NEWS

14 May

Posted at 09:07h in News 2 by
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It would be easy to think that the notion of a “digital divide” is now outdated. Whose life isn’t digital in some respect these days? As shown in the recent Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) report, Australians’ digital lives, 92% of Australians use the internet across a range of technological devices. This suggests only a small minority of Australians are not using the internet. Perhaps they can’t due to lack of availability or they don’t out of choice. But if we dig a little deeper, the digital divide re-emerges. The 92% of people online includes anyone who has accessed the internet in the past six months, even if just the once. It gives no indication of frequency of use, levels of digital literacy or how active those Australians are online.

13 May

Posted at 09:00h in News 2, Tech Talk by
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I’m heading to Ireland soon to take part in the IT@Cork European Technology Summit. The conference is ambitious for certain and will be tackling hot issues from the Cloud, STEM, Digital Media and The Future Of Talent, with top-tier guests from industry leaders, such as VMware, and bright lights in tech education, such as CIT. I’m speaking on a benchmark panel (and a digital marketing one too with a different angle) talking about gender diversity in technology and business. And just to get this straight: gender diversity is business. To keep the private and public sectors going is going to take a bigger and broader talent pool. And while I look forward to the day when I don’t have to get on the soapbox for the STEM sisterhood — because it’s just a given — we’ve got work to do. Here are four key tasks we’ve got to tackle:

12 May

Posted at 12:00h in News 2, Tech Talk by
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Whether it's building self-driving cars, a fleet of balloons to blanket the world with the Internet or tiny particles to detect cancer, Google is known for thinking big — really big. Now the Internet giant is digging into its mountains of cash and tapping some of the world's smartest minds to take on another serious and elusive challenge: cracking the code on the lack of diversity in the technology industry. Google is raising the stakes in its bid to attract more women and minorities, Nancy Lee, Google's vice president of people operations, told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview.