Craft Communities Online

It seems that there are online communities for almost everything from new mothers, to political activists, but how would a craft community, so focussed on an activity that is done physically, translate online?

Helen McLean runs a quilting website from her home in Victoria; after her husband passed away she wanted a project and something to bring in a bit of income. Her son and daughter both, who are web designers, set her up a quilting website. Helen’s site offers a whole range of resources and a place for quilters from around the world to come. Helen told me she has people from all over accessing her site

“Old, young, I had quite a big order from a shop in Norway, in almost all countries. One of my very first customers lives in Cloncurry, way out back in Queensland; a lot of ladies say ‘there’s nowhere near me’”.

The ability of online communities to break down geographical barriers is one of their main advantages, Greg Wadley, associate academic and researcher in the Interaction Design Group at the University of Melbourne is researching online communities and he says one of their advantages is that they can create community for people who would otherwise be isolated from a physical one.

“In your local neighbourhood there may not simply be enough people to form a community who share that interest, but the internet means a much larger group of people who can get together and discuss the interest and share resources of various kinds. Another advantage of online communities is you don’t have to be at a meeting place at a particular time, you can just log in when it’s convenient to you, and take turns in a conversation that might spread out over days or weeks.”

Education and the transfer of skills online is something Greg has been exploring and is something craft communities are often trying to do, I asked him what major difficulties he had come across in transferring practical skills online?

“The problem is that social information doesn’t get broadcast through the internet, by that I mean; if you’re sitting in a room with your social group then there’s much more information flashing back and forth between the people, there’s a lot more communication going on than we’re even consciously aware of. Online there’s far less information getting through.” Greg said.

So with all these communities going online is it likely that we’ll see what has traditionally been serviced by physical communities be taken over by online ones? Both Greg and Helen are doubtful.

“There have been researchers arguing a dystopian view of online community, saying that people will spend all their time sitting at a computer and the more time they spend online the less time they’re communing with others offline, but I don’t know that our experience is baring that out. There’ll always be a small number of people who will do anything to an extreme way, but most people aren’t affected by it at all. Most people find a way to utilise online and offline communities in the most appropriate way and make them work together.” Greg Said

Helen said online communities could never replace offline one’s for quilters.

“I don’ think they would replace them at all, because women just love to get together and swap patterns person to person, see what each other are doing, and I don’t know why it is but as quilters we love to feel things, I see a fabric the first thing I want to do is touch it and I don’t know why cause they pretty much all feel the same. I really don’t think it would stop (physical) groups, but if you were really isolated and you didn’t know where there was a group then yes maybe”

While it seems online communities can never completely replace physical communities, it is clear they can broaden them. In an era where people find physical communities can be difficult to coordinate, online communities are offering the opportunity to people with all kind of interests to find each other. So whether you like quilting, scrap booking, model train making or hobbytex there’s likely to be an online community for you.

The Future of News as We Know It

“Popular news papers, the ‘mass newspapers’ are dying and will die, they have got no future what so ever…” Roy Greenslade Future of Journalism Conference May 2008


The Future of Journalism Summit, recently held by the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, together with the ABC, hosted journalists and media industry professions from around the world.

All forecast major upheaval in the media and news industries, with predictions like Roy Greenslade’s (a greatly respected journalist with the Guardian in the UK), that with the increasing influence of the Internet, newspapers are on their last legs.

I spoke with Jonathan Este from the MEAA and formerly a journalist with The Australian and The Independent (not The Age as mistakenly mentioned in the broadcast sorry!), about some of the issues raised at the conference, to try and gain a picture of what media consumption might look like in the near future.

Jonathan said he believes much of the fuss is without cause.

There’s a lot of pessimism about the future, and I think that’s a bit short sighted. … To say "its all done and dusted, the Internet’s here, news papers are dead" that’s a very pessimistic view.

Roy Greenslade said at the summit that the decline of newspaper consumption has a lot to do with changes in societal and cultural structures, rather than a lack of interest in news.

Young People don’t red news papers and have never read news papers… (People) didn’t really start to buy newspapers until they got married, the problem now is they’re not getting married, and therefore they’re not forming the family unit around which a newspaper was a key part.

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Jonathan hosted a discussion at the summit entitled ‘Digital Natives in the Wild’, featuring three leaders in the new media field; Cinnamon Pollard (Youth Fairfax digital), Rebekah Horne (MySpace Australia) and Kath Hamilton (Yahoo7).

Jonathan explained that all three women spoke about the new audience’s desire to be a part of the process of producing and distributing news.

What they’re saying is that (generation Y) see media as being a conversation, not a lecture, they’re just as likely to be brought to stories by their friends as by newspapers, they’ll email each other saying “have you seen this story?".

They see this as an all round media experience, they’re creating media themselves, they’re creating film clips, sharing stuff, they’re creating their own networks to share news.

This new way of consuming news was referred to in the discussion as “information snacking”, I asked Jonathan if this could lead to a “malnourished” audience.

I don’t necessarily think that ("information snacking") is a reflection of disengagement, I think it’s more a reflection of convenience. People don’t want to wait 'til 6 pm to read the news. Jonathan said.

If you look at the election campaign in Australia last year, there was this huge push, the ‘Get Up’ movement, there were a lot gen’ Y people there, and they were very engaged and committed to the principle process.

I actually think that people are going to get a better quality news service, I just have the faith that journalists have the vision and the courage to maintain that investment.

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Anther shift discussed at the summit was that of an increase in audience participation, as Jonathan Este said people are seeing news as a conversation, not a lecture.

This shift is making some journalists fear for their jobs, and audiences fear for the credibility of their news sources, so will more audience participation have this feared detriment on the profession of journalism?

Roy Greenslade at the summit said that Journalists roles are not becoming irrelevant, just changing.

I want journalists to think about the fact that they are no longer secular priests, who hold journalism to be some kind of mysterious activity. Anyone can be a journalist, anyone can contribute to journalism, but, that participation, cooperation, crowd sourcing, mash ups, all the other ways now of enlarging journalism, empowering people to be journalists, are very important.

Journalism, reporting on society, telling people about things they didn’t know, and also discovering things that people don’t want you to know, which is obviously what journalism is about, are not going to be things that only professionals do, in future, and they are already not things that only journalists do.

Jonathan Este pointed out there is still plenty of work for Journalists to do in this era of public participation.

You still need people who’s job it is and who’s skill it its to find things out, and I think you need people who’s job it is and who’s skill it is to edit and moderate that.

What’s different now is that what Jay Rosen calls “the people formerly known as the audience”, they’re no longer this big, homogeneous mass, they’re a whole number of different communities and they’re coming back to you.

In a sense there is this potential for journalism to get a whole lot better, because the feedback will throw back very valuable additions to stories, or corrections.

Is eBay being anti-competitive?

Online shopping site eBay recently made a decision that will see the company's online credit agency PayPal handle most of the purchase transactions made on the site. With this announcement has come claims the decision is anti-competitive.

Homepage producer Matthew Heffernan recently investigated the issue and the claims of anti-competitive business management.

eBay's user friendly chief, told Matthew the decision is based on improving user safety. PayPal is universally praised for its security measures and it makes good business sense for eBay to require sellers to give their buyers the option of using the safest method of payment.

