The Travels of the
Techno-Freedom-Fighter

Due to general youth negativity of the main stream media, I teamed up with Tom Dawkins who I had met through the National youth roundtable to put together a news and issues website to give young people a voice. Tom is one of the most dedicated people I have met, even though our politics are quite different I really do respect him for the achievements he has had. I learned a lot about communication and networking from him something that has held me in good sted.

We met over a coffee in Manuka and he showed me is business plan for the idea. Tom and his associate Carl had put together a great business plan. However Tom’s team mainly made up of university students lacked someone that had practical experience, as he put it, “put some rubber on the road”. His enthusiasm and drive was what made me ‘buy in’.

It was an exciting time for me as we where really doing something new, we where for the first time in Australia putting together something that might actually compete with the ‘old Media’ out there. I am constantly frustrated by the way that we are portrayed in the media. I really don’t think that it has much to do with the journalists as they are normally quite cool. It seems to me that it has a lot to do with the perspective of what the public wants and how that sells news paper.

The real issue was that at the time there where not a lot of “off the shelf” Content management systems. Not like now a days where you have things Mambo and PHPNuke. It was really quite cumbersome in the beginning to get articles up and running. There was always a divide between the geeks (who never went to Uni) and the Uni journos who where generating the content.

As the original technical director, and founding member, I used my skills and resources mainly that of Gladsoft Pty ltd to steer the website trough its first and second evolution. Once that was done see I was working with the Australian youth foundation, trough introductions I helped vibewire win its first grant. It was extremely exciting to be involved in such a fantastic project at the embryonic stage.

By the time in 2001 I departed for the internship with the UN, Tom had things pretty much under control, unfortunately by the time that I came back to Australia in 2002 I was to busy to get involved again, besides I work at my best as a mobilizer when things are just getting started. www.vibewire.net is still running today and is the premier independent youth media portal in Australia.