More on the Digital Future Summit. This morning acting manager digital development at the Ministry of Economic Development Janet Mazenier was reported discussing the Digital Future Summit.
The MED said that;
* The Government has announced it will be updating the Digital Strategy first released more than two years ago.
* The original goals such as 5Mbps delivered to 90 per cent of New Zealanders by 2010 are up for revision.
* Business people are being encouraged to participate in the strategy update, either via online forums or attending the Digital Future Summit in November.
It’s hard not to think “knowledge wave” when first shown the concept of this summit. $900 tickets, lots of ra ra, big names and plenty of press time all lead to an almost evangelical view of the event.
One should feel relieved that they are introducing some online forums so business people can join in the dialogue, and they’re also webcasting the presentations. But if this is the case, and Wikinomics works, why not just have a virtual summit. Surely they’ve created a them and us mentality with the $900 tickets hat can only result in the usual well funded players getting the air time.
Democratise the process ministry!
They’re just trying to price us poor Christchurch folk out of the event 🙂