Twenty twenty-three, what a year. I’ve met some amazing people this year, a lot of whom are in the public service. You know who you are. I am happy to know you. Those who champion the good in our society. Those who offer alternatives to things that harm society. Those who create good in this […]
Category: politics
Local, national and international politics.
More than a single print brand
[Cross-posted from Lucire] Lucire will get a sister title in print. As the only magazine from New Zealand that’s licensed internationally—as far as I know—we could do one of two things: not pursue new titles because no one else does this work in this country, or expand our horizons further because no one else […]
Most of HR isn’t about finding the right candidate
A friend in the UK recently told me: I read how companies say they cannot find anyone to fill their roles, and I have a bunch of very talented, highly qualified friends who are out of work who can’t find anything. Having looked into this locally, it’s far from being a strictly UK problem. I […]
Read More… from Most of HR isn’t about finding the right candidate
A second excellent piece by Eda Tang: where New Zealand Chinese Language Week gets its money
Eda Tang’s excellent piece revealing that New Zealand Chinese Language Week receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Chinese Communist Party came out last week, but unfortunately illness kept me from blogging about it properly. It was to have been my final post for September. Many of us suspected this from the start, […]
Being part of the problem, but not seeing it
There’s no big secret that I changed high schools, from one where the experience was less than stellar to Scots College, where I felt like I fitted perfectly. During my second mayoral campaign, an old boy of the first place, Rongotai College, wrote to me via my feedback form sitting on his high horse, wondering […]
Read More… from Being part of the problem, but not seeing it
Google News continues bias against independent media
This is by no means a new complaint, but if you want to give a non-sinister explanation, then the idea that Google is too poor to build its search capability has to be one of them. And that it’s been poor for the good part of a decade. More sinister is the idea that all […]
Read More… from Google News continues bias against independent media
From the fediverse: saving the news from Big Tech, and why you shouldn’t use Brave browser
Excellent links by way of the fediverse today. First up, Cory Doctorow about saving the news from Big Tech, with sentiments that aren’t far off my own, many of which have been recorded on this blog. His post is from June 2023. Highlights include this on contextual advertising: In studies, these contextual ads perform slightly […]
Company founders, talk about your businesses and the great work they do
When I launched Lucire into print in 2004, it brought with it some unwelcome elements. On the plus side, it raised the company’s profile and no doubt that helped sales. No one had ever taken a website into print before, with the exception of Yahoo Internet Life, as far as I know. Certainly no one […]
Read More… from Company founders, talk about your businesses and the great work they do
From a marketing perspective, the coronation was out of sync
Market orientation suggests that you should base your marketing on what the client wants. In basic terms, put yourself in the customer’s shoes. There are plenty of studies that back this up, beginning roughly when the 1970s became the 1980s. So if the British people are going through a cost-of-living crisis, then it would pay […]
Read More… from From a marketing perspective, the coronation was out of sync
If you take out Tiktok, then why not Meta, too?
The Hon Debbie Ngarewa-Packer MP was right when she questioned our government’s decision to ban Tiktok from parliamentary devices. If it’s about foreigners getting hold of data, then why not ban Facebook and Instagram? Last I looked, Tiktok had not, unlike Facebook, been party to any genocides. Parliamentary Services says at least Meta is American […]
Read More… from If you take out Tiktok, then why not Meta, too?