I can’t wait for the election night coverage on TV when Julia and Tony go head to head as Australia votes.

Like usual, I’ll settle down in front of the telly with a cold beer in one hand and a list of all the electorates in the other and let the soothing voice of the ABC’s Anthony Green wash over me as the numbers start to come trickling in.

But this year, something will be different: Twitter.

Unless you’ve been living in a hot-spot free cave for the past few years, you’d know that Twitter has exploded as the micro-blogging site of choice for huge numbers of people.

And as viewers of Masterchef will also know, what’s more fun than watching your favourite show on TV? Tweeting about it at the same time!

Reading the comments that people make using the #masterchef tag is a hoot - I’ll never forget the collective tweet shout of “nooooooo” as Marion was eliminated.

Also amusing is to see puzzled Americans post “what the?” tweets as #masterchef trends worldwide everytime the show airs.

And so it will go for the Australian federal election of 2010.

Or will it?

I know I won’t be alone sending #ausvotes tweets on election night.

But while voting is compulsory in Australia, interest in the outcome is not.

Will the same number of tweeting punters come out on election night as they do for #Masterchef?

Suspect not.

We were recently asked via our Twitter account what is CCH Australia doing with mobile applications?

Here’s our response:

Q - What mobile applications/interfaces do you currently have now or in development?

CCH - We have just launched an individual tax rate calculator at the Apple iTunes store. Next, we’re exploring a newsreader for the CCH Tracker products (email news alerts) and other news. We hope to incorporate text-to-speech in certain apps as well, allowing users to mark stories to be read out loud.

Q - What type of content would CCH see as appropriate for the mobile market? (i.e. the whole of the CCH library or certain subsets?)

CCH - Currently we’re open to trying all content types. We’re talking with customers to understand their needs and workflow.

Q - Are there any issues encountered in developing these, either in the interests of the market or technologically?

CCH - Our online platform IntelliConnect is currently compatible with IE8, IE7 and IE6 and works reasonably well on Firefox. We continue to work with our customers to understand how and where they are using the information in order to add appropriate device and delivery channels.

Q - Are the applications/interfaces being developed for a specific device (e.g. iPhone/iPad, Blackberry) or is a multi-device approach being taken?

CCH – We’re currently developing for specific devices our customers tell us are important to their work.

Q - Have copyright/digital rights management issues played a part in the development of these products?

CCH - Yes. As with all publishers, we respect our authors’ intellectual property, while attempting to meaningfully deliver content to the customer. It’s an important balance, and we’re keeping a close eye on the trends in the industry and new DRM advancements that afford us the best outcomes.

It’s just whistling in the dark to predict how much will Apple iPad diffuse into work life in Australia.

However, with exponential growth of home work arrangements and the abdication of the role of the traditional office the signs are on the wall: it will not be too long before the gizmo spreads its tentacles into every working hour of our lives.

With a memory sufficiently large at some 64 gigabytes (machines with memory as big as a black hole usually end up inside), it has the potential to become a portable and lovable workhorse. Downloading files on the go is not going to be a memory hog for this newcomer.

How does the iPad line up against the ubiquitous laptop?

For one, it is lighter: less than 2 pounds, half the weight of a laptop. For sticky–fingers (literally) typing on the pop-up keyboard is going to be a bother, but isn’t serious typing done on desktops and laptops.

Scrolling is easy as shooting fish in a barrel: just tap and drag. No more pointing and clicking.

Usefulness and popularity of tablet computers is growing and so are the number of applications for them.

It is even reported that the entire US Tax Code is available for 99 cents (U.S that is) from the Apple store.

If you want to know what CCH Australia is up to take a look at Linda’s blog CCH app delivers quick answers on tax estimates.

But now for matters financial. How does one finance an iPad? Not through salary sacrifice as we used do for laptops. After the changes of 2008 this has become almost impossible. Please see the links below

Not so cool when your iPad rebate claim comes up against fringe benefits tax

Fringe benefits tax (FBT) - exempt work-related items

To Facebook or not to Facebook? This is a question that is increasingly being asked in legal circles.

I’ve long been a Facebook scoffer - and thought it was an ego-centric timewaster (of course everyone in the world wants to know what I had for dinner last night (pumpkin soup) and my favourite color (red)).

However, Facebook is undeniably a massive global phenomenon, despite the recent backlash due to privacy concerns, and is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

With over 400 million users online you’ve got to think that to ignore its potential for business is a mistake.

A new survey of corporate counsel in the US documents the increasing reliance on social media sites like blogs, Wikipedia, LinkedIn and Facebook for professional news and information (and of course for personal use).

The survey run by US firm Green Target  measures how inhouse counsel (the primary purchasers of outside legal services) are listening to the social media messages sent by the big law firms.

Do you use Facebook for business reasons? If so why and how?

If your work email account is anything like mine used to be, it will consist of streams of skimmed or unopened newsletters, alerts, industry updates littered between vital emails from colleagues and customers.

One of the most personally rewarding experiences of my involvement in CCH’s latest news and alerts vehicle Tracker – which launched on April 12 – has  been the discovering the benefits of receiving news via RSS (Really Simple Syndication also known as Rich Site Summary).

RSS has been around for at least a decade but its uptake has really exploded in the last couple of years to become a popular tool for the wider population of internet users.

What RSS allows me to do is aggregate Tracker and all my other favourite news feeds so I can view them via a single access point.

Centralising these news sources has enabled me to free my work email box of a lot of newsletters, bulletins and other current awareness emails. It also means I spend less time trawling across various news websites to keep up with issues.

What it boils down to is a more effective way of managing an ever increasing volume of information.

Are there other ways to cut down the time spent managing all this information?