The Third Wave (journal article)
by Tim Flannery
from The Monthly, No 44, April 2009
"What should we think of an Australia that pours $42 billion into a brown economic-stimulus package to save a faltering economy, yet stands by with hands in pockets as one species after another slides towards extinction? Any thinking person would look on such short-sightedness with disgust. We'll have our say again soon, most likely in 2010, and if enough Australians make themselves heard, one day we just might be led by a government that really cares about this country - animals and all - in the way it deserves. "

Promoting better environmental outcomes [book]

Author: Australia. Productivity Commission

Papers from roundtable held at Old Parliament House, Canberra on 19-20 August 2008.

"Sought to address two questions central to developing good environmental policy: 'Under what conditions can governments improve environmental outcomes?' and 'How should governments intervene to ensure effective and efficient results?' " - foreword.

Want to borrow this book? Click here to request!

Quarry vision : coal, climate change and the end of the resources boom [book]

Author: Guy Pearse

"Dissects the Rudd government's climate change response: from the Garnaut report to the silver bullet of 'clean coal' and beyond. ... Exposes the shadowy world of the carbon lobbyists; how they think, operate and advance their agenda." - cover.

The Complexity of Comprehensive Planning Partnerships: The Case of the Warnervale Town Centre (journal article)
By Kristian J. Ruming
from Urban Policy and Research Vol 27 Iss 1 Mar 2009, pp. 25 -42
"In recent years, urban partnerships have increasingly been utilised in the provision of master planned estates, which, in turn, are progressively becoming the norm for residential development in Australia and overseas. This article traces the formal and informal partnership arrangements which facilitate plan development and position partnership as a slippery and complex institutional arrangement. The case of one of Sydney's largest residential land releases—Warnervale Town Centre—in the period 2000-2005 is used. The article concludes that space should be made for both formal and informal institutional arrangements in the planning and delivery of large developments involving a variety of state and private actors. "

Taking the Con Out of Convenience: The True Cost of Transport Modes in Sydney (journal article)
By Garry Glazebrook
from Urban Policy and Research Vol 27 Iss 1 Mar 2009, pp. 5 - 24
"There has been growing interest internationally in the development of comprehensive estimates of the costs of urban transport, fuelled by concerns over global warming, peak oil, road congestion, tolls and public transport subsidies. This article examines the internal and external costs of major modes in Sydney. In terms of total costs, trains are the cheapest, followed by buses, with cars the most expensive. However, the 'out-of-pocket costs' paid by motorists at the time of making a trip are less than one-sixth of total costs. This suggests rational individual travel choices do not add up to rational travel patterns for the city, and that we are paying heavily as a society for the convenience of cars. Governments need to give higher priority for public transport (particularly rail which has the lowest overall costs of any mode) and to change pricing for urban travel, if we are to develop more sustainable cities. "

