Comments on: Seriously, Australia? SERIOUSLY?

By: Polly Morgan

Polly Morgan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:52:20 +0000

The mainstream Australian media is extremely conservative and parochial – and not just on IT issues. Although there was a lot of decent coverage of the Shuttle Columbia tragedy, there were also articles like this:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/02/1044122250346.html
And here’s an illustrative quote:
But the eight “spidernauts” and all seven astronauts, were destroyed today when Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere 160km south of Dallas, Texas, after a 16 day orbit of outer space.

By: Skud

Skud — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:22:51 +0000

Sure, it’s easy to offer examples of people in other places being ignorant, but unless you can offer me examples of Australia being really highly clued up about Internet technology or culture, my point still stands.

By: Mark Aufflick

Mark Aufflick — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:19:45 +0000

Oh c’mon Kirrily – Australia may be a bit parochial (some would say delightfully so), but we’re nothing compared to Californians.

True story – on a voice conference with a Californian colleague earlier this year (who probably thinks California is a country):

Californian: so what are you all doing for your summer holidays
Australian: no, it’s winter here
Californian: but it’s summer here?
Australian: yes – when it’s summer there, it’s winter here
Californian: OMG, how weird!

By: patspam

patspam — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:31:34 +0000

“if I could file my Australian taxes online without using Windows”

For fun a few weeks back I submitted that as a bug to the ATO. Blog post of the ensuing dialog coming soon :)

By: Skud

Skud — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:16:59 +0000

Yup, the ABC is one of the ones doing a pretty good job — not up there with the BBC (who are very pro-mashup, semantic web, etc.), but on par with the CBC in Canada and, say, NPR in the US. That’s why I said “newspapers” specifically ;)

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:53:47 +0000

Re headlines: http://www.smh.com.au/rssheadlines http://www.theage.com.au/rssheadlines and I’m guessing you’re pretty much sorted with the ABC.

We’ve discussed the substance of this before and you know I pretty much agree. I don’t work in the field though so it doesn’t get thrown in my face all the time.

By: Brenda

Brenda — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:12:21 +0000

must…. not… comment….
australia bashing is too much of a national hobby in New Zealand already.

By: Skud

Skud — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:55:20 +0000

If there were a single major Australian newspaper with a working RSS feed of their articles, or a single Australian department store with online shopping, or a single notable Australian company offering RESTful APIs to interface with their online offerings, or if some of the largest Australian companies could figure how to configure their DNS and/or webservers like we do here in the 21st century, or if I could buy technical books online for less than three times the US price and in less than three weeks, or if I could file my Australian taxes online without using Windows, or if my erstwhile employer's website (one of the most popular in Australia) didn't look like an explosion in a banner ad factory ca. 2004, I'd might feel a little more remorse for my cheap shots. (And if you tell me any of the above have changed since I last looked, and I'm missing something, I'll be delighted!) EDIT: I see News Corp have RSS feeds on their central website, but not on the pages of most of the individual newspapers.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:08:01 +0000

Hi K, as another escapee, I have to remind you that it’s a cheap shot to aim at local newspapers about the “shock” news that new technology was actually invented several years ago — when I was living in SF I remember a few obvious stories in the SF Chron and there are loads in the London press.

Just because a few media outlets don’t understand the medium to the level of someone who has worked around it for ten+ years doesn’t mean you should write off a whole culture — well you shouldn’t write a off the whole culture based on those reasons alone, anyway…

Brendan (listening to some dirty three via spotify right now so I’m a little nostalgic)

By: Skud

Skud — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:01:01 +0000

Weirdly, every time I turn on Radio National they’re talking about California. The first day I got my Internet radio, I turned it on thinking “Ah, time for some Australian radio” … to listen to a story about California’s budget crisis, followed by an interview with a Californian academic about crack cocaine.

When I was in Australia I largely ignored newspapers and TV news, in favour of a mixed bag of blogs and international news online. Here in SF I still do the same thing, and it seems like the majority of people I come in contact with do likewise, which was not my experience in Australia!