“Democratic governance rests on the capacity of and opportunity for citizens to engage in enlightened debate”[1]
A “Public Sphere” is a space that “…through the vehicle of public opinion it puts the state in touch with the needs of society” [2]. This kind of engagement in public policy is a great way to represent different views and harness a broad range of expertise, particularly on topical issues of the day.
Although there are certainly many formal mechanisms for participation in Australian Government processes, we thought it would be a great idea to create an online public sphere and facilitate regular topics of interest to both the general public and to the government. This way people from all around Australia can participate online. We will be experimenting with different technologies to get the recipe right for this kind of engagement, and any thoughts on this are very welcome.
Each Public Sphere will run for two weeks, and then all feedback will be summarised per topic and put into briefing papers that we will make available on this website and to the appropriate channels in government.
There will also be a Public Sphere workshop per topic (likely every 4 – 6 weeks) which will give a physical place for people to speak about their ideas in concise 10 minutes talks. We intend to stream the talks online for general public access. Feedback and questions will happen live over Twitter both from the participants in the room and from remote participants. We were very impressed with the recent use of this at the ATUG conference and wanted to give it a go in order to balance the benefits of online and offline approaches.
For our first Public Sphere topic, we thought we would choose High Bandwidth in Australia. This topic is not going to cover the recently announced National Broadband Network or implementation details for high bandwidth in Australia, but rather a discussion about what high bandwidth can do for Australian society, business and government.
How to participate in a Public Sphere:
- Post comments, links to papers, case studies and ideas to the blog post comments – comments will be summarised and presented at the event as part of the proceedings
- Blog with the tag publicsphere or Public Sphere and Twitter with #publicsphere so we can find your ideas and post them below
- Run your own events and post your outcomes here in the comments
- Join us for our short workshop event, which will be streamed online so you can participate remotely
- Volunteer to give a (maximum) 10 minute talk at the workshop by adding your name and topic to the comments at the bottom of this post
We’ll do our best to put together a programme of thought-provoking speakers for the day, and look forward to your participation, online or in person for this Public Sphere topic.
Workshop details
- Topic: The opportunities and issues around getting high speed bandwidth in Australia
- Schedule: Please see below
- Place: Australia National University, Seminar Room 101, in the Department of Computer Science Ground Floor. See the Google Map.
- Internet: Will of course be available for attendees, details on the day.
- Coffee and refreshments: Available for sale at the Purple Pickle right next to the venue.
- Parking or Transport: Parking at ANU during term can be difficult, so please check out the visitor parking map and the available bus routes to the ANU.
- Date: 7th May
- Time: 8.30am for a 9am start till 12pm
- Agenda: To be published by 5th May, but short 10 minute talks with simultaneous online discussion and questions
- Social Media: Twitter: #publicsphere or blog: publicsphere or ”Public Sphere”. Post questions on the day to @katelundy
- Video/audio stream for the day: http://dld.anu.edu.au/public-sphere - please note there is a short lag on the video stream. An enormous thanks to George Bray and Bob Edwards for coordinating the video streaming, and venue.
- Online Participation: via Twitter using #publicsphere as the tag. Participants both in the room and remotely will post questions to @katelundy and comments and feedback on the content as it is being presented to #publicsphere. Speakers will see the questions as they come up and be able to deal with them either throughout their talk, or at the end. By driving everything through Twitter we hope to effectively be able to both encourage and capture different perspectives from all participants, local and remote.
UPDATE: RSVP was via a webform below, but please continue to contribute talk proposals, comments and other input to the comments section at the end of this post.
Please note, our current moderation policy on comments is full moderation as this site is only a week old, but we will ensure comments are moderated as soon as possible (within an hour or two). This policy will be changed in the coming weeks as per the moderation policy.
Quotes
[1] Hauser, Gerard (June 1998), p 83. “Vernacular Dialogue and the Rhetoricality of Public Opinion”. Communication Monographs 65 (2): 83–107 Page. 86. ISSN 0363-7751.
