CeBIT Australia: Official Blog

CeBit e- Government

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:14:43 PDT

Congratulations to the Australian Government Pavillion for successfully demonstrating the innovative application of technology to service delivery. Thanks CeBit Australian for showcasing the Australian Government's ICT.

Ann Steward, Australian Government CIO

We're back, bigger and better

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:00:32 PDT

Walking back into the Halss of CeBIT Australia this year was something I personally had been looking forward to for many months. If you've never been here before I guess you can liken it to your first visit to Disneyland, or a as an infant, your first candy store. If your a lover of all things Technology you'll know that these events are exciting and full of new an innovative releases.

As I said hello to some familiar faces and walked past stalls and halls I quickly realised that this year had a new buzz. Apart from hardware and gadgets this year seem to be driven by software and Open Source innovations too. There was Yahoo and Google, and Melbourne IT all promoting their online marketing capabilities; and then there was more niche Open Source Teams with talk of code and best practices, and the emergence of standardisation never seen before. I was intrigued by the amount of Map content and sattelite navigation information being displaye, and excited about how many mobile phone vendors had picked up on this.

If you're around, come on down as Yahoo is giving away two scooters...and everyone has free minities at their stands! Oh, and the Tech is out of this world!

AusInnovate debuts at CeBIT Australia

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:12:36 PDT

It seems incredible to me that CeBIT Australia 2008 is just a couple of months away. And it is starting to get exciting. The conference programs have come together with some excellent speakers committed, and the exhibition is going to break records.

This year was always going to be exciting. The change of government has put something in the air. It’s odd, because despite the emerging stock market wreckage coming out of the global credit crunch and despite the growing interest rate pressures, there seems to be a lot of optimism tech sector regardless.

This blog will be updated every couple of days, and will give you an update on some of what’s going to be happening at CeBIT Australia this year. There is a lot to get through.

The conference program is locked down, with six specialist events, and new in 2008 is a peak R&D/business event that Hannover Fairs Australia (the CeBIT event company) is organising in partnership with Australia’s three premier research bodies – NICTA, CSIRO ICT Centre and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation.

This conference is called AusInnovate. The partners have committed to CeBIT Australia for an initial three years, and it promises to be a flagship conference for at CeBIT.

AusInnovate is a business event that brings elite researchers and developers together with the business community – entrepreneurs, private sector developers, innovation customers, financiers and venture capitalists. It’s about commercialisation and improving Australia’s performance in global ICT markets.

AusInnovate has already attracted great support from the Federal Government. Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy Minister Stephen Conroy and Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Minister Kim Carr have both confirmed as speakers.

We’re also excited to have Jason Calacanis, the entrepreneur in action at Sequoia Capital, the most successful venture capital firm in the US. And Sridhar Vembu, the chief executive of SaaS pioneer Zoho is another US keynote speaker.

AusInnovate is being hosted for the day by ABC Radio National breakfast presenter Fran Kelly, who we expect will add both good humour and gravitas. Fran has spent a lot of time in the press gallery at Parliament House in Canberra for ABC radio and TV, and is one of the most respected political commentators of her generation.

And of course NICTA chief executive Dr David Skellern, CSIRO ICT Centre director Alex Zelinsky and DSTO deputy Chief Defence Scientist Dr Warren Harch are all deeply involved.

AusInnovate will create some of the best networking events for the year. On the evening following the event, we have booked the entire Home Sydney nightclub for an exclusive, invitation-only cocktail event that aims to get our best innovators talking with the elite of the business community.

Welcome back to the CeBIT Australia blog. I’m looking forward to the event this year – there is a lot going on. It’s busy, but it is going to be a great event.

Day Two CeBIT Australia 2007

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Wed, 02 May 2007 06:12:35 PDT

Day two at CeBIT Australia was a real eye-opener for me. Walking around I came across two companies that caught my attention. The first was a Company called Neltronics whom represent the NESA range of products; the one that turned my head most was the in-car rear vision mirror with an inbuilt GPS system! The second Stand which caught my attention came somewhat of a surprise to me. Not because it was new but because I was not aware of the extent of their involvement in Open Source Software.

IBM Australia it seems has been placing a lot of energy into the Open Source Community and is intentionally and purposefully targeting Corporate and Enterprise clients as the new users. With their own Distribution of Red Hat (a Linux based system) IBM is making strong moves into the Government also. At the IBM stand I spoke to Maryanne Fisher, IBM USA, and she openly discussed IBM’s intention to make a big splash in the way Open Source was rolled out. When asked why her response was simply this: “our users don’t want to be locked down. They want the flexibility and cost savings that an Operating System like Linux can offer.” While it’s definitely not breaking news it was refreshing to see the enthusiasm and passion which IBM was displaying regarding the move.

