The Australian Government has committed to build a National Broadband Network (NBN) that will connect up to 93 percent of all Australian homes, schools and workplaces with broadband services with speeds of 100 megabits per second. All others will be connected with next generation wireless and satellite technologies that will deliver broadband speeds of 12 megabits per second.
To assist research, industry and community groups to fully map the applications and business models which will thrive in Australia’s high-speed, NBN-enabled future the Government hosted the Realising Our Broadband Future forum in Sydney, Australia, in December 2009.
The Forum was structured to demonstrate by example how digital technologies such as the NBN, can promote greater collaboration and inclusion, no matter where you are physically located.
Established by
Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Started on
9-10 December 2009
Outcomes
All Australians were invited to participate in the Forum remotely and online.
The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd opened proceedings to a capacity crowd of 378 people, gathered at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Keynote speakers included Mike Quigley, Chief Executive Officer of NBN Co. (the company formed to design, build and operate the NBN), Jeffrey Cole, Director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School and Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google.
The Prime Minister's comments and those of keynote speakers were webcast live attracting over 34,000 hits. For those who were unable to catch the proceedings in real-time, videos of all plenary sessions were posted online shortly after the speech concluding.
In addition, four remote sites were self-organised by community groups in Parramatta City, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide so that people who were unable to attend the Forum in Sydney, could watch it together with other people who shared their interest in our broadband future.
The remote venues prepared a final report which was provided to the Australian Government and outlined details about the numbers involved in the remote sites, the process, lessons learned and outcomes.
Regardless of where they engaged with the Forum, participants did not just passively listen to the speakers. For the two days in December that the Forum was held, over 3,500 Tweets were posted sharing ideas and commenting on the Forum’s presentations and participants. The Twitter hashtag for the event -- #bbfuture -- was the most popular hashtag in Australia during the two days it was held.
Following plenaries, participants broke into five streams to discuss the tangible benefits of a high-speed, NBN-enabled broadband future. The streams focused on Digital Education, e-Health, Smart Technology, e-Business and e-Communities. These topics were chosen because they present the greatest opportunities for economic and social benefit for Australians in the high-speed broadband environment.
To enable everyone to collaborate more effectively to contribute ideas and suggestions, wikis were established where lead editors harnessed the collective wisdom of panelists and participants.
Reactions to the Forum included this tweet from joram10 "#bbfuture What a top experience - sitting in my office on the Sunshine Coast but participating as if I were there - sign of things to come." (http://twitter.com/joram10/statuses/6558291431)
One commentator described the Forum as a "as a watershed for Gov 2.0 within Australia because it was the first senior leadership event that made extensive use of Web 2.0 tools to enable open and transparent community participation. Someone sitting in their home or office with a broadband connection was able to view, listen to and contribute to the forum and participate in discussions."(http://egovau.blogspot.com/2009/12/watershed-in-australian-gov-20.html)
At the conclusion of the forum Australians Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digitial Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy thanked forum participants "for engaging creatively and for committing to continue to working collaboratively to achieve the economic and social outcomes that high-speed broadband can provide".
The ideas generated at the forum are being fed into a broader policy process to develop a long-term plan to position Australia as one of the world's leading digital economies by the time the NBN is fully rolled out.
Details from the Forum, including video recordings of plenary sessions, audio recording of session streams, presentations and wikis are available at www.broadbandfuture.gov.au
Copyright in the Realising Our Broadband Future Forum image on this page belongs to the Commonwealth of Australia.
Categories
Topics: Communication, Community, Information & Communications Technology, and Technology.
Types: Gov 2.0.
Jurisdictions: Federal.