Dodds Won't Talk About "The Street"

It is easy to see why Bevan Dodds doesn't want to talk about "The Street", in this report from the ODT. How can The Mall Plus store which has been closed for weeks be "still going well"?
The assurances that the investment is low risk are looking increasingly hollow. It is time to open the books and show the true state of affairs.

A Dunedin start-up company partly financed by the Dunedin City Council's holding company is still operating, its chairman says, despite one of its products, a virtual mall, being on hold.

Dunedin City Holding Ltd (DCHL) has 1.2 million shares in The Street, for which it paid $700,000.

The company's virtual mall project, The Mall Plus, is not running on the Internet at the moment, with a "re-opening soon" notice on its home page and a link to Dunedin company Zeddd Technology.

The National Business Review ran a story recently that said the company had abandoned the online mall.

An anonymous letter to the Otago Daily Times this week said the company and its website had "collapsed".

DCHL chief executive Bevan Dodds, a director of The Street, refused to comment on the article, saying the NBR reporter had a "bee in his bonnet" about the company.

Asked if the NBR article was correct, he said he was not going to argue with its writer.

"I'm not going to go there. It's not worth commenting on," he said.

But chairman Geoff Thomas said yesterday both suggestions were incorrect.

Mr Thomas said The Mall Plus was "still going well", and it was being developed under licence by an outside company.

It was true the site was not operating, but there had been some sales while it was operating on an experimental basis.

The site needed enhancement and that was being done, Mr Thomas said.

Asked when DCHL might get a return on its investment, Mr Thomas said the company already had three contracts and was hoping to get more.

"And that's only one of many products The Street has," he said.

Mr Dodds said in 2006 an expected time frame for a return was three to five years.

Excellent Questions on Stadium

Councillors Dave Cull, Chris Staynes and Kate Wilson have an article in today's ODT with some excellent questions on the proposed Stadium.
We await answers from the Stadium proponents : it is hard to see anything convincing coming.

Free Software Legend Speaks on Tuesday

Richard Stallman will be talking on "Copyright vs. Community" this Tuesday.

Venue: Castle One lecture theatre, near the main library, Otago University.

Time: 6:30pm.

Richard is a Free Software leader, started the GNU project whose software is used in Linux, and whose license, the GPL is used by Linux and a large amount of free software. He is second only to Linus Torvalds in fame, but arguably greater in contribution.

The talk is free, but a collection will be taken to cover costs and there will most likely be a raffle of an RMS related art work as well.

Otago Daily Times refuses link to Blog

A post in the "No Minister" blog commented on Dr Bob Lloyd's article on global warming.
I attempted to add a comment on this article on ODT online, linking to this post. When it did not appear, I e-mailed the ODT asking why. They replied saying it was "just a link to a blog site".
I replied:

I think the fact that Dr Lloyd's article has attracted comment from a
leading NZ blog, and a leading Australian blog, is of interest to your
readers, who may wish to follow these links.
Comments on websites often have links to to other sites : that is what
makes it the Web.
Are you saying that the ODT online has a policy against links?

The reply from the ODT:

We handle comments and links on a case-by-case basis.

I replied again, asking what criteria were used, but have not had a response.
The irony is that the rejected post criticizes Dr Lloyd's advocacy of not giving space to politically-incorrect views.
I respect the right of the ODT to chose what appears on it's site, but others have the right to comment on these choices. To be fair, the ODT does include a range of opinions in it's columns e.g. Geoffrey Kearsley's sceptical view of global warming.

Our Online Mall's Doors Closed

The National Business Review reported yesterday (the story is not online) that the Online Mall belonging to the Dunedin company, The Street, has it's doors closed. You can see this here , with a "Re-opening Soon" sign.
The Dunedin City Council has a controversial investment of $700,000 in The Street.
The online mall used avatars to walk through the virtual shops. It may have been clever technology but it did not seem practical for real shopping.
It is going to very embarrassing for the Council if money is lost on this venture.
By the way, why is that the NBR often has insights into Dunedin affairs that are not found in the ODT?

Lloyd wants Opponents Silenced

Dr Lloyd (ODT, 7/8/08) does himself no credit by attacking the motives
of scientists who raise doubts about the global warming theory,
denying their right to be heard, and suggesting that their views are
equivalent to "promoting crime and violence". Scientists who support
this theory could just as well be criticized because of the millions
of dollars of research grants that they are given because of their
views. Otago University's administration will be pleased with Dr
Lloyd's article because it will help in getting favorable
consideration from the Government in requests for funding.
The reason that so many scientists are now questioning global warming
is because temperatures are not increasing as predicted. There has
been no increase in global average temperature since the peak of 1998,
and the very cold winter in the Northern Hemisphere has confirmed that
this up-trend has ended.
A strong case can be made that temperatures are no longer increasing,
and that the increase during the twentieth Century was due to natural
causes.
Dr Lloyd should debate the science rather than resorting to personal
attacks on his opponents.

Film Festival Picks

Bill Gosden's International Film Festival is always a bright spot in the gloom of a Dunedin Winter.
My picks from this year's movies:

Mongol : The story of Gengis Khan

Up The Yangtze : A documentary about a tour boat on the Yangtze river, the Chinese workers and American tourists, and the changes brought by the Three Gorges dam.