[2] Habermas, Jürgen (German(1962 - English Translation 1989), p 31. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge Massachusetts: The MIT Press. p. 30. ISBN 0-262-58108-6.
Schedule
Pre-recorded sessions marked with an *
- 0830 Coffee at the Purple Pickle next door to venue
- 0900 Introduction and comments – Senator Lundy
- 0910 The ‘unexplored country’ we will be entering with high speed broadband – Craig Thomler. Presentation slides.
- 0920 Green ICT – Tom Worthington. Presentation slides
- 0930 Building a Smarter Planet – what is happening in the digital world to build a digital economy and the imperative that we harness technology to position Australia for the challenges it is facing – Judy Anderson (IBM). Presentation slides (20MB)
- 0940 Opportunities for online collaboration over long distances with high speed broadband * – James Purser. Youtube and presentation slides.
- 1000 Public empowerment through public engagement with government at all levels – Stephen Collins. Presentation Paper.
- 1010 Citizen engagement and community participation online: The Canadian experience – Michael De Percy. Presentation slides.
- 1020 Government service delivery in the new contexts of (a) broadband, (b) highly diverse access devices, (c) highly diverse patterns of use, and (d) highly diverse human needs – Roger Clarke. Presentation paper.
- 1030 Short coffee break
- 1040 Rural and regional accessibility in regard to accessing agricultural and environmental information for those working on research and on-ground change – Nerida Hart. Links for her work at the Regional Knowledge Resource Kit, NRM Navigator & Knowledge for Regional Natural Resource Management
- 1050 Human factors in broadband telehealth – Duncan Stevenson. Supporting documentation.
- 1100 Online video publishing possibilities and technology needs – Dr Silvia Pfeiffer. Blog post
- 1110 Privacy and filtering * – David Vaile. Presentation video and on Youtube.
- 1120 The successfully rollout of FTTH in an Australian regional town and how it expands towns with populations of a few hundred, to hundreds of thounsands. Also the economic modeling required – Adrian Blake. Presentation slides
- 1130 High Bandwidth – getting things done: particularly in respect to dealing with complex real world problems, emergency management and dealing with skills shortages. This is relevant to both the commercial and community sectors – James Dellow. Presentation slides.
- 1140 Brief presentation on perspectives put forward on the blog for comment – Pia Waugh
- 1155 Thanks and close of event
UPDATE: The video of the event was streamed online, however unfortunately the recording failed. We shall fix this for the next Public Sphere event, however Craig Thomler – one of the attendees – did an excellent live blog during the event that covered a lot of the content. In the comments below are links to many other blogs and other perspectives related to the event and the topic. Thank you everyone for your contributions.
Updates:
- Rusty Russell had to cancel his session on The impact of high speed bandwidth on the music and film industry due to a work commitment. Dr Silvia Pfeiffer will be covering a little of this ground.
- Andrew Boyd had to cancel his session Making government accessible due to technical difficulties.
- Jeff Waugh had to cancel his talk. Replaced by Duncan Stevenson. Personal Publishing, Archival and the Consequences of Upstream (bandwidth)
45 Comments
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I would like to do a remote presentation using Skype or similar technology to highlight the fact that High Speed Broadband would make collaborating across long distances much easier and more powerful.
The talk would look at the current technologies and how they could be improved with access to high speed/low latency connectivity.
A great move. I hope this goes far and I’d be delighted to get involved. If you’re keen on having me speak in some form, something along the lines of the keynote I’m giving at GOVIS in late May might do the trick – public empowerment through public engagement with government at all levels.
Hi Kate,
This is a great initiative and I’d love to be involved through the process.
I’d be happy to give a brief presentation on the topic of the ‘unexplored country’ we will be entering with high speed broadband.
It is likely to be the applications we least expect that will be the most successful, as has been demonstrated with successive waves of innovation in the past.
I can offer to do a quick presentation about “Personal Publishing, Archival and the Consequences of Upstream” (bandwidth).
