Web conference helps Queensland become a 'smarter state'

This year's Eighth Australian World Wide Web Conference, AusWeb02, starting on Sunday, 7 July will have a strong Queensland focus and offer a wide range of specialist sessions and public workshops for IT personnel in the State's public and private sectors.

To be officially opened by Queensland's Minister for Innovation and Information Economy, Hon. Paul Lucas MP, AusWeb02 runs from 6-10 July at Twin Waters Resort, Sunshine Coast. The AusWeb02 conference website is at http://ausweb.scu.edu.au

The Minister's presence continues the State's commitment to the ongoing development of the Information Technology industry, according to the conference co-ordinator, SCU's Associate Professor Allan Ellis, the first Australian to chair the renowned International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2).

"We are especially pleased that the first keynote address on 'The Next Web Revolution' will be delivered by Professor Melfyn Lloyd, the Research Director of Brisbane-based Distributed Systems Technology Centre (DSTC) who has made a career of managing large-scale, international IT&T research and development collaboration between research organisations, users and commercial participants."

Professor Lloyd was closely involved with bringing the Federal Government's 'Grangenet' (second generation of internet) to Queensland, thus making a major contribution to the 'Queensland the Smart State' concept.

Developed under the Federal Government's Building on IT Strengths (BITS) Advanced Networks Program, the GrangeNet project (www.grangenet.net) is a testbed for the deployment and application of advanced communications and grid services. The three-year project will provide a broadband backbone based on Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology initially linking more than 20 organisations in Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and
Brisbane.

GrangeNet will be part of the global research and education network through AARNet's access to the Southern Cross Cable Network. Seven organisations responsible for advanced computing and communications programs in Asia and North America (including Internet2, Canarie and APAN) will be collaborating with GrangeNet. It will support a number of user communities in research and industry including bio-informatics, chemistry, astronomy, online
health, environmental modelling, distance education and media services. It is expected that installation of the GrangeNet network will be completed by early 2003.

Professor Lloyd will detail how the Web has brought about one revolution and is about to bring about another with Web Services: "The Web is advancing beyond its traditional roots of simple publishing of information. It is being filled with multimedia and rich content. It is a platform for
distributed systems and applications."

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

AusWeb02 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," Associate Professor Ellis, said. "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."

He said 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 -
David Rosenbaum, WebCT, USA - The Future of Higher Education Online - Academic Enterprise Systems; 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 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 information, please contact:
Associate Professor Allan Ellis, Phone (02) 6620 3609,
Email aellis@scu.edu.au
Or Mr Robin Osborne, Media Liaison,
(02) 6620 3039 Mobile: 0418 431 484
Email: rosborne@scu.edu.au