Later that afternoon it was my turn to speak on stage at the e-Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation Conference. With over 300 attendees in the e-Marketing Seminar it was easy to see why WEB 2.0 has now caught the attention of Marketing and Sales forces all over the Globe.
Tomorrow is Day Three and once again filled with promise. I will be shooting more videos and with luck on our side they will begin to propagate onto the CeBIT TV website and also make their way onto the CeBIT Blog too.

First Day at CeBIT Australia

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:34:02 PST

Returning to CeBIT Australia this year was really exciting. Not only were there many familiar faces amongst the CeBIT/Hannover Fair staff but this year the Exhibitors seemed to have grown in numbers too. There was a real buzz in the air and an enthusiasm often not attributed to the IT industry. Perhaps it was the high caliber of Keynote Speakers that had come from overseas, or the fact that attendance was anticipated to hit record numbers this year. Whatever it was it worked!

This morning my “Official Duty” was to Open BloggerZone – a CeBIT Australia initiative designed to get bloggers to do what they do best…blog! How was this achieved? First you have to imagine some beanbags, then 20 Lenovo notebooks, some Plasmas, and lots of coffee. Oh, and we must not forget Jelly Beans in randomly assorted colours scattered in jars around the room. Did it work? I think it did. Of the 25 Bloggers Officially invited to partake in pastries and beverage it seems as though all 25 took their opportunity and posted from their beanbag lounge on the CeBIT Floor.

To read some of the posts all you have to do is head on over to http://www.bloggerzone.com/ and read the posts that are being aggregated from the Bloggers registered to attend CeBIT this year (over 300).

The highlight for me was definitely Dave Girouard of Google USA, and Mitchell Baker, CEO, Mozilla Corporation, USA. Both were open and gave insight into their respective companies thoughts and vision. As Australian we often seem so distant from these larger organizations that it was refreshing to hear such firsthand information. Jackie Toranto, Managing Director of Hannover Fairs, gave a passionate and convincing account of the ICT Sector in Australia, while attendees listened to International Guests speak highly of Australia and the role it plays in ICT worldwide.

Overall it was exciting and I look forward to more tomorrow. (By the way, some videos were recorded and will be online shortly.)

photo care of: Breakaway Content

We're ready to throw open the doors ...

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 21:14:57 PDT

CeBIT Australia 2007 is gearing up for take-off.

Exhibitors and stand construction companies are flat-out working right now, filling the halls of the Sydney Exhibition and Convention Centre in readiness for the opening tomorrow morning.

It’s a mad scene – sort of controlled mayhem. But it looks good, and there is a buzz steadily building.

I have been to the CeBIT fairs in Hannover and Shanghai in past years as a journalist, and I have covered CeBIT Australia in past years, but this is my first time working with the organisers.

It’s been an incredible experience - very hard work, but with an adrenaline rush as reward (I’m expecting it to peak tomorrow morning at the opening, but the buzz will last the week.)

Because I have always worked as a journo, I was a little nervous jumping to the other side of the fence to do some of the media relations work, and helping with some of the coordination.

But I am a huge believer in this industry, so I suppose if I was going to do this sort of work anywhere, CeBIT Australia was a good place for me to land.

This industry produces such incredible ideas, and has such a big impact on the economy and on the lives of every day Australians that it’s no hardship for me to promote our home grown talent in any way I can.

The official opening is tomorrow at about 8.55am in Hall 6 of the Darling Harbour convention and exhibition centre and we’re expecting to be playing to a packed hall.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan will open the show with the Minister-President of Lower Saxony Christian Wulff from Germany.

Incidently, public ownership clearly isn’t taboo in Europe as it seems to be here. The reason Christian Wulff is so important to us is that Deutsche Messe AG is 50 per cent owned by the state of Lower Saxony, and 50 per cent owned by the City of Hannover. And this is one of the biggest event companies in the world, with operations in 83 countries!

Our local managing director Jackie Taranto will also present at the opening. Jackie, of course, is very well known to this industry. (It’s not too late to register, by the way on the CeBIT website, if you want to come along)

After the opening ceremony, the doors to CeBIT Australia 2007 will be thrown open. We’ll hope to see you there, and I will keep posting through the event with video interviews of speakers and exhibitors!

The Software Innovation Paradox

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 00:29:10 PDT

A careful analysis of the software applications industry, which is regarded as innovative reveals an interesting paradox. Specifically, that the development of software is far from innovative. Some would say that the approach to software development is more akin to a ‘cottage industry’.

What do we mean by cottage industry? Essentially, the term cottage industry refers to environment where products are not produced using engineering principles, or via a ‘factory’ approach in terms of capturing the design, production and then delivery as a completed and working product. This is certainly true of the approach to the development of large scale software applications.

It should be noted in view of the above that the whole software industry has become entrenched around two delivery extremes, specifically, that is the development and sale of a ‘one size fits all’ in terms of software product design and functionality, or software applications that are laboriously hand crafted using hundreds of programmers for each unique customer requirement.

If we compare the evolution of the manufacturing industry with that of the software applications industry it is evident that the software industry has yet to catch up and evolve a factory/engineering approach to software application development.

