AUSTRALIAN COMPUTER SOCIETY
Australia: The Networked Nation
by Tom Worthington
President of the Australian Computer Society
At the ACS North Queensland Chapter - AGM
Wednesday, 7 February 1996
Audio/visual room of the Townsville Grammar School
Summary
Tom Worthington, President of the Australian Computer Society
provides a "future history" of information technology in Australia
in the year 2005 (after warning of the limitations of such
predictions): The Internet will become dominant for communications.
Wireless connections will replace Pay TV cable to homes. PCs will be
replaced by cheap disposable calculator like devices, downloading
data and programs from the Internet. Net regulation will influence
election outcomes. Big companies will be replaced by small networked
businesses of teleworkers. Australia will dominate the world
information economy, in partnership with Asia.
If you can't get to Townsville, the Web version of my talk (with
links to technology, organisations and individuals mentioned) is
available at:
<URL: http://www.peg.apc.org/~tomw/twadd3.htm>
The perceptive reader will note this "future history" contains
some comment on the IT and telecommunications policies of both the
current Government and opposition, contesting the Federal election.
About the ACS
The Australian Computer Society is the professional association in
Australia for those in the computing and information technology
fields. It was established in 1966. The Society has over 15,000
members and on a per capita basis is one of the largest computer
societies in the world.
Tom Worthington <tomw@acslink.net.au> http://acslink.net.au/~tomw,
President, Australian Computer Society Inc,
GPO Box 446, Canberra ACT 2601