Author Archive

Realising Our Broadband Future

The Australian Department of Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy is holding a forum called Realising Our Broadband Future; We congratulate the government on taking a proactive democratic approach to the issue and involving many thinkers and doers in the process.

Everyone in Australia and many oversees will be affected by the NBN rollout and consequential policy and ideas, this is an event not to be missed if you have anything to add.

Multiple locations

The conference will be held in Sydney, with video streaming to multiple locations around the nation; discussion will be held in remote groups and contributions will be made to a wiki.

Speakers

Prime Minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd MP
Prime Minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd MP
Senator the Hon. Stephen Conroy
Senator, the Hon. Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Kate Lundy
Senator Kate Lundy
Vinton G. Cerf
Vinton G. Cerf
Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist Google
Jeffrey Cole
Jeffrey Cole
Director USC Annenberg School
Mike Quigley
Mike Quigley
Chief Executive Officer of NBN Co.

Five streams of discussion

After various keynotes and discussions, from people from organisations such as Google, and ICANN the will divide into five groups

Smart infrastructure

Digital Education

e-Community

e-Health

e-Business

Once again the website is http://broadbandfuture.gov.au, if you can’t make it to Sydney, sign up to one near you.

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Phone companies using bait and switch

A recent interview on Twisted Wire about prepaid phone companies has highlighted an area of some concern;

It seems that a standard practice in the pre-paid phone card market is for companies to produce multiple cards under different brands, which, when initially released to market use premium “high quality” routes for call connection, and then gradually begin to use cheaper, lower quality routes when the card is popular with customers.

Of course, this is akin to bait and switch tactics, but without a standard of communication quality, this underhanded tactic seems legal.

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Open Standards now a core principle

The Freedom of Communication project is now the home for TotalFair’s efforts towards open standards.

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Keep network neutrality fresh

We’ve all heard about network neutrality haven’t we? We all know how important it is to the future of humanity?

Keep it fresh in your head.

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Should the internet be free?

Supporting people’s right to communicate is the responsibility of all civil society. In December of 1948, the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . As the basis for much of today’s international law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights also addresses individuals’ right to communicate in Article 19:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

Universal access to broadband connectivity supports this fundamental human right.

“Opposing views” has more debate at this link.

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ACCC 2007 Comprehensive Guide to Broadband speeds.

Below is a paper by the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumers Commission) for ISP’s about the trade practices act of 1974.

The PDF version is avaible here.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Comcast stacking the audience

Transcript:

There was a huge turnout for a public hearing in Boston on the future of the internet, but when many citizens reached the door – they were turned away and left out in the cold. Why? Because the cable giant Comcast paid people like these to fill the seats, blocking out real citizens from the debate. They showed up 90 mins before the hearing began, and filled the room, with no Idea what the hearing was even about.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Bandwidth is misleading

Here is a primer on misleading bandwidth.

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New calls to break up Telstra

RIVALS have turned up the heat on Telstra by formally urging the Rudd Government to break it up.

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Save the internet video

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