[LINK] Twenty Years of the Net in Australia

[Tom Worthington]

stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> ... Pioneer of the Internet launches book to commemorate historical milestones ...

Unfortunately AARNet decided not to make their book about the Internet 
available via the Internet.

The message AARnet is sending out to its clients in Australian 
universities and to its backers (the Australian Government), is that 
AARnet does not think the Internet is suitable for the distribution of 
important information: AARNet prefers paper.

AARnet could have provided the book online, as a valuable educational 
resource. Australian students could have then learned about the role 
which Australia played in creating the Internet. Instead Australians 
will be educated using online materials from other countries and learn 
that Australia had little, if anything, to do with the development of 
the Internet.

During the early years of the Internet I was asked by MPs and senior 
policy makers in Canberra (and still am) who were the important people 
in the world to talk to about the Internet, the web and other IT 
developments. When asked this in Parliament House I would point in the 
direction of the ANU, CSIRO and other Australian research bodies say: 
"down there". The response would usually be "no we don't want to talk to 
Australians, we want world leaders". AARNet are perpetuating that 
problem by failing to use the technology to get their message out.

ps: AARNet do not seem to have made the paper book available either. I 
was unable to find the book on Amazon.com, nor anywhere else on the 
Internet. About the only way to get the book seems to be ask AARNet and 
at some time in the future they might tell you where it is available: 
<http://www.aarnet.edu.au/contact-us.aspx?s=14>.


-- 
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