PayPal allows a user to register their bank or credit card details to establish their online shopping balance. A user can then access funds from that balance to purchase items off the net.

eBay's decision to make PayPal the preferred option for transactions does not exclude other credit agencies from the service - but rather requires those credit cards be used through PayPal for greater security for users. According to eBay a user is four times less likely to run into a transaction problem if they use PayPal when shopping online.

eBay suggests the change to PayPal ensures better transaction security for buyers and sellers.

It's important to note that users can still pay for their goods in person for 'pick up' only purchases. So there is a cash payment option available for buyers and sellers who choose not to use PayPal.

The ACCC is currently investigating the eBay / PayPal case and has declined to comment at this time.

However, Matthew was able to speak with Jerome Fahrer from the Allens Consulting Group about the anti-competitive business claims. The Allens Consulting Group is an independent agency that examines cases like this and offers recommendations to clients on how to proceed in such cases.

Mr Fahrer suggests eBay is well within its rights to make this business decision. He further adds that because eBay is not the only online shopping site available, the company has the right to impose whatever payment system they prefer.

Jerome compared the eBay / PayPal issue to buying a car. When buying a new car you often don't get to choose what radio it comes with, but nobody is forcing you to buy that car and there are others available to you to buy.

Users shouldn't really be too worried about the decision by eBay to introduce a PayPal exclusive payment option, because PayPal offers optimum security features.

As for the claims of anti-competitiveness, we'll await the decision from the ACCC.

The Invisible Web

For many of us, we peruse and search the internet using only our favourite search engine.

But did you know that by doing this, you are only covering a small portion of the web?

So, even though there may be thousands of websites popping up from your search, there could be even more vital websites you’re missing out on.

Basically, the internet can be classified into two categories – the surface web and the invisible web.

The surface web is what search engines index and dig up for us to see and what is easily found.

But the invisible web is an exception. Also known as the deep web, these websites are made to be much harder to find. They won’t show up in a typical search engine search, and if they do, they are hard to access.

These websites might be deliberately excluded by the owners using code, or the websites might be invisible because they don’t hold much significance.

It is expected that invisible web is several times bigger than the surface web, although it is hard to measure that isn’t clearly visible.

Amanda Spink, who is the professor of information technology at the Queensland University of Technology will be joining us on the program today to delve into the details of the invisible web and discover what kind of sites there are.

She says there are a number of websites you can’t access for many reasons. Organisations on the web might host their valuable company information online for easy accessibility for employees, but it usually restricted access with log-in protection.

Cyber criminals also convene online but these sites won’t be found easily.

These websites can be kept hidden embedding codes into the HTML, such as Meta Tags, which stop web crawlers from finding them.

Although there are some pages on the web that might not technically be made invisible; but become invisible as a result of narrow search techniques.

Amanda Spink says search engines don’t index every website and only cover a portion of the web. So one search engine might cover a portion of the web that another search engine might not.

There are ways to combat this and expand your searches, by using a unique and versatile type of search engine called metasearch engines such as Dogpile. These search engines are a quick and efficient way to do searches because they utilise multiple search engines.

Amanda Spink says the information on the invisible is in no way substandard to the information on the surface web. In fact the information is actually a lot more valuable.

So next time you do a search, keep in mind that there is more than meets the eye. What might be available on one search engine may not be available on another and the web stretches much further than what we normally see.

There are many other ways to do searches and get the most of what you’re looking for.

All you need is to find the right search tools, which may include federated search engines such as databases; or by using human crawlers instead of algorithmic crawlers such as StumbleUpon.

Religion Online

Religion for some has taken a back seat in our fast paced, technology addicted life styles – but now it’s making a come back.
Religions are embracing the online environment as we’ve never seen before – and it doesn’t stop there. We’re talking podcasts, social networking, SMS calls to prayer – religion at your fingertips and in a form that is second nature to many people today – particularly generations X and Y.
When you think about it, the potential for religion online is just about limitless. You can find about all kinds of religions, experience other cultures, participate in online sermons and in fact, there are now some faiths that only exist online.
In Insight, Homepage producer Amy Spear chatted to World Youth Day Spokesman Jim Hanna and Doctor Kathleen McPhillips, Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of Western Sydney about religion’s shift into cyberspace…

So just to get us started today, Kathleen, are more people turning to technology to learn and practice religion?

It’s a good question. The answer is a little bit complex because part of the problem with the internet is that it’s so diverse and large, so it’s very hard to research. But I think what researchers have found is that there is an enormous amount of material on the internet, covering a very large area of topics and religious traditions and people are very engaged in virtual religion.

Is it all kinds of religion? Different religions?

Yes, it is. Well, major religious traditions, all of them have websites. Then you get new age religions, so lots of pagan websites and you get lots of witch websites and so on. Then you also get lots of religious healing sites, sects and cults are on the internet. There also very productive websites, such as interface dialogue discussions between faith tradition. So it can be a space where there is a lot of diversity and tolerance.

Are you able to tell a particular demographic that uses these? Or is it across the board?

It’s hard to know but it’s probably generations X and Y that are more active on the internet then other generations, particularly in relation to religion. I mean, one of things about religion on the internet is that it does probably encourage a more individualised use or attention to it. So the older generations may be used to going to church on Sunday or Saturday, or whenever it may be, and having a more traditional, physical relationship with their congregations. Whereas younger people are probably more adept at using the internet as a form of community and communication.

Is it that religion is changing? Or is it just taking on a new form of communication?

This is a very good question and it’s one of THE questions – does the internet change the nature of religion and religious practice? I think the answer to that has to be yes. I mean, first of all, there’s the question of the internet itself. It is a kind of mysterious technology. It’s a form of virtual or cyber space – we can’t see it. It isn’t magic – so how does it happen that we can connect up with people that live so far away from us in less than a second? So there’s a question about whether the internet itself is a kind of religious experience and may encourage people to believe in something that doesn’t exist. Then there’s another question about whether people can have religious experiences on the internet using some of the sites. So these are really interesting questions to ask. I think we have to say that it does change the social context in which we practice religion.

Religion amongst younger people has, in some cases, lost relevance over the past few years. The internet, then, could be a way of bringing it back to them – communicating through their means and providing a whole range of info.

Absolutely and I think that’s one of the things that religious congregations are hoping for – that by using these technologies that young people are much more familiar with and comfortable with, that they will be able to reach out to them. Whether they’re successful or not is hard to define. I don’t know if there are any studies done in this area. I mean, one of the things is that there would be a significant group of young people, we know this from the census, that, while they may have been raised in a religious tradition, they don’t practice it. It’s their parents who continue to practice it. So there is an element of alienation amongst young people and the internet might be one way they can keep a connection with a religious tradition active, while not feeling so disoriented and alienated by the weekly practices of that tradition which may not speak to them at all.

In your opinion, what are the most common ways people are using the internet for religion?

What I know about is the New Age sites and I think they’re using them for a lot of different things. You can set up your own website for starters and you can advertise yourself and your religious preferences. But I think for information, to join a group, to do healing practices and also to have fun. You can access things like an Ouija board, so the black arts are there as well. I mean some religious groups only have an existence on the internet and there I’m particularly thinking about Jedi Religion. Now I don’t know if you recall but in the early 2000s (2001 Census) 70 000 Australian nominated Jedi religion as their religious practice and it was a phenomenon that also happened in other Western countries like Britain. From that developed a number of internet sites on Jedi religion so you can actually join a group and become a Jedi Master or practice some of the more esoteric practices associated with Jediism.

