ADOPTION AND INNOVATION PANEL

The third panel session in the 'Our Future Information and Communications Technology Needs' panels was jointly facilitated by Prof Julian Lowe, Director of the Centre for Regional Innovation and Competitiveness (CRIC) and Assoc Prof John Yearwood, Director of the Centre for Informatics and Applied Optimization (CIAO) at the University of Ballarat. This event was held between 4 pm and 6 pm on 23 November 2006 at the Conference Room, Greenhill Enterprise Centre on the University of Ballarat Technology Park.

Background

Ballarat has sought to position itself as a regional centre for the ICT industry in Australia. It has ICT employment a little above the average for similar regional cities but lags behind the larger metropolitan areas in ICT employment and the production of ICT goods and services.

As part of the planning process we are holding forums, lead by panels of experts that focus on particular issues of importance to the development of an ICT strategy for Ballarat. This forum is about ICT innovation and its diffusion and adoption. Relevant issues concern how ICT providers and users develop and exploit new ideas, and how innovation from within Ballarat and outside, diffuses through producer and user groups.

A taxonomy of ICT for the purposes of these workshops includes:

• Software, Hardware, Data, Communications, Systems, E-Businesses

In:

• Users and producers
• Maintenance and technical support
• Research, design and development
• Training, sales and vendor support
  • In large, medium, small, public and private organisations.

Looking forward to 2030

We seek to answer the following:

• In what areas might we expect to see major ICT innovations in five years, ten, fifteen, and twenty years?
• How innovative is ICT in Ballarat and how can that be improved?

...and over the next twenty years:

• What is needed to attract and sustain a growing and innovative ICT industry to Ballarat?
• What commercial infrastructure and support is needed to commercialize ideas coming from the Ballarat ICT cluster?
• What role do lead users play in ICT innovation in Ballarat and how can their input be better captured?
• How can best practice be more quickly diffused through the Ballarat ICT cluster?
• Who are the opinion leaders who facilitate the diffusion of best practice in Ballarat?
• What is the ONE thing you think needs to happen for Ballarat to become more innovative as an ICT centre over the next 5 years?

Panel Members

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Panel Outcomes

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