August saw the TVNZ 7 Internet Debate in partnership with InternetNZ broadcast live and streamed across the Internet. The subject was online safety, privacy, use and abuse of social media, government filtering, and censorship.
A 50-strong studio audience attended on the night, and streaming from TVNZ servers peaked at 75 simultaneous participants. An online IRC chat peaked at 80 simultaneous participants, with dozens of people also participating on Twitter.
A recording of the Internet Debate is available at the following link:
http://bit.ly/9uv1I4
Panelists included Vikram Kumar from InternetNZ, Martin Cocker from NetSafe, Bob McCoskrie from Family First, Peter Mancer from Watchdog International, Kathryn Dalziel from Taylor Shaw, Rob Spray from the Telecommunications Industry Group, Nick von Dadelszen from Lateral Security and Alan Toy from the University of Otago.
Hosted by journalist Damian Christie, the event engaged through social media channels including Facebook, Twitter and Geekzone, and was extremely successful in increasing the general public's understanding of Internet safety issues.