The Next Leap » Coverage

Coverage – The Irish Times “Digital sector to play key role in economic recovery”

johnnyryan — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:05:28 +0000

Coverage – The Irish Times “Digital sector to play key role in economic recovery”, 23 January 2009

Digital sector to play key role in economic recovery

Fri, Jan 23, 2009

NET RESULTS:Despite the recession, we must consider now how technology will drive economic growth, writes Karlin Lillington

THE WEEKS leading up to Christmas were about the worst possible time to release any sort of strategic report. Along with festive preoccupations, people turned their attention to headlines dominated daily by economic doom and gloom and banking crises.

So an excellent report from the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) slipped under the radar for many people. It deserves to be read and considered, especially right now, as the Government struggles to find a constructive way forward out of an economic morass.

The report by the institute’s researcher Johnny Ryan, entitled The Next Leap: Competitive Ireland in the Digital Era – which can be downloaded from www.iiea.com – is well-considered, concise, and sets out some key tasks needed to build now towards the next phase of economic growth.

Some might wonder what the institute is doing dabbling in digital media. In fact, since late 2007, it has been a leading light in prompting serious thinking about a digital future that rightly has focused not just on Ireland but taken an international focus.

Through its Digital Media Forum, the institute has brought a sequence of provocative, topical and compelling speakers to its North Great George’s Street offices to address numerous aspects of what the institute calls “our digital future” – one of its policy themes.

Speakers have included Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, security expert Bruce Schneier, Google chief privacy counsel Peter Fleischer, and internet legal expert and author Jonathan Zittrain. Talks have gone from occasional to regular affairs (contact the institute if you are interested in attending).

Much of the enthusiastic energy behind this effort has come from Ryan, who is also an O’Reilly Foundation Scholar at Magdelene College, Cambridge.

Harking back to the Republic’s First Programme for Economic Expansion report launched 50 years ago by an optimistic government, the institute’s report – which was peer reviewed by the Irish Technology Leadership Group, the Silicon Valley-based organisation of Irish technology executives – is intended as “a useful point of reference as Government considers a new national strategy to maximise Ireland’s competitive advantage in the digital era”.

That may sound a bit anodyne, but the report – which, the introduction notes, is an “attempt to present something new: a cross-cutting draft plan of action delivered from the diverging inputs of stakeholders across the digital sector” – is hard-hitting.

It looks at six trends. First, a fresh workforce approaching adulthood that will be used to being “always on” and will see itself not as the young Europeans of the 1990s, but the young global villagers of the new millennium.

I agree with the report’s view that no matter how much some of us may blog, use Twitter and e-mail nowadays, we are still only one foot into a world that is going to be seen in a very different way by the fully-wired generation that is about to mature.

In the same way, it was hard for an older generation to initially comprehend that the college graduates of the late 1980s and 1990s increasingly did not see working abroad as a burden of Ireland’s poverty, but as an obvious and exciting career step into a Europe that was full of opportunity.

Experience gained abroad then, was critical in building the growth economy of the past decade.

The report notes that for all the stakeholders, next to infrastructure, education is critical. It is absolutely crucial in shaping this next generation of thinkers and doers, just as decisions made in the 1960s and 1970s produced those young Europeans.

“Pervasive internet” is the trend and infrastructure piece that underlies the whole report though – it must be everywhere, it must be cheap, it must be high bandwidth. Of course, most of the world is clamouring for this. The challenge here, in a still highly rural country with little cash, will be how to provide it.

The report also delves into other trends it identifies as “total commerce”, “a global digital media boom”, “cloud computing” and “a green dividend”.

It concludes by arguing strongly for “converged leadership”. Being a sceptic about such things, I am not sure I agree that we need a national “mission statement” on digital policy – mission statements generally make me snigger, even when well-intentioned.

But I like the suggestion that we need a dedicated digital strategy unit in government – probably in the Department of Communications. We still have no overarching policy approach to digital development (and the role of digital minister never took any constructive shape in the last government).

There’s so much more for consideration in the report (which is brief and is summarised in key points at the end) that I encourage anyone with a remote interest in this subject to download a copy.

It is essential that we not become so preoccupied with the worries of today that we fail to consider how to effectively progress towards tomorrow.

klillington@irishtimes.com

Blog and podcasts: ww.techno-culture.com

Coverage – Irish Independent “Awarding extra maths marks ‘will boost pupil numbers’”

johnnyryan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:03:12 +0000

Irish Independent “Awarding extra maths marks ‘will boost pupil numbers’” 6 January 2008

Independent.ie

Awarding extra maths marks ‘will boost pupil numbers’

By Fergus Black
Tuesday January 06 2009

Extra marks should be awarded for Leaving Certificate maths and science to encourage more students to study the subjects, a new report has urged.

