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Everybody secretly smiles when the powerful get some comeuppance by the underdog. Melbourne teenager Tom Wood showed the Australian Government it really didn't have a clue about technology when he swiftly hacked their $84 million 'porn-filter', designed to avert our collective eyes from lewd online evils (actually, he hacked it multiple times, each in record speed). The Australian Government (then John Howard's Liberal-National Coalition) was miffed and red-faced. Tom was promptly taken under the wing of the Australian Labor Party (then in Opposition), who swallowed their pride and took advice from a teenager about national IT and telecommunications policy. Tom went from wired kid in the suburbs, to hackery upstart, to national hero in a modem pulse. He appeared on national talk shows, explaining why porn filters can never work (and, to the less technologically inclined among Australia's media, how email and the web do work). He helped politicians shape their policies. Tech pundits around the world hailed the youngster for his stick -it-to-the-luddite verve. We meet this smart young thing who captured international attention, and proved that brains and savvy are always cooler than uninformed authoritarianism (and that we could all do with a few more net smarts).
TW: I was born in Melbourne then lived in Hong Kong for a few years when I was a baby. I then moved to the Gold Coast for virtually my whole childhood, and after 10 years we had enough of the hot, boring weather (it's not quite as fun when you live there!) and came back to beautiful Melbourne, with its dynamic character that I love! GI: What is your earliest memory/experience with technology and the Internet? TW: My earliest memory was probably in about grade 3 when we used kidspix to draw silly little random things. I played heaps of Nintendo 64 throughout my childhood (Legendary Super Mario, Banjo Kazooie etc.) and a bit of Age of Empires. It wasn't until I was 13 in Melbourne that I got 'serious' about the stuff. GI: What's the first thing you each day when you sit in front of a computer? TW: Check my emails, then all the latest updates on a myriad of random websites, visits to my site, latest blog posts about me or stuff I'm into and a whole load of different routined stuff. GI: What do you think is the greatest misconception folks have about technology and the Internet? TW: That the online world has no real importance and all kids do (and all they think about) is go in chatrooms. This world is of fundamental social significance to kids these days, and that must be recognized, along with a proper understanding of what kids are really doing. GI: Tell us about offline Tom - what do you love to watch, eat, listen to, do with your time? TW: I've just down my first solo flight for my Private Pilots License, obsessed with The Australian and Lateline, politically-related things in particular and love food, the beach (which I'm 12 houses from!), good TV, helping friends computers;) etc. My mind always seems to go into a strange super thinking period after watching Lateline when it's all dark and quiet and I have a shower... It's quite strange but all the good stuff comes out then. Generally, when I'm not in a normal environment (when its dark, when I'm tired etc.) I seem to think the best. I don't like most soft drink ('cept Solo) and hate unnatural crappy food, much preferring anything natural, gourmet and spicy. GI: Greatest invention in history? Worst? TW: Greatest, the Internet. Worst, overnight game shows. GI: What are your favourite web haunts, podcasts, tv shows, globs of media to consume? What stimulates you creatively? TW: Random things, blogs, forums, wiki's, social aggregators like Digg, Google News, and YourTV... + I'm approaching my 27,000th Google search, and average more than a hundred a day, so I guess that gives you a rough wrap up of how information overloaded I am! GI: Who's brain would you most like to pick and probe? Name one question you would ask? TW: Sufjan Stevens (Chicago-Based Songwriter)... How the hell do you keep pumping out masses of absolutely enchanting music (as Dennis Shanahan pumps out political reporting)? Where do you get your song inspiration from? GI: If you could take three people out to dinner, who would they be and why (and where would you go?) TW: Tony Jones, Alan Shore and Missy Higgins.
Also written by Annie Geek-o-vitz
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