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  Aussie ingenuity

  proberts     |      November 6, 2007

  Australians are innovative – you hear people say that all the time. But the reality is far less palatable.

  I am often told ‘Australians are innovative’ but in reality we are not, or rather not particularly.

   

  We are innovative in the sense that people are innovative, and Australians are people. So it follows that Australians are innovative.

  But how could we be particularly innovative – we are not even that well educated. A third of Australians aged 25 to 34 are tertiary educated compared to 53 per cent of Canadians, for example.

   

  Science isn’t the problem as we perform well in academic research. The problem is turning ideas into profitable businesses. Patents are one of the most important indicators of that process and with two per cent of the global economy, we account for only 0.82 per cent of global patents.

   

  We don’t need to be particularly innovative as most of our industries are classified as ‘medium-technology’ and almost none are ‘high technology’. And the situation is not getting relatively better – our high technology exports are growing at 4.4 per cent a year compared to the OECD average of 7.2 per cent.

   
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  A standards strategy measures up to global trade challenges

  Open Forum     |      November 2, 2007

  With the recent explosion of ground-breaking standardised ICT protocols we are witnessing the ever increasing development of wealth-producing technologies and business models.  These business models exploit easily accessible and interoperable global networks, information and knowledge.   

  Underlying most technologies and business models is the ubiquitous and somewhat ephemeral world of standards.  Standards support wealth creation by enabling the development of global production networks characterized by outsourcing, the de-verticalization of corporate structure, and new forms of “technological fusion” in which disparate technologies are brought together to achieve new products that exhibit novel performance characteristics and functionality. 

  The nature of this global techno-economic system places a premium on interoperability and creates a new level of demand for acceptable standards.  Standards have also become increasingly important for the international economy and according to the World Trade Organisation underlie 80% of world trade in the exchange of goods and services. They form a fundamental part of bi-lateral and multi-lateral trade agreements.
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  • Defence and Security

  Plurality of Identities, and trouble ahead with biometrics

  StephenWilson     |      November 1, 2007

  The idea of biometric authentication plays straight into the view that each user has one "true" identity underpinning multiple authorisations.  

   I recently noted in the thread on identities and keys that: [We need] identity frameworks (like the Microsoft developed Identity Metasystem aka Cardspace) that permit as many "identities" as there are contexts in which we assert ourselves.

  We are in the midst (I hope!) of a shift to a new paradigm based on a plurality of identities. And I think I'm using the over-wrought "p word" here in its proper context. The current "singular identity" paradigm has had a deep and unhelpful influence over the way we think about all sorts of things, including smartcards, PKI, biometrics, the semantic debate over "authentication" versus "authorisation", and therefore the underlying architecture of many approaches to federation.
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  Super innovation

  proberts     |      October 31, 2007

  The superannuation industry is maturing and taking its place in the national innovation system.

  Long, long ago, in the distant past before Australia had a venture capital sector, there were at least three big things to be done. Financiers had to become experienced in handling risk in new ways, investors had to be comfortable investing in new ventures, and above all the country needed a track record of successful investments to show it could be done.

  It all seemed just too difficult.

  One of the things often talked about was the need for the then nascent superannuation sector to earmark a few per cent of their funds for earlier stage venture capital and other new investment classes. The logic went that if the money was there the opportunities would come to the fore.
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  Top companies

  proberts     |      October 22, 2007

  Look at the stockmarket to find out whether Australian companies value innovation.

  Australia’s top 20 listed companies reflect something about what might be a maturing Australian attitude to innovation. Wheras mining companies once dominated the list, today fully nine of the S&P top 20 are financial institutions.

   

  While four big banks are protected by government policy and are not exactly known for their nimbleness, others such as Macquarie Bank carved their position based on relationships and innovative products and practises.

   

  Then there are three resources companies, all innovative in their own right, but not big spenders on R&D on a global scale. One could argue their local activities remain competitive against low-cost rivals precisely because of innovation.

  And there are three retailers, of which Woolworths is known for its logistics innovation and two industrial companies including the sole manufacturer and consumer product innovator, Foster’s Group.
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  They shoot girls, don’t they?*

  tamaraplakalo     |      October 21, 2007

  When survival of the fittest calls for infanticide, it is girls that get culled …

  “I have to marry off four daughters and I am not financially capable of taking care of another girl,” said an Indian man after the local police arrested him for an attempted murder of his two-day old granddaughter. The man buried the baby girl alive in a field near the Indian city of Hyderabad. It was the passers-by who spotted and saved the baby as her little hand was protruding from her intended grave.

