Only a week to go till Stephen Conroy is due to unveil his Digital Economy strategy - at CeBIT is the expectation. While I said some unkind things about how poorly the Budget papers dealt with the DE agenda, I'm led to believe that the strategy will be substantive.
I am currently writing a piece that talks about the narrative of the "Digital Economy" more generally though. Hopefully it will be ready to appear just after the strategy.
But Australia is not alone in ruminating on DE issues.
In France President Sarkosy is hosting a two-day forum which will bring opposing views of the need to regulate the internet economy. In canada the former Government CIO has said all three levels of government will have to be more collaborative and focused if they want to realize their goals around improving service delivery.
Meanwhile closer to home Malaysia is reportedly "embarking on an innovative digital economy framework that will culminate in the development of a Digital Malaysia Masterplan". In the USA though the latest call is for skilling minorities for digital entrepreneurship (which I think means something other than giving authority the finger in novel ways).
The Digital Economy is definitely "in vogue".
What does Senator Conroy have in store for us?
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The simple guide to PR
Product comparison website iselect has provided a very instructive guide on how to do PR - especially in the IT industry.
They issued a release through get2press that referred to "research released today" in the "iselect Broadband Report". It was received by media organisations with no contact details, other than a link to the iselect broadband comparison website.
Nowhere in the release nor on the website is there a copy of the "recently released" research. The release was also available on PRWeb.
A Google search for the exact phrase "iselect broadband report" scored just under sixty hits, some of which were repeats. The story was carried by news.com, ibtimes, itwire, knowfirst, Yahoo, helstra, The Courier Mail, QuickSales, NineMSN, and Adelaide Now.
Some of these don't purport to be anything other than "rip and read" sites but the others are representing that they do IT journalism. Read the content of the stories and see exactly how much journalism there is versus "churnalism".
Meanwhile I've found a contact for the release and have at least asked for a copy of the actual research report that the release claims has been "released".
Hopefully exposing the light of scrutiny on PR based on citing headline grabbing lines from otherwise unavailable reports will turn this from good PR to very bad PR indeed.
(Note: I'll keep you posted if I get a reply from my request for the report)
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
They issued a release through get2press that referred to "research released today" in the "iselect Broadband Report". It was received by media organisations with no contact details, other than a link to the iselect broadband comparison website.
Nowhere in the release nor on the website is there a copy of the "recently released" research. The release was also available on PRWeb.
A Google search for the exact phrase "iselect broadband report" scored just under sixty hits, some of which were repeats. The story was carried by news.com, ibtimes, itwire, knowfirst, Yahoo, helstra, The Courier Mail, QuickSales, NineMSN, and Adelaide Now.
Some of these don't purport to be anything other than "rip and read" sites but the others are representing that they do IT journalism. Read the content of the stories and see exactly how much journalism there is versus "churnalism".
Meanwhile I've found a contact for the release and have at least asked for a copy of the actual research report that the release claims has been "released".
Hopefully exposing the light of scrutiny on PR based on citing headline grabbing lines from otherwise unavailable reports will turn this from good PR to very bad PR indeed.
(Note: I'll keep you posted if I get a reply from my request for the report)
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
The Rapture - Part 2
So - surprise surprise - no Rapture!
I guess we should have expected that - look at Mathew 24:36.
Or as one of my daughters put it "I'm pretty sure God doesn't give clues."
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
I guess we should have expected that - look at Mathew 24:36.
Or as one of my daughters put it "I'm pretty sure God doesn't give clues."
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
IBM
News that IBM has passed Microsoft's market cap is not really surprising.
IBM remains one of the great but misunderstood stories of corporate strategy. In the bad old days before the PC there used to be IBM and the BUNCH (Burroughs, UNIVAC, NCR, Control Data and Honeywell I think). IBM has maintained its position against all challenges while much of the rest disappeared through mergers.
The story of IBM and the PC is usually told as the story of an opportunity missed. They outsourced the operating system, they created a standard they couldn't dominate, they were out-performed by others in manufacturing.
These stories fail to recognise the huge challenge faced by a closed-system (SNA) mainframe manufacturer by the PC. The challenge is well described by Clayton Christensen's analysis of the related hard drive industry in "The Innovator's Dilemma
". How do you invest in a technology that you think will cannibalise your existing business?
The answer is simple. Create the business unit separate from the main business, limit your investment as much as possible by outsourcing (e.g. the operating system), and create a self-supporting "eco-system" - part of the magic of the IBM PC was its very open architecture and the active encouragement of third-party add-on hardware, the complete opposite of Big Blue itself in those days. The outcome was that, in a field replete with various attempts at desktop systems, the IBM PC became the standard.
But the PC division's greatest impact was not in being a business unit on its own, but the ability it gave IBM to adapt. Most significantly because of the PC division IBM was prepared to embrace the new open access architectures, and its business adapted accordingly.
Meanwhile Microsoft really is a one-trick pony. In common with the rest of the software industry a lot of their capability is leveraging brand and distribution. Much of the core program content of large software firms comes from acquisition rather than cdevelopment.
And the large software companies are rapidly coming to the end of the cycle where their proprietary systems have unique advantages. It is really remarkable just how much you can achieve with reliable Open Source software these days.
The IBM PC story is not one of a failed investment in PCs and then a company made good, it is instead the story of the only mainframe provider who successfully navigated the technological transformation of the desktop.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
IBM remains one of the great but misunderstood stories of corporate strategy. In the bad old days before the PC there used to be IBM and the BUNCH (Burroughs, UNIVAC, NCR, Control Data and Honeywell I think). IBM has maintained its position against all challenges while much of the rest disappeared through mergers.
The story of IBM and the PC is usually told as the story of an opportunity missed. They outsourced the operating system, they created a standard they couldn't dominate, they were out-performed by others in manufacturing.
These stories fail to recognise the huge challenge faced by a closed-system (SNA) mainframe manufacturer by the PC. The challenge is well described by Clayton Christensen's analysis of the related hard drive industry in "The Innovator's Dilemma
". How do you invest in a technology that you think will cannibalise your existing business?The answer is simple. Create the business unit separate from the main business, limit your investment as much as possible by outsourcing (e.g. the operating system), and create a self-supporting "eco-system" - part of the magic of the IBM PC was its very open architecture and the active encouragement of third-party add-on hardware, the complete opposite of Big Blue itself in those days. The outcome was that, in a field replete with various attempts at desktop systems, the IBM PC became the standard.
But the PC division's greatest impact was not in being a business unit on its own, but the ability it gave IBM to adapt. Most significantly because of the PC division IBM was prepared to embrace the new open access architectures, and its business adapted accordingly.
Meanwhile Microsoft really is a one-trick pony. In common with the rest of the software industry a lot of their capability is leveraging brand and distribution. Much of the core program content of large software firms comes from acquisition rather than cdevelopment.
And the large software companies are rapidly coming to the end of the cycle where their proprietary systems have unique advantages. It is really remarkable just how much you can achieve with reliable Open Source software these days.
