There is nothing to doing a PhD. All you do is sit down at your computer and bleed

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What is the purpose of the critic? In high school the role isn't noticeable, one just gets that first draft over the minimum word limit and in on time and then it's done and then high school is over. When one gets to university the priority should be on protecting one's sensibilities from focused criticism. As universities exist to ratify one's preordained competence, all the rigmarole is completely unnecessary.

Oscar Wilde, 1882.

In writing mere egotism is delightful and the first draft of anything is always one's best work.

It is of course a commonplace that an academic possesses the serene confidence that one is a full-sized researcher and therefore need not put forth evidences of empirical observations based on sound research design, nor take into account that one's contribution to new knowledge has anything to do with seeing further by standing on the shoulders of giants. 

Isaac Newton, 1689

Only a fool would twist and turn and practise productive procrastination while trudging along the razor's edge of sanity and the other. All this is completely unnecessary because you can do it all online for free via a MOOC.

Ernest Hemingway, 1939

All one needs to do to become an expert is to pick a field then constantly browse the Net for information on the topic. There is no need for supervision and if you get stuck, simply source knowledge from the crowd. Moreover, laborious referencing is an antiquated skill which is simply not vocational. What use could proper referencing possibly have today anyway?

W. Somerset Maugham, 1934

I’d always thought that being an academic was the next best thing to being independently wealthy. And it's true. Seriously, this elitist profession has had its day. Society doesn't really need academics, and anyone can be one.

Besides, there is nothing to doing a PhD. All you do is sit down at your computer and bleed.

Internationally, it's an Online Shopping Bonanza: So why are we paying so much locally?

Australia Post's "Technology: Then and Now" Issue 2011

IT software and hardware prices in Australia are so inflated (compared with other advanced economies) that the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications initiated the Inquiry into IT Pricing. Yet IT pricing is only one of many issues in Australia's digital economy that keep prices up and online shopping, generally, is no exception.

NBN propaganda asked us to think about "what you could do with super-fast broadband" (see video below). But what good is super-fast broadband if the Australian retail market keeps online shopping prices inflated? Will the NBN simply help people to buy more, cheaper goods from overseas? Let's look at the situation as it now stands.


A pet store item from an online Australian supplier costs $129.00 with shipping for $6.99. The same item from an online UK supplier costs $74.46 with shipping of $8.99. A paperback Hemingway novel from the UK sells at $8.70 with free shipping; the cheapest Australian price for the same item from an online supplier was $15.80 with free shipping, or $14.99 with $5 shipping. Is this over-inflation of prices sustainable?

Gerry Harvey's (of Harvey Norman fame) views are that buying cheaper goods overseas means that Australians lose their jobs, and he is so upset about it he publicly dobbed in his wife and daughter for shopping online "because it's a lot cheaper". But why wouldn't you?

One of the biggest upsets for online shoppers in Australia is the cost of shipping goods bought online. I recently looked into purchasing a specialty item online where the cost of shipping from New York was USD$12.50 whereas shipping from Sydney to Canberra cost AUD$25, not to mention that the item from the US was AUD$100 cheaper. Surely something is not right with the Australian freight system?

But Australia's postal system is open to competition, except for letters under 250 grams (reserved services), so there is no tangible impact of Australia Post's statutory monopoly on the cost of parcel deliveries. The service is usually pretty good too, and, from my own experience of online shopping, Australia Post's parcel tracking system is second-to-none.

Further, the cost of shipping goods bought online is not regulated by the ACCC and delivery charges do not form part of the total item cost for advertising purposes, therefore, delivery charges are determined purely by market demand. But it still doesn't explain why the price is so high.

It certainly isn't that Australians are any less likely to buy products online when compared with a similar country such as Canada (see figure below). Indeed, Australia's Internet economy contributes more to GDP than Canada's, and Internet sales in Australia make up a larger portion of all retail sales. Why, then, does it still cost so much more to buy products online from overseas than it does locally?

Source: Boston Consulting Group (2012)

There are a number of plausible reasons. First, the Australian dollar is performing very well internationally, so overseas purchasing power is significantly better than five years ago. Nonetheless, currency fluctuations do not explain price differences of 50% and more from overseas suppliers.

