Red Alert

Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

A NZer could create the next big thing

Posted by Clare Curran on February 10th, 2011

This is kind of ridiculous (selling Twitter for $10billion). But it could be a New Zealander who created the next big thing. Technology is our future. If we invest in it. If we do it right. If we believed in ourselves. If we had a vision.

Twitter’s suitors talk in billions

By SPENCER E. ANTE, AMIR EFRATI And ANUPREETA DAS

As Internet valuations climb and bankers and would-be buyers circle Silicon Valley in an increasingly frothy tech market, many eyes are on one particularly desirable, if still enigmatic, target: Twitter. Discussions with at least some potential suitors have produced an estimated valuation of $8 billion to $10 billion.

Getty ImagesTwitter co-founder Biz Stone, left, during an announcement of the newly revamped Twitter website in September.

Executives at both Facebook Inc. and Google Inc., among other companies, have held low-level talks with those at Twitter Inc. in recent months to explore the prospect of an acquisition of the messaging service, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks have so far gone nowhere, these people say.

But what’s remarkable is the money that people familiar with the matter say frames the discussions with at least some potential suitors: an estimated valuation in the neighborhood of $8 billion to $10 billion.

This for a company that, people familiar with the matter said, had 2010 revenue of $45 million—but lost money as it spent on hiring and data centers—and estimates its revenue this year at between $100 million and $110 million.

Read more:

Meanwhile, John Key and his government tinker around the edges and want to sell our assets. Oh God (apologies)

Tags: twitter, vision
Filed under: comms & IT, economy

26 Comments

WikiLeaks: sunlight the best disinfectant

Posted by Clare Curran on January 8th, 2011

This is the first of a few posts on WikiLeaks.

Labour is committed to a strong policy on open and transparent government based on core principles. One of those principles is that sunlight can, and should be, the best disinfectant.

In 2010, OpenLabourNZ was NZ’s first attempt to develop policy in an open way using online technology.

It would be foolish to say that all matters to do with policy-making and governing should be conducted in the open or available to public scrutiny. But Wikileaks has cracked open many issues that beg the question; why not be more open?

A disturbing new development reveals ongoing attempts to shut down WikiLeaks now involve an Icelandic member of parliament.

Salon, a US online news and entertainment website and the Guardian newspaper have reported that Birgitta Jonsdottir, Icelandic MP and former WikiLeaks volunteer, is fighting a US justice department attempt to get hold of her private messages on Twitter.

DOJ subpoenas Twitter records of several WikiLeaks volunteers

By Glenn Greenwald

Last night, Birgitta Jónsdóttir — a former WikiLeaks volunteer and current member of the Icelandic Parliament — announced (on Twitter) that she had been notified by Twitter that the DOJ had served a Subpoena demanding information “about all my tweets and more since November 1st 2009.” Several news outlets, including The Guardian, wrote about Jónsdóttir’s announcement.

What hasn’t been reported is that the Subpoena served on Twitter — which is actually an Order from a federal court that the DOJ requested — seeks the same information for numerous other individuals currently or formerly associated with WikiLeaks, including Jacob Appelbaum, Rop Gonggrijp, and Julian Assange. It also seeks the same information for Bradley Manning and for WikiLeaks’ Twitter account.

The information demanded by the DOJ is sweeping in scope. It includes all mailing addresses and billing information known for the user, all connection records and session times, all IP addresses used to access Twitter, all known email accounts, as well as the ”means and source of payment,” including banking records and credit cards. It seeks all of that information for the period beginning November 1, 2009, through the present. A copy of the Order served on Twitter is here.

The sunlight in this case is on the DOJ’s intention, regarding the individuals named in the subpoena, and re Twitter, one of the world’s leading social media outlets.

I myself follow the WikiLeaks Twitter account and discovered this story a short time ago on Twitter.

My concern is whether there is an attempt to shut down, restrict or compromise the ability of a social media outlet to exist and for people who use Twitter to communicate freely.

I don’t think it will work. And I think that the attitudes of those in government regarding openness don’t necessarily reflect the attitudes of the people they represent. And it’s time for change.

Tags: open and transparent government, sunlight, twitter, Wikileaks
Filed under: #OpenLabourNZ

21 Comments

False identities

Posted by Trevor Mallard on October 2nd, 2010

Not the type condoned by Rodney Hide and his sensible sentencing mates but twitter accounts.

