Conroy's future or pure lip service?

Senator Stephen Conroy last week launched the Future Directions for the Digital Economy whitepaper, but the Patch Monday team believes it is more of a state-of-the-industry paper than a sign of what's to come.

Microsoft Australia's chief technology officer Greg Stone said that although he welcomed the paper, he didn't believe it was about laying out strategies for the future. Whereas LookSmart co-founder, Martin Hosking, said he hoped the final paper went past a grab bag of issues.

Unfortunately for Hosking, Microsoft's view of the paper won out, with a lack of any big ticket items appearing.

At least one Patch Monday team member went so far as to call the direction of the paper trapped in halt state.

Is it correct that the paper establish benchmarks and measurements for the industry or should it have labelled some big ticket goals for the future? Is this the start of more focus on the digital economy or simply lip service to the other half of Conroy's portfolio?