PLUS D: 'What Google should be like'

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks speaks to the media and members of the public from a balcony at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Picture: AP file Source: AP

WIKILEAKS has launched its own search engine.

At midnight this morning - via Skype, from the Equadorian embassy - Julian Assange unveiled the new search engine named PLUS D (The Public Library of United States Diplomacy).

The search engine is a portal to an archive of 1.7 million US diplomatic cables which include 250,000 leaked State Department cables that were made public during Cablegate, the time in US history where memos of Henry Kissinger's time as US Secretary of State were made public.

And more than 251,000 of those cables relate to events or communications between 2003-2010.

Assange confirmed that the US state department documents listed on PLUS D are already declassified and much of the information has already been available in the US National Archives and Record Agency.

Assange said that the range of publicly-available documents range in the number of two million and were therefore not efficient to search through.

"Just look at The Kissinger Cables to be released today, they are technically in the public domain," he said… They were not practical or efficient for people to make sense of them or to use them.

"There would be about 1.7 new PDF files of information so they're not essentially usable to do sophisticated searches across the lot."

The search engine is a marked change from WikiLeaks who have previously relied on "old school" style of journalism. During his press conference Assange said Plus D would make it easier for journalists to conduct investigations, by using a search algorithm that "rivalled Google".

"It is a search system that I am quite proud of," he said. "One of our people recently said this is what Google should be like.

"This is a search system that investigative journalists can use effectively."

View the original article here

PLUS D: 'What Google should be like'

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks speaks to the media and members of the public from a balcony at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Picture: AP file Source: AP

WIKILEAKS has launched its own search engine.

At midnight this morning - via Skype, from the Equadorian embassy - Julian Assange unveiled the new search engine named PLUS D (The Public Library of United States Diplomacy).

The search engine is a portal to an archive of 1.7 million US diplomatic cables which include 250,000 leaked State Department cables that were made public during Cablegate, the time in US history where memos of Henry Kissinger's time as US Secretary of State were made public.

And more than 251,000 of those cables relate to events or communications between 2003-2010.

Assange confirmed that the US state department documents listed on PLUS D are already declassified and much of the information has already been available in the US National Archives and Record Agency.

Assange said that the range of publicly-available documents range in the number of two million and were therefore not efficient to search through.

"Just look at The Kissinger Cables to be released today, they are technically in the public domain," he said… They were not practical or efficient for people to make sense of them or to use them.

"There would be about 1.7 new PDF files of information so they're not essentially usable to do sophisticated searches across the lot."

The search engine is a marked change from WikiLeaks who have previously relied on "old school" style of journalism. During his press conference Assange said Plus D would make it easier for journalists to conduct investigations, by using a search algorithm that "rivalled Google".

"It is a search system that I am quite proud of," he said. "One of our people recently said this is what Google should be like.

"This is a search system that investigative journalists can use effectively."

View the original article here

Australia should build a Silicon Valley

Ben Huh, co-creator of I Can Has Cheezburgers, picture in 2008 in New York City. Picture: Joe Kohen/WireImage Source: Getty Images

• LOLcats entrepreneur Ben Huh talks to news.com.au
• Huh says Australia should build its own Silicon Valley
• 'National broadband is a great idea, but at what cost?'

THE MAN who introduced the web to LOLcats visited Australia last week, and had a few things to say about the tech culture Down Under.

South Korean entrepreneur Ben Huh, bought popular website I Can Has Cheezburger - a site dedicated to cute pictures of cats with misspelled captions - in 2007, when the site was in its infancy.

Since then the site has made Huh a multi-millionaire and he has gone on to launch other popular websites including Know Your Meme and Failblog - which is dedicated to documenting human stupidity.

In town to promote computer company, Dell, Huh told news.com.au that he was really excited to be here, but was sad Australia was losing so much of its tech talent to the US. The Federal Government should be trying to build a Silicon Valley of its own and encourage local talent to stay and work locally.

"The culture of entrepreneurism is there, he said. People are willing to take risks but we need to be willing to be bolder about the challenges they tackle.

