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I’ve always been a cricket fan. Last week I attended a T20 Big Bash league match at the Sydney Cricket Ground and found that the Cricket Australia terms and conditions of spectator entry regarding photography inside the venue were seemingly arbitrarily enforced.

When entering private land you consent to rules that land owners impose on you including re: photography. Unfortunately rights to take photos in public areas are becoming equally restricted and often mistakenly overpoliced by security guards (see http://photorights.4020.net)

This prompted me to write an article about the matter for Technology Specator:

If you take a photo at an Australian cricket match this summer and publish it to Twitter or Facebook you could be slapped with a ban from Cricket Australia thanks to draconian rules in place to protect media broadcast partners.

Amatuer photographers theoretically risk being “prohibited and disqualified from purchasing tickets for or entering into” any Cricket Australia match or event ever again, but cricket venue entry rules regarding photography are honoured more in the breach than in the observance.
- read more at http://technologyspectator.com.au/emerging-tech/social-media/cricket-australias-poor-twitter-form

That evening I got invited to discuss the issue on ABC Radio NSW and ACT Evenings. Click on the link below to listen to the 10 minute discussion about the democratisation of photography and how corporate rules and the law are lagging behind the reality of cheap omni-present digital cameras.

Listen to my 20/01/2012 discussion on ABC Radio NSW and ACT Evenings with Dominic Knight re Cricket Australia photography rules. MP3 recording courtesy of ABC Radio.

Several days later Cricket Australia’s CEO commented on the issue so I wrote a followup story highlighting that:

In the meantime, the official Cricket Australia Twitter account and least two Big Bash T20 teams are openly encouraging fans to take match photos and share them online, muddying the legal waters around Cricket Australia’s terms of venue entry for spectators.
read more at http://technologyspectator.com.au/emerging-tech/social-media/cricket-australias-twitter-reality-check

Hopefully by the time the 2012-2013 Cricket season starts Cricket Australia will officially allow photos to be taken at venues for non-commercial personal uses such as publishing to personal blogs or social media accounts like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Flickr.

Otherwise fans will not be able to capture photo memories of the atmosphere and famous players at matches as I did during the 2005 Super Test series (Flintoff, Mcgrath and Lara pictured below).

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more

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The National Broadband Network (NBN) was a key policy in the platform that led to Labor winning government after the 2007 and 2010 Australian Federal elections. The project will take almost a decade to build. And yet most reporting on the NBN tends to focus on the news for that day, or week at best. Read on and I’ll give you a big picture historical, present and future perspective on the NBN…

I write short articles as well as long feature “explainer” articles on topics including: Google Android Smartphones and Tablets, Space, Civil & Military Aviation, Ebooks and the Publishing Industry, Electric cars, Technology augmenting human capabilities etc for Geare Magazine. The editor of GEARE has kindly permitted me to post articles here after the magazine issue the article was printed in has passed its shelf life. I have added updates where new information is relevant.

If you’ve driven between South Australia and the Northern Territory, most likely you used the Stuart Highway, named in honour of John McDouall Stuart, the Australian explorer who led the first European expedition to cross the Australian continent south to north and back. And he did so without losing a member of his team.

His path through the arid centre of Australia was crucial to the construction of the Overland Telegraph, built by the South Australian government to increase the economic prosperity of the state. Prior to this, news travelled by horse, ship and mail coach.

As an example, Charlotte, Princess of Wales, died on 5 November 1817. Her death was reported in Australian newspapers as soon as they learned of it in the first few days of April 1818.

The Overland Telegraph connected Australia to the world, turning that five-month delay into a matter of hours. It’s hard to conceive the effect this must have had on all manner of business, trade and government.

If the NBN is built across Australia as planned, this new broadband infrastructure could be just as revolutionary as the Overland Telegraph was in its day. In urban areas we may tend to be blasé about its goals for download speeds, only an order or so higher than what many can already achieve.

By enabling efficiencies across the economy, making rural/regional cities more competitive with capital cities, the NBN could potentially transform many aspects of our lives, including working from home, education, health, government and business services.

This future is, however, politically uncertain. If the Liberal/National party coalition wins the next federal election, they promise not to “rip up” already-built areas but have indicated their intent is to stop building the NBN almost immediately and support a mishmash of cheaper, slower technologies instead.

NBN Objectives

The key objectives of the NBN are threefold:

Firstly homes, schools and workplaces in towns with population of 1000+ should be connected to optical-fibre broadband delivering 100 megabits per second (Mbps) speeds. This should represent around 93% of the population.

