iTnews: Has security become a non-issue for enterprise Open Source?

As a journalist at iTnews:

A two-year-old piece of Open Source code is likely to have far fewer security flaws than proprietary code, according to security expert Bruce Schneier.

Now, at a time when Open Source is gaining momentum in Australia, Schneier’s perspective could contribute to increased uptake in the enterprise, education and government sectors.

The recent Australian Open Source Industry & Community Report portrayed a ‘very strong’, ‘rapidly growing’ local market for Open Source in both private and public sectors.

Produced by Open Source consulting firm Waugh Partners, the census listed property and business, education, health, retail and government as industries that are most serviced by Open Source currently.

Sixty-one percent of census respondents were found to service organisations of 200 or more employees, suggesting that Open Source now reaches beyond small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), to larger organisations.

However, the report highlighted ‘lingering misconceptions’ about the availability of Open Source vendor support, which could contribute to slow commercial and government uptake of Open Source solutions in Australia.

According to Renee Hoareau, who is the Executive Officer of the Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association (VITTA), a lack of suitably-skilled network administrators has hindered the uptake of Open Source in schools.

“This is something the open source industry really needs to address,” she told iTnews. “More affordable training and certification for school network technicians is required.”

Skills shortage aside, however, Hoareau expects there to be ‘no technical reason’ why Open Source would be unsuitable for schools -- especially since Open Source software forms the basis of mission-critical environments in international companies such as Yahoo and Amazon.

Still, the security of Open Source software has been a talking point for some organisations in the past.

A report published last month by security vendor Fortinet suggested that enterprises are underestimating the security risks of eleven popular Open Source applications.

However, according to Hoareau, concerns about the public availability of source code seem to have vanished in the face of simple human management.

“Maintaining a secure environment involves following strict policies and careful procedures,” she said. “The most secure system in the world can be breached by a trusted person being careless with their password or security tokens.”

“Good school network security depends on good network management,” she said. “I would think Open Source applications pose no greater security risk for schools than any other type of software would.”

Russian security vendor, Kaspersky Lab, agrees that Open Source software is unlikely to be any more vulnerable to attacks than its proprietary counterpart.

Although Open Source code allows cybercriminals to find vulnerabilities more easily, vendors and developers are able to identify and fix flaws more easily as well, Kaspersky’s virus analyst Sergey Golovanov said.

To cater to clients who use Open Source operating systems on their servers and workstations, and those employing mixed corporate networks, Kaspersky Lab started developing security solutions for Open Source platforms ‘years ago’, Golovanov told iTnews.

“Obviously, in such a network all nodes have to be protected, so a security company must be able to offer the full range of solutions,” he said. “It is essential that we provide them with adequate protection for their IT infrastructure.”

But while Open Source could be a viable alternative to most proprietary software and applications, the effectiveness of Open Source antivirus and anti-spam programs is ‘a completely different story’, Golovanov said.

“There’s no way these [Open Source antivirus programs] can be effective today,” he said, noting the difference between Open Source programs that allow public access to source code, and free antivirus programs that are offered at no charge.

“The thing is that today antivirus is more a service than a complete product –- any antivirus [program] is almost useless without proper and regular updates. As an example, we provide updates approximately every 30 to 40 minutes, and we have to keep our antivirus labs working 24/7/365.

“And due to the fact that Open Source antivirus [programs] are created and supported by enthusiasts when they have free time, there’s no way an Open Source antivirus [program] can have regular and reliable support,” he said.

Max McLaren, who is the General Manager of Red Hat Australia, sings a different tune.

He highlighted SELinux, which was developed in collaboration with U.S. National Security Agency in 2004, and is distributed with commercial support as part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 4 and all future releases.

While it does not perform antivirus tasks per se, SELinux -- or Security-Enhanced Linux -- enforces mandatory access control policies that reduce the ability of user programs and system servers to cause harm when compromised.

SELinux also is aligned with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria and involves role-based access control (RBAC), mandatory integrity controls and type enforcement architecture.

“We’ve had a number of Australian government organisations choose Red Hat because of that,” McLaren noted.

Currently, Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been adopted in security-critical applications such as: the U.S. Army’s personnel records management system; the U.S. Navy’s IT environment; the IT infrastructure of Italian City of Marsala’s Town Council; and Europcar Australia’s desktop and server environment.

“The perception in the marketplace is that there is a concern about unsupported software,” McLaren said.

“I think customers feel confident [in Red Hat software] when they understand the difference between unsupported and supported Open Source,” he said, adding that Red Hat Enterprise Linux employs the ‘same level’ of testing as proprietary software.

McLaren described similarities between SELinux and Microsoft’s User Account Control infrastructure that has been introduced with Windows Vista, adding that ‘imitation is the best form of flattery’.

But according to Bruce Schneier, Open Source security is so far beyond that of software giant Microsoft that the comparison is moot.

”Comparing the security of Linux with that of Microsoft Windows is not very instructive,” he told iTnews. “Microsoft has done such a terrible job with security that it is not really a fair comparison.”

Echoing the comments of Kaspersky’s Golovanov, Schneier argues that Open Source code often undergoes a far more rigorous evaluation process than proprietary vendors can afford.

Proper evaluation requires the time and expertise of security experts evaluating a piece of code multiple times and from different angles, said Schneier, who is a globally-recognised security technologist and author.

“It's possible to hire this kind of expertise, but it is much cheaper and more effective to let the community at large do this,” he pointed out. “And the best way to make that happen is to publish the source code.”

“There's no reason to believe that open source code is, at the time of its writing, more secure than proprietary code,” he said.

“A two-year-old piece of open source code is likely to have far fewer security flaws than proprietary code, simply because so many of them have been found and fixed over that time.”

But if the industry consensus is that Open Source software is, in fact, secure, then why do public security concerns still exist?

Mani Padisetti, who is the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Open Source services and support provider Digital Armour, pointed a finger of blame at ‘smaller proprietary software manufacturers’ who he expects to be intimidated by the Open Source licensing model.

“There are bigger vendors like Microsoft who are okay with Open Source, but there are also some smaller proprietary software manufacturers that still have the concern that Open Source will kill them, and they don’t want there to be any uptake of Open Source at all,” he said.

"I’ve sat in on a number of meetings where proprietary vendors have said that Open Source is unsupported freeware and not secure, and that’s just not true,” he said.

Digital Armour was founded in 2000 as a Sydney-based IT support and service consultancy that catered to the SME market.

Two years into its business, Digital Armour decided to focus primarily on Open Source systems to better suit customer demands.

‘We have sold support primarily for Open Source systems and have also sold applications that are commercial Open Source,” Padisetti said, adding that Open Source systems often have technological benefits for specific requirements.

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iTnews: The technologist's guide to the near future

As a journalist at iTnews:

Technological convergence has shaped many aspects of today’s world, from the creation of medical technologies to devastating events like 9/11, according to U.S. physicist and science fiction author Stanley Schmidt.

In his newly-released non-fiction book titled The Coming Convergence, Schmidt investigates how today’s rapid pace of innovation will produce technologies that could either greatly benefit human lives, or lead to an Orwellian dystopia.

Schmidt spoke with iTnews about the book, his expectations, and the approaching technological “singularity” that has been predicted to herald the end of the human era.

What does the title of your book, 'The coming convergence', refer to?

Much of what happens in our world, from lifesaving medical technologies like CAT scans to disasters like the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, results from seemingly unrelated technologies coming together to do things that none of them could do alone.

This has happened in the past, but is now happening faster and producing more dramatic changes in how we live than ever before. The major “streams” now rushing together include biotechnology, information technology, nanotechnology, and cognitive science.

What will the technological convergence produce? How will it change businesses? How will it change lifestyles?

Nobody can say with certainty what it will produce. What we can do -- and must, if we are to reap the huge potential benefits while avoiding the equally great potential dangers -- is to imagine as many of the possible changes as we can, and try to steer our future toward the ones we like.

For just a few examples: We already see a great deal of business moving out of factories and stores into the internet and homes. We can expect this trend to become much more pronounced, and some manufacturing may move into space, or be done by in-home appliances called “synthesizers” that can make and recycle a wide range of goods.

In a best-case scenario, virtually everybody can live a longer, healthier, safer, more independent life than ever before. In a worst -- but just as possible -- case, we could get something much like George Orwell’s 1984, because any would-be Big Brother already has means at his disposal beyond anything Orwell imagined. On the other hand, so does the resistance.

Is there a point of convergence that we are working towards, or are we moving along a continuum? When can we expect to see a world in which the human brain is directly linked to machines?

It’s very difficult to say when or even whether any particular thing will happen, as many converging factors determine that -- as well as what catches on and what doesn’t.

