The Squawk: Murray innovators release regional Web 2.0 community

"The Squawk" is a social and business network for regional communities which provides location-specific content. The site has been "kicked off" by Regional Development Australia, Murray.

I am a big fan of this type of local innovation. In my comparative research into Canada's broadband industry, Australia is lagging in terms of the extent and intensity of community-based communications innovations. But not in the Murray.

In fact, the Murray region has been home to numerous communications policy submissions and leaders in many communications initiatives. And not just focusing on the Murray region, but developing models which could be deployed elsewhere. Regional Development Australia, Murray has been working on community-based wireless infrastructure for some time and pushing on through the legacies associated with Australia's penchant for single national solutions to communications problems. The motto "Think globally, act locally" comes to mind.

Local and regional initiatives must be at the heart of Australia's push to fix our poor standing on broadband. It would appear that the Federal Government's shift in attitude toward funding local and regional initiatives has aided the Murray region to continue its tradition of innovation, but more needs to be done. But this latest initiative is a step in the right direction.

The Squawk is a place where you can connect and share information with others near you. Use The Squawk to build and maintain social and business networks and find support within your regional community

Check out the community and join at www.thesquawk.com.au. Let's hope there will be many more local initiatives like this one and governments continue to promote innovation where it counts.

Communications Innovations: CSIRO must be given greater Oz status

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is arguably one of Australia's greatest assets. Yet little more than lip service tends to be given to this organisation even when its innovations are ground-breaking. To make matters worse, Australia rarely takes advantage of its discoveries in the early stages of adoption.

Traditionally, Australia runs a trade deficit in telecommunications equipment and has been a technology 'taker' since the Canadian Samuel McGowan brought the telegraph with him to Victoria in the 1854. McGowan had to improvise on several occasions to overcome the challenges of deploying telegraph technology where there were manufacturing skills and capability were rare. 

Given that for most of Australia's telecommunications history, the telecoms equipment ndustry existed as a monopsony, it is little wonder that the industry never really developed. But it makes little sense why that should be the case now, unless Australia will simply focus on patenting new innovations.

For example, last year the CSIRO won a settlement for the use of its use of wifi technology by Hewlett-Packard, with many other well-known global communications companies in the firing line. The patent was registed in 1996 with hardly a sigh from the Australian community about the technology's potential.

Today, the CSIRO is producing another world's first with the miniturisation of a radio receiver onto a chip 5 x 5mm in size. The CSIRO has developed the chip with Sappicon Semiconductor which has its headquarters in Sydney. These chips will replace receivers used in radio astronomy which are currently the size of a fridge. 

But there is not even a whisper from the traditional media.

The National Broadband Network could assist with the development of an innovative Australian communications equipment industry. Given its reputation,  the CSIRO is well-placed to lead such an Australian revolution.

But the old debates over Telstra (not that Telstra is a laggard) and whether we need broadband at all are quietly ignoring a weak area of Australia' seconomy that makes no sense at all. In the meantime, Australians should be very proud of the CSIRO and give this national asset the status it deserves.

Once the rest of the world goes NBN the doubters will shut up!

It is one thing to debate the details of the NBN implementation, quite another to think that things are rosy in Australia. But does it matter? At the rate that other countries are building their own NBNs, let's just hope that it becomes commonplace before the naysayers kill off another Australian innovation.

Australians are notorious for waiting for others to move first. The number of times we hear: "How can the government do this when nobody else in the OECD is doing it?" is just another tired example of cultural cringe. Australians can and should innovate.

The skills shortage in electronic communication in this country is nearing the ridiculous. Assumptions about digital natives are drastically wrong. Less people know how to use Web 2.0 or higher bandwidth technologies than most people think. Without an NBN, this skills gap will only increase in comparison.

Rather than embracing the NBN, we seem to be sliding into a debate over its actual worth. In the meantime, the rest of the world is doing what Australia is doing already. We can't even see when we are in the lead. Let's take a brief look around the world:

According to AustralianIT:

President Barack Obama has pledged to put broadband in every American home and his administration has already designated over $US 7 billion in economic stimulus money to expand broadband access in underserved communities.

Governments such as New Zealand are claiming that the private sector is simply not moving fast enough and are funding new infrastructure. Not everyone agrees but the government is moving forward. Developing countries such as Jordan in the Middle East are also funding a NBN (with private sector support). There are many more in the pipeline.

This morning's Australian Financial Review article makes a great case study to explain to my students why they are not allowed to reference Wikipedia in my classes. But how long will the argument against Australia's NBN stand up to comparative wisdom?

It is always difficult to be a first-mover in Australia. Sometimes it is not worth the hassle. But Australia has the opportunity to be a world leader. Let Australians innovate and stop talking about innovation while holding us back. Give us the NBN. Let's debate the implementation, but there is no argument against the NBN itself.

It is time for those who don't know what they are talking about to simply shut up and get out of the way.