The remaining 7% of Australia is promised 12Mbps speeds delivered via next-generation wireless and satellite. Linking all this will be Australia’s first national wholesale-only, open-access broadband network of fibre-optic cable connecting cities, major regional centres and rural towns.

Internet service providers (ISPs) who resell the NBN have been given a set of standard plans to offer their customers. But are these speeds realistic?

If you currently have ADSL2+, you may be aware that the further you are from the phone exchange (and the older your copper phone line), the slower and more unreliable your internet connection will be. Very few people get the advertised top download speeds of 24Mbps.

Note: the Infographic says 10% of Australians are already accessing advertised speeds faster than 24Mbps via cable internet in metro areas. Perhaps 10% could *potentially* do so but in reality a much smaller % of people are signed up for Telstra/Optus Cable.

With NBN fibre things are different. It doesn’t matter how far away you are from the nearest telecommunications exchange. You should actually get the full advertised NBN speed.

And while the top speed for the initial retail NBN launch will be 100Mbps download and 40Mbps upload, the beauty of fibre technology is that top speeds can be increased for relatively minimal investment. The NBN is being built with 1000Mbps download speed as the planned next step; indeed this will be available even at roll-out for some organisational clients.

Copper Is Not Good Enough

Opposition telecommunications spokesperson Malcolm Turnbull says the demand for universal 100Mbps fibre internet simply isn’t there. He’s missing the point. At the moment there may be no specific product/service likely to suck up such speeds. But content and devices follow the capability of the network. These will rapidly be created and widely implemented once people have signed up with these speeds.

David Braue says the Liberal/National coalition anti-NBN argument is made even weaker with “hysterical, incorrect and frankly offensive discourse that overstates the NBN’s problems and makes a mockery of their new complaints that they’re not getting broadband fast enough”.

I can remember dialling into the internet 10 years ago using a Netcomm Roadster II 56, its semitransparent blue clamshell shape indicating its status as the premium ‘speed demon’ modem for those who wanted top performance. Back then there were people who thought 50kbps was “enough”.

A decade later this article was being written using a 10Mbps ADSL2+ internet connection (200 times faster), and even that is regularly pushed to its limits – a quarter of its bandwidth taken up by FetchTV (internet pay TV), plus uploading backup data to cloud storage, two VoIP phonelines and the other various devices connected to the router via switch or WiFi, all accessing the internet. And this is a household without an iPad or games consoles like the XBOX or PS3. A household of several people could easily make use of a 50 or 100Mbps NBN connection with today’s gadgets and internet services.

In late 2003 Telstra executive Tony Warren told Senate Estimates:

“I think it is right to suggest that ADSL is an interim technology. It is probably the last sweating, if you like, of the old copper network assets. In copper years, if you like, we are at a sort of transition – we are at five minutes to midnight.”

The key parts of the federal government’s NBN deal with Telstra are:

Telstra has now agreed to lease the ducts and pits that were in place for its copper access network, and provide NBN Co with access to its dark fibre and exchanges for a minimum of 35 years. This means that NBN Co doesn’t need to dig new pits and ducts down every street where fibre is being laid, or install all new fibre backhaul and building exchanges. The total cost to NBN Co for this portion of the deal is $4 billion to be paid out over the next 30 years.
…
Telstra has agreed to decommission its copper network in the areas covered by fibre as the NBN is rolled out. NBN Co will pay the company $5 billion over the next 10 years, with payments made as customers are disconnected and transferred onto the NBN.

There are those who argue that new developments may allow copper to improve performance to near-fibre speeds but any argument that the copper phone network is “good enough” seems shortsighted, and will be rendered redundant once the copper network is shut down, leaving the NBN to provide phone, internet, TV and other services.

Cost of the NBN

Billion-dollar budgets are difficult to put into meaningful perspective. It is perhaps useful to compare with spending on another area, perhaps roads, since the NBN will be the virtual road network for Australian people and businesses.

Budget papers show that the federal Labor government plans to spend “$27.7 billion on roads over six years (2008-09 to 2013-14)… with the states and territories contributing a further $6 billion”, making a total of $33.7 billion.

NBN Co., the company set up by the federal government to be in charge of planning and building the NBN, told me that the federal government plans to invest $26 billion in the NBN with “remaining funds needed to build the network and fund the company… from NBN Co’s own revenues and, at an appropriate time, the private debt markets.”

Costs of signing up for an NBN service remain undefined. However recent analysis by Whistleout shows that “Many NBN plans will be cheaper than many of today’s ADSL 2+ bundle plans. From those ISPs that have announced consumer pricing, the underlying price of their NBN plans is actually cheaper per GB than their monthly ADSL & line rental equivalent plans (monthly line rental will not be required on the NBN).”