It is inevitable this will happen as the demands of customers, the need to cut costs, need for innovation and applications that are designed for and distributed across networks (the Internet) will result in the application development value chain evolving to mirror the evolution of manufacturing.

At Cebit this year you will see the first steps toward the essential tools for the software industry and for all businesses world wide from Open Source to new WEB 2.0 and WEB 3.0 systems.

Clans and Clowns: ICT needs a voice at the table

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:02:04 PDT

The annual ICT Trade Update report from the Australian Computer Society was released last week, and the numbers make for grim reading.

The report found Australian ICT exports in 2006 were worth $5.7 billion, while imports were worth $26.6 billion. The bottom line number is that the nation’s ICT trade deficit last year was $20.9 billion, up six per cent from the $19.7 billion in 2005.

While the numbers themselves are disheartening, I find it is the lack of reaction to them that is more demoralising. There has been some coverage on industry news web sites, but so far no political reaction.

The report was released last Thursday, and from our political leaders we heard …. nothing. ICT is not on the agenda, let alone in the news cycle.

Communications and IT Minister Helen Coonan didn’t feel the need to spruik, Labor’s shadow minister Stephen Conroy wasn’t moved to put forward the plans of the alternate government.

But to me, the silence says more about the way the ICT industry is organised than it does about government.

Why should our Government leaders take seriously an industry that is so fractured and fragmented? Why should Helen Coonan or Stephen Conroy be expected to listen to so many competing ICT voices and conclude anything other than that they are hearing a series of self-interested whines?

Our industry needs a single, loud and powerful voice if it is to command attention and get ICT issues on the national agenda.

The industry is currently represented by twenty-odd different groups. These are fiercely protected fiefdoms, meaning the industry struggles to articulate a clear message.

The ICT Trade deficit numbers are disheartening. We have made no progress as an industry in this area in five years. But the trade issue needs to be kept in perspective. There are plenty of economists who will point to the high business investment in ICT as a sign of a robust economy.

It is not all doom and gloom. The exciting thing about this industry is that it always presents new and greater opportunities. But changing the technology business culture in this country will take direction.

Pulling the different trade groups together – the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), the Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association (AEEMA), the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) and the ACS (among others) – must be this industry’s number one priority.

To form a single industry lobby group, or to even create a single umbrella organisation, is a hugely difficult challenge. It will be an extremely painful and most likely bitter process.

But it simply has to done, and ultimately the benefits will have been worth the pain.

This is an issue that is well recognised across the industry. There is nothing new being said here. But it needs to be said, again and again.

CeBIT Australia was described to me by a colleague as the circus coming to town, and as a gathering of the Clans. It’s a fair description, but it is now time for the clans to stop behaving like clowns.

We are in an election year, yet this industry has no real voice at the table.

It seems crazy here, but I can’t be sure

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:35:54 PDT

We are getting close to lift-off here, with just nine days to go before CeBIT Australia opens. On the organising side, things are slightly crazy. This is my first year with the organisers, so it’s a little hard to really judge what crazy is – everything is going smoothly, but there is just SO MUCH of it that it seems a little crazy regardless.

It’s getting exciting. The CeBIT flags have gone up in the Sydney business district, delegate registration for the conference programs are getting full, and media interest in what’s going on at conference has started to go mainstream.

There is a great article in The Bulletin this week titled “Fox in the Gates House” – all about Firefox naturally, based on an interview with the Mozilla chief executive Mitchell Baker. I’ve never met Mitchell Baker, but I’m a fan and hope to get hold of her for an interview on the conference floor at CeBIT (which I’ll post here).

The Bulletin article is worth a read if you’re not real familiar with Mozilla – I’m glad this stuff is getting into mainstream press, because the story (of open source/Mozilla/Firefox) is incredible when you’re hearing it for the first time.

Mozilla launched the Thunderbird 2.0 email client last Thursday, so I guess we’ll be hearing some more about that from Baker about how that’s likely to play, particularly among business users in the context of all the office productivity services coming out of Google.

But I’m hoping she will also address the business model at Mozilla. Or, at least, talk about what lessons in management can be learned by the business mainstream. It just seems bizarre that one of the biggest challenges at Mozilla is to make sure the decision making process is as devolved and decentralised as possible – that the management trap is control, rather than loss of control as it is in a ‘normal’ business.

Anyway, the challenge I have set myself for my coverage of the CeBIT Connect conference side of things is to get video interviews with (as a minimum) Baker, Dave Girouard from Google, and Mark Spencer, the Asterisk developer and Digium founder. If I get all three I'll be wrapped (they'll get posted, and will be on CeBIT TV, if I can do it.)

CeBIT Australia Digital Platform Revealed!

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:34:02 PST

As promised in my previous post, it’s time to update you all about a few surprises I have been working on, both for the people the out there who can’t make it to Sydney for CeBIT – some really big surprises for the bloggers who do.