Century-of-Information Research (CIR): A Strategy for Research and Innovation in the Century of Information (journal article)
By The E-Science Directors' Forum Strategy Working Group et al
from Prometheus Vol 27 Iss 1 Mar 2009, pp. 27 - 45
"More data will be produced in the next five years than in the entire history of human kind, a digital deluge that marks the beginning of the Century of Information. Through a year-long consultation with UK researchers, a coherent strategy has been developed, which will nurture Century-of-Information Research (CIR); it crystallises the ideas developed by the e-Science Directors' Forum Strategy Working Group. This paper is an abridged version of their latest report which can be found at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/jump~jumptype=banner~frompagename=content~frommainurifile=content~fromdb=all~fromtitle=~fromvnxs=~cons=908033533?dropin=httpwikisnescacukesc&to_url=http%3a%2f%2fwikis%2enesc%2eac%2euk%2fescienvoy%2fCentury%5fof%5fInformation%5fResearch%5fStrategy which also records the consultation process and the affiliations of the authors. This document is derived from a paper presented at the Oxford e-Research Conference 2008 and takes into account suggestions made in the ensuing panel discussion. The goals of the CIR Strategy are to facilitate the growth of UK research and innovation that is data and computationally intensive and to develop a new culture of 'digital-systems judgement' that will equip research communities, businesses, government and society as a whole, with the skills essential to compete and prosper in the Century of Information. The CIR Strategy identifies a national requirement for a balanced programme of coordination, research, infrastructure, translational investment and education to empower UK researchers, industry, government and society. The Strategy is designed to deliver an environment which meets the needs of UK researchers so that they can respond agilely to challenges, can create knowledge and skills, and can lead new kinds of research. It is a call to action for those engaged in research, those providing data and computational facilities, those governing research and those shaping education policies. The ultimate aim is to help researchers strengthen the international competitiveness of the UK research base and increase its contribution to the economy. The objectives of the Strategy are to better enable UK researchers across all disciplines to contribute world-leading fundamental research; to accelerate the translation of research into practice; and to develop improved capabilities, facilities and context for research and innovation. It envisages a culture that is better able to grasp the opportunities provided by the growing wealth of digital information. Computing has, of course, already become a fundamental tool in all research disciplines. The UK e-Science programme (2001-06)—since emulated internationally—pioneered the invention and use of new research methods, and a new wave of innovations in digital-information technologies which have enabled them. The Strategy argues that the UK must now harness and leverage its own, plus the now global, investment in digital-information technology in order to spread the benefits as widely as possible in research, education, industry and government. Implementing the Strategy would deliver the computational infrastructure and its benefits as envisaged in the Science & Innovation Investment Framework 2004-2014 (July 2004), and in the reports developing those proposals. To achieve this, the Strategy proposes the following actions:
support the continuous innovation of digital-information research methods;
provide easily used, pervasive and sustained e-Infrastructure for all research;
enlarge the productive research community which exploits the new methods efficiently;
generate capacity, propagate knowledge and develop skills via new curricula; and
develop coordination mechanisms to improve the opportunities for interdisciplinary research and to make digital-infrastructure provision more cost effective. To gain the best value for money strategic coordination is required across a broad spectrum of stakeholders. A coherent strategy is essential in order to establish and sustain the UK as an international leader of well-curated national data assets and computational infrastructure, which is expertly used to shape policy, support decisions, empower researchers and to roll out the results to the wider benefit of society. The value of data as a foundation for wellbeing and a sustainable society must be appreciated; national resources must be more wisely directed to the collection, curation, discovery, widening access, analysis and exploitation of these data. Every researcher must be able to draw on skills, tools and computational resources to develop insights, test hypotheses and translate inventions into productive use, or to extract knowledge in support of governmental decision making. This foundation plus the skills developed will launch significant advances in research, in business, in professional practice and in government with many consequent benefits for UK citizens. The Strategy presented here addresses these complex and interlocking requirements."

Future scoping: developing excellence in urban planners (journal article)
by Dory Reeves
from Australian Planner, Vol. 46 No. 1, March 2009
"Here I identify some of the challenges facing urban planning; consider excellence and planning and the implications for education and lifelong learning. I highlight the need to develop the skill of recognising and acknowledging how perceptions of differences can affect the planning decisions that are made."
Contact us for a copy of the article

Tackling Big Problems Through Civic Information Technologies (journal article)
by Brian Behlendorf
from eGov Monitor, 23 March 2009
"Governments should maintain a roadmap of existing or potential CITs (Civic Information Technologies), and manage an awareness of that roadmap at senior policy levels says the author as he discusses the potential benefits."

IT skills shortage spells opportunity for unemployed workers (journal article)
by Meridith Levinson
from CIO, March 12 2009
In this Q&A, CompTIA President and CEO Todd Thibodeaux confront the IT skills shortage, misconceptions about IT careers and ways to connect unemployed workers with the thousands of tech jobs that are still available.

Prospects for a global deal on climate change: three European views
Source: The McKinsey Quarterly
Will governments negotiate an agreement on reducing carbon emissions at the December 2009 UN Climate Change Conference? In this video interactive, economists Nicholas Stern and Michael Grubb, along with European Commissioner Janez Potocnik, discuss their views on prospects for a global climate deal.

A Field guide to the information commons [book]

Authors: Charles Forrest & Martin Halbert

"Libraries have responded to their rapidly changing environment by selecting, acquiring, and making accessible a host of new information resources, developing innovative services, and building different types of spaces to support changing user behaviours and patterns of learning. [This book] describes an emerging library service model that embodies all three spheres of response: new information resources, collaborative service programs, and redesigned staff and user spaces" - cover.

