I wrote:
> For example, our politicians sit back and glow that
> we're "early technology adopters." In fact, all the
> developed countries get fed this line in one way
> or another. It's part of international marketing.
Robert wrote:
> The interesting point here is that whilst I was in
> the US working with major IT companies (Red Hat's
> strategic partners), our acceptance of new
> technology was about the only thing they knew about
> Australia.
My eyebrows are raised at this, to be honest. All figures for penetration
and usage of consumer devices show higher rates in the US, with trends
typically 12 to 18 months ahead of Australia. PC's, consoles, phones,
everything. Many other nations also have higher penetration figures than
Australia, including Japan, Hong Kong and many of the northern European
countries. The other developed nations have figures similar to Australia.
As well, many of those countries are told they are especially adept at using
and embracing technology, including Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, northern
European countries, Ireland, Israel, even the UK. What's more, there's
actually better evidence of this for some of the other countries.
One line the PR lackies used to run in Australia was that, because we used
to have a single national telco, we had stronger telecommunications system.
Also that because we had national banks, our ATM network was bigger. However
I have never seen valid figures pointing to those factors translating into
the alleged early technology adopter theme.
Regards, Tony Healy
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