It warns that urgent action is needed to correct the balance of students taking maths, applied maths and sciences at second level and suggests new approaches should be considered to recruiting and compensating “high-quality” teachers in the subjects.

The proposal is one of a number made as part of a drive to prepare Ireland for the so-called digital revolution and includes calls for VAT-free computers and ICT equipment to be provided to schools.

Irish universities have already dismissed the idea of awarding bonus points for honours maths, warning that such a move would artificially increase the cut-off points levels for science, engineering and technology subjects.

However, a new report from the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) suggests that “weighted” marks should be awarded for Leaving Cert higher-level sciences and higher and applied maths.

It says there is no national approach in practice to digital education of primary students and urges the “transformation” of education with a swift roll-out of a digital curriculum at primary and secondary level.

The report also recommends the setting up of a digital financial services centre to “kickstart” the digital economy.

The report warns that failure to embrace the new digital age would leave Ireland “marooned” as conventional industries migrated to cheaper locations.

- Fergus Black

http://www.independent.ie/education/latest-news/awarding-extra-maths-marks-will-boost-pupil-numbers-1592931.html

Coverage – Silicon Republic “Urgent call for digital industry task force”

johnnyryan — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:51:52 +0000

Silicon Republic, “Urgent call for digital industry task force”, 15 December 2008

Urgent call for digital industry task force

15.12.2008
Forty-five years after Time Magazine had a cover story on a visionary Irish minister called Sean Lemass and a new ‘can do’ spirit sweeping the nation, similar conviction and energy has been called for if Ireland is to stand any chance of reaping the rewards of the digital media revolution.

The social and economic impact on Ireland if it gets the digital media opportunity right could have implications for years beyond the now crippled Celtic tiger.

However, infrastructural deficits and a general public lack of understanding of the significance of the digital media revolution and its potential impact on education and job opportunities need to be tackled urgently, a European Union-sponsored think-tank involving senior technology industry figures has decided.

A cabinet-endorsed drive to transform the Irish education system, the drafting of a national mission statement and creation of a task force comprising ComReg (Commission for Communications Regulation), Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, industry leaders and research leaders to design a liberal radio spectrum experimentation policy have been urged by the Institute of International European Affairs (IIEA).

A report to be unveiled tomorrow evening by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan TD, entitled The Next Leap: Competitive Ireland in the Digital Era is a compilation of the views of leading stakeholders in Ireland’s digital future, including senior managers at IDA Ireland, Microsoft, Intel and Xilinx, as well as a multitude of indigenous software companies and university research bodies.

The most dramatic elements of this vision are a national strategy, a transformed education system, a new government department, a converged Irish Creative Media Board and a new role for RTÉ.

The report calls for a speedy rollout of a digital curriculum to provide “digital instincts” at primary and secondary level, and the integration of business context into secondary-level curriculum to emphasise the viability of a career in the digital sector.

It calls for the introduction of weighted marks at Leaving Certificate level for ICT relevant subjects, and the need to commit the funding required to provide sufficient connectivity and equipment to bring Irish schools up to the OECD average, and exempt all school ICT equipment from VAT.

The visionary report calls for the convening of a panel of Irish business leaders, including some of the individuals involved in the establishment of the IFSC, to consider how the Digital Hub could be strategically developed.

It also calls for the need to assess the feasibility of a legal hub and Global Rights Clearance Centre within Digital Hub, making Ireland in turn a major location for intellectual property rights management.

As well as suggesting new tax incentives to promote digital development, the report calls for new approaches to create a national pool of venture capital and use of private-sector leaders with proven successes to assess start-up applications for state funding.

The report calls for the establishment of a single Irish Creative Media Board into which the existing cultural and media bodies could be converged, and the re-tasking of RTÉ as an incubator and developer of media content, irrespective of platform.

“Now is the time to create the vision of a new economic reality where the digital world can connect Irish people in a society where access is open to all, regardless of health, wealth or geographical location,” said Paul Rellis, general manager of Microsoft Ireland in the report.

“If Ireland fosters innovation and enterprise in the digital space, it can create social and economic benefits.

“However, to do so requires bold and brave investment. In 40 years’ time, historians will look back at the actions we took in 2008 to address the challenges and opportunities presented to us. I believe they will commend our foresight on the basis of the actions we take now.”

The author of the report, Johnny Ryan, senior researcher at the IIEA, said that Ireland has a moment of opportunity that could very easily pass. “A digital revolution is transforming the global environment in which Ireland operates.

“Failure to embrace the transition to this new world will leave Ireland marooned as conventional industries migrate to cheaper locations, and traditional industries are transformed using new digital technologies with which our people are not conversant and for which we lack the infrastructure.

“On the other hand, the digital revolution presents huge opportunities for Ireland. If we successfully manage it, Ireland can offset its long-standing geographical disadvantage, leverage the creativity of its citizens at all levels of society and engage with a global market of unprecedented scale.”