If the right technological and social factors had come together, we might have had holographic television and flying cars by now, but we don’t. On the other hand, we do have the internet, which has already changed the world in ways far beyond any imagined in earlier science fiction.

We don’t know of any endpoint for what’s happening, but some writers, notably Vernor Vinge, have speculated that as different technologies push each other along, the curves of change will grow steeper and steeper, and may eventually reach a “Singularity.”

That’s a condition where change is so fast that civilisation is transformed almost instantly into something so radically different from what we now have that we would find it hard even to recognise.

How has convergence of past technologies shaped today's world and current technological advancements?

A vast amount of the world we live in results from such convergences. In the CAT scan example I mentioned earlier, we have a lifesaving diagnostic technique that depends on the combination of medical understanding, x-ray imaging, and high-speed computers that can work with very large amounts of data.

The 9/11 example resulted from big-building technology and aviation coming together in ways their inventors never anticipated.

And, of course, in most such cases we can’t point to a single person and say, “He invented big buildings” or “She invented airplanes.” Each of these phenomena is itself the result of earlier convergences.

Similarly, the technologies leading current change, such as biotechnology, depend on earlier technologies coming together, as x-ray diffraction, computing, and several other fields did to decipher the structure of DNA and the genetic code.

What is driving today's innovation? What reasons do we have to expect direct communication links between the human brain and machines, for example?

Sometimes it’s commerce, sometimes it’s military, sometimes it’s simply the desire to learn how nature works and what can be done with it. If somebody sees a way to make a profit by doing something new, he or she will. The public will decide whether it succeeds by deciding whether or not to buy it.

Most of the extrapolations I talk about in the book are just that: possibilities that we can see because we’ve already seen their early forms. I’ve already read, for example, news reports of experimental prosthetics being controlled directly by their wearers’ nervous systems. There was even one case of a monkey directly controlling a “robot monkey” located on the other side of the world.

Who is responsible for directing and driving technological advancement? What is your advice to these parties?

Everybody! It might seem that the topics I talk about in The Coming Convergence would be of interest only to techno-geeks, but in reality they’re going to profoundly affect the future lives of every one of us.

So anyone who votes, shops, travels, teaches, raises children, or otherwise participates in our civilization needs to become aware of the possibilities and how he or she can affect which ones become realities.

Citizens can and must affect what governments do; consumers can and must affect what businesses do. Let’s try to do it wisely, and make the future as good as it can be.

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iTnews: CeBIT 08: Senator Lundy lobbies for Open Source change

As a journalist at iTnews:

The recent change of government could be an opportunity for the Australian Open Source community to bring their “free and open” philosophy to the public domain.

Speaking at the Open CeBIT conference in Sydney today, Senator Kate Lundy said that the newly-appointed Rudd Government represents a creative peak in public policy, as evidenced by the Australia 2020 Summit that was held in April.

“I’m really glad to be off the opposition benches and on to the government benches,” said Lundy, who is Senator for the Australian Capital Territory.

“The fact is, we got some really creative ideas from the 2020 Summit,” she said.

So far, suggestions to the Government have included: more resources for the use of Open Source in the education sector and Not-for-Profit organisations; government uptake of open standards; amendments to copyright laws; and the use of IPV6 as a platform for innovation.

Lundy also described debates about allowing open access to Crown copyright material, open access to government-funded research, and Open Source licensing of software that is developed with taxpayers’ money.

“Governments tend to want to hold onto that [software] as an asset, and a lot of opportunities for innovation are lost that way,” Lundy said.

An open philosophy could benefit Australia by providing the foundations for innovation, digital knowledge and open technology, Lundy said.

Already, the philosophy is gaining momentum through a business uptake of Open Source software, from the backend database layer to business applications.

According to a 2008 IT spending and priorities study by Australian analyst firm Longhaus, Open Source is likely to become a fully-integrated dimension of the overall software market by 2012.

While 14 percent of IT decision makers in medium to large organisations claimed to have no intention of using Open Source solutions, Longhaus Research Director Sam Higgins said that these were simply “organisations in denial”.

“There are many proprietary distributors that are filling the distributor role [for Open Source software],” Higgins explained.

“Open Source is one of those inevitable features that is becoming inherent in enterprise technology,” he said.

Defying conventional expectations about Free and Open Source Software, the Longhaus study found the major drivers for Open Source adoption to be licensing and convenience, and not cost.

“When we talk about ‘free’, it may not necessarily be about cost; today, it’s much more about freedom of choice,” he said.

But for the business uptake of the Open Source philosophy to spread to policy makers, stake holders must play an active role in lobbying for change, Lundy said.

Describing a governmental bias towards the risk-averse position of inertia, Lundy encouraged the Open Source community to work together to present a strong, compelling position to the Government.

“We’ve got all the evidence we need; I think the next step is to grasp the political agenda,” she said.

“Part of this challenge is to get these ideas into a cohesive summary and present it to policy makers. Unless we can do this as an Open Source community, it’s going to be really hard to bring about change,” she said.

“My own view is that Australia is quite a lot greater than the sum of its parts. Let’s not deny ourselves the tools that will help us achieve our potential,” she concluded.

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iTnews: Is 'industry-ready' a University responsibility?

As a journalist at iTnews:

To combat a persistent skills shortage in the Australian IT industry, educational institutions have focussed their efforts on attracting students to science and engineering studies in recent years.

However, despite the best efforts of Australian universities, the industry remains unimpressed. University graduates have not been suitably prepared to fulfil commercial demand, industry players say.

“One of the things we see with people coming out of universities is that they are generally a fair way behind where the industry is,” said Nick Rodda, Managing Director of hosted contact centre solutions provider, Global Speech Networks.

Estimating two to three years in training expenses to do with hiring fresh graduates, Rodda blamed the Australian tertiary education system for not keeping up with industry demands.

“We hire graduates from time to time with the intention of investing in them to make them productive in two years time,” he said.

According to specialist IT recruitment agency, Kelly Services, employers greatly value candidates with a proven experience in the technologies that are already used by the company.

Naming .NET as the most commonly used programming language being used at present, Kelly Services’s Resources Branch Manager, Jason Fuller, noted an industry appreciation for candidates who have previously worked on time sensitive commercial projects and an experience in high-pressure, commercial environments.

“Employers will almost always choose to have someone join their company with a proven experience using the same technologies that they already use, or may be in the process of migrating towards in the near future,” Fuller said.

But training students to meet exact industry demands may be impossible, University of New South Wales lecturer John Shepherd said.

“For us to actually pick the exact technologies that are going to suit [the industry] and training up our students hoping those technologies are going to suit every company - we’ve got no chance,” he said.

“We could go for the dominant market players and teach all our students those technologies, but that’s not really the point. The point is learning how to learn,” he said.

As a lecturer of database programming at the university’s School of Computer Science and Engineering, Shepherd specialises in the PHP programming platform on top of the PostgreSQL database in his teachings.

While he admitted that the industry tends to favour Oracle over PostgreSQL in commercial databases, Shepherd said that Open Source platforms such as PostgreSQL and PHP are better suited to his teachings due to cost advantages and the ease of access to the technical mechanisms behind the platform.

Rather than teaching any one particular system, Shepherd said the University is more concerned with teaching the ideas behind the systems, which he expects will better equip students to adapt to new versions of existing technologies.

While the university’s teaching decisions may not have completely satisfied the demands of its students, Shepherd pointed out that several training institutions already offer courses targeted to industry-specific platforms and languages.

“We’re not teaching a particular system; we’re teaching the ideas behind the system,” he said, “and that’s what university is about.”

“The students say why don’t you teach us .NET, why don’t you teach us Oracle, and we have to keep justifying that you’re not learning .NET or Oracle, you’re learning Object-Oriented distributed programming, or you’re learning SQL.”

“We’re not a training institute; there are plenty of those going around. If they [students] want to learn version 3.0 of Oracle, they can go to an Oracle training course, or go to a TAFE,” he said.

While he agreed that tertiary institutions tend not to exactly satisfy the demands of the industry, Dimension Data’s General Manager for Application Integration, Peter Menadue, said that the educational tendency towards more academically-targeted platforms has been an ongoing theme for decades.

“It’s true to say that in tertiary institutions, more of the languages that are taught are of a great educational basis and less of a commercial basis,” Menadue said.

“There’s probably a little more of a preference around a spread of things [platforms], including open source, in tertiary institutions, [but] we just haven’t seen a bulk of commercial development that’s happening in Open Source for our enterprise customers.”

Mentioning .NET and Java as programming platforms that are more popular in the enterprise, Menadue encouraged tertiary institutions to make sure that students are equipped with relevant skills.

Meanwhile, UNSW’s Shepherd argued that universities should be more focussed on the long-term employability of students rather than the immediate demands of the industry.

