The tax office will base its AUSkey Linux port on Ubuntu.

AUSkey is written in Java and in theory is cross-platform, but with tax testing it on Linux it should finally work without a whole lot of frustration. It also shows how far Ubuntu has come in garnering mainstream public opinion on what is the most popular Linux distribution for testing efforts.

Ubuntu does not equal Linux per se, but if the same decision was made only a few years ago it would have been based on one of the well-known commercial distros.

Good to see the ATO committing to more openness – with software and media relations. A little victory for those who care about it.

The build-up to the conference was great and the execution matched – even if the venue’s location called for a lot of stair-climbing!

And special thanks to Steve Walsh who, for the second year running, helped me get wired network access in media room.

I know, I know, everyone loves wireless, but they don’t love it when conference sessions break out and about 300 people jump on at once grinding the network throughput to a trickle (not something specific to this conf).

Wired network access in the media room tends to keep journalists sane so thanks for that.

Editorially I couldn’t be happier with a whole swag of juicy stories. But, hey, it was a LCA!

Talk about information privacy. Since agreeing to go I’ve been hounded by every security PR firm on the planet!

“I hear (good ears, eh) you are going to AusCERT…, would you like to interview such and such…, please stop by and catch up with so and so…, etc, etc”

I know they mean well, but oh. I’ll be very busy covering the standard program and doubt I’ll have time to do additional interviews.

I’ll post some photos when I get there.

Hey, what do you know, while sifting through some old photos I found this one from last year’s event in Sydney.

Yep, that’s me and the main man. Not sure if he’s attending this year but if you are Linus it would be good to catch up and talk about Swedish names like Gedda

Come to think of it, here’s the Web TV report…

I should also say a big thanks to the Mel8ourne marketing team who have done an excellent job promoting this year’s event. Everything from the Web site to the media relations has been spot on.

Here’s to a good conference as always!

1. I am a journalist.
2. I interview people so I need to be able to hear the interviewee (strange that).
3. Many are phone interviews.
4. If the quality of the phone call isn’t good enough we would try another
number.
5. If the phone call is clear – great! – I can successfully complete point 2.
6. At times PRs “insist” on a conference call so their clients can eavesdrop on the interview.
7. Conference calls ALWAYS have atrocious voice quality for whatever reasons, ALWAYS! And it’s ALWAYS the important person that’s the worst quality!
8. See point 1.
9. See point 2.
10. If I can’t hear a bloody word the interviewee is saying how can I do point 2 effectively???!!!

Would a truck driver set off with flat tyres? Maybe one day the PR fraternity will get this through its thick skulls, but until then I’ll have to go back to my no conference call policy.

Alternatively, I’d love to write about a vendor offering crystal clear conference calls but no such one exists from my experience – yes, that includes the well known networking and telephony vendors.

Perhaps we should have a conference call to discuss this further

Yesterday someone, I really won’t say who, called me and left a message. It was along the lines of:

“I’m just following up on an announcement we released on behalf of our client and was wondering if there was any possibility for coverage in Computerworld…”

Little did the person know the release in question was covered by us (not me personally) THREE DAYS before the call. So it goes without saying I didn’t, and won’t, return the call which would have been even more of a waste of my time if I had answered it. Now for one of gedda.info’s legendary translations…

“I get paid by the minute to bother journalists so instead of reading the Web site, or searching for any coverage, I’ll call the journalist and make a fool out of myself by asking if something was covered when it already was.”

Again, before you jump to conclusions, I’m not attempting to ridicule my friends in the PR industry, rather I’m trying to help them communicate better with the media. Here are some quick tips:

- Always look for coverage before you call (or e-mail) and ask a journalist (well, duh!)
- E-mail is almost always the best option in the first instance. Why? It’s quick an easy to make a decision on and doesn’t waste nearly as much of a journalist’s time as a phone call.
- If you really, really, really, want to chat on the phone, send an e-mail or leave a message explaining what the story is. To be honest, if the people I deal with regularly sent me an e-mail saying “call me I’ve got a good lead for you” then I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up the phone.
- Unless you’re asking the person out on a date, don’t call a journalist on their mobile phone, ever! [Note: the only exception to this commandment is during an interstate conference when a journalist may need to be contacted for work-related and social appointments. Always ask first and don't be surprised if the journalist says no to giving out a mobile number regardless.]

