And the policy debate is *not* advanced nor enhanced by the IIA muddying the
waters.
OK, I'm dumb, I'm reactionary, and I'm a traitor to the cause - but
pretending there's some relationship between digital television and the
Internet doesn't make it so.
Once again, it seems to me, the industry has decided that ordinary
Australians are too dumb to distinguish between different sexy technologies.
Therefore, says the PR advisor, it's better to create this "blob" called
"technology and new media". And then say "if we could just have part of it,
we'd have all of it".
Can Link please send someone to the IIA's office with a whiteboard?
RC
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Worthington [mailto:tom.worthington@tomw.net.au]
Sent: Sunday, 8 July 2001 12:15
To: link@www.anu.edu.au
Subject: Re: [LINK] re: Knowledge Nation Taskforce Report - some
comments
Importance: Low
At 09:27 5/07/01 +1000, I wrote:
>Greeting from the press conference. Anything new I should tell the media?
At 10:46 5/07/01 +1000, Howard Lowndes wrote:
>One thing. Rural business need high speed connectivity NOW.
At 12:23 5/07/01 +1000, geert wrote:
>while i admire the work that has been done on knowledge nation, and see it
>as a comprehensive start, a plan, a map with no money yet ...
Here is what Caitlin Fitzsimmons from the Australian (online) made of it:
>Politicians 'undermining digital future' Caitlin Fitzsimmons 05 July 2001
>
>POLITICIANS are undermining Australia's digital future for short-term
>political gain, according to the internet industry.
>
>The digital divide and the brain drain were the top issues at a
>round-table discussion on the internet industry in Australia today.
>
>Internet Industry Association executive director Peter Coroneos said
>politicians lacked vision and were more interested in short-term point
>scoring than Australia's future.
>
>"If they simply didn't understand we could educate them, but the problem
>is that they do understand and they calculate the political cost," Mr
>Coroneos said.
>
>"They knew digital television could be a thriving industry and empower
>people to use the internet but the risk of losing their traditional media
>support base was too high.
>
>"Political expediency is probably the greatest single threat to the
industry."
>
>Mr Coroneos said the digital divide was very real, whether between city
>and country or between different income and age groups.
>
>The Internet Industry Association was launching a roadshow to talk to
>people in rural and regional Australia about the internet and find out
>what their wants and needs were.
>
>It was an insult to people in remote areas to tell them they couldn't have
>broadband.
>
>Director of technology, media and communication at Andersen, Scott
>Mathias, said the "so-called digital divide (was) a myth in Australia".
>The process was evolutionary and the fact that there was no 56Kbps dial-up
>in some parts of outback Australia would be addressed.
>
>Tom Worthington, a visiting fellow in the computer science department at
>the Australian National University, said it was not feasible to provide
>broadband internet connections to all remote and regional areas using
>fibre optic cable.
>
>"We need to look at wireless options," Mr Worthington said.
>
>"I'd see us using the mobile phone network - we'd get further out with
>GPRS but 3G will probably be too expensive for most telecommunications
>companies to deploy."
>
>Mr Mathias said the advent of interactive television provided an
>opportunity for the ABC to play a valuable role in bringing the internet
>to rural Australia.
>
>Mr Coroneos said the political distinction between broadcasting and
>datacasting should be abolished so commercial players could provide
>internet services through digital television as well.
>
>"It would also make the spectrum much more valuable so it won't cost the
>taxpayer anything," he said.
>
>All speakers agreed Australia risked losing its intellectual capital
>through a worsening brain drain.
>
>Mr Worthington said many of the students he dealt with, some of whom were
>studying commerce as well as computer science, thought they had to go to
>Silicon Valley to do worthwhile, well-paid work.
>
>"They're very bright and very confident, but they're perhaps too
>confident," he said.
>
>"They read Wired magazine and have this perception they can walk out into
>a high-level job or if not here, they could do it in California.
>
>"They don't understand that they might have to start at the bottom and do
>some menial jobs first."
>
>Peter Moore, director .NET and developers at Microsoft Australia, said
>most of Microsoft Australia's employees were local and many ended up
>working for Microsoft in Redmond, Washington.
>
>The low Australian dollar and high taxes meant many people felt they were
>better off in the United States.
>
>Another issue was that Australians had to give up their Australian
>citizenship to gain US citizenship and then couldn't come home.
>
>Mr Coroneos agreed, adding that he was sending an email to Immigration
>Minister Philip Ruddock about the issue. There were 7500 people of
>Australian origin in Silicon Valley who should be encouraged to return
>home rather than hindered.
Tom Worthington FACS tom.worthington@tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd ABN: 17 088 714 309
http://www.tomw.net.au PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617
Visiting Fellow, Computer Science, Australian National University
Publications Director & Past President, Australian Computer Society
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