The IBM PC story is not one of a failed investment in PCs and then a company made good, it is instead the story of the only mainframe provider who successfully navigated the technological transformation of the desktop.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Friday, May 20, 2011
The Rapture
I guess since I don't live in the US and see the billboards I can be excused for not knowing about the prediction that The Rapture is happening tomorrow, at least according to Harold Camping.
Evidently it all starts tomorrow with giant earthquakes and then unbelievers dies till October. The evidence has been carefully explained by Scientific American. In brief the dude has decided that 5, 10 and 17 are special numbers and that this Saturday is the square of the product of those numbers days after the day he assigns to the crucifixion of Jesus.
I put a very crude post up about the SBS show Letters and Numbers earlier. That show has two sections - in one you try to make the longest word you can out of the letters randomly drawn. In the other the challenge is to compute a given number out of a similarly randomly drawn set of numbers. This is really what Campling has done.
The prediction reminds me, however, of a plaque my wife and I found in New Zealand once. The plaque is in Windsor Reserve Devenport.
I've previously assumed that it was a plaque to commemorate some previous failed Rapture prediction. However, I find that I'm not the first person to blog about it and that the plaque itself is an item readily available throughout the US and you can (normally) buy one on line.
Ah well, so ends another mystery (though how the plaque wound up in a public park is still a unexplained).
I think on Monday I'll start selling a line of "On this site on 21 May 2011 nothing happened" plaques.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Evidently it all starts tomorrow with giant earthquakes and then unbelievers dies till October. The evidence has been carefully explained by Scientific American. In brief the dude has decided that 5, 10 and 17 are special numbers and that this Saturday is the square of the product of those numbers days after the day he assigns to the crucifixion of Jesus.
I put a very crude post up about the SBS show Letters and Numbers earlier. That show has two sections - in one you try to make the longest word you can out of the letters randomly drawn. In the other the challenge is to compute a given number out of a similarly randomly drawn set of numbers. This is really what Campling has done.
The prediction reminds me, however, of a plaque my wife and I found in New Zealand once. The plaque is in Windsor Reserve Devenport.
I've previously assumed that it was a plaque to commemorate some previous failed Rapture prediction. However, I find that I'm not the first person to blog about it and that the plaque itself is an item readily available throughout the US and you can (normally) buy one on line.
Ah well, so ends another mystery (though how the plaque wound up in a public park is still a unexplained).
I think on Monday I'll start selling a line of "On this site on 21 May 2011 nothing happened" plaques.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Middle-power diplomacy and cyberspace.
The release by President Obama of the US "International Strategy for Cyberspace" was greeted by some in the Australian commentariat as flagging that the strategy stood in stark contrast to Australia's efforts to introduce a mandatory Internet filter.
Today in Crikey Bernard Keane notes (behind paywall) "the main media message for which seemed to be that the US reserved the right to respond to cyber attacks with real-world attacks if necessary."
However, he goes on to note that "the principles espoused in the strategy document clash fundamentally with the enthusiasm of the Obama administration ... to act as the enforcement arm of the US copyright industry." After discussing the processes the US is attempting to use through treaties he notes "The attitude of the Obama Administration to the "PROTECT IP" bill before Congress will also be instructive. This bipartisan bill ... would mandate an internet filter for the United States by requiring ISPs to block the DNS for sites alleged to be engaged in "infringing" activities by the copyright industry."
It is all too easy in the Internet space to grab hold of a half-truth and then wilfully or unwittingly misrepresent it.
But in the context of our vary own Convergence Review we have an opportunity to consider how we would at least like the Internet to work.
In the case of television the TV broadcaster makes an assessment of the content against an agreed set of criteria and puts a rating on the show. Where the show is "live" the production process is designed to ensure that it stays within rating, and there are "kill switch" mechanisms if it doesn't (and on talk-back radio a delay to ensure the offending bit can be suppressed before going to air).
Domain name owners have the same ability to control the content on their site. Even the big social media sites have a take down policy of things that they get alerted to. That means it would be theoretically possible to put a classification system in the DNS to advertise to browsers the classification of a site.
In TV land certain classifications can only be shown at certain times. The Internet equivalent would be permissions established in the browser that stopped it from navigating to sites with certain ratings.
Now at this point there will be howling that the Internet is global and that we can't "regulate it". I don't want to. But I'd like to think that we could have an informed contribution to make. Why is it that only the US publishes pontifications such as this? Where is the Australian strategy?
More importantly why are we not taking the opportunity to practice middle-power diplomacy in this space?
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Today in Crikey Bernard Keane notes (behind paywall) "the main media message for which seemed to be that the US reserved the right to respond to cyber attacks with real-world attacks if necessary."
However, he goes on to note that "the principles espoused in the strategy document clash fundamentally with the enthusiasm of the Obama administration ... to act as the enforcement arm of the US copyright industry." After discussing the processes the US is attempting to use through treaties he notes "The attitude of the Obama Administration to the "PROTECT IP" bill before Congress will also be instructive. This bipartisan bill ... would mandate an internet filter for the United States by requiring ISPs to block the DNS for sites alleged to be engaged in "infringing" activities by the copyright industry."
It is all too easy in the Internet space to grab hold of a half-truth and then wilfully or unwittingly misrepresent it.
But in the context of our vary own Convergence Review we have an opportunity to consider how we would at least like the Internet to work.
In the case of television the TV broadcaster makes an assessment of the content against an agreed set of criteria and puts a rating on the show. Where the show is "live" the production process is designed to ensure that it stays within rating, and there are "kill switch" mechanisms if it doesn't (and on talk-back radio a delay to ensure the offending bit can be suppressed before going to air).
Domain name owners have the same ability to control the content on their site. Even the big social media sites have a take down policy of things that they get alerted to. That means it would be theoretically possible to put a classification system in the DNS to advertise to browsers the classification of a site.
In TV land certain classifications can only be shown at certain times. The Internet equivalent would be permissions established in the browser that stopped it from navigating to sites with certain ratings.
Now at this point there will be howling that the Internet is global and that we can't "regulate it". I don't want to. But I'd like to think that we could have an informed contribution to make. Why is it that only the US publishes pontifications such as this? Where is the Australian strategy?
More importantly why are we not taking the opportunity to practice middle-power diplomacy in this space?
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Speaks for itself
Letters and Numbers is quite an entertaining show on SBS - but a random draw of letters can have interesting results.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
On-Line Opinion and The Conversation or On distributions and variance
A colleague recently suggested that I should consider writing for On-Line Opinion as a way of getting my views more coverage. Separately Josh Gans has tweeted about The Conversation. So today I've had a bit of a look at both.
On-Line Opinion is self described as "Australia's e-journal of social and policy debate". It has been going for about six years now and is "professionally" edited though contributions are unpaid. The Conversation is very different having been started by former Age editor Andrew Jaspan, and drawing exclusively from academics for content and even using an *.edu.au domain.
Both carry the kind of material usually reserved for the Opinion pages of major newspapers, but reflect the fact that these are becoming mono-voice regions (follow the party line) and are declining in availability anyway.