To the elimination of irrelevant communication!

I jetted in last night and checked into Conrad Jupiter’s hotel casino, again, then hit the opening party. Not much has changed at the hotel and broadband prices remain hideously expensive – yay for media rooms with Ethernet cables and power decks. I didn’t take any photos at the party last night but there was certainly plenty of action – including two real electronic bulls to ride.

I also caught up with my good friend Frank Arrigo who tells me he’s off the US to take on a global evangelism role at Redmond. That’s my life’s dream to the word “evangelist” on my business card. I’ve lost count of how many vendor evangelists if come across over the years. Gotta love these holier than thou vendors.

Just shot back the keynote presentation – an interesting tale about Animal Logic’s reliance on the now orphaned Windows NT. That makes Animal Logic one of the only digital production houses not using Linux according to people in the know, apparently.

Animal Logic is using Windows NT, so be it. I doubt the Microsoft Tech.Ed keynote would have been a good look if Animal Logic detailed how all rendering was done on Linux

I approached Hamish with this idea kicking around in my head. Much to my surprise (cynical, but true), instead of my e-mail disappearing in the open-source-project-ether, Hamish promptly responded, offered contact phone numbers, participated in an e-mail interview, and the article published the next day – well done!

By all accounts (I don’t know the exact numbers) the article was a world-wide hit attracting a lot of interest. Will KDE 4 be the ultimate business desktop? That remains to be seen but the work the developers are doing certainly points towards that goal.

Hamish is an interesting character. He’s a doctor of medicine, a KDE hacker, and proficient at communicating in English – how’s that for an all-rounder! Keep up the good work Hamish.

As for others involved in open source projects please do take note. If you want to garner more interest in your project then do respond to journalists and be proud of the fact that you can get into the media alongside all the commercial software vendors with big PR budgets. Look no further than KDE’s efforts as a fine example.

If you haven’t done so yet, appoint someone with good communication skills to be the “media relations” (or equivalent) person for the project and publicise it clearly on the project’s Web site. That way when inquiries come in someone is ready and waiting to either respond, or put the journalist in touch with someone who is in a better position to respond to specific queries. Now off to find KDE’s press clippings…

As this may well be my last post before Christmas, I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday season. All the best for NYE too!

As you can see, IDG’s TV broadcasts are delivered as Flash video. I know, I know, everyone hates the monopolistic Flash, but hey, it works well for some. The real benefit is the delivery of video broadcasts is quite transparent to the viewer. There are (usually) no additional browser plug-ins required.

The quality of Flash video may not be that of Blu-ray, but it does allow for user interaction, as indicated by the Computerworld TV playlist shown above.

I must say, the effort put into developing our own mini TV recording studio at IDG has been outstanding. And with enough video techies in the PC group IDG TV is looking like a huge success. Add to that our ability to draw content from around the world, and our local Web sites are the ideal IT TV content vehicles. For example, one of PC World’s latest flicks is the unveiling of the PS3 in Tokyo. Yes, the actual footage of the PS3 launch in downtown Tokyo…

[Note to PRs: Do you really need to be told why we don't accept international travel assignments again?] IDG News Service, Tokyo Bureau, reporter Martyn Williams did an excellent job with that TV snippet of the PS3 launch.

Keep up the good work all and may there be many hours of Web TV ahead! And it will be most interesting to see how us print and online journos adapt to the wonderful world of TV…

I just so happen to be in the market for ADSL2+. I have 1.5Mbps but my router is 2+ capable so if I can get a static IP for around the same price I’ll happily churn to the higher speed.

After some searching on Whirlpool and the like, I decided to leave a message with one prospective supplier in the hope some form of response will ensue.

That was a few months ago.

As a joke I decided to leave another message of exactly the same nature a few days ago. Not a word since.

Okay, I’m not really that naive. In this age of non-existent customer service I hardly expected the company to respond to a genuine sales lead, but what makes this case really intriguing is the fact that it PAYS a professional PR consultancy to bother journalists to write about its services and infrastructure.

When you’re in business why exploit free marketing when you can pay top dollar for it?

Rodney