Second, Australian suppliers, simply because of the tyranny of distance, are less likely to have access to larger markets overseas, whereas it is much easier for a European  or Asian seller to add Australia to its global reach. But this doesn't explain why Australians simply don't buy more overseas, forcing local prices down.

Third, there are security concerns about buying from overseas. Buyers tend to be wary of online scammers and there is a great deal of fear-mongering about Net scams, particularly from overseas websites, despite the existence of various security measures for online purchases. Nonetheless, payment services such as Paypal and Escrow or paying with a credit card can provide significant protection if used intelligently and in combination with some simple online research.

Fourth, there are moral concerns about buying cheaper goods from overseas. For example, Gerry Harvey is against buying goods cheaper off the Net because it may impact upon Australian jobs. But this seems to be covering old ground, reviving an old myth that has apparently been "debunked" (DFAT 2010):

Trade, both exports and imports, accounts for one in five Australian jobs. This equates to over 2 million jobs in today's workforce...
Trade's share of the economy has grown as barriers to trade have been liberalised. A 2009 study by the Centre for International Economics (CIE) showed that total trade — both exports and imports — supports jobs...
The myth that lower tariffs destroy jobs has been debunked. Trade liberalisation has made the economy more flexible. The number of people employed in Australia in export-related activity in services such as finance, property and business services is increasing.

It would appear that the combination of factors outlined above contributes to the inflated online prices and delivery charges in Australia. As confidence in online shopping grows, it is unlikely that Australian suppliers will be able to continue to charge inflated prices for goods that are simply cheaper overseas. But how a delivery charge from Sydney to Canberra can cost twice as much for the same item to be shipped from New York to Canberra beggars belief.

Put simply, the Australian market, with its "Iron Man" economy, can simply bear higher prices, and enough consumers are willing to pay over-inflated prices. No doubt it is just a little while before Net-savvy consumers force the inevitable market correction.

Developments in emergency communications in NSW and the ACT; or, Thoughts on climate change, emergency communications and factors limiting the potential for broadband to mitigate risk in disaster management thus containing the expected increases in global insurance premiums

ACT Emergency Services Agency & Google, 8 January 2013

After a brief period of calm this morning, Canberra's weather erupted with gusty, dry, hot winds. "Extreme" fire warnings were in force and emergency services vehicles were visible in the major town centres. Reminiscent of the 2003 bushfires, I was interested in finding out what was happening in my local area. The difference this time, however, was the amount of information available online. This saw me thinking about my abstract for the 2013 World Social Science Forum in Montreal, Canada, this year, where the topic is "Social transformation and the digital age" and the deadline is next week. These are some thoughts about the role of broadband infrastructure and services in mitigating insurance risk due to climate change.

Although I had broadband via TransACT during the 2003 bushfires, I remember turning to the radio for information. Today was quite different. The first notice arrived via a Facebook status update from ABC News:

Next was a Facebook friend's status update with a link to the ACT Emergency Services Agency's website with a map focused on the ACT, with detailed information and near real-time status updates about fires, motor vehicles collisions and so on.

ABC News map depicting fires across NSW & ACT, 8 January 2013

As I type, the Twitterati are going for broke with updates about what is happening around the ACT and NSW, and the difference between the information available now compared with 2003 is enormous.

In 2003, I recall hearing the natural disaster warning signal - the same signal we heard as kids almost every summer in Cairns during cyclone season - but by then burning ashes were falling from the sky. Today, the availability of technologies such as Google Maps, social media, and so on - all enabled by broadband services - are fast becoming necessities, especially in emergency communications. The emergency services use of high-speed broadband is increasingly an important area of focus for the International Telecommunications Union, especially in establishing technical standards. No doubt as the frequency of natural disasters increases, the ubiquitousness of broadband - both wired AND wireless - will play an important role in disaster management.