I would like to talk about how High Bandwidth can help with actually getting things done, particularly in respect to dealing with complex real world problems, emergency management and dealing with skills shortages. This is relevant to both the commercial and community sectors.
I can offer to do a brief talk about “Online video publishing possibilities and technology needs” with a particular view on social media and metrics. It will include the changes we are seeing in the way people interact with TV and online video and what effects that will have on future network needs.
Kate
Great idea.
I would like to talk about rural and regional accessibility in regard to accessing agricultural and environmental information for those working on research and on-ground change. I am currently working on Australia’s first discipline-based full text repository and am just winding up a Program called Knowledge for Regional Natural Resource Management which aimed to address information and knowledge management issues in the natural resource management sector across Australia.
Congratulations on this open communication initiative. Unfortunately I’ll be travelling during the morning of 7 May and will not be able to join in person or online. Can I please make a plug for the importance of High Bandwidth in the delivery of equitable education services to all students? I am currently working with a consortium trying to create an online immersive learning environment by customising and integrating several key technologies including live web-cam video for student and teacher avatars, spatial voice capability for a “realistic voice experience” within the environment, and the ability for students and teachers to share and distribute digital content to all devices, including mobile devices, effectively and efficiently. I anticipate a future where online immersive learning environments will allow all students, irrespective of class size, school isolation or local teacher expertise, to flexibly undertake some, or all, of their studies. High Bandwidth Internet for all Australians will be a critical enabler.
Hi all,
James Purser, Stephen Collins, Craig Thomler, Jeff Waugh, James Dellow, Silvia Pfeiffer and Nerida Hart – I’ve seen all your comments, and added your talks to the schedule.
Colin Wood, you can pre-record a 5-10 minute talk about the impact of high bandwidth on education, and that would ba great! I already have 3 pre-recordings as part of the event, and that would be a wonderful contribution to the schedule. Thanks!
I’d like to refine my last post on my proposed presentation. I will focus on citizen engagement and community uses of broadband technologies in Canada.
I would love to contribute. With my Community Guy hat on, I have much to say about the ways in which increases in bandwidth have driven social change during the last 150 or so years. With my professional hat on I have things I might say about the persistence of stuff we care about into an accessible far future.
But.. I suspect my ‘Powers That Be’ may prefer that I shut up and watch.
Hey Mike, could you talk with your community hat on, and hypothesise about the importance of sustainable access?
Seriously, we’d love to have you talk if you can. Let us know.
I can give an update on the partially implemented successful FTTH in a regional town and how it expands to town of populations of a few hundred to hundreds of thounsands. Also the economic modeling required.
The ACCC recently had a win in regards the last mile copper connection against Telstra.
Twelve years too late. Twelve years of medieval anti-market anti-growth strategies forced on an entire country by a need to make politicians look good in the short term by the previous Government. (Telstera T1, T2, T3 sell-off).
The internet has always been about sharing.
Sharing research, sharing results, and keeping in contact with ones peers.
The quasi Cartels formed by the content industry and the telecommunications industries are not about sharing.
They have always been about maximising bonuses to the directors/advisers/deal makers and occassionally to the shareholders.
Larger internet pipes without an evolution in the lack of free market trade in these areas – i.e.: free market trade in Telecommunicaitons, free market trade in content – will not add any tangible long term benefit to the Australian economy.
Allowing lobbyists to dictate an analogue distribution model as the basis of copyright legislation in a digital world is tantamount to agreeing that we no longer need or desire a free market environment on the Internet.
There is a distinct correlation between the growth of the content industry and the growth of the Internet.
In other words – companies like time warner have done relatively well our off the commercialisation of the internet – splitting their shares 2:1 seven times in just five years (between 1995 and 2000).
Curiously, it is the same Time Warner that didn’t start to pay dividends until the directors options started being exercisable in 2005.
As if that wasn’t enough – now they want to sue everyone for what consumers do in the privacy of their own homes.
Do Australians believe that we should continue to take instructions from faceless men in Hollywood about what we can and cannot do at home?
