Enough talk already - big Gainz demand action

By CHRIS BARTON IT editor

"Growing an innovative New Zealand" - it's not exactly a catchy mission statement, is it? Maybe if the Government had gone with the acronym Gainz we might have paid more attention.

"Gainz to be made" would at least have made a better headline. Or perhaps "No Gainz without pains" - to appeal to the country's Calvinist heritage.

But packaging the ill-defined strategy to get poor old Aotearoa prosperous again is just the beginning of the Government's nightmare. Much more difficult is the task of trying to sell something so boring that everyone nods after the first few sentences.

Why? Because we've heard it all before - last year at the Catching the Knowledge Wave conference and the year before at the E-commerce Summit. Because it's all talk and very little action. Because it's simply not innovative at all - except perhaps as a new way to mark time on the same spot.

The method is straightforward - get interested parties together, crank up the hype around meaningless terms such as "knowledge economy", "innovation" and "creativity", reach a faux, feel-good consensus that this is the way forward and then agree more talk should follow. Stasis by rhetoric. Brilliant!

So it should come as no surprise that one of the first things Information Technology Minister Paul Swain is going to do to take the innovative strategy forward in his sector is to hold another talkfest.

Information and communication technology (ICT) forms a holy trinity with biotechnology and "creative industries" as the chosen ones to advance Gainz.

The ICT sector's response has been a polite, "Duh, we've been saying this for yonks, glad you finally got the message, now let's get on with it."

To be fair to Mr Swain, the Government has made some baby steps towards building a vibrant ICT sector - such as its $100 million venture capital fund, its rethink on the tax treatment of R&D, and its relaxing of immigration visas and quota for IT people. But compared to the rest of world, which is also beating the same knowledge economy drum, the moves are little more than tokenism.

Mr Swain says getting the ICT industry together to talk some more is necessary because Gainz is just a framework - "the coat hanger" on to which clothes are yet to be hung.

He cites a plan for a broadband link between Australia and New Zealand for a Wellington creative industries cluster, and a request for funding of a coordinator for a heath software cluster as the sort of assistance the Government is willing to provide. More get-togethers and more talk will help the Government put Gainz in ICT into practice.

Fair enough. But isn't the problem here the piecemeal approach? After all the talk, the Government should by now know its leadership role in ICT needs to be much more far-reaching, proactive and - dare I say it - innovative.

Truly innovative ICT strategy would need to take advantage of the wild swings, cataclysmic change, contradictions and reckless "e" adventures so common in this industry. If the Government picked the right innovative path, the future might read something like:

* Boldly buy bandwidth, build broadband - trumpeted as "the five Bs" of New Zealand's successful transformation into a knowledge economy. In 2002 Mr Swain, realising he's made a hash of breaking Telecom's monopoly on the local loop, advances the fixed wireless alternative. He's instrumental in getting BCL, the broadcasting arm of TVNZ, to form joint ventures with local wireless networks, including Walker Wireless. A viable alternative to Telecom's copper wires emerges and houses all over the country sprout antennas and enjoy fast, subsidised internet access through the air. The move is made possible by Government vision and skill in forward-buying vast quantities of bandwidth on the Southern Cross cable and on satellite transponders, bringing the price of international bandwidth down.

By 2005 New Zealand has the highest broadband penetration of all OECD countries. The country's remoteness, natural beauty, outdoor lifestyle and high-speed connectedness are exploited in the global advertising campaign "Heavenly Connections".

* Copy left - trumpeted as the high-risk gamble that paid off. In 2002 the Government recognises copyright law is the issue of the digital age. It goes against most other countries and adopts an attitude to copyright law in keeping with the open-source software movement.

At the same time it mandates the widespread use of Linux among government departments and agencies. As a result, the country builds vast expertise in open-source software, attracts armies of Linux geeks and is marketed worldwide as Linus Torvald's second home.

* Patent paradise - from fantasy to fact, or "the three Fs". In complete contradiction to its copyright laws, the Government strengthens its patent laws to fit closely with the World Intellectual Property Organisation guidelines. It also dramatically increases funding for its patent office, resulting in the fastest passing of patents in the world. The country becomes a haven for all manner of weird and wacky patents - including the controversial e-commerce business process patents.

While NZ is pilloried for exploiting patent law and for the ethics of its stance, the result is a huge influx of money as foreign companies set up headquarters here to launch their inventions and begin legal action against other firms infringing their e-commerce patent rights.

The downside is the country is overrun with boring patent attorneys attracted here by the marketing campaign "So sue me."

* Got innovative ideas for Gainz in ICT? Connect at chris_barton@nzherald.co.nz