They vary from the on-line "news" sources like Business Spectator, or Crikey in being exclusively opinion.
Anyhow, two items from On-Line opinion caught my attention, one questions whether markets can provide food security, while the other asserts that the world can't rely on alternative energy sources.
Ultimately both these items rest on the observation of the unpredictable variability of the weather. Food security can't be guaranteed by markets for the simple reason that the amount that is globally planned to be grown might not match the demand globally produced because of weather events. That problem exists, however, with or without international food trade. It just means that the impact of weather events is different and may not be felt in the location of the event, but elsewhere. A loss of production in a wealthy country results in more exports from a poorer country resulting in food shortages.
The energy case is equally built around the argument that the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine. In common with most such arguments it makes assumptions that existing storage technologies are as energy efficient and as price efficient as they'll ever get - they aren't of course. It also dismisses each storage solution because it alone could not handle the storage task, whereas in reality the combined use could.
But variability and distributions are indeed everywhere. Elsewhere today there have been reports about the float of LinkedIn and surprise about comments reported from their prospectus that "...a substantial majority of our members do not visit our website on a monthly basis, and a substantial majority of our page views are generated by a minority of our members." Indeed there is a small minority of users that make up the dominant usage. One could say .... "derr".
The question though is exactly what kinds of distributions they are. Lots of people have started to realise that the normal or Gaussian distribution is an abstraction that isn't particularly normal at all. So books like Black Swan
and The Long Tail 
talk about other kinds of distributions. Unfortunately these too readily make assumptions about other kinds of distributions (notably Pareto or Power Law) ignoring that the small deviations from these that occur in things like log-normal distributions also happen in the hard to measure tail.
Meanwhile The Conversation had a learned article on Julia Gillard's voice and speech. It in part concludes that one of the difficulties is that the PM controls her speech too well, and it lacks sufficient variability to be engaging and convincing. Because the mode of speech is so unusual it is regarded as being artificial.
I've added these two to my daily reading list but I suspect I'm going to find more of these kinds of stories than things that provide any new insights.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
On-Line Opinion is self described as "Australia's e-journal of social and policy debate". It has been going for about six years now and is "professionally" edited though contributions are unpaid. The Conversation is very different having been started by former Age editor Andrew Jaspan, and drawing exclusively from academics for content and even using an *.edu.au domain.
Both carry the kind of material usually reserved for the Opinion pages of major newspapers, but reflect the fact that these are becoming mono-voice regions (follow the party line) and are declining in availability anyway.
They vary from the on-line "news" sources like Business Spectator, or Crikey in being exclusively opinion.
Anyhow, two items from On-Line opinion caught my attention, one questions whether markets can provide food security, while the other asserts that the world can't rely on alternative energy sources.
Ultimately both these items rest on the observation of the unpredictable variability of the weather. Food security can't be guaranteed by markets for the simple reason that the amount that is globally planned to be grown might not match the demand globally produced because of weather events. That problem exists, however, with or without international food trade. It just means that the impact of weather events is different and may not be felt in the location of the event, but elsewhere. A loss of production in a wealthy country results in more exports from a poorer country resulting in food shortages.
The energy case is equally built around the argument that the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine. In common with most such arguments it makes assumptions that existing storage technologies are as energy efficient and as price efficient as they'll ever get - they aren't of course. It also dismisses each storage solution because it alone could not handle the storage task, whereas in reality the combined use could.
But variability and distributions are indeed everywhere. Elsewhere today there have been reports about the float of LinkedIn and surprise about comments reported from their prospectus that "...a substantial majority of our members do not visit our website on a monthly basis, and a substantial majority of our page views are generated by a minority of our members." Indeed there is a small minority of users that make up the dominant usage. One could say .... "derr".
The question though is exactly what kinds of distributions they are. Lots of people have started to realise that the normal or Gaussian distribution is an abstraction that isn't particularly normal at all. So books like Black Swan
and The Long Tail talk about other kinds of distributions. Unfortunately these too readily make assumptions about other kinds of distributions (notably Pareto or Power Law) ignoring that the small deviations from these that occur in things like log-normal distributions also happen in the hard to measure tail.Meanwhile The Conversation had a learned article on Julia Gillard's voice and speech. It in part concludes that one of the difficulties is that the PM controls her speech too well, and it lacks sufficient variability to be engaging and convincing. Because the mode of speech is so unusual it is regarded as being artificial.
I've added these two to my daily reading list but I suspect I'm going to find more of these kinds of stories than things that provide any new insights.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Fairfax
Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett has opined today that we are seeing the beginning of the end for The Age.
The reality is that if it happens to The Age it will happen to the SMH too.
I personally cannot understand the reluctance of Fairfax to go harder on the idea of shared content, including a single Canberra Press Gallery. My only difference would be that I'd kill the AFR at the same time.
The AFR should become the business section of the two broadsheet papers. It really serves no other purpose.
The five print titles of The Age, SMH, Canberra Times and the Illawarra and Newcastle Heralds (I think they still exist) could be joined by print versions of the Fairfax online initiatives in WA and Qld, and probably the addition of an Adelaide one.
The online strategy needs to more actively embrace the use of other "mastheads". The "National Times" is an effective combined masthead for the opinion of The Age and SMH, but bizarrely does not yet run to the Canberra Times. Their tech sections, motoring etc can be similarly branded (OK I know some of them might already be).
Ultimately the selling point to journalists is the ability to continue to fund "quality journalism" by increasing the audience of every writer.
The strategy needs to start at the news and information content and work its way out to brands, not the reverse. Ultimately that means a complete restructure of the editorial arrangements - there is a national editor for business who knows how many pages he has in each title and decides what goes in them. Yes there might be less business news in the smaller papers, but those readers can access the online content.
And heck, you could really print in each and every paper a unique code for access to the day's paid content, and at the content end restrict that to being able to be accessed by only one IP address and for that day only. You can also restrict the number of page views so a robot or proxy can't access the rest.
Finally, get over the paywall fixation on archived content. Anything over a month old should be readily available - you build your brand that way.
I'm not in the newspaper biz ... probably for a reason. but there look to be many more creative ways to get more bang for the buck than outsourcing sub-editing (the latter being something management consultants rather than management would dream up).
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
The reality is that if it happens to The Age it will happen to the SMH too.
I personally cannot understand the reluctance of Fairfax to go harder on the idea of shared content, including a single Canberra Press Gallery. My only difference would be that I'd kill the AFR at the same time.
The AFR should become the business section of the two broadsheet papers. It really serves no other purpose.
The five print titles of The Age, SMH, Canberra Times and the Illawarra and Newcastle Heralds (I think they still exist) could be joined by print versions of the Fairfax online initiatives in WA and Qld, and probably the addition of an Adelaide one.
The online strategy needs to more actively embrace the use of other "mastheads". The "National Times" is an effective combined masthead for the opinion of The Age and SMH, but bizarrely does not yet run to the Canberra Times. Their tech sections, motoring etc can be similarly branded (OK I know some of them might already be).