Until this issue is resolved to the satisfaction of the Australian online community, I would hazard a guess that we are exchanging one quasi cartel – with another.
If Hollywood manages to get ACTA approved globally – there will be no free market trade opportunities left at all – on the Internet or anywhere.
There are commercially acceptable solutions to the current copyright digital dilemma. Unfortunately, the content industry doesn’t want to hear any other solution apart from its own outdated analogue model.
Whilst I applaud Senator Lundy’s efforts on behalf of the Internet community, which flag she has bravely carried since the last millennium, the NBN, Fibre to the Home, the ACCC win against Telstra for the last mile copper delivery, is all – almost a moot point; especially if there is no content that we can legally make use of under fair use.
In other words, if the usage of groups of words (NY Times = 5 words in sequence = fair use) will in fact result in the infringer having to pay upto $150,000 USD for every occurrence – then I for one will be scared to send a private email to my friends unencrypted for fear of being sued for accidentally using six or seven words in the same sequence as a NY Times article.
In that event – what use will Fibre to the home be ?
I will be away from Canberra on 7 May but would like to support any discussions that explore how a local footprint can have global connectivity through openness and sharing. I am particularly interested in how this connectivity can support sport. I explored some of these ideas at http://keithlyons.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/iasi-in-canberra-2009/
I trust you have a fascinating discussion. I will try to follow on Twitter (520507).
Visions how a typical family will be using their 100 Mb/s connection:
1. Movies or TV-programs on-demand, typical 15 – 20 Mb/s for high-definition picture or delayed 2 – 10 Mb/s.
2. Educational programs like ABC Schools TV 3 – 12 Mb/s, some programs in 3D.
3. Interactive programs like games or interactive education 1 – 20 Mb/s.
4. Telepresence, an advanced form of teleconferencing with 3D image 3 – 30 Mb/s depending on number of participants.
5. Real-time digital television like off-the-air or cable television 3 – 20 Mb/s per channel in use, ie. per one program.
6. Radio or music on-demand 0.5 – 2 Mb/s depending on material and sound quality needed.
7. Net telephony, VoIP 0.1 – 1 Mb/s with modest quality images.
8. Home e-commerce server 1 – 100 Mb/s depending of content and number of simultaneous users (ca. 0.5 Mb/s per user)
9. Uploading and downloading external servers (FTP, web etc.) 5 – 50 Mb/s depending of contents.
10. Security applications 0.1 – 15 Mb/s depending on the size of monitored area
There is an emerging fashion in ITC called “cloud computing”. It means relatively simple, inexpensive and maintenance-free home terminal units and main processing taking place at the server. The server maintains back-up copies, etc., like some Google services (Gmail) now. This is energy-efficient, but needs very reliable communication. The need for connections increase, but not much.
Personally, I am against multiple side-by-side infrastructures like now in mobile telephony systems. It is as uneconomical as building roads side-by-side by different companies. Reasonable costs to the end-users need to be assured by comparing to other countries, etc. Competition does not keep price low, not even reasonable, as we have seen in fuel price to consumers.
What comes to the implementation of the planned wideband network, one of the best will be routing the optical cable with some 90 % reserve capacity via high-voltage lines, tied to the grounding wire. No environmental or visual changes, only small boxes here and there. Like the TransACT system scaled up. This is possible with optical cables, but not with copper technology. There will be need for “dark fibers, ie. permanently connected fibers between companies, hospitals, etc. They need special systems, like minimum latency in remote operations and that is uneconomical to provide with normal network connections. Dark fibers cost next to nothing when installed with other systems, but very expensive, if installed as an afterthought.
Another question is wire versus wireless. This is simple. There are areas only covered using wireless services, but the main infrastructure needs to be wired. This is limited by physical factors, like available radio spectrum. Radio spectrum ends for long-distance use at about 30 GHz, because attenuation at higher frequencies will be too high and transmission power is limited by biosafety factors. Thus it will be optical. Copper-based systems are available at low cost, but can not fulfill the communication need. There is no headroom in copper systems for more capacity. Copper is only feasible for distribution within one building or a few near-by buildings and that copper needs to be good, not like old telephone wires.
