US expert to analyse Higher Education Online

* What: Keynote address on 'The Future of Higher Education Online -Academic Enterprise Systems', by David Rosenbaum, WebCT, USA

* Where: Eighth Australian World Wide Web Conference, AusWeb02, Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Conference website is at http://ausweb.scu.edu.au

* When: 9-10am, Monday 8th July, 2002

A noted American software designer's keynote address on the future of Web-based education will be a highlight of the Eighth Australian World Wide Web Conference, AusWeb02, to be held at Twin Waters Resort, Sunshine Coast, from 6-10 July.

David Rosenbaum, who has eighteen years of software industry experience as engineer, product manager, and alliance manager, has been involved in the development of industry leading products such as Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows, Lotus Notes, and Lotus Domino during the course of a twelve year career at Lotus Development (an IBM Company).

He joined WebCT to create a disciplined product management team and develop a structured means of collecting and evaluating product requests. After overseeing the development of product requirements and plans for several WebCT product releases, including the recently released WebCT Vista, he has moved into the role of Senior Director of Market Development.

"The earliest systems, which were replaced by Course Management Systems (or Virtual Learning Environment) are now themselves being replaced but an entirely new category of e-learning environment: the Academic Enterprise System (AES)," David Rosenbaum said.

"These new environments, which will be discussed and illustrated during the presentation, will help institutions meet their goals of boosting student acquisition and retention, driving measurable student success, creating new revenue streams, and efficiently leveraging new technologies to improve the quality and flexibility of the learning experience on into the future."

Queensland's Minister for Innovation and Information Economy, The Honourable Paul Lucas MP, will deliver the official opening address at AusWeb02, on Sunday, 7 July. The Minister's presence continues the State's commitment to the ongoing development of the Information Technology industry.

The Minister will be welcomed to the Southern Cross University-hosted conference by SCU's Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Rickard, who also presided over last year's highly successful AusWeb conference, held in Coffs Harbour.

For the first two days at AusWeb02, when publicly accessible workshops will be held, and for the ensuing days, when the conference proper will run, participants will hear and meet some of the Australians and the world's leading researchers and practitioners of Web technologies in the technical, e-commerce, educational and business fields.

"AusWeb is now recognised as the nation's major annual conference for Web users and developers," said SCU's Associate Professor Allan Ellis, the first Australian to chair the renowned International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2).

"Its breadth is its strength, and as a result of this reputation we have attracted a hot lineup of internationally regarded keynote speakers as well as many of the leading industry names as sponsors, including Apple, Telstra, Macromedia and Adobe," Associate Professor Ellis said. He added that the diverse program would enable participants to learn a lot in their own specialised fields as well as dipping into other areas where some extra knowledge would be of great benefit.

Other Keynote Speakers and their topics are -

• Professor Melfyn Lloyd, Research Director, Brisbane-based DSTC Pty Ltd and Adjunct Professor, University of Queensland (Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering) - The Next Web Revolution;

• Adrian Giles, Co-founder and Director Hitwise, Australia's first search engine promotion and online marketing specialists - Web and Internet Measurement and Metrics;

• Mary Ellen Zurko, Security Architect for Lotus brand next generation Web services in the IBM Software Group -Web Security from B(asic Authentication) to W(eb Services Security);

• Shane Donnelly, eLearning Consultant, Pearson Education Australia -eBooks: A Revolution in Publishing, Consuming and Reading, or a Solution in Search of a Problem?

AusWeb02 also offers a wide range of tutorials and workshop topics that can be attended without full conference registration. These provide an opportunity to gain skills and knowledge about specific aspects of the Web and related technologies and how they can be applied various projects and subject areas.

For further media information, please contact: Associate Professor Allan Ellis on (02) 6620 3611 or aellis@scu.edu.au