Ultimately the selling point to journalists is the ability to continue to fund "quality journalism" by increasing the audience of every writer.
The strategy needs to start at the news and information content and work its way out to brands, not the reverse. Ultimately that means a complete restructure of the editorial arrangements - there is a national editor for business who knows how many pages he has in each title and decides what goes in them. Yes there might be less business news in the smaller papers, but those readers can access the online content.
And heck, you could really print in each and every paper a unique code for access to the day's paid content, and at the content end restrict that to being able to be accessed by only one IP address and for that day only. You can also restrict the number of page views so a robot or proxy can't access the rest.
Finally, get over the paywall fixation on archived content. Anything over a month old should be readily available - you build your brand that way.
I'm not in the newspaper biz ... probably for a reason. but there look to be many more creative ways to get more bang for the buck than outsourcing sub-editing (the latter being something management consultants rather than management would dream up).
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
This is funny and cruel
Thanks to Stephen King for pointing out this cute clip called "Vodafail the musical".
I'm not sharing it to have a dig at them - I think somehow that their network issues have been over-stated. Plus I think the combination of a bit of customer churn and new network investments means that the VF network is about to be very very good.
(Interesting discussion can be had here about the timing of investments. A similar issue existed at Telstra once where they didn't invest in more "head room" on their Bigpond servers, a virus infecting their customers created a traffic spike and brought down the service. The story goes that they paid out more in compensation than the capital investment that they had delayed - and had to make the capital investment.
Anyone who thinks running a telco is easy should ask a telco engineer, a marketer and a CFO to explain how you make investment decisions!)
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
I'm not sharing it to have a dig at them - I think somehow that their network issues have been over-stated. Plus I think the combination of a bit of customer churn and new network investments means that the VF network is about to be very very good.
(Interesting discussion can be had here about the timing of investments. A similar issue existed at Telstra once where they didn't invest in more "head room" on their Bigpond servers, a virus infecting their customers created a traffic spike and brought down the service. The story goes that they paid out more in compensation than the capital investment that they had delayed - and had to make the capital investment.
Anyone who thinks running a telco is easy should ask a telco engineer, a marketer and a CFO to explain how you make investment decisions!)
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Bitcoin
For the IT/comms types who read this blog, I suggest you read Josh Gans on Bitcoin to see commentary on it as money rather than IT.
Bottom line, I think, is that there is a market for a true "virtual currency", but that any private model suffers the same problem as does a private model of a "physical" currency. If you have a precious metal base you need to be convincing that you have enough metal, beyond that you are relying on a Government guarantee.
And I'm trying to figure out who earns the seigniorage - the difference between the value of money and what it costs to make it (recently the Australian Government has run into a problem with negative seigniorage on the 5c coin).
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Bottom line, I think, is that there is a market for a true "virtual currency", but that any private model suffers the same problem as does a private model of a "physical" currency. If you have a precious metal base you need to be convincing that you have enough metal, beyond that you are relying on a Government guarantee.
And I'm trying to figure out who earns the seigniorage - the difference between the value of money and what it costs to make it (recently the Australian Government has run into a problem with negative seigniorage on the 5c coin).
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Julia Gillard doesn't follow my advice!
I'm channelling my inner shock jock here, and expressing my outrage that the Prime Minister simply just doesn't do as I tell her.
I advised her via this blog to stop giving airtime to the leader of the opposition, saying;
Stop referring to coalition spokespersons by name. at most use their titles. Mr Abbott is never Mr Abbott, he is the leader of the opposition, Joe Hockey is just the shadow treasurer. Using their titles will show up the absence of substance.
Also as far as possible try to refer to them as "the alternative government" or simply "coalition" rather than opposition or liberals. Don't feed their brand.
And above all just don't mention them if you can avoid it. When asked about the carbon tax explain it without trying to talk about other points of view. Talking about the coalition means ascribing to them a policy credibility that they don't have on their own.
Then at the launch of the NBN she goes and mentions him a zillion times.
Let's face it there are people out there who doubt the worth of the NBN. Don't feed Abbott by giving him the position of being the logical home. Acknowledge the concerns of those who might doubt the value, identify the value and move on.
Meanwhile her comments have largely overshadowed the good work the shadow Treasurer did in admitting that once there is a Telstra/NBN Co agreement there really isn't a viable alternative policy for the coalition. This perhaps reflects the reality that their coalition partners are probably telling them they have no hope in regional Australia without it.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
I advised her via this blog to stop giving airtime to the leader of the opposition, saying;
Stop referring to coalition spokespersons by name. at most use their titles. Mr Abbott is never Mr Abbott, he is the leader of the opposition, Joe Hockey is just the shadow treasurer. Using their titles will show up the absence of substance.
Also as far as possible try to refer to them as "the alternative government" or simply "coalition" rather than opposition or liberals. Don't feed their brand.
And above all just don't mention them if you can avoid it. When asked about the carbon tax explain it without trying to talk about other points of view. Talking about the coalition means ascribing to them a policy credibility that they don't have on their own.
Then at the launch of the NBN she goes and mentions him a zillion times.
Let's face it there are people out there who doubt the worth of the NBN. Don't feed Abbott by giving him the position of being the logical home. Acknowledge the concerns of those who might doubt the value, identify the value and move on.
Meanwhile her comments have largely overshadowed the good work the shadow Treasurer did in admitting that once there is a Telstra/NBN Co agreement there really isn't a viable alternative policy for the coalition. This perhaps reflects the reality that their coalition partners are probably telling them they have no hope in regional Australia without it.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Trains and the North West
Looks like the SMH doesn't plan to publish my letter on the North-west rail line, so I'll blog instead.
The decision to change the North-West rail from an above ground interchange to a through connection under Epping is not new. This revision was made under the previous Government before the project was scrapped in the face of opposition from the residents of leafy Cheltenham prior to the 2007 election.
A memorable quote from a public meeting at the time was the resident who said “if people want a train line they should live in Cheltenham, not in the North West”.
We again see the potential utility of public transport investments being compromised by objections posing as environmental concerns. This follows the loss of one station on the Epping Chatswood section due to the decision to go under rather than over the Lane Cove River.
The decision however does not reduce the utility of the line. The Strathfield-Central section of the network is heavily congested. Bringing more trains up the North Shore line is a better option.
But the best option is the final NW line plan that incorporated a new harbour crossing and additional CBD stations. The last proposal - before it was scrapped due to the loss of funding from electricity privatisation - was for a tunnel to the East of the existing crossings.
In the context of the Barrangaroo development however I wonder whether sufficient consideration has been given to a rail crossing to the West. This could use the existing track behind Luna Park to access the tunnel to the North. to the south the tunnel could continue under Barrangaroo providing the possibility for a station closer to this development than Wynyard. A further station could be located near Darling Harbour. From there there are alternatives of connecting to Central or swinging West to connect to the White Bay goods line which could then be used for passenger heavy rail.
