Bob Mills

Congratulations on the blog - about time. A couple of comments:

This is a Stephen Conroy hosted blog, not Lindsay Tanner's. So Senator Conroy, please drop the whole ISP filter thing as soon as Senator Fielding lets you get away with it. As stupid as any of his other contributions to public life so far.

While we're all internet nuts, the digital economy isn't totally about the internet. It's about most forms of electronic communication. So I want to throw in a thought about digital TV (and by the way, why are they called set top boxes when they couldn't possibly sit on top of any box that could use them?).

I'm a fan of digital TV but wonder about the blank incomprehension of most people I have enthused to about it - I'm probably in an older age group than most of your bloggers. A lot of older people rely on their TVs for entertainment, information, even just simply for company of a sort and I would guess that most of them have not the faintest idea that analogue is on the way out. While the free to air companies' promotion is a start, it isn't going to help people who've only just started to master a remote - and need help to change the batteries. Digital TV is going to be a huge thing in these people's lives and, Senator Conroy, I believe it is your Department's responsibility to make absolutely sure that the change works smoothly.

In the consultative spirit of the blog, may I suggest that one way to do this without the usual digital billion-dollar bill would be to use the voluntary resources of the community so the digital savvy can initiate the naive. I'm thinking of service clubs, senior school children, even (gasp) Scouts. Who knows, in the process of fixing up the tele, there might even be a few relationships start up and a few isolated older people end up not quite so all on their own, just them and their TV.

Bob Mills