To take a closer look at how religions are using technology, I spoke with Jim Hanna from World Youth Day about the initiatives they’ve been using to get their message out there.

World Youth Day is targeted at young people all around the world and, especially in Australia, young people are more tech savvy then the older generations – then their parents and teachers. So we know that if we want to reach people effectively, we’ve got to use the communication tools they use. That used to be radio, TV and maybe some youth magazines but now it’s the internet, it’s mobile phones and it’s a range of different things on the internet. You can’t just say the internet anymore – you’ve got to talk about chat rooms, forums networking pages etc. So we’re looking at the whole range of things and we’ve come up with a few ideas that we hope will appeal to young people and be things they will use.

In what has been termed by some as the Big Prey Out, over 60 000 Aussies from outside of Sydney will join double that from all over the world in this years World Youth Day. So are more people jumping online to find out about it and to connect with other people?

Yeah, I think it’s more the second thing that you said. It’s more connecting with other people and I think a really effective way for young people to get involved in their faith is if they see and hear other people in their own age group taking part in it and this is a great way to see other people do something spiritual. If you’re not talking about a strict religious sense, it might just be looking for guidance and I think getting online is a great way to communicate with other people but still be yourself. There’s still a reasonable degree of anonymity and you can preserve your privacy – you can be yourself a little bit more than you can in a group situation, around a table or at a restaurant or something.

Has this level of communication ever been possible before?

Well that’s right. This is going to be a first for WYD. We’re going to have a social networking space called XT3.com, that’s going to be launched this month, and for the first time Pilgrims from all around the world will be able to get online and become friends before they actually arrive here in Sydney. They can start meeting each other, getting to know each other and getting to know something about each other. We’re also going to have daily text messages from the Pope. The Pope will write something and we’ll get it out to people so it will be a direct communication to them from the Holy Father, which I think is going to be pretty cool. The other thing that I think most people are finding very innovative is an idea we got when U2 were out here the last time, where you could text your phone number to a particular number and you could see your name come up on the big screen at the event. Well what we want to do is do that in a Catholic sort of way. Often people want other people to pray for something, some intention or other, it could be world peace, it could be freedom from hunger, it could be for a sick relative, it could even be for their footy team to win – and Lord knows I’ve been doing a lot of praying for my team! They had a win last week so that’s good – it does work everyone! So what we’re doing is a Digital Prayer Wall where you can text your prayer to a particular number and it will come up on the screen where a couple of hundred people are gathered. It’s great to know that at least some of the people in that crowd would all being praying for that same intention. It gives people a sense of warmth and reassurance. So that’ll be a first and hopefully that will be something that continues on to the next WYD. We’re also going to be bringing people together who might live in regional Australia, by having some sort of webcasting (like a teleconference but on the internet) and we’re hoping to do one of those before WYD. So the Bishop here in Sydney will reach out to people further out in Australia. We’re going to work with Telstra on that.

Jim agrees that religion is now a lot more accessible, particularly to those younger people.

Yeah and I think it needs to be. I think the Church needs to enter the 21st century and I think it’s trying to do that. It needs to appeal to younger people who, as I said before, they just read and hear and see things differently. They still use the old media forms like TV and everything else but I think young people especially work in their own space. If the Church wants to be relevant to them it’s got to come to those spaces and be part of their lives.

Religion, in all its shapes and forms, is certainly taking on a whole new look. And it’s much more accessible in today’s lifestyle to boot. There is still much debate surrounding the issue, so keep an eye out for new developments.

Amy takes a look at Online Image...

Beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder.
But knowing there could be millions beholding your image at once?
That’s a pretty daunting concept!

However that’s the reality of the internet today and image certainly plays a big part – whether it be through social networking, virtual worlds or gaming.

This week on Insight, Homepage producer Amy Spear explores the complex world of online personal image and discovers the impact that it has on users, particularly the younger group.

She chats to Dr Nadine Pelling, a senior lecturer at the University of South Australia and Dr Ashley Holmes, Senior Lecturer in Multimedia at Central Queensland University.

So, Dr Pelling, could you explain what kind of impact this has on internet users?

I think adolescents to begin with have a lot invested in their image and how they’re portrayed to others. So, indeed, a medium like the internet where you can control how you’re portrayed in your own pages at least, could actually be quite popular and have quite an impact.

Is a positive or negative impact? Or is it too hard to generalise?

Well, I’d say it’s probably hard to generalise but from a psychologist point of view, I’d actually prefer it if someone was to put forward their ideas, their thoughts, their feelings and their actions simply a little more than just a simple appearance on a photograph that could be touched up, a photograph that could be posed and carefully chosen to portray an image that someone wants to present based on their appearance vs their actions.

Going on from just straight websites these days, we’ve got virtual worlds and places where people can go online and be a whole different person. Particularly for young girls and guys, there’s been a bit of debate about how they can dress and act older. Is this a concern from a psychological perspective?

I think a lot, of people, when you think of children, they play ‘pretend’, they play ‘dress-ups’, they imagine things and I don’t see much difficulty in that. I think when it becomes something that’s overwhelming, when it takes on a very large part of someone’s existence and when its not age appropriate, it might be when we start being slightly concerned.

There’s been a bit of attention given to controversial sites such as ‘Miss Bimbo’ lately, where gamers can dress their dolls in any fashion they choose and buy products such as diet pills. The main concern aside from the ideas portrayed, stems from the concept that people begin to lose the distinction between real and online life.

I think some people realise that it is, quote, “just a game” and other people get too involved in it. Unfortunately there are always going to be people that take any activity that is meant for fun and take it to the extreme. From a feminist, psychologist point of view, I would have some concerns regarding a page that obviously that is dealt purely on appearance and appearance not in a healthy manner, but in an overly sexualised manner personally.

What are the impacts of everyone having a piece of this celebrity culture and the repercussions down the track do you think?

I don’t know about repercussions for the average person down the track. I think it’s more likely to have repercussions for those that are famous, for those that become famous. For the average person, simply putting out a few photographs describing themselves, I don’t see that as a difficulty. It’s the people that go overboard, the people that spend way too much of their awake time involved with such a difficulty, that I see as a problem.

Is there a concern about the rivalry? Having the most friends, having the best photos? Is the competition aspect of it a concern at all?

Once again it probably depends on how far you take it. I personally would be more concerned, and if I had clients that were discussing were discussing competition on such webpages, I’d probably try and focus them on the quality of their relationships. Not the quantity.

Do you think spending so much time and having a whole other persona online can have positive or negative impacts on your mental health and who you are as a person?

I’d say it’s more likely to have a negative impact. When you talk about psychological health, when you talk about health in general, we like to take what’s called a bio-psycho-social approach. You want to be healthy physically with your biology. You want to eat well, you want to exercise, you want to take care of your health. You want to take care of yourself psychologically as well. You want to have a good self image, you want to do what you believe is right, you want to think positively but not in a Pollyanna sort of manner. And you want to be healthy socially, you want to have real social connections, real friends, real family connections. You need to have people to talk to, so you can discuss not just problems but positive things that are going on in your life. Now, if you are well-rounded in a bio-psycho-social manner, I don’t see such things having a difficulty in your life. However, if you are not healthy physically, if you are lacking some of that psychological reliance, if you are lonely and you don’t have those connections, that’s when involvement with the internet, involvement with drugs, involvement with sex, involvement with just about anything can cause problems because you’re not healthy enough to handle it in a balanced manner. That’s probably when you need to get some professional assistance, not on the internet.

