On the Gripping Hand takes its name from the book The Mote in God’s Eye and The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The gripping hand is used literally to refer to the strongest of the three asymmetrical arms of the alien “Moties“, some species of which have two weaker arms with better fine control on one side and a single much stronger arm on the other side. See Wikipedia

“A dwarf, standing on the shoulders of giants”

I’m Mark Harris. I’m an independent technology consultant and technology commentator. I have a wide range of experience in the public and private sectors as a technologist and a policy analyst, including 5 years in the E-government Unit of the SSC. I was a founding member of InternetNZ and have served a number of terms on its Council. I am a past president of the Government Information Managers Forum (GOVIS) and worked for NZPO, PostBank, ANZ, IRD and SSC.

I’m also a content creator. I’ve written for stage and radio, performed on stage, radio, TV and film, and I’m currently expanding my experience into art and music. Copyright and IP are very concrete things for me, rather than abstract ideas.

I’m married to Julia with 2 fur-children, Gus and Juno, live in Waikanae on the Kapiti coast, and spend far too much time on the Internet. Julia and I own the company Technology Research and Consultancy Services Ltd. (which pretty much does what it says – we’re very literal) and am available for hire at ruinous rates.