Category Archives: Society

August 3, 2009 Posted in Blogroll, New Zealand, Society 1 Comment

Judge and Jury – Fair Process Anyone?

By Ben Kepes

I posted a few weeks ago about the Clayton Weatherston trial – that post garnered a number of comments, many of which were along the lines of “everyone deserves their day in court and the presumption of innocence). This morning I was reading the NZ Herald and came across this

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July 20, 2009 Posted in Business, Economic Development, New Zealand, Society 3 Comments

Individual Credit Ratings – A Blunt Tool for a Big Problem

By Ben Kepes

News this morning that credit rating company Veda Advantage plans to introduce a credit rating system for all New Zealand citizens. The system will; give Kiwis a score from minus 330 to plus 1000. Most people will rate above zero but anyone with a score of less than 100 will

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July 13, 2009 Posted in New Zealand, Society 2 Comments

Good Headline, Terrible Content

By Ben Kepes

Today is my day to rant a little about a newspaper article over the weekend that really got me riled up. This week’s pick of the bunch is a headline from the NZ Herald proclaiming that “Leaky house costs owner’s life”. For my non New Zealand readers – there is

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July 10, 2009 Posted in New Zealand, Society 19 Comments

Justice For All?

By Ben Kepes

I’m probably in contempt of court for posting this and, yes, it’s way off-topic but I couldn’t resist writing about a murder trial going on here in New Zealand at the moment. A brief introduction – university lecturer Clayton Weatherston is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend and student, Sophie Elliot,

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July 7, 2009 Posted in Efficiency, New Zealand, Society 10 Comments

Our Health System Sucks. Seriously!

By Ben Kepes

Warning – this will sound like an off-topic rant. It is, but it’s a cathartic one. My mother had a fall last year during which she fractured her pelvis. This, and a historical neck-of-femur fracture sustained in a fall 15 years ago have led her surgeon to determine that a

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June 17, 2009 Posted in Business, Economic Development, New Zealand, Society 2 Comments

Charity Begins At Home – Lending for Small Business

By Ben Kepes

Image via Wikipedia Kiva is a US based peer-to-peer lending system that allows people to temporarily loan money to entrepreneurs in the developing world. Kiva acts as the agent hosting profiles of entrepreneurs for lenders to access, collecting the funds to be distributed through agencies on-the-ground, and, once a loan

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June 15, 2009 Posted in Economic Development, Efficiency, Governance, IT, My businesses, New Zealand, Society, Strategy 2 Comments

Government 2.0 – A Way to Go

By Ben Kepes

Jim posted the incredible story of the New Zealand Immigration Service (NZIS) proposing a $117 million upgrade of IT infrastructure, a sum that equates, from Jim’s reckoning, to $234k per NZIS process worker. It’s a sorry tale and one that, as Jim points out, smacks of desperation, silo building and

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June 10, 2009 Posted in New Zealand, Society 12 Comments

Does Anyone Else Feel a Little Uncomfortable About Joe Karam?

By Ben Kepes

Image by Getty Images via Daylife Disclaimer – This is in no way a discussion about the David Bain case and specifically his guilt or otherwise. That said I was a little uncomfortable to read this morning that Joe Karam, David Bain’s tireless supporter has received $330k in the past

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June 3, 2009 Posted in Business, Economic Development, New Zealand, Society, Strategy 5 Comments

“Deleveraging” – A New Word for Economic Rape?

By Ben Kepes

For a long time I’ve been something of a lone voice (I’d like to think somewhat akin to the little boy in “The Emperor’s New Clothes”) crying foul about the economic development direction we seem to take in this country. Part of the reason I co-founded bizchat was because I

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February 17, 2009 Posted in New Zealand, Society 2 Comments

Creating a Groundswell – “Guilt Upon Accusation”

By Ben Kepes

Right now in New Zealand there is an uproar about a new piece of legislation due to be enacted very soon. Depending on your definition, section 92 of the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008 (now there’s a mouth full!) calls for internet disconnection based on accusations of copyright infringement

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The Author

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

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