It’s truly amazing what a topic of contention the National Broadband Network has become. I’ve started writing a column for the ABC on broadband, and it’s highly likely that the NBN will be regularly featured. I’m curious to see whether future columns elicit the same response as this first one. What started as an attempt by me to point out some potential uses of high-bandwidth networks quickly turned into a debate on the merits of the network itself. What worries me however is the lack of vision and leadership in some segments of the Australian community. Anyway, please read my first effort here, and let me know what you think.
Speaking – When was the last time you had a roll of film developed?
For the past couple of years now I’ve found myself in some demand as a speaker on the topic of broadband technologies and their impact on business and society. The combination of the Internet and various digital technologies has had a massive impact on our lives, but often in ways that we hardly notice – until we look back and see how those changes unfolded.
I’ve been working with the Saxton speakers’ bureau for over a year now and recently started writing blog posts for their website. This first post encapsulates some of my thoughts on the film processing industry, and the lesson that it holds for other sectors.
SmartCompany – Swimming against the internet tide
Often we pundits in the media are far too quick to predict the demise of entire industry sectors at the hands of the Internet. In other instances, entire segments disappear without anyone really noticing, with the change only to be identified in hindsight. In this article for SmartCompany I chose four sectors that have been at some stage declared dead, and had a look at what those involved are doing to delay – or possibly avoid – that fate.
The Australian – IT’s traditional policies are toppling like dominoes
IT used to be easy. Well, at least easier. The CIO would set the policies for their organisation – which hardware to use, which software programs to load, etc – and users would do as they were told. After all, it’s not as though they could do much about it.
Some time in the 1990s the Internet began to change all of that. Web browsers gave users access to services that weren’t installed on their PCs, and enabled them to do things that weren’t just related to work. Some opposed giving workers access to the Web for fear of them spending their time surfing real estate and news sites. They were possibly right to be fearful – not of the lost productivity, but that they were opening the doors to a floodgate of other user demands.
These fears were realised when the first senior executive walked into their CIO’s office and demanded they be allowed to use their iPad at work.
Now CIOs find themselves responding increasingly to the demands of their users. Indeed, many of the biggest trends in IT today – cloud computing, bring-your-own-device policies and social media – are consumer-driven. It is the workers that have bought these concepts into the workplace, and it is the CIOs and IT system suppliers that have had to accede to their demands.
As this story for The Australian explains, perhaps it is the users of IT who are the real influencers in the IT industry today.
The Australian – Top 50 Technology 2012
Influence can be measured in many ways. There is the overt form of influence, which is represented by the buying power you have (and none can top NBN Co’s Mike Quigley, pictured), the number of people you command, and the loudness of your voice. Then there are the most subtle forms of influence that emerge through powers of persuasion, leadership and relationships, which are harder to spot, but can be all the more powerful for their subtlety.
In this feature for The Australian we looked at influence from all angles, to pull together a list of candidates who play a vital role in shaping the way that the Australian ICT sector is developing. Some may be obvious, some not so, and no doubt there are some names missing that might have otherwise considered themselves to hold a place.
Needless to say, they’ll have another opportunity to demonstrate their level of interest 12 months from now …
Australia Unlimited – The Young Ones
Australians have always been drawn to Silicon Valley, but never in the numbers that are present today. The hard work of Aussie entrepreneurs over the past two decades has succeeded in opening doors right across the Valley venture community, and a wave of Australian start-ups are taking advantage. Many Silicon Valley funders aren’t even waiting for the next batch of Aussies to ‘deplane’ – they are now scouting for the next big thing directly in Australia.
In this story for Austrade’s Australia Unlimited magazine I speak to many of the new crop of Silicon Valley-based entrepreneurs, including Bardia Housman, Elias Bizannes and Ryan Junee, and a few more who are on their way. While global markets are opening up increasingly to Australian technology, Silicon Valley is still the place to be.
The Australian – Cloud services sound death knell for compact discs
Just as the combination of broadband Internet access and digital cameras has all but wiped out the need for photographic film, so too it seems that similar combinations of broadband and electronics will do the same for the humble CD. In this story published last year in The Australian I explore the statements by Simon Fox, head of the UK-based entertainment retailer HMV, who said that CDs would be obsolete by 2016. For the CD, which pushed vinyl albums of record store shelves due to(alleged) superior audio reproduction, the final blow is being delivered not by a superior physical media, but by cloud computing.
The Australian – Numbers add up for busy business owners
Much off the discussion of cloud computing has focused on its uptake within large corporations and government departments. But in truth the greatest uptake of cloud services is occurring within small business. In many cases the business owners aren’t even aware that they are using the cloud – they are just getting on with the job. In this feature for The Australian I take a look into how cloud computing is benefiting Australia’s small businesses.
The Australian – Financial backing needed for knowledge economy
For start-up companies in the technology industry, times have never been so good. At no time before have start-ups had so much access to cash and incubator programs, and it seems there is no shortage of entrepreneurs with good ideas to take advantage of them. In this story for The Australian, published late last year, I take a look into the state of play for start-up funding, and the significant gap that then exists in the funding market once a company has gotten started …
ICF announces 2012’s top seven intelligent communities
Each year the Intelligent Community Forum searches the world for those communities that provide a model of economic and social development in the 21st Century using information and communications technology. The Top Seven for this year have just been announced – although unfortunately none of the nominated cities are from Australia (or indeed, from the southern hemisphere – although the State of Victoria was nominated in 2004). The nominations celebrate those communities that are using information and communications technology to power growth, address social challenges and preserve and promote culture, and this year’s seven include three from Canada, two from the US, one from Finland and one from Taiwan. In June, one of the Top Seven is named ICF’s Intelligent Community of the Year. Last year’s nominees included the US city of Chattanooga, whose CIO Mark Keil visited Australia last year to discuss his city’s adoption of high-speed broadband.