the profiles

The Guides are supplemented by profiles that offer background information or consider issues in more detail. They include:

     Anti-Discrimination

The profile identifies Australian and overseas anti-discrimination legislation and agencies of relevance for discussion about online vilification, free speech and respect for surfers with visual/motor difficulties. It includes an overview of literature and a timeline of anti-discrimination development in Australia.

     Auctions and e-trading

The profile provides an introduction to online C2C, B2C and B2B auctions (such as eBay), dynamic pricing schemes, shopbots and auction bots, regulatory issues and consumer self-help. currently under development

     auDA and the dot-au space

The profile offers an introduction to the body that administers the dot-au domain space. It discusses auDA's history, structure, achievements, legal basis and proposals for reshaping the dot-au space.

     Australian Privacy Regimes

The profile considers the range of Commonwealth and state/territory privacy legislation and industry codes in Australia.

It includes a detailed analysis of the federal Privacy Act, along with archival, medical, financial and telecommunications legislation. It identifies state law and protocols. The profile discusses formal codes of practice developed by industry associations and by other bodies. It also includes a chronology of Australian privacy development.

     Censorship in Australia and New Zealand

A profile with a history, with bibliography and a timeline, of censorship in Australia and New Zealand from the 1850s onwards

     Communication revolutions

The Revolutions profile considers past communications revolutions, examining economic and technology studies, histories and other writing.

     Digital Divides

The Divides profile discusses debate about digital divides, looking at international initiatives and policy studies before examining national and regional projects.

     Domains and the DNS

This profile offers an introduction to the Domain Name System (DNS), exploring gTLDs, ccTLDs, 2LDs and alternative root schemes.

     E-commerce ADR

The profile highlights regulatory studies, industry reports, pilot projects and academic research into alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes for B2C and B2B electronic commerce.

     Email, SMS and IM

An introduction to technical, economic and cultural aspects of electronic mail, chat and short message/instant message systems (SMS and IM). The profile highlights issues such as spam, defamation, copyright, netiquette, advertising and liability.

     ICANN and the UDRP

The ICANN profile supplies an introduction to the operation of ICANN, the most contentious agency for governance of the net. It also covers the UDRP - a process for resolving disputes about the ownership of domain names.

     Media Groups

The Media groups profile offers a map of around 75 major media groups, particularly those with a substantial Australian presence, as an aid in understanding electronic publishing and the new economy. It points to industry studies and writing about individual groups. It supplies a chronology for most groups (useful in making sense of 'merge & churn') and an indication of what they own.

     Metadata, Engines and Directories

A brief introduction to the mysteries of metadata (the information used to identify documents on the web), to search engines, directories and initiatives such as UDDI.

     News sources

There's a multi-page profile on internet news sources: feeds and journals of particular value for keeping up with developments in the law of cyberspace, new media technologies, marketing and economics. Our own weekly news site Analysphere is online and free.

     Print and the book

As background to the electronic publishing guide the profile considers printing, reading and the book: publishing, typography, literacy, illustration, libraries and collecting, retailing and the book in the digital era.

     Surveillance and Identification

The profile highlights writing about the 'surveillance state' (whether involving government agencies or the media), identity schemes such as passports and national identification cards, biometrics and other authentication technologies, conspiracy theories and fiction about pervasive surveillance in the digital environment.

     Timeline

As an aid for understanding continuities and disruptions in communications and publishing (and simply for fun) there's a supplementary seven-part timeline. Several of the other parts feature more detailed chronologies

     Evolution of the web

The profile discusses the evolution of the web, past and future. It points to resources for the web's history, biographies and studies of companies and institutions.

     Web logs and blogging

There's a three page introduction to blog software, regulatory issues, sociology, the 'new journalism' and weblog statistics.

Individual guides point to shorter, more specific profiles such as one on electronic paper technology.





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