User:Sfist

User: Sfist is Stewart Anthony Fist, a retired journalist; film/TV producer-director; and teacher of film, video and television techniques as Training Director and then Head of Open Program (external training programs) at the Australian Film, Radio and Television School in Sydney, NSW, Australia.

He was previously a professional Optometrist (Dip.Opt.AOA) via the University of Western Australia, and then a specialist contact lens practitioners in Perth WA, with clinical practices at the Royal Perth and Fremantle Hospitals. His interest in the natural environment extended to a hobby photographing wild-flowers for the Western Australian Tourist Board (and later for National Geographic Magazine) and writing about Australian history and geography for Australian newspapers and popular magazines. Eventually he moved to Sydney to join Robert Raymond (founder of Four Corners) in making the Project '94 to '96 television documentary series for the TCN 9 network. He then founded and ran Special Projects Films, P/L which made numerous films and TV documentaries, and a documentary series (starring US actor Raymond Burr), on the "Origins of the Polynesians".

After an unsuccessful attempt at building a kit personal computer, he purchased an Apple II, learned computer programming, and became one of Australia's first users of the on-line database networks (DARPA) via the transPacific optical fibre cable to the USA and UK. He wrote the first manual on the use of online search techniques (Midas) and email systems (Minerva) for the nation's international carrier, Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (OTC). His OTC email address ("ATJ002" - Australian Technical Journalist No.2) was the first in Australia outside the carrier itself (ATJ001 was the System Operator).

He also produced the reference "Australian Database Directory" for OTC, and later compiled and published a major encyclopedia of communications/computer-technology terms, "The Informatics Handbook". He has also written a number of educational text-books such as "Film-Making", and a many basic-level training programs in video and the early use of computers and on-line systems.

He wrote the weekly "Crossroads" column for Rupert Murdoch's "The Australian" newspaper on the technical and political aspects of communications and broadcasting for many years, and edited a number of science and technical magazines for the Fairfax Magazine Promotion group.

He is now (2022) long retired but acts as conventer and web-master for the international investigative journalist's information exchange site (http://www.sciencecorruption.com) exposing science corruption and corporate lobbying, and a more general Australian journalist/academic discussion forum (http://www.electric-words.com.au).