The privacy commission is looking into criminalising and even Kiwiblog’s penguin supports that approach.

I’ve not got into twitter yet, have an account but there are at least two others set up in my name where people have had fun doing pisstakes. One followed by a few people including the US Embassy.

Do I care – no. If there is real harm being done then I think the general criminal law can handle it.

Parliament has better things to do than try and regulate this area.

Tags: twitter
Filed under: #OpenLabourNZ, internet

23 Comments

The news is crap continued…

Posted by Clare Curran on September 14th, 2010

The ongoing discussion about the quality and timeliness of reporting the Christchurch earthquake in our conventional and new media has raised lots of issues. I have posted about it here, here , here and here.

I want to keep that discussion going because it’s important. Relevant to a wider discussion about the future shape of our media. And there is an important role for government in this.

There’s been arguments between media outlets about who was first to report the earthquake, who has done it better and who has won the ratings war. There’s been criticism of celebrity journalism (if you can call it journalism); of the media stars turning up in the rubble getting down amongst the “peeps”.

Peter Dunne gave these celebrity journos a whack in parliament last week and I think he was right.

All rather tacky really.

There’s been a lot of talk about the role of twitter, facebook and blogs. The immediacy factor of those mediums and the rise of the citizen journalist (and photographer). I heard the story of the guy in Chch who took some photos uploading them to twitter for his son which were then picked up by CNN which then essentially locked out other media outlests from accessing them (without the permission of the original photographer)

And the role of media websites such as Stuff and NZ Herald which have done a reasonable job of updating content, telling real stories and providing some analysis.

Radio and TV have done their best with their current resources and mindsets.

A few observations since…

I think mainstream conventional media knows it has to change but needs to do it faster. Many news outlets are now using twitter to release stories and to follow news sources. But they’re taking a while to get the hang of it.

NBR’s Chris Keall would be one of the better journos I know using twitter. He lives on it, draws much of his material from it and release news stories constantly via twitter. He then engages in discussion abotu them and draws on that discussion and reaction to produce new stories. Cool (@ChrisKeall). He’s not the only one.

TV3’s Patrick Gower has released some big stories via twitter. Clever (@patrickgowernz)

There is an emerging role that social media is playing which is transforming regular media. It’s the immediacy and real time nature of it that’s important. And there’s a actual discussion occuring as well an interaction between people that doesn’t happen with regular media.

However, the accuracy and analysis can leave a bit to be desired and that’s where conventional media by real journalists (those that are left) is important. This piece, admittedly written late last year, talks about these issues and is worth a read. It talks about content, promptness and analysis and how you can’t generally have all three at once in one medium.

Mike O’Donnell wrote this opinion piece in the DomPost yesterday on the web presence around the Chch earthquake. I agree with most of what he says, except perhaps that he didn’t emphasise enough the vital role social media played in people contacting and supporting each other.

But he did say this, which is important:

…the complete absence of an attempt by any of the authorities to harness the huge conversation empowered by the web to create an online community.

Tim Berners-Lee gave the internet a public face when he invented the world wide web in 1990. What made it special was the ability for people to connect, share, question, laugh and cry, in plain sight. That’s why most of the world’s most popular websites – Facebook, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo – are effectively online communities where people hang out, share and help each other out.

On the day of the earthquake, the people of Christchurch had thousands of different experiences, suggestions and concerns. It was an opportunity crying out for a central online repository or chatroom where there voices could be heard, conversations had, questions asked and responded to. But no such mechanism existed.

It’s an opportunity crying out for utilisation, and one that I hope the core agencies are considering.

And for those of you who are interested; here’s a list of NZ media who are on twitter (with their twitter addresses). Helpfully compiled by Bill Bennett, a freelance writer from Auckland (amongst other things). Hope you don’t mind me sharing Bill.

Tags: #eqnz, Facebook, twitter
Filed under: #OpenLabourNZ, Social media, broadcasting, comms & IT, media

17 Comments

The state of our news. Is it crap?

Posted by Clare Curran on September 7th, 2010

Some more reflections on how the news media has been covering the Christchurch earthquake (#eqnz on twitter).

