Archive for the ‘New Zealand’ Category

Nine to Noon: 2 July 2009

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Listen to my 2 July 2009 appearance on Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon show. I spoke about emotional robots, Kiwi web awards, and a new US government transparency web site. Below are my notes. I prepare a small essay on the subjects I'm talking about because it helps ...

Open New Zealand

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Glen Barnes and I have softlaunched opengovt.org.nz, an effort to do some MySociety-style projects for New Zealand. Glen's built a catalog for open government data, and there's a mailing list on which we're discussing the next project.

Beetroot

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

I've grown a row of beetroot and now I'm nervously wondering what the hell one does with a row of beetroot. I asked on Twitter, and here are the first 90m or so of responses: @annaraven: http://bit.ly/G77RQ @nzfi: @vexus_nexus similar effect on no# 2s too - tho don't think it is ...

Open the DOC Preliminary Reports

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

I sent this to Minister Worth (in his Internal Affairs role) and Laurence Millar (as Government CIO) today because they both have a desire to see more open government information. Posted FYI, and I'll update with any responses I get. Department of Conservation do a good thing by putting preliminary ...

From Barbie to Renoir: Intellectual Property and Culture

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

This talk looks to be interesting: Since intellectual property law's beginning competing interests have stretched the law. Barbie now has more protection against rip-offs than Renoir could have imagined. A mishmash of justifications, including encouraging creativity and developing culture, has shaped the law. Does protection unduly restrict other cultural values? Susy ...

Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

The New York Public Library and Wired Magazine have collaborated to bring a set of evening lectures on how new technology is changing the economics of art with speakers Lawrence Lessig, Stephen Johnson, and the dude who did the Obama poster. I'd love to see something similar in New ...

NZ Broadband

Friday, January 30th, 2009

There hasn't been a lot of action from the new Government on broadband (or anything, really, yet) but this Economist article is food for thought about spending priorities: When it comes to promoting economic activity, it is easy to see why having broadband is better than not having it, but most ...

S92A: Interim Repeat Infringer Termination Policy

Sunday, December 21st, 2008

The Telecommunications Carriers Forum have released a note to ISPs saying that while they're working on a policy that will comply with S92A of the Copyright Act ("An Internet Service Provider must adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for termination, in appropriate circumstances, of the account with that ...

Submission on NZ IP law and a free trade agreement with USA

Sunday, December 7th, 2008

SUBMISSION ON THE TRANSPACIFIC STRATEGIC ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES To: Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade Introduction This Submission is from Nathan Torkington, an author, musician, and software professional whose address is [...]. Summary I strongly oppose any proposals to extend the term of copyright, entrench digital rights management, assign investigation ...

National Library joins Flickr Commons

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

Way to go, National Library of New Zealand! They're the latest addition to Flickr Commons!