Govt reveals Dec broadband forum

The Federal Government today revealed it had organised what it described as a "major forum" on the future of Australia's digital economy in the wake of the construction of the National Broadband Network.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy
(Credit: Suzanne Tindal/ZDNet.com.au)

The forum, dubbed "Realising Our Broadband Future", will be held at the University of New South Wales in Sydney on 10 and 11 December this year and feature Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as a speaker.

"This forum will highlight the opportunities and help our research community and commercial sectors plan for the digital applications, services and business models of the future," said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy in a statement.

However, relatively little of the conference program appears to have been organised, beyond the Labor contingent, which will also include Senator Kate Lundy, who is extremely active in the information technology portfolio, and Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett.

Other speakers will include NBN Company chief executive Mike Quigley, former ICANN chief Paul Twomey, Google chief internet evangelist Vint Cerf, and Nick Gruen from the Federal Government's Web 2.0 Taskforce. In addition, Aussie general manager of marketing Stuart Tucker and Iain McDonald, director of digital marketing agency Amnesia, will take the stage.

Speaking academics include Jeffrey Cole from the University of Southern California and Larry Smarr from the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.

Attendance at the forum appears to be by invitation, although the public can also register their interest on the website, and Conroy's statement said that webcasts of the plenary sessions and live audio of the specialist streams will be available. "The public will also be invited to contribute to the discussion via Twitter and through a collaborative wiki," the government's statement said.