I’m pretty excited about this, so bear with me while I feel good about myself. I think this is the first time a concept like this has been put together for a trade show in Australia … so allow me to introduce the CeBIT BloggerZone concept.

BloggerZone is both a physical space for bloggers on the showfloor (a nice, comfy physical space, with some freebies, of course) and it is a virtual space too, aggregating all CeBIT-related posts generated by bloggers who chose to submit a feed (with each post linked directly back their private blog, naturally).

I think the BloggerZone is cool, because it will let people who won’t attend the show to experience CeBIT through the bloggers eyes. Within its physical zone, bloggers can use computer terminals, or free WiFi provided by WiredSky (who also provide a brilliant iBurst solution on the showfloor) for those who prefer to bring their own devices.

We’ll have a HUGE flatscreen TV facing outside the zone screening the bloggers’ posts to the CeBIT showfloor visitors via the BloggerZone web platform.

We’ll also have a video camera self-service available for bloggers who want to capture some colour and motion and upload it to the CeBIT TV platform – my next surprise.

CeBIT TV is a big part of what we’re doing with digital platforms this year, and it’s exciting. We’ve built a dedicated video portal, which will be a constant source of video updates of what’s happening in the conference sessions and the showfloor.

I wanted to build this platform to give Australians a feel for what’s coming down the pipe – IPTV via fiber-optics to the home (FTTH). While the infrastructure in Australia is not in place yet, this will at least give people a small taste of what’s to come in the future when broadband speeds are healthier.

CeBIT TV is a combined effort of Modus, ROO, Viocorp(and my sleepless nights:-) who came together with CeBIT to really showcase the best of Aussie new media technology. I am delighted to have been able to work with all the people driving that cutting edge stuff, and I think the result will be really worthwhile.

Needless to say we will link those platforms from CeBIT.com.au, and of course, the official CeBIT blog. I will announce the URL’s for both the BloggerZone and CeBIT TV web platforms early next week as soon as they go live. I’m really looking forward to seeing what kind of response these things get!

Firefox soars, skirmish turns to war

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:17:49 PDT

I admit I haven’t paid much attention to the location of the frontline in the browser wars. I blame my mainstream reading habits. So, it turns out the hostilities never ceased, and in fact are getting bloodier than ever. Way beyond guerilla skirmishes now…

I’m talking about Firefox naturally. And when I think of Firefox, it’s hard not to have a near-simultaneous thought of Google pop into my head. So in the context of a browser fight with Microsoft, blood’s probably unavoidable.

Anyway, a report I came across from the France-based XiTi has proclaimed breathlessly “Firefox cannot be stopped”, pointing to the fact that it had captured nearly a quarter (24.1 per cent) of the browser market in Europe.

They love Firefox in Europe. In fact, Firefox market share in Europe has climbed nearly five per cent since April last year (from 19.4 per cent). Firefox claimed more than 45 per cent of users in two countries (Finland and Slovenia), and look at Germany – more than 35 per cent of users.

Which is all very interesting for Europe. And up to a point it reflects the actions of Europe’s central regulators in taking a stick to Microsoft. Much more interesting to me was the market share numbers for Oceania (basically Australia, New Zealand, PNG and a bunch of other islands). We love Firefox even more than Europe, with XiTi reporting that Firefox commands 24.8 per cent of the market.

So the browser wars are heating up, and Google is in the thick of it. The search company just bought a minority chunk of the Chinese/Israeli company behind the Maxthon browser. Maxthon has had more 80 million downloads, half of them in China. So it gives Google a strategic say in what goes on with a browser already among the most widely used in the world’s most populist.

With the release of Firefox 3 looming, I am looking forward to hearing Mitchell Baker (Mozilla.com chairwoman) speak at the CeBIT Connect Keynote series on May 1, and for a whole bunch of reasons. First, if it hasn’t already been launched, I’m hoping Baker will use the presentation to unload everything users should expect from the next Firefox release.

More generally though, I want to hear more about the Google relationship, and where that relationship will take us all in the medium term. Google has been flavour of the month for years now, and it is absolutely the company that everyone wants to rub up against still, but it’s starting to get a bit more critical attention. And as a friendly neighbor of Google in Mountain View it will interesting to hear Baker’s world view.

The other interesting thing about Baker is that she’s a top-drawer intellectual property lawyer. And she’s going to be coming to Australia at a time when Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has complained publicly about IP protection in China (lack thereof, he says).

The Minister, who is in Beijing this week co-chairing a high-level business/political conference on economic cooperation, said a few days ago that Australia is considering joining the US in lodging a complaint with the World Trade Organisation over China’s IP practices.

All this takes a somewhat sharper edge in the context of the delegation from China attending CeBIT Australia, which is being led by the Vice-Minister for the Information Industry.

