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This weekly blog is to explore the news around the larger issues around Digital Health, data security, data privacy, AI / ML. technology, social media and related matters.
I will also try to highlight ADHA Propaganda when I come upon it.
Just so we keep count, the latest Notes from the ADHA Board were dated 6 December, 2018 and we have seen none since! Its pretty sad!
Note: Appearance here is not to suggest I see any credibility or value in what follows. I will leave it to the reader to decide what is worthwhile and what is not! The point is to let people know what is being said / published that I have come upon.
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Attorney-General asked to update 'personal information' definition in Privacy Act
Many tech giants, finance sector participants and regulators, human rights campaigners, and startups agree the current definition is outdated.
By Asha Barbaschow | February 9, 2021 -- 04:46 GMT (15:46 AEDT) | Topic: Security
The Attorney-General's Department is currently in the midst of reviewing the Australia Privacy Act 1988. Since October, it has been calling for all interested parties to provide their two cents.
A reoccurring theme from many of the submissions has been to align the Act with international laws, such as Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Facebook, for example, has suggested making such a change would prevent the creation of a "splinternet".
Adopting many elements of the GDPR would also provide for a more up-to-date definition of "personal information", according to many. The Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC), which is based out of Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, in its submission, called for the definition of personal information to be amended to align with the GPDR. As did Facebook.
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Senate Committee's one recommendation is the News Media Bargaining Code be passed
Labor Senators, once again, set to wave through a piece of legislation with hopes the party's concerns will be addressed before its passage.
By Asha Barbaschow | February 12, 2021 -- 05:00 GMT (16:00 AEDT) | Topic: Tech Industry
Despite hearing testimony from experts in the tech industry, such as the inventor of the World Wide Web himself, the Senate Economics Legislation Committee has given the green light to what is essentially a legacy media subsidy.
The committee, after probing the Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2020 [Provisions], made one sole recommendation: The committee recommends that the Bill be passed.
The legislation mandating the Australian News Media Bargaining Code entered the House of Representatives in December.
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Real-time data will be key to Australia’s vaccine rollout
Lee Thompson
One of the biggest economic issues COVID-19 has highlighted is the complexity – and fragility – of supply chains. Critically, this complexity is not just limited to the movement of international goods as state border closures and hotspot declarations place strains on domestic supply chains.
But this economic challenge could become a major health issue as Australia prepares to roll out COVID-19 vaccines – and IT is set to play a major logistic role in ensuring vaccine distribution is smart, efficient, and effective.
Healthcare and the pandemic’s digital switch
COVID-19 hasn’t just put healthcare providers at the centre of public consciousness; it has also highlighted the pressing need for digital transformation in the sector.
Recent research Nutanix conducted found more than two-thirds (70 per cent) of healthcare organisations said COVID-19 had caused IT to be viewed more strategically and more than half had invested in additional hybrid cloud capabilities last year.
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https://www.smh.com.au/technology/should-big-tech-be-regulated-like-big-banks-20210212-p571y6.html
Should big tech be regulated like big banks?
By Cara Waters
February 13, 2021 — 12.00am
The UK’s competition regulator Andrea Coscelli is confident ‘big tech’ could be regulated like the big banks as regulators globally continue to play catch up in the race to clip the wings of the high-flying technology giants.
Speaking at the annual Bannerman Competition lecture, in association with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), this week, Coscelli didn’t mention Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple by name but he didn’t need to.
The pervasive power of these companies is now on the radar of every regulator in the world, many of whom are keenly watching the Australian government’s news media bargaining code.
The code is the latest spot fire in the evolving tussle between regulators and technology companies as Coscelli reiterated why a collective response was urgently needed.
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Friday, 12 February 2021 11:54
75th anniversary of ENIAC on 15 Feb, the first all-electronic programmable computer
In just a few days time on February 15, it will be 75 years since the deployment of the first all-electronic, programmable computer at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, called ENIAC, which stands for an "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer".
