[LINK] Broadband Futures - Public Policy Aspects

[Tom Worthington]

Roger Clarke wrote:
> Final thoughts, as the event winds up  ...

My notes at: <http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/labels/bbfuture.html>

For me the event ended on a positive note with Genevieve Bell, on 
e-Community. It was refreshing to hear ideas about broadband for people 
to use, rather than as something done to them.

I started to suffer from conference fatigue on the last day, to the
point that in a moment of inattention I plugged the wrong power supply 
into my wireless modem and destroyed it: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/12/destroyed-my-router-with-netbook-power.html>.

George Bray wrote 
<http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/link/2009-December/085858.html>: "I 
was able to participate remotely from my beachside cabin ...". In a way 
he got better access to the event than I did, sitting in the venue (just 
behind the PM, Minister and assorted dignitaries).

There were power boards and WiFi supplied for the Twiterarty in the fist 
and last few rows of seats. However, sitting cramped over a 10 inch 
netbook screen in your lap for hours is not very comfortable. Given that 
much of the time I was not looking at the live speaker, but instead at 
my netbook or at the projected image on the big screen in the 
auditorium, I might as well have been somewhere more comfortable.

There were some advantages being there live, such as the spectacle of 
Senator Lundy operate a laptop with one hand while Twittering on a smart 
phone with the other. The coffee and lunch breaks were very high 
bandwidth networking events. A node of ACS people formed in the centre 
of the room, grabbing anyone important who wandered past and lobbying 
them on assorted issues (It was useful to be able to meet the new ACS 
CEO and President Elect).

It was a little unsettling to wander into a conversation and find the 
Minister for Communications, the head of the ABC, or the PM part of the 
discussion.

One frustration I had was that the media were never in the media room, 
they were wandering around taking part in the discussions. The speakers 
preparation room was more open that I have seen it at commercial events, 
with non-speakers allowed to wander in.

Another frustration was the large number of Linkers present. As everyone 
else was furiously trying to plug their product or policy proposal, I 
tried this myself, but people kept saying: "Yes Tom, I read you posting 
about that on Link".

In retrospect, perhaps I would have been better off sitting in the media 
or speaker's room at a comfortable desk during the sessions, watching 
them on screen. Then I could have come out to mingle during the breaks.

The stream sessions did not work so well. The problem was that most of 
the time was taken up with talks by the panellists. While mostly 
excellent people and speakers, this was a waste of the limited time. It 
would have been better to provide the talks online in advance and then 
go straight to discussions. Also I could not get the Wiki to work at 
all, despite (or because of) all the user-ids and passwords I had been 
issued with. As a result I felt I had less ability to communicate by 
being in the room.

This was an excellent experiment in an Internet enhanced event (not 
quite as good as the Internet Global Summit: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/2001/inet/>).

But perhaps more of the bar camp format could be adopted: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/03/redesigning-australian-government.html>. 
There was too much spent on glitz and stage managing. As an example we 
could have done without the glossy colour program (so glossy you could 
not scribble notes on it). A sheet of monochrome paper printed at the 
last minute (so it was up to date) would have done. The expensive 
looking neoprene
conference satchel was so large it was an encumbrance and does someone 
at the Department have a rubber fetish? ;-)

Perhaps what is needed is an official event with the important speeches 
and "fringe" events with the less formal bar camp style discussions.


ps: Technology does have its limits. After the forum I took a 370 bus to 
King Street to go to a performance of "Cabret" at the New Theatre. In 
the street I bumped into Chris
Chesher, who mentioned there is a Fibreculture event on Wednesday, about 
"Freedom and control in the Australian Internet": 
<>http://fibreculture.ning.com/events/roundtable-freedom-and-control?rsvpConfirm=1>.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/people.php?StaffID=140274