Tanner unveils tech apprenticeships

FINANCE Minister Lindsay Tanner has announced a $15 million ICT apprenticeship program for government as the Commonwealth moves to address a current and projected public sector tech skills shortfall.

The four-year Australian Public Service (APS) program will deliver up to 60 jobs for young people with Government agencies and will be coordinated by the Department of Finance and Deregulation, Mr Tanner said.

“This programme directly addresses the ICT skills shortage in the APS and provides real career opportunities in the technology sector,” Mr Tanner said. “It is all about investing in skills and investing in young Australians.”

“The initiative also highlights the benefits of agencies working together to provide opportunities, produce efficiencies and develop important workforce skills.”

Work placements and the academic component of the program will begin this month.

During their training, apprentices will receive important ‘on-the-job’ experience with an APS agency and graduate with a nationally-recognised qualification - providing them with the essential foundations to pursue an ICT career in the APS.

The initiative has been welcomed by the Australian Computer Society, the peak professional body for the tech sector.

“Maintaining Australia’s global competitive position will depend on the high levels of ICT awareness and knowledge in the general population – people taking on ICT careers and understanding ICT as part of their regular career skills,” ACS president Kumar Parakala said.

“The ACS has long advocated that we would like to see the Government, industry and the tertiary sectors work more closely together to develop initiatives to attract young people into an ICT career,” he said.

“The APS Program is a positive step in the right direction, matching the skills being developed to those the Governments need. We look forward to seeing more apprenticeships, both in the public and private sectors, being made available to graduates.”

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Privacy chief wants mandatory reporting

SHAKEN by a series of significant data breaches in the UK, Australian Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis has renewed calls for mandatory reporting of security breaches at Australian companies and government agencies.

Ms Curtis's call for mandatory reporting was made in a 786-page submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) review of Australian privacy law.

“While reporting would need to be proportional to the severity of the breach, it would provide organisations with a strong market incentive to adequately secure their databases,” Ms Curtis said.

“It would also give people an opportunity to take any necessary steps to protect their personal information.”

Ms Curtis also called for powers that would allow the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to conduct privacy performance assessments on private sector organisations in special circumstances to ensure they were in compliance with data protection regulations.

Other recommendations in the submission included maintaining a principles-based and technology neutral approach to privacy, to provide flexibility and responsiveness to change.

Ms Curtis also urged lawmakers to minimise exemptions to from the Privacy Act.

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EU backs downloader privacy

THE European Union’s top court has backed the privacy rights of internet users, ruling that content owners cannot demand that ISPs hand over the personal information of users suspected of illegal downloading.

The Brussels-based Court of Justice ruled that even where an IP address was suspected of illegally downloading copyrighted material, record labels and film companies could not demand that the telecommunications carriers’ hand over details of that users’ name and address.

But it said EU member states could, if they felt it necessary, introduce laws that would oblige telco’s to hand over personal information in civil cases.

The decision relates to case involving the Spanish communications giant Telefonica.

An anti-piracy group called Promusicae had applied through the Spanish courts for an order that Telefonica hand over the identities and physical address of customers whose IP address and date and time of connection were known.

According to Promusicae, those persons were using the KaZaA file exchange program and providing access in shared files of personal computers to content that belonged to its industry members.

Telefonica had argued that under Spanish law, it was only allowed to share personal data in cases involving criminal prosecution or matters of public safety or security.

The Court points out that the present reference for a preliminary ruling raises the question of the need to reconcile the requirements of the protection of different fundamental rights, namely the right to respect for private life on the one hand and the rights to protection of property and to an effective remedy on the other.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, an anti-priacry group, said the recording industry would continue its enforcement campaign against internet piracy, despite the ruling. It applauded the courts ruling that member states could still compel telcos to hand over personal data.

“Copyright theft on the internet is the single biggest obstacle to the growth of the music business today, IFPI chairman and chief executive John Kennedy said in a statement.

“The European Court has confirmed the need to have effective tools to tackle piracy. The judgment means that music rights owners can still take actions to enforce their civil rights, and it has sent out a clear signal that Member States have to get the right balance between privacy and enforcement of intellectual property rights and that intellectual property rights can neither be ignored nor neglected.”

