Australian Internet Industry

Hi,

This is my second mail in this list.

I am an IT professional and very keen about Internet industry in Australia.
I am currently studying here and will probably stay and work in Australia
after finishing my studies. This is why I am continuously researching and
reading about internet development in Australia as it will be "my area" in
the near future :)

However, I don't understand couple of things and would like to discuss with
you. I might miss something obvious, if so please correct me.

As far as I know, Australian economy is mainly based on agriculture,
education, natural resources (and maybe tourism). Agriculture is a
traditional economy, natural resources is a kind of "gift". For tourism,
unfortunately there are a lot countries that are doing this better than you,
(this is because you don't have historical places like European countries, I
guess)

So I can only take education from there, and you are doing this really well.
I don't know which leader invested on this area, but he must be a good
visionary.

However, apart from education, I think Australia needs an another area for
it's economy and power. When someone say "Australia", we should say
"something". For example, China is "factory of the world". Spain is
"tourism".  Germany is "automotive" and so on.

Mining industry is a booming industry in here, but you should use this money
to develop other industries. For instance, Dubai has oil, but they will run
out of oil, this is why they invest on tourism.

I guess Australia suffers from three main problem.

1-) Lack of visionaries
2-) Lack of "low population"
3-) Lack of "large land"

To do something, you need to spend a lot of money.

What I am trying to say is, I don't understand why Australia does not do
anything about it. If you ask me, Internet Industry could be main area in
here. In my first mail, I said that being an English speaking country
affects internet projects in Australia. I said that you cannot create a
Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail because you cannot offer anything more than that.

However, this disadvantage could be your advantage. Because of America,
English is the main language in the world. If you are Spanish, Italian, you
should be speaking English to communicate with other people in other
countries. This is a big power. This power feeds your Education industry,
and I think this power may also open new doors, such as Internet projects.

I like the "nationalist economy" in here. "Australian owned company" is a
good term. The same idea may improve other industries and this could improve
internet industry. I don't mean "Australian owned website", but visionaries
may find something.

You have one of the highest internet penetration in the world but also one
of the worst internet connection as well. Your people is still talking about
internet filtering. This is ridiculous.  You have a well developed western
cultured country but you can only see this connection, internet filtering
system etc. in the third world countries. I really can't understand it. I
guess this is why you also have a brain drain problem.

Why people do not "actively" stand against this. Why people do not pressure
on government to have better infrastructre, and I don't understand why this
beatiful country does not have visionaries.

Are you really happy with this? Or am I missing something obvious?

Thanks,

Serdar Sahin

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