“Is it our job to produce industry-ready graduates, or should we produce people who will be better long-term employees,” he asked.

“The company that takes them [graduates] will have to train them on a particular platform, but then this person should be easy to train because they’ve got the foundations down, and they should be more adaptable in the future,” he said.

Both industry experience and tertiary qualifications are attractive qualities in job candidates, Kelly Services’ Fuller said, noting a rise of work experience requirements in University courses to meet industry demand.

“Depending on what particular industry the client is within, a university degree may be a pre requisite of the role,” he said. “Others will simply need the candidate to be able to display a combination of the commercial and technical experience required to successfully work the role on a daily basis.”

“As employers demand more of their employees than they did 10 years ago, the educational institutions have responded by dramatically improving the level of preparation they put in place for making the graduates ‘career ready’ for when they gain their first commercial role.”

“More and more education facilities are incorporating a level of on site work experience as an integral part of their curriculum,” Fuller said.

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iTnews: Angels give wings to Australian start-ups

As a journalist at iTnews:

As a nation that is home to a well-developed education system and world-class research institutions, Australia is often lauded as fertile grounds for innovation. But the outlook for young entrepreneurs may not be so rosy.


The technology industry is rife with anecdotal evidence that although ideas may be born down under, start-ups often move to larger markets such as the U.S. or Asia to grow.

"Australia does have good innovation networks, markets for development, access to capital and funding," said Rob Fitzpatrick, who is the Director of Commercialisation at national research organisation, NICTA.

"The biggest challenge for start-up companies," he said, "is in Angel funding, which is just not well organised in Australia."

Angel funding is one of the few avenues for start-up companies in their very initial stages to obtain seed funding to further grow their business. In return, Angel investors receive a percentage share in the start-up company.

It is a high risk, high return investment, and one that is not particularly common in the Australian culture.

In the U.S., however, it's a different story. According to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire, Angels are the largest source of seed and capital funding in the U.S. As of 2007, there are more than 250 angel groups in the U.S., which is approximately equal to the total number of angel groups in all other countries combined.

Thankfully, globalisation is allowing U.S. Angels and other similar groups to spread their wings over start-ups in other countries too. TechStars is one U.S.-based group that extends its start-up funding and incubation program to companies across the globe.

The program offers up to US$15,000 in seed founding to ten start-up companies each year, in exchange for five per cent equity. Over the course of three months, selected start-ups will be given access to legal advice, office space, and experienced mentors.

Start-ups in the program will also be required to spend most of the three months at TechStars's offices in Boulder, Colorado – a potentially expensive relocation that might offset the seed money altogether.

But it's not just about the money, according to Techstars founder and Angel investor David Cohen.

"If you're thinking about the money, you're not thinking about the right thing," he said.

"The funding we provide is simply enough to keep you alive while you are here - that's all a motivated first time entrepreneur should need."

"The value of the mentorship and connections we provide should be the true motivator," he said.

Of the ten start-ups enrolled in TechStars's 2007 program, eight companies are now venture - or angel - backed and profitable, Cohen pointed out, with some companies even receiving credible acquisition offers.

Credibility is traditionally a big issue for start-up companies, which Cohen said could be mitigated by the support of established backers like TechStars.

"If you're two people, a dog, and an idea, it's hard to convince customers or partners that you're capable of delivering something interesting and worthwhile," he said.

"The other major problems are lack of market (startups doing things nobody wants) and team problems (founders who can't stick together)," he said. "I would specifically exclude access to funding - it's very easy if you have a great team, execute well, and are building stuff people want."

Admittedly, the atmosphere for start-ups in the U.S. could be the strongest in the world, with early stage capital widely available for good ideas and teams.

While saying that he tends to focus mostly on his local area, Cohen speculated that there seems to be a reasonable amount of start-up activity in Western Europe and Australia also.

"We get lots of interest in TechStars from Australia," he said. "Last year we did have one founder from Sweden, but otherwise they have all been US-based."

"Last summer was our first [year in operation]. There were ten companies consisting of 26 founders. One of those founders was from Sweden. Ultimately, they incorporated in the USA, [after] intense debate."

According to Sydney-based venture capital company OneVentures, however, the Australian market does offer some advantages over the larger, more established U.S. market.

"U.S. companies do get advantages of immediate access to a much larger market but often this is highly competitive and market entry is costly," said Michelle Deaker, the company's founder and CEO.

"It is traditionally difficult to raise capital for emerging high growth technology companies in this [Australian technology] market, but I would like to say that entrepreneurs shouldn't give up hope."

Besides assessing capital and resource management, Deaker highlighted company structure, market entry, team building and strategy as issues that plague start-ups. Formerly the co-founder and executive director of her own start-up, E Com Industries, Deaker said that Angel investors can sometimes help in providing professional networks as well as capital to help entrepreneurs.

In addition to leveraging any opportunities in the local market, Deaker also recommends looking offshore for opportunities to grow a start-up business.

"The AU market is small," she said. "Stepping offshore can be daunting but maybe necessary to make the business into an entity that an investor would be interested in and allow the company to capture a bigger market or seek capital from offshore investors."

"The government supports offshore activity with Export Market Development Grants for example. We [OneVentures] do our best to help smooth the way for this process."

NICTA's Fitzpatrick agrees that the market for technology companies goes beyond any international boundaries. He cited a NICTA project in the mobile telecommunications application area that currently is in negotiations with developers in China.

"Most of our start-ups are now born global," he said.

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LW: Software pirate extradition a first of many, legal expert predicts

As a journalist at LinuxWorld Australia:

It took three years of legal debate before Hew Raymond Griffiths, an Australian resident and British citizen, was surrendered to the U.S. for his involvement in the international software piracy group Drink or Die (DoD).

Griffiths was extradited on February 20 this year, and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, and one count of criminal copyright infringement, before the Virginian District Court on April 20. Potentially facing a maximum sentence of 10 years in an American prison and a $US500,000 fine, he now awaits sentencing on June 22.

To unravel the implications of Griffiths' extradition for Australian content users and owners, Liz Tay enlisted the legal expertise of Nick Abrahams, a corporate and commercial lawyer of international law firm, Deacons, and president of the Communications and Media Law Association in Australia.

What do you think is most significant about the Hew Griffiths case?

To my knowledge this is the first case of IP [intellectual property] theft resulting in an extradition.

It really shows that you can't hide from IP prosecution, and I think it's been a wake-up call to internet users, because often there's a belief that if you place your servers in a particular jurisdiction that has very little regulation and IP protection and so forth, then somehow that will shield you from liability and you can then go on to live somewhere else.

I think what the Hew Griffiths case shows is that you do need to be very aware that particularly in the U.S., where the number one export is intellectual property, they are incredibly vigilant, and this has been a very significant coup for them and I see this as the start of more international prosecution for cyber-related crime.

How was the extradition made possible?

We had the free trade agreement with the U.S. a few years ago, which was great for Australia in a number of respects, and it also had with it a significant obligation on Australia to change its copyright laws to give more protection to copyright owners.

What that means is now there's a lot more criminality, or criminal statute, covering intellectual property from copyright theft, which we didn't have before. That's important because we're now a bit more harmonised with the U.S.

Does the Free Trade Agreement mean that we will be seeing more Australians being extradited to the U.S. on IP charges?

We now have a lot more criminal penalty for IP theft as a result of the Free Trade Agreement, so the potential for this to be used more broadly is certainly there.

How does extradition work?

It's basically a part of international law. In Australia, in order for the Australian government to extradite someone to another country in relation to a crime, then the Australian government is only allowed to do that if the crime that's alleged in another country is actually a crime in Australia as well.

Take something like murder. Quite clearly, murder is a crime in America, and murder is a crime in Australia. So if the U.S. government says, 'there's someone who we allege murdered someone', then there would be the required dual criminality, because murder is a crime in both countries.

For the purpose of extradition, what is critical is being able to establish this concept of dual criminality. That means that what the alleged perpetrator has done in Australia, the U.S. is alleging that is a crime in the U.S. In order for Australia to extradite him, there has to be a similar crime in Australia.

I guess the clearest way to exemplify that is with the 'I Love You" virus that was around a few years ago. The guy who created that virus was based in the Philippines and the U.S. tried to extradite him, but couldn't, because in the Philippines, they didn't have a statute that made the creation of viruses a criminal act, so consequently he was not able to be extradited.

This dual criminality thing is an important issue; now in Australia, we have quite a lot of IP-related thefts and actions are subject for criminal penalties, so consequently, it's a lot easier for other countries like the U.S. to come to Australia and request extradition.

Does the dual criminality requirement mean that IP thieves are safe from prosecution in certain countries?