I wanted to give a brief preview of my talk on how to use social networking and broadband to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/green_it_social_networking/
The slides are available: http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/green_it_social_networking/index.shtml?slides
The interesting bits are:
* Students Teach Each Other: http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/green_it_social_networking/index.shtml?slides#(7)
* Social Networking for Education and CO2 Reduction: http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/green_it_social_networking/index.shtml?slides#(11)
Also working out how to get to a conference without using a private car is an interesting exercise in use of the web: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/04/finding-green-way-to-get-to-green.html
Recently I have come accross Online Travel Planning: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/05/online-travel-planning.html
By the way, on 4 May 2009 the Australian Government announced an increase in its proposed carbon reduction target to 25% by 2020: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/05/australian-target-increased-for-carbon.html
One additional comment on the topic of content.
Australia is a nation rich with content that is of significant interest to the rest of the world.
Certain Telcos have elected to not share that centent with all australians equally and fairly.
Australian content should be available to all Australians regardless of race, creed or politics.
If the Governments FTTH is to be successful, then the government should mandate that all australian content providers peer with all others on a per state basis.
Telstra Optus [et al] should be mandated to peer at the local state level.
This is potentially the largest barrier to successful e-commerce growth.
The facts are that both Telstra and Optus are unfortunately forcing isp’s to buy transit to merely exchange content between australian users.
That is anti-competitive and extremely prejudicial to Australias future economic success. If continued, cobnsideration should be given to a Senate Committee Hearing on how “Anti Copmpetitive Peering Policies are Damaging Australias Economy”.
Whilst the ACCC have looked into this in the past – and found a lack of evidence to substantiate anti-competitive collusionary behaviour, I was unfortunately out of the country at the time and unable to give evidence.
Anecdotal example is available at: http://www.perceptric.com/blog/_archives/2009/3/17/4124619.html
Disclaimer: I am not a shareholder of any Telco or ISP.
I’d like to see internet and general technological innovation here in Australia take off but I don’t see it happening with the current pricing and product models.
Telco’s and ISP’s in Australia have been following the US Telco model – bringing together voice, video/television and some special services in a package designed not to provide ‘general internet access’ but to provide subscription, pay per view media (telephony, tv, etc) to end-users.
This makes sense from a “getting paid” point of view (as the majority of end users don’t care about the underlying technology; they just want TV, movies, sports, facebook and a bit of news.)
This doesn’t make sense from a “technological innovation” point of view. If you want to see the kinds of internet innovation you see in the US and Europe, you must provide the local infrastructure to let people build it -and- you must make it affordable for end-users. There are technological and political issues at stake which need to be considered if a national network is to bring together all the right pieces to let innovation “happen”.
There’s plenty to this issue which could be discussed; I wonder what/when the correct time(s) to bring these up would be..
Adrian
Now is a good as any, although with the issues you raise directly relevant to the nbn build and regulatory review, we may have to do something with Senator Conroy to ensure points of view are shared, heard, contemplated and acted on. I will certainly be promoting any opportunites that arise. Keep an eye on Cebit in Sydney next week as I am sure these issues will be raised. To address your substantive point, the national broadband network is a structurally separated wholesale only network that should allow the proliferation of innovative content at the retail level. Your are spot on when you describe how we have the US Telco model, who have had just a number of vertically integrated telco/cable co’s competing. The level of innovation will depend on the conversations that start now! So lets keep talking.
