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Creative Commons & Spatial Information
Wayne Patterson | August 14, 2009One of the most important issues currently facing Government is intellectual property management of public sector information; particularly spatial information. NSW requires a system of intellectual property management for spatial information that:
– improves access and re-use;
– maximises its potential; and
– addresses the challenges and opportunities of the Web 2.0 digital environment
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No Need for Protocols: Main Game is Voluntary Cooperation
Warren Reed | August 13, 2009When a controversy blew up last week about The Australian’s reporting of Somali raids in Melbourne, the government immediately suggested it might introduce tough new protocols to control the media.
It was a silly reaction because the newspaper had been more than cooperative. The government should have sought to build on a positive, rather than respond to it with a negative. And anyway, the failure rested with the AFP, not the newspaper.
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Battling the Dysfunction of Federation
Tony Abbott | August 13, 2009What should happen to the states?
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Why Pay for Mp3s?
Daniel Filan | August 12, 2009On the 31 of July 2009, 25-year-old Joel Tenenbaum of Boston University was sued for US$675,000 for downloading 30 songs. Sure he committed a crime, but typical reactions are far from, Good, make the evil man pay, and more like, He had to pay $675,000 just for downloading some songs! Poor guy.
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The Imperative for Government to Engage Online
Matthew Crozier | August 12, 2009Governments around the world desperately need to wrest control of their dialogue with the community away from factional interest groups. Online engagement holds the solution.
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Privacy and Location Based Information
Warwick Watkins | August 11, 2009Spatial information and privacy, is it really an issue?
Often the collection of spatial information can be, it would seem very impersonal. High level photography, satellite imagery, LiDAR. However location also relates to address and property related information and, through social media, your personal location should you chose to reveal it. -
Spatially Enabling Government and Society is Good Politics
Gary Nairn | August 11, 2009Australia needs better Spatial Data Infrastructure to support Spatially Enabled Government. Achieving that would translate into better, more effient service delivery; and that’s also good politics.
My last blog finished with the statement “Spatially enabled government (SEG) was therefore a key input for e-government.”
SEG is also good politics, something most politicians don’t seem to appreciate. To enable SEG a number of issues around standards and interoperability must first be sorted out, which is possibly why focusing politicians’ attention on the cause can be difficult.
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UncategorisedSINO-AUSTRALIAN RELATIONS
editor | August 11, 2009CLIMATE CHANGE: Renewable energy as stimulus – – Tax & Accounting in the Carbon Economy – – A CARBON ECONOMY – – 2009 COPUS Year of Science – – Industrial Environmental Management and Cleaner Production for Sustainable Development – – Responding to climate change means changing operations from the inside out – – Enabling Life: the big decision – –
Paying for Online News
This week came with the announcement from Rupert Murdoch that they will soon begin charging for some online content on News Corporation websites, saying that “Quality journalism is not cheap and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting”. Now, the question on many peoples’ lips is: Will it work? Will people really pay for news? I believe that the answer is no.
There are many who believe that, in fact, it will work. Steve Brill of Journalism Online, believes that “publishers, by offering a mix of paid and free content, can wring subscription revenue out of 5-10 percent of their existing monthly visitors while maintaining 88 percent of page views and 91 percent of ad revenue”.
Why older people should care about climate change action
It is in older peoples’ best interests to insist on a target of 100% renewable energy by 2020. Here are three major ways inaction on climate change will adversely affect us if we don’t.
Older people are aware of the worsening problem of man-made global warming, otherwise known as anthropogenic global warming (AGW) due to greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution. However due to deficiencies in public ethics, societal risk management and public reportage from academics, politicians and journalists, most older people are probably unaware of the acute seriousness of the worsening climate emergency.
#City2Surf: Sydney’s Biggest Tweetup
I’m a Pommie import (now proudly Australian) and the Sydney City2Surf has become one of my hat-trick days in Australia, along with Australia Day and New Year’s Eve.
Carbon Emission Trading Schemes
The entire prospect of trading carbon atmospheres on the pretext of reducing or rationalising of any particular industry carbon outflow, is a flawed concept.
For example: how can each trade be quantified?
How can each trade be packaged?
What controls are in place, or will be in place, when there is dispute as to consumed credits or quantities traded?
Will there be created by some opportunistic scoundrel, a market for part-used or slightly contaminated used carbon units – or credits?
How can despatch and delivery be confirmed when nothing has been packaged and sent to the respective industry?
It is my personal view that this but a another snake-oil product.
Imagine trying to trade our excessive daylight hours during high summer, to an overseas country that is experiencing shortened daylight hours?
Where is this matter different to the trading of atmospheres?
