Economic contribution of universities

Jon Stanhope, ACT Chief Minister, on 19 March 2008 launched the report of a Study of the ACT Innovation System, on enhancing Canberra’s knowledge economy, R&D and innovation. This is described key document for the Canberra 2020 Forum to be held on April 5 on the theme 'innovation'.

However, the report does not appear to have been made available yet. A search of the ACT Government web site found no matches found for "Innovation System". Howard Partners, who are undertaking the study, describe it as a "Work in Progress".

Howard Partners did undertake a study of the contribution of Melbourne’s universities to the City’s economic, cultural and community development in
May 2007. This is a 72 page report "Melbourne: Australia’s knowledge capital":

Globalisation is increasing as external courses offered by overseas providers increase. The falling costs of telecommunications and the capability of the Internet are providing opportunities in the provision of education across national borders. ...

For example, RMIT has research strengths relating to information retrieval from very large databases, including the Internet. One research group
has developed into a commercial enterprise which has been spun out as a successful company with clients in many sectors including defence, education and government in Australia and overseas. ...

Swinburne University has a research strength in how new information and communications technologies are put to use by users, communities, organisations and societies in a way that creates new intersections of technology, content and use. Research activity is concentrated in the areas of: convergent communications and technologies; human computer interaction; internet computing and ecommerce; affective human-computer interaction and information technology innovation. ...

The online astronomy program, Swinburne Astronomy Online (SAO), is perhaps the largest Internet-based astronomy learning program in the world. ...

From: Melbourne: Australia’s knowledge capital, Howard Partners, May 2007

ICT for Government

The plenary session after lunch at the ACS Canberra Branch Conference was by Ann Steward, Australian Government Chief Information Officer on a "ICT in Government - The Way Forward". Whereas Senator Conroy talked in the morning broadly about programs for the community, Ann's brief is to support and guide those delivering ICT within government agencies. She provided a detailed summary of how ICT is to be done in support of the new government.

Previously AGIMO could only offer gentle guidance to agencies about their ICT strategies. With the change of government, AGIMO can have more of a say with agency projects, but still emphasizes consulting and guidance, rather than enforcement.

Ann mentioned that FedLink will come to tender shortly. ICON, the internal system used across government will also progress.

AGIMO is working on templates and patterns, structures and standards. AGIMO's business reference model will be in the next APSC State of the Services Report.

The acronyms used by AGIMO can get a bit bewildering, but thankfully most are standards ones used around the world (an example is SOA: Services Oriented Architecture). With AGIMO exclusive ones, there is usually a quick summary and detailed report on the AGIMO web site.

One success at a practical level has been the Australia.gov.au search facility which agencies can choose to use. Something which will be much harder to do is to create a single sign-on for clients of agencies. this is being done with the Australian Government Online Service Point and the delivery of online services. Rather than just do these sort of initiatives and hope for the best, user satisfaction surveys have been used to see what is working and is wanted.

The latest annual survey, due out soon, shows that the number of people contacting the government using the Internet at least once in the year was up from 20% to 59% from the year before and 25% use the Internet for most of their contact with government. Ann made a plea for agencies to look to coordinate information channels, including mobile and web.

AGIMO is working with DIISR on simplification of government forms and with Centerlink on authentication of clients. Also there is GovDex, which provides an online environment for government people to coordinate such work.

Ann mentioned ICT skills and the needs of government. One example is the ICT Apprenticeship Program. This was a pilot program in 2007 and has been launched last week for 2008, with 51 apprentices in 15 agencies. Not all the apprentices are young and more are needed. Ann described the fact that there were only one or two females amongst the apprentices as "unacceptable". There is a female mentoring program which may address this.

The PM is leading by example with a "citizen centric" approach to government.

In addition agencies need to work on business continuity, as with the e-security national agenda. Agencies need common agreed protocols in the event of disruption to services, such as telecommunications.

Ann said that agency based procurement does not necessarily result in the possible bulk savings. There may be more coordinated procurement for areas other than where it has been done with telecommunications.

AGIMO will participate in CEBIT Australia in May 2008 in Sydney.

See also from AGIMO:

• 2006 e-Government Strategy, Responsive Government: A New Service Agenda
• Australian Government Architecture (AGA)
• Australian Government Online Service Point (AGOSP) Program
• FedLink
• GovDex
• Telecommunications - Australian Government Arrangements
• ICT Strategy Skills
• ICT Management Consultants multi use list

My own take on AGIMO work:

• Australian e-Government Guide
• ICT Skills in the Australian Public Service
• Standards for a Civil Society, Government and Commerce: Pocket Government
• Management of Electronic Records in the Australian Government

ICT Graduate training, recruitment and technology

Lunch at the ACS Canberra Branch Conference was a noisy affair. In the foyer were several standards from conference sponsors. An unplanned theme of the sponsors seemed to be ICT education and graduate recruitment. One stands was the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) who are recruiting ICT graduates. A problem government agencies have is making potential staff aware of what hi tech opportunities they have. Another problem is the slightly bewildering acronyms and names of the agencies after the last election (for example "fahcsia" sounds like part of a building).

