Preliminary Program

 Mrs Carnell is also Minister for IT & Multimedia. Her keynote speech will cover: the ACT as a natural home for knowledge-based industry; initiatives the ACT Government is taking for business and the community including the establishment of the Office of IT and Multimedia, Office of Business Development and the Broadband full service network pilot; doing business more cleverly and efficiently through online service delivery and e-commerce; new technologies and the future for the ACT
 

 It is widely accepted that the success of e-commerce, especially cross border ransactions, depends on a trusted, open authentication framework, for without authentication, nobody can be sure of who or what they are dealing with over the networks. The paper will show how business peoples' needs for authentication can be prioritised and implemented, without losing time -- and competitiveness -- while the overarching framework is worked out. 
 

 Trust is a necessary but unfortunately misunderstood concept. Confidence in electronic commerce will not arise until there is established "TRUST". Within the electronic commerce environment "Trust" consists of 3 major components: behavioural trust; business trust; technology trust. The paper will explain the importance of each these components and their inter-relationship, drawing upon the US Dept of commerce report on electronic commerce and the US Federal Trade Commissions Report on "Privacy issues in Electronic Commerce". 
 

 Legal risks are not holding up growth in on-line commerce for Australian businesses. What is really holding up the growth in on-line commerce for Australian businesses? What can be done about it? Co-operative supply chain management, and suggestions for the development of Federal Government policies will be explored. 
 

 Operating in the global economy means that small to medium enterprises (SME) will need to be flexible in the way they conduct business and in their utilisation of information technology. The strategic competitive advantage of businesses is constantly under threat. This paper describes what businesses must do, especially small to medium enterprises, in order to maintain the balance between the needs of business and exploiting dynamically changing technology.
 

 BASS Online, is Australia's first online event ticket sales service, in production since March 97. Since then, we have responded to, and archived, over 500 messages sent to the feedback email address for the service. This short paper will examine the positives and negatives of our experience to date, and relate them to national policy isssues such as those being addressed by the National Office of the Information Economy in the areas of bandwidth, access pricing, authentication, security and privacy.
 

 The paper will explore current initiatives in this sector, relevant industry trends, and the issues which must be addressed to progress Australia's content provider industry.
 

 This paper reports on a feasibility study for monitoring Australia's progress towards the effective use of online services. The concept of "effective use" is adopted to indicate sustainable and valuable use of services, as seen from the context of all players in the delivery chain, viz. users, content providers and other service providers. The paper concludes by establishing the critical need to relate such a monitoring process to national and state strategies, and objectives, for online services development.
 

 Before you can get on-line you have to be able to afford the hardware, software and connection costs. These costs are significant. Currently the richer you are, the more likely you are to have internet access. This limited access is of grave concern as the growing social division between the 'information haves and have-nots' entrenches itself as a feature of our society. A range of very important policy issues confronting government are touched by this issue of convergence, including public ownership of Telstra, is discussed.
 

 Speakers from the day discuss issues raised, with each other and with the conference delegates.
 

 It is argued that Australia can cultivate a cultured high technology image to promote its information industries. The author's experience in assisting with the discipline review strategy for information technology in Australia is discussed. This is compared with results of research into factors for the success of Cambridge (England) as a high technology industry centre. Steps are suggested for Australian companies and governments to position Australian for an information economy future.