Entrepreneurs at the Australian National University

Greeting from the Australian National University in Canberra where Peter Davison, founder of the Fishburners Start-up Space, is speaking to the ANU Entrepreneurs Society. Peter described Fishburners as "tech but not too tech". He argues there are two types of Entrepreneurs: naive tech silicon valley types who mostly fail and the Jedi knights with skills, knowledge of their field and a network of trusted colleagues. He argues that Silicon Valley is unique and attempts to emulate it elsewhere are unlikely to succeed. For Australia he suggests an alternative strategy of encouraging entrepreneurs to look at a problem in depth, build a network of stakeholders and be prepared to change their idea. He recommended the work of Saras D. Sarasvathy. Peter ended with some suggestions to get started, many of which revolved around leveraging the university for business. Peter was surprisingly ambivalent about not-for-profit ventures, given that the funded the non-profit Fishburners.

ps: It happens I was at Fishburners in Sydney last week and the ANU is opening its own co-working space "Entry 29 Co-working Space" in a few weeks time. This will offer office space for as low as $200 a month. The new venture is named after Griffin's entry in the competition to design Canberra, which was "Entry 29" (Canberra was founded 100 years ago this week). The Entry 29 building is at 17 Childers Street Acton ACT (behind the Conservation Council), ideally located between the ANU campus and the Canberra CBD.

Australian Industry Innovation Precincts Proposed

The Australian government has proposed up to ten Industry Innovation Precincts at a cost of $500M to "drive productivity, improve connections between business and the research sector and mobilise Australian industry to compete more successfully in global markets." Each precinct will have a research organization (university or CSIRO) as well as business, to foster mobility between academic institutions and businesses.

Available are:

1. Executive Summary
2. The full statement: "A Plan for Australian Jobs: The Australian Government's Industry and Innovation Statement
3. Media release: "Industry Innovation Precincts to create jobs of the future", Media Release, Minister for Industry and Innovation, the Hon Greg Combet AM MP, and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Hon Joe Ludwig, 17 Feb 2013

Many local, regional and national governments have tried to reproduce "Silicon Valley", with limited success in these Silicons. In 1996 I visited Cambridge (England) to see how the technology companies around the university developed. This became known as "Silicon Fen" through a process known as the the "Cambridge phenomenon". In "Building Arcadia" I suggested how this could be emulated in Australia, laking use of locations such as the Australian Technology Park (ATP) in Sydney. Later NICTA, was set up at the ATP to foster innovation in the ICT industry. Australian governments have so far invested $1B in NICTA at several sites across Australia.

In Canberra the "Innovation ANU" program was et up to teach university students how to turn a scientific discovery into a business. This was later was was broadened to "Innovation ACT" for students at all Canberra's universities. I suggest that program could be broadened again and delivered on-line to students at all the ten new Innovation Precincts, and elsewhere across Australia. Such a program could combine nationally delivered on-line materials with local "un-conference" events, which bring people from different fields together. A good example of an unconferecne is BarCamp Canberra, this year at the Inspire Centre, University of Canberra, 16 March (purpose built for this type of learning event). A national innovation program could offer participants a formal university qualification, counting towards a degree.


The new policy mentions CSIRO, but curiously does not mention NICTA. The investment of $50M per precinct proposed in the new government policy is minimal compared to the cost of initiatives such as NICTA and CSIRO. However, this would be useful in making linkages between research and industry, if used to accelerate already emerging precincts. An example is "City West,  with the ANU Exchange development, to the west of the Canberra CBD, where the ANU campus is blending with government and private enterprises, related to education and research.

ANU Bus Road

The new bus road "Rimmer Street", beside ANU Lena Karmel Lodge (UniLodge) at the City-West/ANU Exchange development next to the Australian National University campus in Canberra is complete. However, the traffic lights on Barry Drive to allow buses access have not yet been installed, leaving this new road deserted. The road has the ANU Commons Function Centre,the cafe for the student lodge and a row of shops and should be a lively place, as soon as the road opens and buss-loads of students arrive.

Turnbull Advocates A More Compact Liveable Canberra

Presenting the 2012 Walter Burley Griffin Memorial Lecture at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra last night, Ms Lucy Turnbull, called for more densely populated Australian cities. Turnbull is familiar with planning issues, having been the Deputy Chair of the COAG Capital city strategic planning expert advisory panel, Lord Mayor of Sydney and is currently an independent member of the Sydney Metropolitan Development Authority. She praised the work of Canberra's planners is providing a coherent view of the city, which follows on from Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony's design for the city.

Turnbull singled out the Affordable Housing work of CIC Australia for praise. She noted that Australia's ageing population will require a new mix of housing stock and more single person houses will be needed. The role of the urban environment to support the innovation sector of the economy was also mentioned.

After the talk I asked Ms Turnbull and Professor Alastair Swayn (ACT Government Architect) if sufficient account was being taken of the effect of high speed broadband on city design. Also I pointed to the innovation precinct forming between the ANU and Civic in Canberra. They mentioned the effect which teleworking is having on cities.

New management learning centre in Canberra

The Australia Institute of Management opened their new training facility in Canberra's City West Precinct. This part of the city is rapidly developing with the ANU Exchange, providing accommodation and entertainment for Australian National University students. As has happened around other major universities, hi-tech companies and commercial training providers are moving in to be close to the skills and clients the ANU attracts.

