An Agenda For The Knowledge Nation – 10 Case Studies

The Glass Earth – Transforming our “traditional” industries by collecting new forms of data

We often think the Knowledge Nation means investment in new industries, and totally new sectors of the economy.

And yet many of our most innovative ideas and inventions are coming out of what are often seen as ‘old economy’ industries like the mining and exploration sector.

For instance the CSIRO is working with the private sector on a ten year project called The Glass Earth that aims to map completely the top one kilometre of the entire continent of Australia. This project uses sophisticated computer modelling to ’see through’ the earth’s crust

The aim is nothing less than trying to find the next Mt Isa or Broken Hill, by building up a total geological picture of the country in ‘virtual reality’. A large part of this project involves a collaboration of Australian companies at the cutting edge of Information Technology.

The researchers and scientists are trying to answer questions about how we can map ancient fluid movements over vast distances, and where a major ore system is likely to occur in this pattern.

The resources sector has always been a technology driven industry, its companies are leaders in IT and detection technologies. Exploration techniques, extraction processes and management practices are getting newer all the time. The industry is a key driver of research and development, and scientific endeavour across a wide disciplinary sweep in our schools, universities and research agencies.

The Glass Earth is just the latest project that aims to ensure Australia’s prosperity into the future, showcasing some of this country’s smartest IT knowledge. It is a project keenly watched by the mining and exploration industry overseas, and it is something that should be nurtured by Government.

It is a good example of the potential benefit of creating a Knowledge Bank of Australia’s resources.

Photonics – A Strategic Growth Industry for Australia

Photonics, the use of particles of light to communicate, store and process information, presents a unique combination of three features that mark it out as an industry worthy of special Government attention. Firstly, as a strategic growth industry in its own right. Secondly, as a foundation, national, enabling industry to underpin the development of all other industries, and thirdly for the opportunity it presents, through the conjunction of the first two features, to develop a suite of new answers the growing inequities in society that are related to access and use of information technologies (the digital divide).

1. Because of investment in Photonics in the early 1990s, Australia today has a rare opportunity to be a leading participate in the next generation of giant, global high tech industries.

Photonics networks are the optic fibre pipes and light-based switches that will be the backbone and nervous system of the Internet, which means it can only continue to grow. Australia has already developed a global reputation for excellence in this field and therefore is strongly positioned to develop core photonics technologies for the global market.

Even post the “tech wreck”, photonics is one of the most exciting industries in the world, attracting $US3.4 billion in venture funding for optical networking in the first nine months of 2000. Total optical networking equipment sales are predicted to increase from $US30 billion in 2001 to $US70 billion in 2006 (Insight Research Corp).

Already, Australia has produced a handful of global leading niche Photonics companies and captured the attention of the photonics world with its innovative science. Being a leading participant in the industry in the next decade is an opportunity so important it is worthy of the status of a national mission.

2. Broadband communications networks will form the backbone of new industrial organisation, and will be at the core of all industries.

Business to business trading environments such as the auto industry electronic trading market, will be the platform on which companies do business with each other, and the Internet will be the internal communications medium through which businesses organise themselves. As more and more businesses and people are linked to the electronic nervous system of global business, the thirst for bandwidth will explode.

High bandwidth access will be the enabler for businesses wanting to participate in international trading platforms or to employ the latest management techniques. Australia needs to encourage the rollout of world-best broadband networks in the same way as it had to build world-class roads, rail and ports to allow past generations of industry to compete internationally.

3. The combination of a strong and innovative Australian photonics industry and a business sector savvy to the opportunities presented by broadband communications will enable a national strategy to address regional development and the digital divide.

As the demand for broadband and the domestic capacity to provide it grow, it will create an opportunity for communities to connect into the new networks. Already, Canada and the US have seized opportunities to bring communities into the mainstream of new job, education and social opportunities through projects such as the Canarie network in Canada and community-based schemes in cities such as Palo Alto and Cedar City in the US.

Australia, with its photonics industry, educated and technology-aware population and advanced economy, can lead the world in bridging the Digital Divide.

Xcelerator Biotechnology Incubator

Xcelerator is a professional biotechnology incubator business located in the ‘Biohub’ of North Ryde NSW. Xcelerator provides complete support to start-up companies working in the biotechnology sector and an environment and infrastructure which is highly conducive to allowing start-up businesses to get on with the task of developing their new venture and growing rapidly. Xcelerator has three key aspects to its business.

Biobusiness Incubation

Xcelerator provides clients with a competitive edge through access to its unique combination of experience, insights, knowledge and networks in business and science, all critical factors to the future success of incubator companies. The aim of Xcelerator is to add value to early stage companies though the provision of its incubator services, and in assisting companies to reach a point where they have become strong independent businesses. Xcelerator seeks in return to derive value from its investment in an incubator company. In return for its original investment Xcelerator takes an equity position, the level of which depends on a number of factors such as: the level of risk, the stage of the technology development and the need for future resource allocation to the company or project.

Bioentrepreneur

Bioentrepreneur. net (website:www.bioentrepreneur.net.) is a business unit of Xcelerator Ltd, which develops and presents continuing education workshops on business development for those working in the life sciences. Xcelerator has developed Bioentrepreneur to service a gap in the market, and as part of its commitment to developing educating and growing the life sciences biobusiness sector in Australia in line with international worlds best practice.

