IP: Australia Diary # 4 of 4

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

I am writing this on the UA flight back to LAX/PHL. The last  day and a 
half in Brisbane was crowded and interesting. I had a great Chinese dinner 
(Davids) with the senior management of eglobal. Mark White of eglobal. was 
the organizer of much of the activities I had in Brisbane. eglobal.is very 
active in China and I got a very good set of insights into Chinese IT. The 
next morning I was the speaker at a breakfast meeting sponcered by AIIA - 
Australian Information Industries Association. There were 290 active awake 
people at the meeting. -- at 730 in the morning. After some pcture taking 
for the press off we went to the Gold Coast. It looks like Miami without 
Cuban restaurants.  High rises, homes of manmade rivers but with good 
beaches and suffers. After an interview on ABC  the Australian Broadcasting 
Company, I gave a First Tuesday chat at a new industrial park. residential 
complex being built near Bond Univ by a combination of the city and private 
funds. It features fiver to the office and home. Lots of interaction -- 
very vigorous. A late Greek seafood dinner at Georges and a drive back to 
our hotel wrapped up a busy day.

We wre invited back to Brisbane in May for a conference they are organizing 
by the Engineering society and the Mayor so we will get another chance to 
enjoy Brisbane, the Stamford Plaza, the food and most the great people who 
liver there. We also expect to go to Perth then

Oh what I would give for a supersonic jet that could make US toAU run. It 
is LONG.

Dave


. .




 From Jim Soorley,the Lord Mayors of Brisbane's office -- Matthew 
Cox  Adviser to the Lord Mayor

>I have attached a document which sets out in broad terms what we are 
>trying to do in Brisbane.  One of the main initiatives is the city portal 
>- www.ourbrisbane.com which is in its first, fairly basic, incarnation 
>currently.  We hope to add content and functionality pretty rapidly over 
>the next 12 months.  What we are also trying to do is develop online 
>villages which mirror the actual urban precincts which exist in our 
>city.  Part of the vision is to provide a holistic village portrait that 
>captures the non-commercial interaction of a local community - sports, 
>societies, local fetes, local notices etc - as well as its business 
>activity.   We see it first and foremost as an economic and community 
>development tool, second as a tool to improve government accessibility and 
>responsiveness and third as a business enterprise which may generate a 
>return at some point in the future.



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