ArsTechnica is reporting today that the Australian government’s claims that local Internet users will be able to opt-out of the proposed ISP-level content filtering, is only partially true.

The story is based on a comment made by Mark Newton, an Internode network engineer, to Computerworld that “users are able to opt out of the “additional material” blacklist—which targets content inappropriate for children—but not the main blacklist that filters what the Australian government determines is illegal content.”

Aside from the fact that, according to ISPs, the inadequate technology behind the filtering could “cripple Internet speeds” there is the obvious question of whether or not the Government should be filtering content, irrespective of the nature of it.

For those who believe that illegal content filtering is desirable, the next question is what will define “illegal”? Where there is some debate as to whether or not content “might” be illegal (think about the recent drama surrounding Bill Henson’s photos) will the default position be to filter or to allow? And what about something much more widespread like P2P traffic? Will the common misconception that P2P = copyright infringement hold? And will the government proactively protect copyright independent of whether or not copyright owners identify alleged abuses?

I could go on for quite some time, which confirms in my mind there are too many questions still unanswered for this type of filtering to be put in place just yet, if ever.

Lending Hub is a Sydney based company who have developed Australia’s first peer to peer lending service for unsecured personal loans.

The model is closer to prosper.com than Zopa in that they seek to intermediate loans between a borrower and multiple lenders (via a loan listing) rather than negotiate better rates from established financial institutions through bulk.

Co-Founder Ivan Mantelli explained the Lending Hub concept to me:

Our objective is to create a liquid market for borrowers to post a loan listing where lenders (individuals) can bid using a reverse auction technology on the loans. At the end of the loan listing period the loan that are successfully fully funded would attract the lowest possible aggregate interest rate based upon all the bids placed by lenders on the loan.

We will manage the marketing (finding the consumers and lenders), borrowing applications, credit grading and online identity verifications and finally the loan settlement and collection of repayments of the loan over time.

We expect that borrowers will enjoy using the is service given the ability to obtain financing even if they have unusual credit histories and also the possibility of obtaining better interest rates than the banks are currently offering.

The current site shows the style and interface of the platform with the Lending Hub team expecting to launch in the coming weeks with full borrowing and lending applications.

The technology platform was built from scratch by the Lending Hub’s team of coders. This was a must, according to Ivan, due to the “novelty of the application”. On the business side, the team is well equipped to succeed with backgrounds in lending institutions, investment banking, tech startups and online media planning.

Despite all this, there’s still a little voice in the back of my mind that is unsure about Lending Hub’s prospects. It has nothing to do with the team’s ability to execute. Rather, the uncertainty is related to the core business.

The concern? Because of increased competition, the spread between financial institution lending, and deposit, interest rates are fairly narrow - so why would a lender provide funding towards an unsecured loan if they could get similar returns with lower risk from depositing the money in a bank (notwithstanding the current economic conditions)?

I can think of a few examples where people may want to be involved.

• Smaller loans (you can loan as little as $50 towards a loan application), where interest rates on that amount are fairly insignificant in traditional deposit taking institutions
• People who have a large amount to invest where there is benefit to be had from the scale of their investment and the few extra interest points they might get compared to putting it into a savings account, for instance.
• Or even when people feel emotionally tied to a loan applicants story

The problem is that none of these are really going to help Lending Hub shake up the world.

Then again, If you look at Prosper.com it’s clear that the model can work, so I’m a little confused.

What do you think? Would you lend people money through Lending Hub? Would you apply for financing through Lending Hub?

I’m keen to hear your thoughts.

ANZ launched MoneyManager today.

In a first for the Australian market, MoneyManager is a service that shows users all of their finances, from several different financial providers, in the one place.

MoneyManager imports account data from third party financial sites that a user would regularly use, then presents the information through a simple interface.

The site will make it easier for ANZ customers to effectively manage their finances without having the standard three to four browser tabs open simultaneously.

This will be welcome news to all who have been tracking their personal finances a little more cautiously recently given the current state of the globes financial sectors.

If you are an ANZ customer, you can sign up to use the site here.

One of the hardest things about doing business overseas is creating the relationships that doing business relies on.

Because of that, I think the ANZA Technology Network people do some really good things for Aussie startups looking to build companies and relationships in the US.

Their next big event is the Gateway to US Summit, which will be held in Silicon Valley on October 20-22.

Included in the summit is a Pitch Day where a line up of Australian and New Zealand entrepreneurs with innovations ranging from enterprise grade system performance, security and decision-making tools to cutting edge health and medical solutions to sophisticated web-based services and social networks will present their companies in a morning session.