Finally, it was difficult not to notice the one-paragraph statement issued by Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith today referring to the proposed Google acquisition of DoubleClick:

“This proposed acquisition raises serious competition and privacy concerns in that it gives the Google DoubleClick combination unprecedented control in the delivery of online advertising, and access to a huge amount of consumer information by tracking what customers do online. We think this merger deserves close scrutiny from regulatory authorities to ensure a competitive online advertising market.”

You won’t find a better example of a pot calling a kettle black. But this statement says a lot of things on a lot of levels (and it spells fear in a lot of languages too). I think the literal message is important. Frankly, I believe this acquisition needs more than close scrutiny: It needs a loud, vigorous debate, everywhere.

But then, I’m old and scared. And I’m still trying to get up off the floor, having been bowled over by Microsoft asking the US feds to intervene over a competition issue. This is the company that made an artform of the 'Let the market decide' school of public policy making.

I seriously never thought I would see the day. But they have a point.

Preparing for a news deluge

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 07:22:10 PDT

Greetings, and welcome. My name is James Riley, and with G-Man, Hugo and Jonathon I am going to be contributing to this CeBIT Australia blog. And I am really looking forward to seeing how it unfolds.

I have been providing the folk at CeBIT Australia with news stories for their web site and newsletters for the past couple of months, but this is my first foray in to blogwork. As a visitor to the event in past years, I am pretty familiar with CeBIT Australia, having covered it for mainstream media as a tech journalist.

I’ve been lucky too, over the years, to have also covered the gargantuan CeBIT show in Hannover, as well as CeBIT Asia in Shanghai. That’s the nature of IT, I suppose … join the industry and see the world.

My background is in old-school print journalism, having written on tech industry issues for newspapers and magazines in Australia and Asia over the past 20 years. Writing for a blog is new to me, but reporting isn’t, and journalism is something I am passionate about. I’m especially excited about the work I’ll be doing from the show floor. In fact, I’m surprised at how excited I am (I certainly didn’t see a blog in my future a couple of years ago) and keen to see where the process takes me.

With two and half weeks before the doors open at CeBIT Australia (1-3 May), I have started to get a bit serious about prioritising the things I want to cover, especially in relation to the conference programs. I will be interviewing some of the speakers (and exhibitors) and uploading video for those who are unable to get to Sydney.

I am keen to hear Google’s enterprise v-p, Dave Girouard, mainly just to get a better sense of the Google culture. Google is clearly a crazy, amazing roller-coaster of a company, but looking at the way it has handled some of its bigger corporate issues recently (Viacom/YouTube, Google Earth/Katrina) I’m left wondering how many of its people are still trying to catch up with the whole start-up-to-corporation-at-the-speed-of-light thing.

Two other speakers I’m keen to interview are Mitchell Baker from Mozilla to hopefully get a better view of Firefox 3 and beyond, and Hans Rosling, the medical doctor, demographer and developer of the GapMinder visualisation software he uses for bringing clarity to massive volumes of data. GapMinder is incredibly powerful – just have a look at the demo showing global infant mortality rates since the mid-20^th century. Watch as the whole world dramatically improves infant mortality rates while Africa actually goes backwards … it’s brutal in a way statistics on a page aren’t.

My last reporting job was with The Australian in Canberra, so I am pretty keen also to get to the eGovernment presentations. It’s a year since Special Minister of State Gary Nairn launched the Federal eGovernment strategy, so it will be interesting to hear from him how he thinks implementation is going (because progress isn't always immediately obvious). With so many large projects with tight timetables underway in different departments (think Immigration, Tax, Centrelink, Human Services, Defence) the federal government’s CIO Ann Steward’s presentation will give a view from the trenches about the rigours of implementing a whole-of-Government strategy against a culture of departmental fiefdoms.

It’s going to be an incredibly busy few weeks, but I can’t think of a better way of getting re-acquainted with core tech stuff. After 20 years reporting on IT industry developments, I recently had a break of six months (so I missed a hell of a lot.) I’m looking forward to using CeBIT Australia to get myself absolutely briefed on what going on out there.

