- By Roger Strukhoff (Originally published June 2007)
"Australia is like a very small country, with the twist that its cities are really, really far apart," says an IT journalist based in the Perth area.
Similar to Canada, then, with dispersed cities each having its own particular identity?
"Not quite," he adds. "You see, you go to Perth airport, fly to Sydney, land, and... everything is the same. It's one of the 'features' of this country. Yes, Melbourne is more artistic, Sydney is more technological, Perth is more relaxed, but they are all pretty much the same."
Fair dinkum, then. Although Australia is among the world's most vibrant economies, with a democracy and business culture similar to those found in Western Europe or North America, backed by tremendous natural resources, its place at the global technology table can fairly said to be still emerging.
The modern nation-state, famously founded mostly by British prisoners who had been sent off to the end of the world, presented a proud face to the world through the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, during which it also tried to present its best face with respect to its history with the native, aboriginal population.
Today, Australia ranks 16th in world GDP, according to U.S. government figures that include developing behemoths such as China, India, Russia, and Indonesia in the top 15. On a per capita basis, its economy rates statistically alongside Western Europe.
But what about its technology culture? Is there such a thing?
There are occasional events throughout the country, such as the annual Linux Conference Australia, held in Canberra this year. CeBit has an event in Sydney each year, and the Information World Australia Conference is also held in the New South Wales capital annually.
IBM has its forum in several cities, Apple holds a WWDV each year in Australia, and Microsoft holds events throughout the country.
"But we have nothing like Silicon Valley," says one developer who's involved with open source. "There's no widespread investment culture to fuel such a thing."
Australia as a whole invests in IT at levels expected from the size and health of its economy, and the government seems willing to leverage the countries' strengths--democracy, open business climate, stable population, and great weather--into what it calls "Australia as an information economy."
Through the Department of Communications, Information, and the Arts, the federal government pledged more than $5 billion in a program a couple of years ago called Backing Australia's Ability "to pursue excellence in research, science and technology, through three key themes: the generation of new ideas, the commercial application of ideas, and developing and retaining skills.
The government established an "ICT Centre of Excellence" in the Sydney area, with an additional facility in Canberra. And it releases an annual innovation report, the most recent of which shows a 60% increase in venture capital over the past three years.
Two areas in Australia, Queensland and the Melbourne area (and not Sydney) were listed in a well-known Wired magazine/United Nations report in the early part of the decade that found 46 "innovation hubs" throughout the world.
Yet these two areas were rated on a par with places such as Chicago and Sao Paulo, rather than, say, Silicon Valley, London, or Dublin.
More global broadband connections, wired and wireless, are pulling the world together more closely than ever before. Developers should increasingly be able to foist their latest creations and brainstorms more easily to the world at large. Australian developers live in a country that is blessed with many natural strengths, backed by an open society and apparent government commitment to technology. The glass of the future appears to be at least half-full to this observer.
