Harry Potter and the Web of Clues
Summary Description Simon Vandore takes a broomstick to Australia's image on the Internet.
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Roullas Top10 Simon Vandore

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Editorial InformationArticle Location
Article Topic Vandore
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Story Group 001029
Post Date 27/10/2000 07:34 AM Status Posted Entered by Simon Vandore on 26/10/2000 12:35 PM


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Content
Introduction
Once upon a time, the editor of a now-defunct IT publication told me "the Internet is just a fad".

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Actually it was more than a statement -- it was a question, suffixed with "isn't it, Simon?" to which I replied "Yes sir, please sir, three bags full sir!" or something along those lines. You see, I was a cadet journalist and he was an editor with a fierce reputation, and I wimped out.
That moment is regularly brought up in conversation with Newswire editor-in-chief Angus Kidman, who happened to be sitting at a nearby desk, back in those days of 14.4Kbps modems and cover floppy disks. Which wasn't really all that long ago. Yahoo was a student project on a server called 'akebono.stanford.edu' and Wired magazine was still a revolutionary start-up. My scrawlings about HTML and point-to-point protocol barely commanded the minimum wage.
Lately I've been reading the current "fad" of Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, partly because she hails from the city where I was born, and partly because I don't want to be a Muggle (Harry & co's name for non-magical, ordinary people). It's pretty clear that Rowling's work is not just a fad -- she's the Roald Dahl or C.S. Lewis of our age . . . except that she's not. Janet Rowling is herself.
And the Internet is not the telephone, radio or television of our age. It's not even a combination of those. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and there are more parts to the Internet than those old media technologies. Surely I don't need to tell you this?
The unfortunate truth is that Australia is hamstrung by authorities who do not know the answer to the sum of these parts. Rhetoric about the future of Internet commerce is meaningless when it comes from the same government that legislated to differentiate broadcasting, datacasting and the Internet. The parliament responsible for passing our current Internet censorship laws and sinking our dollar through lack of international confidence in our IT future. Its members suffer the "it's just a fad" mentality -- technology is for the kids, politicians prefer big desks with pens and paper.
Look at Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, listen to them speak about technology, and you know they use the Web. I'm sure of it. Take one look at John Howard, listen to one sentence he utters about ecommerce, and you figure out pretty fast that he might not even know which way up to hold a mouse. Is Kim Beazley any different? What about Peter Reith, Peter Costello, Alexander Downer, Simon Crean or Laurie Brereton? Maybe. Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Richard Alston's departmental bio claims he "enjoys reading, surfing the Net, squash and pumping iron". Hmm. I suspect he's still a Muggle.
Perhaps we need to turn to other parts of Australian society to find online representatives. If Howard can't meet Gore or Bush and exchange ICQ numbers, maybe our celebs can do it. Our musicians in particular have a very good record of Internet savvy -- for example, among this week's ARIA award winners Alex Lloyd is said to be highly online, while members of Killing Heidi have grown up with the Internet as part of their world. Sportspeople? Well, it doesn't really fit with the traditional Aussie sports hero image, but technology and the Olympics went hand in hand. Actors? Surely! Hoges, Kylie, Cathy Freeman, are you out there?
Time to go. One more Harry Potter novel to buy.
Vandore appears every Friday on Newswire. You can contact Simon Vandore on svandore@acptech.net.


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Bulletin SummaryVandore: Harry Potter and the Web of Clues
Simon Vandore takes a broomstick to Australia's image on the Internet.

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Vandore: Harry Potter and the Web of Clues

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