My favourite tools of 2007 and the biggest tool of 2007

My favourite tools of 2007:
Twitter - if you don’t get it, you don’t have enough contacts or you’re not asking the right questions
Akismet - oh how I love you. Akismet has caught 23,003 spam for me since I first installed it.
WordPress - a bit neglected this year, but a favourite none the less

But the biggest tool of 2007 is Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister of the Digital Economy, who has wrapped up 2007 by announcing mandatory internet filters, which will be opt-out only.

“Labor makes no apologies to those that argue that any regulation of the internet is like going down the Chinese road,” he said. “If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree.”

Filtering the internet isn’t democratic.

In 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 19 affirms the right to free speech:

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.

Is a filtered internet what you want for your kids? Unable to research breast cancer, religion, censorship, politics and missing out on news such as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s visit to a strip club.

The Librarians are asking, who is in charge of the filter? What is being filtered? Why no announcements on government websites?

All of this at a time when any child can easily subscribe to hard core porn via SMS, great job Conroy! Way to protect the children.