According to Wikipedia, ENIAC was "the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer. It was Turing-complete, and able to solve "a large class of numerical problems" through reprogramming."
Although ENIAC was completed in 1945 and first put to work for practical purposes on December 10, 1945, Wikipedia states "ENIAC was formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania on February 15, 1946 and was heralded as a "Giant Brain" by the press."
As the ENIAC Day website states, "the impact this machine has had on modern computing is why its creation is still recognised and celebrated today."
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a3c926bc-713c-496f-a830-dc6286d1e61d
Notifiable Data Breaches: What are your reporting responsibilities?
Nyman Gibson Miralis Australia February 10 2021
The Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme stipulates that an organisation must notify affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) when a data breach involving personal information is likely to result in serious harm.
The OAIC has reported on notifications received under the NDB scheme from 1 Jan. 2020 to 30 June 2020. We look at the reported breaches relating to cyber incidents, which highlight the growing risks from ransomware attacks.
Cyber incidents reported
Cyber incidents were the largest source of malicious and criminal attacks during the reporting period, with the OAIC receiving 218 notifications. This represented a slight decrease compared to the previous six months, where 225 cyber incidents were reported.
Phishing, malware, ransomware, brute-force attack and compromised or stolen credentials were the main sources of the data breaches:
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/opinion/why-we-must-disrupt-social-medias-billiondollar-antivax-business
Why we must disrupt social media's billion-dollar anti-vax business
Professor John Dwyer is co-founder of Friends of Science in Medicine and Emeritus Professor at UNSW.
11th February 2021
With the COVID-19 virus killing more than 2000 Americans daily, the country's Surgeon General recently noted that a vaccine is of "no use if you are dead and no use to you if you don’t get vaccinated”.
The latter point matters — some 42% of Americans are reluctant to be vaccinated despite estimates that a 70% uptake is necessary to produce herd immunity.
Irresponsibility, and outrageous even for Fox News, presenter Laura Ingraham recently interviewed a ‘retired microbiologist’, who took to the airwaves to share his view that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous.
“Why is that?” she asked.
“Well, your producer told me the interview was limited to three minutes and it would take about 15 minutes to explain my concerns.”
Promising a follow-up, Ms Ingraham apologised for the brevity.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/the-booking-engine-cat-herding-dilemma/
11 February 2021
The booking engine cat herding dilemma
Is it feasible that we can develop a centralised federal co-ordinating system that talks to all the commercial bookings systems and the state based ones in time for the vaccine roll out?
Most GPs (maybe up to 85% even) are well served by an existing patient booking service (eg, Hotdoc, HealthEngine, HealthSite etc).
The Department of Health has just determined that their Central Booking Service (which they had advertised broadly to GPs and pharmacists in each expression of interest program) won’t actually be a central service any more and they will instead attempt to link to all the existing booking engines in market (clever approach) to get bookings done.
They will list all clinics providing vaccinations centrally on their National Health Services Directory, run by HealthDirect, and quickly build a central inventory system that talks to each of the existing booking engines to extract de-identified data on bookings so they can effectively manage the massively complex process of getting the right amount of stock to the right clinics at the right time (more on this below).
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https://medicalrepublic.com.au/privacy-of-public-health-datasets-under-scrutiny/40136
11 February 2021
Privacy of public health datasets under scrutiny
A new data privacy tool, designed to ensure publicly released anonymised datasets remain secure and private, has cybersecurity experts asking questions about its veiled design.
An early version of the Personal Information Factor (PIF) tool, developed by the NSW government and the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre in collaboration with CSIRO’s Data61, has already been put to use in the pandemic, analysing privacy risks of sharing deidentified datasets tracking COVID-19 cases across the state.
With the pandemic still in full swing, more personal data is flying around than ever before. Deidentifying data involves removing any personal identifiers and using other software safeguards to prevent reidentification.
In the context of the pandemic, making such information available to policy makers, health experts and researchers has been critical to informing COVID-19 outbreak response.
Nevertheless, when any kind of anonymous public data is shared online an individual’s privacy is at stake.
