Igniting our digital future

The White House, in the US, announced the Ignite initiative last week — a public private partnership to develop applications that take advantage of high speed connectivity. Do we have similar plans here?

The closest thing we have is the Australian Centre for Broadband Innovation, launched by the CSIRO a year ago, to work with partners to progress services enabled by high-speed broadband. We hear from the centre's director, Colin Griffith, on the program.

But the size of the task is enormous, particularly when we consider the societal impacts of new technology. We're increasingly seeing that faster access is challenging our traditional way of doing things.

As economist Nicholas Gruen highlights, the opportunity could be lost for Australia if we don't undergo attitudinal change. In fact, culture was the biggest stumbling block he saw, to the adoption of the principles that arose from his chairmanship of the Government 2.0 taskforce.

This week on Twisted Wire, we ask whether Australia could be creating a huge opportunity, with the development of the NBN, only to blow it because of society's reluctance to change?

What do you think? Leave a comment on the Twisted Wire feedback line: 02 9304 5198

Running time: 32 minutes, 5 seconds