Then, in the afternoon, Aussie and Kiwi companies will pit themselves against innovative startups from around the world including companies from Canada, Asia and Europe in a round of two-minute pitches before a panel of Silicon Valley tech experts.

Three companies will qualify for Best in Show prestige and will deliver exclusive 10-minute presentations to our audience of top-level execs, entrepreneurs and investors.

There will also be a panel session featuring some top notch people, many of whom have ties to Australia, including: -

• Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Ventures
• John Scull and Larry Marshall of Southern Cross Venture Partners
• Jennifer Zanich of Xumii
• Ryan Junee of Omnisio

If you’re in the Valley or plan to be nearby around the 20th-22nd October, this sounds like a great event.

Prices start from $45 if you just want to go to the pitch day and are a member up to $3500 if you want to go through the business coaching days and present.

Details HERE

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Blog Action Day 2008 is this Wednesday, October 15th.

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

This year’s theme is Poverty.

As if you need more of an incentive, World Vision Australia has put together prizes for Aussies who get involved.

• 1st Prize is a day being whisked around someof the most innovative web companies in Australia (Google, Yahoo7, Amnesia) and being involved in some pretty cool sessions.
• 2nd and 3rd Prize are a Pay-As-You-Go iPhone + $100 credit

You can check out the details HERE

Thanks to Ross Hill for his hard work in promoting the cause.

Below is the Oct ‘08 installment of the Aussie Startup index. Sites are ranked based on an average of Alexa and Compete traffic data. Only sites that are ranked by both Alexa & Compete and that have an average ranking of < 1 million will be listed. This month 56 of the 139 sites listed on the startup-australia wiki made the list.  To get yourself included just add your site to the wiki.

I’ve fallen across a few aussie tech podcasts lately and thought I should pass on their details in case you’re looking for something to do in between TechNation Australia posts.

Tech Wired Australia

I was introduced to the Tech Wired Australia crew by Nick Holmes a Court just recently (shame on me, I know, they’re up to episode 88 already) and have become a big fan. They’re also big supporters of the local startup industry (being the only podcasters who went live at both the Sydney and Melbourne Startup camps), so they deserve some love.

Silicon Beach Podcast

Another extension of the Silicon Beach brand - this podcast brings  Elias Bizannes and Bronwen Clune together to speak to leading Australian web entrepreneurs about their companies, dreams and motivations. They’ve recently completed episode 3, so they’re kinda new, but the show’s definitely one to subscribe to. Personally I’m glad to finally hear Bronwen back on the air after the 2 Web Crew podcast stopped happening and Elias always has an interesting perspective on things, which makes for good listening.

Insatiate

This is a new podcast - they’re only up to episode 1 at the moment, but they’re showing promise.

Geek Girl

We spoke about this podcast when it launched, but they’re now up to episode 4 and going strong. A really good show for all of us but, in particular, for the girls in tech.

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I’m certain I’ve missed some so if you have an aussie tech/startup podcast, or know of one, please drop the details into the comments.

Mental illness affects many people in Australia, some numbers suggest as many as 20% of Australians will experience a mental illness at some stage in their life. Chances are mental illness does, or will, affect those you know and love, however the stigma associated with it prevents many people from speaking out or seeking help.

That is unacceptable.

As members of the tech industry, a group of people who are more equipped than most to leverage the power of new technology to spread information, we’re obliged to act.

For those who don’t know, this month is Anxiety and Depression Awareness month.

Beyond Blue is an organisation that does excellent work in this area and this year, thanks mainly to Michael Specht and his tireless efforts, the tech community is showing their support through Blue Day.

Blue Day 2008 is tomorrow (October 10th) and coincides with World Mental Health day. There are a series of events that you can attend, or things you can do, to show your support and help raise awareness.

These include:

• Changing of social media avatars to blue for October 10. To help people there are several prepared.
• Meetups arranged across Australia, details confirmed for Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Canberra.
• Blog, podcast, post photos & videos for the day under the tag blueday2008
• If people do not have a blog or want to blog anonymously they can over at http://blueday2008.org
• A Flickr group setup by @dnwallace
• A Second Life Event being run on Jokaydia Island
• There is even a FaceBook group so folks can become a Fan of raising awareness,
• Michael Specht will also be aggregating all content tagged with blueday2008 on to the main site at http://blueday2008.org

It makes me proud to be a member of a community that can look beyond itself for such an important cause.

MyHeritage is the one of the world’s largest family-based social networks.  Stefano Sessa was recently contracted as the Australian Country Manager. I managed to catch up with Stefano and asked him about the site, how it’s going and what they’ve got coming up for us.