The ANU National Centre for Information Systems Research was looking for advnaced stidents to research business information systems and e-commerce. I teach the ANU students web design and (I teach their students Web Design and E-commerce Technology. But one research area I wasn't previously aware they were researching is Network-centric warfare.

Another sponsor was ACTEWAGL with their Canberra Technology City project. They are proposing to build some large environmentally efficient data centers.

ICT Governance

Ian Hirst talked about "IT Governance Principles and Issues" at the ACS Canberra Conference. He went through with the audience what governance was, why we need it, issues, principles and success factors. But I am still uncomfortable with the term "governance", as in many cases it is used as a substitute for "project management". Governance seems to have been appropriated by business from government.

One interesting point Ian made is that the Australian ICT Governance standard (AS8015-2005) has been selected by ISO to fast track as the international standard. There is a slight disconnect with this work as the ICT governance standard comes from the ICT area, and was in advance of and separate from more general governance standards.

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Oganisations of all types and sizes are challenged when they consider, plan and decide on IT investments. Decisions that have significant risks or rewards need to be well informed, well thought through and well implemented. Governance structures are a means for making effective evaluation, selection and monitoring of significant investments and commitments. This breakout session will be a guided discussion of governance covering the following key items ...

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Regulation in the ICT Industry

After the plenary sessions, the ACS Canberra Branch conference shifted gears, with parallel sessions about the nature of the IT industry and profession. Richard Lucas talked about research conducted into the views of ICT people about the profession, regulation and ethics. One issue was that there are so many groups involved in the ICT industry that there was not a level of regulation as might apply in other professions. The Government was not seen to be the way to regulate the industry, with ICT people wary of such control.

Richard presented a relatively bleak picture, with little recognition of professionalism and little obvious enforcement of ethical standards. However, Richard mentioned they are working on ways to help ICT professionals do the right thing, rather than externally forcing them to.

Previous research in the area is in the ACS's magazine: Ethics survey: haste sours quality in ICT (Richard Lucas, Information Age, 17/06/2007).

After lunch Ann Steward, Australian Government Chief Information Officer, is talking about ICT in the government sector.

ICT Futures for Australia

Greetings from the ACS Canberra Branch Conference in Canberra. I will be blogging from the conference. The CEO Kumar Parakala opened the event on the topic Relationship Relevance and Reputation. He talked about the way ICT is driving the Singapore economy and accelerating in India. The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy was next on "ICT Futures". He described how he was heckled by the opposition when he first brought a laptop into the parliamentary chamber for question time and the surprise from colleagues when he first used it for a cabinet presentation. He claimed to be the first minister to use a laptop at question time in the Australian Parliament and the first minister to use a computer for a presentation in Cabinet.

The ACS National Office asked me to blog the conference. I am sitting in the back row, next to Senator Lundy, who has brought along a prototype OLPC and is typing away beside me. You may see the back of her head and the OLPC on the TV news. On the other side of us is an old fashioned journalist with a notebook taking short hand. Given the rate at which I can type, shorthand is probably a better option. ;-)

Senator Conroy is now discussing the issues with safety online, particularly for children. Part of the new Australian government's policy is to provide computers for school children with the Digital Education Revolution policy. The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) recently issued a request for tender for an "E-Security Education Module for Australian Schools".

One advantage I can see with the OLPC is its silent rubber keyboard. My clicky laptop is causing some annoyance for the other conference delegates.

The senator mentioned Skills Australia will have more than $14M to spend. I didn't catch the details, but from the Deputy PM it appears it will "... analyse current and emerging skills needs in the Australian economy – both in the broader economy and demands across industry sectors... assess evidence from commissioned research and industry stakeholders to inform Australia’s workforce development needs ... distribute information... provide the Government with recommendations ...".

At the end of the day the ACT Chief Minister will launch the Launch of ACT Pearcey Foundation Award. It is an interesting time for ICT in Canberra, with a new government preparing to provide billions of dollars for computers and telecommunications. Just one of the programs is due to hand out $100 for computers in schools in the next few months.