Ultimately though we don't need a string of separately announced plans for different lines. We need a forward commitment that says $X will be spent EVERY YEAR building new tracks around Sydney. We could then include extensions of the eastern suburbs line, additional branches in the West and a line up the Northern Penninsula.
Finally, let me note that prior to the 2003 State election the Liberals took up the cause of every resident who claimed the Epping-Chatswood line would damage property prices for affected residents. It hasn't. Will they apologise for the fear-mongering.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
The decision to change the North-West rail from an above ground interchange to a through connection under Epping is not new. This revision was made under the previous Government before the project was scrapped in the face of opposition from the residents of leafy Cheltenham prior to the 2007 election.
A memorable quote from a public meeting at the time was the resident who said “if people want a train line they should live in Cheltenham, not in the North West”.
We again see the potential utility of public transport investments being compromised by objections posing as environmental concerns. This follows the loss of one station on the Epping Chatswood section due to the decision to go under rather than over the Lane Cove River.
The decision however does not reduce the utility of the line. The Strathfield-Central section of the network is heavily congested. Bringing more trains up the North Shore line is a better option.
But the best option is the final NW line plan that incorporated a new harbour crossing and additional CBD stations. The last proposal - before it was scrapped due to the loss of funding from electricity privatisation - was for a tunnel to the East of the existing crossings.
In the context of the Barrangaroo development however I wonder whether sufficient consideration has been given to a rail crossing to the West. This could use the existing track behind Luna Park to access the tunnel to the North. to the south the tunnel could continue under Barrangaroo providing the possibility for a station closer to this development than Wynyard. A further station could be located near Darling Harbour. From there there are alternatives of connecting to Central or swinging West to connect to the White Bay goods line which could then be used for passenger heavy rail.
Ultimately though we don't need a string of separately announced plans for different lines. We need a forward commitment that says $X will be spent EVERY YEAR building new tracks around Sydney. We could then include extensions of the eastern suburbs line, additional branches in the West and a line up the Northern Penninsula.
Finally, let me note that prior to the 2003 State election the Liberals took up the cause of every resident who claimed the Epping-Chatswood line would damage property prices for affected residents. It hasn't. Will they apologise for the fear-mongering.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Empathy for Optus
Optus yesterday was fined $178,200 over adds for a "Max Cap" plan in July and August last year. Reporting on the story in the SMH Lucy Battersby says that Optus doesn't agree with the claim that the ads were misleading but moved to replace them immediately.
In an opinion piece also in the SMH Elizabeth Knight writes;
The reality is that the ACCC spends a ridiculous amount of time dealing with exaggerated or plain fictional marketing claims made by telcos. It is hard to find someone who hasn't got some beef about their telco service provider or mobile phone bill.
Given that she then recites some of the language that David Howarth so delightfully ridiculed as I noted in a column for itNews it may surprise you that I feel some empathy for Optus.
The reason is simply that there is so much inconsistency in the operation of the law of misleading and deceptive conduct. Optus in this case was pursued by the ACCC and took the decision to change their practice to avoid a lengthy argument. The fine they have been asked to pay is less than the annual salary of their corporate counsels.
Meanwhile last December Optus initiated its own action against Vodafone over the latter's "infinite" plans. They were unsuccessful in gaining an injunction and have since dropped the matter. But it was the judgement in the injunction that was extraordinary.
Elizabeth Knight notes that "It's true that the more sophisticated consumer understands that there are plenty of calls that are not covered by a cap, but in some cases the fine print exclusions are a fraction the size of the headline marketing claims."
But Justice Nicholas stated in his judgement (at para 19);
It also needs to be remembered that ordinary and reasonable consumers, who might be expected to take some care of their own interests, are likely to do more than simply rely upon these particular television commercials in deciding whether or not to sign up to the respondent’s plan. These types of plans typically involve a contractual commitment of a year or more in duration and are invariably the subject of terms and conditions which relate to matters of detail of the kind that the applicant’s complaints focus upon.
According to this decision it doesn't really matter how much the actual terms vary from the advertised terms because the customer is LOCKED IN TO those terms the customer has an increased obligation to read and understand the full terms before acquiring the service.
Optus not only lost but has been required to pay Vodafone's costs. It would be interesting to know which amount is higher, the fine they just received or the cost of their failed litigation.
Personally I think Optus over-stated the case; they listed all the call types not included in the Voda plans. A focus only on 1800 and 13/1300 (in line with ACCAN's Fair Calls for All campaign may have been easier to argue.
So in defence of telcos and others, it is very hard to win the internal battle on compliance when the external rules are vague and inconsistently interpreted.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
In an opinion piece also in the SMH Elizabeth Knight writes;
The reality is that the ACCC spends a ridiculous amount of time dealing with exaggerated or plain fictional marketing claims made by telcos. It is hard to find someone who hasn't got some beef about their telco service provider or mobile phone bill.
Given that she then recites some of the language that David Howarth so delightfully ridiculed as I noted in a column for itNews it may surprise you that I feel some empathy for Optus.
The reason is simply that there is so much inconsistency in the operation of the law of misleading and deceptive conduct. Optus in this case was pursued by the ACCC and took the decision to change their practice to avoid a lengthy argument. The fine they have been asked to pay is less than the annual salary of their corporate counsels.
Meanwhile last December Optus initiated its own action against Vodafone over the latter's "infinite" plans. They were unsuccessful in gaining an injunction and have since dropped the matter. But it was the judgement in the injunction that was extraordinary.
Elizabeth Knight notes that "It's true that the more sophisticated consumer understands that there are plenty of calls that are not covered by a cap, but in some cases the fine print exclusions are a fraction the size of the headline marketing claims."
But Justice Nicholas stated in his judgement (at para 19);
It also needs to be remembered that ordinary and reasonable consumers, who might be expected to take some care of their own interests, are likely to do more than simply rely upon these particular television commercials in deciding whether or not to sign up to the respondent’s plan. These types of plans typically involve a contractual commitment of a year or more in duration and are invariably the subject of terms and conditions which relate to matters of detail of the kind that the applicant’s complaints focus upon.
According to this decision it doesn't really matter how much the actual terms vary from the advertised terms because the customer is LOCKED IN TO those terms the customer has an increased obligation to read and understand the full terms before acquiring the service.
Optus not only lost but has been required to pay Vodafone's costs. It would be interesting to know which amount is higher, the fine they just received or the cost of their failed litigation.
Personally I think Optus over-stated the case; they listed all the call types not included in the Voda plans. A focus only on 1800 and 13/1300 (in line with ACCAN's Fair Calls for All campaign may have been easier to argue.
So in defence of telcos and others, it is very hard to win the internal battle on compliance when the external rules are vague and inconsistently interpreted.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Quigley and "gobbers"
I've had my say on twitter and elsewhere online about the character assasination of Mike Quigley. Today the SMH has joined the fray with an editorial. In doing so they join everyone else in saying there is no allegation about Quigley, but that the issue should have been identified in the recruitment process, writing;
But Quigley's NBN candidature needed to be judged against a clear appreciation of his previous experience. That taxpayers are staking $36 billion in this project demands complete transparency. It should not have been for Quigley to decide what history was relevant. And if he was too forgetful, the federal government's own inquiries should have filled the gaps. That they did not is not surprising.
