The debate involves four politicians quizzed on major areas of ICT policy with questions coming from you through the online chat, a studio audience, and experienced journalists.
The politicians are Labour’s Minister of Communications Hon David Cunliffe, National ICT Spokesperson Hon Maurice Williamson, ACT Leader Hon Rodney Hide and Greens ICT Spokesperson Meteria Turei (and let’s face it - only the first two are of real interest to us - how much does Meteria really know about the issues)
You can participate live through an IRC channel or by posting your questions in the Geekzone forums - Geekzone have created a special ICT Policies and Regulation forum specially for the event. There you will find the discussions for each topic (direct links below) and you will be submit questions:
Don’t let this one get away people - there’s lots of moaning about the state of tech in this (well that from where I am sitting right now) country - here’s an opportunity to lead the debate.
And congrats to Geekzone for being seen as the logical place to take part in this discussion.
A slightly off-topic post but I’m steaming. Union employee Shawn Tan is currently undergoing disciplinary proceedings with his employer due to the fact that he has decided to stand as a candidate in the upcoming general elections in New Zealand.
Bear in mind that unions in New Zealand have a long history of involvement with the Labour party - so what’s the problem here? Only that Mr Tan decided to stand for the right-leaning Act party.
I’ve long thought that unions were one of the last bastions of the old days of rabble-rousing and professional protestors this sort of carry on does nothing to reduce that perception.
I’m somewhat dismissive of banks in general, having seen how slow they are to move with the times, how threatened they feel with offerings that challenge them, and how mired they are in the status quo generally. However this guest post by Kiwibank developer Jay Nielson restores some of my faith in banks.
It’s well worth reading in its entirety but some salient facts;
They rolled out an iPhone app in three weeks
They iterated it quickly post launch to respond to customer feedback
They have fun while doing it (including offering the site in Swedish chef language)
I’m totally impressed by what Kiwibank are doing - and only hope that their creativeness will continue - no matter how the political climate in New Zealand changes.
Its been a few months since I had a rant about the demise of first world manufacturing. Sure there are companies like American Apparel and my own Cactus Climbing creating a brand story out of retaining a first world manufacturing ethos but they are in the minority.
News this morning that yet another apparel manufacturer is closing down, citing cheap imports as the main reason for their demise. Apart from the obvious concerns about the social, economic and environmental impacts of moving production to third world countries (has anyone noticed the air at the Beijing Olympics?), on a more personal note it’s sad to see a bunch of skilled craftspeople no longer employed through no fault of their own.
It makes me, once again, want to suggest that we all have a look at the country of origin of the garments we’re all wearing today and once we’ve done that check out this movie - it’s all food for thought…
[Postscript - interesting to note that one of the companies in the movie, Macpac, is no longer, despite their move to third world manufacturing. Maybe the answer isn't as simple as offshoring our impacts????]
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