"Policies and government structures play a big role in that."

He said Australia was making progress but was not there yet.

"Australia is suffering from a brain drain where risk takers are moving to the US," he said.

One thing the government should do to encourage innovation locally is stop taxing people for money they don't yet have, he said.

In Australia if you are given stock options in a start-up company, you are taxed for those shares immediately, even if you have yet to earn anything from them.

In the US, people do not have to pay taxes on stock options until they have been paid out, he said.

"Imagine walking into a casino and they told you upon entry 'we're going to tax you now for money you haven't earned, in case you earn $10,000'," he said.

"At face value that seems like a terrible idea; having to pay taxes on something that may not be worth anything."

Huh said the entrepreneurial spirit was strong in Australians. He said the government should be cultivating that by allowing them to foster a local community of innovators and allow them to keep challenging themselves.

"Nothing is essential to innovation except making it easier to take risks, " he said.

But will the National Broadband Network help in fostering this innovation? Huh said government-funded fibre was a huge political risk but also a little bit brave.

"Fibre is not essential to innovation, but it will lead to innovation," he said. "I just don't know how much."

Huh said if it comes down to return on investment, fibre was best left up to private industry.

"But if the government wants to spend that money, then that's their choice. It's a pretty brave move.

"I think national broadband is a great idea but at what cost?"

Huh said the US had "terrible fibre" but said the best stuff could be found in Kansas where Google was installing fibre optic broadband "because iIt has decided to dump a crap load of money there".

He said part of the problem in the US was the lack of competition. Huh said the Australian Federal Government should learn from the US example by creating competition between Internet providers.

He acknowledged though, that it would take "political courage".

"Spending billions on infrastructure to wire up the country ... you'd need to weigh up the odds," he said

"A lot of people smarter than me are trying to solve the problem but $34 billion (to build the NBN) doesn't seem like it's going to lead to innovation."

View the original article here

Australia should build a Silicon Valley

Ben Huh, co-creator of I Can Has Cheezburgers, picture in 2008 in New York City. Picture: Joe Kohen/WireImage Source: Getty Images

• LOLcats entrepreneur Ben Huh talks to news.com.au
• Huh says Australia should build its own Silicon Valley
• 'National broadband is a great idea, but at what cost?'

THE MAN who introduced the web to LOLcats visited Australia last week, and had a few things to say about the tech culture Down Under.

South Korean entrepreneur Ben Huh, bought popular website I Can Has Cheezburger - a site dedicated to cute pictures of cats with misspelled captions - in 2007, when the site was in its infancy.

Since then the site has made Huh a multi-millionaire and he has gone on to launch other popular websites including Know Your Meme and Failblog - which is dedicated to documenting human stupidity.

In town to promote computer company, Dell, Huh told news.com.au that he was really excited to be here, but was sad Australia was losing so much of its tech talent to the US. The Federal Government should be trying to build a Silicon Valley of its own and encourage local talent to stay and work locally.

"The culture of entrepreneurism is there, he said. People are willing to take risks but we need to be willing to be bolder about the challenges they tackle.

"Policies and government structures play a big role in that."

He said Australia was making progress but was not there yet.

"Australia is suffering from a brain drain where risk takers are moving to the US," he said.

One thing the government should do to encourage innovation locally is stop taxing people for money they don't yet have, he said.

In Australia if you are given stock options in a start-up company, you are taxed for those shares immediately, even if you have yet to earn anything from them.

In the US, people do not have to pay taxes on stock options until they have been paid out, he said.

"Imagine walking into a casino and they told you upon entry 'we're going to tax you now for money you haven't earned, in case you earn $10,000'," he said.

"At face value that seems like a terrible idea; having to pay taxes on something that may not be worth anything."

Huh said the entrepreneurial spirit was strong in Australians. He said the government should be cultivating that by allowing them to foster a local community of innovators and allow them to keep challenging themselves.

"Nothing is essential to innovation except making it easier to take risks, " he said.