It's really a distinction between the jurisdiction where the offence originated, and the jurisdiction where the crime took place.

In the Hew Griffiths case, the U.S. said the crime actually occurred in the U.S. because it was U.S. companies that had their copyright stolen. So the fact that Hew Griffiths was sitting with his computer on the Central Coast of Australia was not relevant to them.

The U.S. is where the crime takes effect, and that was the way he was charged. It's important also to recognize that what he did was actually contrary to Australian copyright law.

If Hew Griffiths was living in the Philippines for example, the question would be: do the Filipino laws say that what he was doing was a crime? If there is a criminal statute in relation to that, there would be the required dual criminality for the crime, in the Philippines and the U.S., so the Filipino government would hand him over.

However, if it is not a crime to do what he has done, say with the "I Love You" virus, where the statute had not caught up with the technology, the "I Love You" guy was not extradited. It all depends on what is the extent of criminality for IP theft in each relevant country. And most developed countries are now heading towards having

What does the Hew Griffiths case mean for copyright owners?

I think this case is extraordinary, and is a wake up call to copyright pirates, and I think it has certainly been welcomed by the major copyright owners, particularly software companies and the entertainment industry.

I think the American government is delighted by what's happened, and it should definitely cause people in Australia who are engaged in pirating to really reconsider, because it does mean that you won't pay though the Australian criminal justice system; you'll pay through the American criminal justice system.

Are there any other issues that still stand for content owners?

I think content owners and copyright owners are relatively happy with where the Australia copyright law has gone. There were recent reforms to it and those reforms sought to strengthen the rights of copyright holders and also to recognize that there are now some different technologies which challenge the old copyright laws.

So we had things like the iPod amendment, which basically allowed people to use iPods, whereas previously to the amendment, the use to iPod was an infringement.

With the constant march of content-copying technology, do you think the model of content ownership is realistic?

There is certainly a movement out there that is suggesting that copyright is outdated and there needs to be a fundamental change of thinking on that. [But] I think it's going to be a very long time before we see such a change, if at all.

I get back to the idea that America's number one export is intellectual property, so there's a massive amount of money at stake, and [a lot of] investment in the current copyright regime.

Simply because technology allows people to copy a lot more easily does not necessarily mean that they should be allowed to do that. So while the ease of copying has become much greater, the business model around the ownership of copyright is so well entrenched, and there's so much money involved, that it's hard to imagine how you move to a different environment.

Are we likely to see any changes to current copyright regulations in the future?

What you'll end up seeing, I think, is a lot more flexibility around the current business model. YouTube is a good example of that, I think. YouTube had a lot of material up there that was other people's intellectual property, most notably music and also TV and film material. Basically YouTube has become very successful and done a couple of deals with major copyright owners which allows YouTube to use their material.

So I think the underlying legal structure of copyright is here to stay, but what you'll see is a movement away from the traditional approaches of copyright licensing and so forth. It's a move away from the traditional 'pay for a whole CD' idea, and more to what's happening to YouTube, where users are actually able to use the material, and YouTube ends up paying a royalty to the music company.

Would extradition have worked in reverse? Say, if a U.S. software pirate had stolen Australian intellectual property, would the pirate have been extradited and sentenced here?

I'm not an expert on U.S. extradition law, but certainly the dual criminality is there, so I suspect that it is likely. Because there is that dual criminality, then fundamentally it seems like that could work in the reverse.

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CW: Brickies, plumbers catching up to IT's salary rates, warns APESMA

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

A narrowing salary gap between professionals and blue-collar workers could be deterring young people from higher education, warns the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia (APESMA), which on Friday called on the Australian Fair Pay Commission to conduct an urgent review of professional salary rates.

Highlighting what he said was a significant erosion of professional rates of pay, APESMA chief executive John Vines said increases in the minimum wages of technology-based professionals were long overdue.

"The safety net, or minimum rates of pay for professionals, has lost relativity to the minimum rates paid to other workers over the last 15 years," he said.

"We believe it's time that there was a review of professional rates to insure the rates contained in those awards reflect the marketplace to a better degree than they currently do, and in particular to ensure the relativity between professionals and blue-collar workers are restored."

Since the last review of rates paid to technology-based professionals was conducted by the Industrial Relations Commission more than 15 years ago, minimum wages for IT workers across the board have been increased in flat-dollar amounts.

The most recent changes made to national award rates saw a $27 increase for IT professionals and tradespeople alike.

"15 years ago, the rate of pay for a level 3 professional was set at 220 percent of the tradesman's rate. As a result of the decline in relativity, that's now dropped to 174 percent," Vines explained.

Today's salary benchmarks are a poor reflection of the increasing responsibilities faced by high-level IT staff, Vines said.

"Professionals are having to take a more individual responsibility for the work that they do, the way in which they perform their work, and their professional development, and we think that should be recognised in the remuneration that is available to them," he said.

"The rates in the awards have not reflected that increase in responsibility, and have, in fact, gone the other way."

Minimum rates of pay are far from an indication of average salaries, which in recent times have been said to be increasing due to a shortage of IT workers in Australia. While the award rate for IT professionals is currently set at around $35,000, APESMA estimates the average starting salary to be in the ballpark of $43,000.

However, improvements in the award rate are likely to affect workers currently receiving base pay, who are estimated to make up a significant portion - about 10 percent - of professionals in the IT industry.

Furthermore, Vines warned that the narrowing wage structure could be turning potential IT workers away from tertiary education if they perceive little benefit in a professional career.

"If it's not addressed, then I think it's going to deter young people from taking on professional careers, because they'll look at them and say, 'Okay I'll have to do four years of university, and when I come out of it, I won't be paid much more than somebody who doesn't have to go through all that study'," he said.

"It is critical that during a time of major skills shortages in Australia that the value of professional salaries is restored to at least its previous level or ideally, improved."

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CW: Money talks in employee rewards

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

A market scarcity in skilled IT workers and increasing costs of living have been said to be leading factors in a shift in how Australian employees prefer to be rewarded for good work.

More than two thirds of the 1,881 IT employees recently surveyed by recruitment agency Hays Information Technology showed preference for being rewarded in cash, while 15 percent valued internal recognition and 16 percent preferred non-financial bonuses such as weekends away and gym memberships.

The survey findings represent a marked change from those of a similar survey conducted by Hays in April 2006, in which nearly half of the survey respondents were said to prefer internal recognition, with only 9 percent valuing non-financial bonuses, and a mere 42 percent of employees preferring cash rewards.

According to Hays' regional director Peter Noblet, the way in which employees are rewarded for hard work or successful results has a significant role in employee engagement - which, in turn, has repercussions in employee retention.

"Financial rewards such as bonuses or an earlier salary review have become increasingly important to employees over the past 12 months," he said. "Consequently, an effective reward strategy needs to incorporate cash components."

"Business activity has increased and people are generally busier in their jobs," Noblet explained. "Coupled with the knowledge that we are in a candidate-short market and given higher grocery, petrol and mortgage costs, employees' emphasis has moved to cash payments rather than non-cash benefits."

However, electronics vendor Altium Limited's Chief People Officer, Kerri-Ann Wilson, is careful not to overlook the importance of non-financial benefits in acknowledging employee contribution.

"Often companies neglect the value that talented people place on aspects -- things like challenging work, career development and the opportunity to make a difference," she said. "In our experience, the non-financial benefits and internal recognition are just as important as the financial rewards."

On top of their salary packages, share options and profit-sharing, Altium employees enjoy the benefits of free meals, gym memberships, mobile phone plans and free car parking; conveniences that Wilson expects to make the lives of Altium employees a little easier.

And the benefit scheme seems to be paying off for Simon Moulton, a 32-year-old system support worker who has been employed at Altium for five months.

"Being given just monetary rewards would be less personal than the benefits we get at Altium," he said. "The value of having free meals each day, a computer rebate and the range of services provided - if these were taken away and you were given a salary increase instead; the real value of these rewards would be lost."

Joel Tow, an Altium software engineer and recent university graduate, agrees, citing the "little benefits that come along" as a drawing card in his six-month-old relationship with the company.

"Following a specific project I worked on recently, I was also given a non-financial reward for my work which was really appreciated and totally unexpected," he said.

"If it came to the question 'would I work somewhere for more money', that's great in the short term," he said, "but the other benefits provided at Altium provide for a more sustainable environment for my long term growth."

Hays' Noblet notes that employee preferences are likely to differ across different demographics, mentioning as an example paid maternity leave, which might be very significant for one group of employees, but not so useful for another.

To maintain relevance with their employees Noblet suggests businesses employ a bit of flexibility in their benefit schemes, such as offering a range of benefit options that may be determined through continual discussions with employees.