Twitter, blogs and other Web 2.0 tools revolutionize government business (article)
by Doug Beizer
from Federal Computer Week 6 March 2009
"If you cut through all the hype about Web 2.0 tools, you’ll find government managers and elected officials who use the technology to communicate, share information and network. Web 2.0 technologies for social networking and online collaboration let people connect quickly and with a larger audience than was ever available before. "

The alignment of public research supply and industry demand for effective technology transfer: the case of Italy (journal article)
by Giovanni Abramo and Andrea D'Angelo
from Science and Public Policy, Vol 36 No 9 February 2009
"Italy lags behind other industrialized countries in public to private technology transfer. One of the causes of this may be the mismatch between new knowledge supplied by public research and industry demand. We test this hypothesis through a survey of leading public research scientists in four high-tech sectors. The findings show that the results of most research projects seem to be of immediate industrial interest, which contrasts with the low level of patents and licensing of Italian public research institutions. For one-third of the research results, there are no Italian companies that are able to exploit them. The same, however, is not true for the remaining results, which shows that the misalignment between public supply and industry demand alone cannot account for poor technology transfer. A closer coordination of research policy and industrial policy is required, as well as closer attention to initiatives which may support the transfer of public research results to Italian industry. "

Broadband economies : creating the community of the 21st century [book]

Authors: John Bell & others, Intelligence Community Forum

Chapters include: What is an intelligent community? -- The broadband economy -- The five habits of highly-effective communities -- Intelligent community indicators -- How to become an intelligent community -- Broadband connectivity -- Knowledge workforce -- Digital inclusion -- Innovation -- Marketing and advocacy -- The future of the Intelligent community.

The Future of Renewable Energy in Australia: A Test for Cooperative Federalism? (journal article)
By Stephen Jones
from Australian Journal of Public Administration Vol 68 Iss 1 Mar 2009, pp. 1 - 20
"In the context of the Australian federal system industry development will be influenced by the policies of each sphere of government. When announcing a set of policies in 1997 to develop the renewable energy industry the Australian federal government acknowledged the need for a cooperative approach between all governments and industry. The objective of this article is to analyse the government policies over the 1997–2007 period to promote the development of the renewable energy industry in Australia. The article highlights a number of factors that have served as barriers to the development of the industry. The research provides important insight into the difficulties associated with establishing cooperative national arrangements in areas of state government responsibility in the Australian federation. The lessons also inform the current debate on the policy initiatives needed to more effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions from stationary energy from the increased availability of renewable energy."

Biofuels : prospects, risks and opportunities [book]

United Nations. Food and Agriculture Organization

"The growing demand for agricultural commodities for the production of biofuels is having significant repercussions on agricultural markets, and concerns are mounting over their negative impact on the food security of millions of people across the world. At the same time, the environmental impacts of biofuels are also coming under closer scrutiny. ... Reviews the current state of the debate and the available evidence on these critical questions." - cover.

The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time (journal article)
By Clive Thompson
from Wired Magazine 17.03
"Netbooks violate all the laws of the computer hardware business. Traditionally, development trickles down from the high end to the mass market. PC makers target early adopters with new, ultrapowerful features. Years later, those innovations spread to lower-end models.
But Jepsen's design trickled up. In the process of creating a laptop to satisfy the needs of poor people, she revealed something about traditional PC users. They didn't want more out of a laptop—they wanted less."

Building an innovation nation (blog article)
by André Andonian, Christoph Loos, and Luiz Pires
from What Matters - McKinsey Digital
"McKinsey has partnered with the World Economic Forum to create an “Innovation Heat Map,” by identifying factors that are common to successful innovation hubs. As part of this effort, we have examined the evolution of hundreds of such clusters around the world and analyzed over 700 variables, including those driving innovation (business environment, government and regulation, human capital, infrastructure, and local demand) along with proxies for innovation output (for example, economic value added, journal publications, patent applications) to identify trends among the success stories. In the process, we have found patterns that suggest the critical ingredients required to grow, nurture, and sustain innovation hubs."
The library has a subscription to McKinsey if you should require any premium content.

OECD reviews of innovation policy : China [online]

Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
"Assesses the current status of China's national innovation system and policies, and recommends improvements required in both the policy and institutional environments for China to succeed in promoting innovation through a market-based approach." - abstract.

