Tech Stream
Posts Tagged ‘ ceBit’
Tech Stream 014
22 May 2009
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Photo from Flickr by Jose Roberto.
We’ve got our head in the clouds this week in the Tech Stream. There’s a buzz around the term “cloud computing” and I lost count how many times it was mentioned at CeBIT Australia 2009 last week in Sydney. I spoke with two local businesses on the exhibition floor about how they’re providing solutions for those wishing to work “in the cloud” and luckily they both offered to explain what the term “cloud computing” actually means.
Tech Stream 013
15 May 2009
Listen and download: MP3
In the Tech Stream this week we’re at CeBIT Australia 2009, which is a massive information and communications technology (ICT) event in Sydney. I’ve been posting, tweeting and filing audio from the conference all week, and today we catch up with Dr David Skellern from NICTA; Peter Harrison from Austrade; Geoff McQueen from Hiive Systems; the Australian and New Zealand web development teams battling in the FullCodePress competition; and finally Christoper Hire from 2ThinkNow who sums up some of the ideas and discussions that took place at CeBIT.
We’ll have more from the conference and exhibition next week as well. Thanks to all the people who helped organise interviews for me, or gave up their time to speak with me during the week.
You can listen to the full Tech Stream program with the MP3 link above or the “Listen Now” link on the right. Feel free to comment on any of these stories or suggest something we can follow up in future programs. You can also subscribe to the podcast too!
CeBIT: Webciety and Hiive
15 May 2009
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I spent a lot of time at CeBIT Australia 2009 in the Webciety area and met a lot of the teams whose web-based services were on display. Next week in the Tech Stream we’ll meet up with two of them, Travellr and Devnet, but the buzz this year was around Hiive Systems. The Australian startup won this year’s “Early Innovation” award for their service and client tracking software, Affinity. Their founder and Managing Director is Geoff McQueen and I somehow managed to drag him away from prospective clients to talk about Hiive Systems and the Webciety concept. You can listen to our chat with the MP3 link at the top of the story.
The Future of Conferences
15 May 2009
The Future Tense program this week have been looking at the changing nature of conferences:
The word ‘conference’ is synonymous with bad food, hard chairs and boring speakers. At least it is for many of us. But it doesn’t have to be that way and, in fact, it’s already changing. We speak with three conferencing professionals about conferences past and future and the way the industry is adapting to meet changing consumer expectations.
You can listen and download the audio from the program or read the transcript.
CeBIT: Cool Toys
14 May 2009
Its time to get into the nitty gritty of what attracted me to CeBIT Australia 2009 in the first place: cool toys! Well, thats not exactly true. I’ve enjoyed the ideas, debates and innovation on show as well, but who can resist pocket sized projectors, 3D televisions, headphones that conduct sound through your bones instead of your ears (see photo above) and technology that lets you move a mouse on the screen with your eye! Woah.
The main parts of the conference are winding up, so I’m heading back out into it now, join me again with all these cool gadgets in the Tech Stream radio program, tomorrow afternoon across Asia and the Pacific on Radio Australia.
CeBIT: Greening Government
14 May 2009
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We’ve discussed the concept of Green IT in the Tech Stream previously, but often in reference to how you and I can make changes in the way we use the electrical appliances, like PCs in our own homes. If we all do our bit to reduce the electricity we use we can not only save money, but also significantly reduce the impact we have on the environment. Governments and business too are looking at ways to do this.
CeBIT: Investing in Innovation
14 May 2009
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One of the announcements in the Australian Government’s 2009 budget on Tuesday night was an extension to the funding for NICTA, Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence. They have five laboratories around Australia and will receive AU$185million for 4 years from 2011. The CEO of NICTA, Dr David Skellern, was the moderator for a session at CeBIT Australia 2009 called Implementing Innovation and took part in a panel on how best to grow and nurture the digital economy in Australia. I spoke with him about NICTA’s presence at CeBIT, about the ideas being discussed at the conference including the future of wireless and mobile, and his reaction to the increase in NICTA’s funding. You can hear our interview via the MP3 link at the top of this story.
CeBIT at the end of Day 2
14 May 2009
Day two has wrapped at CeBIT Australia 2009 and you get the feeling that there’ll be less talking and more wheeling and dealing going on tomorrow.
CeBIT: NZ wins FullCodePress Competition
13 May 2009
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Haydn Thomsen from the NZ “Codeblacks” web development team, accepting their prize for their winning website.
The New Zealand team has beaten Australia in the second FullCodePress competition at CeBIT Australia 2009. They built a fully functional website in under 24 hours for the Rainbow Youth, a not-for-profit organisation based in Auckland. I had a chance to speak with the team, representatives from Rainbow Youth and also one of the NZ organizers Mike Brown. You can listen to with the MP3 link at the top of this story.
The best thing is that the Disability Discrimination Legal Centre in NSW also get to keep the website built for them by the Australian team. It will go online soon but you can have a look at it for a short time here and also at the winning build for Rainbow Youth. And the competition was documented online at FullCodePress.com
CeBIT: Global Opportunities
13 May 2009
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In spite of the recession prospects are still good for Australia’s information and communications technology (ICT) companies. That’s the message from Austrade, the Australian Government trade agency, who are at CeBIT to help local ICT businesses identify and develop export and investment opportunities overseas. I spoke with Austrade’s National Industry Manager for ICT, Peter Harrison, about the value of this event and also which countries are most interested in taking home some Australian technology.