"There should be a fair and equal system of processes for rewards and they need to suit the audience they are intended for as there is variation in what suits Generations X, Y and Baby Boomers," he said. "[A successful benefit scheme is] really just about talking to people in their business and finding out what they look for."

One organisation that currently offers a range of bonus options is IT consulting, integration and outsourcing firm, CSC. According to Christiane Moloney, the company's Vice President of Human Resources, outstanding employees are given a choice between being rewarded in cash or in items which may range from company-sponsored holidays, to dinners for two, to Palm Pilots.

Coupled with fair pay arrangements, the provision of new challenges, training, and strong management, the right reward offerings could be the finishing touch to an employment package that attracts and retains talent, Moloney said.

"At CSC, we have found that strong leadership qualities and a collaborative work culture play an important role in retaining motivated employees," she said. "People who are satisfied in their jobs are likely to think twice before leaving an organisation."

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CW: Australian businesses struggle to get social

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Often touted as the inevitable next generation of the Internet, Web 2.0 technologies are fast gaining pervasion beyond the stereotypical MySpace teen. The question now is not if, but when, new social computing trends become an absolute realisation in the workplace, and the worry for businesses is: can we keep up?

With applications in marketing, customer support and problem solving, opportunities for Web 2.0 technologies are abundant in the business world, according to Sheryle Moon, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA).

"There's no doubt that everyone is very engaged with the sites that allow interaction with people," she said. "If you put a business spin on that, then there's an opportunity to develop communities that support business. I think there's a huge opportunity for organizations to develop communities of practice that can work on some of the bigger issues."

But a lack of training, as well as recruitment issues in attracting young, fresh blood into the industry, may currently be keeping social computing at bay, Moon said, explaining that the adoption of new technologies often requires a change in mindset as well as new technical skills.

"The ICT industry is an aging industry, so there's a bunch of people who have grown up in an industry which operated under completely different business models," she said. "And so of course they need to be retrained and brought up to date, and we need to continue to be able to attract young people who will bring those new ideas and the familiarity with different models for interacting and influencing other people."

"It's much wider than just the technology. We almost need degrees or courses in marketing in that online environment, because you're looking at completely different ways in connecting with people, and influencing them, than most marketing people in most marketing organizations are used to," she said.

Moon's observations are in agreement with those of Susan Barnes, a professor of communication at the U.S.-based Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) who was recently awarded a two-year $US149,786 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop an undergraduate online course in the new discipline of social media.

"The introduction of social media software programs is a major change in the way that people communicate on the Internet. It is both a social and technological change that deserves academic attention," Barnes said.

RIT's new social media course debuts early next year to a trial group of 90 students, and will double as a case study of technology and social networking that is expected to further Barnes' research into the potentials of social computing in learning.

"A focus of our course will be to introduce students to career possibilities," Barnes said. "Social networking combines IT with communication, so we need students from both Liberal Arts and computer backgrounds ... the types of skills that are needed in industry."

Training programs in social computing are less prevalent in the Australian market, leading to fears that the country may be left behind. While current AIIA figures estimate there being less than nine percent of Australian small to medium enterprises that trade on the Internet, Moon estimated this figure to be around the 50 percent mark in more mature markets, such as the U.S.

"We are way behind in being able to trade," she said. "While I think that ICT companies are very good at developing the technology, we're looking at the application of that technology in a totally foreign environment that most ICT companies are still coming to grasps with."

One Australian company that is currently heavily involved in the Web 2.0 space is Hyro, an ASX-listed online services provider with offices in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.

Recognising the growing relevance of social networking sites and systems in the market, Hyro has expanded its portfolio from developing traditional Web sites, to designing MySpace pages and even building virtual [[ArtId:120083918|Second Life]] presences.

"Social networking sites are becoming quite an important channel to market for a range of our customers," said Richard Lord, the company's Chief Operating Officer. "For Hyro, this is translating to a number of clients asking us to include social networking sites as a part of our overall digital services programs for them."

While Lord acknowledged that most businesses still have an incomplete understanding of Web 2.0 services, and that there are currently no "real stand-out training providers" for such technologies, Hyro has set up an internal Web 2.0 network where its staff collaborate on developing their shared understanding of Web 2.0 principles.

"Different specialist teams use tools like mail groups, forums, blogs and wikis to share their knowledge and to promote new innovations they create or discover, with their peers," Lord explained. "With the Hyro team touching 500 people in three countries, there is a lot of knowledge, experience and capability to innovate within the team."

Meanwhile, AIIA's Moon mentioned Web 2.0 and social marketing classes currently being developed by a consortium of Victorian University Libraries. Other organisations, such as education.au, are hosting conferences to discuss Web 2.0 opportunities as well.

"We [AIIA] probably won't push specific courses but we are starting the dialogue," she said. "I've got my own blog, I've got my own MySpace page, I'm up on Wikipedia, we're putting AIIA up on Second Life; we are looking at how we as the association lead our members to think about the opportunities that exist in this brave new world."

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CW: CeBIT's Taranto douses anti-Government flames

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

CeBIT Australia organizer, Jackie Taranto, has poured cold water on reports of a falling out between the trade show and the Australian Government, following NSW Premier Morris Iemma's refusal to open this year's show.

According to a report published in the Australian Financial Review this morning, Taranto had criticized what was said to be a governmental lack of leadership in building a thriving ICT industry.

But while this morning's report portrayed the souring of a five-year relationship between CeBIT and the Australian Government, insulting the government had never been her intention, Taranto told IDG in an interview this afternoon.

"What I stated wasn't totally out there; it wasn't meant in that way," she said. "They've [the NSW government] always supported and funded CeBIT Australia very strongly as an ICT event."

"We have a good relationship with the Australian Government," she said. "New South Wales [state government] has supported CeBIT from the beginning, and that's always been the strength on how we've grown the event here."

The NSW Department of State and Regional Development has remained a major sponsor of CeBIT Australia since its inception in 2002, through a partnership that involves both financial and promotional support.

The recently re-elected Iemma has declined to attend CeBIT Australia's May 1 opening in favour of a meeting with his new cabinet. His refusal will result in the first time since its launch in 2002 that CeBIT Australia is not ceremonially opened by the Premier of NSW.

Unfortunately for CeBIT organizers, this trade-show-first will coincide with another new development: the involvement of Christian Wulff, a prominent German politician with a 50 percent stake in the CeBIT's parent company, Deutsche Messe.

"It's a pretty big thing [for Deutsche Messe] to have invested in bringing CeBIT to Australia," Taranto said. "Controlling 50 percent of the interests of our organization is pretty significant, and he's [Wulff has] never been here, so it's a big thing for him to come, and he's bringing pretty serious investors here this year."

In efforts to develop relationships between Germany and Australia, Wulff has scheduled meetings with Prime Minister John Howard; Special Minister of State Gary Nairn; QLD Acting Premier Anna Bligh; and QLD Minister for Public Works, Housing and ICT, Robert Schwarten.

While confident that Wulff will meet with representatives of the NSW state government during his visit, Taranto said that CeBIT Australia is still in negotiations with Morris Iemma's office to arrange a meeting with the Premier himself.

With half of its shares controlled by the German City of Hannover, and the other half controlled by Wulff's home state of Lower Saxony, Deutsche Messe is owned entirely by the German government, whose support of the trade show in Germany understandably surpasses that of the government in Australia.

"CeBIT in Hannover is the largest ICT show. In Germany, you always have the chancellor opening it, and it's a pretty significant thing because of what the industry is valued at," explained Taranto, quoting global ICT industry turnover figures of $AUD33,000 billion per year.

Taranto recalled this year's Hannover show, where the German Chancellor was said to have pushed ICT as the country's number one industry, pledging up to 15 billion Euros in governmental support into areas such as research and development and cluster development within the next two years.

"When you go to these countries and you have the leaders of these countries really outlining the importance of this [ICT], it's pretty significant," Taranto said. "We'd like to see that [ICT] outlined as a forefront here [in Australia] as well."

"Australia is really advanced in innovation, and I think that we can do so much more, it's just that when you look at the areas that are happening offshore, internationally, we really need to get a push behind that," she said.

Industry bodies too have a part to play in advancing Australian ICT, Taranto said, emphasising the need for a peak body that could represent the industry to the government.

While organisations such as the AIIA and the ACS were said to be doing "really great jobs", Taranto said there is a need for further collaboration between the organisations to present one voice to work with the federal government.

"In Germany, for instance, there is BitCom, so the industry bodies amalgamated into one strong voice, and they have significant say in what happens," she said. "I think the AIIA and the ACS and others are working together towards that; we're not there yet, but it's definitely coming that way, so I think that's a very positive thing."

