On Mon, 13 Jan 1997, Tom Worthington wrote:
> At 10:23 AM 10/01/97 +1000, Philip McCrea wrote:
>
> >...You're right, Stewart. It's not just EC - it's the whole of IT&T.
> >There are 4 federal government agencies with an interest in IT&T -
> >DOCA, DIST, DAS and OGIT...
>
> Mentioned it my National Press Club Address in December
> <URL:http://www.acs.org.au/president/1996/epubs/npctw.htm#INFOBAHN> and was
> surprised by the lack of disagreement from anyone in Canberra. The problem
> is how to bring about a more coordinated approach, rather than just creating
> another body.
Maybe it doesn't need another "body", but a task force to get the ball
rolling. The various agencies are like the "blind men and the elephant".
Each has a different agenda with different area of responsibility and
perspective, all equally valid and necessary, that should combine to a
coherent whole, as much to the advantage of each of the interests.
Policy, international relations, commercial interest, regulation, and
internal government operations seem to be the key areas, with not much
attention to national, collective [oops, may not be politically correct
right now] **strategic** direction. Are the decisions and problems being
addressed from the middle outwards, and ground up, without knowing what
the overall goal is?
>
> >...In addition, the wider IT&T industry - more correctly called the
> >'Digital industry' does not present a united front to government...
>
> That is something which can be easily fixed, lets just work together. I have
> proposed industry development as an ACS priority for 1997. The ACS is
> helping fund the IT Discipline Research Strategy
> <http://www.acs.org.au/president/1996/drsit/> and is preparing a submission
> for the IIT. What are other organizations doing?
>
> We don't need are any more grand sounding industry round tables or such
> like, what we do need are some plausible proposals clearly put. These can be
> prepared using on-line forums like this one. Lets start here and now.
Not so sure about the "here" part [as in 'link'], but the now is on
target. :-) It's also a good opportunity to introduce on-line productivity
to those who haven't experienced it before from the governmental agencies,
for specific parts of the process. It won't solve the need for leadership
from the top which is what appears to be lacking with a few exceptions at
state level.
There are a couple of old saws that come to mind:
- No decision *is* a decision.
- If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you've
arrived? [and other variations on a theme]
Have a good week, everyone!
Jan Whitaker
JLWhitaker Associates \--------/ - jwhit@primenet.com
Educational Technology Consultant / - Video and Computer Specialties
Melbourne, VIC, Australia \----/ - http://www.primenet.com/~jwhit/
Voice: (+613)9592-5752 \--/