Matt Hooper

FREE-TO-AIR television networks should have their "first pick" rights to major sports events curtailed or abolished because of the unnecessary costs they impose on pay-TV operators and major sports. A key economic adviser to government has recommended a rethink of the longstanding "anti-siphoning" rules aimed at maximising free TV coverage of major sports, ahead of Canberra's review of the scheme. In a draft report out today, the Productivity Commission has slammed the list of sports offered first to free-to-air networks as "inherently anti-competitive". - Matt Hooper

"It will be interesting to see how Second Life and WoW are treated, that's for sure. It seems overkill if they do ban SL outright, particularly given the moves by Linden Labs to change the way adult material is handled (see https://blogs.secondlife.com/communi......). Surely it would be more reasonable to allow adults to opt-in to taking part in SL and WoW if they so choose. Btw - SL isn't just about the adult content, despite commonly held (mis)conceptions!" - Matt Hooper

A new analysis of data from del.ici.ous shows that, while the number of tags grows roughly in proportion to the growth of content, users can unwittingly provide bridges between networks of seemingly unrelated concepts. - Matt Hooper

A little long, but this post raises some good points on some of the oddities of the Twitter experience. I would like to have seen some reference to the #fixreplies debacle as well - the ability to see @replies from your followers to people you are not following was one of the most serendipitous features for early adopters and 'power users'. - Matt Hooper

test share from Streamy - Matt Hooper

Most consumers will not even realise, and certainly only look at touching their version of office when it's time to replace their PC....not uncommon. - Clifford Kennedy