Australia's National Local Government Newspaper Online

21st Century online reality – IT2004

Every 18 months the number of transistors that can be fitted on a microchip doubles, storage capacity is doubling every year and the number of computer users is increasing ten fold every year. These are just some of the trends in Information Technology as devices become faster, smaller and cheaper. Keynote speaker at IT2004, Graeme Philipson, said that with things happening exponentially, people today no longer care that change is so rapid. It is an accepted fact of modern life.

“With the time taken to do business transactions heading towards zero,” he said. “The biggest constraint at present is broadwidth, inspite of the fact this is increasing 50 per cent each year. With more storage space and cheaper space, data is rapidly expanding to take up this space. Duplication and triplication of files will soon present a storage management issue.”

IT Industry writer, consultant and analyst, Graeme Philipson’s presentation at this key forum for Local Government IT managers was titled ‘Towards an Online World’.

Staged each year by Coffs Harbour City Council, once again this event was well attended with some 115 councils represented, a full house of exhibitors, as well as a range of industry providers registering as delegates.

Graeme Philipson predicts that we are not far from hardware being free with users only needing to purchase software. This is already the case with mobile phones where people are given the phone with the provider making they money from the calls they make. He said the variety of devices linked to the web is expanding rapidly with people now owning a variety of means to go online. Already there are two billion mobile phones on the planet.

“Information is doubling every two years and heading towards the infinite, as will broad width,” he said. “Response times are heading to zero.”

He pointed to South Korea as the world’s first Internet economy.

“With a populate of 49 million people, South Korea currently has 30 million Internet users, 80 per cent of homes have broadband and 13 per cent of all shopping is being conducted online,” he said. “Only four per cent of Australian homes have broadband and eight per cent in the USA, indicating that many nations that were leading the way are now lagging behind.”

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