Organised in partnership with the Australian Government Information Management Office, the conference represents CeBIT Australia's drive to broaden the scope of the annual event beyond a conventional trade show into a general information technology event of wider interest to business, government and the community at large.
"E-government is important all over the world, and it is an integral way of showing how technology can help deliver services on a scale that benefits the people and makes the providers of these services, in this case public entities, more efficient, better and, most importantly, able to deliver those services more cost-effectively," says Jackie Taranto, the managing director of the show's organiser, Hanover Fairs Australia.
"It's a one-day conference on the second day of the Darling Harbour show, and it will attract some senior representatives from around the world, including Australia, Britain and the US.
"Interoperabilty and wireless are big issues around the world at the moment, for governments as well, and CeBIT this year will be about how all forms of technology are working together for business, government and users.
"It's not so much about particular products, but demonstrating how things work and interoperate."
The e-government conference will be opened by the special minister of state and minister responsible for e-government Gary Nairn, who will also present a keynote address.
The event will be chaird by AGIMO head Ann Steward.
Speakers at the conference's four sessions will include: Professor Joe McGeehan, director of the Centre for Communications Research at Bristol University in Britain; Professor Werner Enderle from Queensland University of Technology; Dr Martin Pretorius, vice-president of strategic business developments for healthcare systems at Siemens in Germany; Roger Wilkins, director general of the NSW Department of Cabinet; Bailey White, senior partner of US company Civitium; and Victorian government chief information officer Jane Treadwell.
Topics to be covered include: the wireless revolution, the European Galileo project, teleworking and its potential for decentralised work in disasters, virtual health services, the German electronic e-health card project, the use of radio frequency identification in government, identity management and connected government.
While e-government is the headliner in this year's ceBIT Australia events, it will be complemented by forums and keynote addresses on topics such as digital life, security and a special case study on the music industry and its response to the challenges of new technologies.
"There will be a special panel on music, and what happened in that industry when it didn't adapt and realise how technology would change it," Taranto says.
"That panel will also look at how now the music industry has finally embraced technology as a platform to try to catch up.
"A director of Sony BMG, the head of Soundbuzz and a manager from Optus will participate, so we will be covering all aspects of the issue and we will also look at policy and security and legal aspects of content management and how it all applies to areas that are coming up such as mobile television and movie downloading."
Autor: Roland Tellzen
Quelle: Australian IT, 20.03.2006
