<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=UTF-8">
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="GtkHTML/3.18.3">
</HEAD>
<BODY LINK="#0000ff">
On Wed, 2010-07-07 at 23:17 +1000, Skeeve Stevens wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
<rant><BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Because on the whole Australians are lazy who don’t get off their ass and just assume that ‘someone else’ will do what needs to be done... which is rarely true. If this country didn’t have mandatory voting you’d be lucky to have a 25% turnout.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
How many of us are members of ISOC-AU, Comms Alliance or other groups? And if you are – attend meetings and actually get involved?<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
This industry is also the same for the most part. When we were trying to get James Spenceley elected to APNIC EC – we had a pathetic response, and even worse trying to get Jonny Martin elected at the last APNIC meeting (thanks to those who did make the effort). I am amazed how many people just wasted their votes because spending 5 minutes to fill out a form was too hard. We just don’t seem to be bothered being able to spend a small amount of time doing something to help our own situation.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Imagine if a LOT of ISP’s agreed on an ‘Internet Black Out Day’ – where we gave a couple of weeks notice and then for a whole day or just hours, shutdown ALL user connectivity – that would be front page everywhere... and let people know WHY – because the government was wanting to censor the internet. If you affected tens of thousands of people for a period it would turn a lot of people against the government and create a lot of awareness. But do you think we would/could be brave enough to take such a drastic action? Doubtful.... We’re not that brave enough to get out of our comfort zone – we have shareholders and boards and customers we can’t possibly upset. I doubt too many people would leave if they understood why we did it. Since when was something worth fighting for without some cost?<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
So what will we be brave enough to do? Bitch a little bit on mailing lists? Maybe a blog here and there? Wow, lets twitter or set our Facebook status! That will make a load of difference.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR>
Bloody well said!<BR>
<BR>
<PRE>
</PRE>
</BODY>
</HTML>