Private Build

Why not let private internet service providers build the NBN? There are plenty of innovative ISPs in the Australian market place, including iiNet and Internode.

Understandably, however, they will invest in infrastructure only in geographic areas likely to make profits for their owners. Proof of this can be seen in the cable TV and internet networks built in the mid 1990s by Optus and Telstra. They were free to install them where they wished, so Telstra overlapped Optus by about 80%, and the Optus network proved unprofitable. The result was cable TV and internet access to less than three million households, mostly in Eastern Australia, at a consumer price so high that only about third of eligible households signed up.

NBN Connection – Opt In or Opt Out?

The overall NBN would be most cost-effective and efficient if connection to the side of the building was mandatory to every home and business, just like water, electricity and sewage systems. The second best option would be for a “opt out” default, so everyone is connected by default unless a potential customer formally asks beforehand not to be.

Currently, when the NBN installs its fibre to the side of your home/work building, you get the choice of whether to activate a service on it or not. The cost is nothing until you sign up with an NBN retail ISP.

The Whirlpool.net.au Australian Broadband Survey for 2011 included several questions about the NBN. Results included 69.9% of the 23,513 participants saying they would ensure their house/unit is included in the NBN rollout, and 45% saying they support the opt-out policy for the NBN roll-out (with 20% voting against and almost 35% undecided or not fully understanding the options).

The Tasmanian Labor/Greens coalition government has decided to let NBN Co. install connections there on an ‘opt-out’ basis. However, the new Victorian and NSW Liberal/National governments favour ‘opt in’.

Next-Generation Fast Wireless

I get to test all the next-generation wireless internet options, so can tell you that these services should prove a useful complement to the NBN, especially while commuting or working out of office. But wireless is not a viable alternative – prone to unpredictability, with speeds depending on how heavily other wireless users in your area are accessing the service.

Renai Lemay makes this point well in his article Reality check: Telstra 4G not aimed at the NBN

“Most of the heavy mobile broadband users which Telstra is attempting to shift onto its fledgling 4G network will be the sort of users who will have both fixed and mobile broadband connections . They’re internet junkies (I speak from personal experience). A small subset of the light to moderate users won’t sign up for the NBN fibre when it’s eventually rolled out in their neighbourhood, but only a small percentage.”

NBN Trial Area – First User Experiences

NBN Co.’s first release sites are Part of the suburb of Brunswick in Melbourne, VIC; Parts of the suburbs of Aitkenvale and Mundingburra in Townsville, QLD; The coastal communities of Minnamurra and Kiama Downs south of Wollongong, NSW; An area of west Armidale, NSW, including the University of New England; and The rural town of Willunga in South Australia.

Warren Cheetham lives in the NBN trial area of Townsville, QLD. He told me:

“I’ve been keenly observing concerted rollout activity in my area since late 2010 by NBN contractor Ergon Energy, with cables being deployed to homes in April. I’m very excited to see the infrastructure being built, and am prepared to wear any teething problems in order to see what the technology will do. I’m also very excited about the strategic role the NBN can play in developing social, cultural and economic life in our regional city.

The main thing we are looking forward to it the changes to the way we purchase and use movies and music. The potential to purchase or rent digital content and download it in a timely manner is enormous. The other main benefit we can see is the increased potential to work from home, and to engage in online training and education from home.”

Marcus Westbury is a broadcaster, writer, media maker and festival director who lives in the Melbourne NBN trial area.

He told me that:

“The NBN will be the largest cultural infrastructure project Australia has ever undertaken. It will change a lot about how we create and consume culture in Australia.

Within a decade, practically every home, every cultural institution, every venue, large and small, will be connected. They will all have the capacity to distribute film, sound, video, music, literature, images and media of incredible quality at lightning speeds to anywhere in the country and most of the world.

The NBN is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. To take it, we need to sweep aside an inherited complexity of ageing legal structures, outdated logics and vested interests.”

A Faster Future

This article has looked at the progress rather than potential of the NBN. If you’re intrigued about the possible new broadband applications and services, I recommend that you read A Faster Future by Brad Howorth and Janelle Ledwidge. It informs readers swiftly and well, while maintaining a Hitchhikers Guide attitude of “Don’t Panic”.

This article was originally published in GEARE Magazine issue #66. It is “digitally reprinted” here with permission from the editor. I have added updates where new information is relevant.

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more

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The proposed National Broadband Network (NBN) will have an impact on many parts of our lives at work and home. I spoke with a variety of people in the Australian visual effects (VFX) industry about how the NBN could effect their industry.

