I attended the Mandatory Internet Filtering protest held in Brisbane today. Here is my thoughts on the rally.
There was a good turnout of people considering the heat and humidity around at the time. 11am isn’t the best time for anything in Brisbane in summer, but when is a good time? I handed out some of the flyers and it makes me happy to know that others are interested in being informed on the issues.
The ABC and Brisbane Times (edit: updated link)have picked up the story, however it is a shame that the Courier-Mail (or as I like to call it, the Curious Snail), hasn’t as yet run anything. Shame, Courier-Mail. Shame.
It was a shame that some of the speakers were not heard by all due to megaphone issues — the megaphone wasn’t so mega. There was a good cross section of the community at the protest and considering it is hard to get a gathering of geeks in a place without connectivity it is a good first step.
I’ve read on Twitter that there was concern at the use of in-jokes on placard and how this does not have any meaning to the general layperson. However I think it is important to have this issue to relate to all. The in-jokes help some people feel included. Having a mix would be a good solution, and keeping in-jokes out of official flyers is good.
Where to from here? That’s for another time.