My previous post reflected my reaction as a member of the public without much access to technology and media during Saturday and Sunday. I was aware of difficulties in quality media coverage getting off the ground in the first few hours after the quake but was reasonably happy with what I saw during Saturday and Sunday when I could access media.

However it’s becoming more apparent that there were issues and that they need to be looked at.

TV3’s lack of continuous coverage on Saturday has created some ructions within that broadcaster. Mike McRoberts has expressed his frustration about this as reported in today’s NZ Herald.

RadioNZ did have a special morning report on at 7am, but resumed ordinary programing and didn’t get it’s act together until well into Saturday morning. That’s simply not good enough.

TVNZ had ongoing coverage throughout the day and into the night. Not sure exactly when they kicked it off.

Prime TV too seemed to have coverage throughout the day. And well into the night. (update on this coming)

I’ve had a number of emails from people reading my previous post saying that they got better coverage from overseas media.

And I’ve discussed the important role that social media has played. Allowing people to make contact with each other via their mobile phone applications for Facebook and Twitter. And providing people with up to date information that the news media wasn’t providing.

It appears that social media was the place where meany people went to get information. I think it’s certainly worth investigating more the important role it plays. Many organisations, including Civil Defence are now using social media effectively, in particular Twitter.

I received info on this new Govt website on the Canterbury Earthquake today via Twitter before any other media.

Blogs like Red Alert are also playing an important role.

My colleague Brendon Burns and Lianne Dalziel are reporting directly on Red Alert from their Christchurch electorates on the extent of the devastation and the human stories they are encountering. All Chch based MPs are affected and working tirelessly. I, like many of my colleagues, feel a bit helpless.

I hope that all NZ media reassess their ability to respnd quickly in an emergency to provide the nation and those directly affected with accurate information and quality reporting. One of the things this emergency has revealed is that there appear to be no working journalists overnight in our country and that our ability to respond quickly at a weekend leaves quite a bit to be desired.

Our public media services; radio and TV and web-based are the most critical at a time like this. We need them to be resourced and responsive.

Tags: #eqnz, Facebook, twitter
Filed under: Civil Defence, Red Alert, blogs, comms & IT, media

32 Comments

The news isn’t always crap

Posted by Clare Curran on September 5th, 2010

Some observations about coverage of the Chch earthquake.

I’ve been away since Friday without much access to technology. No laptop or twitter (the app on my blackberry has stopped working). Facebook, email and text ok.

The quake woke me (as it did many others). I was in Wanaka. It was the biggest I’ve ever felt. Rolling and swaying. Seemed to go on forever.

Was paralysed. And a bit scared. Afterwards I went to facebook and put up a wee, slightly plaintive message (4.40am). Got an instant reaction from Chch, Wgtn and Nelson. In Chch the messenger said the quake was still happening, which is when I got an inkling it was bigger there.

I went to the Stuff, NZ Herald and RadioNZ websites on my Blackberry. Nothing. I went to the GNS website to see what sort of quake it was. Nothing. I then turned on TV in the motel and got CNN with a Breaking News banner telling me there was a massive quake centred near Chch.

Someone on Facebook told me there was something up on Geonet. So I went there. They said 7.4 magnitude. I considered ringing someone up. Wasn’t sure who. Didn’t know the extent of it. Lay awake and worrying until I felt I could ring people up at home.

Had to leave early to go up a mountain with child.

Saw some more messages on Facebook about RadioNZ being slow off the mark.

But by the time I got up the mountain there was live TV coverage and the Radio was full of it. And during the day I kept tabs on what was happening by the live footage and breaking news banners on both TV channels. It was a big day for our emergency services and media with the tragic plane crash in Fox Glacier as well.

The live coverage went on late into the night and again on Sunday morning. Impressive.

It may have taken a few hours to get up and running but both TV channels and radio seem to have done a good job. Live electronic media is critical at a time of emergency.

I think ours pretty much did us proud and hats off to the decisions made by both TV channels to send staff to Chch, to call people in and to take regular shows off air and go live through the day. It was warranted. And along with the countless other I add my thoughts to everyone affected.

I’d also like to give credit to Telecom for being onto it and ensuring that there were regular updates during the day about the state of telecommunications particularly for emergencies. I think our telecommunication carriers generally did a good job of ensuring people were able to be in contact with each other.