Phil Sullivan is a classic example of how talented Australians in the VFX industry travel the world like a wandering albatross from project to project.

As a Motion Capture TD (Technical Director) and Animator his specialty is “synthesising life” and he’s applied this skill to movies and computer games such as Happy Feet 1 and 2, Heavenly Sword and LA Noire.

As much as he’d like to live in Australia near his family, the boom and bust nature of the VFX industry means he has to follow projects to the country they’re based in. So after completing his current contract working on Happy Feet 2 in Sydney who knows where he could be next, perhaps Wellington, Los Angeles, Vancouver or London.

Adelaide based Rising Sun Pictures (RSP) has recently finished work on the Green Lantern and Harry Potter 7 Part 2. Their previous success stories include blockbusters like Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Batman Begins and Watchmen.

RSP co-founder Tony Clark told me that the NBN will not substantially change what Rising Sun Pictures does in the beginning but once the network has been rolled out across a substantial part of Australia it could have an important impact on how people in the Australian VFX industry collaborate on projects.

Clark’s description of how the VFX industry worked historically, presently and potentially in the future made it clear how the NBN is one of the progressions required to try and stay competitive with overseas rivals.

In the past big film studios such as Disney had their own VFX department, then they started outsourcing parts of films and by 1990 movies like Terminator II had their VFX done almost solely by one company, in this case George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic. Today VFX work for movies is often shared across many companies, with each winning 5-10% of the budget.

Clark harked back to a time when he had to arrange data tapes for work in progress to be shipped overseas. The week long “lag time” between “packets” of a project was very frustrating as the VFX industry is all about creativity and it’s hard to be creative with such communication delays.

From 2000 onwards RSP sent Quicktime movies back and forth to customers. Files steadily grew larger in size and quality in parallel with the customer film studios expectations of creative communications moving to a practically immediate timeframe.

Even the fastest ADSL transfer speeds became too constraining so RSP setup a private high speed network called Cinenet with the financial assistance of the South Australian Government, using the services of Agile Communications (sister company to ISP Internode).

The launch of Cinenet in mid-2004 had played a critical role in RSP winning the contract for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire according to Clark.

“The speed of Cinenet, combined with Rising Sun Pictures’ sister company Rising Sun Research’s client review software cineSync, allowed our work to be reviewed in Los Angeles and London faster than work from suppliers based in those cities” he said. Cinesync won the Academy award for Technical Achievement in early 2011.

What Clark envisages is a future world where he can assemble best of breed group of VFX artists in small teams of individuals working from home. To enable that he needs these talented people to have access to highly reliable NBN type ultra-fast broadband internet speeds. This would be “revolutionary for distributed film making workflows” he said.

Even if it could be done at a cost premium to ADSL2+ of several hundred dollars per connection it would enable VFX talent outside the big cities to participate in RSP projects, for example a cluster of people who live on the north coast of NSW. At the moment they are willing and available but lack the necessary connectivity.

Clark said that “looking at the NBN wholesale price list it’s very much within the reach of a professional worker to have the kinds of speeds at their home office to compete with big companies on a level playing field”.

Animal Logic (AL) is another prominent Australian VFX company, working on projects such as The Matrix trilogy, 300 and Australia. AL recently won the lead role in a big 2 year project, the $65 million Walking with Dinosaurs 3D feature film which means a large portion of that production money will be spent in Australia.

Guy Griffiths Director of Research & Development at AL notes that a key characteristic of VFX digital animation is that it’s almost all in front of a computer. Specialist programs like Maya are used to make files that are handed on to the next person in the production chain.

The amounts of computer data generated during work on projects such as the recent Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole movie require backing up colossal amounts. It’s not surprising that VFX files are delivered to the customer at present via packing cases of hard disk drives as well as by network file transfers.

VFX work is project based and requires flexibility to scale up access to specialists in different areas at short notice. Ubiquitous consistent speed network file transfer capability would allow new ways to tap into VFX talent regardless of their location. Once there’s a distributed workforce Griffiths wonders how they can be managed, it’s not just about fast file transfers he said.

He told me that AL would need new innovative services to utilise the NBN in order to work and communicate more effectively. Perhaps by looking at an adjacent telepresence wall (immersive video conferencing) in order to talk to a remote colleague rather than initiating a cumbersome video chat through a computer program.

Griffiths is certain that when the NBN is in place imaginative solutions which we can’t imagine now will be created, however there is a fair way to go yet. The NBN could allow innovation and experimentation but companies like AL can’t make business decisions around it until it has a critical mass of availability.