In addition to disaster notifications, meteorological information plays an important role in assisting citizens to prepare for severe weather conditions. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has developed an interactive weather map to provide such information in near real-time. As I write, I am aware that we can expect an evening storm with lightning but little to no rain. This enables us to make preparations for pets, clean up the backyard and so on. Importantly, none of this information was readily available in 2003, so technological improvements have had a significant impact on citizen-preparedness at an individual/familial level.

As a result of past experiences, bushfire survival plans and risk assessment tools are now available online, particularly via state government websites such as Fire & Rescue NSW. The educative function enabled by broadband services, when combined with television advertising, appears to have proven effective:

It is hard to imagine emergency communications without broadband, but it is equally difficult to imagine that climate change doesn't exist when we are experiencing what was aptly explained by a photo shared by another Facebook friend:

Via Facebook as the wind turned nasty in Canberra earlier today

When I first started researching communications technology policy, I was often accused of "conflating" various topics, especially when discussing technological convergence. But my thoughts today are flicking from emergency communications to disaster management to broadband to Internet content to climate change to the insurance industry to government-business relations and globalisation. Let me explain.

If broadband is an enabler of effective emergency communications services, and climate change is going to increase insurance premiums (see Lloyd's: "Climate Change, Adapt or Bust"), then it follows that better disaster responses from emergency services combined with better-prepared citizens educated and informed by Internet content can mitigate the risk inherent in climate change, thereby reducing or containing increases in insurance premiums.

Today's experience of emergency communications technologies demonstrated how both governments (at the various levels from local to state to federal) and businesses (in particular Google, Facebook and to a lesser extent Twitter) play pivotal roles in facilitating online content provided via broadband infrastructure. Neither can be separated from the process as it currently operates: Google Maps provides the basis for updates provided by emergency services agencies, and then users of social networks disseminate the information or provide links to various sources of local information.

Google's globalised information system becomes locally useful when adapted by the relevant authorities and/or users: the environmentalist's mantra "think global [communications system] / act local [content services]" seems to work here. But how can this be coordinated in such a way as to mitigate global insurance risk? Can the "greener" National Broadband Network proposed by Alcatel-Lucent (see more on the Alcatel-Lucent/NBN scandal in 2009 and 2012) be achieved in the current environment?

One of the biggest challenges seems to be the global political dominance of the nation-state resulting in national security issues concerning broadband infrastructure. This is a problem because broadband infrastructure tends to transcend national boundaries, despite numerous attempts by nation-states to control the Internet (see for example Google in China and the Australian Government's failed attempt at introducing an Internet filter, and also Chinese telecom Huawei which was banned from participating in the build-out of Australia's NBN). While the benefits of technological convergence are often hindered by industrial and regulatory demarcation, the same can be said of global networks 'siloed' by nation-states. Whitt (2004: 591) outlines the problem:

Trying to impose the current, outmoded legal system onto the Internet and all its IP progeny is a flawed, damaging, and ultimately doomed approach. Instead, policymakers should adopt a new public policy framework that regulates along horizontal network layers, rather than vertical silos

And the solution:

[To] move away from... artificially separate communications-related services, networks and industries... [and] build our laws around the Internet, rather than the other way around

While there is insufficient space to go into the details of Whitt's "Network Layers Model" here, suffice to say that the deliberate segregation of networks created by nation-states (either carriage or content) limits the potential of broadband infrastructure and services to assist in emergency communications. It follows, then, that one of the major "social transformations" in the "digital age" may well be the end of nationally-controlled communications networks brought about by climate change.

Although scientists and polemicists may argue about the nature of climate change, much like politicians may argue about national security and infrastructure, it is entirely possible that a global increase in insurance premiums may make climate change as real as it gets. If this happens, it makes sense that national jurisdictions will be ill-equipped to provide the detailed, sustainable and technologically-advanced networks and content necessary to provide emergency communications during natural disasters. While I have much work to do in clarifying these ideas, there is certainly a research paper in there somewhere and I will post my abstract here next week.

References:

Whitt, R.S. (2004). ‘A Horizontal Leap Forward: Formulating a New Communications Public Policy Framework Based on the Network Layers Model’. Federal Communications Law Journal, 56(3): 587-672.