We all know about open source software. The seemingly endless libraries of code and applications ready to use and implement into a business environment. Now colleague Myles Eftos has been discussing the use of open source applications and there implementations of late. This debate is an old as the hills, but still from time to time it’s good to pull it out of the draw, dust it off and start the discussion off again.

Originating, in a previous life, from a development background I can understand where Myles is coming from and his passion for not having to club together and open source modified solution. However consider:

Yesterday was Australia Day, a day when we celebrate Australia and it people of many cultures, bringing together the different communities. At the end of the day I was enjoying the warm sun on my back and the moist sand of the beach underfoot, when I got to thinking about how you would bring people together in the Web Industry.

Problem is we tend to see the industry as one solid mass. In reality it’s made up on many disjointed community groups.

Another year is here, a little bit older. And let’s start it off with another meme. Friend and fellow (now ex) Perth person Ruth Ellison has tagged me on the “8 things you didn’t know about me” meme, and this one has strict formating rules and things like that. How strange!

The rules :

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List EIGHT random facts about yourself.
3. Tag EIGHT people at the end of your post and list their names.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

So what are the juicy facts about me:

I don’t usually get political on this blog. But an issue was been sneaked by the Australia public by the Federal Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy. Nice timing new year’s eve, when most people are not media focused.

Today it was reported on the ABC - Conroy announces mandatory internet filters to protect children. This is from the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

Senator Conroy says it will be mandatory for all internet service providers to provide clean feeds, or ISP filtering, to houses and schools that are free of pornography and inappropriate material.