Surfarama

Tonight I am blogging from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (it's hot).

Been up here all week participating in an enterprise workshop...all business processes and change management. After a couple of Gin & Tonics (strictly to keep the mosquitos at bay) I am feeling alittle philosophical...so here's my thought of the day:

Business is an art, not a science.
But it is an art in the execution, not the conception.

Discuss!

Loic Le Meur blogs about how cheap broadband internet access is in Hong Kong...US$16/month for 10Mbps both ways.

I've blogged before about the outlandish broadband pricing here in New Zealand...so this just winds me up big time. I pay equivalent of US$37/mth for 2Mbps down (only 128kps up)!!

Clearly Hong Kong is a different market, characterised by super high density and thus lower physical infrastructure costs. And I certainly don't begrudge companies taking a profit, because at the end of the day pricing is always driven by the market, ie. its worth what people will pay...

I am just grumbling about the effect of the virtual monopoly Telecom has in New Zealand (underpinned by control over the physical assets), and the impact the this has on the opportunity for real competition.

Pretty much all we can do is wait patiently for the the ready availability of low cost wireless infrastructure so that real competition can emerge, not the kind of competition where the biggest competitor is also the supplier to the industry.

Bring on the WiMax or the UWB or anything that makes it easy for wireless ISPs to route around Telecom.

UPDATE: In case you're wondering, my ISP is Slingshot, and they have the best value broadband plans of any provider I have come across in New Zealand. I have literally just signed up, so I need to give it a few months before I'll give them an unqualified recommendation (takes a while to make sure the customer service is up to snuff), but so far it has been a smooth ride.

Blogarama seems to be having some trouble (at the time of writing). Hope it's OK...

I launched Blogarama many moons ago, although I ultimately sold it, so I would really like to see it continue to prosper...that, and Colins a good bloke.

UPDATE: Blogarama is back with a new improved look...what a week they've had!

Bugger...no sooner do we leave Melbourne and I miss out on seeing Joi Ito and Lawrence Lessig do a lecture on the Creative Commons. Hopefully it is recorded and made available for download pour mon ipod.

This flickr user has a great collection of black and white skateboarding photos...Here's a secret, I would love to head down the local ramp occaisionally...if only bald, 33 year old blokes didn't look like such dorks on a skateboard. I can get away with snowboarding thanks to bulky winter gear and a nice woolly beanie ;)