Now We Are Talking

No one ever comes here because I am such an unreliable poster - so no one will notice if I say that I have some sympathy for Telstra.

Their public affairs chief Dr Phil Burgess has observed that there is a lack of "third party platforms" for decent policy discussion in Australia. While the point is perhaps debatable (as the Centre for Independent Studies, the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia, the Institute of Public Affairs, the Sydney Institute and the Australin Institute might) and the cause almost a more interesting point for discussion - at least Dr Burgess has tried to do something different. He created their "Now We Are Talking" website - I have it in my links.

But so far the effort is failing. He's tried promoting it through Crikey and speeches, but apart from Telstra's "publicity" it is getting very few comments and very little debate. There are a couple of serial pests of whom I am one - but the rest are mostly in a Telstra adulation society. And the site's format isn't really condusive to debate.

Great effort though and I'll keep supporting it - despite the near abuse I'm attracting.

On a related point I note that Laurel Papworth in her blog "Online Communities" (which I've also added to the links to the right) picked up some comments I made when Telstra started the site. Laurel Papworth and Now We Are Talking