I would however say two things.

1. Twitter and Facebook (and possibly other social media) have become critical at a time of emergency. I suspect that’s how many loved ones contacted each other, especially if they had an app on their mobile phone (and the electricity was out). People were able to swap their experiences, express their frustration and horror and support each other, as well as provide valuable up to date info throughout the day. So that tells us how important mobile coverage is. Not just for calls and texts.

2. CNN is still King of breaking news (in conventional media)

Below is one of the tweets which will have assisted people follow the twitter conversation during yesterday (and today). The hashtag is the most important thing as it allows you to search Twitter and aggregate your content to follow the conversations.

Note: It was put up at 5.52am and was retweeted 100+ times, which means it will have reached thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of people.

BreakingNews

Please help us report this story. Contact @breakingnewseds if you’re in Christchurch or elsewhere in New Zealand and have quake info #eqnz Saturday, 4 September 2010 5:52:37 a.m. via breakingnews.com

Top Tweet
100+ Retweets

PS: For those of you who haven’t been following, I have written a series of posts titled the news is crap. In this case it isn’t.

Tags: #eqnz, Chch earthquake, emergency, Facebook, twitter
Filed under: Civil Defence, media

19 Comments

MPs who tweat (sorry tweet)

Posted by Clare Curran on August 29th, 2010

At yesterday’s OpenLabourNZ event in Wellington there was a discussion about the growing importance of social media and how it is transforming engagement in the political process.

The growing use of twitter and facebook by members of parliament as well as public servants was also discussed and the inevitable issues that result when someone makes a controversial comment that can land them in trouble.

The point of the discussion was that social media interaction was becoming more normalised and it was important for employers (and media) not to over react when comments were posted that seemed inflammtory.

Of course there are lines that have to be drawn. A case in point on Red Alert is how the moderation of comments policy has evolved and got stronger over the last year. David Farrar on Kiwiblog also wrote about this issue.

Given the highly charged nature of the political world it’s interesting to see how many MPs are using social media.

Twitter is fast becoming a tool for discussion and commentary during question time in the House and many New Zealand politicans are actively using twitter on a regular basis.

I thought you might be interested in seeing this twitter analysis tool created by Brenda Wallace, a Wellington based software developer and girl geek.

Engage is a tool to measure twitter use by NZ and Australian MPs. It measures the actual interaction by MPs rather than just the number of broadcast messages. And ranks them.

It’s interesting that Rob Muldoon (his ghost) ranks the highest. I am currently second, because of the amount of tweating over the weekend on OpenLabourNZ. I’m sure that will change as Metiria Turei and Jacinda Ardern are hot on my heels.

But while there are quite a few MPs on twitter, not many use it a lot.

I think we will see this change in the coming months.

If you want to get onto twitter go to www.twitter.com. It’s easy and it’s extraordionary.

Update: It appears that Iain Lees-Galloway and Gareth Hughes are also up there in twitter use. Good on them. 46 NZ MPs are currently on twitter (according to Brenda’s site)

Acknowledgement: I spelt Tweet wrong in the headline. I’m better at doing it than talking about it. Here’s some info about twitter

Tags: twitter
Filed under: #OpenLabourNZ, Red Alert, comms & IT, parliament

16 Comments

The thing about data

Posted by Clare Curran on June 1st, 2010

Don’t want to be esoteric. And never expected I’d be writing posts about the data explosion. But it appears to be important and it’s all part of teasing out the bigger issues about where government sits and can/should play a role when it comes to ownership, management and transmission of data. Because Govt generates a lot of data.

This article has come via twitter. A new way of communicating. A new community.

The coming data explosion is a piece from Readwriteweb

One of the key aspects of the emerging Internet of Things – where real-world objects are connected to the Internet – is the massive amount of new data on the Web that will result. As more and more “things” in the world are connected to the Internet, it follows that more data will be uploaded to and downloaded from the cloud. And this is in addition to the burgeoning amount of user-generated content – which has increased 15-fold over the past few years

ReadWriteWeb is one of the most popular technology blogs in the world. Founder Richard McManus is a New Zealander.

