Imagine England losing the Ashes from their current series-leading vantage point? "We missed a great opportunity," English captain Andrew Strauss would cry.

Now picture the NBN combined with neo-Luddite board directors? Houston, we have a (potential) problem.

Those were the sentiments shared by many of Australia's leading digital thinkers at yesterday's AIMIA’s (Australian Interactive Media Industry Association) conference on,“What does digital mean for the NBN & what does the NBN mean for digital.”

"Ageing board directors will have a major impact on Australia’s ability to utilise the full spectrum of services offered by way of the National Broadband Network," stressed Bullseye’s Executive Chairman Jim McKerlie, a guest speaker, at AIMIA’s conference.

“Many key decision makers sitting on some of the most powerful boards in the country are not only lacking in the technical know-how but also completely out of touch with the digital landscape,” explained Jim. “And that’s a huge challenge for our economy in the face of greater dividend opportunities created by the NBN.”

Indeed fervent debate erupted at KPMG’s Sydney auditorium during an open session. Questions were thrown like hand-grenades at the guest panel and responses flew back equally thick and fast:

“Who is paying for what?”

“Who do you call if your internet goes down? The NBN Co? Or Telstra?”

“Will the NBN’s rich bandwidth capabilities signal a collapse for free-to-air television?”

And while KPMG Digital Partner Malcolm Alder, another guest speaker, confirmed the sands are still shifting on exactly how the NBN will work, the overriding message from the forum was clear: one way or another high-speed broadband is coming to Australia so start planning or get out of dodge.   

“Five years ago Nokia was a leader in the mobile sector,” described Malcolm. “Today they are playing catch-up to the iPhone and other smart-phone manufactures. So challenging your business model will be critical moving forward.”

But how you challenge your business model is not easy. Narelle Clarke (Vice President of the Internet Society of Australia) believes a good starting point for businesses is by reviewing the way they think about the NBN.

 “People are viewing the NBN as just ‘fast internet’ but this is simplifying the issue. The goal is services, and broadband is just a means of achieving them,” she explained. 

The notion of services was highlighted further by the forum’s next guest speaker Chris Zull (Senior Manager Regulatory & Government of Macquarie Telecom):

“More than 50 per cent of respondents to our latest study – I might add we had over a thousand responses from a large cross section – expect the way they do business will transform,” Chris stated.  “A further 50 per cent of Australian businesses believe they will be able to compete better.”

To view Macquarie Telecom’s study click here: www.macquarietelecom.com/media_room/releases/101202-Business_expections_of_NBN.htm

Chris used Quickflix, an online movie provider as an example. Quickflix currently uses Australia Post to send and return DVDs, a process that can take anywhere from 1 to 4 days. Under the NBN, consumers will select the movie they want to see and download it directly to their computer/TV as quickly as 7 minutes.

Bullseye’s Jim McKerlie gazed even further into a society under the NBN depicting a fragmentised marketplace (easily made track-able by more powerful content management systems) where dynamic personalisation dominates and “content is no longer king, because knowledge is commoditised... customer experience is now king”.

Malcolm Alder believes education is another major roadblock facing the NBN. “Trying to explain how something is going to work, especially when the object is not tangible and in-front of your face is a real challenge.”

The other major education obstacle is informing the community of the value it will add to our daily lives (and pockets). “If many people in the audience are confused as to why we need the NBN and what competitive advantages it can give us then our leaders probably need to be doing a better job of explaining it to the public.”

- Roghan  

Cricket image sourced from: http://www.thehindu.com/sport/cricket/article935294.ece