[LINK] DCITA ICT advisory committee

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Brenda Aynsley wrote:
> Hi all
> 
> I see in brendan's OSWALD this week, he mentions the appointment of the 
> MD of Microsoft as chair of this advisory committee and says he's 
> disturbed by this event.
> 
> Can I point out to folks that the media release makes much of steve 
> vamos being the MD of Microsoft Australia and NOTHING of his membership 
> of the Business Council of Australia.
> 
> If you look at "New Concepts in Innovation: The Keys to a Growing 
> Australia" http://snipurl.com/vvs0 (the url to the pdf is ridiculously 
> long) on the BCA site, it seems at a skim (of 88 pages) to be offering 
> something worth a more serious look and I expect that it was because of 
> a paper like this that the BCA was invited to participate and perhaps 
> even chair that committee.
> 
> Sure there's a risk that the deliberations will be skewed in favour of 
> the familiar in the office (microsoft) but I hope that this committee is 
> operating at a far higher level than the office desktop/server environment.

This is an advisory group so presumeably they advise the government on 
priorities and areas to focus on. For the MD of Microsoft to be on a 
Government and Business Council IT Industry development committee, along 
with people from other IT companies, would be most appropriate.

However, if the government sought advice from these people as to the 
best use of ICT then this would not demonstrate much wisdom on their 
[the government's] part. But I am not sure what mechanisms there are to 
prevent this.

I caught Fran Kelly on ABC radio interviewing David Murray, chair of the 
future fund, about its role in influencing the direction of Telstra, 
once the future fund became a major shareholder. And David Murray 
pointed out that as the chair of the future fund, his responsibility was 
to ensure that his investment in Telstra was not loosing value.

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
Ramin Communications
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: 0414-869202
Email: marghanita at ramin.com.au