Net Neutrality for Australia Too

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Watching this video below made me realise for the first time that Net Neutrality isn’t just a political, commercial push that will be overcome by the masses.

It’s happened before (printing, radio) and it could happen again.

What does it really mean? - Mick’s View

If we don’t enforce net neutrality now, the Internet and the media on it will slowly come under the control of the big telecommunications companies and media corporations.

They will decide what content gets shown. They will decide how you use it and what you pay.

“How can this happen? We can just set up our own servers.”

The telcos could do it by controlling the ‘pipes’. By not letting you connect to an ISP or even to connect a server to the net. It sounds like a fantasy, but they are highly motivated to do it.

This is largely being meted out in the USA but it will impact Australia. Our telcos will follow on. It’s worth raising.

Watch the video.
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Lookin’ for an invite?

The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Australia’s smartest and biggest achievers in their fields will attend Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s summit to generate innovate ideas for the country.

Cate Blanchett, Collette Dinnigan and the Sass and Bide duo could sit alongside national figures such as Tim Costello and Tim Flannery as part of the 2020 summit.

A cross-section of the community, including indigenous leader Mick Dodson, atmospheric scientist Graeme Pearman and Babcock and Brown chief executive Phil Green are among the 1000 best and brightest selected to generate innovative ideas.

Aussie Home Loans’ John Symond, Dick Smith, burns expert Fiona Wood and NRMA president Alan Evans have also expressed interest in the summit, News Limited reported today.

The federal government is hoping for a gathering of the country’s greatest minds to attend the summit on April 19 and 20.

Mr Rudd has locked in diary dates with several high profile participants and the 10 co-chairs and panel members have been finalised and will be announced early this week.

More than 400 Australians who consider to be the brightest in the country sent application forms to the prime minister’s office this week.

A Labor Party insider working on the conference said the fight to secure an invite had already begun.

“There’s a flood of people trying to get an invite, ringing up nonstop,” he told News Limited.

Who do you think should be invited?

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Who should be the Chosen Kilo

Our PM, Kevvie has decided that a kilo of humans shall be chosen from amongst the people to tackle the TEN BIG QUESTIONS. Apparently these cover such things as productivity, the digital economy, water, health, indigenous people and services and the arts.

That’s seven things but I’m sure the other big things will be announced shortly.

Apparently the idea is that there will be ten groups of a 100 people each, chosen on merit says Kevvie, to discuss these issues:

The summit will bring together some of the best and brightest brains from across the country to tackle the long-term challenges confronting Australia’s future

So who should go? Why should they go? Should they stay at the Sheraton?

Well let’s just deal with the first question as the answer to the second question is ‘because Kevvie wants to and we voted for him’ and the answer to the third is best answered by the chosen kilo themselves.

Who should attend the Jabberfest of Chosen Kilo?

Doubtless many of you think I’m being a little less than respectful of this notion. I guess I have to admit that that is not an entirely unmeritricious assertion. After all can a 1000 people or even a 100 yackety yack-yacking away solve anything? Is it best perhaps to let ideas unfold organically amongst small groups of people or even individuals.

Well I can’t say with absolute certainty. Anyway the point’s moot innit? It’s gonna happen. So my contribution, which is an absolute waste of time I’m sure, is to call upon Ozblogostan to have its say. You do this by posting a comment with those you think worthy. You may even wish to nominate the problem that they should be addressing. If they’re obscure you might want to tell us a little about them. Don’t fear, you can post a comment using a false name and an entirely fictitious email address.

I’ll leave it up for a little while. Once I have a healthy selection of candidates (assuming that happens) I’ll get an online poll together and we can vote on the various individuals. The poll I guess should be ideally chosen problem by problem. So ten polls?
After all that’s done I’ll post the results and email Kevvie to tell him what we find.

I expect he’ll respond with a succinct little PR blurb. I doubt he’ll pay attention otherwise. But who cares who we think is good. Winning online popularity contests is hardly an indication of merit, is it? )

Please visit here to nominate. The poll will announced on this site when it commences.

Cheerio.

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Should we ‘worm or wiki’ the summit?

The Australia 2020 summit is a great opportunity to showcase Australian IT inventiveness. It’s also an opportunity to help engage the masses.

Remember the Howard Rudd debate? The winner was the worm! And yes it was a great pollster.

So who would like to help me set up a wiki of the Summit agenda? Why can’t we offer to engage EVERYONE. The way I see it is perhaps too simple.

Just document the agenda and allow people to comment/edit contributions.

Otherwise the worm may dictate our future based on a transient whim rather than thought out solutions to the challenges of 2020 and today.

If we get this right, the outcomes will echo for eternity…

SHAH
(Stay Happy And Healthy!)

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Yes We Can. But can we in Australia?