There is a perverted logic in arguing that a recruitment process should have identified a matter about someone for which they were NOT being investigated.
It would not, of course, be the first time such a thing has happened. There was an infamous case of Telstra appointing a Chief Technology Officer who had faked his CV to include a doctorate, disclosed only when his new staff wanted to write a story for an in house magazine about him.
The interesting governance question is that we know the Commonwealth paid a large sum of money to an executive recruitment mob (Egon Zehnder) for the staffing of the NBN Board. If there is a question of why the issue wasn't known is this one for the head hunter rather than the Government? After all what more can a Minister do than pay for the best professional advice available.
Meanwhile the SMH also carries a great story about people who comment on blogs. Rick Gekoski notes "the number of readers' comments that are splenetic, ranging from the snide dismissal to the full-on rant. I wonder why so many of these commenters are angry and self-righteous, so anxious to spit out their insults?"
Adding "Spitting is what it is, and one can feel spat at. I like to call this phenomenon Gobbing. There are a multitude of gobbers."
He identifies six characteristics of gobbers; They have a peculiar name, not a real one, and rarely a pictur, they are in a perma-rage with regard to almost everything; they apparently lack any other forum in which to express themselves; their response comes so quickly - Skim! Spit! Click! - that it can hardly be considered the result of thinking; they like sarcasm and eschew irony; and they are unable to distinguish an argument from an assertion...if answered back, they spit harder.
Of course, bloggers like me dream of having our share of "gobbers".
As an example of the form look at the comments (including mine) on this article on the Turnbull/Quigley exchange.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
But Quigley's NBN candidature needed to be judged against a clear appreciation of his previous experience. That taxpayers are staking $36 billion in this project demands complete transparency. It should not have been for Quigley to decide what history was relevant. And if he was too forgetful, the federal government's own inquiries should have filled the gaps. That they did not is not surprising.
There is a perverted logic in arguing that a recruitment process should have identified a matter about someone for which they were NOT being investigated.
It would not, of course, be the first time such a thing has happened. There was an infamous case of Telstra appointing a Chief Technology Officer who had faked his CV to include a doctorate, disclosed only when his new staff wanted to write a story for an in house magazine about him.
The interesting governance question is that we know the Commonwealth paid a large sum of money to an executive recruitment mob (Egon Zehnder) for the staffing of the NBN Board. If there is a question of why the issue wasn't known is this one for the head hunter rather than the Government? After all what more can a Minister do than pay for the best professional advice available.
Meanwhile the SMH also carries a great story about people who comment on blogs. Rick Gekoski notes "the number of readers' comments that are splenetic, ranging from the snide dismissal to the full-on rant. I wonder why so many of these commenters are angry and self-righteous, so anxious to spit out their insults?"
Adding "Spitting is what it is, and one can feel spat at. I like to call this phenomenon Gobbing. There are a multitude of gobbers."
He identifies six characteristics of gobbers; They have a peculiar name, not a real one, and rarely a pictur, they are in a perma-rage with regard to almost everything; they apparently lack any other forum in which to express themselves; their response comes so quickly - Skim! Spit! Click! - that it can hardly be considered the result of thinking; they like sarcasm and eschew irony; and they are unable to distinguish an argument from an assertion...if answered back, they spit harder.
Of course, bloggers like me dream of having our share of "gobbers".
As an example of the form look at the comments (including mine) on this article on the Turnbull/Quigley exchange.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The economic value of broadband
Is it worth investing in the NBN? What are the benefits? These big questions are largely impenetrable. But so is any decision about the future that has to be made. We employ a number of techniques to do so. Anticipating the "wisdom of crowds" we use a thing called "democracy" to try to reflect the communal will or opinion) of the people.
But there are other more scientific tools one can use. One of these is an econometric model, whereby the correlation between certain past events is measured, and controlled for other factors, and a relationship established.
A new paper in The Economic Journal by researchers at the University of Munich (partially funded by Deutsche Telecom) provides a convincing case that higher broadband penetration indeed raises economic growth rates.
The paper "Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth" uses OECD Broadband penetration data and a number of models to determine a 10 percentage point increase in broadband penetration raises annual per capita growth by 0.9 to 1.5 percent.
The study is incredibly robust and controls for workforce size, workforce capability and rate of capital formation. They discuss a favourite topic of mine, that is broadband as a General Purpose Technology (or GPT). They summarise this nicely;
High-speed internet via broadband infrastructure facilitates the spatial distribution of large batches of information that previously had to be collocated, which in turn allows new business models, entrepreneurial activities and collaboration of firms producing specialised inputs. This can lead to lower entry barriers and higher market transparency, increasing both labour productivity (also through better job matching) and market competition and ultimately economic growth.
They note that their first simple association between growth and penetration could be due to reverse causation (growing economies can spend more on broadband through higher disposable income or investment by the state0) and omitted variables (the diffusion of broadband has occurred at the same time as other diffusions).
In their modelling to overcome these issues the researchers provide the first model I've seen that matches the individual country broadband diffusion curves with a predicted (logistic) diffusion curve. The paper is worth looking at for this (Figure 1) alone.
Of course, for the NBN the case needs to be made that even faster broadband means even faster growth. There are two ways to think of this. The first is that "even faster broadband" is a new GPT that should be expected to have similar benefits - after all Broadband penetration growth is slowing and so therefore is its contribution to growth.
Another way would be to add the OECD's data series on speeds as another variable to the model. Unfortunately that data set doesn't go back quite so far.
This is, however, an important paper. It is worth reading and building on.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
But there are other more scientific tools one can use. One of these is an econometric model, whereby the correlation between certain past events is measured, and controlled for other factors, and a relationship established.
A new paper in The Economic Journal by researchers at the University of Munich (partially funded by Deutsche Telecom) provides a convincing case that higher broadband penetration indeed raises economic growth rates.
The paper "Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth" uses OECD Broadband penetration data and a number of models to determine a 10 percentage point increase in broadband penetration raises annual per capita growth by 0.9 to 1.5 percent.
The study is incredibly robust and controls for workforce size, workforce capability and rate of capital formation. They discuss a favourite topic of mine, that is broadband as a General Purpose Technology (or GPT). They summarise this nicely;
High-speed internet via broadband infrastructure facilitates the spatial distribution of large batches of information that previously had to be collocated, which in turn allows new business models, entrepreneurial activities and collaboration of firms producing specialised inputs. This can lead to lower entry barriers and higher market transparency, increasing both labour productivity (also through better job matching) and market competition and ultimately economic growth.
They note that their first simple association between growth and penetration could be due to reverse causation (growing economies can spend more on broadband through higher disposable income or investment by the state0) and omitted variables (the diffusion of broadband has occurred at the same time as other diffusions).
In their modelling to overcome these issues the researchers provide the first model I've seen that matches the individual country broadband diffusion curves with a predicted (logistic) diffusion curve. The paper is worth looking at for this (Figure 1) alone.
