Hey everyone!

Here's my final assessment post for New Communication Technologies this semester, and hopefully I go out with a bang! The topic for this week is Politics and the Internet. It is interesting to see how today's politicians are using the Internet to enhance their campaigns, especially social media (excellent for reaching young voters). A point of debate in democratic countries like Australia is the censorship of the Internet, and whether it should be allowed. The basis for a democracy is a government for the people voted by the people, and one of its key aspects is that almost everyone has a say. People should also have a right to access whatever information they want (even if it is anti-government, everyone has an opinion). There are a couple of forms of censorship. One form is where pages with certain keywords are blocked from being accessed, such as in China, where censorship is so rife almost nothing about the government can be found on the Internet. If a democratic country censors the internet as much as China, can it really be called a democracy anymore? The other form, and probably the better option, is censoring websites with suspect material, like pornography. The Australian Government's "Clean Feed" scheme was touted as a "cyber-safety" measure, protecting children from bad websites. However critics are concerned that the censorship will grow and start affecting the accuracy of search engines, among other things (Electroninc Frontiers Australia, https://www.efa.org.au/2008/10/16/efa-alarmed-at-creeping-clean-feed/). 

Another issue that can arise from the Government's increasing involvement in the internet is the risk of sensitive information being acquired by hackers. There are amazing "good" hackers, and they are called 'white-hat' hackers, people specifically hired by a government or organisation to test their internet security. They deliberately try to hack the government or organisation and are able to find areas that need to be beefed-up in order to protect them from "bad" hackers (well bad in the government or organisation's eyes anyway). 

References for Tutorial Questions:

Electronic Frontiers Australia, 2008, "EFA alarmed at 'creeping' clean feed", Retrieved from: https://www.efa.org.au/2008/10/16/efa-alarmed-at-creeping-clean-feed/, Viewed 30 August, 2013. 

Wikipedia, 2013, "White hat (computer security)", Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_hat_(computer_security), Viewed 30 August, 2013. 

Now this week the Tutorial Task asked me to figure out my political beliefs and apply them to some questions. I did find the questions somewhat challenging because since I don't have a vested interest in Australian politics, I don't really have a set of political beliefs. L@G recommended I do the ABC's Vote Compass, and after filling out the questionnaire, the results surprised me. It said I agree most with the Greens' beliefs, followed by Labor and then the Liberals. Some of the questions asked me to do certain tasks whilst sticking to my political beliefs, but since I don't have anything concrete, I couldn't answer them to the best of my ability. Even though I don't strongly associate with a particular party, there are still plenty of things that you can do on the internet that can be classed as political, like e-petitions. Just because I'm not interested in politics doesn't mean I can't participate in a petition to change a law I don't like. And a petition is perfect for a democratic government because it gives the people a voice, which is what democracy is all about. 

One of the other questions was about the NBN, and when it's coming to my place. This question actually interested me, because I read a newspaper the other week and it said that the NBN was being rolled out in Redbank and Goodna, which aren't that far from my place. After looking up the NBN's website, I found out that construction on the NBN in my area will start within a year. I am looking forward to lightning-fast internet speeds, but am concerned about firstly connecting our house up to it and also the cost involved (will Telstra provide NBN service?). 

References for Tutorial Task:

ABC, 2013, "Vote Compass", Retrieved from: http://www.abc.net.au/votecompass/, Viewed 30 August, 2013. 

NBN Co Ltd., 2013, "NBN rollout map", Retrieved from: http://www.nbnco.com.au/when-do-i-get-it/rollout-map.html, Viewed 30 August, 2013. 

I hope you've all enjoyed reading my blogs over these past few weeks, and I will make sure I post further in the future. 

Thankyou so much everyone! 
Josh