Conference Program

08:30	Registration and Coffee
09:00	Welcome Michael Hawkins MACS, ACS Canberra Conference Chair
09:05	Relationship Relevance and Reputation Kumar Parakala MACS, ACS National President
09:20	ICT Futures Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
The ICT Professional and their futures
10:00	What it means to be an ICT Professional Dr Tim Turner FACS, ADFA The presentation will briefly review the history and meaning of the concept of professional and professionalism to establish context for a discussion about the professionalism of the IT discipline. The presentation takes the view that although the term “IT Professional” is routinely used, it may, in fact, be a misnomer. The current circumstances of the IT discipline as a whole are reviewed for alignment to the concept of a profession and then suggestions are made as to what more the discipline needs to do to truly become a profession, setting an agenda for the ACS and other IT ‘Professional’ bodies. Overcoming the Skills Crisis John Debrincat FACS, Chair ACS Foundation Worldwide the Information and Communication Technology Industry, ICT, today is dominated by three forces on a collision course. A changing workforce demographic, rapid change in technology and systems and, changing views on energy consumption leading to global warming and resultant environmental impact. The common verb in all these issues is change. Australia has an aging workforce that is being replaced by new workers with different views and principles: Gen-x and Gen-y. ICT is seen by most people as a necessary component driving many conveniences that exist as a part of everyday life. Yet it is still cast with a stigma of “geeks and nerds” and continues to suffer from the indulgences of the dot.com bubble. Organisations and even individuals are struggling to keep pace with rapidly changing systems and technologies that are driving increasing social interaction and user choice. These systems are delivered on new processing and storage devices that cover floors of data centres and consume vast amounts of energy. A typical server today consumes 4 times the power of a server in 2000. In Australia ICT consumes 1.52 per cent of the total national emissions, which totalled 522.2 Million Tons CO2. Compared to other industries that is more than Civil Aviation, more than Cement Industry and not much less than Iron and Steel. So how do these factors come together and what is the connection with ICT skills issues. Impact of change is forcing rapid redevelopment and innovation to occur worldwide which is consuming the available workforce. At the same time, in Australia, the entry of new students into tertiary ICT courses is at its lowest point in almost 10 years. We will work through the factors affecting student take up, success rate and capabilities. Understanding the problem is the first step before investigating and realising potential solutions.
10:45	Morning Tea
11:15	A: IT: A Career to be found in all parts of business and the world John Ridge AM FACS John will present a considered view of the ICT industry and the many and varied careers that it offers to those who are currently studying ICT courses, have graduated or are looking to work in it. He will cover what opportunities a career in IT affords, the extent of the IT industry and the opportunities which exist both in Australia and overseas. He will dismiss a number of commonly held misperceptions about the industry, both now and into the future, and will provide some advice to those starting out in this exciting career B: Ethics and Regulation in the ICT Industry - Lessons for the ACS Dr Richard Lucas MACS In a recent survey of ICT professionals the respondents made a number of specific comments about the Australian Computer Society. I report here on the results of that survey: Specifically I analyse the respondent’s replies concerning the awareness, usefulness, and regard that the respondents had for the society. I then provide a commentary on this analysis. C: The Impact Project Success and Failure on IT Professionals Eric Kordt MACS The impact of project success and failure on individuals is frequently overlooked in the IT profession. With projects being based around a complex social context and frequently cited as unstable or highly politicised for projects that fail, the impact on individuals at varying job responsibility levels can be significant. Indeed, recent research by Beyond Blue suggests approximately 9% of IT professionals suffer moderate or severe symptoms of depression. This presentation explores recent research into how attributions (ideas or beliefs about the cause of a certain event) affect an individual’s motivations, emotions and behaviour in relation to successful and failed IT projects. The presentation concludes with a discussion on the research implications for practitioners with an emphasis on retaining IT talent. D: IT Boundaries Ross McConnell MACS “IT doesn’t matter” caused a stir a few years ago. Ross is developing this discussion to realign the IT components of the business to show why IT skills are so valuable but are often misplaced within an organisation by being sidelined in an IT section. The skills and expertise that IT has brought to the business from its engineering heritage can assist business to deliver services more efficiently and ensure that technology is just one component of any successful business investment.
