One thing that the US govt does well is to be a major customer for its technology companies. Does the Australian govt do the same? Whilst I'm not a fan of mindless "buy Aussie" jingoism, Australian public sector IT managers tend to be very conservative in their purchasing habits and openness to experimentation is the exception not the rule (I remember a 2007 conversation when I worked in federal govt where I was told that of course we could implement a wiki... in 2010). Anyways this support would be a drop in the ocean - the 2008 US Defense Dept budget was about 3/4 of Australia's total GDP for that year. There's another rant about the inflexible nature of government procurement processes but enough for tonite.
Along with mmp1, I'm not sure that the "ICT" label is very helpful - as that includes everyone from Telstra to the proverbial small guy in the garage. It's like lumping Thiess and Michelangelo together in the "Doing Things With Stone" sector and then trying to create policies applicable to both. However I have to disagee with mmp1 about Ireland, that model works when you are a relatively low cost country near an expensive continent. Unfortunately we are an expensive country near(ish) a low cost contintent. And Ireland is now in pretty bad shape - Romanians are a lot cheaper than Irishmen. That said I think the Public Sphere initiative is an interesting one. But it raises a question for me. What does the government think that a healthy ICT sector looks like? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/browse_thread/thread/99938a0fbc691eeb To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
