I can’t recall what particular incident that had come under the media spotlight but it was something pretty large and then suddenly from one day to the next this new section appeared in the newspaper concerning what some of the bloggers in the afflicted areas were writing and publishing on the Internet.

Same happened on the television. Suddenly within a few months, starting with one and then gradually spreading, the media outlets began accepting that the voices of people living in certain areas close to / affected by certain incidents are important and carry an exclussive message.

Your average politician hasn’t grasped it yet however and one perfect example of that are the current DMCA-like laws that Australia may well adopt to the sole benefit of some, predominately overseas media companies.

Given the age of the average politicians we have I doubt very much they would be very receptive to picking up something new like computing technology and if they did, I doubt even more so that it would be free software.

And this is exactly why the old buggers won’t be re-elected again. Conservatist attitudes conflict with this rapidly changing information world. Once the current generation of teens become adults I don’t think that almost any major Australian party has a chance unless they seriously reconsider their information technology policies…

And on that topic, the German Greens are right there on the frontlines -> http://www.gruene.de

Cheers,

Pascal