Dr Ashley Holmes, Senior Lecturer in Multimedia at Central Queensland University, points out that this idea of personal image online isn’t necessarily a new one. Let’s face it, image is something that concerns just about everyone and it’s been around for a little bit longer than the internet!

I believe that the internet is really just facilitating or enabling people to do more in terms of their social connections than they have been able to in the past. This happens at the level of even just keeping in touch with family, email, that sort of thing. But it also happens with the creation of new social groups or activities. Of course we all know that people like to share videos these days, which in the past they haven’t been able to do easily. Young people in particular like to participate with various types of gaming activities. Sometimes these are done on their own, as individuals, and sometimes they’re done in groups and indeed with huge groups. So there’s quite a wide variety of activities and social activities that people can engage in and they’re just enabling us to do what we’ve always liked to do really.

So it’s not a new phenomenon, it’s just an old phenomenon in a new medium?

Well I think so yes. Certainly there’s a lot of people that say that this is the case. There is nothing new in it. There is greater individualism, possibly, in the way that people are working online. We know this because we have this almost one-to-one relationship with the computer itself. But in that we’re not working in isolation or in alienation if you like. There’s a source of meaning constructed around the projects and desires of the individual. But this doesn’t substitute for face to face sociability, it just adds to it. It also doesn’t counteract forms of social disengagement that exist. In other words, if people are socially dysfunctional, it’s not going to necessarily help or improve their situation. So on the whole people are using it for fairly normal activities.

So what about this idea of having another image or persona online or getting to involved with this portrayal of yourself or other image-driven activities, such as the ‘Miss Bimbo’ game we’ve been speaking of. Dr Holmes points out that this is a line most people can distinguish.

I think being able to differentiate between play and reality is a skill that we all have. I believe that to some extent and, indeed, some philosophers would argue that we all share an illusion for our cultural activities that somehow we call actuality or a shared reality. So it’s kind of ironic really that people that the things we do engage in when we do this sort of gaming can be a bad thing. I mean certainly there are image types that one doesn’t like to encourage and I think that the site you mentioned has come to the attention of the world media for those very reasons. But it don’t seriously believe that there would be many girls who take that ‘game’ play and the role playing that is part of participating in that site to be something that they take as a real situation.

There certainly is a whole other element to the way we see ourselves when it comes to the online world – be it for better or for worse! As Amy Spear discovered the impacts of personal image on the net can be quite varied – from good to bad and all that’s in between.

Disconnected? Here are some ways to connect.

Approximately a third of Australians don’t have direct internet and/or computer access in their home, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics: Household use of Technology 2006-07.

There are many reasons for this depending on individuals and their situation; but for some Australians it is a matter of:
- Not being able to afford the technology
- Because they feel daunted by the thought of turning on the computer
- Or because their situation living situation does not allow it.

As information technology become increasingly important in today’s society- State and Federal Governments, educational institutions and social support networks are have recognised its importance and are developing resources and services to help the disconnected become connected with technology.

In Insight, we will be looking at these initiatives, what they provide and how they can help more Australians get in touch using technology.

Firstly, there is the Street-Connect Outreach Technology Bus, run by the Salvation Army and it is a response to the growing demand in access to technology.

The technology bus is a van taking technology out to the people. It was developed in 2004 and circulates through cities and towns in NSW.

Reg Hierzer - the chaplain and coordinator of the street connect outreach technology program said the internet is essential in today’s society. Almost everyone uses it to commuicate and to look for information. Services on the bus include teaching computer skills on the spot with ongoing encouragement and to help them perform tasks on the computer (eg. Paying bills, doing tax, looking for accommodation). The bus has six laptops and a printer and they are all connected wireless.

Reg Hierzer said the main aim is to encourage users to utilise computers without any assistance.

The internet is proven to be a valuable information resource, even for those who may not have a home with the website: Rebeccas community (www.homeless.org.au/), which offers information resources and help for the homeless to get in touch with others in the same situation. This is just one of the many websites and services online that show why the internet is such a valuable resource to use.


However for those who feel disconnected because they do not have the experience with technology or aren’t comfortable with using it, TAFE NSW offer a wide range of courses that are subsidised and funded by State and Federal Governments to those who have an important need to develop their skills.

Kinga Macpherson is the head teacher of Access and General Education at Bathurst TAFE which runs a variety of programs and classes on IT and they’re not just limited to computing skills. Skills also taught include how to use a mobile phone, sms, ATMs, troubleshooting, word processing and how to be more comfortable with technology.

Courses include Access To Work and Training, and Skills to Further Work and Study, which are available to help people brush up on their IT skills for the workforce. Unlike other courses, they are not formal but instead they're there for people to meet their own specific goals.

Kinga Macpherson said if programs and services like these didn’t exist, some people would become isolated and disconnected because a lot of what people do now is on the computers and therefore it is an important skill to develop.

She also pointed out the main problem might be that people just don’t know where to get computer access. Some local libraries and neighbourhood information centres have free computer access.

The services pointed out in this segment are just a select few that are available in Australia. There are many services out there to cater for those who don’t have the skills or technology – some classes or courses are designed specifically for different skill levels, needs or even age groups.

Internet Censorship in China

The Chinese government is notorious for having extreme censorship laws on public and private communication and information sources. The internet has not been immune from this censorship and in recent times people within China have been punished for accessing resources or publishing material the Chinese government deem inappropriate.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics will bring a flood of foreigners to China who are used to basically unrestricted internet access, however China is known for its stringent censorship laws. Aimee McIntosh spoke with David Tien a Chinese expatriate and Annamarie Reus a journalist about what effect Chinas watchful eye might have on tourists and journalists coming for the games.

David said that China’s current internet access rate is at about 12%, and that that would mean almost all people in cities access the internet. He explained how internet censorship in China works:

“There are two levels, one level is quite similar to the west, they don't want child pornography or how to make bombs for example. The other level has political concern; the (Chinese) Leadership don't want rumours spreading around. For example if you do a search on the Falun Gung movement, a lot of articles are blocked.”

One of the reasons internets is so often criticised or praised is because it is so difficult to police and monitor, Aimee asked David if people within China are finding ways to access information that is prohibited, In spite of heavy policing?

“There are ways to elude censorship; one of the common ways is to use a proxy server, which is located between the user and the website. The three well known ones are called the three musketeers.”

When China have hosted public events in the past, such as the APEC summit in Shanghai in 2001, China are said to have eased censorship laws and allowed access to banned websites temporarily, David said it was likely the same would happen during the Olympics but that it would be a temporary change.

“Even in Sydney during the Olympics everyone was on their best behaviour. I say that will possibly happen in China as well but once the games finish it will probably reverse back to normal.”

Annamarie Reus has worked as a journalist both within Australia and overseas for over a decade, she currently works for national radio news, Aimee spoke with her about what impact internet censorship might have on covering the Olympic Games.

Annamarie said the internet has become central to reporting on any event.

“Since the introduction of the internet I think it's not just about levelling off freedom of speech for different countries but it’s also about helping the work of a lot of journalists in different parts of the world. In particular technology has allowed quick access to information. I can't begin to emphasise how important the internet has become to journalists.”

“I remember when the Olympics happened in Australia, the moment any negative information came out about China, suddenly you couldn't access any comprehensive background information about those athletes.”