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https://apo.org.au/node/310831
The digital lives of Aussie teens
9 Feb 2021
Office of the eSafety Commissioner (Australia)
Cyberbullying Social media Cyber safety Digital communications Digital media Technology and youth Teenagers Youth Australia
Resources The digital lives of Aussie teens 437.43 KB
Description
The internet is an integral part of Aussie teens’ digital lives. While teens’ high use of technology offers many benefits, there is a downside – negative online experiences.
This research provides a glimpse into the digital lives of Australian teenagers, how they deal with negative online experiences, the types of information they need to stay safe online and the information sources that they trust. It also looks at the types of positive online behaviours in which they engage.
The research is based on a survey of 627 teens aged 12-17 in September 2020.
Key findings:
- Results in 2020 show that this group spend a large amount of their time online on a range of activities. This is not particularly surprising given the critical role the internet played in connecting people to services, information, friends and family during the recent COVID-19 restrictions. It highlights that while social media preferences are changing, mainstream players such as YouTube and Facebook continue to capture much of this group's attention. Newer services, including TikTok and Discord have, however, made significant inroads into the youth market in Australia over a relatively short period of time.
- While teens’ increased use of technology offers many benefits such as being able to research topics of interest and connect with family and friends, there is a downside – teens continue to deal with negative online experiences including unwanted contact, cyberbullying and harassment.
- A surprising finding was that Australian teens are active in helping build positive and inclusive online relationships, which could help others when dealing with similar issues online. This was even more apparent with teens who had previously had a negative online experience.
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SBS Ukrainian
Safer Internet Day 2021 – ‘Start the chat about online safety’
On Safer Internet Day, Tuesday 9 February, the Australian Digital Health Agency encourages you to “start the chat about managing your digital footprint”.
By sharing your experiences and encouraging online awareness you can protect your family, workplace and community from cyber threats – for example reporting suspicious online activity or taking the six steps for simple digital self-defence.
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=fcb2c400-d0da-49e9-b6f1-38b4c4c6d75f
Australian Signals Directorate: Recent offensive cyber signals intelligence operations
Nyman Gibson Miralis - Dennis Miralis
Australia February 8 2021
The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) defends Australia from global threats and advances its national interests through the provision of foreign signals intelligence, cyber security and offensive cyber operations as directed by the Australian Government.
In its 2019-20 annual report, the ASD outlines its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its approach to offensive cyber operations.
ASD’s COVID-19 response
The pandemic created an increased need for cyber security advice and support across business, government, and the public.
Throughout the reporting period the ASD focused on:
- Providing tailored cyber security advice, including to the healthcare sector and to small and medium-sized businesses.
- Providing cyber security technical advice to assist in the development and ongoing implementation of the COVIDSafe app.
- Mitigating and disrupting COVID-19 related crimes such as cybercrime, as demonstrated below.
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Google is on thin ice. If it wants to remain in Australia, it should rethink
By Shumi Akhtar
February 10, 2021 — 11.03am
Google is taking the media world by storm. The multinational tech giant, which owns an eye-watering 94 per cent of the Australian search engine market – worth about $4 billion – is unsurprisingly using its immense market power to attempt to thwart the federal government’s proposal to revise our outdated national media codes.
Far from being cowed, the Australian government is digging in its heels. It is showing itself to be unafraid of taking on foreign investors who, for decades, have taken unfair advantage of our business-friendly environment, which has resulted in Australia bleeding trillions of dollars to technology companies such as Google, whether in the form of inadequate compensation to local businesses, a failure to pay their fair share of tax, or both.
Google’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Melanie Silva, declared the new media code would “break” the company’s business model – an ironic claim, given that Google prides itself on constantly changing and adopting new strategies to maintain its market share and stay competitive.
While prominent US bodies such as the US Chamber of Commerce and the Office of the US Trade Representative expressed concern during the Australian Senate inquiry into the News Media and Digital Platforms Bargaining Code – alleging that Australia was explicitly discriminating against US companies – the proposed revision of our media code has nothing to do with targeting or victimising American technology companies.
