Australian Computer Society

Election'96 Internet Coverage

Background

Federal Elections 1996 - Computer Society in Live Internet Coverage from the Tally Room

Date: Friday, 1 March 1996 23:00 +11:00 (EST)

This is background to the coverage which will be provided via the Internet for the Australian Federal Election.

As noted in a press release issued by the Australian Computer Society yesterday I will be in the National Tally Room in Canberra on Saturday 2nd March.

The first images and text reports will be set at about Saturday, 2 March 1996 18:00 +1100 (EST). This will be from desk 346 in the Tally Room and roaming about with a wireless Internet connection.

I am an IT professional, not a journalist. My commentary will concentrate on the IT aspects of the evening, but will include pointers to material with report on the count and projected trends.

The format of this coverage is based on my experience co-ordinating Internet access for an Internet Reality Check and coverage of military exercise K95.

A number of organisations are providing background material on the election and live (or almost live) coverage from the Tally Room on the Internet. This is not something which was planned in advance, it evolved in the last few days (I still haven't made contact with some of the people I am supposed to be working with).

What I hope to do is provide occasional commentary on these Web pages, link to some photos, be interviewed by some of the "conventional" media and perhaps interview some of the Internet relevant politicians.

I visited the Tally Room today. It is in the indoor stadium of the Australian Institute of Sport. There are rows of about 400 chairs for media and a two story high tally board (you will get a better idea of this when the images start arriving).

Only a few people were present. ABC Multimedia had set up their workstations and lines. The ACS has one chair, phone and power point for me. The phone line doesn't work yet and I might have to rely on the GSM digital mobile phone and data adapter, which Link Telecommunications have loaned me for the event.

After the Tally Room, I visited Netinfo a few kilometres away in the Canberra suburb of Lyneham. Netinfo are providing the site for video clips from the Tally Room. They were just putting some links to this on their home page while I was there, I had them add one to this.

We have decided that the debriefing for the Internet coverage will be held Sunday, 3 March 1996 10:00 +1100 (EST), at Tilley's Cafe, Lyneham (a few doors from Netinfo) everyone is invited.

ENDS

This document is available on the Internet at: http://www.tomw.net.au/elect96b.htm