Melanie Swalwell

For pioneering roles in online search engines, and in digital preservation and open access to knowledge provided by the Internet Archive If you want to solve hard problems, have hard problems. — Brewster Kahle

Congrats to @brewster.kahle.org for being named to the Computer History Museum 2026 Fellows!

"For pioneering roles in online search engines, and in digital preservation and open access to knowledge provided by the Internet Archive"

More info ➡️ computerhistory.org/2026-fellow-...

Apparently Phoenix FM 106.7 are providing emergency broadcasting for the ABC. That's according to a Vic Emergency alert.

Victorian government makes historic apology to Aboriginal people The Victorian government makes a historic apology to Aboriginal Victorians, in one of the first public acts to follow the signing of the state's treaty agreement.

Following on from the signing of Treaty last month, the Victorian state government today offered a formal apology to First Peoples, recognising past injustices. It's well worth watching. Allan has my respect.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

Oil company Santos admits business plan is based on 4C temperature rise Chairman Peter Coates says company’s plan is ‘consistent with good value’, but experts call it ‘a breathtaking failure to come to grips with a world in transition’

Sorry, 4 degrees Celsius, as per the article. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

You mean 'committed to 3 degrees Celsius global warming' Santos? It always did my head in, esp living through SA heatwaves while working for a university with a former Santos head as Chancellor (Flinders). Still does.

Covert Action in Chile: The Significance of the Church Committee Report 50 Years Later Washington D.C. December 4, 2025 -  Fifty years ago today, Senator Frank Church convened the first public congressional hearing ever held on CIA covert operations to overthrow a foreign government, fo...

Covert Action in Chile: The Significance of the Church Committee Report 50 Years Later
nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

This is why I mask, because I don’t want Long Covid (or worse).

DPC Blog: Call for comments on a new guide to help you copy those floppies https://www.dpconline.org/blog/call-for-comments-on-a-new-floppy-disk-guide thanks to #FutureNostalgia led by @makethecatwise #DigiPres

We are delighted to team up with @europeana.bsky.social supporting a webinar on November 26, 2025, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. CET, on the significance of #computergames as and for #culturalheritage.
The webinar is aimed at professionals in the #GLAMsector. Registration is free of charge.

Universities in 'battle of the century' with journal publisher Elsevier One New Zealand university told its staff all universities in New Zealand and Australia would "lose some degree of access" to the publisher's 1600 titles from the start of next year.

The irony here is that academics don’t just write the articles for free—we also referee and edit for them for free. Something is deeply broken.

“New Zealand's eight universities spent $30-million a year on journal licences and about half of that sum went to Elsevier.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Yes, the first Treaty in Australia (in the state of Victorian) was signed into law today. So many people who've worked for Treaty have not lived to see it, so those of us here need to celebrate...

YouTube video by Yothu Yindi Yothu Yindi - Treaty (Original Version)

youtu.be/Jf-jHCdafZY?...

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

This is a hugely significant step.

Artists tell AI to 'solve the problem' as copyright carve-out ruled out Labor has ruled out changing copyright laws to give tech giants free rein to train artificial intelligence models on creative works after the proposition was met with widespread backlash from artists.

Some good news from Australia - no text and data mining exceptions to copyright will be introduced for training AI.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

I am sensing something of a pattern here 🤔
Audited accounts show surpluses - not budget crises - at ANU and UoN. Who's next?

bsky.app/profile/aust...

New Australia Institute analysis shows the University of Newcastle had net assets over $1.8 billion at the end of 2024, contrary to claims that the university is in a finanical crisis.

#auspol

This is incredible news, and shows the incredible power of collective action. The fight against the neoliberal university (my own included) goes on, but its nice to hear some good news for a change.

Australian academic colleagues will want to fill this out: "The Australian University Census on Staff Wellbeing: An investigation of psychosocial safety climate in Australia's universities" doit.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

New Australia Institute analysis shows the ANU had a $90 million profit in 2024 and INCREASED the value of its net assets...

All while the ANU was claiming a budget crisis to justify staff cuts!

@richarddenniss.bsky.social #auspol

The settlement website in the Bartz v Anthropic class action is now live and can be found here: www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com. It includes comprehensive information about the case and settlement, including a searchable tool to see if your books are included in the settlement and a claim form.

And an excellent accompanying commentary.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

‘It’s not copy-charity. It’s copyright’: Authors oppose copyright exception for AI training at Senate Inquiry - Australian Society of Authors Creators and book industry organisations attended a Senate Inquiry hearing to oppose the proposal for a copyright exception for AI training.

A formidable coalition of Australian creators and book industry organisations attended a Senate Inquiry hearing yesterday to strongly oppose the Productivity Commission’s proposal for a text and data mining exception for AI training.

Read more: www.asauthors.org.au/news/its-not...

🏆 The #sigcis2025 awards are up!! 🏆

📖 Computer History Museum Prize ➡️ @apdamegriff
*The Two Revolutions: A History of the Transgender Internet*
https://nyupress.org/9781479818310/the-two-revolutions/

📄 The Mahoney Prize ➡️ @theodorajewell
“Settler Computing: Water Algorithms and the Equitable […]

Man fined $350k in Federal Court for creating deepfake porn A man who made deep fake pornographic images of prominent Australian women and posted them to a website has been fined $343,500 by the Federal Court — the first case of its kind in the country.

The eSafety Commissioner has done something right. It’s heartening to see such a hefty fine handed down for image-based abuse.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

I stan Violet!

Excited to see this post about preserving #gamehistory and use of the EU’s Out of Commerce works.

John Passfield, #homebrew #gamehistory legend!

There’s heaps more on his early work in my Homebrew book, and at playitagainproject.com

Copyright Agency welcomes Government’s continued support for Australia’s copyright system in the age of AI - Copyright Agency Copyright Agency welcomes the Government’s continued support for Australia’s world-leading copyright system. In an interview on ABC today Industry Minister Tim Ayres said that the Government had no pl...

The Copyright Agency @copyright.com.au too. They are holding a webinar next week for members.

Honestly, I can think of so many more important and urgent changes that need to be made to the Copyright Act...

www.copyright.com.au/2025/08/copy...

Heartened to see that the Australian Society of Authors are pushing back against a proposed text and data mining exception to the Copyright Act to allow the training of AI.

Did you see this @manjusrii.bsky.social ?

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

Replaying Japan 2025 Replaying Japan 2025 The 13th International Japan Game Studies Conference 1-3 September 2025 Melbourne City Campus, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

I'm looking forward to presenting a keynote on my homebrew game history research at the Replaying Japan conference at RMIT, September 1-3. sites.google.com/view/replayi...