Location Based Services the Unfulfilled Dream

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:34:03 PST

GPS and the soon to be operational Galileo network of satellites have created an unending appetite for very accurate location based systems with both consumer and business alike looking for location services that can assist each other to locate, or be located, at the right time.
Unfortunately, even at around $1 billion dollars per satellite (there are currently 30 in the constellation) the reality is not as good we would all believe, it is only two years ago that a cell (mobile based) system was started in the Sydney CDB claiming to provide sub 100 cubic meter accuracy, that’s 3,500 cubic feet in old money, which is ok if I am trying to find the CBD in greater Sydney. However, if I as a consumer wished to find the QVB, or a specific store within the QVB, it is of little use to me, or for a business owner wishing to direct customer to my store.
GPS is a little better in city centres but not much better with an accuracy of approximately 50 cubic meters as a result of multiple paths that GPS signals have to take off all of our various buildings and skyscrapers, which still leaves me struggling to secure that store location in the QVB.
Fulfilling this dream is an Australian company Locata who have spent that last ten years reviewing, pondering and solving this exact problem of delivering accurate location services (accuracy to 1mm for an object) by creating a local ground based constellation, which no other company globally has yet solved. Locata is an extension and expansion of the GPS concept of locating people, objects, etc. It works seamlessly with GPS, but can also operate as an independent and self contained system when GPS is not sufficient. It is terrestrially based, provides strong signals, and works in any environment – CBD, mining, item location in a warehouse, structural deformation management, etc. Locata is not designed to replace GPS; rather it creates an augmentation to GPS services that is a logical evolution of location based services.
Locata is a terrestrially based, location system that closely parallels GPS in system design and performance. Specifically, designed for location, Locata signal strengths are comparable to mobile phone signals. It provides better than meter-level location in difficult environments and sub-centimetre to millimetre level location in less obstructed environments.
Locata technology provides a technically superior solution for location services that extends and expands the capability of extant GPS services. Locata provides highly accurate and reliable location information in any environment. Locata operates in the ISM band at 2.4 GHz and does not interfere with the existing GPS frequencies.

This technology will allow positioning applications to function in places where GPS fails or is completely ineffective - especially in commercial, industrial, urban and indoor environments. The technology underpins new solutions for many markets that are both better and more reliable than current positioning systems. The positioning industry is starting to recognize this technology as a global game changer. Early adopters include all of the world’s large “professional GPS” companies, the US military, DeBeers, Anglo American, and renowned academic institutions around the world.

This is the world’s first viable and accurate solution which enables precise (within centimeters) positioning indoors and outdoors across business areas, campuses or entire cities. Creating personal positioning visions which have been much publicized by the likes of EPIC, Google, Microsoft, Minority Report, and The Da Vinci Code…………………..

Welcome Back to CeBIT Australia 2007

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:42:41 PDT

First of all, I should greet with Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening to all our International and local Australian audience. My name is Gilad, aka G-Man. I am a keen technologist and a fresh blogger!

Although I have been involved with CeBIT Australia for a number of years, it was only in CeBIT Australia 2006 when I have had the privilege to work with Hugo Ortega (better known as UberTablet), an internationally recogonised blogger who launched the CeBIT Australia Blog.

This year the CeBIT Australia blog will have several authors, including Hugo, who will join us blogging during the fair. Hugo will be also speaking in the eMarketing & SEO conference this year at CeBIT. The CeBIT Australa blog will be updated daily from now on until the show and thereafter, so make sure you stay tuned for upcoming news from the largest technology event Australia has ever seen. For you our tech savvy audience, we will also write occasionally just about technology.

CeBIT Australia this year will be something different. In one year only, the platform has been transformed into over twenty five targeted areas on the show floor; dozens of free show floor seminar and five content rich conferences. CeBIT Connect keynote series will host Dave Girouard - VP & General Manager, Enterprise Google, Mitchell Baker - CEO of Mozilla, Jim Steele - Worldwide president of salesforce.com, Mark Spencer - creator of original Asterisk and founder of Digium, and Hans Rosling will give a presentation that will blow your mind. There are also other international speakers which are not to be missed.

We are now just under three weeks to the event (1-3 May). The location is again the beautiful Darling Harbour, Sydney and the whole Sydney Convention and Exhibition centre space is taken by CeBIT this year!! In the lead up to CeBIT we will provide you with exclusive behind the scene stories, videos and web interviews with the people who make this event happen. During the event we will blog live from the show floor for all of you who cannot attend.

CeBIT Australia has a few unrevealed surprises for our exhibitors, visitors and of course fellow tech bloggers who will attend the fair this year. I will take you through some of these in my next post.

Passing of a CeBIT Mentor and Friend

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 02:15:25 PDT

Mr. Jörg Schomburg and

NSW Premier 2006 The Hon. Morris IEMMA

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

It's with great sadness that I inform you that Mr. Jörg Schomburg, Director of CeBIT World Wide Events and Vice President of Deutsche Messe AG, passed away, 27th July in Germany.

Mr. Schomburg was the strength behind CeBIT Australia; he was responsible for bringing the event to Australia in 2002, and remained a strong supporter since that time.

Mr. Jörg Schomburg Opening CeBIT Australia Fair 2006

Born in 1942, Mr. Schomburg joined Deutsche Messe AG in 1979 as a project manager for the Hannover Fair, which at that time included CeBIT as a sub-exhibition.

In 1984 Mr. Schomburg was appointed to the board of Directors of Deutsche Messe AG. In 1986 he oversaw the establishment of CeBIT as an exhibition in its own right, and continued to manage CeBIT as it grew to become the world's largest exhibition.

Mr. Schomburg was then responsible for the global expansion of CeBIT as new events were produced in Istanbul, China, America, and Australia.

Mr. Schomburg was the driving force behind bringing CeBIT to Australia, and was a strong supporter of the Australia and New Zealand ICT industries.

He continued that support, attending every CeBIT Australia since
2002.

