Preliminary comments on BSEG report

[Tom Worthington]

I wrote Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 05:41:51 GMT:

>Here are some preliminary comments after a quick reading of the summary and 
>recommendations of the "NETWORKING AUSTRALIA'S FUTURE", the final report
>of the Broadband Services Expert Group into new communications services 
>launched in Sydney 11:00am Wednesday 1 March 1995 by the Prime Minister.
>...available on the Internet (http://www.dca.gov.au/intro.htm)...

This is to provide further comments on the recommendations, to thank the 
networking community for its assistance in preparing the ACS submission and 
to urge you to new efforts.

BACKGROUND

In 1993 Roger Clarke, Chair of the ACS Economic, Legal and Social Implications 
Committee, asked me to co-author a paper on the implications of the 
Information Superhighway for Australia. This paper became the ACS submission 
to the various government and parliamentary enquiries on the Information 
Superhighway (including the BSEG). It also formed the basis of the ACS's 
draft InfoBahn policy.

In undertaking this project we tried to avoid the problems which occurred with 
the process for the Research Data Networks Co-operative Research Centre. 
Both the consultation process carried out by Government, and the result of 
the RDN-CRC process were unsatisfactory.

We tried to involve the IT networking community, by circulating drafts for 
comment on the Internet. This worked very well; with academic, government 
and commercial IT people, ordinary community members, the IT press and 
political IT advisors being involved. By the time the ACS submission was 
complete, its content represented a rough consensus of the IT community and 
had already largely been incorporated in the thinking of the various 
Government enquiries and agencies.

The ACS and the networking community became closely involved with and assisted 
the processes of the various enquires. As an example the ACS distributed the 
initial BSEG discussion paper and call for submissions on the Internet for 
the BSEG. Other organisations and individuals assisted with distributing 
various items of information.

In the absence of any central Government co-ordinating agency or process, the 
Internet and its forums (particularly Tony Barry's LINK mailing list at 
ANU), provided the central clearing house for ideas and news. The results of 
these discussions were incorporated by the participants in recommendations 
and reports, to their various organisations. That process has perhaps been 
more effective and served Australia better, than a conventional consultative 
process would have.

I would like to thank all of those, who contributed to the discussion of 
theses issues via the Internet. The BSEG final report incorporates most of 
the recommendations of the ACS's submission and addresses most of the issues.

However this is not the end of the process. The BSEG report is a set of 
recommendations to Government. Governments have less enthusiasm for 
implementing recommendations when it comes to spending money, giving up 
power to other bodies, or when the election is over. Also Governments can 
change.

The next stage in the process is to assist the Australian community with 
putting the best of the recommendations of the BSEG into practice (and 
improving the not so good recommendations). This will involve more direct 
lobbying of the current Government and opposition. It will also involve the 
members of the networking community in demonstrating that the vision of a 
networked nation, can be implemented for the benefit of the whole community.

COMMENTS ON BSEG FINAL REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS

* LINKS TO SCHOOLS AND OTHER COMMUNITY GROUPS

As recommended by the ACS.

Will need to do a bit of work on the details of funding. The report appears to 
assume two distinct networks with different architectures: a short term 
narrow bandwidth Internet one and a longer term Broadband one. It is like 
that there will be one network, using an amalgum of networking technologies 
and speeds.

* NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR BROADBAND NETWORKING IN EDUCATION

As recommended by the ACS.

- TAFEs: This is a bit of a forgotten sector for IT investment. As an example 
the ACS Canberra Branch has made representations to the ACT Government for 
the provision of an adequate Internet connection to the Canberra Institute 
of Technology (previously ACT TAFE).

- Community organisations: Many of these groups are ready now with proposals 
for providing training to the community. If someone in the Government has 
there chequebook handy, the ACS has proposals on hand from the Rozelle 
Neighbourhood Centre (fax: 02 8108532) and National Shelter (fax 06 2571814) 
for setting up community based network projects.

- Libraries and telecentres: It may be appropriate to set up a national 
telecentres program, modelled on the Department of Primary Industries and 
Energy "Rural Telecentres" program.

* INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT PLANS

The report recommends cable network operators implement industry development 
plans. It is not clear why this requirement should be limited to one 
delivery technology (cable). There is the possibility that cable could be 
superseded by broadband wireless "microcell" technology in the next few 
months.

* EXTENSION OF NETWORKS

The report recommends that telecommunications carriers and broadband network 
operators report network strategies to government. This appears to envisage 
a new class of telecommunications company ("Broadband carrier") and 
regulation of them. This does not appear to fit with the move to 
simplification of the regulatory environment.

* SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS

As recommended by the ACS.

* LOCAL CONTENT

The report recommends 10% Australian content for Broadband entertainment and 
information services. This would appear to envisage the creation of another 
class of regulated organisation and regulation of currently unregulated 
activities. The report assumes that the industry will be dominated by a few 
large commercial for-profit organisations, which can be regulated. The BSEG 
appears to have forgotten the lesson of the Internet and assumes that 
Government will discover some way to impose restrictions on information 
received directly from overseas.

