The Foundation for Our ICT Industry Superstructure
Scientists have set a new Internet speed record by transferring 6.7 gigabytes of data across 10,978 kilometres (6,800 miles), from Sunnyvale in the US to Amsterdam in Holland, in less than one minute. Using a quantity of data equivalent to two feature-length DVD-quality movies, the transfer was accomplished at an average speed of more than 923 megabits per second (Mbps), or more than 3,500 times faster than a typical home broadband connection. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2822333.stm)
What is the Challenge? (The Need)
ICT taskforce sets growth target - 100 additional companies each doing over $100m sales per year by 2012: The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Taskforce today released its strategy to more than double ICT's contribution to the economy over the next 10 years. Currently ICT constitutes 4.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) - the taskforce wants this to increase 10 percent, recognising that ICT is an essential component of economic growth in a knowledge-based economy. This means that we have to get on to the leading edge of new ICT applications - applications that are being developed within the Next Generation Network (Internet2) umbrella. (www.industrytaskforces.govt.nz).
Surely, the industry is talking about more than accounting software? A quick perusal of the draft report shows that the industry is talking about new applications for a new world with particular emphasis on advanced ICT markets such as the USA. So perhaps the industry needs to get onto new applications in Health, Education, and Disaster Management. These new applications must take full advantage of the emerging Internet - the Internet2!
Les Cottrel, of Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (Slac) Computer Services says: "By exploring the edges of Internet technologies' performance envelope, we will bring high-speed data transfer to practical everyday applications." He added that potential uses included: "Doctors at multiple sites sharing and discussing a patient's cardio-angiographs to diagnose and plan treatment; or disaster recovery experts sharing information across the globe in near real-time to develop recovery and relief plans."
New applications are needed to realise applications such as Les predicts and this is an example of the kind of action that the New Zealand ICT industry needs to get a piece of in its quest to produce 100 companies with sales of $100 million each. Why not, we have the most creative and competent talent and of course a society that takes to technology like ducks to water, so we can test and fine-tune things in the backyard.
However, there is a critical link missing - advanced, collaborative, networked applications cannot be developed and tested using a 'tortoise class' network - the Internet, as we know it.
How Can NGI Help? (The Use)
The government and industry are making significant moves to help the industry in its quest to achieve the ambitious target. Some examples are support for the e-Government Centre of Excellence and funding for ICT research consortia by FRST. But then, the kind of work that will make the best use of these investments will require all of these centres to work together - after all we are a small nation.
The industry needs be enabled such that every development lab and indeed their global collaborators are virtually next-door - as if they are all connected on a Local Area Network (LAN). Remember we are talking about the next 9 years and we already have LAN's operating at 1 Gbps. We need a nation-wide LAN - that is what the NGI is!
With NGI we can enable and bring to fruition the collaborative "NZ Inc." approach to ICT product innovation. One only has to look at the contribution (e.g., the Citylink metropolitan LAN in Wellington) to realise the opportunity that NGI will unlock.
We say NGI is a fundamental infrastructure to support the ICT Task Force objectives, particularly when one takes a holistic view of the confluence of the ICT industry and two other focus industries: Biotech (e.g., Bioinformatics), and Creative and Screen Production industries. Julie Christie underscores the collaborative attributes required when releasing the Screen Production task force draft report:
"Our report has laid the foundations for breaking the cycle of dependence on Government funding and for a more focused and collaborative approach to lifting the economic growth of the New Zealand Screen Production Industry."
The Bottom Line (The Value)
The value of NGI to the ICT industry is in leveling the global playing field. Taking an example, if our already strong Health ICT cluster companies set their sights on new medical applications such as virtual-orthopedics, they need good applied ICT research to support them.
This research will have to be on par with work done at places like the California Orthopaedic Research Network (CORN). CORN participants include USC, Stanford, UCLA, and UC San Diego. CORN utilizes the advanced services of CENIC's CalREN network and also uses Internet2's Abilene network infrastructure - both Internet2 class networks).
Similarly, if the members of the creative capital cluster have to stay ahead of the curve, they need to get on projects and technologies such as Cultivating Communities: Dance in the Digital Age" (http://arts.internet2.edu/fall2002-perfevent.html).
So how does one put a dollar value on the NGI impact on all this? One cannot - it is like trying to put a dollar value on the impact of the frozen container technology on our Agribusiness! What is very obvious is that without NGI we may find it very hard to realise the national and global collaboration and connection that will oil the achievement of the ICT task force aspirations. We are not going to get 100 companies doing $100 million of sales selling accounting packages and generalised software, are we?
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