Microsoft Maps Research Developments TED video

On the topic of Augmented Reality, there was a recent talk at TED by Blaise Aguera y Arcas on Microsoft maps research developments Augmented Reality. Some of you may remember Blaise from his presentation in May 2007 on a Flickr 3D photo research project for Microsoft called Photosynth (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth.html).

This new stuff is amazing!

SixthSense Technology - serious augmented reality

Augmented reality is not a new concept, interacting with the physical world via a virtually generated interface or object is the general idea. Personally I haven't really seen anything of great potential beyond entertainment until now. The SixthSense system that projects information onto the objects in front of you via a mini-projector hanging around your neck is something pretty special. Coupled with a mobile phone to provide the connection and a camera the possibilities for augmentation of the environment surrounding the individual with simple gestures is seemingly endless. Not unlike the concepts made famous in the movie Minority Report, the SixthSense system recognises your gestures and utilises it's link to the cloud to provide real time information and feedback as a transparent layer onto the objects being interacted with. It may look a little nerdy right now but this is a big step forward and may well change the way we interact with the world around us, I'm keen to try it.
Pranav Mistry's presentation on TED is particularly enlightening. View it here.
A little more on Augmented Reality.

Australian Website Blackout Protest

IT News released a twitter today about 125 Australian websites who are voluntarily blocking out people in protest to the new ISP filter policy the Australian Government imposed on the Australian public. This and other anti-filter campaigners were part of a movement called The Great Australian Internet Blackout http://www.internetblackout.com.au/websites/.

The tweet read:
AusIT #Technology #News Blackout: 125 websites self-censor to protest filters http://bit.ly/4qGk0U #Australia

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/165526,blackout-125-websites-self-censor-to-protest-filters.aspx?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The article details this and some other active protests which attempt to send a message to the Government that it shouldn't impose such extreme measures. Its a great idea that if given the right support could realy pack a puch.

I had an alternative brilliant idea! Lets start our own internet! Who's with me?

Internet Censorship and ISP Filtering in Australia

So Internet Censorship is a hot topic at the moment and even though here in Australia we couldn't stop the government implementing an ISP filtering system there is still a great deal of talk. This article talks about Google, China and the freedom of global Internet and it points to a number of articles and posts on the subject around the world. In particular it pointed to this blog post Australian government's efforts to censor the Internet down under which details the Google view and how openness and freedom is essential to development as opposed to oppression and denial.

The article says "Germany and Italy have mandatory ISP filtering, however in both cases they are of a clearly limited scope. In Germany, the scope is child abuse material and in Italy, it is child abuse material and unlawful gambling sites. Australia's proposed regime would uniquely combine a mandatory framework and a much wider scope of content, the first of its kind in the democratic world. "

We all know child abuse material is wrong and forbidden and we would never endorse it but there is a limit to how much you can control especially over the Internet. This action will not automatically stop these people from doing illegal activities it will just force it even further underground and harder to pin. What is affected here is democracy. The aforementioned blog on Google and China quotes Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President for Product Management in The meaning of open and I paraphrase:

"Open will win. It will win on the Internet and will then cascade across many walks of life: The future of government is transparency. The future of commerce is information symmetry. The future of culture is freedom. The future of science and medicine is collaboration. The future of entertainment is participation. Each of these futures depends on an open Internet."

So if open and transparent government is the future then perhaps the solution for this problem is no to cut and filter individuals freedom of information but rather ask the people for a solution, give them power and opinion, use the open system to solve the problem, why not get people to report illicit activities and being rewarded etc... we need to think forward not backwards.

Major trends in 2010 Online Marketing

New Tweet style presentation of TrendSpotting's Online Marketing Influencers "Major trends in 2010 Online Marketing". Key trends tagged as #social media #games #e-mail #real time #direct response #measurement #mobile #geo-location #video #niche

2010 Online Marketing Influencers: Trend Predictions in 140 characters by Trendsspotting

View more documents from Taly Weiss.

Full series available here: http://www.slideshare.net/TrendsSpotting
Including social media 2010 trend predictions
And here's a nicely distilled set of predications for social media

Apple’s Tablet will make a splash in 2010

The iSlate set to launch some time this year (rumours being true) is certainly going to make a splash when it becomes available. There's no doubt it will be a hit in 2010 following hot on the heals of the iPhone and iPod phenomena. It tops the list of technologies to watch here, and here are a couple of other links to the rumours surrounding it's release:
http://www.islate.org/
http://gizmodo.com/5434566/the-exhaustive-guide-to-apple-tablet-rumors

RIP Australian net neutrality.

All Australians are free, within the bounds of the law, to say or write what they think about Australian governments or about any other subject or social issue as long as they do not endanger people, make false allegations or obstruct the free speech of others. The same applies to Australian newspapers, radio and television and other forms of media. Australians are free to protest the actions of government and to campaign to change laws.

- an excerpt from Life in Australia

When I migrated to Australia a few months back, Immigration provided me with Life in Australia, a 46 page booklet outlining the core values (including the one listed above) that ensure that Australia maintains its high standard of living as a free, democratic country; I was required to promise to abide by these values. As such, I was all the more shocked by yesterday’s announcement that the Australian government will move ahead with its ill-advised (and highly protested) plan to instill mandatory Internet filtering.

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