking the tents, it has arrived.
Privacy has now been placed on the agenda of the world’s leadership. It has been inching its way there for some time in forums that get very close to the leadership.
A new ecological theory of digital identity
StephenWilson | June 18, 2011Privacy, security and "trust" researchers and policy workers may be interested in my new work "Identity evolves: Why Federated Identity is easier said than done".
I presented this paper at the AusCERT conference last week (beware, it’s long, but a condensed version is coming).
See lockstep.com.au/library/identity_authentication/an-ecological-theory-of-digit
The privacy impacts of federated identity and trendy new "trust ecosystem" models (like the US National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, NSTIC) are complex. The biggest problem I believe is that many have underestimated the deep changes wrought by federated identity, and how it radically alters traditionally close bilateral relationships and information flows.
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