image from whatsbestforum.com
Come this Saturday the 25th of April 2015, we in Australia and New Zealand, will remember those who fought for our freedom. This will be a special event as this is 100 years since our landing at Gallipoli. So why would something that happened so long ago, affect us and especially IT today.
Gallipoli saw a mindset change occur here in Australia. We were no longer going to be the cattle to be used and abused by the British. We became a voice and a power. Since this change, Australia has matured and grown quite well. However, we still are quite weak when it comes to standing up for our rights internationally.
With that being said, we still let our citizens be abused by other countries, laws, and charlatans. We seem too afraid to stand up to other countries, and seem only content to ride along as long as we don’t create too many waves. Therefore, what is the correlation between this and IT? Well read on.
Australian have always been a creative people, and here is why I state this:
Aboriginals and their skills with living in this harsh land and their mystical skills displayed in their relationship with our land. For example, did you know not one aboriginal was in Darwin when cyclone Tracey hit, but many Anglo Saxons were?
Think about some of inventions that we have created. E.g. Hills Hoist, Baby Safety Capsule, WIFI hotspots, the Paper Notepad, Plastic wine casks, Electric drill just to name a few. We have created out of need. They say that Need is the father of all inventions. Remember when our soldiers left Gallipoli, we had invented in that difficult area and site, a self-shooting gun, that fired when a water can filled to a set position. Need certainly is the father of all invention and this is testament. So how do inventions affect IT? Simple, IT is created by ideas or Need, and here is where we excel.
We at Accede are contacted from all over the world because of our creative ability, backed up with skill, history and cost effectiveness. We are not alone. Here in Australia IT absolutely creates solutions and it does this in a truly cost effective and time effective manner. We are really world leaders. So often I hear of code being created here and sold off shore. Our Government supports R and D, and this R and D is creating Export dollars for Australia. We do however as a country need to consider how we sell our inventions, e.g. completely, license or partial.
I recently spent many hours reviewing websites for software companies. In the USA, I saw mainly, sales or management of Virtual Companies or Programmers. Here in Australia, custom software, products created, and those for sale are huge. Even in Accede when our sales to clients have been quiet our R and D broke new boundaries. We have created quite a few new products, and are still doing this.
So our freedom that was purchased at such a high price, that we remember during this Saturday anniversary, has really bought us creativity in IT. Now, I challenge our IT industry, to be world leaders, not only in IT creativity, but in IT export. We really do lead the world in IT. We need to take the next step and learn how to really take our products from here in Australia to the world and to bring in the export dollars to Australia.
So my blog is a call to action for all of us involved in IT. For those involved and have skills in Exporting and commercializing join with IT and let’s make Australia a leader in this area. Truly, our skill base and the creative environment we live in makes us uniquely positioned. Let’s leverage from this position.
Cate Schafing is a successful Australian business woman in the IT field serving as CEO of Accede Holdings Pty. Ltd. makers of Ezymeetz, ICE and Virtual Gym. She develops innovative new technological products as a programmer and entrepreneur. In gratitude for her success her company supports NFP’s by donating $5000 per month in programming time for NFP’s requesting work.