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LW: Goodbye etch, hello lenny

As a journalist at LinuxWorld Australia:

The long-anticipated Debian 4.0 may only just have made its debut this week, but it's never too soon for the developer community to be making plans for its successor.

Codenamed 'etch', Debian 4.0 was officially released on 8 April, 2007. Although the release comes four months later than its early December 2006 target, developers are calling the project a success.

According to Debian Project Leader Anthony Towns, etch surpassed two milestones. Firstly, the software's 21-month release cycle turned out to be about a year shorter than that of its predecessor, sarge (Debian 3.1), and a month shorter than that of Debian 3.0, codenamed woody.

Additionally, Towns said, there has been somewhat of a tradition of only releasing one new version of Debian for every second Debian Project Leader. With sarge having been released under the leadership of Towns' immediate predecessor, Branden Robinson, the timely release of etch was a near-unexpected achievement.

"In spite of all the reasons I had to think that getting etch out on time was possible, I've always had this superstition that it wouldn't happen until we'd elected a new DPL [Debian Project Leader]," he said. "I'm still technically DPL until the 17th, so I'm counting that as a win."

Post-release parties have been planned in several locations worldwide, including Argentina, Canada, France, U.S. and U.K. An Australian party will be held on Saturday in Melbourne - but celebrations are likely to be short-lived as developers embark on the next Debian release, codenamed 'lenny'.

"There are a bunch of release parties planned around the place," Towns said. "Of course, the other way people address it is by moving right on to working on the next release, lenny."

As is usual with new Debian releases, lenny will be built on an exact replica of its predecessor, etch. Already, updates have been made to just under 2000 packages, which constitutes about 10 percent of the distribution. However, with the next release estimated to be more than a year away, Towns speculates that lenny's most interesting features are likely to not have even been thought of yet.

"I do know the stable update team are aiming to provide better ongoing support for sarge than we've attempted in the past, to make it easier for people to avoid the disruption of upgrades if it's not necessary," he said. "And I know that the upstream developers of all the software included in Debian haven't stopped building great new stuff just because Debian's been distracted with a release."

Queensland-based Towns steps down from the role of Debian Project Leader next week. He will be succeeded by French developer Sam Hocevar.

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PCW: Lithium Ion batteries to yield longer recharge times

As a journalist at PC World Australia:

The commonly-used Lithium Ion (Li-ion) battery of today is undergoing a facelift that researchers expect will deliver more usage between charges, and shorter charge/discharge times, to mobile consumers within the next five years.

Based on a process called 'nanostructuring', the new batteries will be built in very small sizes - measurable in nanometres - to shorten the distance between electrodes on either end of a Li-ion battery.

Conventional batteries produce electrical charge when Li-ions travel from an anode at one end of the battery, to a cathode at the other end. The power that is delivered by the battery, as well as the speed with which the battery is charged, is determined by the speed with which the ions can travel within the material.

By nanostructuring the electrode particles, researchers are reducing the ions' travel by a factor of a thousand.

"A nano-structured battery operates exactly the same as a conventional battery," explained researcher Marnix Wagemaker, an applied scientist at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, "only the electrode materials (anode and cathode) are built up from nano-sized particles, whereas in conventional batteries the particle sizes are in the order of micrometers."

Besides speeding up the charge/discharge time, nanostructuring also enables battery materials to store higher amounts of Li-ions, which leads to an increase in energy density, allowing batteries to lasts longer between charges, the researchers say.

Wagemaker expects nanostructured batteries to find initial uses in applications with high power requirements, such as in batteries for hybrid or electric vehicles, noting that the extended battery life of nanostructured batteries will also be useful wherever Li-ion batteries are currently used.

"The consumer will profit from a higher energy density - your mobile phone will last longer - and higher power density, [which means] shorter charge/discharge times," he said.

Currently, researchers are working towards improving the stability of nanostructured materials to overcome problems with the lifespan of nanostructured batteries.

"As always, advantages are accompanied by disadvantages," Wagemaker said. "You can charge it [nanostructured batteries] not as many times as current batteries, but I strongly believe these issues will be solved."

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CW: IT firms seize fresh pickings in graduate recruitment drive

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

The first quarter of this year has barely entered the realm of recent history, and already, IT companies are clamouring to secure the next wave of freshly educated talent for their 2008 workforce.

Several companies kicked off their graduate recruitment drives last week, presenting a variety of offerings to final year students at careers exhibitions held by universities across Sydney.

At the University of New South Wales' Careers Expo 2007 on Monday, technology behemoth IBM put forth its Graduate Development Program in attempts to fill some 200 entry-level professional roles.

The highly structured, one-year program provides graduates with training, community programs, peer support through a facilitated mentoring program, organised social events, and a Web site, as well as quarterly briefing sessions for managers of graduates.

"IBM has participated in a number of career fairs and has commenced first round interviews," said Bernadette Lamaro, Vitality Hiring Manager of IBM in Australia and New Zealand, who also noted a growing trend in IT candidates tending towards business roles rather than pure technical roles.

But despite its long-standing reputation as a leader in the IT industry, the competition for skilled workers is toughening up for IBM this year, as small and medium businesses ramp up their university recruitment drives.

"There are a lot of small and medium businesses recruiting graduates who have not participated [in university recruitment drives] previously," Lamaro said, "which has lead to greater demand, [a] broader scope of graduate job roles available and increased competition to secure the brightest students."

One such company is GLiNTECH, a privately-held IT consultancy that currently hires about 55 employees in Sydney. Although it does not have the branding of large corporations like IBM, the size and structure of GLiNTECH allows it to offer a vibrant culture and a flexible graduate program that may appeal to some potential candidates.

"We do have difficulty in attracting an initial lot of students to our stall [at university careers exhibitions]," said the consultancy's Human Resources manager, Jaqueline Chan. "But once they're at our stall and we explain to them what GLiNTECH is like, the response from most of the graduates is actually very positive."

Graduates placed in GLiNTECH's entry-level roles are expected to go through a three-month probationary period, during which they are trained in basic consulting skills, project and task management skills, and equipped with a relevant professional certification of their choice.

After the initial three-month period, recruits take on junior consultant roles, and undergo quarterly performance reviews to potentially advance their salary level and position. GLiNTECH has no hiring quota to fill and will take on as many suitable candidates as there are available, Chan said, expecting the company's fast pace to be an attraction for ambitious graduates.

"A lot of large companies have two-year rotational programs, and at the end of those two years, graduates will still be graduates," she said. "We want our graduates to snap out of the graduate roles very quickly; we don't want them to be 'graduates', we want them to be consultants."

"Graduates will be able to progress as quickly as they want," she said. "This is not a graduate program to attract graduates; it is actually a company culture to attract all levels."

According to Dennis Furini, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Computer Society, structured graduate placements in large companies have their merits.

"Generally, companies that offer graduate placements are more structured and can therefore offer those starting out in the IT industry with a higher salary packages in the first few years of employment," he said. "However, graduate placements are limited."

Starting salaries for IT graduates can be expected to fall within the range of $38,000 to $52,000, Furini said, noting a particular demand for graduates with expertise in business applications, especially in e-commerce; Web site design; systems architecture; entertainment; games and the leisure industry.

"The ICT industry is shifting away from programming and towards supporting the competitive drivers of an organisation," he said. "The majority of employment opportunities occur in the application of computers to create business information systems."

Structured graduate placements afford graduates a good opportunity for learning more about the industry before deciding on the direction they want their careers to take, Furini said.

"Graduate placements are good for those who want to learn more about the spectrum of work related to ICT and who are undecided on a particular career path," he said. "For those who know exactly what career path and job they would like to do, then an entry-level position of a specific role would be more beneficial."

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CW: Blogger spat rages over Sierra 'death threats'

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Tech writer and prominent blogger Kathy Sierra announced on Monday that she would be suspending her blog and cancelling her scheduled presentations at the ETech Conference because of online threats of violence made against her.

In a post to her blog, named Creating Passionate Users, Sierra said she had become too fearful to leave her house. During the past four weeks, she had been the target of abusive messages on two other blogs, as well as receiving death threats on her own blog, she explained.

Sierra included, in her account, screenshots of derogatory images and comments believed to have been made against her on the recently deleted blogs, meankids.org and unclebobism. Also included were the names of prominent bloggers that she believes to have been connected with the offending blogs.

Among those named was Chris Locke, also a prominent blogger and co-author of business titles Cluetrain Manifesto and Gonzo Marketing.

While he admits that he "does not like" Sierra, Locke claims no responsibility for the threats Sierra said she was receiving on her blog.

"If Kathy Sierra was receiving 'death threats' in anonymous comments to her blog, they did not come from me or, to the best of my knowledge, from anyone I know," he said.

