[LINK] ICT Futures for Australia

[Tom Worthington]

Greetings from the ACS Canberra Branch Conference in Canberra 
<http://www.acs.org.au/act/2008conference/>. The CEO Kumar Parakala 
opened the event  on the topic Relationship Relevance and Reputation. 
He talked about the way ICT is driving the Singapore economy and 
accelerating in India. The Minister for Broadband, Communications and 
the Digital Economy was next on "ICT Futures". He described how he 
was heckled by the opposition when he first brought a laptop into the 
parliamentary chamber for question time and the surprise from 
colleagues when he first used it for a cabinet presentation. He 
claimed to be the first minister to use a laptop at question time in 
the Australian Parliament and the first minister to use a computer 
for a presentation in Cabinet.

Senator Conroy said that the Government's digital agenda was closely 
aligned with the ten year vision NICTA released last year. One 
priority for the Government was high speed broadband with $4.7B investment.

At the end of the day the ACT Chief Minister will launch the Launch 
of ACT Pearcey Foundation Award. It is an interesting time for ICT in 
Canberra, with a new government preparing to provide billions of 
dollars for computers and telecommunications. Just one of the 
programs is due to hand out $100 for computers in schools in the next 
few months.

  More in my blog at 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/labels/ACS%20Canberra%20Conference.html>.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, ANU