Of course, for the NBN the case needs to be made that even faster broadband means even faster growth. There are two ways to think of this. The first is that "even faster broadband" is a new GPT that should be expected to have similar benefits - after all Broadband penetration growth is slowing and so therefore is its contribution to growth.
Another way would be to add the OECD's data series on speeds as another variable to the model. Unfortunately that data set doesn't go back quite so far.
This is, however, an important paper. It is worth reading and building on.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Skills, VET and migration
I have to confess to being totally bamboozled by a lot of the debate on national worforce planning.
Skills Australia has published what it calls a "roadmap for vocational education and training", which on analysis sounds like a real plan. On reading it though there is little more than an appeal to the standard neo-classical response of a "voucher system".
Meanwhile the Budget included some good initiatives on recognising workplace gained competencies in VET accreditation. But as I noted in my blog post the brochure for "Building Australia's Future Workforce" had mostly people in hard hats. Very few ICT type jobs there, but there was one chef.
So how do we do workforce planning? I know that Tourism Australia is currently conducting a massive survey using Deloitte Access Economics.
I discovered today that Innovation and Business Skills Australia has published its 2011 Environment Scan. The report notes in part;
Continuing rise of the digital economy
Ongoing developments in digital infrastructure, products and services are providing a platform for continuing development of the digital economy in Australia. As many commentators predict, the digital economy continues to change the business we do and the way we do it.
The industries in which the digital economy is likely to expand most rapidly, through business and service takeup of the capacity offered by the high speed broadband network, are e-health, education services, e-finance and business services, logistics and transport and media and entertainment.
The challenge for both the VET system and business users will be to understand and pitch skills acquisition accurately to meet the needs of businesses, services and individuals. The demand for digital literacy is expected to shadow business engagement with high speed broadband and related user skills development.
and later
Skills shortages have been specifically reported in IT systems architecture, information management strategy development, e-security and in the management of IT services.
Skilling in the telecommunications sector in the short term is substantially dependent on the style and nature of the NBN build and implementation. Immediate skills needs for the ‘roll past’ of the fibre, may be met through heightened government and industry recruitment and training, however the skills to effectively connect, support and integrate business and household functions, using the highspeed broadband capacity, remains a significant issue for the IT and telecommunication sectors.
This raises the really interesting question of who the heck IBSA is. Its membership list includes a large number of unions, professional associations (including ACS) and training provider organisations. It also includes a number of industry associations, including the big AIG and ACCI. But it doesn't directly include any of the ICT associations, AIIA, IIA, AIMIA, CommsAlliance, AMTA or IIA.
It is one of eleven such Industry Skills Councils, which cover disparate groups.
An issue with the ISC approach as distinct from the survey from Tourism Australia is the focus exclusively on the very amorphous concept of VET to the exclusion of the Higher Education component.
What's also missing is the recognition that a consequence of the digital economy is the greater reliance on markets rather than hierarchies for obtaining skills. More people fulfil multiple roles across different sectors - because the technology enables the rapid identification of opportunities and negotiation of terms.
I suspect there is a long way to go to turn the whole VET model around.
Which provides a nice segue to comment on a comment on my budget post. Anonymous wrote
EBN "ill-concieved". Not at all. AARNet is and will continue to be a mile ahead of the NBN - and the poor old VET community will now continue to have network access that is nowhere near as good as their University brothers - and worse even than many high-schools.
I guess we should keep blue collars blue ;-)
This requires a response. Firstly AARNet is primarily a research, not a teaching, network. VET almost by definition doesn't.
Secondly, while the commercial NBN offering that we know and love today is 100Mbps to everywhere, the product roadmap includes 1Gbps for major sites like VET. And this will upgrade.
Thirdly, where the connectivity for VET is important is with their students not with each other. Big pipes to public networks are more important than big pipes in a private network to each other.
Finally, the writer might like to explain all those hard hats in the workforce brochure.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Skills Australia has published what it calls a "roadmap for vocational education and training", which on analysis sounds like a real plan. On reading it though there is little more than an appeal to the standard neo-classical response of a "voucher system".
Meanwhile the Budget included some good initiatives on recognising workplace gained competencies in VET accreditation. But as I noted in my blog post the brochure for "Building Australia's Future Workforce" had mostly people in hard hats. Very few ICT type jobs there, but there was one chef.
So how do we do workforce planning? I know that Tourism Australia is currently conducting a massive survey using Deloitte Access Economics.
I discovered today that Innovation and Business Skills Australia has published its 2011 Environment Scan. The report notes in part;
Continuing rise of the digital economy
Ongoing developments in digital infrastructure, products and services are providing a platform for continuing development of the digital economy in Australia. As many commentators predict, the digital economy continues to change the business we do and the way we do it.
The industries in which the digital economy is likely to expand most rapidly, through business and service takeup of the capacity offered by the high speed broadband network, are e-health, education services, e-finance and business services, logistics and transport and media and entertainment.
The challenge for both the VET system and business users will be to understand and pitch skills acquisition accurately to meet the needs of businesses, services and individuals. The demand for digital literacy is expected to shadow business engagement with high speed broadband and related user skills development.
and later
Skills shortages have been specifically reported in IT systems architecture, information management strategy development, e-security and in the management of IT services.
Skilling in the telecommunications sector in the short term is substantially dependent on the style and nature of the NBN build and implementation. Immediate skills needs for the ‘roll past’ of the fibre, may be met through heightened government and industry recruitment and training, however the skills to effectively connect, support and integrate business and household functions, using the highspeed broadband capacity, remains a significant issue for the IT and telecommunication sectors.
This raises the really interesting question of who the heck IBSA is. Its membership list includes a large number of unions, professional associations (including ACS) and training provider organisations. It also includes a number of industry associations, including the big AIG and ACCI. But it doesn't directly include any of the ICT associations, AIIA, IIA, AIMIA, CommsAlliance, AMTA or IIA.
It is one of eleven such Industry Skills Councils, which cover disparate groups.
An issue with the ISC approach as distinct from the survey from Tourism Australia is the focus exclusively on the very amorphous concept of VET to the exclusion of the Higher Education component.
What's also missing is the recognition that a consequence of the digital economy is the greater reliance on markets rather than hierarchies for obtaining skills. More people fulfil multiple roles across different sectors - because the technology enables the rapid identification of opportunities and negotiation of terms.
I suspect there is a long way to go to turn the whole VET model around.
Which provides a nice segue to comment on a comment on my budget post. Anonymous wrote
EBN "ill-concieved". Not at all. AARNet is and will continue to be a mile ahead of the NBN - and the poor old VET community will now continue to have network access that is nowhere near as good as their University brothers - and worse even than many high-schools.
I guess we should keep blue collars blue ;-)
This requires a response. Firstly AARNet is primarily a research, not a teaching, network. VET almost by definition doesn't.
Secondly, while the commercial NBN offering that we know and love today is 100Mbps to everywhere, the product roadmap includes 1Gbps for major sites like VET. And this will upgrade.