  When a baby girl is born in countries such as India and China, friends are often reluctant to congratulate the newborn’s family. Some parents dread the possibility of having a daughter, as girls are seen as an unwelcome drain on family finances. In the patriarchal constellation of the Hindu tradition, male descendents are considered the rightful heirs to all family property, and only they can ignite a funeral pyre at the Holly River Ganges.
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  A wasted decade

  proberts     |      October 19, 2007

  In the innovation battle, Australia has lost at least a decade … 

   

  The federal government has been quick to trumpet a recovery in business spending on R&D – so called Berd. That Berd has risen above one per cent of gross domestic product for the first time is a great achievement, and follows an increasing recognition by business of the importance of innovation and investing for future growth.

   

  But positive business sentiment to innovation is only part of the story and perhaps not the most important part. There is evidence that business has been responding as much to a 175 per cent tax deduction being offered for certain types of business R&D.

   
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  Shaping Government policy: Online Survey update

  editor     |      October 15, 2007

  We are pleased to report that our 'Shaping Government Policy' Survey received a fantastic response from the Open Forum community, and would like to thank you all for your contribution and ideas, as well as for the wonderful show of support for our open democracy project. The survey results have been presented to the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), and will be used to inform the Australian Government Consultation Blog project.

  A summary of the findings will be reported in the next Open Forum newsletter.
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  Death has no appeal*

  tamaraplakalo     |      October 12, 2007

  Capital punishment is a difficult question that presents us with a great ethical dilemma – is the victim's right to justice greater than the perpetrator's right to life? And can the question be asked in such a way at all? 

  Anyone who has ever read Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment has undoubtedly developed a greater understanding of at least one (in this instance fictional) perpetrator of the greatest crime – murder.

  Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov, arguably Dostoyevsky’s most famous character, is a desolate student living in St Petersburg. His nihilistic distaste for humanity and a belief that he belongs to a different kind (he thinks of himself as an extraordinary man who can transgress moral laws), leads him to — in his eyes justifiably — murder a hated pawn-broker.
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  The price of technology – manners anyone?

  alison gordon     |      October 4, 2007

   Aside from convenience and accessibility, new technologies have brought us the lack of us private space and a need for technology etiquette …
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  When transition pirates become ‘great achievers’

  tamaraplakalo     |      October 1, 2007

  Should the transition nouveau riche , who acquired their wealth almost overnight in the murky waters of marketisation, be unconditionally admitted to the ranks of great achievers?  

  Only five people on Forbes's list of the world's richest individuals beat Oleg Deripaska, the 39 year old Russian oligarch, who recently raided his US$30 billion kitty to acquire a 5 per cent stake in General Motors. That despite the fact that he can't enter the United States due to the suspicious origin of his wealth.

  For the record and just in case you wondered, Roman Abramovich, best known to Western audiences as the owner of the English Premier League football club Chelsea, is no longer the richest Eastern European. His ‘paltry' US$22 billion, the lack of love from the Putin regime, and a US$300 million divorce, have cost him the not-so-coveted position at the top of the Wprost list of the 100 richest Eastern Europeans (50 of whom are billionaires). Most of them have been accused of getting rich by privatising the national resources of their respective countries of origin. All of them are on the Forbes global billionaires list.
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  Furnishing innovation

  proberts     |      September 25, 2007

  Australian furniture design, more Moonee Ponds than Milan, could benefit from a little innovation …

  Like most men I rarely find much to look at in shopping brochures. But glancing through a Harvey Norman catalogue on the weekend brought me face to face with something new. Australian furniture designers appear to be discovering the power of design.

  Gerry Harvey does us all a great service by choosing to showcase Australian made furniture in his stores – he knows bulky fashion items like sofas can be made competitively here and there are no months-long supply chains to worry about.

  But until recently while competently designed, the Aussie product was more derivative than innovative or inspiring. This is a product of history – furniture makers in the past would visit Italy for furniture shows and then intepret what they saw.