DRM - The MPAA says "if we frustrate the consumer, they will simply pirate the content"

An interesting DRM article at Yahoo News reports on a recent MPAA conference. Especially interesting is the acknowledgement that:

...the MPAA recognized the need to create an interoperability DRM solution (or, a DRM ecosystem as he described it) and said that "the consumer, if he or she has already purchased licensed material, should certainly be able to transfer that content to any other new or old device."

If other content distributors recognise this fact and actually follow through we might actually get people wanting to obey the law.

Technology the key to improved OECD rankings

Technology is a key enabler in making the New Zealand workforce more efficient and competitive in the global market. New Zealand's decline seem to be the overarching trend in the OECD rankings and paint a rather gloomy picture according to David Skilling, director of the New Zealand Institute.

In order to reverse the trend we need to work smarter not harder. The New Zealand workforce is one of the longest working in the OECD - and yet is one of the less efficient - primarily because of a lack of "tools" that improve efficiency and therefore productivity.

The following article at Computerworld provides a overview of the keynote speech delivered at the IBM Forum 06 by David Skilling.