Digital economy paper released

Senator Conroy has released the Australia's Digital Economy: Future Directions paper.

The paper provides a current view of the digital situation in Australia and provides indications of the platform that the country will need in the future to be a leader in the digital space.

It provides a number of examples of Australian digital success stories and hints at some of the strategies the government intends to explore in order to drive future success.

This includes consideration of whether to expand the 'safe harbour' provisions in copyright, the government's role as an enabler of digital content and as an enabler of digital connections (via the National Broadband Network) and its role in education and cybersafety.

For me the paper re-emphasised how important the internet and other digital tools are to Australia's economy and development.

I'm going to have to reflect further on what the paper means for the government's role.