But will the National Broadband Network help in fostering this innovation? Huh said government-funded fibre was a huge political risk but also a little bit brave.

"Fibre is not essential to innovation, but it will lead to innovation," he said. "I just don't know how much."

Huh said if it comes down to return on investment, fibre was best left up to private industry.

"But if the government wants to spend that money, then that's their choice. It's a pretty brave move.

"I think national broadband is a great idea but at what cost?"

Huh said the US had "terrible fibre" but said the best stuff could be found in Kansas where Google was installing fibre optic broadband "because iIt has decided to dump a crap load of money there".

He said part of the problem in the US was the lack of competition. Huh said the Australian Federal Government should learn from the US example by creating competition between Internet providers.

He acknowledged though, that it would take "political courage".

"Spending billions on infrastructure to wire up the country ... you'd need to weigh up the odds," he said

"A lot of people smarter than me are trying to solve the problem but $34 billion (to build the NBN) doesn't seem like it's going to lead to innovation."

View the original article here

Australia should build a Silicone Valley

Ben Huh, co-creator of I Can Has Cheezburgers, picture in 2008 in New York City. Picture: Joe Kohen/WireImage Source: Getty Images

• LOLcats entrepreneur Ben Huh talks to news.com.au
• Huh says Australia should build its own Silicon Valley
• 'National broadband is a great idea, but at what cost?'

THE MAN who introduced the web to LOLcats visited Australia last week, and had a few things to say about the tech culture Down Under.

South Korean entrepreneur Ben Huh, bought popular website I Can Has Cheezburger - a site dedicated to cute pictures of cats with misspelled captions - in 2007, when the site was in its infancy.

Since then the site has made Huh a multi-millionaire and he has gone on to launch other popular websites including Know Your Meme and Failblog - which is dedicated to documenting human stupidity.

In town to promote computer company, Dell, Huh told news.com.au that he was really excited to be here, but was sad Australia was losing so much of its tech talent to the US. The Federal Government should be trying to build a Silicon Valley of its own and encourage local talent to stay and work locally.

"The culture of entrepreneurism is there, he said. People are willing to take risks but we need to be willing to be bolder about the challenges they tackle.

"Policies and government structures play a big role in that."

He said Australia was making progress but was not there yet.

"Australia is suffering from a brain drain where risk takers are moving to the US," he said.

One thing the government should do to encourage innovation locally is stop taxing people for money they don't yet have, he said.

In Australia if you are given stock options in a start-up company, you are taxed for those shares immediately, even if you have yet to earn anything from them.

In the US, people do not have to pay taxes on stock options until they have been paid out, he said.

"Imagine walking into a casino and they told you upon entry 'we're going to tax you now for money you haven't earned, in case you earn $10,000'," he said.

"At face value that seems like a terrible idea; having to pay taxes on something that may not be worth anything."

Huh said the entrepreneurial spirit was strong in Australians. He said the government should be cultivating that by allowing them to foster a local community of innovators and allow them to keep challenging themselves.

"Nothing is essential to innovation except making it easier to take risks, " he said.

But will the National Broadband Network help in fostering this innovation? Huh said government-funded fibre was a huge political risk but also a little bit brave.

"Fibre is not essential to innovation, but it will lead to innovation," he said. "I just don't know how much."

Huh said if it comes down to return on investment, fibre was best left up to private industry.

"But if the government wants to spend that money, then that's their choice. It's a pretty brave move.

"I think national broadband is a great idea but at what cost?"

Huh said the US had "terrible fibre" but said the best stuff could be found in Kansas where Google was installing fibre optic broadband "because iIt has decided to dump a crap load of money there".

He said part of the problem in the US was the lack of competition. Huh said the Australian Federal Government should learn from the US example by creating competition between Internet providers.

He acknowledged though, that it would take "political courage".

"Spending billions on infrastructure to wire up the country ... you'd need to weigh up the odds," he said

"A lot of people smarter than me are trying to solve the problem but $34 billion (to build the NBN) doesn't seem like it's going to lead to innovation."

View the original article here