Plenty of cities boast their tech bonafides. Amazon’s HQ2 list for example, mapped the top 20 tech hotspots across North America — from California to Tennessee to Massachusetts. The process attracted 238 proposals in total. Tech is a broad umbrella, and unsurprisingly each city tends to specialise in an aspect of tech or two. This... Continue Reading →
Less than two weeks out from the first Democratic primary in Iowa, the field still consists of a dozen Presidential hopefuls. The candidates run the entire spectrum from anti-establishment, anti-billionaire Bernie Sanders, to pro-establishment, actual-billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Despite how much time social media, privacy, data, election fraud and tech-competition issues have filled the airways over... Continue Reading →
“If a worker falls behind [their productivity target], they are subject to disciplinary action. In many warehouses, termination is an automated process… irrespective of the personal circumstances that led to their “mistakes.”” AINOW’s 2019 Report reads like a series of IRL Black Mirror episodes. Citing examples from “AI-enabled management of workers, to algorithmic determinations of benefits and social services, to... Continue Reading →
This note is an abbreviated talk I gave at the Department of Energy’s Rare Earths Supply Chain Workshop in Golden, Colorado. For a long time, most of the presentations I did on the resources sector started with a chart that looks like this [chart of mining investment exploding up and then coming off the... Continue Reading →
A gorgeous hour drive from the centre of Phoenix sits the somewhat in-audacious town of Superior, Arizona. Surrounded by rolling desert hills and cacti, Superior makes you forget that you’ve just left the fifth largest city in America. It could just as well be (it was) the backdrop of Bonanza. Home to just 3000... Continue Reading →
To date, the strength of the US economy has been a pillar of the President’s credibility. In the final year of the Obama Administration, the economy grew just 1.6 per cent. Since the Trump Administration came to power, the economy has grown at about 2.5 per cent. The stock market has also reached record heights. And... Continue Reading →
Conferences that start before 9am, or on a Sunday, are just plain rude. Sorry Internet Governance Forum, but I had to get that off my chest. To my left sits Facebook exec number 1. He seems (almost contemptuously) disinterested in what’s being said and has barley looked up from his iPhone all morning. To my right,... Continue Reading →
This is taken from my talk to the Department of State’s celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Moon landing. Some of you may already know about the role Australia played back in 1969. Others might be wondering why is there an Australian on stage when this is the US Government’s official celebration of the 50th Anniversary... Continue Reading →
This week’s edition features an abbreviated version of a talk I gave at a reception celebrating the 50thAnniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings, and Australia’s involvement in beaming those images around the world. Our special guests included NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, NSF Director France Cordova, former I went looking for a story that would... Continue Reading →
This week, a drowsy US economy officially entered its longest expansionary period on record, 121 successive months of growth. Starting with the end of the GFC, the economy has been on a road of recovery ever since. The previous record was the 10 years that followed the 1991 recession. Much has been made of this achievement, and with... Continue Reading →
TALES FROM THE LONG TAIL 