We have a talented pool of tech/creative types, but we need to ensure they aren’t all snapped up in Australia arms of multi-nationals (although a spin-off effect means they’re often incubators as well, at least optimistically.)

It’s tempting to think that govt. should favour Oz vendors as much as possible, and encourage use of OSS (it’s happening) inc. govt. contribution (e.g. localisation) if not in development, then in openly available support info maybe.

Perhaps Unis could be encouraged, by various means, to further use and develop OSS (in addition to commercial opportunities) perhaps in collaboration with govt. (via Ed Depts, CSIRO etc.), to increase the base of tech-savvy developers and potential entrepreneurs.

Obviously govt. needs to be more ‘creative’ with our tech infrastructure issues (the hardest nut!), and avoid situations like the data-casting restrictions, or uneven marketplace.

Finally ABC/SBS/AFC see further funding to increase the accessibility (and quality) of Australian content in the new mediums. …of course the only way to encourage the audience/users to ‘use’ local content and apps is via quality/value, but even that’s no guarantee… how do we pull users away from YouTube, Google, MS/Yahoo etc…?

That’s a tough one, and some of it runs pretty deeply (we’ve always tended to look elsewhere for ‘the best’.)

Ultimately we need to raise the profile, and dare I say it, ’sexiness’ of local technology and become a place that’s proud of our home-grown technology and innovation.