Informational Asymmetry and the Structural Impact of Wikileaks on the Modern State System
A Notion by Marshall King – Originally Posted at The State of the Situation
In the rush to cope with (and hopefully say something interesting really quickly about) the WikiLeaks phenomenon, I feel that many mainstream commentators have missed a major point that demands first observation and then discussion. There will of course be endless debate as to whether this or that leak was in the public interest, but these debates fail to observe the fundamental structural change that is occurring to the relations of international and domestic governance as a result of this saga. Read this post…
There’s more to the NBN than YouTube
A Notion by Marian Dalton – Originally Posted at The Conscience Vote
The government released the business case for its National Broadband Network last month. In a marathon media conference, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy and NBNCo CEO Mike Quigley talked up the high points.
In a nutshell, it boils down to: the business plan was examined and found to be good. At the most conservative estimates of uptake, taxpayers would still see their investment (now set at $27.5 billion) returned with a 7% gain. Wholesale prices range from $24 per month for 12 Mbps to $150 per month for 1 Gbps. Pressed to give an idea of what a retail figure might be, Conroy favoured the questioner with a pitying look and pointed out that you don’t show your hand when you’re trying to build a competitive market. Read this post…