Hat-tip @socialspace

Tags: data, Readwriteweb, twitter
Filed under: #OpenLabourNZ, blogs, comms & IT, digital, internet

9 Comments

Sigh… if only we could

Posted by Clare Curran on January 21st, 2010

Here’s something we could truly aspire to. Just announced:

The ABC will launch Australia’s first free-to-air 24-hour television news channel in 2010.

The ABC’s Managing Director, Mark Scott, said the ABC’s commitment to quality news and current affairs would enter a new era with the creation of the new digital channel.

The channel will provide live continuous news coverage of major breaking stories from Australia and around the world. Broadcasting around the clock will enable the ABC to increase its in-depth coverage of local, national and international affairs through background features and analysis, combined with the ABC’s unrivalled long-form current affairs reporting.

We do have our own version, TVNZ 7, but it needs a boost and to be taken really seriously rather than be an add on.

TVNZ 7 is a commercial-free New Zealand 24-hour news and information channel on Freeview digital television platform and on SKY Television Digital from 1 July 2009.

Just imagine if we could consistently produce news around New Zealand drawn from New Zealand and overseas across a digital platform that encompassed radio, television and online mediums that was driven by news values and not ratings.

That’s the New Zealand I want to live in.

My colleague Brendon Burns is doing some work in this area and will have mroe to say on this subject.

Hat tip: Mark Scott, ABC Managing Director on Twitter (abcmarkscott)

Tags: ABC, Mark Scott, twitter
Filed under: TVNZ 7, Television, broadcasting, comms & IT, digital, media, public services

19 Comments

Why don’t you all have a go then

Posted by Clare Curran on January 13th, 2010

I’m trying to learn how not to rise to the bait when certain people take the piss.

In that spirit, I guess I should extrapolate to my own city, good old Dunners, which is the centre of a major piss-take right now.

The city has decided to ditch the “I am Dunedin” slogan (phew) and there’s a bit of a competition going on to find another. Hundreds of suggestions have been made on Twitter, which has it’s own #NewDunedinSlogan hashtag. Sounds like a good incentive to sign up to twitter ( go to www.twitter.com).

Here’s a few of them. Of course, most are either weather, or student-related. I feel kind of miffed and proud at the same time. Because, as you know (reference to cheese rolls etc) there’s something special about Dunedin.

Dunedin, where that missing sock ends up
Dunedin: if Keith Richards called Invercargill the arsehole of the world, we must be its fun bits
Sydney is hot. Dunedin is cool
We burn the sofa at both ends
Dunedin – Kids are actually safe in our chocolate factory
“Been there Dunners that”
Dunedin – where you used to be
Down there
Dunedin: we’ve got a castle
Dunedin – crapping all over your summer since 1848
We keep your beers cold.
Dunedin: gateway to Mosgiel
Dunedin: At least it’s not Palmerston North (sorry Iain I didn’t make it up)
Dunedin: horizontal rain is a good thing
Dunedin: Keeping it real (cold)
Dunedin: It’s not Auckland
got nuthin but love for Dunedin … honest”

Tags: Dunedin, twitter
Filed under: comms & IT, humour

18 Comments

Social media and Labour

Posted by Clare Curran on January 10th, 2010

I thought I’d share a few of the things I talked about at the Labour Party Summer School this weekend.

It might seem strange us talking publicly about who we should be communicating with better and how we might try to do that. But if we don’t we’re fools, I reckon.

I suppose the main point to make is that Labour, like all political parties, must understand that it needs a better relationship with the voters of the future (Gen Y and the millenials) and why social media is such an important tool for doing that.

The relationship must be genuine and we should be making an effort to understand more the issues that really concern and matter to this generation in the digital age. Issues such as privacy, safety, censorship, ownership of information (piracy and copyright) creativity, quality of information. I’ll have more to say about this.

Here’s a few interesting facts.

Gen Y were born between 1976 and 1991
Currently there’s around 900,000 in NZ
This year they will outnumber the baby boomers
It is estimated that 96% of Gen Y use social media (world wide)
The emerging generations are the largest ever.
Combined X&Y = 70% global population
- In Australia 57% population
- Indonesia 67%
- Pakistan 75%
- Iraq 80%
Gen Y = 2.1 billion worldwide
In NZ, facebook use is at 1 million (25% population)
150% growth in the last year
Global Nielsen report (March 09) says social networking has overtaken email as most popular way to communicate
In NZ 79.6% pop uses the internet
Amongst Maori, internet useage higher than non-Maori esp for social networking
Every day, we are exposed to 1600 marketing messages. Most are filtered out

This You Tube clip called the Social Media Revolution is really interesting. We’re doing a lot of thinking about this. We take it seriously and want to be credible.