Annamarie said she thought it was essential for journalists to be familiar with China’s internet censorship laws so they could be sure their material was going to be accessible within China.

“I have been studying how I as a journalist can cover China, I have started looking up possibilities of where I could get my information from, and I have discovered just how difficult it is to get information. There’s already a few journalists (within China) who have ended up in gaol because they have used certain words. Words like freedom, democracy, Tianamen, human rights and democracy.”

“There is what they call the great firewall of china. There is actually an existent firewall in China that you can't get around. The people that recently ended up in gaol were the people who understood how firewalls worked and actually got around it. But after their reporting China pressured the service provider to provide the information and trace the journalists, and they all ended up in gaol.”

satellite imagery...

Recently on homepage, producer Amy Spear took a look at Satellite imagery and how this could potentially help to monitor and protect the environment...

Satellite imagery is an amazing technology used by a number of organisations – as they say a picture paints a thousand words and there are many benefits to using this technology.
She spoke with David Moore, the managing director of Terranean Mapping Technologies and Len Banks, Executive Director for Scientific Services in the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change.
To begin with, David Moore explains just how a satellite image is taken:
“Remote sensing satellites take images of the earth and it’s like having a big scanner orbiting the earth at about 700km above the service and scanning lines backwards and forwards and measuring the visible light and infrared from the earth’s surface. That is transmitted back down to the earth to a ground receiving station and put together into an image which looks like an aerial photograph covering a very large area of the earth’s surface.”
There are certainly many benefits for analysing the environment…
“Mapping the environment and land use is a big one and, for example, a local counsel who is doing their planning not only wants to know where the native forest and native vegetation is now, but they want to put that into a historic context and go back and see how it was in the 1970s and see the changes that have occurred since then. There’s a nationwide program that is being run where every two years they actually measure the number of trees or the amount of woody vegetation over the whole country. They can calculate from the changes in that how much extra CO2 has been released from the tree clearing or taken back in by regeneration so that they can actually account for the changes in CO2. Also they’re using them for monitoring tree clearing – different states have different tree clearing legislation and using satellite images from two different times (before they brought the law in and after they brought the law in) they can see very clearly where trees are being cut down. It’s very good for monitoring in that sense.”
David’s background is in ecology – so while it’s interesting to see the way landscapes fit together and interact, he says it can also be very sobering to see the impacts of industrialisation from 700km in the air. He believes that these images, particularly in historical context, could be more readily available to the public.
So what can we expect from this technology in the future?
“Some of the things that are really driving this are getting quick turn around images – so people are now looking at the idea of putting a geostationary satellite up which is always looking down at the same time and just sending the images down so you’ll be able to see people driving along in their cars and get information in real time.
The other thing they’re looking at is measuring the entire spectrum in very great detail so that you can get very subtle differences in plant health, different soil types and geology and be able to do a lot more detailed scientific analysis of things.
As every one or two years goes past there’s a new satellite launched with even higher resolution of detail so we get can closer and closer to centimetre type scales of resolution.”
The NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, in conjunction with the rest of the State Government, is one of the organisations making full use of this technology. Len Banks, the executive director for scientific services in this department, explains why it is an important tool in the field.
“The NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change uses satellite imagery so that we can get a digital representation of the landscape. The satellites pick up different reflections from the various features of the landscape. So whether they be trees or soil or water or buildings and so on, that builds up a picture of those different features. So being digital data, we can analyse the various components that come through in an image to measure, for instance, areas of particular density or features so that we can combine that then with other digital data like soils information or roads or planning decisions and approvals that might be spatially referenced and therefore in a digital format.
We can produce multiple layers of information about the landscape so that we can then compare differences over time or make investment decisions about where’s the best place to make changes in the landscape.”
There are, of course, a range of reasons this technology can be used. One example that is becoming apparent at the moment, is the use of imagery to capture land clearing crimes.
“One of the uses we’re putting the imagery to – we use it for a whole range of reasons – but an important one is to identify areas where there has been a change in vegetation. The satellite will tell us where there has been tree loss or perhaps even regeneration. That area of tree loss… could be through fire or land clearing or trees dieing from drought for instance. It tells us where people on the ground can go and check it against land clearing approvals and see where investigations need to take place. So it is a useful tool in pointing those investigations in the right direction and making those investigations much more efficient.”
Len says the NSW government is moving forward from the LandSat Imagery, which gives a resolution of about ten metres, to getting images through the Spot 5 satellites at about 2.5 metres squared. So now instead of seeing clumps of trees, they’ll be seeing individual ones on the landscape.
It will be interesting to see what is spotted in the future by this incredible technology.

The Rise of the Digital Tune

It's time to face the facts: the digital era is here and it's affecting nearly every aspect of our lives. How we order our food, how we talk to people and even how we relax - all have been changed by digital in some way.

Thankfully the advent of digital has been largely for the better. But there's some concern about digital's impact on the world of music.

Homepage producer Matt Heffernan investigates.

Just like the CD killed the vinyl record, digital music downloads are beginning to kill off the CD. Disc players have been almost completely replaced with MP3 players and now the medium is undergoing the switch to the digital MP3 format.

But should this be a cause for concern?

Well, first of all, one must consider the audio quality of a digitally downloaded track in comparison to that of a CD. Generally speaking, a retail CD will nearly always beat out an MP3 download in the quality department. This occurs as a result of MP3 compression.

But what does that mean?

Essentially, compression requires the quality of the music to be shrunk down in order to keep the file size of the MP3 as low as possible, creating for faster downloads. A common quality, or bit rate, for an MP3 is 192 kilobits per second.

If you have iTunes installed and you're a little curious about the quality of some of your downloaded tracks, simply right click on a song and select "Get Info" and the bit rate information will be displayed on screen.

Most people, however, simply cannot notice the difference in quality between CD and MP3 audio when the music is played through an average sound system. The differences in quality become much more glaring, however, when MP3s are played through a classy car audio or well set up home entertainment system.

Essentially, the louder you bump low quality MP3 tunes the more they may begin to distort.

But what do the musicians themselves think about the rise of the digital era?

Matt had a chat with experimental band A Stranger's lead guitarist Brendan Smith about the issue of quality.

"I think it's a natural process...technology is advancing so fast now, it probably won't even be that long until MP3 audio is on a par or even better than CD audio... interesting times".

If musicians aren't too worried and the average listener can't pick up the difference in audio quality, there probably isn't too much for you to be worried about just yet. Although there is no doubt that the CD will one day be replaced by the MP3, there is still quite a long way to go before the CD is completely forgotten and thrown upon the musical scrap heap.

And for those of you shaking your heads, wondering what on earth you're going to do with all your old CDs when retail albums are finally replaced, don't worry because you can simply convert your CD's to MP3 on your home PC by using programs like iTunes and Windows Media Player. But don't fear...the digital changeover is still a few good years away.

Gaming stereotypes

Computer games are always a hot and contentious topic. They're often at the centre of heated debates about censorship and their influence on young minds.

The gaming world is traditionally seen as a male one, with war games, medieval role plays and gangster shoot-ups all themes long assumed as typically masculine.

Recently the mobile gaming company 'Champagne for the Ladies' released 'Coolest Girl in School'; a game they see as targeting a largely untapped female gaming audience.

So, if guns and violence are the attraction for males to games, what ingredients are seen to lure women?

Holly Owen co-producer, writer and director of 'Coolest Girl in School'gives producer Aimee McInstosh a description of the game.