Commercialisation & Advisory Services

Xcelerator assists with all aspects of biotechnology commercialisation, from project evaluation, due diligence, business planning and introductions to potential investors. Xcelerator works with investors who wish to have technical and commercial evaluations performed.

Heartlands – towards sustainable land use in the Murray-Darling Basin and the creation of Australian IP

The CSIRO’s Heartlands project illustrates how by using our knowledge capacity is a coordinated way we can address difficult environmental problems, export valuable intellectual product, create new jobs and make regional Australia a central part of the Knowledge Nation.

Land and water degradation, especially dryland salinity, poses a serious long-term threat to the sustainability of the Murray-Darling Basin. Changed management of agricultural landscapes, including well-targeted revegetation on a broad scale, is the most viable means to reverse the ongoing environmental degradation.

The Heartlands initiative will develop efficient strategies for well-targeted land use in the Murray Darling Basin. It will support implementation of the strategies, and verify their effectiveness. Heartlands is developing and applying the knowledge required to target revegetation works for maximum benefit. It will build on existing knowledge and related research being undertaken by CSIRO and other organizations.

Heartlands is an innovative long-term program combining on-ground-works with research and development. Scientists will work closely with catchment managers and the community to:

• Support catchment management;
• Help to rehabilitate the landscape in a way that is sensitive to the needs of society and the communities affected;
• Assist rural communities to manage land use change;
• Estimate the benefits and costs of changed land management; and,
• Provide confidence that the proposed solutions work.

The Connected Learning Community – John Paul College, Brisbane

John Paul College, a co-educational P-12 school in Brisbane, recognised in the early 90s the changing dynamics of education and the immediate benefits of using Information Technologies as a vehicle to enhance teaching and learning outcomes and deliver its student-centred philosophy of education. This has now developed into one of the world’s largest school computer Notebook programs and an internationally recognised exemplar of integrated teaching and learning delivered through a technology program which sees over 1800 staff and students using their notebooks and an online curriculum on a lesson by lesson basis. The College has recognised that, for its students, learning is no longer confined to the hours and walls of a classroom, but rather, takes on a global and multicultural perspective as students become active participants in developing our knowledge economy through collaboration with teachers, parents and the wider community. This new reality is reflected in the College’s vision, near to completion, of a Connected Learning Community.

New technologies have been implemented to facilitate anywhere, anytime learning. These include wireless connectivity throughout campus to both the Internet and College information learning portals, the introduction of a learning management system, Encarta Class Server (ECS) to facilitate the development of interactive digital content and deliver online curriculum, student personal and public web pages and email accounts, and web cameras in classrooms. A Virtual Private network from home provides access to all school community members. Underpinning the program is a massive commitment to professional and curriculum involvement which is critical to the ongoing success of the program.

This blending of infrastructure, access, knowledge and empowerment of students, teachers, parents and the community are features that distinguish John Paul College as an example of a 21st Century learning community. The next stage of the College vision will be realised when the College launches its myjpc.com community gateway on July 26 2001 by Paul Lucas, the Queensland Minister for Innovation and Information Economy.

myjpc.com is the central knowledge gateway of the JPC connected learning community. It will link students, teachers, parents and the community to:

• Administrative information such as attendance, College calendars, daily notices;
• Results from co-curricular activities such as golf, hockey, netball and rugby;
• Study hints for students and support mechanisms for parents;
• Hot sites – educational, sporting, cultural, financial;
• Video conferencing and chat groups for special interest groups, parents, students and alumni;
• Community professional training sessions in technology that provide certification such as the International Drivers’ Licence;
• An email account and web site for each family in addition to student and staff accounts;
• Community Virtual Shopping mall;
• Community Radio station; and,
• Web streaming of major College events.

Online Universities and TAFE – making lifelong learning a reality and creating a new export industry

Online education is regarded as one of the crucial areas of content development for the Internet. Unless Australia established a leading online education industry, overseas institutions will fill the void and we will miss the opportunity to create thousands of skilled jobs for Australians.

• Many of the world’s leading universities, including Stanford, Princeton, Yale and Oxford, have recently combined to offer online courses.
• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is offering its curriculum to the world free of charge as an incentive to attract international students to its courses.
• The Blair Government is establishing a UK eUniversity and extending the principle to vocational education through its University for Industry.
• The United States Army – a large-scale educator – has established its own online university to provide tertiary education to its members

Coffs Harbour Senior College – a revolutionary approach to public education

Coffs Harbour Senior College (CSHC) is a part of the Coffs Harbour Education Campus which combines the senior college with a campus of the North Coast Institute of TAFE and a campus of Southern Cross University.

The senior college offers students access to a very wide range of facilities allowing for a variety of different approaches to study. It offers an adult oriented learning environment in which students are encouraged to take greater personal responsibility for their own learning.

This approach has proven highly successful. Retention rates have improved markedly and in 1999 60 percent of CSHC’s year-12 students won a place at university – a result twice the State average – and another 13 percent went on to TAFE.

Students have a wide choice of subjects for their year 12 Higher School Certificate (HSC) studies, including vocational courses which contribute both to their HSC studies and formal TAFE certificates.

For example, in 1999 the college developed new course arrangements allowing students to complete Information Technology and Child Studies courses and receive both credit towards HSC and a TAFE Certificate Level III.

Students can also take units from Southern Cross University – in areas like Information Technology – as part of their HSC.