This is why politics in America is such a hot subject. Passionate, statesmanlike speakers with a real message of change and hope. Beyond that, inspiring others to participate and get the message out. Will.I.Am of the Black-Eyed Peas has put together something special here - I’ve watched it several times and still choke up. It’s very reminiscent of the feelings I get when I hear We Are the World or Do They Know It’s Christmas?, perhaps even more powerfully so.

Barack Obama truly excites me as a politician. He is articulate and inspiring and can write his own stuff - the 2004 Democratic Convention speech that really brought him into the spotlight was his own work. His books were two of the most affecting things I have read.

But we have nobody in Australia that inspires anything like this kind of passion in the public, nor anyone delivering a message remotely inspiring. Kevin Rudd and Penny Wong both spoke eloquently at the Bali Climate Change Summit, but they were dead boring. Wong’s speech in particular was sleep-inducing - all the right words and no emotion whatsoever.

I hold out hope that the Australia 2020 Summit can bring to the fore some new and inspiring voices for change in Australia.

Laurel also has some thoughts on this issue.

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Issue: Tall Poppy Syndrome

Tall poppy syndrome

Tall poppy syndrome,
originally uploaded by lectureral.

At times, Australia appears to suffer from a lack of ambition and drive. We live comfortable lives, we work hard and enjoy the holidays. This leads to a better quality of life.

But a side effect of it is a negative opinion of risk taking, entrepreneurialism, and even success. It’s ok to succeed, but don’t be too proud of it, don’t take too much credit for it and certainly don’t flaunt it.

I believe this impacts 3rd plus generation Australians more than ‘newer’ Australians who appear to have more excitement about the opportunities that exist.

The end result of this is that Australia does well, but often doesn’t achieve it’s full potential.

Questions:
1. Is this really true?
2. Do we have a better lifestyle and is that worth more?
3. How do we foster more entrepreneurial spirit?
4. What are the root causes of this issue?
5. Can we have both ambition and lifestyle?

Discuss

Other reading;


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Goal: Sydney As Tech Hub

beach_silicone

beach_silicone,
originally uploaded by Jay Adan.

I think Sydney has the momentum to be one of the top 5 tech hubs of the world by 2020.

Reasons why this is good:

1. Technology is a growth and export industry.
2. Technology support has wider, positive impacts on education and science.
3. Australia is well positioned between USA, Europe and Asia to be a gateway, and our multi-culturalism helps here.

Things we need to do to support it;

1. Improve access to seed capital.
2. Increase technology community events - more barcamps, web jams etc.
3. Stop the brain drain to Silicon Valley. By 2020 it’s a place we setup sattelite offices in.

Discuss Here

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Entrepreneurs and Australia Summit 2020

From SmartCompany:

Digital entrepreneur turned Victorian MP Evan Thornley says entrepreneurs would have much to contribute to a summit of Australia’s leading thinkers announced by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday.

The Australia 2020 summit will bring together 1000 of Australia’s best and brightest to set out a roadmap for Australia’s future in 10 key areas, including skills and innovation, the digital economy, directions for rural industries, climate change and the structure of the Federation. (more here)
Thornley says the ability of entrepreneurs to think outside the box could mean they would be able to make a valuable contribution to the summit.

“A lot of entrepreneurs are longer term thinkers that are able to pick up on themes others haven’t discovered, so there would be a wide range of people involved, from academics to policy thinkers and business people and, yes, entrepreneurs as well,” Thornley says.

Which entrepreneurs do YOU like in the frame?

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Community Involvement Tools

xmods-toolkit (by Myself248)

So how do we get the broader community to best contribute to this summit and the broader goals? It’s all too easy to setup a blog and get the vocal (geek) minority contributing, but the success of a project like this is impacted by the breadth of ideas, questions and contribution.

What tools can we use, what rules (if any) should we impose, and how do we maximise the diversity of input?

Has anyone seen other countries or projects do something like this that really worked? Tell us about it.

Some starting points:

  • YouTube Videos - can we set up a channel.
  • Twitter - can we follow a user.
  • Events - can we have a SummitCamp?
  • Forum - should we add one from here?
  • Polls - are they useful?
  • Wiki - is there ‘one right answer’ stuff we need to develop.
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The Summit Cometh

Who should be involved? Which subjects?

  • Future directions for the economy, including education, skills, training, science and innovation
  • Economic infrastructure, the digital economy and the future of Australia’s cities
  • Population, sustainability, climate change, water
  • Rural industries and communities
  • National health strategy
  • Families,communities and social inclusion
  • Indigenous Australia
  • The future of Australia’s arts, film and design
  • Democracy, open government, the role of the media, the structure of federation, citizens’ rights and responsibilities
  • Future security and prosperity

Don’t forget if you just want to do an anonymous vote (a straight Digg style vote), you can do so at Bloggerati.com.au - but if you want to join in the discussion do so here or on your blog. Let Trib know your blog link and I’m sure he’ll put it on an Australia 2020 Summit blogroll.

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