The NBN Company has passed a significant milestone with the awarding of its first contract for glass fibre cable - the intitial 300 kilometres - for the network that will ultimately connect homes and businesses across Australia.

Microsoft is to be queried by a parliamentary committee investigating cyber-crime over an embarrassing phishing attack on its Hotmail service that allowed unauthorised access to the personal details of up to 10,000 email users.

Australian government 2.0 advocates from the OpenAustralia.org initiative have been invited to attend the eDemocracy Summit 2009 UnConference in Berlin next week to swap ideas on open access information.

A mental health portal launched by the Australian National University that uses Web 2.0-style tools to "crowdsource" opinions about online treatment options aims to encourage young people to seek better health information and better outcomes.

Queensland resort and gated community Sanctuary Cove isn’t waiting for the National Broadband Network to roll past its upmarket residences, and will instead roll-out its own fibre to the home infrastructure in preparation for higher bandwidth services.

The National Broadband Network would drive job opportunities in regional Australia and help remote indigenous communities participate in the mainstream economy, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has told a conference in Geneva.

Tiny wireless internet providers servicing the bush face an uncertain future as regional subsidy programs are cut and the NBN Company considers satellite options, the founder of pioneering rural outfit Yless4U Anthony Goonan says.

The Global Financial Crisis, such as it was, will recede from voters' memories even faster than it took share markets by storm a year ago. And as much as the Rudd Government has enjoyed the ‘best crisis it could hope for,’ spruiking its heroics won’t get it too far with an electorate already starting to ask what have you done for me lately.

Job opportunities in Australia continued to surge during September with the number of job advertisements climbing more than 3.5 per cent, according to the latest Olivier Job Index numbers from recruitment firm Olivier Group.

The Howard Government was soft on Telstra because it wanted to maximise the company's sale price during the privatisation process, former competition tsar Allan Fels says.