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So, what’s MyHeritage all about?

MyHeritage is a niche social network that connects families. The family network ties in closely with building historical genealogical data and personal family trees. This means that when a user signs up with MyHeritage, he/she is instantly enabled to communicate to family members via a custom social network, that serves this purpose. Users are able to upload photos and tag them,

MyHeritage also boasts a face recognition service within it’s photo platform. This helps users build out their family tree and find distant family members, as MyHeritage will recommend possible relatives.

Furthermore, MyHeritage allows it’s users to download software locally to build out your family tree, and tie it in with your online profile.

Our vision has been to make it easier for people around the world to use the power of the Internet to discover their heritage and strengthen their bonds with family and friends.

As you know, there are many Australians living abroad and MyHeritage enables the families of these nationals to communicate and share their lives via a tailor-made social network.

Who are your competitors?

Our biggest competitors are geni.com and verwandt.de on the social networking side, and Ancestry on the genealogy side of things.

How is MyHeritage different to other family-based social networks or even more generic social networks, like Facebook, for instance?

We are different because of our size, reach and the underlying technology that powers many of our most interesting features

Size:

• Second largest site with a huge distance between top two and all other players
• Got to this point after just a few years with tremendous growth, the number one player has been around for 10 years
• 25 million members
• 260 million profiles
• More than 230 million photos
• 5 million family trees

Reach:

• Available in 25 languages today with many more coming in the next few weeks
• Support for more languages than all other competing sites

Technology:

• Pioneered the use of facial recognition technology on the internet. Used to automatically tag photos on MyHeritage or other photo sharing websites
• Innovative technology that can match family trees and suggest people who may be related based on connections and facts like names, dates and locations
• A powerful genealogy search engine that searches more than 1,500 relevant sites and databases, understands the results and serves them back to you on the MyHeritage website
• A software client for serious genealogists

What’s your background?

I have been in the internet for quite some time, although I am still a young professional. I work in South Africa as a Product Marketing Specialist for 24.com in the mobile department. This is my full time job. Further I consult for MyHeritage as their Country Manager for South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. I have worked extensively in the mobile industry.

How did you get involved with MyHeritage?

I was previously involved with Kindo, which MyHeritage acquired last month.

What has growth been like in Australia?

During  September, MyHeritage had 6.5% more traffic in September than it did in August.

How many local users do you have?

To be exact, we have 354,006 members in Australia… You can find the total number of users for any country using our Member Map.

Who is your target market?

• MyHeritage is available in 25 different languages, more than any other genealogy website, so we have a hugely global consumer base and are excited about continuing to expand
• We have members from all over the world
• A majority are female (63%), which is to be expected since:
• Women are the primary historians for their families
• More and more women are going online, and now for the younger age brackets there are more women online than men (according to PEW research from April 2007)
• Women spend more time online than men (according to PEW research from April 2007)
• And almost all our users are under the age of 40 (92.5%)

What are your goals for the site?

Growth, growth and more growth

I can’t see how you make money just yet - not that that’s necessarily a problem. Any plans, however, to add revenue streams and, if so, how?

We have three very promising revenue streams that we’ll talk more about next year, but we’re focused right now on building the world’s biggest online destination for families and are excited about the size of the potential market

In the industry, however, there are many proven business models that we could incorporate including e-commerce (Notre Famille) and subscription based (Ancestry and Flickr PRO)

The majority of our members are female, which also makes advertising an interesting opportunity as brands are always on the lookout for ways to reach this demographic

Technology wise, what have you got coming up?

Unfortunately, I cannot disclose too much of our future plans just yet, however here is a breakdown of what we currently have:

• Pioneered the use of facial recognition technology on the internet (currently the number one organic result on Google when this term is searched) used to automatically tag photos on MyHeritage or other photo sharing websites
• Innovative technology that can suggest people who may be related based on connections and facts like names, dates and locations
• A powerful genealogy search engine that searches more than 1,500 relevant sites and databases, understands the results and serves them back to you on the MyHeritage website
• A software client for serious genealogists

Anything else you want to add?

I think this covers most of it, however, I would like to add that if there are any queries I am able to answer questions and E-Mails should just be directed to stefano@myheritage.com and I will respond as quickly as possible!

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me!!

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Kristen Le Mesurier, a leading journalist in the Emerging Company/Innovation space, has written a great introductory article on what’s happening in the local tech scene and posted it on her Fairfax Digital Media blog “Innovator’.

The blog gets published to various online sites including the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Check out the article if you can, not because it quotes me, but because its important that we support mainstream journalists who support our industry.

Thanks again, Kristen.