[LINK] Senator Conroy on Broadband for the World

[Tom Worthington]

Greetings from the World Computer Congress 2010 in Brisbane, where 
Senator Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital 
Economy is speaking on the National Broadband Network. He just returned 
from New York, where the United Nations Broadband Commission report  was 
released (he was one of the commissioners): 
<http://www.broadbandcommission.org/outcomes.html>.

The Minister spent most of his speech defending the NBN on costs and 
benefits. This was one of the best presentations of the Congress and 
provided a passionate and clear outline of the issues. This complemented 
Professor SV Raghavan's keynote address on "National Knowledge Network 
of India: An Instrument of Social Change" this morning.

I was a little disappointed that the Minister did not spend some time 
talking about the UN report. There is the full report "2010 Leadership 
Imperative: The Future Built on Broadband" (1.6 Mbytes, 36 pages, PDF), 
Broadband Commission for Digital Development’s Declaration and Report, 
UN 19 September 2010 and an Executive Summary (791 kbytes, 32 pages, 
PDF). This work deserves more detailed examination.Hopefully the UN will 
release a more accessible web version.

     TABLE OF CONTENTS

     1. A 2010 Declaration of Broadband Inclusion for All
     2. Executive Summary - A 2010 Leadership Imperative: Towards a 
Future Built on Broadband
     3. Creating a Broadband Development Dynamic: A Strategic Framework 
for Action
     3.1 Policy: From Clear Policy Leadership to an Enabling Environment
     3.2 Infrastructure: Investing in Infrastructure for the Future
     3.3 Technology: Future-proofing Technology
     3.4 Innovation: The Changing Face of Innovation
     3.5 Content and Applications: The Growing Importance of Content and 
Applications
     3.6 People: Building the Network of Ideas and Information
     3.7 Government: Government takes the lead in creating demand

     4. Broadband and the Interlinked and Interdependent MDG Agenda
     5. Broadband and Beyond the MDGs
     6. Recommendations and Proposed Plan of Action
     Acknowledgements

More in my blog at: 
<http://blog.tomw.net.au/2010/09/senator-conroy-on-broadband-for-world.html>
-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/