* GOVERNMENT USE OF NETWORKS

The BSEG did not adopt the ACS recommendation for Government information to be 
made freely available on the public data network. The proposal for a fund, 
to encourage agency projects would appear to be a less certain way to ensure 
that Australian citizens have a right to free access to publicly owned 
information.

* OPEN ACCESS TO NETWORKS

As recommended by ACS.

* PRIVACY

Part of ACS recommendation adopted:

Apart from privacy, other civil rights in cyberspace, such as of assembly and 
freedom of speech, were not addressed in the BSEG recommendations.

* CONDITIONAL ACCESS SYSTEM

Not recommended by ACS:

The report recommends applying the existing censorship system to commercially 
available material on networks. However it is difficult to envisage how this 
would work. In its submission on the regulation of Bulletin Boards, the ACS 
warned of the difficulty of regulation and possible  infringing civil 
liberties. This is a difficult area and the ACS will be putting forward 
detailed recommendations from its joint "Freedom in Cyberspace" task force 
with Electronic Frontiers Australia.

* NATIONAL INFORMATION SERVICES COUNCIL

As recommended by ACS. Do we get a seat on it?   :-)

* MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL INFORMATION SERVICES

As recommended by ACS:

There are already effective bodies operating at a lower working level, which 
provide a suitable model (Commonwealth/State Internet Working Party an the 
Commonwealth Internet Reference Group). These groups have already provided a 
co-ordinated, consistent "whole-of-government" Internet service for 
Australia, which compares well with the work of other nations.

* BROADBAND STANDARDS ADVISORY GROUP

As recommended by ACS:

The ACS's Technical Board, which has various technical committees and 
representation on Standards Australian and international bodies, may be able 
to assist.

* RESEARCH INTO CONSUMER NEEDS

The report proposes research by a government agency, such as the Bureau of 
Transport and Communications Economics. This research might be better done 
through non-government research bodies, which have experience and expertise 
in this field. This might be undertaken by a "virtual" organisation 
operating over the Internet. The research work on academic electronic 
publishing, being coordinated by the AVCC, may serve as a model.

NEXT STEP: AFTER THE FINAL REPORT

CO-ORDINATION: There is still no central co-ordinating Government agency or 
process for InfoBahn issues in Australia. Responsibility is distributed 
between various agencies at the federal level, primarily: Prime Minister & 
Cabinet; Department of Communications and Arts; Department of Employment 
Education and Training; and Department of Industry, Science and Technology. 

The agencies have set up various InfoBahn related units (such as the new DOCA 
Information Networks Taskforce). Unfortunately these bodies are still 
learning to use the technology to communicate and are less able to 
co-ordinate with each other, than the established informal newtorking 
community.

In the absence of a Government focus, the Internet will continue to act as the 
central clearing house for ideas. In addition the ACS and other bodies will 
be running conferences and seminars, at which the issues can be discussed 
(and provide a rare opportunity for some of us to meet face to face).

THE WORLD IS WATCHING: Australia is a significant player in the InfoBahn 
field, due primarily to the quality and energy of its IT research community. 
We have the facilities and the "talent" to promote Australia's capabilities, 
in the world of culture and commerce. There are a handful of Australian 
individuals and projects which are known internationally, via the Internet. 
These can be nurtured and emulated.

Unfortunately our Government representatives and companies, have been slow to 
learn the new skills needed for this. Hopefully Australia's lack of input to 
the recent G7 InfoBahn meeting, will be an isolated incident.

REFERENCES

BSEG Final Report: http://www.dca.gov.au/toc.htm
ACS submission: ftp://archie.au/ACS/ACS-policy-networking-abstract-draft.txt
ACS/EFA Task force on "Freedom in Cyberspace": e-mail: joint.tf@efa.org.au
ACS Multimedia InfoBahn Conference: http://acslink.net.au/~tomw/conf95br.html
14th World Computer Congress: http://acslink.net.au/~tomw/ifip96br.html



Tom Worthington		Ph:  +61 6 2474830	Pager: +61 6 2856209
Director of the Community Affairs Board		Fax:   +61 6 2496419
Australian Computer Society Inc.
G.P.O. Box 446, Canberra A.C.T. 2601, Australia
E-mail: tomw@acslink.net.au	Home page: http://www.acslink.net.au/~tomw/

ABOUT THE ACS: The Australian Computer Society is the professional  
association in Australia for those in the computing and information 
technology fields. Established in 1966, the ACS has over 15,000 members and 
on a per capita basis is one of the largest computer societies in the world. 
Activities are announced in the Usenet newsgroup "aus.org.acs". Information 
is available via e-mail from info@acslink.net.au.