"Coolest Girl in School lets players live out their high school fantasies by inviting them to experiment with fashion, spread rumours, while avoiding real-life embarrassment. Lie, bitch and flirt your way to the top of the high school ladder".

Holly adds the game doesn't claim to meet every woman's interests.

"The thing that's important to remember when we talk about making a game specifically for women is no two women are the same, their likes and dislikes are going to vary significantly. We're not claiming that every woman on earth will love this game".

"We wanted to make a game that focussed on things central to that teenage girl's universe. It draws very much on high school movies and television shows".

Even though 'Coolest Girl in School' has not yet been released it has attracted a lot of attention from parent groups, angry that a game would promote behaviours they see as unsuitable.

Debate about how influential computer games are on people are common in many fields. Aimee asked James Tulip, head of the Games Technology course at Charles Sturt University, if he believed games can influence the way people see the world.

"It's got to be said there are some games that are the equivalent of violent pornography, and it's been shown time after time that consumers of violent pornography are more likely to indulge in those behaviours.

So bottom line is if your game shows bad attitudes toward women, kids are going to pick up bad attitudes towards women, if your games show racism, they are more likely to show racist attitudes".

Computer gaming is coming to be seen as more significant in popular culture and entertainment than Hollywood so it would seem that it's potential influence is hugely significant.

So what are the images being displayed in these games? In the area of gender there actually seems to be a mix of both male and female heroes. In some games they battle against each other and females are not the weak and submissive stereotypes women have tried to fight for so long.

However Kate Seymour, a lecturer in gender politics at Charles Sturt University, said this new power woman might just offer another unattainable stereotype.

"It's a fraught issue because it's definately a positive thing to be presenting different images of women around women being strong. However, I'd be hard pressed to think of any female heroine that hasn't also been very much sexualised.

I think it's a bit of a double edged sword in that messages about power and strength for females to be taking on are good, positive messages. However those imgages tend to be very much associated with those very stereoptypical bodies".

Aimee asked Holly if she felt 'Coolest Girl in School', which requires players to manipultate in order to succeed was also reinforcing negative female stereotypes.

"Not at all, this game is about playing with stereotypes, it's about critically engaging with them and subverting them".

Kate Seymour wonders how much of a challenge can be made to stereotypes in the context of a game like 'Coolest Girl in School'.

"I can't really imagine how a mobile phone game could in itself challenge stereotypes. If if stimulates discussion and debate on a broader level than that's potentially productive but how that would actually work on an individual level I can't see how that would work".

So how much responsibility should the gaming industry be taking for its influence on the way people see and interact with the world?

"Gaming or popular culture can have a role in shifting stereotypes but I don't think it can produce change in itself, it can only gradually shift. But, having said that, I think that is the answer around shifting stereotypes in the way of presenting figures that aren't stereoptypical in all sorts of ways." Kate said.

'Coolest Girl in School' is a joint production of Holly Owen of Champagne for the Ladies www.champagnefortheladies.com and Karyn Lanthois of Kukan Studio www.kukanstudio.com.

Virtual tours

Have you ever looked at a picture or photo of an object or a room and wondered what the surroundings and angles of it would look like?

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to scroll side to side up and down to get a better perspective of things?

Some of you may be familiar with java virtual tours which are available on online sites; especially in the real estate industry.

It is another clear example of what the online environment can provide computer users without the need to leave a computer.

Homepage producer Elizabeth Leong spoke to Greg Solon from Dynamite photography about how these virtual tours and panoramic images are created and then placed online for our viewing.
Greg Solon talks about using a unique ultra-wide lens SLR camera to capture the image before using photo stitching software and java viewers to create the interactive experience.

Photo stitching software is quite intelligent – using control points to create a smooth image to create the 360 degree by 180 degree images seen in virtual tours.

Compared to photography, offer a more interactive experience visually and can enhance what would normally be communicated by a photo. Virtual tours can also incorporate voice overs or natural sounds in the environment to make the experience more real. But it is highly unlikely to take over what photos have to offer: a solid image in the mind and the simplicity of producing them.

Greg Solon says the potential of virtual tours will be limitless as technology and software develops in both photography and imagery software; but one of the limitations of virtual tours is that it will never ever replace the actual experience.

Online gateway to Burma

For the past month the media has been plastered with images of thousands of Buddhist monks marching the streets of Rangoon, as they try to bring world attention to the rule of an oppressive militant government.

There have been rallies world wide and huge media coverage to try and gain international momentum for the situation.

However it's not the first time Burmese civilians have taken action agains tehir government. Last decade rallies of a similar scale were happening in Burma but they were shut down much more quickly.

Homepage producer Aimee McIntosh spoke with Cheri Mangrai, a Burmese language journalist for SBS and radio free Asia and co-founder of Burma Gateway, a website that aims to bring information about Burma to Australians.

Aimee asked Cheri what had changed to give the Burma movement a stonger impact this time. Cherie says Burma becoming more connected to the world has opened up channels for information to be exchanged.

"For a long time the military regime has been very successful in having a media black-out in Burma. However, recently the Generals have become more confidnt so they have become a bit more sophisticated. They have gone cyber to catch u8p thwith the world in the name of development. Of course this has got its drawbacks for the governemtn; it simply means that the people have a means of sending our graphic images, news and events almost instataneiously."

Cherie says it's important that information about the Burmese situation is accessed by outside

Politics Online

It's that time again when everyone is asking...who will you be voting for?

A different source of information and influence is on the rise in the political sphere, and today on homepage we explore what role the internet might play in the 2007 federal election campaign.

How soon can we expect to join other countries in voting online? When will internet popularity impact on the polls? To answer these questions homepage producer Amy Spear talks to David Marshall, Professor of New Media at the University of Woollongong, James Griffin, founder of iVote Australia and Greg Smith from Edith Cowen University.

Professor David Marshall suggests the internet is allowing for a new kind of access to politics and voting. This is being achieved through various mediums such as blogs and videos - and the result could be a change in our political culture. The internet makes a wider field of politics more accessible to the general public where in the past newspapers, television and radio have shaped our opinion forming during election campaigns.

Professor Marshall says it's important for politicians and political parties to embrace online culture, but unless it's developed to be interactive it can certainly backfire. If you don't understand how the internet engages audiences then you can end up looking out of touch - even when you're trying to be edgy.

Some suggest it's inevitable that voting will someday move online but the transition might not be received as readily as other aspects of our online life. Voting in democracies is ritualistic, according to Professor Marshall. The voter doesn't impact greatly in the lead up to an election and contemplating online voting would possibly reduce political engagement even further. Alternatively online voting could be very effective for plebiscites or referendums.

In choosing to found a website such as iVote Australia which is dedicated to raising political awareness in young people, James Griffin was seizing on the popularity of the internet for spreading a message.

The internet ensures that people aren't just consumers anymore, it's an interactive medium and James believes it was only a matter of time before it trickled into Australian politics having been embraced by the USA. James suggest it's a good way for young Australians to get involved.

In Australia where the population is sometimes apathetic towards politics, providing information to people through the internet could be a good way of getting people more active. In the lead-up to, and during the first weeks of the 2007 federal election campaign we've seen our politicians adopt the internet as a communication tool and interact with voters in a new way.

James suggests there are two points to note for using this campaign strategy. The first is having inspirational leaders or candidates who are standing up to be counted in politics, and the second is having powerful social tools like the internet to demonstrate that interest in politics covers a broad cross-section of our community.

