Conroy to unveil digital economy plans

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is releasing his vaunted Future Directions for the Digital Economy paper tonight at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

(Powerhouse Museum image by cambodia4kidsorg, CC2.0)

The event will be attended by industry heavyweights such as Microsoft, Google and IBM; the latter two will field speakers for the launch.

The paper was announced last year at a conference in Melbourne.

Conroy said that the government wanted to create a platform to accelerate growth of the information economy. It also wanted to fill "gaps" in its knowledge on what was holding the digital economy back, how Australia was integrating with the global economy, and how it was tracking against international competitors.

As part of the government's initial web 2.0 effort, it sought comments on a trial blog that it could put into the paper, but also took submissions in the usual mode from multiple players in the industry. The document is over 100 pages according to reports.

The release of the government's paper came hot on the heels of South Australia's much shorter digital agenda paper released last week.

That paper admitted that the state was behind in broadband take-up and in the information technology skills of its residents.

The new state digital agenda replaced one from 2006, changing the focus from a five-pronged to a three-pronged approach consisting of connectivity, capability and content. Major focuses were increasing broadband access and usage as well as upskilling the state's population.