Hi all. What follows is, in part, a reply to Elias Bizannes's last message in the thread about small regional towns as innovation centres using solar farming as a possible revenue vector. I have moved it here to its own thread because I would like to see a separate discussion evolve specifically about telework, which is closely related to work culture. Anyway, I told you in a previous thread that I was very partisan toward telework, so here goes...
2009/6/28 Elias Bizannes <elias.bizan...@gmail.com> > Nope - no sarcasm. The point I was trying to make: innovation centres are > influenced by a particular type of environment and the human relationships > that are built. And that culture is ultimately what makes an innovation > centre - but that culture is derived only from having the right environment. > > > People harp on about lack of capital and lack of talent as being the reason > Australia can't compete globally in tech. I say bullshit to that: it's > because we haven't got the right culture yet. What I proposed is setting > something up that allows us to then export that culture to Australia more > generally, based on experiences, networks and success stories generated. > Startups in San Francisco can be classed silicon valley, because they've > exported the culture from Palo Alto and San Jose - despite being much > further away from what was originally considered the Valley. Sorry, I'm new to this list and am only just starting to play with the possibility of starting a business around my ideas. I don't know much of what constitutes culture as you speak of it. Would you mind listing the main themes as you see them? > You don't want to work in that world? You're choice of words there > classically show the cultural problem we have. What cultural problem? > This isn't about work/life balance. I never admitted to that. I think work/life balance is a separate consideration to what is being discussed here. At some stage, however, given a reasonable amount of success, any and every business must consider how it is going to employ people to cater for business growth. Do you think telework has any place in delivering this sought after business growth? > We are not a trade union to make better employment conditions. Go work at a > big company if you want that, that's at the mature stage of the business > cycle. I've worked in a few big companies. None of them treated the subject of telework as more than lip-service. Do you think more can be done to encourage serious consideration of telework? Do you think more should be done? > This is about creating brutal startup business success. Every startup > founder I've spoken to or interviewed, reveals a very non-glamorous life > with a lot of early sacrifices. Do you think if start up business ventures require any help, that at least some of that help should be directed to deliver a telework enabled work environment? If Richard teams up with Bart (from Startup camp - which may I add, they > already do), I think people will run at the opportunity for this. Although I am no expert on what may constitute solar farms of the type suggested, I see the opportunity to deliver any income to rural and remote parts of the country.may come at some sacrifices: a further erosion in the land available to farming due to the fact that the land is being used to convert solar energy to electricity and not food is one assertion (lacking in evidence, admittedly) off the top of my head. Anyway, there is just as much an opportunity to install solar panels on the rooftops of houses in the city than there is in installing them over land in a rural or remote area. Isn't it be better if these urban rooftops could harness the sunlight that would currently go to waste? Non-urbanised areas might also not see the prospect of solar farming as adding much value to their community outlook. How much real intellectual and creative energy is needed to manage fields of solar arrays? None? How many people would it take to maintain them? At a wild, and completely uneducated guess, I might say three people for every, say, 100 hectares? What value is there for the longevity of a community in this? None? There is no seasonal cycle to be considered on a solar farm. No harvesting, no planting, no driving of stock. Hence, there needn't be a farmer. What value would there be to a farmer in this? None? To a community and an environment: what value is there in converting one's home from the familiar landscape of rolling hills and pastures to one where an eternal shade of solar panels blocks the growth of anything underneath? What value may there be to the landscape and habitat? None? Neither Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth nor any major centre in this country might be so chuffed at the prospect of exporting it's knowledge work to other, less populated parts of this country. Such moves may rouse fears of a population exodus that might see urban property prices fall (or not rise as fast). However, Australia is more than just a few urban centres, and when remote poverty is such a concern for this country, shouldn't attention be given to schemes such as telework for providing a possible route to its mitigation? What are the thoughts of others vis-a-vis innovation and telework in Australia? Owen. -- www.cliquespace.net Clique Space Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=81335296379 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. No lurkers! 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