James goes further to suggest that the introduction of an online voting system might change the the traditions associated with voting day.

They've had glitches in America with the system and some question whether online voting can ever be safe - will the results of an election be true if using online voting? Professor Smith has considered the idea of a smaller party having its membership vote online for policy, achieving results and action a lot faster.

Concern for malfunction and cyber crime might delay the introduction of online voting in Australia. However Greg argues that convenience, particularly for people living in remote areas or who are away from home on polling day, must be a determining factor for implementation.

We've already seen political activity on the internet for this election and even though we're not yet able to vote online, will the internet play an influential role during this election?

Probably not says Greg. The quality of the websites from the candidates is not likely to influence anyone. The problem also lies in the fact that if you want to get information from the net, you often have to be connected at the right time or set up your own account - you really have to be keen to look for it. Greg suggests the problem with politics on the net is that it isn't done seriously. The site managers need to better target their audience and be better presented. Greg further suggests that candidates on the internet for this election haven't really thought through their online intention - they look like their imitating what's coming from USA. Greg reckons that Kevin Rudd has had a better shot than John Howard's online team, because the Kevin07 site is a stand alone site which is easier to locate.

So will you be jumping online to learn more from our politicians during this election campaign. Would you consider taking the next step and voting online too?

Politicians, political parties and the voters are increasingly embracing the internet as a political medium. While it might now still be in relatively early stages, we can only sit back and watch as it grows. Recently Ten's Meet the Press announced their program will include a segment where MySpace users can use videos to ask politicians questions. Good, bad or ugly, political culture is on the move...and it's coming to a computer near you.

Prisms

The homepage team regularly surfs the web to discover new and interesting sites. We've found there is a growing number of sites offering support and resources to deal with medical, social and lifestyle challenges.

Aimee looks at a website offering a support network for single mothers. It's called Providing Rousources for Independent Single Mothers after Separation or PRISMS. Kate Wet is the founding director of this web based organisation.

Kate says the site aims to offer women information and resources but it's main focus is to provide connections between women who have experienced or are experiencing single parenting and relationship separation.

"Probably the cornerstone of the whole website is that online forum which is an opportunity for women to share their stories and hear about other people's experiences".

Kate says she was inspired to launch the site based on her own experiences of separation. "The idea came about when I first separated almost three years ago. I really formed it (the site) because of the lack of information (available) and particularly the idea that the internet is such a vital tool now for people getting information and networking and finding support."

Kate suggests the advantage of online support networks is the flexible access. "The internet is an incredible tool, one of the key reasons why I formed PRISMS was that I wanted there to be a responsive organisation essentially based online that would be there for me when I needed it, even if it was at 1 o'clock in the morning. Often as a single parent you get very little time to yourself, when finally your kids are in bed you can't go out to the office of an organisation to meet somebody at ten o'clock at night".

You can look up PRISMS at http://www.prisms.com.au. You'll find resources and advice for single parents, a forum for members and details about support groups that meet all over the country.

using SMS at school

It seems the days of writing absent notes, signing excursion forms and having to convince your kids that they really should tell you when parent-teacher night is on, might soon be drawing to a close.

Now it's all about SMS - instant information for parents and students about what's going on in school.

While the predominant use of this system is still to confirm a student's whereabouts, we're not only seeing the use of it for general information, but more the arrival of advanced systems such as swipe cards and fingerprinting.

Amy Spear chatted to Isabella Reily, a year 12 student at Newcastle High where they have been using SMS for two years now. She also caught up with the principal Peter Kilburn and Vladimir Ostashkevich from attendance system developers Academy Photography.

Isabella Reily says the system is quite effective - you only have to be a little bit late for class and the SMS system will kick into place, informing your parent or caregiver about your absence. However, she does find that this can sometimes be too much.

Her Dad, a busy teacher himself, will often receive messages saying Isabella is absent when she has a free period and is therefore not required to be at school.

There are certainly mixed messages coming from the student body. While many don't have a problem with the system, feeling that it's merely a good thing to embrace technology, some do feel that it can be an invasion of privacy.

Isabella suggests that it should be based on the relationship between a child and a parent - for some, a text message is an effective way to know what they're up to. For others, however, it's an unnecessary precaution. She also knows of instances where students have given a false number (for example, their own or a friend's), effectively making the system redundant.

However most embrace the system for what it is - Principle Peter Kilburn describes it as just a quicker, more convenient update of the old note system, one that can quickly cover 80% of the student population.

He says that the general response from the school's community has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, it's now not just absent notes that are distributed through SMS, but information about parent-teacher nights and other school functions. Guess that means that there will be no 'forgetting' to get the note out of the bag anymore!

Mr Kilburn admits that mistakes can be made, and plenty of parents will tell you that they've received a message when their child was simply on role-duty. However, the school feels that it would rather err on the side of caution, then fail to take up their duty of care.

But what about issues of privacy? Mr Kilburn can't understand how a message could invade privacy - it's simply doing what has been done forever in schools, marking attendance and informing parents.

There are now other systems on the market, such as fingerprinting and swipe cards, which are creating quite a stir amongst some groups, claiming that it is going too far. A sentiment that Newcastle High will stick to now, with no foreseeable plans of this kind of system in the future.

Vladimir Ostashkevich, of Academy Photography and Attendance, is a company who develops these systems from SMSing to student fingerprinting. It became apparent a few years ago that there was a demand for newer student administration technology and, as they already provided bar-coded library cards as part of their photography package, this seemed the logical next step.'

Vladimir agrees with Mr Kilburn, in that the technology is simply the next step forward. When he was in school, attendance was kept in a number of books and notes sent home to Mum. Now it's simply a matter of reading a barcode and a quick SMS - or fingerprinting and card swiping which is being introduced over the next few years. Therefore he too doesn't believe it's anymore of a privacy concern than old systems - it's instantaneous rather than over a period of week or so.

His suggestion to combat giving the school false number or the accidental response of "yes, I'm sick" is to have the parent call, rather than SMS back as often as possible.

It's great to see schools embracing the technological age and now that everyone is so adept at using a mobile phone for example, it certainly is convenient. But whether some measures are going too far will remain to be seen.

Online counselling and grieving

Life is full of obstacles and it is inevitable at some point most of us will face challenges in our lives that will cause us to grieve and look for others to offer support and advice. Death networking is a recent online trend where people are turning to the internet to grieve and make memorials and tributes for their loved ones. They can also meet people over the internet that are also in the same position. This in turn can help people through their grief.

This trend inspired Homepage producer and presenter Elizabeth Leong to look at how the internet can help people that are experiencing tough times in their lives.

Elizabeth talks to Roger Chappell, the manager of a company called Media-two which runs an online memorial site. Roger explained people are more comfortable expressing themselves online because it’s like writing in a diary – there’s no need to hold back.

There are also many other factors which make the internet an attractive medium – convenience is an important one because the internet is easily accessible by most people and can be accessed any time; proximity is another because people all over the globe can access the one memorial.

The Chief Executive of the Australian Counselling Association Peter Armstrong argues this point: people are going online to express themselves not because they’re more comfortable in doing so, but because of convenience. He uses Princess Diana’s death as an example: people were not able to travel across the globe to pay her a tribute, so many opted to go online to express their thoughts instead.

