Category Archives: opinions

Slacktivism: you get the engagement you deserve

Slacktivism: n. 1. halfhearted activism. (Wikitionary see also Slacktivism on Wikipedia) At the recent Digital Citizens event “Social media for social good”, many worthwhile and interesting  issues were discussed that revolved around how Not For Profits (NFPs) could use social … Continue reading

Posted in opinions | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Is the iPad the gateway to the smart house of the future?

Some of the most memorable moments of future computing in sci-fi film emphasise ease of use rather than raw power, features and hackability. Think “enhance” in Bladerunner… (sorry about the quality) or the classic touch user interface in the Minority … Continue reading

Posted in opinions | Leave a comment

Connections

Social media allows us to make many connections but are they meaningful ones? From personal experience, more than ever before we can make new social connections and befriend people over a wide range of distance, culture and beliefs. I now … Continue reading

Posted in opinions | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Who gains the most from your lifestream?

“Lifestreaming” was all the rage several years ago. Services like Jaiku, Second|Brain and FriendFeed cropped up and allowed people to centralise notifications of their online activities. Harnessing the technology of Application Programming Interfaces (or APIs) from various web services, it … Continue reading

Posted in opinions | Leave a comment

Thoughts on the iPad

This is mainly just to get ideas out of my brain and onto a page somewhere for my future reference. It’s this or talk to my wife about it and at least on the internet I can pretend I can’t … Continue reading

Posted in opinions | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Don’t blame technology for your lack of self-control

News sites. RSS feeds. Email. Microblogging. Social networks. BitTorrent. iView (or Hulu or BBC iPlayer). Time sinks, each and every one of them, providing as much or as little value to your daily existence as you are prepared to let … Continue reading

Posted in opinions | Tagged | 2 Comments

Common platforms are a good thing. Right?

Adobe AIR for Linux beta released (labs.adobe.com) I can see the attraction of developing from a known baseline that is guaranteed to work, look and feel exactly the same across different platforms. One set of bugs to fix, one set … Continue reading

Posted in opinions | 4 Comments

Why digital TV adoption rates are low in Australia

(Update at the bottom of the post) The analogue TV signal in Australia will be switched off by 2013. This means that everyone without a digital tuner will suddenly find themselves free of broadcast television.  The date for the switch … Continue reading

Posted in opinions | Tagged | 3 Comments

Do I really want my attention managed?

With information overload comes a desire to manage time and increasingly managing attention as well. Untethered technology gives us the freedom to do nearly anything, anytime, anywhere. It can also enslave us – we feel compelled to use it where … Continue reading

Posted in opinions | Tagged | 2 Comments

On information overload

Over the last few months I have witnessed a steadily growing stream of writers declaring news feed, blogging and/or social media bankruptcy, citing such things as information overload, hobbies becoming ‘work’ or even the fact that so many people on … Continue reading

Posted in opinions | Tagged | 3 Comments