Telstra takes the lead again: Fake Twitter IDs

The growth of mini-blogging tool Twitter has revealed a whole new range of issues for employees and employers. Today, it was revealed on Telstra's 'corporate activist' (some say propaganda) website, nowwearetalking.com.au, that a Telstra employee has admitted to setting up a fake Twitter ID for Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy.

Telstra's approach to dealing with employee Leslie Nasser, aka Fake Stephen Conroy on Twitter, was released on Telstra's blog 'The Scrum' today.

Telstra's response was very modern:

Telstra is learning the best way to engage in social media - notice our response has come in the form of a blog versus a media release.

We believe transparency promotes credibility. This post is about getting the facts into the open.

Telstra-bashing has been fashionable for some time, but I would argue that the company is a lone voice in a sea of nothingness. Web 2.0 applications have enabled non-technical people to access the full power of the Internet but most organisations have been painfully slow to admit the obvious.

Some suggest this is all part of Telstra's grand plan, but in the absence of any other organisation which is publicly experimenting with Web 2.0 technologies, a little activism is not such a big deal. Indeed, it is difficult to be upset about Telstra's push for a charter of human rights for Australia (the last liberal democracy to adopt one). It may be Telstra's grand plan to stir up public support for the often unpopular dominant telco, but it certainly is a grand plan.

Experimentation with new media has to occur within the public's gaze if Australia is to reap the benefits of new media and remove the old shackles of being a technology follower. With so many organisations being fearfully conservative toward social networking tools, Telstra's recent adventures are at least bringing new media issues into the limelight. It's about time.

Net's use in policy stalled as telcos face ACCC crackdown

It seems the Australian government's acceptance of Net technologies as part of the policy process has lost momentum. Following Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy's two week trial of a blog on Digital Economy future issues in December last year, there has been little momentum to keep up with new ways of engaging with citizens electronically.

This comes at a time when the telecommunications industry is attracting around 4,000 complaints to the ACCC from consumers each year.

However, the aptly-named Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) started developing video content delivered via youtube, but this development has also stalled since the trial ended.

DBCDE should invest more in this type of Net content to facilitate the policy process becoming more open and transparent to citizens. Regulators should only enforce the public interest as mandated by government policy. The Net could be considered as a public utility in this regard and utilised by the government to encourage participation.

Given the ACCC's view that the communications industry is 'consistently the most complained about industry sector in Australia', some more 'broadband leadership' from the government would be quite timely. Regardless, letting the people know what is happening in broadband using the medium itself makes good sense!

Founder's comments on the Web no surprise

It is no surprise that world wide web founder, Tim Berners-Lee, is not happy with advertising content and 'snooping' on the www.

The 'open and universal nature' of the Net was a founding principle which is currently under attack by governments and large media companies in an attempt to control the uncontrollable, what one commentator suggested was government 'with a finger in the dyke'.

But many 'media communications' industry players are struggling to find a business model that captures the power of the Net. Google, Facebook and Twitter have certainly captured the participant market, but it remains to be seen whether an adequate Net business model is achievable, or whether it will continue to complement other industries, products and services.

One of the major issues for web content providers is that often their content is used for others' commercial purposes, with no benefits accruing to the developer. Where user-generated content (UGC) does occur, it tends to be restricted to the area of popular culture or the provision of commercial content to traditional producers for free (see Ornebring 2008).

There are implications for communications policy here: the process occurs in the domain of government and dominant businesses, working to exclude (or at least pay lip service to) citizens, interest groups and industry bodies from the policy process (see ASTRA 2004). In effect, this is placing limitations on the 'open and universal' principles upon which the WWW was formed.

References:

Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA) (2004) Submission to the ‘2004 Digital Television Reviews - 2nd, 3rd & 4th Review’, December.

Ornebring, H. (2008) ‘The Consumer as Producer – of What? User-generated tabloid content in The Sun (UK) and Aftonbladet (Sweden)’. Journalism Studies, Vol. 9, No. 5, October: 771 – 785.