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Facebook bans vaccine conspiracies in COVID-19 misinformation crackdown
February 9, 2021 — 6.28pm
Facebook says it will ban vaccine conspiracy theories from its platforms, including claims they cause autism, as part of a wider crackdown on COVID-19 misinformation.
The tech giant said it would immediately begin removing false claims on Facebook and Instagram that contributed to vaccine rejection, as well as those that discouraged “good health practices” including claims that masks did not help prevent the spread of the virus.
Liberal MP Craig Kelly, who has come under fire for using Facebook to advocate for COVID-19 treatments at odds with official medical advice, said he was “not at all” worried he would be captured by the tech giant’s revised misinformation policy.
“The accusations against me that I’ve been publishing misinformation are misinformation themselves,” Mr Kelly said.
However, Mr Kelly confirmed he had removed one post at Facebook’s request after the company complained it was at odds with World Health Organisation advice. He said Facebook had also flagged two other posts on his page with warning labels.
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Facebook issues update on COVID-19 misinformation
Wednesday, 10 February, 2021
Facebook has announced important updates to its misinformation policy in relation to COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines and vaccines in general during the pandemic.
The social media giant will expand its efforts to remove false claims from Facebook and Instagram, following consultations with leading health organisations, including the World Health Organization (WHO).
“We are expanding the list of false claims we will remove to include additional debunked claims about the coronavirus and vaccines,” Facebook VP Integrity Guy Rosen posted in an update. “This includes claims such as:
- COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured.
- Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease they are meant to protect against.
- It’s safer to get the disease than to get the vaccine.
- Vaccines are toxic, dangerous or
cause autism.”
The full list of claims is available here.
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EU to copy Australia’s lead on making Big Tech pay for news
Javier Espinoza and Alex Barker
Feb 9, 2021 – 9.02am
Brussels/London | EU lawmakers overseeing new digital regulation in Europe want to force Big Tech companies to pay for news, echoing a similar move in Australia and strengthening the hand of publishers against Google and Facebook.
The initiative from members of the European Parliament would be a serious blow to Google, which has threatened to leave Australia in protest at a planned new law that would compel it to pay for news.
Facebook has also warned it will stop users in Australia from sharing news if the legislation is passed in its current form.
Lawmakers working on two landmark draft European digital regulations, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), told the Financial Times the laws could be amended as they pass through the EU Parliament to include aspects of the Australian reforms.
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=2d173cfd-d3c3-4d84-b63c-235e1ae44f2e
Government vs Google: Will The Tech Giant Really Leave Australia?
Sydney Criminal Lawyers - Sonia Hickey – 3 Feb, 2021
The battle lines have been drawn. Google Search has threatened to leave Australia if the new media bargaining code is introduced. So what does the future hold for the search engine that controls 95% of the market?
The proposed law
The Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2020 was introduced into the House of Representatives in December last year.
It follows a 12-month review into Google and Facebook by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and is designed to force the digital media giants to negotiate with Australian media companies to pay for their content.
Facebook and Google have called the code ‘unworkable’ and have, over the past several months, used their digital presence to spruik their sides of the argument.
Google has gone so far as threatening to entirely shut down Search in Australia.
Caught in the middle are internet users in Australia; about 22 million of them. And many questions remain unanswered.
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https://www.medianet.com.au/releases/196688/
09 Feb 2021 1:00 PM AEST
News Release
February 9, 2021
Bush Uber … but for blood and meds: Australia’s first drone trial for life-saving medical supplies for remote communities
Custom-made, state-of-the-art medical drones with a flying range of up to 250km will be developed and trialled for delivery of potentially life-saving medicines in the Northern Territory - Australia’s first ever healthcare drone trail for regional Australia.
The project will also pave the way for future delivery of critical items such as cold-storage vaccines (Covid 19) in regional and remote communities, the iMOVE Cooperative Research Centre – part of the Federal Government-funded CRC Program - revealed today.
