User:Chrisgriffith

Christopher Reid Griffith (born 10 July 1953) in Brisbane, Queensland, is an Australian technology journalist working in Sydney for The Australian newspaper. He is currently the paper's senior technology journalist and has held many roles in newspapers since 1997, when he joined The Sunday Mail newspaper in Brisbane, then its sister paper The Courier-Mail until 2007.

Early days
Griffith's journey in technology began in the late 1960s when his school in Melbourne took part in a pilot course designed to teach young people computer programming. It was conducted by The Education Department in Victoria, using the MONECS (Monash University Educational Computing System) and a student-oriented subset of the IBM developed computational computer language FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation} known as MINITRAN.

Griffith subsequently studied computer science at Monash University in Melbourne, working on mainframe computer systems before opting to teach computer science and mathematics in Technical and Further Education colleges in Melbourne and later Brisbane. This included writing inaugural computer course syllabus, and shooting videos for students about how to write computer programs.

The PC networking revolution
In 1985 with the PC revolution well underway, Griffith and a friend Michael Canning (who had previously worked supporting a computer system at Mt Isa Mines) formed a business called Aquatic Software that aimed to install PC networking systems in small business in Queensland for many thousands of dollars less than those offered by small mainframe computer systems. At the time there was no internet, and Microsoft Windows was only just starting out. Griffith and Canning built PC network systems using Microsoft MS-DOS and the network operating system NetWare that they obtained from Novell in the US. They used co-axial cable to install PC computer networks in various businesses in Queensland.

Canning built the PCs from parts and installed the hardware while Griffith either programmed the business systems from scratch or created multiuser version of existing software using the dBase IV environment and the Clipper dBase compiler obtained from Nantucket Corporation (later Computer Associates). Their largest system fully automated the administration of body corporates aka strata management across Queensland operated by Australian company Body Corporate Services, with PC based terminal networks operating in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast managing strata buildings in far north Queensland, the Sunshine Coast & Gold Coast, Brisbane and Sanctuary Cove.

Move to the media
Griffith and Canning kept the business operating until the early 1990s when Griffith decided to pursue another passion (writing and media) and enrolled in journalism at the University of Queensland, completing a double major in print and electronic journalism.

After brief stints with the Fairfax paper The Sun-Herald (Queensland edition) as a columnist and a researcher with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's then Queensland-based The 7.30 Report, he became the inaugural editor of Land Rights Queensland, a newspaper designed to inform Australia indigenous community about Native Title legislation, before joining News Corp Australia in 1997. Over the years he has covered consumer affairs (including writing the "Fixer" column), legal affairs, producing investigative reports and feature stories.

This included features on the issue of euthanasia with his coverage of the death of Nancy Crick in 2002.

Technology role
As The Australian's Media development Editor he helped develop the paper's online presence including helping to build the paper's news website in FatWire before returning to fulltime writing in 2012 covering technology and producing technology reviews for The Australian. He writes on consumer electronics, cybersecurity, privacy, virtual and augmented reality, cryptocurrency and the metaverse.