Thirdly, where the connectivity for VET is important is with their students not with each other. Big pipes to public networks are more important than big pipes in a private network to each other.
Finally, the writer might like to explain all those hard hats in the workforce brochure.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Monday, May 16, 2011
Tweeting
Hmmm. First the KANZ broadband summit, now the joint committee on the NBN.
I've now twice tried listening to a committee or event on a live broadcast and twittered a commentary on the way through. Becomes interesting as an exercise, cause I've got two audiences - people I know who are there or also listening, and people who aren't. So it becomes hard to craft a tweet.
But it sure is fun!
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
I've now twice tried listening to a committee or event on a live broadcast and twittered a commentary on the way through. Becomes interesting as an exercise, cause I've got two audiences - people I know who are there or also listening, and people who aren't. So it becomes hard to craft a tweet.
But it sure is fun!
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Mobile coverage and information in markets
In his Twisted Wire podcast last week Phil Dobbie raises the question of how consumers should be informed about the coverage available on mobile networks. On positing the idea of a consolidated detailed map of coverage Telstra’s Max Jennings said;
I don’t think so. It’s a very competitive industry in this country, and it’s in each of the operators interest to (a) publish correct data about coverage and performance and (b) to maintain that performance level over time. Now the coverage maps won’t indicate performance per se, they’ll indicate where the signal is available; but the capacity side of the equation is also extremely important.
Your customers will very quickly tell you if you are not meeting the expectations that were delivered to the customer at the time of purchase and they have the opportunity to walk to one or two or however many operators that exist selling mobile services.
I don’t think it needs to be regulated. I think the competitive forces within the industry will sort that issue out.
The discussion reveals a good example of the naive faith in competition and markets promoted by telcos. As I've outlined elsewhere the discussion ignores what is known in economics (after Akerlof's paper as the "market for lemons". More recently research shows that the problem of the efficiency deviation of lemons markets is increased by increasing competition.
The position described by Max of a customer being able to change network after the fact of finding poor coverage reflects the failure to understand that the consumer can't do that because of a lack of information about the alternative.
The suggestion ignores the high switching costs for customers as well. There is not only the problem of time commitment now but the very fragmented spectrum model that really you want to keep your phone on the network you bought it for.
But the buzzword in customer experience these days is "reducing customer effort" with its own score. The attitude of let customers buy and then experience the coverage doesn't reduce customer effort.
It is a bit disappointing because when Max and I worked together in the Corporate Customer Division of Telstra the research then conducted on customers by PA Consulting revealed that reducing the effort they had to put into managing telecommunications was a big driver of assessment of the quality of customer service. That in turn fed part of the assessment of the attractiveness of our long term agreements (called Strategic Partnership Agreements).
Max and Phil went on to share a joke about how Vodafone was already witnessing a big churn driven by poor coverage experience. Vodafone has now developed a coverage checker that conveniently uses Google Maps. It has however already received negative comments as the coverage shown isn't what is reported.
The site carries the usual disclaimer about such predictive models. Over time the site could get better by being adjusted by the actual experience at actual places. (one of which can also one how high off the ground you are - ever noticed poorer coverage on the higher floors of a building). I sympathise with the carriers and the difficulty of actually defining a coverage expectation, given all the factors that can affect it. But I feel for their customers far more.
But let's face it, Vodafone has felt driven to this situation because of a small disaster with coverage. Telstra and Optus have no need to respond.
Real world markets don't work like they do in economics or MBA courses - firms and policy makers need to recognise that.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
I don’t think so. It’s a very competitive industry in this country, and it’s in each of the operators interest to (a) publish correct data about coverage and performance and (b) to maintain that performance level over time. Now the coverage maps won’t indicate performance per se, they’ll indicate where the signal is available; but the capacity side of the equation is also extremely important.
Your customers will very quickly tell you if you are not meeting the expectations that were delivered to the customer at the time of purchase and they have the opportunity to walk to one or two or however many operators that exist selling mobile services.
I don’t think it needs to be regulated. I think the competitive forces within the industry will sort that issue out.
The discussion reveals a good example of the naive faith in competition and markets promoted by telcos. As I've outlined elsewhere the discussion ignores what is known in economics (after Akerlof's paper as the "market for lemons". More recently research shows that the problem of the efficiency deviation of lemons markets is increased by increasing competition.
The position described by Max of a customer being able to change network after the fact of finding poor coverage reflects the failure to understand that the consumer can't do that because of a lack of information about the alternative.
The suggestion ignores the high switching costs for customers as well. There is not only the problem of time commitment now but the very fragmented spectrum model that really you want to keep your phone on the network you bought it for.
But the buzzword in customer experience these days is "reducing customer effort" with its own score. The attitude of let customers buy and then experience the coverage doesn't reduce customer effort.
It is a bit disappointing because when Max and I worked together in the Corporate Customer Division of Telstra the research then conducted on customers by PA Consulting revealed that reducing the effort they had to put into managing telecommunications was a big driver of assessment of the quality of customer service. That in turn fed part of the assessment of the attractiveness of our long term agreements (called Strategic Partnership Agreements).
Max and Phil went on to share a joke about how Vodafone was already witnessing a big churn driven by poor coverage experience. Vodafone has now developed a coverage checker that conveniently uses Google Maps. It has however already received negative comments as the coverage shown isn't what is reported.
The site carries the usual disclaimer about such predictive models. Over time the site could get better by being adjusted by the actual experience at actual places. (one of which can also one how high off the ground you are - ever noticed poorer coverage on the higher floors of a building). I sympathise with the carriers and the difficulty of actually defining a coverage expectation, given all the factors that can affect it. But I feel for their customers far more.
But let's face it, Vodafone has felt driven to this situation because of a small disaster with coverage. Telstra and Optus have no need to respond.
Real world markets don't work like they do in economics or MBA courses - firms and policy makers need to recognise that.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
Eurovision
I didn't vote but I agree with the SBS Australian poll that awarded Eurovision to Ireland rather than Azerbaijan.
The win by Azerbaijan will put a focus on this former Soviet republic. Anyone who watched the telecast will have seen the construction job the Germans did to convert a 40,000 seat football stadium over six weeks into a giant TV studio. Azerbiajan is an energy rich state, but like many such states it has dramatic inequality and 40 percent of the population live below the property line.
These people are outside the capital Baku, and it is there that the event will be hosted. And if you ever wanted an excuse to go to watch Eurovision, the Wikitravel guide to Baku seems it could be quite interesting.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
The win by Azerbaijan will put a focus on this former Soviet republic. Anyone who watched the telecast will have seen the construction job the Germans did to convert a 40,000 seat football stadium over six weeks into a giant TV studio. Azerbiajan is an energy rich state, but like many such states it has dramatic inequality and 40 percent of the population live below the property line.
These people are outside the capital Baku, and it is there that the event will be hosted. And if you ever wanted an excuse to go to watch Eurovision, the Wikitravel guide to Baku seems it could be quite interesting.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
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