[LINK] Forum on high speed bandwidth in Australia

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

>      Government Service Delivery :
>            Near-Future Realities in a High-Bandwidth World
>      http://www.rogerclarke.com/II/GSD-0905.html
> 

Wherein Roger writes,

6. Conclusions 
Human communication has always been highly varied in style. High 
broadband has unleashed creativity, and even more patterns of human 
communication have emerged. Some will die as quickly as they exploded, 
others will flourish - at least within particular communities and niche-
usages, and others will struggle onwards, no longer in fashion, but with 
a committed user-base. 

EFTPOS exploded once the banks implemented the 'any card on any terminal' 
dictum. User of government services who are 'well-connected', will 
demand 'any time, any place, any device, any style' access. The dynamism 
of device and style are challenging for the designers of a 'public 
sphere'. They will create enormous difficulties for government agencies 
charged with delivering services while keeping costs under tight control. 

--

Agreed, and who wouldn't. Sensible and logical.

Imho, all will/do applaud the 'public sphere' initiative as constructive 
and imaginative step & thank our government, (Kate anyway) for provision.

Roger is right .. providing a truly public sphere will be difficult with
so many communications methods available. But, a backwards compatability  
should seem important. That is eg, older folk may want snail-mail access 
and participation, the blind with phone/voice/cassette-tape access, with
Gen Y happy with twitter participation. My point and Rogers, (i believe)
is that any and all involvement should be two way, that is, all can hear
all contributions. 

Difficult? sure. Expensive? sure. But probably necessary for any genuine 
inclusiveness. So, as a trial, many such as myself will-be/are delighted
with this initiative but also trust that so as to achieve wider adoption
among sitting members, sufficient planning/funds would be made available
for access by all to all. That is all participants can access all of the 
comments, made in any medium, by all the other participants. In that way
it will *truly* be a public sphere .. a public discussion amongst equals.

As ever, isn't that our Aussie way :)

Cheers,
Stephen