Backing Australia's intellectual content

Microsoft is not a product of University science and technology research and development. And Bill Gates, like Oracle founder, Larry Ellison, was a university drop out. Yet there can be no doubt that the multi billion dollar companies that these two established, are not only innovative and NEW ECONOMY. They are the commercialisation of a good idea. Like so many computer and Internet ‘applications’, they are the intellectual content of the knowledge economy.

Keep this in mind.

For the Government's Innovation statement 'Backing Australia's Ability' is an attempt to breathe new life into the OLD ECONOMY institutions. Traditional universities which have lobbied for more money, to do what they have always done, have had their efforts rewarded, particularly in the areas of science and technology. And so they should.

But this does not transform them, or launch Australia into the internationally competitive knowledge business. So despite the government’s intention, the question is: Where is the innovation, where is the new economy?

And where is the content – the stuff that makes your computer work and which you get on your screen - and which someone has to create? And on which our world now depends.

This is not to knock the government for trying to put things right. No longer able to deny the consequences of its drastic cuts to the knowledge sector, the government has been on a steep learning curve, seeking a face-saving solution. And there are some genuine improvements,

There is for example, the reform of the R&D tax concessions and a tax rebate for small companies. As well as the very sensible decision to allow students – trained in Australia - to apply for permanent residence, without having to go back home and jump through bureaucratic hoops.

Then too there is the online initiative for schools.

And while $34.1m (over 5 years) for online content sounds like a lot such a sum would not have gone far in the past equipping schools with books - and it won't even begin to meet the huge demand for digital content in the future.

And this is before you start to think about training teachers to work with the new digital materials.

But if we want to lure today’s digital generation back into science and mathematics – then fantastic digital content is required. Kids who have been raised on slick web pages and interactive games, don’t tune in to text online.

Moving from old economy practices to new economy ones, calls for a complete rethink. One of the greatest challenges is to see ’ideas’ as real and sellable; as the commodity that we trade in a knowledge economy. These days most of the workforce is being urged to be smart, to come up with ideas, solutions, better and faster ways of doing things. This is how good ideas can become products and services which people want to purchase.

This can only happen, however, if there is a sound intellectual property regime in place.

One which lets the creator get the credit (and the profit) and allows the solution – the IP – to be sold and used.

This is where there is more to do. The government’s aim to simply increase awareness of IP is in itself no solution.

Tony Blair, the British PM, faced the same challenges that this country does. His strategy was to put more money into content. On the proviso that they delivered to the knowledge economy, the UK government invested heavily in the BBC and the British Library. Along with online initiatives like the University for Industry.

The limitation of the Australian innovation package is in its definition of research. As if it is something undertaken exclusively in science and technology departments of universities. As if those working in the new economy don’t do it.

Yet there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. There are countless researchers throughout the workforce - and within the creative industries. So many people researching, developing and commercialising intellectual property as software, entertainment, and learning products. The ABC, for example, has a long list of researchers who are helping to transform good ideas into IP. In digital format. So why is this potential knowledge institution not part of the package?

By way of explanation, the PM declared that he had to make the shift from his humanities background to that of science and technology – before he could appreciate the role they played in knowledge generation. With all due respect PM, it might be a good idea to look again.

For the new economy is based on ideas, on the ability of knowledge workers right across the board to think laterally and to come up with solutions. To generate new content.

In short, success in the knowledge economy and our future prosperity depend on the creative industries.

Ironically, innovation doesn’t seem to apply to them.