[LINK] Business fetishism (was Re: LINK] Four Corners NBN)

[Richard Chirgwin]

[snipping pieces I don't disagree with]

On 19/04/11 10:48 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:
>> ... any competent study would find successful, pervasive user-led 
>> innovations outnumber business-led innovations on the Internet. ...
>
> I would prefer to see an orderly and planned take-up of e-initiatives,
> rather than hope that somehow it will all just happen, even if it ends 
> up not happening according to plan.
>
> It would be better if the education and health systems, for example,
> planned for the change, rather than waited until their customers started
> using adhoc arrangements. One risk of unplanned development is that 
> most e-health and e-learning services will be provided over the 
> network from low cost, former developing nations, particularly India, 
> with little scope for Australian doctors or teachers to have a role. 
We're talking about different creatures, Tom.

You're looking at specific applications that are enabled or assisted by 
broadband; these are "known knowns", so to speak - we understand what 
e-health and e-learning are (even if the details of these are still 
contentious).

 From my point of view, *new* applications follow the infrastructure 
(generally) rather than leading it, *because* they tend to be bottom-up. 
But they follow the infrastructure - so from that point of view, the 
network itself is the enabler. "Adhoc" defines innovation; "planned" 
defines management. Both are required.

RC