Kate
This comment is just as a placeholder to differentiate between comments prior to the workshop, and comments during the workshop. All Twitter discussion will be available at http://search.twitter.com/search?q=publicsphere
Blog post by Keith Lyons:
“My contribution to the debate is a discussion of the role of High Bandwidth in growing sport communities at local and national levels.”
http://keithlyons.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/090507-public-sphere-discussions-canberra/
A fourth age of Sports Institutes
http://www.slideshare.net/Postillion/a-fourth-age-of-sports-institutes
Keith. I just had a look at your slide show- thank you for participating in our first public sphere event! I was particularly struck by your comments about geo-tagging and your son’s efforts. It’s is a great example of the point you make about accessing repositories of information and making it discoverable in a very democratic way. I share your interest in sport and believe there is a great amount of potential to explore in the the next incarnation of sports institute.
Keep in touch
Kate
It is going to cost a lot of money to build a fibre to the home network. We can do it by borrowing money to create the network or we can do it by using the increase in the money supply to pay for the network.
A country has an amount of money in circulation to keep trade and investment operating. In an expanding economy we need to increase the amount of money.
We do this by increasing the money in circulation.
Today the banks increase the amount of money by creating loans against an existing or future asset without having any existing money to loan.
Alternatively we increase the currency by issuing zero interest money to a company that will build assets and we give the ownership of the assets to the shareholders. We could give shares in such a company to all the citizens of Australia.
Hey,
bummed that I can’t make it.
My slides are at http://www.slideshare.net/facibus/making-government-accessible-0-1-2009-05-06-1392521 anyhow. In summary, I wanted to talk about making government accessible.
The proposal is this: that all the bandwidth in the world means little for the provision of eGovernment services without usable sites that are designed to facilitate discussion and enable collaboration.
…that said, what’s the WIIFM? The What’s In It For Me, for government and governed? I’d like to think that we are moving toward the era of Government 2.0 – open, consultative, collaborative, shared, meaningful, personal and engaging. For eGovernment (the delivery of services via the web) to work, we need government services to be used online.
And to be used, those services must be usable. Sounds simple, and it is simple when thought is put into the design of those services.
So what do I mean by usable? Usable sites are:
- Accessible: I’m not only talking about WCAG compliance and assistive-technology friendliness there (although these are vital). I’m talking true accessibility – getting the stuff to whoever needs it in a way that they can use.
- Research driven: You may think that you know the people you’re providing services for, but unless you go and observe them then you’re working on superstition, not fact. Go talk to them by all means, but really go and look at what they do and how they do it. Observe.
- Informed by needs gathered from all stakeholders: It used to be that there were two parties in any information transaction – the provider and the consumer. We know now that a more holistic view pays off – the accounts folks who help pay for the thing, the senior managers that need to understand what is happening so they can work it into the strategic vision, the people who build the thing, the people that design the thing – and last but not least, the people that use the thing in all its many forms.
- Validated through evaluation and in-use observation: We make hypotheses and design from these – to keep ourselves honest, we need to validate those hypotheses. Otherwise, all we are doing is buying into our own suppositions, which serves no-one.
And always, please, keep in mind when building the infrastructure for Government 2.0:
Facilitating discussion: Let’s talk about it – let’s build things that help us communicate easily and effectively.
Enabling collaboration: Let’s build the future together – people need validation. Build in processes that ensure that no voice goes unheard – that everything is recorded, acknowledged, and considered. Sure, you can’t take on every idea (some of them are fairly well way out there) – but please, design supporting processes to ensure that people feel heard.
I would then have taken questions
Best regards, Andrew
Adnrew Boyd, Thanks for taking the time to provide your presentation anyway. The issue of usable sites is very real. It has me thinking about how an agency could use a public environment to workshop their site design. So here is my question: What sort of public online collaborative design products are out there for this kind of thing? Kind of like a wiki for intuitive graphics and functionality?
Kate
My contribution for the day – Inform. Engage. Empower. Enact. is at http://www.acidlabs.org/2009/05/06/inform-engage-empower-enact/
Stephen: Question for you: You call on governments to change their use of the internet from new medium to do the same on stuff to a true communication: What needs to accompany this change in the traditional forms of communication to foster this change and to make it as inclusive as possible? I am thinking education system, so part of the digital education revolution needs to be online active citizenship, I also that maybe the traditional media has a role if nothing else to promote the online forums. The ABC is really trying to position itself as being the online place of democratic participation, what do you think of this? Your other thoughts?
