As pointed out by The Age, the Department for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) will soon begin scouring the web for mentions of their department.

A tender for what they are seeking can be found on Aus Tender, a website used by the Australian Government for available business opportunities.

The tender put forward by the DBCDE states that they are:

“…seeking to obtain a comprehensive digital monitoring service for print and electronic media across all of the Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy portfolio.”

In clarifying what ‘electronic media’ was, the DBCDE outlined in an addendum:

“The term electronic media refers to online media. Key websites include (but are not limited to): all Australian newspaper sites, ABC Asia Pacific News, ABC News Online, ARNet, ITnews Australia, news.com.au, ninemsn news, ZDNet Australia, Nine MSN, ABC Online and blogs such as whirlpool etc.”

It’s seen as an interesting move by the department, and as pointed out by The Age, somewhat contradictory. Contradictory because the Senator for the department, Stephen Conroy, voiced his views in Germany not that long ago that it was a “really positive sign” that the Singaporean Government had given up on monitoring Blogs.

The whole tender idea reminded me of the ABC Hollowmen program.

Here’s an extract from the Hollowmen site:

The Hollowmen is a comedy-drama set in the offices of the Central Policy Unit, a special think tank personally set up by the Prime Minister to help him in the most important job of all – getting re-elected.

Their brief is “long term vision”; to stop worrying about tomorrow’s headlines, and focus on next week’s.

The tender process closes on the 30th of March, just before the Australian Government budget is due.