More importantly, as many of you who met him will know, Mr. Schomburg was our great friend, and we shared his laughter, kindness, warmth and love for Australia and New Zealand every time he came to visit.

Mr. Jörg Schomburg and Hugo Ortega
May 11th, 2006

As our mentor, and as our dear friend, he will be sorely missed.

Yours Sincerely,

Jackie Taranto
Managing Director
Hannover Fairs Australia

Should you wish to send any messages of condolence, please forward them to Angelika Krueger of Deutsche Messe AG, email address: angelika.krueger@messe.de

The United Colors of CeBIT Australia

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Thu, 11 May 2006 11:46:23 PDT

My time has concluded and I bid you fare well. I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading/watching The Official CeBIT Blog as much as I’ve enjoyed preparing it for you. As my last post I thought I’d give you something fun and upbeat. Forget the tech, it’s all gone now. What I’ve prepared for you is “The United Colors of CeBIT Australia.”

While I journeyed through the Fair I was always impressed by the uniformity displayed by the exhibitors; many of them had gone to great lengths to highlight congruency with branding. One such technique that I really enjoyed was the “we all wear the same shirt” tactic.

If you’re thinking of exhibiting at a CeBIT Fair then watch this video and you tell me if it doesn’t make sense! Great job exhibitors and visitors at CeBIT Australia, you made my May 9th till 11th a real pleasure to be part of.

CeBIT performs the ultimate disappearing act!

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Thu, 11 May 2006 11:05:55 PDT

It’s 6 O’clock on May 11th 2006. A loud voice comes over the speakers bellowing “ladies, gentleman and exhibitors. CeBIT Australia 2006 is now officially closed!” Around me there are mixed emotions. Some cheer and therefore welcome the news, others sigh as if painfully realizing that the arduous task of demolition must commence.

The curtains to my role as Official Blogger have been drawn and it’s time to begin to reminisce about what was. I shake hands with those around me (as if whispering “peace be with you”) and begin to pack up my devices. It seems ironic that it took 48 hrs to build the show from ground up, and yet as every minute passes after 6pm it CeBIT Australia puts on the world’s fastest disappearing act!

These photos were taken between 6pm and 6:45pm on May 11th 2006; that’s a grand total of 45 minutes in which time a lot of the stands begin to resemble empty spaces. After having witnessed the assembly, and now the disassembly, all I can gather is that the old adage of “it’s far easier to destroy than it is to construct” truly stands testament at CeBIT closing day.

Enjoy the pics.

Scorpion Digital Lightbox at CeBIT Australia

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Thu, 11 May 2006 10:13:53 PDT

Scorpion Technology were one of the smaller exhibitors that had been pointed out to me as having a product that could interest the blog. As I made my way over (on the final hour of the final day of CeBIT) I came across the gang.

What attracted me to the stand was the “Digital Lightbox Studio.” This device, a cubical lightbox, had been manufactured and coupled with software to produce very high resolution pictures with nice white backgrounds. The Studio (hardware) worked seamlessly, and the software had depth.

I wanted to stick my arm in the box but decided against it once I saw just how much light was being emitted from inside! Enjoy this video, the last of the mediacasts from CeBIT Australia 2006.

Huawei is BIG, really BIG at CeBIT Australia

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Thu, 11 May 2006 10:01:52 PDT

Ashamedly I must admit that Huawei, unlike in China, was not a household name in my home. As I approached the very imposing and impressive Huawei stand I witnessed firsthand just how big they are. Not only did Huawei have mobile phones, IPTV and IP telephony to showoff but they also had Intelligent Servers and Wireless Infrastructures too.

Each section in their stand was allocated a professional and each professional was allocated a task. “Is Telstra here yet?” asked one of the staff to another. “Hi I’m from Optus.” states one of the guests. Glancing around at the staff I can see that they're all very busy and being very proactive.

From spending approximately 8 minutes in the Huawei stand it wasn’t difficult to see why they’re so big. Huawei sees CeBIT Australia as the Fair to attend, and CeBIT sees Huawei as one of the benchmark stands. I mean, they’re so big that even my name tag lanyard has Huawei logos all over it. ;-) Their stand was at the very front of the very first hall and could not be missed. The subject matter in the stand was so indepth that I decided to put two of the Huawei topics on camera.

Sit back and enjoy the massive footprint that is Huawei Australia.

Two Stories/Storeys for Panasonic at CeBIT Australia

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Thu, 11 May 2006 09:19:17 PDT

One of the privileges that visitors have at a CeBIT Fair is free reign. As a visitor you are free to walk in an out of the stands, touch toys, manhandle product, drink coffee, take literature and most importantly enjoy the spectacle. At this years Fair there were many standouts but the one that really caught my imagination, even as it was getting constructed, was the Panasonic Stand.

This year Panasonic had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of product on display on a stand that must surely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to erect; I was even informed that the stand required special engineer’s certificates to be allowed into the complex.