However Kids Help Line senior researcher Phillipa Hawke says telecommunication mediums are attractive because of the anonymity it offers users for users behind the phone and a computer. It helps people who want to talk about issues which may bring up feelings of embarrassment and/or shame – communicating through telecommunication mediums provides these people with a safer environment.

On the other hand Phillip Armstrong says people need to be mindful when they’re seeking for help online because one negative comment can have potentially shattering effects. He says someone could come in and make a remark or a comment which could send many people into crisis because it can confuse, be hurtful and cause complicated grief. However, comments made online can also be therapeutic because it can reassure someone that there are people who can understand and relate to their situation.

Phillipa Hawke also looks into the dangers of not going to an online accredited counsellor, saying seeking help from other online venues requires stepping in with caution. She says older people can take advantage of vulnerabilities in younger people and information can be misused.

Phillip Armstrong and Phillipa Hawke also discuss the pros and cons of going online over face-to-face counselling and discuss future aims and developments in this field concerning telecommunication mediums.

Services include the Kids Help Line, which is a free 24 hour telephone and online counselling service aimed at young people between the ages of 5 and 25. Lifeline 131 114 is another 24 hour crisis line offer counselling over the phone not only for the grieving and abuse/violence, mental illness, life direction, suicide related issues and, but not restricted to – loneliness.

Health Online

The World Wide Web is beginning to compete with human interaction as the amount and range of services provided on the net meet and sometimes even exceed those available to us in our neighbourhoods.

But can the internet meet all our needs?

One service that is being offered over the internet through thousands of websites is healthcare information and advice.

Some argue that these resources are a danger to people who have health problems because the internet is so difficult to mediate or standardise, however the accessibility of the internet does seem to open up a lot of possibilities to the world of medicine and health.

Dr Peter Garcia-Webb is the chairman of the Australian Medical Association IT committee. Aimee McIntosh speaks with Peter to find out about the world of online health.

"I think it (online medicine) offers a huge amount. Obviously there are some areas like anything where the information is not such good quality, but there also are some quite good quality sites. And particularly when an individual is considering the follow up of disease and looking to get a bit more information."

Dr Webb explains that the online world can be good for follow up and information, however it faces obstacles in the area of diagnosis, and so online health has to be approached together with consultation with a doctor.

"One of the difficulties in a person trying to find out what's wrong with them from using the web, is that they might miss the real problem. There's got to be a balance between trying to fix it yourself and getting professional advice."

Some websites offer online consultation with a qualified doctor. Aimee asks Dr Webb if these 'medical chat-rooms' could substitute face to face consultations.

"One of the major difficulties of just chat-room type medicine is that the doctor doesn't end up seeing the patient, and although you could say you could easily manage over the phone, in point of fact if the patient is blue and I don't know that, that is slightly different to if they're pink. So it's quite possible to miss things quite seriously if we're dealing with just words."

There are many excellent health resources available on the internet but like anything on the net, it's important to be careful and critical of information, look out for sites run by organisations that you know and trust, and always make use of information along with advice from your doctor.

A couple of helpful and reliable websites include:

Lab Tests Online - This is a website launched last month by the federal health minister Tony Abbott, which offers in depth but easy to understand explanations of all the tests your doctor prescribes for you http://www.labtestsonline.org.au/

Department of Health and Aging - This website for the government's department of health and aging which provides information on health services and health products in Australia and links to to other reliable health information on the internet http://www.health.gov.au/

Technology & Farming

The face of farming as we know it is changing. Now you need to be just as adept in using a computer as being able to identify a good animal when you see one. How are farmers adapting to the change? Is farming technology a welcome development for those working on the land?

Neil Inall of the Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology suggests the image and practice of farming is shifting and technology is playing a role in that shift. While there are some in the farming sector adopting to new technology, there is still some resistance among many long-time farmers. Neil suggests that, in order to see the value of new innovations, the farming community need to be shown how they can use different systems to the benefit of their work.

It's been the subject of many debates, and one that always finds its way in to the media...are people living on the land serviced adequately in terms of communications technology? All these new systems and software are well and good, but they'll make no difference if people living on the land can't access them. Neil believes a policy to address this situation in rural Australia might be a vote-winner in the upcoming election.

Will farms be able to operate in the future without the level of communications as we know them now? "Yes," says Neil, "but don't expect them to make any money."

To take a closer look at the software and technology available, there's a whole range of products that come under the farm management title. You've got programs to calculate estimated breed value and manage entire herds of animals. Records can be kept and easily accessed in order to monitor breeding plans and keep track of, for example, a temperamental cow that is treading a very fine line between paddock or sale yards. They cover the financial side which enables farmers to watch over income and expense. There's mapping and climate information at your fingertips and of course, you can delve into automated irrigation and tractors that can be programmed to drive themselves.

But how important are having all these gizmos and gadgets? homepage producer Amy Spears asks Stephen Lil from cattle company Chadwick Downs if technology is an essential tool for every day farm life and business? Stephen says when it comes down to whether or not technology and software can assist with the basic task of breeding cattle, a farmer needs to look beyond the surface of the software because cattle and farming don't fit to a calculated equation. While breeding software programs can help you identify, monitor and predict herd traits, you can't truly track nature.

Stephen is a avid adopter of computer technology and uses a website and email for 80-90% of business dealings. Additionally he uses technology to keep records of his farming activities. One thing that technology can't do though, is bring the rains.

e-waste

How many electronic items do you have in your home? And how often do you replace them? It seems like every time a new computer program is release you have to buy a new computer to use it.

We live in a fast changing world, and as technology becomes faster and cheaper, upgrades seem to become more essential.

But of course with all these upgrades the old computers, phones and TVs have to end up somewhere. Electronic waste, or e-waste is a problem that's growing as fast as technology's advancing. In fact 20 to 50 million tonnes of e-waste are generated every year worldwide.

Griffith University in Queensland has established a research project which is working with councils and large organisations around Australia to develop better ways to manage the problem of e-waste. homepage producer Aimee McIntosh talked with Dr Georgina Davis, a researcher involved with the project.

Dr Davis pointed out there are many dangers posed to the environment by chemicals contained in the materials electronic items are made up of, but also dangers posed by irresponsible energy consumption and unnecessary use.

Through looking into these projects Dr Davis has found councils committed to e-waste initiatives can sometimes find it hard to fund relevant projects. Dr Davis believes that more awareness about the importance of responsible e-waste management will provide the resources councils need.

While there are projects that need to happen at a community and council level to deal with e-waste, Dr Davis also gave some tips on how the individual can deal responsibly with e-waste. Some of these include:

• buying a computer from a company that offers a pick up and recycle service at the end of the computer's usable life
• sharing computers and printers
• refilling inkjet cartridges with soy or non-petroleum based inks
• printing only what is necessary
• recycling paper waste
• giving away your old computer to charity, family or friends
• choosing computers that minimize energy consumption (laptops are the best)

There are plenty of options we can make use of in dealing responsibly with e-waste. There are also plenty of resources on the net that explain how to deal with e-waste and a variety of other green computing initiatives. Some useful web links are:

EPEAT is an organisation that calculates environmental ratings for computers http://www.epeat.net

Griffith university's e-waste project website is: http://www.griffith.edu.au/ewaste

Homepage is produced in the studios of 2MCE, Bathurst for the Community Radio Network and is supported financially by the Community Broadcasting Foundation. You can hear homepage on the 2MCE streaming service each Monday at 3pm EST via http://www.2mce.org.