Stilgherrian » australia 2020

Australia 2020 does not haz teh internetz

Stilgherrian — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:08:03 +0000

How clueless are Australia’s “best and brightest” about the Internet? “Completely”, it seems. The “governance” section of the Final Report of the Australia 2020 Summit mentions the Internet just twice seriously.

Here’s what our finest minds had to say…

The circus of question time doesn’t give a positive view of parliament or promote confidence in the system. The community should be able to contribute questions to parliament. This could be achieved by greater use of technology such as the internet.

… and…

Government doesn’t seem to be using the internet. It could be such a powerful forum but is currently under-used in the government context.

Yes, Dear Clever People, it could be, and it is. Glad you noticed.

So what else did they have to say about the most significant factor to affect civilisation in, oh, 300 years?

In the chapter on creativity and the arts we have…

Creativity that has been unleashed through the web and internet was discussed, the focus being on the highly democratic nature of the format and the very good signs of creativity that are available to anyone who has access to computers. One participant suggested that if we were to embrace that we would have a good perception of the centrality of creativity. Another proposed that the digital environment had produced a big change in perception, and that they would not be talking about forms that have only substance and pricing. Yet another commented that the government is very interested in embracing broadband infrastructure.

Discussion moved on to the idea of digitising all museum collections and all Australian print. ‘Digitise and then what happens?’ was asked. The answer included live broadcasts on the net and leveraging what children already do and showing them a pathway to creative careers. The question of what happens with visual arts not on the internet was raised, and the answer included linking net content with popular culture.

… and a money-grabbing idea…

Pay 1 per cent of gross revenue from telecommunication companies, internet service providers and other content providers into a government cultural fund for artistic endeavours.

For our indigenous Australians:

Connect families to the internet and the digital world. All Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children should have safe internet access when they start school, if not earlier.

Yes. what wonderful idea. Black people can have the Internet as well. How clever you must feel for suggesting that. Later someone observed…

It was acknowledged that digital media and the internet allow people to continue to
participate in the arts following formal education.

Gosh. I’m getting quite giddy now. Under “health” we have…

Many services will be able to be provided via the internet. It will help us cut down isolation.

And under “strengthening communities” the outcome of “standardisation of regulation and services” could be assisted by…

Development of a website (with a mail-out version for those without internet access) that provides an illustrative map of Australia that progressively charts climate change impacts.

Ah, you mean like this one?

I get the feeling that no-one had any clue about this Internet thing apart from:

There is a thing called the Internet.
The Internet is important.
You can do stuff on the Internet.

I haven’t quoted every mention, but it doesn’t get any better. If this report represents what Kevin Rudd’s “best and brightest” understand, then Australia is well and truly fucked.

[Hat-tip to Stephen Loosley for drawing my attention to this.]

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My submissions for Australia 2020

Stilgherrian — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:19:58 +0000

For various reasons I didn’t have much time to write submissions yesterday. Yet I’ve said so much about still believing the Australia 2020 Summit to be important — despite plentiful shortcomings — that I felt obliged to write something. In 500 words or less. So I wrote from the heart…

What emerged were two pieces:

For the governance topic: Managing continual, rapid change with a clear framework of values.
For the topic on “the economy”, which is where discussions of broadband policy ended up: Broadband: It’s about symmetry, not speed.

I’m well aware that they don’t really provide a properly-researched, well-argued case. Nevertheless I hope that in some way they’ll help influence debate. Comments appreciated — perhaps over where the submissions themselves are blogged.

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Australia 2020 sumissions close 5pm today

Stilgherrian — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:05:53 +0000

While there’s probably a thousand things I should be doing for my little business, at least part of today will focus on the Australia 2020 Summit because submissions close at 5pm today, AEST.

I find the process odd. While I well understand the need to prevent the summit delegates being overwhelmed, there’s a limit of 500 words on each submission — but also a ban on photographs and other images. Sometimes a diagram could explain things much more effectively, but no this time.

My main challenge, though, is going to be coming up with one clear message for my 500 words. There’s so many things which could be said…

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My first posts at Topic 9

Stilgherrian — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:44:23 +0000

I’ve started posting things over at Topic 9, the website I set up for my contributions to the Australia 2020 Summit and beyond. Illness prevented me going to BarCampSydney 3 on the weekend, so the question What can we do here? is still open. I’ve also posted a list of the delegates to the governance topic, and a summary of the starter questions in the topic area’s official background paper.

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Australia 2020 rejection letter finally arrives

Stilgherrian — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:36:10 +0000

This morning I finally received a letter (pictured) telling me that I hadn’t been selected for the Australia 2020 Summit. Gosh. I’d already figured that out from not being on the published lists of those who were going.

Apart from the rather late arrival of the news and the traditional passive-voice bureaucratic writing style, there’s two interesting points about this letter.

I left the “title” field of the nomination form blank, since I don’t use them. I think titles like “Mr”, “Miss”, “Mrs”, “Ms” etc are an archaic way of labelling people. Nevertheless they felt compelled to use “Mr/s”, even though I had filled in the gender field.
The official website said that people who applied via email, like me, would receive an email reply. They can’t even follow their own published procedure.