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ICT get a boost in new Cabinet

THE technology industry has been given a major profile boost in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s first Cabinet, with the appointment of two senior Ministers with responsibility for ICT-critical issues.

Stephen Conroy was appointed as Minister to the newly-named portfolio of Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy. Senator Conroy has been shadow IT and communications spokesman since 2004, and had been expected to retain those responsibilities – largely because of the incredible complexities of telecommunications regulation (and Telstra-related regulatory issues).

Senator Conroy was a driving force behind Labor’s bold A$4.7 billion national broadband pledge, made in March.

Less expected was the appointment of fellow Victorian Senator Kim Carr as Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. Senator Carr had been shadow Industry Minister, but Mr Rudd bolstered the portfolio with the addition of Innovation.

Senator Carr will oversee the implementation of industry assistance programs – which will play a huge role in the development of indigenous software companies.

The appointments have been welcomed by the industry.

“We are pleased that the Prime Minister-elect, Kevin Rudd, has acknowledged technology as the driving force of our nation’s economic prosperity and reinforced this stance by including the ICT portfolio in Cabinet,” said the Australian Computer Society’s out-going national President Philip Argy.

“Innovation is a pivotal force in building our national economy and energising our industry. Our prosperity is dependent on productivity gains underpinned by innovation in information and communications technologies,” Mr Argy said.

Lindsay Tanner’s appointment as Finance Minister in the Rudd Cabinet has also been welcomed. Mr Tanner has been a Shadow Communications Minister and is very familiar with the industry.

As a technology buyer, the federal government wields, tremendous influence through the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), which falls within the Department of Finance.

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Open Source takes hold in public sector

MORE than half of technology exexcutives in the US federal government have implemented open source software projects in their agencies, citing security and reliability issues as the chief reason.

A survey conducted by the Federal Open Source Alliance – a group supported by HP, Intel and Red Hat – said more than 70 per cent of respondents said their agencies would benefit from open source software.

The Federal Open Source Referendum is the first of an annual report aimed at identifying open source adoption rates and trends in federal government.

Federal ICT executives view data centre consolidation as accelerating open source transition – 58 percent of respondents note they are more likely to consider moving to open source as they consolidate data centres.

The survey found that those executives that had already implemented Open Source in a project identify advanced security as the biggest benefit, with 30 percent citing access to advanced and multi-levelled security capabilities as the top benefit.

Those that had not implemented an open source project cited security as a top challenge – 40 percent.

“The focus on data centre consolidation as an inflection point on open source migration echoes what we hear directly from Federal as well as state and local agencies,” said Red Hat government sales operations vice-president Paul Smith.

“The study underlines the perception divide on security as well as the important role that cultural attitudes to change and robust structured technical support play in open source migration success,” Mr Smith said.

“The Federal Open Source Alliance is committed to fostering collaboration to close the open source education divide and empower implementing agencies to obtain maximum value from their open source migrations.”

The study underscores the fact that open source is gathering broad-based support and an impressive record for success in the Federal space. Some 55 percent of respondents note that they have been or are involved in open source implementations and 90 percent of those respondents assert that the deployment has benefited their agency.

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Electoral tech for visually-impaired tested

THE Australian Electoral Commission will introduce special electronic voting machines for the blind and visually impaired at the 2007 Federal election, allowing them a secret ballot for the first.

Special Minister of State Gary Nairn said the visually impaired would be able to cast secret ballots at 29 locations across Australia at the election as part of the first-ever trial of electronic voting devices.

The electronic booths will be available in all States and Territories.

“This is a trial that the Government strongly supports to enable people who are blind or vision impaired to have the opportunity for a secret vote,” Mr Nairn said.

“Electronic voting will be available for two weeks in the lead up to, and on election day, in 29 electorates.

“The locations were selected by the Australian Electoral Commission after a careful process of consultation with relevant peak bodies and service organisations around Australia and an examination of potential locations,” Mr Nairn said.

The Australian Electoral Commission will be demonstrating the electronic voting machines at each location before the election for the interest of people with vision impairment and local support groups.

The electronic voting machines will not be available to people who are sighted.

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