Rethinking IT project management: Evidence of a new mindset and its implications (journal abstract)

By: Chris Sauer and Blaize Horner Reich, .

from International Journal of Project Management, Feb 2009, Vol. 27 No 2, pp. 182-193

"This paper contributes to the rethinking project management agenda in relation to the information technology (IT) sector. Our analysis of the evolution of thinking and practice among leading IT project managers across four countries elicits nine principles and four personal qualities that constitute the core of a mindset that facilitates rethinking the practice of IT project management. We compare this with the Rethinking Project Management research agenda [Winter M, Smith C, Morris P, Cicmil S. Directions for future research in Project management: the main findings of a UK government-funded research network. Int J Project Manage 2006;24(8):638-649.]. Our contribution is to (1) validate the directions defined in that agenda; (2) identify elements not incorporated in it and (3) provide examples that crystallise the agenda for the domain of IT project management."

Contact us for a copy of this article

A multi-level, multi-theory perspective of information technology implementation. (journal article)
by Benoit A. Aubert et al.
from Information Systems Journal, Vol 18 No 1 pp.45-72
"Much of information technology (IT) implementation research has focused on individuals' acceptance of IT by examining their behaviour when faced with new IT and the antecedents of these behaviours. As they are frequently undertaken within a project framework, IT implementations also entail the application of project management practices in order to be successful. Based on the premise that antecedents of lower level theories are frequently determined by the outcomes of a higher level theory, the present paper illustrates how organizational-level decisions, examined from the perspective of economics theories, can help explain the antecedents of project risk management at the project and individual levels. To do so, the paper describes an IT implementation effort which went through three phases; the first two of which were abandoned versions of the same project. An organizational-level analysis of the case from an economics perspective and its project-level analysis from a risk management perspective show how organizational-level decisions influenced the antecedents at the project and individual levels, providing a more complete understanding of the IT implementation in question, an understanding which neither a theory approach nor a level perspective could provide on its own. "

The E-policy handbook : rules and best practices to safely manage your company's e-mail, blogs, social networking, and other electronic communication tools [book]

Author: Nancy Flynn

"Gives you everything you need to develop clear, complete e-policies. Packed with electronic rules, step-by-step guidelines, sample policies, and e-disaster stories, this new edition shows how to: implement strategic electronic rules; understand 'cyber-laws'; prevent security breaches and data theft; safeguard confidential company and customer information; manage new and emerging technologies; write and implement effective policies; [and] train employees about your company's online rules." - cover.

Tapping the World's Innovation Hot Spots (journal article)
By John Kao
from Harvard Business Review Vol 87 Iss 3 Mar 2009, pp. 109-114
"Countries around the world are putting innovation at the top of their agendas. As a result, companies now have access to a global market for talent, capital, tax credits, and regulatory relief. Before setting up a research laboratory or a marketing office in one of the world's innovation hot spots, organizations must consider which of the emerging innovation models best suit their requirements. An astute company can also blend elements of each model in a systems integration approach. In the focused factory model, countries concentrate their resources. Singapore, for instance, plans to increase funding for R&D in life sciences, clean technology, and digital media, and to provide benefits such as tax relief to attract companies interested in conducting research in those areas. GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis have already begun doing so at the biomedical research center Biopolis. Countries adopting the brute force model hope to generate innovations by marshaling massive amounts of labor and capital. China, for example, is increasing funding for 10 universities in order to produce many specialists in every area of science and technology. The goal of the Hollyworld model is to create the right environment for innovation by assembling a critical mass of skilled individuals. India, for example, is partnering the best graduates of its universities with Indians who have trained at educational institutions in the West. Several countries have developed large-scale ecosystems combining funding bodies, research institutions, and business and academic collaboration. Finland's innovation system, for instance, is bolstered by strong governmental stewardship and the involvement of public and private players. Aalto University, scheduled to open in the autumn of 2009, will exemplify the country's holistic approach."

The Truths About IT Costs (journal article)
By Susan Cramm
from Harvard Business Review Vol. 87 Iss 3 Mar 2009, pp. 28-28
"The article focuses on cost control in information-technology budgets when overspending results from seven situations. Solutions and preventive measures are mentioned for situations where application enhancements are not cost effective, projects are complicated with unnecessary functionality, technology investments are underutilized, teams lack incentive and quality is not measured, and project failure rates are high."