AIM's new training center has the "airport executive lounge" look now popular for education facilities (featured in many presentations at the 2011 Learning Commons Development and Design Forum). This has a muted color scheme, with polished stone, light colored wood.

AIM have inside the front door a reception counter, a library (with real books, as well as eBooks) and a kitchen counter. Opposite the reception desk is a large space which can be divided into two training rooms, by using movable walls.

One corridor has small four to eight seat tutorial rooms (with LCD panels for presentations). The rooms have large glass sliding doors on both sides, so that when not in use the space can be opened out. There is a glass wall to a courtyard beyond, which can be used for functions. As a result, it is possible to use the whole space for large functions, or divide it up for separate classes.

The layout looks well thought out. While the materials look high quality, they are also hard wearing. Unlike some university learning centers, there are no gimmicky circular learning pods, or cones of silence. Everything is rectangular to be easily divided, to make maximum use of space. An example of detail in design are that some of the bookshelves for the library are on wheels, allowing the library space to be opened up for functions.

Those considering what a learning center at a university, government department or corporation could look like, should drop in to see the new AIM Canberra offices.

Hi-tech conference, training and decision support Center for Canberra?

A new conference facility is being considered as part of the re-development the western edge of Canberra's CBD. The developers have asked for input for what might be built, so I have suggested a hi-tech conference center which can also be used for computer based training courses and computer assisted meetings. The facility could also double as a emergency incident-response center for government and industry, when required.

A new purpose-built conference facility could be available to the ANU community as part of the development of ANU Exchange.

Members of the ANU community are encouraged to provide input to a market assessment for a new facility to be available to both internal and external users to be undertaken by an external consultant. The project will look at aspects such as:

* The market in Canberra, recognising the availability of existing conference facilities;
* Demand within ANU;
* Competitive positioning of a possible centre in the Canberra market;
* Recommended size, configuration, features and facilities of a possible centre;
* The impact of the quality, availability and accessibility of accommodation in the vicinity on the viability of a conference centre in the ANU Exchange;
* Critical success factors for such a conference centre.

Input from the ANU community is invited, actively encouraged and very welcome.

The consultant, Mike Williams of Gary Grimmer and Company, will be available 2-4 April 2008. If you would like to meet with the consultant to make an input, please email director.mac@anu.edu.au or contact Marion Mapham on x55003 to make an appointment.

From: City West Redevelopment, On Campus magazine, ANU, 26 March 2008

I help organize some events for the Australian Computer Society and occasionally run short commercial courses for ANU and industry courses, which need a venue. Also when consulting to government on ICT policy, as I did recently on broadband policy, it would be useful to have a computer equipped meeting room, so that views could be quickly collected.

Conference Center Requirements

As well as allowing for conferences of a few hundred people, it would be useful to have a facility for computer assisted business meetings and commercial training courses. Currently if you want to have a hi-tech event, you have to bring the hi-tech yourself, or go to the trouble and expense of hiring it and having it installed.

Some smaller rooms could be very useful for computer training courses and computer meditated planning meetings for government and company people, using Grouputer and iMeet. Course Management Systems, such as Moodle and Sakai, were designed for e-learning, but could also be used in computer supported decision making and in blended learning.

Previously equipping training or meeting rooms with computers for every participant was an expensive process and maintenance was complex. The equipment cost thousands of dollars per seat, needed constant attention and had to be upgraded each year. But new "thin client" Linux computers have reduced the cost to around $500 per seat. These only need basic free software installed, with all the complex stuff being hosted remotely over the Internet. The computers are about the size of a cigar box and can be installed in, or on the back of, LCD monitors, removing lots of boxes and wires from the desktop (and making the equipment harder to steal).

Such a conference center could combine the features of an MIT TEAL room and Studio Based Learning. This would have a large central room of about 280 square metres, with a flat floor. This could seat 100 people cabaret style at round tables, or about 250 theater style. All the walls would have video screens built in and there would be provision for shared computers at all the tables. The presenters could be either on a stage at the front, on in the middle, cabaret style.

Smaller rooms (about 6 x 9 m) would seat two dozen people each when seated at a computer, or more if used without computers. The smaller rooms could be dual purpose for board room style discussion and individual work (some rooms without tables could hold bigger groups). The rooms would be equipped with video screens on the walls and be capable of being computer equipped. I ran a short course for two dozen public servants, organized by ANU, using a computer science lab last year in such a mode.

The center would also have a cafe style area, with a bench for use of laptops, and tables for informal meetings.

Emergency incident-response center
A tertary use for a the conference center could be as an emergency incident-response center for government and industry. Such facilities have a large central room with video screens, surrounded by smaller rooms. The layout is much the same as a conference center, but the average conference center would not have enough provision for phones or power. The thin client computers are capable as acting as VOIP telephones and so could provide the needed facilities.

An emergency center would normally also have specialized facilities for security and emergency power and telecommunications. It would not be feasible to build these into a conference centre, on the off chance they might be needed. But the center could be "built for, but not with" (in mil-speak). So the building would not have a backup power generator, but would have a socket on the outside wall where a portable generator could be plugged in. The wall and roof would have data sockets where portable satellite earth stations and wireless terrestrial links could be connected. The layout of the center would be designed for crime prevention through environmental design (CPED), to provide unobtrusive built in security, which could be supplemented with security guards and metal detectors to screen visitors, when required.

For more on this see:

• Flexible Learning Centers
• education

Books on:

• Books on Conferecne Venue Designe-Learning and equipment
• Crime prevention through environmental design