Publicsphere 1 - High Bandwidth for Australia - The Unexplored Country

The unexplored country Public Sphere #1 – High Bandwidth for Australia Craig Thomler T: @craigthomler E: [email_address] W: http://egovau.blogspot.com 7 May 2009

"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." 1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work. 1232 First rockets in war 1981 First shuttle flight

1876 First phone call 2008 iPhone released "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." Western Union internal memo, 1876

1946 ENIAC computer 2006 XO laptop for kids “ I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943 “ Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

Crystal Ball 3D computer control device – MIT Electronic Systems Laboratory display console, 1963 The future?

We don't know What will be the new applications, services and changes (social, political and economic) resulting from a high speed broadband network?

Data – integrated access to public data
Media – video/audio programs on demand
Tourism – photo-realistic virtual worlds
Medicine – specialists available anywhere
Computation – cloud computing
Communications – telepresence

Data possibilities...

Real-time machine readable public data
Available for public/commercial mash-ups and integration into government & corporate systems
Fully integrated with standards-based geocoding (state/electorate/suburb/etc)
3D real-time mapping

Why?

Geospatial economic benefits $6-$12 billion (ASIBA 2007)
Innovation leading to new social insights and services
Improved environmental understanding and management

So who's right? “ Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.” Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872 “ Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895 “ The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio, 1920s “ Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927 “ But what ... is it good for?” Engineer at IBM on the microchip, 1968 … only 17.6% predicted the faster connection speeds were “likely to generate new products and services”. Australian Industry Group survey of 526 Australian CEOs regarding high speed broadband – The Big Chair, 22 October 2008

So who's right? “ Virtually nothing has been invented yet. We're just starting...” Woody Norris, Inventor www.ted.com/index.php/talks/woody_norris_invents_amazing_things.html

Questions Craig Thomler T: @craigthomler E: [email_address] W: http://egovau.blogspot.com

Credits

Blue sky – http://wallpaperblog.wordpress.com
Chinese rocket – www.nasa.gov
Space Shuttle – www.nasa.gov
Phone call – "Alexander Graham Bell Speaking on the Phone, 1892." 1892. Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
IPhone – www.apple.com
ENIAC computer – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC
XO laptop – www.laptop.org
Crystal ball – Image courtesy of Computer History Museum. www.computerhistory.org
Fibre-optic cables – www.uniquefibresolutions.ca
Arrow slit – www.travel-images.com
Globe – www.ngdc.noaa.gov