Kate
#publicsphere revisit copyright as a problem issue. DRM and DMCA overlay obfuscation for Australian innovators and for accessibility.
#publicsphere Australia is on the backfoot with IPV6 address space. Also need access/manufacture of IPV6 routing gear at a national level.
@purserj @alexanderhayes is working with a team doing POV(point of view) video for VET assessment. eg auto mechanic apprentice demonstrating practical skill.
Regional and remote healthcare is increasingly dependent on
good videoconference infrastructure as f2f services are withdrawn, hopitals closed etc.
Education sector eg Schools need reliable and cheap access to internet which is not stop and go in 20 minute slots for pay per traffic, particularly for rural areas connectivity to peer schools can provide a better competitive and collaborative peer group for small student cohorts.
Need for network sengineering and support skills capacity building at university level in open technologies, network technologies.
telephony using broadband useful for remote communities with children boarding in urban areas re always ok to phone home. #publicsphere
Open standards and formats, open licenses and apis on GOV sites so that data can be repurposed and used in mashups.
Regards Twittering at #publicsphere .. twelve o’clock and all is VERY well .. thank you Kate and Pia .. not one inappropriate tweet thus far, and, some most astute contributions indeed. It just works!
Some initial Twitter stats from today, other stats to come soon:
http://www.hashtweeps.com/search/index
To date:
* 71 people have Tweeted about #publicsphere
* 773 #publicsphere Tweets
Nice!
Live blog of the event (basic overview of content) done by Craig Thomler:
http://egovau.blogspot.com/2009/05/liveblog-of-publicsphere-1-high.html
Only major edit is the that Jeff Waugh didn’t speak, his slot was filled by Duncan Stevenson who spoke about Human factors in broadband telehealth.
Congratulations Kate on arranging the Public Sphere #1. I was able to attend most of it personally and even though I had to leave I can go online and get the rest.
The ten minute format was really good as it forced people to get their message condensed to the important points. 5 minutes may have worked with, as someone suggested, the audience being able to put up comments or questions to get a dialogue started.
If there was one message I received it was that while the technology is important – of much greater importance is getting people connected in some way – no matter what the speed – and of then using those connections to get a dialogue going between parties. A challenge is to work out ways of consolidating discussions so that we do not have to connect with everyone but there are consolidation and filtering mechanisms to allow the “best” ideas to emerge.
A way this will happen is for more of these forums and similar ones to occur. Perhaps the senate could try to conduct some of their hearings via the Internet? Certainly if Mr. Rudd intends to have another 2020 type conference he could start by having lots of smaller sessions like this one to get ideas filtered and consolidated? Perhaps the conference could then discuss a set of ideas – rather than trying to come up with ideas.
Anyway lots of good stuff and a great initiative.
Great technical wrap up of the event by George Bray, the guy responsible for the streaming video/audio. Includes some good photos
http://dld.anu.edu.au/public-sphere
Just thought I would drop in and link to my thoughts on the day, well done all.
http://collaborynth.com.au/blog/Public_Sphere_-_From_A_Distance
It was good to see that you did not forget mailing lists and email as very effective online engagement tools.
See the discussion here:
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/link/2009-May/083318.html
On the topic of providing broadband for all Australians – please learn from the Cable TV mistake. FTTH has too many similarities.
Submission to Productivity Commission Review of Broadcasting Legislation, May 1999
http://www.ramin.com.au/marg/pcsub.html
Marghanita
http://ramin.com.au
Kate, I think your response that begins “You call on governments to change their use of the internet…” is generally addressed to me, given the points I raised at the event. Perhaps you can do a quick edit on the more anonymously addressed responses to point them at the right individuals.
I’d certainly relish the opportunity to talk with you at length about my ideas. They’re certainly not pie-in-the-sky, but significantly informed by what’s happening in the US, UK, Canada and NZ, as well as places like Brasil. I’m in touch with many of the senior players in those places as well as here and we very actively share the stories of our battles – won and lost.
