Broadband, Coonan & the Connecting Up 07 Conference

Without fast broadband we’ll perish, says Robert Gottliebsen…while Australia’s current and projected facilities will offer the broadband capacity required for enhanced communication, as numbers grow these facilities just won’t be able to cope with all the other applications as well, THOUGH, large companies will be able to cover the gap because they will install large-fibre cables to their premises. The huge numbers of smaller enterprises, including schools and small medical clinics, will not be able to participate and will be at a huge disadvantage to the rest of the world. In essence:

“THE jumbo jet airliner and internet stage one revolutions have greatly reduced Australia’s isolation – but they will both be dwarfed by the impact of the next stage of the internet. Australia, as a first-world country close to the fastest growing part of the world, should be excited by this new development…and whoever wins Government will face a crisis unless they adapt…The big changes that come with the next internet stage will arrive in Australia within four years – about the time of the 2011 federal election. By then, internet communication will offer high-density three-dimensional images that will go very close to duplicating human contact.”

It’s not only Robert Gottliebsen but also John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems who is concerned that Australia needs to ‘speed up’. The Australian Financial Review, 27 April 2007 reported him saying:

“Many economists think productivity growth is limited to between 1 and 2 per cent a year. I believe collaborative technology (commonly known as Web 2.0..the next wave of internet-enabled growth) can lift that to at least 2 to 3 per cent and possibly 5 per cent. In Cisco I’m banking on a 10 per cent hike in productivity this year….Governments around the world are in a race…the benefits won’t be limited to the few out in front but if you don’t jump you’ll lose out…(I rely)…on collaborative technologies to filter ideas from staff, and, soon, customers to pinpoint new and emerging products ‘with tremendous speed’….every country’s economic future rests on four planks:

• education
• broadband in frastructure
• innovation
• supportive government”

Robert Gottliebsen makes the following points:

• Global and national sourcing of products and services will be an everyday affair and the technology will slash travel requirements. One US global computer company says its travel bill will fall by $US120 million ($144.5 million).
• Education can become a truly global industry as top teachers and lecturers are able to communicate to people around the world. The costs of education will fall.
• Medicine will also become a global industry, and with this technology will come huge advances in diagnostic techniques which will slash the need for hit-and-miss methods, although because of the ageing population and new drugs the cost will continue to rise.
• It will not only be easier to design major buildings in a different country to the place of erection, but also to remotely construct the component parts – steel fabrication, concrete blocks, pipes, etc. They could be shipped in and put together, in the words of Leighton chief Wal King, “like a Meccano set”.
• Most of the world’s governments are spending billions to upgrade their communications facilities.

It will be fascinating to hear what keynote speakers Senators Helen Coonan and Stephen Doyle say at the Connecting Up 2007 Conference

This will be the fourth Community Information Strategies Australia (CISA) conference, and once again PWF will present a Workshop ‘Can IT networks help us ‘think local first’ & create ‘local, living economies’ here?’ I look forward to meeting some S. Oz readers??

The conference ’07 theme is ‘We can do it!’ It aims to:

• To provide a platform for innovative communities, businesses and governments around Australia to share their experiences, successes and lessons learned from programs and projects designed to change their ’world’, whether it be a neighbourhood or a nation.
• To promote the social and economic benefits for disadvantaged and isolated communities
  of access to affordable technology.
• To provide opportunities for like-minded not-for-profits, communities, governments and businesses to build networks and develop programs and projects.
• To continue the momentum towards a national approach to ensuring that the technology capacity of community and not-for-profit organisations allows them to effectively operate in the digital world.

Conference Streams:

• Making IT Changes – Planning – consulting, researching and thinking about where
  ICT fits with where you want to be in the future.
• Getting IT Done – Implementing – the right hardware and software for your plan,
  funding, liaison with donors and businesses, business opportunities in the not-for-
  profit market, proprietary products vs open source, wireless vs cable.
• Keeping IT Going – Maintaining – staff training, managing ongoing support,
  measuring performance, environmental responsibility strategies, working with
  volunteers.
• IT’s About Learning – Skilling – Website dev’t, CMS systems, Pod/vodcasting,
  Advocacy, Fundraising, CRM, VoIP, Blogging, Using MS Office, Using Open Office,
  Online directories, Video-conferencing, Choosing mobile plans, Security, spam etc,
  Choosing broadband carriers, Which service provider? Online marketing. Getting news out.