Red Alert is part of our attempt to develop a more genuine relationship with people online. Many Labour MPs have facebook pages and are starting to use them more regularly. A few are on Twitter. But it’s not enough. We’re got a few more ideas for direct engagement with a broad audience via a mixture of face to face and online means.

The younger audience is obviously critical, but all age groups are online and using social media.

Interested in your thoughts.

Tags: Facebook, Gen Y, twitter
Filed under: Red Alert, Social media, comms & IT, internet

40 Comments

If politicians were http codes

Posted by Clare Curran on November 3rd, 2009

I guess this is opening up a can of worms. But I discovered this on “twitter”.

And “taking the piss” is ok, especially when it’s kind of about what you (I) do.

Oh if you’re not on twitter but think you might like to be, go to http://twitter.com/

Tags: politicians, twitter
Filed under: comms & IT, humour

5 Comments

This is the way the world’s changing #3

Posted by Clare Curran on October 30th, 2009

For those of you who scoff at the role of social media such as twitter and facebook in our lives and question how it’s transforming mainstream media generally, have a look at this. The Media140 Sydney event is an international collaboration and discussion which asks “What is the future of journalism in the Social Media Age?”

Direct engagement between people and those making the news. Red Alert is a clear example of this.

This is important stuff, and it heartens me that so many in the mainstream media (in Australia) are wanting to discuss it. Is that discussion happening here?

Tags: Australia, Facebook, Red Alert, twitter
Filed under: comms & IT, media

23 Comments

This is the way the world’s changing #2

Posted by Clare Curran on October 29th, 2009

Shifting the mood away from the unpleasantness of constant urgency for little real purpose and the futility and frustration of a government that’s changing laws that benefit a few and not the many.

Let’s contemplate for a minute how the world is truly changing and the implications for the many. In a good way. Mostly. I talked about this a week or so ago.

A couple of things to read. If you dare. And apologies to those who’s heads hurt reading this stuff. It’s important and actually liberating.

First: On the politics, the ethics and the etiquette of Twitter. An interesting read because it shows how Twitter has fast gained traction in the media world, that it poses particular dilemmas and conundrums for journalists and how much it exists in real time. I recommend.

Second: Today, Canonical, a European company committed to free software, releases Ubuntu 9.10 (codenamed “Karmic Koala”)

Ubuntu is the leading desktop Linux distribution. They put out a new release every 6 months, generally without hoopla. You might have noticed in the last week, there’s been a lot of hoopla about a few other software releases (ie. big advertising campaigns).

Why is this important? The speed of progress demonstrated by Ubuntu really shows the power of open source. A single entity, even one as big as Microsoft or Google, really struggles to keep up with the speed of development across various open source applications. What Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) does is simply test, bundle and release a collection of desktop and server software.

Why am I telling you this? Because open source is integral to governments (and parliaments) all over the world being effective in our present and our future.

I’ve begun a conversation about this and it must continue. Not sure where our government is at with it. There’s no doubt it’s a seamless fit with Labour values. Ultimately it’s about co-operation. Borderless and with good will.

Tags: government, linux, open source, twitter
Filed under: comms & IT, democracy

18 Comments

Red Alert

Red Alert

Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

A NZer could create the next big thing

Twitter’s suitors talk in billions

WikiLeaks: sunlight the best disinfectant

DOJ subpoenas Twitter records of several WikiLeaks volunteers

False identities

The state of our news. Is it crap?

The news isn’t always crap

MPs who tweat (sorry tweet)

The thing about data

Sigh… if only we could

Why don’t you all have a go then

If politicians were http codes

This is the way the world’s changing #3

This is the way the world’s changing #2

About

Frequently asked questions

Recent posts

Recent comments

Categories

Archives

Meta

Red Alert

Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

Twitter causing shift away from call centres: Australian bank

DOJ subpoenas Twitter records of several WikiLeaks volunteers

About

Frequently asked questions

Recent posts

Recent comments

Categories

Archives

Meta