A great turnout for Destra and Brad Howarth at The Domain

Brad Howarth and Domenic Carosa (CEO of Destra) drew quite a crowd at The Domain networking event in Melbourne, held at Digital Harbour in the Docklands. Attendees received a music CD from Destra and a copy of Australian Anthill magazine (Subscribe to Anthill for the secret bargain price here – thanks Rich).

Brad “Best Technology Industry Journalist” Howarth wrote an article in The Age which is firing up the local blogosphere. It’s web take 2.0 is creating a lot of discussion around whether Australian big business gets Web 2.0 (Brad’s full Aussie 2.0 list is here). One of my favourite quotes is from Mick Liubinskas at Tangler “So they keep chasing the users wherever they go, and the users are running away because they are sick of the corporates yelling at them”. As a Gen Y in the workforce, communication is clearly aimed at older generations. I’ve grown up as a consumer hearing the noise that is the corporate monologue, the same-again tv advertising, empty promises and not-so-hidden-agendas. This not only changes my behaviour as a consumer, it also changes what I want in communication in the workplace. I want two-way communication, input, rapid dissemination of news, subscriptions to news based on topic, a human voice, a giant repository of collective knowledge that can be searched… the list goes on. These technologies and techniques are native to me, part of how I get things done. I don’t fax, I don’t send letters and I hear blah blah blah when communication is inhuman and unnatural. Many older style companies are not connecting with their Gen X & Y employees, just as old media is not connecting with their Gen X & Y readers (if they have any). It’s a generation gap. (Rupert is one of the few who gets it)

The Global Geek Podcast recently asked Cameron Reilly “What motivates someone to walk away from the relative security of a six-figure-income corporate job to weather the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that go with running a start-up?”. Cam posted If You Start Me Up… on Startup Stories,

Creating a startup is already enticing to Gen X & Y for the seemingly unlimited challenge and job satisfaction, but I increasingly wonder whether the human voice (Naked Conversations) is going to be a greater factor in job choice for the coming decades. Money is only useful in that it leads to greater freedom. If you have freedom already, what exactly is the money for?

In other news, Scouta has released Hicks (thanks, no one else was going to) and MODM #2 is on 7th June at Federation Square. Put it in your calendar, RSVP and subscribe to the MODM rss feed. All the cool kids will be there.

Two’s Company, Three’s a Mesh Network – Logs are pulsing with OLPC searches

From the numbers of hits I’m currently receiving, I’ve gathered that one of the most important issues in Australian education has finally hit the Main Stream Media (MSM). Good job MSM, you’re only four months behind.

However they did cover some good stuff (despite the misleading, attention-grabbing headline – news please MSM, not misinformation) “Dr Tim Aubrey, Dr David Davis and Mr Alex Gibson, part of UTS’ engineering department, said they would be incorporating OLPC projects into their undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and even working on developing the software themselves.”

This is a welcome development, as implementations in Australia will need local knowledge, as well as technical expertise with OLPC systems.

“Dr Davis, a senior lecturer, said he was drawn to the OLPC project because it would allow his students to take part in a challenging engineering problem that is also “socially useful”.”

“another challenge faced by Australian governments looking to deploy the laptops is the need to order large quantities, said Srikhanta…. In order to produce them for $US150 – the goal is to bring this price down to $US85 by 2010 – countries would need to order the laptops in one million unit batches. This poses difficulties for countries with smaller population sizes, such as Australia.”

This is where smaller nations need to band together and order them as a group, or as a sub-order through a larger size nation. Most of these kinds of problems are not unique to any government, yet they shy away from collaboration, seeming to prefer wastage, duplication and inefficiency.

Another primary need, not just in Australia, is for a decent emulator for the OLPC interface, so open-source developers can start contributing to local software now. Then volunteers can create and test code to run on the OLPC laptops, without having a unit themselves. This is also important when bug-free software is a requirement. Yes, bug-free software is possible, it just requires a severe raising of the bar from current (and slacker) development/testing standards. Not only will tight development control be required, but some kind of integrated support WILL be required. Support is never just of a technical nature, it’s also a natural learning process, applying technology to solve local problems.

There also needs to be heavy penalties for people selling these items for profit, including the item being confiscated. Without heavy penalties, these are going to become a black market item of novelty value, weakening the position of the manufacturers who don’t want this available to members of the general public, as well as weakening the program itself.

People need to understand the purpose of this project, it is NOT to bring cheap laptops to people living normal lives. The Queensland Education Department obviously doesn’t get it, as they have described the machines as “far below the requirements” of students in developed countries. Yes, they are, and that’s exactly what they are supposed to be, they are not for students in developed countries! However, these would be of great assistance in Australian communities without any access to education, medical care, electricity, telephones and financial assistance. Basic literacy! Basic medical knowledge! These are greatly needed in some areas.

For all those people searching for information (a shout out to the hard working teachers and public servants who do give a shit), here are some links that may help you out. If you’re looking for something else, comment here and I’ll see if I can find it for you.
One Laptop Per Child – Wikipedia entry
One Laptop Per Indigenous Australian Child? – OLPC News
OLPC Demo

If you believe that Australia needs the OLPC right here and right now, contact your local member of Parliament (and your local paper) and ask them what they personally are doing about this issue. It’s time for them to pull their fingers out.