There is no chance they are going to pull it off, and stream all the promised games with no glitches or lags or complete shutdowns. They're putting too much faith in technology and there is no way their platform is going to handle the massive surge in traffic that will come with every All Black fan in the country logging on at the same time.
Unfortunately, when the system collapses and we're all stumbling around in the digital dust afterwards, it's going to take some time to work out what actually happened and what it all means, because there just aren't enough good tech writers left in the business.
There are still some dead-set legends in technology writing in this country, who can grasp the wider issues around the tech industry, and are comfortable with all the very latest gadgets and can explain how this shit works. There are a few great tech writers on staff in the biggest newsrooms, and a few freelancers who can be relied on clear, concise and insightful copy on the latest developments in the field.
But they're mainly middle aged men, and it's hard to find people outside that social bubble. They're still out there, but they're also getting older and, crucially, are not being replaced.
The news media scene is slowly changing its demographics, and getting more diverse voices in the newsroom. It's taking a lot longer than many would like, but we're getting there. But tech journalism in New Zealand in this science fiction world of 2019 is still pretty pasty.
Again, the blokes who are working in the tech round are doing good work, but it needs new blood, like any other part of the news media, and it's just not there. It's partly a side effect of the growing lack of places to study journalism, but there is also an aching void where there used to be weekly computer and tech magazines in print in this country.
These places are where a lot of the current writers started out and learned their craft, and discovered how to write about really complicated technology issues. They've been replaced by websites that are almost entirely produced overseas, where a local tech story is something that is happening in Sydney.
And it's a damn shame these publications aren't there, and that they're not constantly pumping out tech-savvy reporters, because we live in a world where technology journalism is increasingly important. It rules our lives, and the coverage of it needs to be more than just gushing about the latest gadget from Apple, it needs to be looking at the wider implications of technological change in society and the way we deal with it – the influence of social media, the issues around cryptocurrency and the implications of tech in things like the medical field.
And we need to have people looking at the weird assumptions people make that everything will work out okay if we just rely on the technology, because tech is always fucking out, and you end up with things like the recent census, which was a total failure because the people in charge thought the whole country was on the same page when it came to using technology.
Those kind of tech blind spots are something that need to be exposed, and anybody who thinks the Rugby World Cup stream is going to work fine is staring right at that blind spot, because you can be assured it is going to collapse.
It feels like nothing changes in this country unless it fucks with our rugby, and this is something that could fuck with our rugby, and if Clive from Wainuomata misses the kick-off because of the lag from buffering, he's going to want to know what the fuck is going on. We need more people in the media who can tell him.
- Ron Troupe
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