This year I chose to highlight two stories on this two storey stand; the first was the underwater Panasonic Tough Book, and the second was the newly formed Blu Ray standard (being displayed on a 65” Plasma).

Both were interactive, entertaining and definitely worth a look. All I needed was for Panasonic to construct four walls around the stand, whack on a roof, and I would have moved-in in a heartbeat. Enjoy this video of Panasonic at its biggest.

Non-Profit means business at CeBIT Australia

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Thu, 11 May 2006 09:07:39 PDT

GS1 Australia is a Non-Profit Organisation that is focused on four things at the CeBIT Fair in Australia: Bar Codes, RFID/EPCglobal, Data Synchronisation and eCommerce. Talking to the Chief Operations Officer and having a close look at the shear magnitude of the stand, the picture was loud and clear…they mean business!

Enjoy this video as Mark Fuller talks us through strategy and focus as defined by GS1.

Vice President, BITKOM and Hugo @CeBIT Australia

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Thu, 11 May 2006 08:44:42 PDT

As I wrapped up my chat with Mr. Jörg Shomburg it seems that something must have gone very right. We shook hands and started to head back into the VIP Lounge but were briskly interrupted by the General Manager of CebIT Fairs Australia, Ms. Jackie Taranto. Jackie put Mr. Shomburg and I into a huddle that would not look out of place on a basketball court, and proceeded to talk strategy. What I didn’t realize, and what I proceeded to be informed about, was of the arrival of a very VIP guest from BITKOM in Germany.

Dr. Ralph Hinterman of BITKOM had arrived and was considered in very high esteem within the Deutsche Messe AG circle. The following interview is a casual look at two very influential men discussing some very inconsequential topics, coffee and travel.

Vice President meets Hugo @CeBIT

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Thu, 11 May 2006 08:06:48 PDT

This morning my first task was to interview Mr. Jörg Shomburg, Senior Vice President of Deutsche Messe AG (Hannover Fairs). Obviously I’m comfortable with the entire mediacast process but I must admit that on this occasion I felt a tinge of nerves and anxiety. As my host led me to the VIP Lounge upstairs (with notebook under one arm) I found myself envisaging the possible scenarios that might occur. Perhaps Mr. Shomburg was tired of interviews; perhaps he was unapproachable or worse still, intimidating. What I found as I stepped around the office partition was a scenario I hadn’t quite predicted.

As an interviewer I follow a very simple set of guidelines, i.e. “rapport, Rapport, RAPPORT!” With Mr. Shomburg however these guidelines were rather futile; it seems that Jörg’s whit and charm left me with very little to do but sit back and enjoy the process. As we got to know each other, and I showed him images of my baby (The first ever Official CeBIT Blog) we seemed to connect on more levels than one. I found him to be full of energy and humor; he even requested that we take off our coats and ties in an effort to capture a more comfortable Jörg.

As we headed outside Jörg started sharing tales of the CeBIT Fair in Germany and described it as “50 times larger than the CeBIT Fair in Australia.” He commented on his love for Manly Beach and his passion for travel. What I understood most of Jörg was just how calm and appreciative he really is; his commitment to building a brighter and better CeBIT was evident, and his win/win attitude clearly displayed throughout our time together.

“I’m retiring this year you know?” He stated. “In life I have a philosophy: Progress can only be made by renewal, and the whole Universe is made by renewal.” What I comprehended from this statement is that Jörg sees his retirement as a fulfillment of this philosophy, i.e. making space for renewal to commence. Not only does this ensure a bigger and better CeBIT for us all but it also allows Mr. Shomburg the luxury of leaving Hannover Fairs with a very commendable peace of mind.

Enjoy this informal yet warm look at one of Hannover Fairs most Senior, and most influential, spokesmen.

Great day. See you on Day 3.

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Wed, 10 May 2006 11:46:31 PDT

By the end of the Official Day Two of CeBIT Australia I’m tired, I’m excited, and I’m looking forward to day three.

Stay tuned as I bring you yet another array of CeBIT Australia portals, designed for those of you that can’t attend. Thank you following my journey so far. I'm having a blast!

Gadget Man talks Origami at CeBIT Australia

huguo@tegatech.com.au (Hugo Ortega) — Thu, 11 May 2006 11:43:07 PDT

The Gadget Guy from Australia's Channel Seven’s Sunrise show is also at CeBIT Australia. His name is Peter Blasina and his game is Gadgets. If you ever have the pleasure of meeting Peter you’ll quickly see that he’s enthusiastic, passionate and definitely multi-media. His endeavors span across Television, Print, MP3 (via podcasts) and now the Technology Show at the CeBIT Fair. His wrap up on technology runs daily at the Fair and often involves a product feature of Peter Blasina’s choice.

Watch this video as Peter goes through one of his Gadget Moments at the CeBIT Fair in Australia. This one covers some home automation (Superna Systems), a credit card sized flash drive (Walletex), and the Microsoft Origami (UMPC, EO) device.