chieftech’s blog

There are a lot of pictures, so I'll post some notes later.

This is very brief summary of key points, based on my presentation notes:

Slide 2: Global competition:

• There are positives and negatives.
• I told a story about visiting CeBIT in Germany in 2005.
• However, consider Australia’s Olympic record - we rank 11th in the world total medal count, but are the 232nd most densely populated country on the planet.
• So how should we we compete in a global Web 2.0 industry? For a start, we have to accept that this is *NOT* Sillicon Valley.

Slide 3: "1.3 million downloads @ $1 each"

• This refers to Firemint’s successful Flight Control Game for the iPhone.
• It easy to dismiss Web 2.0’s value - but do the math! The FIremint examples shows there is room for Australia to compete.
• Web 2.0 is creating new business models. Built on ideas, bits.

Slide 4: The Web 2.0 industry is *different*

• This picture is from BarCampSydney5
• BarCamp, Hackfests, OpenSource - the industry has its own rules and culture, enabled in part by the technology itself.
• The industry has a low barrier to entry, but it can be hard to be successful - think of “superstar” companies and the Long Tail.

Slide 5: Mismatch!

• Government likes big funding models (no issue with that) - e.g. NICTA, CSIRO, Unis, CRCs, etc - and typically offer support on the basis of $1 for $1 funding or 3-way consortiums.
• There is a risk that this can create a dependency economy for business, but I don't believe the Web 2.0 industry is begging for handouts.
• Major mismatch between government and the Web 2.0 industry - process of gaining funding is too slow, its the wrong funding models anyway and most importantly they have very different cultures!

Slide 6: Recommendation #1: Open Innovation

• Example of TJam - Tesco’s shopping cart API. Held a design session with developers and customers in August.
• Government needs to start seeding innovation and proving in-kind support
• We can still make the process transparent (Gov 2.0).

Slide 7: Recommendation #2: Adopt Government 2.0

• Talked about the CityRail and iPhone app example.
• Government could actually help to directly seed opportunities without the need for direct funding - this will help drive innovation and allow local companies to gain real world experience, with real world applications.
• This could actually increase the participation of government in the Web 2.0 community

Slide 8: Recommendation #3: Support the Web 2.0 community

• I look at the community with a knowledge management perspective (as I do the ICT Illawarra cluster).
• We need to support the “Gardening” of this community
• This gardening would help with succession planning, increase its national effectiveness - not just Sydney, but states and regions, and also globally.
• We *don’t* just need big stands at CeBIT

Slide 9: Summary 

• What about measurement? I suggest we look at the network value not each project/initiative.
• What about value for money? The amount of funding that would help nurture the Web 2.0 industry could be so small (relatively speaking) that we should just do it.