I know you and your staff are open to all of these ideas and are keen to disseminate them amongst your colleagues, so any first steps we might take would be very valuable.
You know where to find me.
Stephen… yes it was directed at you – will try and fix.
Oh, and as for the ABC being a virtual clearinghouse for online democratic discussion in Australia, they’re not doing too badly.
Broadcast media such as Q and A prove week after week that robust debate is alive and well in Australia, as do shows such as Insight on SBS.
The online communities the ABC hosts as well as others such as Lavartus Prodeo and a number of less well-known communities of special interest host active debate from all points on the political compass.
ABC’s Unleashed (to which I am a contributor) is a great examples of a place where opinion so diverse it’s mind-boggling all gets a run in a virtual Speaker’s Corner.
Don’t forget, too, the richness of the blogosphere where debate rages from the extreme fringes to very mainstream. Too often it’s dismissed as a place for odd misfits to obsess about their cats. No so.
I’ve created two blog entries around the Public Sphere.
“Barriers and Challenges” leads on from Roger Clarke’s final question/observation.
http://stevej-on-it.blogspot.com/2009/05/aus-high-speed-broadband-barriers-and.html
and there’s a series of comments on the NBN in general at:
http://stevej-on-it.blogspot.com/2009/04/high-speed-broadband-excess-costs-and.html
Where did the technical estimates in comment 16 come ? Main source is the IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, but there are many other sources and textbooks.
The original trend in digital media was as much as possible in as small space as possible, but in recent years the emphasis has changed towards quality. It is something like DVD versus Blu-Ray. That is the reason for fairly high upper estimates. Lower estimates are older. Two audio examples are (a) music: CNET Music Center – http://www.cnet.com/1990-7899_1-6396943-1.html and (b) radio: BBC DAB radio – http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/dab/bbc_dab.htm. These are the lower end bitrates. Coding techniques are improved, but we are already close to theoretical limits and it is tradeoff between quality or capacity.
The users want predictable prices and reliability for their Internet connections. For cloud computing and many other service types and applications reliability must be much higher than today. Three-dimensional (3D) video is coming. It does need only about 1.5 times the bit rate, ie. capacity compared to 2D video. Technically, many of current computer displays are able to display image-sequential video. Some sort of glasses are still needed for 3D effect, but engineers are working on low-cost no-glasses displays.
Various forms of telepresence is my bet for main growth applications. An example of simple application could be 3D telemeeting, more complex will be manipulation applications. Multiplayer games are the forerunners in this area.
These estimates seem to be uninteresting details, but the devil is in the details in technical systems. Wrong choices when specifying and designing an infrastructure are difficult to correct later, like the different railway gauges in different states of Australia.
There many others issues to look at relating to telecommunication. Many intellectual property issues need serious rethinking, discussion and review. Also censorship and controlled recipients need attention.
Hi Kate,
I really enjoyed the event and the format of it. It was a bit of a shame not having any traditional media covering the event though.
It was also great to see presenters who have so much experience and knowledge on web applications and technologies sharing their thoughts, ideas, experiences and opinions on this topic.
I am sure their contribution will be taken in consideration and I’m looking forward to the next public sphere.
I just posted a blog about “Video as an enabler for broadband applications” as a more indepth discussion on the issues I raised at the event. Check it out here: http://blog.gingertech.net/2009/05/13/video-as-an-enabler-for-broadband-applications/
As originally mentioned, we are including comments and feedback from this blog post in the briefing paper for this topic. All comments above this point will be included in the briefing paper for this Public Sphere topic as a little over a week has passed since the workshop. However, people are still encouraged to leave any further information in the comments for this Public Sphere topic if they wish.
Hi, I’d like to come and speak about new ways of increasing, and efficiently managing civic engagement with Twitter. We’d like to discuss a bit of the roadmap of TweetMP and some of the things we think we can achieve.
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