Locke was a founding member of both meankids.org and unclebobism, which he said began as a bit of fun. In time, however, the community's sarcastic environment and objection to censorship lent itself to the appearance of what Locke said to be "some tasteless posts".

The site was taken down when Sierra's objections to posts on unclebobism came to light, Locke said.

"Evidently, there are some people who don't much like her [Sierra]," he said. "The same could be said of myself or indeed of anyone who blogs much. It comes with the territory."

"I will not take responsibility for what someone else said, nor will I censor what another individual wrote," he said. "However, it was clear that Sierra was upset, so it seemed the best course to make the whole [unclebobism] site go away."

"I think her response, as it pertains to anything I personally wrote, was unjustified -- but highly effective -- character assassination," Locke said. "As a result, I'm sure I'll be explaining for years to come that I'm not really an axe murderer and child molester."

Another blogger whom Sierra accused in her post goes by the alias 'Joey', and asked for his full name not to be revealed.

Joey has been alleged to have posted death threats in a post that made reference to an image in which Sierra's face appeared beside a hangman's noose.

In a statement that was emailed to Computerworld Australia, Joey claimed having no intention of threatening Sierra, and that his comment was made in jest and targeted not at Sierra, but at Locke's fictional character, Kat Herding.

While he said that some misunderstanding is understandable, Joey also accused Sierra of having frequented the unclebobism site even before the objectionable posts appeared, and should have known what to expect from the site.

"I have nothing but sympathy for the experience Kathy receives in her personal email or blog comments. No one deserves that sort of treatment," he said. "That said, nasty emails should be no shock to anyone in the public arena. That doesn't make them right; it simply makes a shocked reaction to them incredible."

According to Donna Benjamin, a member of the Open Source group AussieChix, the issue goes further than whether or not any physical harm was intended on Sierra. So far, a torrent of emails has flowed from the group's mailing list in support of Sierra, who appeared as a keynote presenter at linux.conf.au in Sydney this year.

"There is some debate about whether or not Kathy was actually under any physical kind of threat, but that's not the point. As Kathy herself points out - it's the idea of the threat that does harm," she said.

"It is precisely this kind of culture and language that serves to alienate people, particularly women, from online communities and interactions," Benjamin said.

Meanwhile, the blogosphere is in uproar.

In a recent blog post, Microsoft technical evangelist Robert Scoble mused that the Internet culture needed "fixing".

"It's this culture of attacking women that has especially got to stop," he wrote. "Whenever I post a video of a female technologist there invariably are snide remarks about body parts and other things that simply wouldn't happen if the interviewee were a man."

In solidarity with Sierra, and out of concern for previous attacks that targeted himself and his wife on meankids.org, Scoble has elected to suspend his blog for one week.

In an interview with Computerworld Australia, Scoble attributed the increased attacks on bloggers to the growing popularity of the online journalism medium.

"Bloggers are now celebrities -- not on the same scale as Paris Hilton, but amongst geek and developer groups lots of people know us," he said. "Some feel that makes us open season for attacks."

In the meantime, Sierra's silence on Creating Passionate Users is attracting even more attention to the blog. Her latest blog posting in which the situation was described has now attracted almost 1,000 comments from supporters and critics - which is easily twenty times the reader response her blog usually receives.

Unsuccessful attempts were made to contact Sierra for her comment on this story.

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PCW: Sugar-fuelled battery soon to juice up portable electronics

As a journalist at PC World Australia:

Fuel cell technology that is currently in development boasts the ability of extracting energy from virtually any sugar source to power portable electronics like cellular phones, laptops, and sensors. The new technology is expected to be biodegradable, environmentally friendly and more energy efficient than current options, providing a green alternative to current Lithium-ion batteries.

The cell operates at room temperature and uses enzymes to oxidize sugars, hence generating electricity. So far, researchers have run the batteries on glucose, flat soft drinks, sweetened drink mixes and tree sap.

Despite only attaining a maximum of 20 percent efficiency in the conversion of sugar to electricity, researchers say the new batteries will operate three to four times longer on a single charge than current battery technology.

"This study shows that renewable fuels can be directly employed in batteries at room temperature to lead to more energy-efficient battery technology than metal-based approaches," said study leader Shelley Minteer, an electrochemist at Saint Louis University in the U.S.

"Right now we are looking at only partial oxidations, so no more than 20% efficiency, but we are improving as we go along," she said. "Employing sugar as a fuel can lead to three to four times the energy density [of metal-based batteries], which leads to a battery that will operate three to four times longer than current battery technology."

While using sugar for fuel is not a new concept, scientists only recently have learned how to produce electricity from sugar.

Minteer said that her technology is believed to be the longest-lasting and most powerful of its type to date.

One of the first applications envisioned for the sugar fuel cell is a portable cell phone recharger that would contain special cartridges that would be pre-filled with a sugar solution and easily replaced after use. Ultimately, Minteer hopes that the sugar battery can be used as a stand-alone battery replacement in a wide range of portable electronic devices.

"The consumer electronic won't be adapted, but instead a new battery will be developed for the battery compartment," she said. "The only difference [between the new battery and existing technology] will be that the battery will have to contain air holes to allow oxygen into the cell."

Besides being used in consumer electronics, the technology also has potential for use in the military, where sugar batteries could charge equipment in situations where access to electricity is limited. Devices could then be recharged by adding virtually any convenient sugar source, including plant sap, Minteer said.

The technology has been licensed to a small company for commercialisation, and is expected to reach the market in three to five years.

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CW: Researchers spin out smaller electronics than ever before

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

A research team of electrical and computer engineers in the U.S. is taking a new approach to electronics that harnesses the spin of an electron to store and process information. Dubbed 'spintronics', the new technology is expected to one day form a basis for the development of smaller, smarter, faster devices.

Current day electronics are predominantly charge-based; that is, electrons are given more or less electric charge to denote the binary bits 0 and 1. Switching between the binary bits is accomplished by either injecting or removing charge from a device, which can, in more resource-intensive applications, require a lot of energy.

"This [energy consumption] is a fundamental shortcoming of all charge based electronics," said lead researcher Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Spin-based electronics supersede the problem of energy consumption by encoding the binary bits 0 and 1 in the direction that an electron spins in relation to an external magnetic field. This method requires less energy, since switching between the binary states does not require any physical movement of the electron and is achieved simply by changing its orientation.

"The spin of an electron is like a tiny magnet with an associated direction of the magnetic moment, [which] can have only two stable directions: parallel to the external magnetic field or anti-parallel to the magnetic field," Bandyopadhyay explained.

"Since the major obstacle to continued progress in electronics is excessive energy dissipation during switching, spin based electronics obviously can steal a march over charge based electronics," he said.

Storing information in this manner may sound fairly straightforward in theory. In the real world, however, there exist stray magnetic fields from a variety of sources, such as other electronic devices. In time, these fields are known to break down the direction of an electron's spin in a process known as 'spin relaxation', leading to an eventual loss of information.

To be effective in a computing device, Bandyopadhyay said the spin relaxation time should be at least 10,000 times longer than the time scale over which data stored in the device changes, which will allow most errors caused by spin relaxation to be fixed by appropriate software tools.

Achieving an acceptable level of spin relaxation has previously posed a problem for researchers. However, in their latest study, Bandyopadhyay and his research team have use of organic semiconductors to achieve spin relaxation times of up to one second, which is about 1,000 times longer than that of previous systems.

"In today's laptop computers, the clock period [time scale over which stored data changes] is no longer than one-billionth of a second," Bandyopadhyay said. "Therefore, if the spin relaxation time is 1 second, we have achieved a relaxation time that is 1 billion times longer than the clock period ... [which] is more than adequate."

Currently, spintronics-based memory chips are being used in memory marketed by Texas-based Freescale Semiconductors, as well as data retrieval devices like those in Apple's iPods. The technology has not yet been incorporated in computing circuitry in any major way; however, with his new findings, Bandyopadhyay expects this to change within the next decade.

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CW: Is employee loyalty outdated?

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

The IT labour market in Australia has been through some turbulent times in the past decade. The market started out strong in the 1990s, with the dot-com era, millennium bug worries and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games contributing to a massive demand for IT skills. Good times were short-lived, however, as a market crash at the turn of the century left IT professionals disillusioned and unemployed.

Now, as the market is picking up again, the industry is having a tough time wooing back skilled staff. Competitive salaries and flexible working conditions have become the flowers and chocolates of a desperate bid for talent, and still employers are scratching their heads over how to get their employees to commit to the company.

And with the new, notoriously fickle wave of Generation Y's entering the workforce, one thing is for certain: the times, they are a-changing.