The Northern Territory is one of the most sparsely settled jurisdictions in the developed world with a significant Indigenous population living in remote communities.
iMOVE is funding the project in partnership with the NT Government Department of Health and Charles Darwin University (CDU), who will manage the trial under Associate Professor Hamish Campbell.
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Digital health tools for specialist practices - Panel discussion
The Australian Digital Health Agency is pleased to be hosting an interactive webinar focusing on digital health technologies for private specialists and practice staff, including My Health Record, telehealth, electronic prescribing and secure messaging. A panel of experts will be fielding questions and discussing how digital health can enable improved decision support and continuity of care.
When
7:00pm - 8:00pm,
Tuesday 16th February 2021
Where
Online
Organiser
Australian Digital Health Agency
CPD
Points Available?
No
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https://www.anzca.edu.au/news/safety-and-advocacy-news/digital-health-specialist-toolkit-launched
Digital Health Specialist Toolkit launched
8 February, 2021
A new resource is available to assist private specialist practices to better understand and adopt digital health technologies.
The Australian Digital Health Agency has co-developed the Digital Health
Specialist Toolkit with input and testing from specialists and practice staff. The
toolkit contains interviews, guides, learning modules, demonstrations videos
and much more.
CPD-accredited eLearning modules provide an introduction and overview of
digital health technologies, electronic prescribing, My Health Record and
telehealth, including applications, proven benefits and ethical considerations.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/practice/can-vaxxies-help-promote-covid19-vaccines-hesitant
Can 'vaxxies' help promote COVID-19 vaccines to the hesitant?
Supporters believe they're a public health message that should go viral
15th January 2021
The head of one major hospital network in the US recently discovered what he calls the “most effective” technique of persuading patients to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
It’s a ‘vaccine selfie station’.
“It enables people, once they’ve gotten their shot, to take a selfie, take a small video, make a testimonial, and we then post it on social media so people find out that folks just like them have got the vaccine and are quite happy about it,” said Dr Mark Keroack, the CEO of Baystate Health in In Massachusetts.
The vaccine selfie — or “vaxxie”, as it was christened by US actor-turned-science-educator Alan Alda — has become a big thing in the US.
And as a result, it has become an object of research, an art object and a source of controversy.
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Why the ACCC is rightly zeroing in on Google’s ad tech monopoly
Could you imagine the New York Stock Exchange being at the same time the broker of the seller and the broker of the buyer, while also running the clearing house?
Damien Geradin and Dimitrios Katsifis
Feb 7, 2021 – 6.02pm
Google’s dominant position as both buyer and seller in online ad exchanges is the kind of thing not tolerated in financial markets.
Last month the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission released a 200-plus-page interim “ad tech” report which found that “a lack of competition and transparency in the digital advertising technology supply chain is impacting publishers, advertisers and consumers”.
Ad tech is no small business. According to the ACCC, in Australia alone ad tech services enable the delivery of $ 3.4 billion in ad opportunities every year.
But why are regulators – not just in Australia but also in the US, UK, EU, and beyond – probing the arcane world of online advertising?
Regulators are justifiably zeroing in on the anti-competitive conduct of the dominant ad tech player – none other than former Silicon Valley darling Google.
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Rod Sims’ big tech fixation blinds him to Murdoch’s monopoly
News Corp’s market power will grow under the ACCC boss’ media bargaining code by forcing Google and Facebook to pay for Fox News-style clickbait.
Kevin Rudd Former Australian prime minister
Feb 7, 2021 – 12.59pm
It’s understandable that Rod Sims worries about emergent digital monopolies. They are huge. But the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman’s fixation on new media monopolies has blinded him to existing ones – especially Rupert Murdoch’s 70 per cent stranglehold on print readership.
As Sims recently told The Australian Financial Review, Murdoch isn’t such a “big, bad guy”. After all, he says, News Corp’s global market capitalisation is just a fraction that of Google or Facebook.