I really am trying to find good-news stories about the Summit, I really am…

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The problem with changing what you do…

Stilgherrian — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:21:52 +0000

… is that if you want to do a New Thing, you have to choose an Old Thing to stop doing. Otherwise you run out of hours in the day. And that doesn’t work.

I’ve written before how I’m starting a business called Skank Media, and the new Topic 9 website is the first project out of the starting gate. Certainly since the beginning of this year I’ve been spending more time writing too: 133 posts in January 2008 compared with just 16 a year before. I’ve spent more time in dialogs online too, re-establishing links with my community.

What’s the Old Thing that’s stopped?

I’ve been getting less sleep, certainly. And less exercise. But I’ve also been doing less work for my “old” business, Prussia.Net — and therein lies a problem. Prussia.Net is what generates the income.

Oops.

Yes, cashflows are down. And because I wanted to change Prussia.Net itself, that change process takes more time of its own too. Some client projects are running terribly late. I even lost a wonderful long-term client a few weeks ago because I couldn’t dedicate enough time to their change process.

Big Oops.

So for me, today’s the day I start sorting out that chronological challenge. Here’s how I’ll proceed…

Since Prussia.Net pays the bills (and there’s plenty of bills to be paid) I’ll tackle that business first and sort out the timelines for the rest of this month. Then I’ll see how much time that leaves for Topic 9 in the two weeks until the Australia 2020 Summit. Once I know that magic number of X hours, at BarCampSydney 3 this weekend I’ll talk to people and figure out how I can best spend that time doing something about the Summit. I think that’s the right strategy because presumably I should exercise my geek skills as best I can — and fellow geeks can make good suggestions.

That means I’ll definitely be at BarCampSydney on Sunday. I’ve even written an explanation over at Topic 9.

Whaddyareckon, folks?

[Note: This post was very much me "thinking aloud". I figured that if I had to explain it all to you, then I'd be forced to get it clear in my own head. That's been a valuable technique -- but do you want to see this sort of post?]

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Topic 9 website finally launched!

Stilgherrian — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:20:41 +0000

I’ve finally launched the website for my adventures to the Australia 2020 Summit and beyond: Topic 9 at topic9.com.au.

It’s pretty sparse to begin with, and I’m not quite sure exactly what I’ll be doing there — so suggestions are more than welcome. Some thoughts so far are:

Gathering links to everyone else’s writing about this topic area for the Summit.
Articles on people or ideas on how government could work in the future.
Interviews with the delegates before they hit Canberra.
Act as a central point of contact for whatever media coverage we can generate out of the summit, whether I go or not.

I certainly need to spice up the design a bit. I’ve kept the Tarski theme as used on this website and Skank Media for consistency, but it needs a tad more differentiation. soon, my precious ones, soon…

Any other ideas?

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Attending BarCampSydney 3

Stilgherrian — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:53:43 +0000

I’ve decided to go to BarCampSydney 3 this weekend, at least the Sunday session anyway. What sort of things could I usefully contribute? I’m thinking a discussion on internet TV, given my writing about ABC Playback this week, or perhaps try to figure out wt we can do about the Australia 2020 Summit.

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What should I do about Australia 2020?

Stilgherrian — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:11:36 +0000

OK, so I didn’t make the 1000 “best and brightest” going to the Australia 2020 Summit. Nevertheless I’m still very interested in Topic 9, “the future of Australian governance: renewed democracy, a more open government (including the role of the media), the structure of the Federation and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.” What should I do?

There’s still the possibility of getting media accreditation, or perhaps connecting to the themes of the event in some other way. Here’s a brain-dump of my thoughts on this sunny Sunday morning… comments appreciated!

I haven’t had time to go through the list of participants in detail, except to be pleased that human rights lawyer Julian Burnside made it and to note, as The Road to Surfdom did, that some selections are… annoying:

I was trying to be positive about the 2020 envisioning thing, I really was.

Until I read that Miranda Devine is a member of the mob considering ‘Future of Australian Governance’.

Miranda Devine!!!!!

I guess she got a guernsey in the name of ‘balance’, once Phillip Adams was invited.

Both, I’m sure, will bring brilliantly innovative ideas to the wankfest that nobody ever thunk before in the history of 20 cents a word punditocracy.

Sorry Kevin but this ridiculous waste of time and money is the stupidest idea since Friday sittings of parliament in which nothing was allowed to happen.

For me, it’s not that Miranda Devine is a “right-wing commentator” and I’m perceived to be “of the left”. Far from it.

Anyone who still uses that ancient left-wing vs right-wing dichotomy — yes, “ancient”, it was invented during the French Revolution — is hopelessly out of date and should automatically be excluded from Australia 2020 or from reporting on it. Yes, I’m talking about you, Larissa Dubecki of The Age:

Old warriors from the left and right of the culture wars are most liberally represented in the governance stream, where conservatives Greg Craven, Miranda Devine and Gerard Henderson have been chosen to line up against Robert Manne, Phillip Adams, David Marr, and GetUp! activist Brett Solomon.

Is it not possible to report on anything “political” without nailing it to that outmoded framework?