"Don't ask employees to be passionate about the company," IT textbook author Kathy Sierra writes in a recent blog entry. "People ask me, 'how can I get our employees to be passionate about the company?' Wrong question. Passion for our employer, manager, current job? Irrelevant."

According to Sierra, employees should be less concerned about contributing to their company and focus instead on their craft, be it programming, designing, or engineering. She likened the ideal company to a good user interface that would allow employees to be so engaged in their work that the company just fades into the background.

Sierra's school of thought may resound with projects dedicated to developing the perfect code, but for employers, a workforce of independent, mobile personnel could be bad news.

Already, the twenty-something-year-olds making their way into the industry have demonstrated a loyalty shift from the traditional focus on their employers to a more selfish interest in their own careers. Described by analysts as 'Generation X on steroids', the new generation is highly skilled, highly ambitious, in high demand - and they know it.

"Whilst Generation X are predominantly loyal employees who believe in building their careers through effective and long periods of service in each role, Generation Y are loyal primarily to their careers," observed John McVicker, Managing Director of Sydney-based IT recruitment firm, Best International.

"The length of time most Generation Y people think is appropriate to stay in one organization is based on the length of time it takes to get a promotion or a better job," he said.

A 2004 survey of about 1,200 Australian employees also indicated a decrease in employee loyalty over the years, with Generation Y staff responding with lower levels of commitment to staying with their organisation than both Generation X and the Baby Boomer generation.

The study was conducted by international human resources consultancy, Mercer. According to Rob Knox, the consultancy's Head of Human Capital Product Services, there is a wide variance in the current five-to-six-year average employee turnover rate.

Some turnover is healthy, Knox said, as it provides the opportunity for the organisation to take on new ideas while allowing other, perhaps unmotivated or low-performing employees to move on. On the other hand, he said, having employees leave after too short a time is likely to have negative consequences on a company.

"In general, I believe employers would prefer an increase, rather than a decrease in loyalty," he said. "Among other things, the cost of recruitment and training associated with a decrease in loyalty has a negative impact on business results."

McVicker agrees that employees who can demonstrate workplace loyalty and passion are highly valued attributes in recruitment, as these are people who are expected to be able to enhance the work environment for existing employees, and ultimately contribute to the organisational culture.

"Passion and loyalty are very high on the list of competencies that employers seek in potential staff," he said. "Whilst individual competency and ability is vital to actually doing the job, to survive the talent drought, employers will be looking for prospective candidates who can do the job but want to grow with the company."

So why are employees moving on? One explanation is that companies are attempting to minimise their recruitment risks by only taking on candidates who already possess the exact skills for a job. It is not uncommon for employers with such a strategy to recruit externally instead of promoting existing staff, thus creating a workforce that rewards job mobility.

"An external hire that has exactly the right skills for a job might be considered a stronger candidate than an internal recruit who needs to be coached and managed into a new and more senior role," McVicker said.

"However, from experience, this is a short-sighted and somewhat risky tactic for employers," he said. "Employers will get more from an employee who is a good cultural fit with their organisation but requires more training, than hiring an external 'superstar' who has the potential to do real damage and disrupt office relations if things don't work out."

But like it or not, the workforce is changing; and the job market is fast adapting to current trends. Mercer's Knox observed an increase in the number of knowledge workers, who are able to easily transfer their knowledge skills from one organisation to the next due to the nature of their work, and are thus best equipped for job mobility.

Best International's latest monthly report also revealed that the increase in demand for IT contractors is now exceeding the demand for permanent positions. While the overall IT job market increased by 10 per cent in February, increase in demand for contract positions was up 10 per cent compared with a rise of 9.3 per cent in permanent roles.

All is not lost, however, as McVicker points out that some employers are now implementing retention strategies to keep their employee base strong. He gave the example of employers with a large contractor or Generation Y employee base, who could look to either locking in their key contractors through contract extensions, or considering longer 12 to 18 month contract periods for new hires.

According to Sierra, while it is 'absurd' to think of employees truly having a passion for the company itself, a workplace that provides enough intellectual stimulation can encourage employees to stay there.

"When employees are supported in their passion for their work, they tend to let some of that passion spill over to their employer," she observed.

"It's like someone who has a passion for digital photography, and feels passionate about Photoshop," she said. "They aren't really passionate for Photoshop -- the passion is for photography -- but Photoshop gets to ride along."

"That's how it is with employers who give the passions for their employees a chance to thrive; the employees' passion for their work casts a glow back on the company that makes that happen," she said.

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CW: Affiliate marketing scam spells trouble for Fairfax Digital

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Australian new media giant Fairfax Digital has come under fire for its connections with a fraudulent search marketing campaign. The campaign, which drew traffic to Fairfax-owned RSVP.com.au by manipulating search engine results, has sparked debate on issues in the $1b affiliate marketing industry.

The scam was discovered last week by blogger Mark Fletcher, who also founded and owns dating Web site 3LOVES.

"We were just doing some searching and saw that a '3loves' site came up in Google's search results," he said. "We clicked on the link that was there in the natural results, and it took us across to RSVP."

Fletcher's investigations into Google's cache of the linked page revealed RomanceDating.com.au, a cloaked page rife with keywords to do with 3LOVES, sex and dating. When viewed from a normal Web browser, however, Web surfers were simply redirected to Fairfax Digital's RSVP dating Web site.

The cloaking technique was similar to that once employed by BMW's German Web site, in which the page displays itself differently depending on if it is being viewed by a Web browser or a search engine. It was this technique that led to the delisting of BMW.de from Google in February last year.

"That cache is evidence of very clever SEO [Search Engine Optimisation] tactics that are being used - not only for 3LOVES but also for other online dating sites - all designed to capture interest in those sites and funnel it across to RSVP," Fletcher said.

Besides 3LOVES, Fletcher has discovered some 15 other dating Web sites that were targeted by the same marketing campaign, including Adult Match Maker, HornyMatcher and ezifriends.

Romancedating.com.au was found to be operated by a 'rogue affiliate' of Melbourne-based affiliate network, Commission Monster, of whom Fairfax Digital is a client. The affiliate network operates by recruiting publishers who create and manage Web campaigns, and offers commission-based payments on the traffic generated by each campaign.

According to Commission Monster's Strategic Director Peter Bojanac, the network was unaware of its rogue affiliate's dubious tactics until coming across its mention in Fletcher's blog.

"Basically, how we found out about it was through his [Fletcher's] blog," Bojanac said. "We ceased the campaign under the terms and conditions of Commission Monster, killed all the links and investigated into that particular campaign."

RSVP Marketing Manager Lija Jarvis said that this has been the first incident of search engine manipulation involving Fairfax Digital in its two-and-a-half years of affiliate marketing, and will not deter its marketing strategy or affect its relationship with Commission Monster.

"We've always been very, very careful about validating our affiliates," she said. "In the two-and-a-half years in which Fairfax Digital has been applying affiliate marketing, this was the first time we've had an issue and he [the rogue affiliate] was banned from the network as soon as the issue was in light."

Although the cloaking techniques employed by the affiliate advertiser were comparable to those leading to BMW.de's delisting, Jarvis is confident that RSVP is too far removed from the offending Web site to be penalised by Google.

"Google won't penalise somebody who hasn't done the manipulation," she said. "This is a situation where RSVP do not own the domain that has manipulated the results and therefore, we can't be penalised for someone else's doings."

Meanwhile, Fletcher has raised the issue with Google and is convinced that something has to be done.

"I think that Fairfax and RSVP has to assume some responsibility for this," he said. "The fact that RSVP was benefiting from this behaviour, and that they were paying for a marketing technique that they know has had problems in the past, suggests to me that they can't say that their hands are completely clean in this."

While Google declined to comment on Fletcher's complaint, its Webmaster Guidelines includes specific instructions against cloaking techniques: "Don't deceiving your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users."

Both Fletcher and Bojanac agreed that while the potentials of affiliate marketing are great, there are yet some hurdles to do with the regulation of affiliate strategies that have to be overcome.

The burden of responsibility in affiliate marketing campaigns is a question that requires careful consideration and public debate, Fletcher said, suggesting that rules of self regulation should be formulated and implemented with the help of the ACCC.

Bojanac said that Commission Monster is currently working with Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA), the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and other affiliate networks in efforts to develop and implement industry standards.

"They [Fraudulent Web pages] are a minority in the industry, and it is a standard that, as a business, we don't like and don't condone," he said. "If it does occur, we end the relationship with the affiliate who does that."

"At the end of the day, we're trying to be as proactive as possible with regards to the industry, the breach of search engine guidelines and the breach of industry standards," he said.

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IMAGE: New 'CrackBerry' rehab site aimed at BlackBerry addicts

Created for Computerworld Australia's Mobility and Wireless section: