civil society
Tomorrow night I'll be hosting a panel for Digital Citizens on Politics and Digital Activism in the Social Age. The panel has a fascinating and diverse group of people: * Penny Sharpe - Labor Parliamentary Secretary for Transport and Roads * John Bergin - Director of Digital News for Sky
civil society
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde, in Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) It has been fascinating to watch the progress of the various revolutions in north Africa and the middle east, in particular the travails of
civil society
I was completely appalled to hear how a well known radio personality in Sydney spoke to the Prime Minister of Australia on air. The details are outlined well by Barrie Cassidy on The Drum in Liar, liar, shock jocks on fire; and you can listen to the entire interview here.
civil society
Even though it was once said ironically, it has always seemed to me that Australia really is the lucky country. Our national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, sums it up: We've golden soil and wealth for toil... Our land abounds in nature's gifts... We've boundless
civil society
Source: The Crisis, 23 December 1776, Thomas Paine As the wave of people's uprisings sweep across North Africa and the Middle East it is fascinating to watch from afar in Australia. We are safely ensconced in our comfortable homes distant from the terrible decisions that people are making
civil society
A friend invited me along to his citizenship ceremony the other day. He's terribly excited about becoming an Aussie after living here for a number of years. We went to the newly refurbished Sydney Town Hall and the Lord Mayor, wearing her Lord Mayoral bling, gave a lovely
ideas
A recent disclosure that a Federal public servant has been blogging about matters political in his personal time has come to be referred amongst Australian journalists and bloggers alike as #groggate. There has been much discussion about the rights and wrongs of this unmasking of a pseudonymous blogger who had
ideas
I've been observing the discourse in the mainstream and social media worlds about the 'outing' of the blogger Grog's Gamut - the so-called #groggate. Craig Thomler has made an excellent aggregation of the various sources of comment. There were two things that really irritated
ideas
Update: I am informed by @firstdogonmoon that this cartoon was actually inspired by @Pollytics
ideas
Because, along with the witty and intelligent @neerav @smurray38 @grogsgamut @paulwallbank, I shall be in Canberra blogging and tweeting about Media140 Oz Politics. This event is on Thursday 23 September 2010. There's a fascinating line up of speakers and I'm expecting that my brain will be
ideas
It has been very interesting (during the 2010 Australian federal election campaign) to watch people advocating freedom of speech on one hand and then getting upset when people with differing views speak out. The intolerance of opposing points of view has really resonated with me. It makes me a bit
ideas
I was reading a post by Dave Snowden that really got me thinking. In his post, From oratory to the soundbite, he discusses the changes in how our politicians engage with us. Noting the change from the days of Lloyd George, who would speak for an hour without notes and