Broadband Reform: Getting it right

I have written a piece for Open Forum, an independent public policy think tank, on broadband reform. My blog is also 'Blog of the Day' today at Open Forum. You can read the article here.

Some interesting broadband statistics comparing Canada & Australia

I have put together some interesting statistics from the OECD, Aikima, Statistics Canada and the Australian Bureau of Statistics to compare broadband in Canada and Australia. Given the similarities (apart from the Big Mac Index purchasing power parity indicator), there is plenty of reason to argue that 'competition' or lack thereof has not been a significant factor in the differences in broadband adoption and take-up.

Click on the picture below to see the table.

Kate Lundy's Public Sphere

Already the impact of citizen engagement using new media is providing opportunities for politicians to develop creative ways to enable greater participation in policy development.

Senator Kate Lundy is an active user of new media and will be hosting a forum on 'High bandwidth for Australia' at the ANU on Wednesday 7 May 2009. Details are as follows:

Workshop details
Topic: The opportunities and issues around getting high bandwidth Internet in Australia
Place: Australia National University, Seminar Room 101, in the Department of Computer Science Ground Floor
Date: 7th May
Time: 8.30am for a 9am start till 12pm
Agenda: To be published by 5th May, but short 10 minute talks with simultaneous online discussion and questions
Social Media: Twitter: #publicsphere or blog: publicsphere or ”Public Sphere”
Online Participation: via Twitter using #publicsphere as the tag. Participants both in the room and remotely will post questions to @katelundy and comments and feedback on the content as it is being presented to #publicsphere. Speakers will see the questions as they come up and be able to deal with them either throughout their talk, or at the end. By driving everything through Twitter we hope to effectively be able to both encourage and capture different perspectives from all participants, local and remote.

This workshop provides an opportunity for citizens to participate either face-to-face or online. The workshop will also provide an excellent case-study of how citizen engagement can occur in the New Media era.

You can RSVP for the event here.