If Australian VFX companies can leapfrog their overseas rivals by using the NBN to connect to talented staff offsite, it could be a factor that allows more projects to be won. These could employ talent within the industry like Phil Sullivan so they can spend more time living, working and spending their income in Australia.

AL Creative Director Bruce Carter told me that “talented people in the VFX industry are mobile nomadic artists who go from project to project around the world, balanced by a core group of older staff who stay put as they have families here … so clearly if there’s a deep talent pool nearby that’s good for AL” and by extension for the rest of the Australian VFX industry.

However it will take more than the NBN to do this because at present the high value of the Australian dollar and more generous tax breaks offered overseas are making it relatively expensive for big film studios to create movies in Australia.

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more

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GUEST ARTICLE: So you’ve been asked by your company to head over to Japan and you’re worried that you’ll make a bad impression? The number one thing you should keep in mind is don’t worry, you’re not Japanese. As such you won’t be expected to know the right way of doing things. That said, it is always nice to be seen to be making an effort. To help you out here are Five useful tips for first time business travellers to Japan.

1. Business cards

Always pack more business cards than you’ll think you could ever use (especially if visiting a government offices), and when you get given someone else’s card, treat it gently (if in any doubt, just copy what they do).

The basics of swapping business cards revolves around treating the card with respect.

• Do not bend, cut, tear or drop someone’s business card on the floor
• When you hand it to someone, hold it with both hands
• If you are sitting when you get the card, read it first, look at the title of the person, and then place it in front of you on the table to reference back to who you are talking to (but don’t forget to take it with you once the meeting is finished)
• If standing, take the time to at least glance at their card, and then put it into your business card holder or wallet.
• If you do not have business cards, I would suggest making at least a basic card with your details on it for the trip.

2. Chopsticks

You are more than likely going to be taking out to lunch or dinner while in Japan. If you do not know how to use chopsticks, don’t worry, pretty much every place you go will have a knife and fork available. If you do know how to use them, here are a few things to be careful of.

Do Not:

• stick your chopsticks upright in your rice,
• use one chopstick at a time, especially not to spear food,
• pass food from chopstick to chopstick (person to person),
• leave your chopsticks in your mouth while you do something else with your hands, like pick up plates or bowls,
• take food from a communal plate with your own chopsticks (though you can use the back of your chopsticks if you like), or
• point at people or things with your chopsticks.

Do: Copy what everyone else is doing.

3. Asking questions

If you get lost, go shopping, venture out on your own, you are more than likely going to have to ask somebody a question. Three things to remember are that most people will understand English, that they will likely be too embarrassed to say so, and that anyone of high school or university age will have had to study many years of written English and grammar.

So if you are having trouble getting your meaning across, write it down. If you can not write it down, try not to use full sentences. One or two keywords with a bit of body language will be more than enough to get you going in the right direction. Importantly, if you are staying in a hotel, take the hotel business card with you so that even if you do get totally lost, your hotel is only a taxi ride away (BTW, be careful of the taxi doors as they open automatically).

4. Omiyage (presents)

While it will not be expected of you, business people often will bring a small gift from home to give to the company that they are visiting. This is often something like chocolates, crackers (senbei), or cake. The $5-10 investment will leave a positive feeling with the company your are visiting and as such might be worth your while.

5. Japanese pronunciation 101

Speaking Japanese is not as hard as you might think, especially if you have an Australian accent. all you need to remember is where to break up the sounds. If you are going to try and speak any Japanese, below is a list of the basic sounds you might need.

Breaking words up
Shinkansen -> Shi-n-ka-n-se-n
Toyoto -> To-yo-ta
okonomiyaki -> o-ko-no-mi-ya-ki

Summary

When you visit Japan, do not worry, it will be much easier than you expect. Most people that you will come into contact with will speak (or at least read) English, and 99% of them will not expect you to know any of the Japanese language or customs. Like many countries the secret is to mimic what everyone else is doing.

Japan is a fantastic country to visit, and you are bound to have a great time. As this is a business trip, spend as much time as you can eating, drinking and shopping. Not simply to enjoy the wonderful food and drink available, but to see one of the best consumer focused markets in the world in action.

Yokoso Japan (welcome to Japan).

This guest article has been written by James Fridley. Having had an association with Japan for over 15 years including living and studying there for 3+ years and worked for the Japanese Government for 5 years, James Fridley has a really solid background in Japanese language and business culture. There is nothing he likes better than relaxing into an onsen (hot spring) and then tucking into a generous serve of yakitori (BBQ chicken).

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more