[LINK] Fwd: [aliaACTive] Digital Economy Future Directions

[Tom Worthington]

At 05:00 PM 27/01/2009, Antony Barry wrote:
>Begin forwarded message ... From ... Roxanne.Missingham at aph.gov.au ...
>  consultation paper on the Digital Economy Future Directions  ... 
> by the Australian Government ...

Here are the comments I sent to the department:

1. OPEN ACCESS TO PUBLIC SECTOR INFORMATION: The Australian 
Government should adopt the US Government's policy of open access to 
Public Sector Information (PSI). This can be implemented using the 
Australian Creative Commons licence. The Commonwealth Library Deposit 
and Free Issue Schemes (LDS) should be changed to encourage 
electronic distribution, with the paper option retained for the few 
items where this is not suitable.

2. DIGITAL CONFIDENCE: The Australian Government should continue to 
follow European practice with use of the OECD privacy principles.

3. DEVELOPING AUSTRALIA'S KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS BASE: The Australian 
and State governments should increase funding for Education Network 
Australia (edna) and the Australian Flexible Learning Framework 
encourage further such joint state/federal initiatives. The 
distinction between secondary, vocational and the higher education 
sectors for funding of the development of e-learning content, tools 
and training should be removed. A condition of public funding for the 
development of tools and courses should be free open access. The 
federal government's Digital Education Revolution, should incorporate 
e-learning and e-literacy.

4. ENSURING AUSTRALIA'S REGULATORY FRAMEWORK ENABLES THE DIGITAL 
ECONOMY: Australian should support international copyright principles 
and avoid making exceptions to support US publishing interests. As 
Professor Geoff Walsham argues it is a "Non-Flat World" and Australia 
can benefit from being part of a wider culturally heterogeneous environment.

5. DIGITAL ECONOMY AND THE ENVIRONMENT: The Australian Government 
should adopt a realistic CO2 emissions target of 25% to 50% reduction 
by 2020, in accordance with the Garnaut Report. The Australian 
government should implement the recommendations of the Personal 
Computer and Monitors Energy Efficiency Strategy prepared for the 
Environment Department. The Australian Government should fund its 
senior ICT staff to undertake the ACS Green ICT course, or equivalent 
training in ICT energy reduction.

6. MEASURING THE DIGITAL ECONOMY AND ITS IMPACTS: The Australian 
Government should restore previously cut funding to the Australian 
Bureau of Statistics to allow the suspended ICT statistics to be 
again collected.

Version with links at: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/01/some-future-directions-for-australian.html>.

My summary of the paper is at: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/01/future-directions-for-australian.html>.

ps: Sorry, but I thought I had already posted these to Link previously.



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, Australian National University