This same attitude guided Sims to green-light Murdoch’s cementing of his undisputed domination in Queensland in 2016 through the acquisition of APN Australian Regional Media’s 12 daily newspapers, 60 community titles and 30 websites.
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The daunting task of bringing Big Tech to heel
The Morrison government has been able to claim a small victory in its skirmish with big tech. But Google will be deeply aware that any deal it strikes to pay publishers for content will create a global precedent.
Karen Maley Columnist
Feb 8, 2021 – 12.00am
The Morrison government’s relief was palpable as Google withdrew its threat to shut down its search engine in Australia if it is forced to pay media publishers for content.
After crisis talks on Thursday morning with Sundar Pichai, the head of Google’s parent firm, Alphabet, Prime Minister Scott Morrison appeared confident that the threat of a Google-free Australia had been averted.
But he emphasised that he had not stepped away from proposed new laws that would force Google to pay for news on their platforms, instead advising the Silicon Valley titan to negotiate commercial deals with media publishers.
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https://www.itwire.com/guest-articles/guest-opinion/how-it-will-lead-digital-transformations.html
Monday, 08 February 2021 01:54
How IT will lead digital transformations
GUEST OPINION by Andrew Henderson, Managing Director APAC, Jitterbit: As enterprises race towards digital transformation, initiatives to achieve transformation have become IT leaders’ most urgent goal. The pressure to deliver new and personalised customer experiences has reached crisis mode.
The Covid-19 pandemic has raised the urgency of digital transformation as companies have been forced to shift from in-person to contactless sales and services overnight. Delivering digital customer experiences has become the only way to do business.
IT departments have been obliged to pivot and rapidly develop new products and personalised customer experiences.
Digital transformation is often described as ‘a foundational change in how an organisation delivers value to its customers.’ Today’s environment demands delivering value via personalised customer experiences from digital channels such as mobile apps, messaging apps, social media, as well as physical delivery (supported by digital communications).
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https://www.itwire.com/guest-articles/the-it-industry-in-2021-what%E2%80%99s-next.html
Saturday, 06 February 2021 09:00
The IT industry in 2021: What’s next?
Guest Opinion: The IT industry kept the world going throughout 2020’s devastating global pandemic. With employees forced to work from home, parents schooling their children and businesses relying on online sales to keep afloat – digital solutions came to the fore in every aspect of our lives. With fewer social interactions, digital entertainment and communications were more important than ever too – with streaming, gaming and video calls replacing nights at the cinema, concerts, sports or even just chats with your family.
That reflected in a strong market performance. As IG has highlighted, the tech sector grew 24.5% globally between February and October. Many individuals were exposed to some technologies for the first time – and many businesses had to fast forward their digital transformation – with existing trends fast forwarded out of necessity.
Clearly, there were still challenges for those within IT – and this sector doesn’t operate in a silo. When other industries struggle, their spend on IT will clearly be hampered. But, there’s good news on that front too. Gartner estimates that IT spending across Australian industries will pick up, with 3.6% growth predicted for 2021 and transport, education and healthcare with the particularly strong performance expected. A big economic recovery – if it can occur – will have a big knock-on effect for demand in IT.
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Friday, 05 February 2021 14:10
Google launches News Showcase in Australia a day after Morrison call
Google has launched its News Showcase in Australia, a product that was announced in October 2020, but not introduced Down Under till now due to the company's stoush with the government over the news media code.
After much drama, with Google telling a Senate hearing that it would pull its search service from Australia, the company launched the showcase (image below, courtesy Google) on Friday with a number of publications, many from Australian Community Media, being featured in the initial version.
The fact that it has launched just a day after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had what was described as a "cordial" chat with Alphabet and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai means it must have been in the works for some time. Such an initiative could not be launched at short notice.
Among the publications that have cut deals with Google are the The Canberra Times, The Illawarra Mercury, The Saturday Paper, Crikey, The New Daily, InDaily and The Conversation.
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Comments more than welcome!
David.
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