Even the 2-dimensional Political Compass is 40 years old. It’s time for something a little more relevant to a multi-faceted society, people, and political reportage which is just a little more sophisticated!

But I digress…

I’m all for diversity of viewpoint. Sometimes I agree with Ms Devine, most of the time I don’t — but that’s fine, we can discuss that.

I’m annoyed with Ms Devine’s selection because her columns don’t seem to offer much new, and Australia 2020 is about new ideas — or at least that’s how it’s been marketed. I also question Ms Devine’s ability to research and marshal accurate facts into a coherent logical argument — as opposed to disgorging a jumble of pre-conceived and largely unconnected ideas and factoids that appeal to her readership.

And I’m annoyed that selecting “old warriors from the left and right of the culture wars” is still looking backwards. It’s a clear sign that the relationship between government and media really does need a thorough renewal if you can’t get any meaningful dialog about the nation’s future without rounding up these tired old cliché-ridden warhorses yet again.

My secret hope is that Chairman Rudd has decided that once all of them — Henderson to Manne, Devine to Adams — are sealed within the marble walls of Parliament House, Canberra, that the vents will be opened and the Zyklon B will issue forth…

Whether the selection of 100 people for Topic 9 is good, bad or indifferent is now moot. We now have a weekend when the focus is on Australia’s future. After Howard’s Decade of Coma, talking about the future at all seems so refreshing.

It’s not that far into the future, only 12 years — the year when someone in kindergarten today will enter adulthood. But it’s a start. And maybe, as I’ve said before and before that, if we don’t decide it’s all fucked up before it’s even started, we can get some value out of it.

So, back to what I could do…

I daresay I could get media accreditation. Crikey would doubtless lend me their name, if not any budget. (I’ll ask tomorrow.) But who knows how many media places are available? The proceedings may be streamed live, like parliamentary committees are, which could mean covering the event from my own desk in Sydney — though it’s always much better to be “on the ground” doing separate interviews and commentary.

I’ve thought of experimenting with Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans idea: putting up a proposal, calling for donations, heading to Canberra with the support of my fans and then generating the media output that those fans want. Could that work?

Or should I just cave in, and start calling it a wankfest like those radio shock jocks?

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Australia 2020 delegates announced

Stilgherrian — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:14:52 +0000

The full list of delegates to the Australia 2020 Summit has been announced. For some reason undoubtedly related to the relative efficiencies of government and media, it was published on The Australian’s website before the official one. And due to some oversight they seem to have left my name off the list. I’ll follow that up when I’m not wrapping up at a client’s office.

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Youth Summit delegates announced

Stilgherrian — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:14:58 +0000

My invitation to the Australia 2020 Summit has yet to arrive. I guess it’s been a busy week, so I’ll be patient. However the 100 delegates to the 2020 Youth Summit the weekend before have been announced.

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I’ll do my writing tonight

Stilgherrian — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:39:30 +0000

Yesterday I said I write follow-ups to my recent pieces on housing affordability and the Australia 2020 Summit. I decided to relax last night instead, and today I’ll concentrate on some client work and the gym first. Meanwhile, you can always read part 2 of Possum Comitatus’ housing policy analysis and Guy Rundle’s negative perspective on the summit.

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Australia 2020 Summit delegates chosen!

Stilgherrian — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 04:25:25 +0000

Chairman Rudd has announced that the 1000 “best and brightest” have been chosen for the Australia 2020 Summit, and confirms that the attendees will receive their invitations this week. There’s only “a handful” of household names, he says. I’ll list the 20 names he released today in another post later today, or you can read the pieces in The Age or at the ABC. I have household things to do first.

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Australia 2020 invitations “next week”

Stilgherrian — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:12:25 +0000

Invitations to the Australia 2020 Summit will be sent out next week. “The Government has reserved a right to make some appointments of their own and they can be people who either didn’t apply or people who did apply and we left out,” says Steering Committee member Tim Costello. “With the Prime Minister saying we want the brightest and best there, anyone with any sort of healthy ego felt compelled to apply, so it’s attracted absolutely brilliant people.”

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Australia 2020 Summit “destined to fail”

Stilgherrian — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:46:14 +0000

Another negative piece about the Australia 2020 Summit, this time from geneticist Michael Lardelli in The 2020 Summit — more hallucination than clear vision. He reckons it’s “destined to fail”.

Let me quote a couple more lines from the [ALP policy] website:

“The Australia 2020 Summit will examine… How we best invest the proceeds of [current] prosperity to lay the foundations for future economic growth.” And “How… we plan future population growth at a national and regional level, given the constraints of water shortages and sustainability?”

The trouble with these statements is that they assume the possibility of future economic growth and the inevitability and even desirability of population growth. But economic growth requires energy. A clear, objective view of the facts shows that by 2020, Australia and the rest of the world will be deep in an energy and food crisis of epic proportions.

Lardelli reckons that not even the Greens can openly suggest that future economic growth is impossible or that population growth is undesirable.

I don’t think we should write off the Summit just yet. These are Australians we’re talking about. If the Steering Committee tries to shut down true ideas-generation, I reckon our “best and brightest” will fight back with vigour.