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An Aussie Icon
The public deification of the Last Anzac, Alec Campbell, proves the adage that when you scratch the surface of an icon you'll invariably find a far more interesting reality.
Interview: Just Done It?
Nikewatch's Tim Connor gives his verdict on the global giant's latest innovation: ethics.
Tribute: Lest We Forget
Rowan Cahill goes looking for the real Alec Campbell and finds a story the Telegraph will not be publishing.
History: Solidarity Forever
Neale Towart looks at the enduring relationship between the union movement and the defence forces and finds it all comers down to solidarity.
Technology: Unblocking the Superhighway
Michael Gadiel argues the case for Open Standards as a way of breaking the grip of big business on the IT industry.
International: Gloves Off
Workers and their unions are facing a battering throughout South America as a wave of economic turmoil sweeps across the continent.
Unions: Out Of Work
Jim Marr travels to the frontline to witness the impact of the Howard Government's decision to close Employment National.
Review: Strange Business
Tara de Boehmler looks at a new flick that exposes the dark side of the Material World.
Poetry: The Lawyer's Lament
One of the big issues of recent weeks has been the explosion of insurance costs for public and community events, many of which have had to be cancelled as a result.
Satire: Government Mourns Loss Of Last Anzac
Treasurer Peter Costello has lamented the death of Alec Campbell, the last surviving ANZAC, bemoaning the lost revenue the government could have gained at his expense following the Budget.
 Workers Honour Radical Digger
Retailers in Outworker Spotlight
Nurses, Teachers Snare Agenda
Syd in Vicious Backpacker Stand-off
Microsoft Monopoly Under Challenge
Kiddies Not Exactly Having a Ball
NSW ALP Faces Asylum Seeker Test
Canberra Acts on Industrial Manslaughter
Carr Delivers on Dismissals
Santa Claus Strikers on Christmas Island
Abbott Believes Management Should Dictate
Low Paid Not To Blame For Beer Price Rise
Casino Award Covers Eastern States
Security Workers Want Bosses Sacked
Sydneysiders Rally For Western Sahara
Activists Notebook
The Soapbox
The Cold Hard Truth
The Rail,Tram and Bus Union's Nick Lewocki argues our hard-hearted treatment of refugees is a betrayal of our proud immigrant history. The Locker Room
The South Melbourne Football Club Pty Ltd
A spectre is haunting football; it is the spectre of revolution; a free market revolution, writes Phil Doyle. Bosswatch
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Jobs are under threat in the textile and trye markets; but there's better news in the Newcastle mills and the Nike factories. Postcard
Gas Treaty - The Raw Deal
East Timor is getting less then 40%�not 90% royalties from the oil and gas revenue in the Timor Sea, reports HT Lee. Week in Review
Origin of the Species
Phil Gould, Andrew Johns and Danny Buderus may have buried the laughable notion that Rugby Union is the sport they play in heaven, but outside Stadium Australia life goes on, as Jim Marr discovers.
Dancing With Trotsky? Not Bloody Likely.
Your Tools Page is Down
Big Dave Foster
Give Us a Click!
Will the Real Mark Latham Please Stand Up?
Unified Labour
The Last Survivor
Not Hate Mail
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News
Microsoft Monopoly Under Challenge
The Carr Government will be called on to end the Microsoft stranglehold on public sector IT by moving to adopt Open Standards at this week's NSW ALP Conference.
Under the plan, part of a global push to break the Bill Gates monopoly, all state government projects would be required to deploy technology that is not reliant on Microsoft codes.
Instead, it would need to adopt the 'Open Standards' designed to allow a range of service providers to build and maintain IT infrastructure. The move is seen as a major step toward competition within the IT sector.
"When radio began in the 1920s, stations sprang up all over the spectrum," IT committee chair Michael Gadiel says.
"Many of the first stations required you to have special radios to pick them up, because of the characteristics of the spectrum they used to broadcast. We currently face a similar problem on the internet.
"Over time Government and industry agreed on public standards that allowed any radio manufacturer to build sets that could pick up all stations - or at least those that abided by agreed technical standards for broadcasting ... this was the leg up the radio industry needed, and it never looked back."
The policy committee argues that Open Standards have been a way of promoting competition across a range of industries and are now being pioneered on the Internet.
The New Zealand Government has already embraced this policy, publishing the standards it expects its institutions to comply with, with a few to international standards already being managed by independent standards bodies.
The call is one of the key recommendations of the ALP's IT committee, which presented a bi-partisan report to the State Conference.
Other recommendations include:
- ensuring all IT purchases meet legal minimum employment standards
- imposing controls on the use of email surveillance in the workplace
- and boosting funding for Internet and IT literacy programs.
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Issue 137 contents
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