He said that November marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of the First Programme for Economic Expansion as a White Paper. “Intrepid Government leadership in the late Fifties and throughout the Sixties guided Ireland in its first steps from its agrarian past to embrace manufacturing and trade.

“TK Whitaker, the youngest ever Secretary General of the Department of Finance, proposed bold initiatives in his study Economic Development that met the challenge of transition. Ireland now requires a similarly bold statement of intent to transition to the digital era,” Ryan said.

The report will be launched tomorrow night at a reception at the IIEA’s offices in Dublin. For more details go to: http://iiea.com/digital/

By John Kennedy

Pictured: Time Magazine’s cover story on Sean Lemass

Coverage – Sunday Business Post “Digital still the way forward for Ireland”

johnnyryan — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:41:57 +0000

Sunday Business Post, “Digital still the way forward for Ireland”, 28 December 2008

The IIEA says the state should take the lead in promoting technologies by hastening its adoption of e-government initiatives, writes Dick O’Brien.

Anew report from the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) has warned that if Ireland fails to embrace the transition to a digital economy, it risks falling behind its competitors as conventional industries migrate to lower cost locations and the wider business sector is transformed by high-tech innovations in which Ireland does not have the expertise or infrastructure to capitalise upon.

Noting that it is now 50 years since the publication of TK Whitaker’s First Programme for Economic Expansion that inspired development under the Lemass government, the IIEAs aid that it was now time to adopt a similarly bold initiative and recommended a reorientation of the education system to prioritise ICT and the creation of a ‘Digital IFSC’ to foster start-up companies.

On the subject of education, it pointed out that there was no national approach to digital education in primary schools and that the Department of Education’s own 2008 Inspectorate report on ICT in schools had found that almost a third of primary students were still ICT illiterate.

As a result, the IIEA recommended revision of the primary curriculum to embrace ICT skills. Moving further up the line, it argued for the allocation of weighted marks in the Leaving Cert to all higher level science subjects and higher and applied maths. Meanwhile, savings could be improved by introducing centralised purchasing for educational ICT equipment and the introduction of a Vat exception on such items.

In order to build upon the success of the Digital Hub in fostering new high tech startups, the IIEA called on the government to appoint a panel of Irish business leaders to plan how the project could be used as the starting point of the creation of a digital equivalent to the IFSC and investigate any possible tax incentives that could be utilised to foster the same level of growth as has been seen in the financial services sector.

It also believed that further attention should be given to the issue of venture capital funding, in particular that provided by the state through Enterprise Ireland. While it made sense to have public servants assessing funding applications from a legal and due diligence point of view, there was a also a case for involving private sector expertise in assessing the business viability of start-ups, it said.

Moreover, the state itself could take the lead in promoting new technologies by hastening its adoption of e-government initiatives.

Many stakeholders interviewed by the report’s authors believed that there was still a lack of digital literacy at government level that was hampering understanding of the potential of the digital economy.

The IIEA called upon the government to adopt practices such as e-payment and invoicing systems for suppliers and tenderers, which would not only kick start adoption across the wider economy, but would also improve the cost to income ratio for businesses.

Perhaps one of the most radical recommendations of the report was a call for a complete re-evaluation of the role RTE plays as the state broadcaster.

Noting the phenomenal growth of digital media, whether it be user generated content online or the rapid expansion of the gaming industry, it pointed out that such developments will invariably undercut the importance of traditional television going forward.

An opportunity existed for RTE to embrace digital media and it could provide capital and expertise to support content producers. This was a strategy that Channel 4 in Britain has already pursued, with the establishment of an investment fund for digital media projects.

Some concern was also expressed by the growing trend of outsourcing IT services outside of Ireland. With the advent of software and services delivered online, the physical location of where they are provided from becomes less important.

Ireland already has a reputation for providing strong legal protection to financial services, gambling and Enterprise Resource Planning providers.

In tandem with the possible development of a Digital IFSC, it was believed that there was potential to introduce new tax incentives that could turn Ireland into an attractive location for the hosting of digital intellectual property.

Finally, the IIEA believed that there were definite opportunities presented by the movement towards greener technologies.

In order to reverse the trend of hosted services moving offshore, one possible strategy was to brand Ireland as a green data centre location. While Ireland does have relatively high energy costs, it also has a natural advantage as a data centre location given its temperate climate, since it costs less to cool equipment, a significant expenditure in the running of any data centre.

Should the country meet its target of providing 33 per cent of all energy from renewable sources by 2020, such a branding initiative could prove successful. If the government wants to take the challenge of shifting towards a digital economy seriously, the IIEA believed that it should create a national mission statement that would crystallise clear targets for the decades to come.

It also believed that there was some merit to the idea of establishing a national digital strategy unit at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to manage delivery on any national strategy.