11:55	E: Discovering an IT Career Amadu Barrie MACS (Prov.) A journalist from Sierra Leone, the author was forced to flee his country in 1999 due to fear of persecution and possible death. After spending two years in Guinea, where he helped found the Association of Sierra Leonean Journalists in Exile (ASALJIE), Amadu was finally accepted, with his brother, under Australia’s Special Humanitarian Program in 2001. Facing the usual difficulties in settling in an alien country, the author describes the positive aspects of life in Australia, including the sense of safety, educational opportunities, formation of a local Sierra Leone association, and the help of Australian volunteers who assisted in many ways. F: IT Goverance Principles and Issues Ian Hirst MACS Organisations of all types and sizes are challenged when they consider, plan and decide on IT investments. Decisions that have significant risks or rewards need to be well informed, well thought through and well implemented. Governance structures are a means for making effective evaluation, selection and monitoring of significant investments and commitments. This breakout session will be a guided discussion of governance covering the following key items: What is governance? Why do we need it? Some issues to consider Some principles to ponder Key success factors G: Information Management Lifecycle - IT v Business Monica Tyson Formation Data The volume of data collected and utilised by organisations continues to rise. What roles should IT and the Business play? Should there be any absolutes? This presentation will use the Information Management Lifecycle as a base for discussion around the roles of both IT and Business and through examples explore successes and challenges. H: Introducing a Novel Market Segmentation for e-Government Services Dr Tim Turner FACS, ADFA A critical element of the overarching realm of e-government is the appropriate delivery of government services over the Internet. To date, guidance for government service design has been based on usability and, lately, security issues of the new medium and simple demography-based segmentation approaches aimed at structuring the presentation of government to its constituents. This paper introduces a novel market segmentation approach that allows e-government service designers to prioritise and target online services at individual constituents in a way that is expected to increase adoption of online government services. The segmentation approach and the characteristics of the segments that result are described within the broader context of e-government in Australia. After describing the segmentation, four key issues impeding e-government implementation in Australia are discussed with insights into priorities developed from the segmentation. The paper concludes with a summary of ongoing research in the area that this paper introduces.
12:30	Lunch
Innovation and Developments in the ICT Sector
13:30	ICT in Government - The Way Forward Ann Steward Australian Government Chief Information Officer Australian Government Information Management Office Department of Finance and Deregulation Progression of the 2006 e-Government Strategy, Responsive Government: A New Service Agend The Australian Government Online Service Point and the delivery of online services AGIMO's role as a leader in the efficient application of ICT in the Public Sector
14:15	I: Security and Identity - The IT solution for the issue of the 21st century Brett Minifie National Manager Identity Solutions hp Technologies and Internet habits are often adopted by the consumer market with no regard to the privacy implications of using these technologies, some of these technologies have huge consumer benefit, some are dubious to say the least. Enterprises often weigh the adoption of new technologies, especially identity technologies, heavily against the often competing aims of consumer privacy. What are the differing costs and issues to the consumer and the enterprise when an identity system fails the Trust Exam? J: Greening IT - Canberra Technology City Carsten Larsen MACS ActewAGL The Canberra Technology City (CTC) located in Australia’s national capital, is a purpose-built data centre campus that offers organisations in the Asia Pacific region a unique opportunity to secure cost efficient data centre facilities. As a complete data centre infrastructure solution, Canberra Technology City is capable of providing access to diverse electricity network feeds, and long term fixed power costs delivered via onsite clean and highly efficient gas powered electricity generation. K: Use of Realtime Simulators for Operational Training in Electricity Distribution Networks Dr Paul James MACS (Snr.) and Bill Tarlinton The presentation will discuss the evolution and development of a ‘flight simulator’ for the operation of electrical distribution networks. The simulator is the first of its type for electrical distribution networks, and was developed to overcome a long-standing problem that exists with training staff who operate these networks. L: Innovations in ICT - A Case Study Marcus Jowsey Senior Consultant Dialog Information Technology Business is increasingly demanding information services focus on achieving outcomes that benefit the bottom line. This is reinforced in a Gartner report titled “Introducing Business Context”. It stated that “A focus on concise business language is imperative”. To keep pace with the accelerated innovation in software and the pervasive nature of computing requires innovation in the designer’s mind-set. Marcus will present an innovative approach to embedding the language of the business when defining an OO project.
15:00	Afternoon Tea
15:30	Industry Panel: Challenges of Diversity, Innovation and Risk Introduced and led by Sheryle Moon MACS (Snr.) CEO AIIA Panellists:John Debrincat FACS, Chair ACS Foundation Derek Volker AO, Chair, ACT Skills Comission Educators perspective Yohan Ramasundara MACS, Director of YIT Professionals Board This the final session of the Conference that is returning to the major focus of the conference- what is the future for the IT Professional, IT employment and the IT Industry. Sheryle Moon will lead the panel and speak for about 20-30 minutes around these themes. Sheryle will be joined on the Panel by Derek Volker Chair of the ACT Skills Commission; John Debrincat Chair of the ACS Foundation; and Yohan Ramasundara Board Director of the Young ICT Professionals Board. The expectation is that they will speak for about 5 minutes each followed by general discussion with each other and conference attendees if they have questions/statements. There will be an independent chair for the whole session.
16:45	Conference Close Dave Bryant MACS PCP, Chair ACS Canberra Branch
17:00	Conference Cocktails in the realm foyer Launch of ACT Pearcey Foundation Award

Past Conferences

2007 Annual Conference
2005 Annual Conference
2004 Annual Conference