Open 2020

Later this week I am to take part in "Foundations of Open: Technology and Digital Knowledge Local 2020 Summit". This is a local summit, hosted by Senator Lundy. Ideas from it will be fed into the Australian Government's 2020 Summit in Canberra on 19 and 20 April 2008. I have been so busy helping organise the event, I have not given much thought as to exactly what I should say on the day and contribute to the main event. So here are some thoughts.

I am typing this on one of the public access terminals in the main reading room of the National Library of Australia in Canberra, while waiting for some friends to visit their tour of the Turner to Monet at the National Gallery of Australia. This seems a particularly appropriate place to think about the role of open source and open access as part of the long term strategy for the nation. But where to start?

Last Friday the first assignment on "Ethics and the IT Professional" for ANU course COMP2410/6340 Networked Information Systems, was due. A student came in for some last minute assistance. They were having some difficulty writing enough words for the essay question (computer students are used to writing code, not English). One techniques I suggested they try is to take the questions and transform it into the answer. So I guess I could start there. What I will do is paste in the question and try to come up with an answer.

A Long Term Strategy for Australia's Future

The Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, is convening the Australia 2020 Summit to"... help shape a long term strategy for the nation’s future". The Summit be two days long and bring together one thousand people from across the country to "... debate and develop long-term options for the nation ...". Ten areas were selected: Productivity , Economy , Sustainability , Rural , Health , Communities , Indigenous , Creative , Governance , and World.

Open 2020

The Open 2020 event is concentrating on the first topic: "Productivity Agenda - education, skills, training, science and innovation".

Have to stop there and collect the people at the NGA. More later ...