MiramarMike: Blog

“© kiwiright” is a 12 minute documentary about how copyright laws have been contorted to benefit the financial needs of corporate rights holders and no longer benefits the public nor the artists who create the work itself. Employing a fair-use argument, “© kiwiright” intercuts interviews with New Zealand lawmakers and technologists with Disney clips defining and commenting on copyright law. The filmmaker calls “© kiwiright” a "proof-of-concept" film remixing footage from other films released under Creative Commons licenses to build an argument against “guilt upon accusation” laws and to promote freedom of speech and expression. For more information, visit: creativefreedom.org.nz eff.org/action See the original Creative Commons works that "© kiwiright" builds upon at: cyberlaw.stanford.edu/documentary-film-program/film/a-fair-y-use-tale ripremix.com/

Here in New Zealand we were one of the first countries that the forces that be tried to implement the "3 strikes and you're out" law with regards to alleged copyright infringement via the Internet - in essence if you're accused 3 times by a copyright holder of illegally copying their work you will have your Internet disconnected by your ISP. I have no qualms with copyright holders protecting their goods BUT the issue is that the disconnection would occur immediately on the third accusation and before any evidence is produced and way before you have a chance to defend yourself - therefore you are guilty because someone has accused you. In NZ the law was defeated by a concerted effort (called "#blackout"), a change of government and the support of many high profile supported including Stephen Fry. Today Stephen Fry tweeted the following: I'll keep at this till a million sign! We mustn't let Mandy do this WRONG thing. Please sign & RT: http://is.

Helping Ben on a project and the team would love to know your thoughts: ... part of a group looking at building a collaborative platform for data sharing for a local Government organization, it seemed logical to approach the project in a similarly collaborative way. Wanting to “eat their own dog food”, a joint group of individuals shared in the project; Mike Riversdale, Aaron Brunet and Ben all joined forces to work on a project initiated by a forward thinking local government staffer required to manage an extensive natural resource. The great thing about this particular project is that, without giving specifics out, it seeks to improve the management of a scare natural resource. So please pop over to Ben's CloudAve post and let the world know YOUR favourite online collaboration tool: http://www.cloudave.com/link/online-collaboration-tools-we-want-your-recommendations

As you are probably aware the New Zealand government have, through their Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), created a one-stop-shop listing all the data accessible from government agencies. Nice. This initiative was almost entirely driven from the awesome work of a small independent group led by Glen Barnes and Nathan Torkington ( http://open.org.nz ) with the Open Data Catalogue as a “one-stop shop for locating government data”. So where is this official site: http://www.data.govt.nz/ Browse datasets Add a dataset Suggest a dataset They are also using Twitter to announce new data sets: @Data_Govt_NZ Nat posted up his views on the initial release and ComputerWorld have popped up an article today. Included is this quote from the totally switched on Jason Ryan ("State Services Commission communications man") which has quickly become my favourite about 'open government data': “It’s not about the technology. It’s not about data quality. Or privacy. Or commercial

Spotted this over at the UX Barcamp group - Scott Berkun's, How to run a great unconference session Perfect compliment to my wider How To Facilitate A Barcamp/Unconference

It used to be blog posts but, hey, thieves have gotta get with the times as well you know!

Have recently sent the following to all NZ-based Google Apps resellers. In the spirit of openess AND knowing the current list probably doesn't cover everyone: SUBJECT: NZ Google Apps eco-system wants you You're a Google Apps re-seller and I work for one ( WaveAdept based here in Wellington) This would normally mean in the NZ IT/tech industry we should only ever see each other over the fence of competing RFPs However, I believe Google Apps users within NZ are suffering from a lack of local support, information and "mates to call upon". There are also myths galore ("What if NZ loses its one Internet cable to the world"), misrepresentation ("Google Apps is just not allowed within the NZ Government agencies) and plain old "who knew that?!" ("Wow, I didn't know Google was more than search!?") Whilst Google can provide a swag of information it is up to us, the local representatives, to mould this collateral to suit our particular au

From an email correspond to the The Register ("Biting the hand that feeds IT")