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Last night I went to the Unlimited Potential event in Wellington at which four bloggers tried to predict the future. The prize is the pink tiara, which the proud winner gets to wear until next year’s event.

The bloggers, who were all great sports, were:

• last year’s winner Philip Fierlinger
• Geek girl and “Kim Hill” star Brenda Wallace
• Geekzone honcho Mauricio Freitas
• Wellington author and blogger Miraz Jordan

Frankly, it wasn’t intended to be very serious – the prize rather signals that, don’t you think – and it wasn’t serious at all. The bloggers had each clearly thought about their stuff, and came out with a range of predictions ranging from things that had already been announced (The Australasian Linux conference will be in Wellington next year) to the likely (Windows 7 will sell better than Vista) to the, well, superficially improbable (Apple will take 75% of the laptop market). The audience lapped it up, with only a modicum of friendly advice and comment to the bloggers, ably abetted by the MC. The winner was chosen by the highly scientific method of seeing who got the loudest applause, whistling, and cat-calls from the audience.

And who won? Well… (more…)

After a break in Europe, then a few days in Abel Tasman National Park to re-connect with summer.

I saw a lot of interesting things:

• Free Wi-Fi is becoming the norm in UK Hotels, it would seem. I wonder when that will happen here?
• Proximity cards make such good ski lift tickets. All you have to do is wave your arm the turnstile and it lets you through. It would be great to see that here, as well.
• The tube is still hell on wheels. I’m glad I live somewhere where mass rapid transport is unnecessary.
• It’s fashionable in the UK to complain about the BBC. Please, please, please can I have a feed of it here?
• Bletchley Park, which I posted about at the time, was just about holy ground.

All in all, I’m convinced that New Zealand is a wonderful place to live.

Recently I went to the launch of Altspace, a co-working venue in Wellington. Co-working is a phenomenon among tiny companies and freelancers. The idea is, that you join a club where there are desks, meeting rooms and an Internet connection. You bring your own phone and laptop. You pay a membership fee and that gives you access to the club, and to a network of other clubs around the world.

Why would people do this? Many of us can’t justify offices of our own. But co-working is a bit more than a serviced office. Co-working stresses interactions among its members – hence the name. Sometimes it’s more productive and more fun to work in the company of others, rather than alone in a home office.

Co-working looks to be the start of something new. It looks really interesting. I hope it takes off.

A better title might be Technology gets rid of the check-in desk, because that’s pretty much what Air New Zealand is doing for domestic passengers.

Today on Radio New Zealand National I talked about this and how it works. Read on for my speaking notes or download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

One Laptop per Child is re-running its Get One, Give One programme this year. That’s fantastic news. It gives rich westerners (which is to say, just about all of us) an opportunity to fund OLPCs getting into the hands of kids in developing nations, while getting our kids’ hands on them as well. (Alright, maybe our hands – these little machines are very cool.)

OLPC is the result of many, many dedicated people working around the world. The project was started by Nicholas Negroponte, of MIT Media Lab fame, but has gone thoroughly global since. Habitués of a certain Wellington water hole will have noticed a team of people with a pile of OLPCs testing software every Saturday.

The G1G1 programme is to be run by Amazon – good on them – and this year it’s going wider than just the US. No word yet on whether it will cover NZ, but why shouldn’t it? It will be backed by a TV advertising campaign in the US and on Youtube. The pricing will be $399 US for two of the neat and distinctive little laptops, with one of them being sent to the purchaser and the other direct to someone who needs it.

There are more details here, and some great blog entries about putting the OLPC into Ethiopia here.

Creating and building technology is one thing; coming up with the latest thing that appeals to the hearts and minds of consumers is another. Today on Radio New Zealand National I take a look at the difference. Read on for my notes or download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

Like many others on the ‘Net, I’ve often repeated the old saw that His Billness decided in the Dark Ages of computing (the early 80s) that 640k should be enough for anyone. It appears that, in the words of the Mythbusters crew, that one’s well and truly busted. There’s no evidence he said that, and he did realise at the time that the whole 640k thing would place a limit on growth. He did admit later to being surprised at how quickly that limit was reached, though.

So, Bill: I’m sorry for telling people you made that call.

There’s a great article on the Times Online about the One Laptop per Child, or OLPC. This was a philanthropic initiative to get laptops into the hands of kids in developing countries. It’s been slow to deliver, and, according to this article, that’s because some large technology companies have done their best to kill it off. Apparently some large near-monopolies saw a cheap laptop for children as an attack on their market share.

Read the article for the details.

Richard Stallman is coming to New Zealand. For those that don’t know Richard, he’s the driving force behind free software. Apparently he’s a compelling speaker.

If you have any interest in software, or in intellectual property issues, he’d be well worth getting to hear. Check out his timetable. Alternatively, catch him on the radio on Saturday morning.

Today on Radio New Zealand National I talked about the World Internet Project – a survey of how New Zealanders use the Internet, set in context by comparing it to other surveys around the world. The WIP was run in New Zealand by AUT University and partly funded by InternetNZ.

There are some intriguing results to the survey. Read on for my speaking notes or listen to the podcast.

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