The New Zealand Computer Society Inc (NZCS), the professional body of the ICT sector, today outlined some of the key presenters and thought leaders at the Society’s "50 Years of ICT Innovation" conference next month.

As a one-off conference to celebrate 50 years of ICT Innovation in New Zealand, the conference represents a significant gathering of thought leaders from throughout New Zealand and the world, hosted in Rotorua next month.

Conference Chairman Elizabeth Eastwood today said "With Minister of ICT Hon Steven Joyce opening, and opposition ICT spokesperson Clare Curran in attendance, along with a who’s who of the ICT sector presenting and participating, this will be an event like no other".

"The conference includes over 40 presentations covering a broad range of topics and interests within ICT, such as Nic Steenhout from AccessibilityNZ speaking about innovation within assistive technology, a presentation from Optimal Usability about user-centered design in relation to the Air New Zealand's new SkyCouch, Microsoft Asia Pacific's head of ICT Healthcare Gabe Rijpma, Perce Harpham, who founded Progeni Systems (New Zealand's first software company), plus legal experts speaking about legals aspects of Cloud Computing and Open Source, plus many other topics", Eastwood said.

The event also featured 8 high profile keynote speakers including:

• Craig Nevill-Manning, a brilliant example of a kiwi using ICT to innovate on a global scale. After graduating from Canterbury and Waikato Universities and a successful academic career at Rutgers and Stanford Universities, Craig went on to found Google’s first remote engineering centre in Manhattan New York, where he is currently the Engineering Director.


• Sam Morgan has become a household name in New Zealand since he founded Trade Me in 1999. Trade Me became New Zealand‘s largest Internet business, a title it still holds.


• Ian Taylor (Ngati Kahungunu) is recognised as one of New Zealand’s leading Maori innovators. After a successful TVNZ career, Ian shot to fame in 1992 by revolutionising real-time 3D graphics for the Americas Cup with Virtual Spectator, forming Taylormade Media and Animation Research Ltd (ARL).


• Sam Knowles, KiwiBank’s Founding CEO and well respected corporate entrepreneur.


• Ian McCrae, Founder of Orion Health, New Zealand’s largest software exporter.


• Rod Drury, Founder of Xero and creator of Aftermail and Glazier Systems, which later went on to become Intergen.


• Greg Lane, National Director of the Canadian Council of IT Professionals, and one of the original team to set up Clear Communications in New Zealand, Telecom’s first serious competitor.


• Nat Torkington, Web 2.0 and Open Government expert.

"This conference is about innovation, and it’s about mapping out where innovation will take ICT over the next 50 years. We’re privileged to have attendees and presenters from all corners of the sector, from 3D graphics to robots, open source to proprietary, industry and academia, our history and our future. There’s something for absolutely everyone", Eastwood said.

"As well as attendees from almost every continent on Earth, people are travelling from throughout New Zealand to join the conversation. This is a one-off opportunity to be part of a superb event with a lineup never seen before in New Zealand," Eastwood concluded.

"Those interested in attending need to register at www.innovation.org.nz before the end of this month".

ENDS

About the NZ Computer Society

NZCS is the professional body of ICT Professionals, and as a non-profit incorporated society works with industry, academia, Government and the wider community to achieve its mission of increasing the education, standards and professionalism of the New Zealand ICT profession, and the base-level computing skills and confidence of New Zealanders.

Founded in 1960, 2010 marks NZCS's 50th Anniversary, celebrated by a significant conference based in Rotorua on 15-18 September 2010. More info at www.innovation.org.nz

You may have heard some months ago that NZCS announced an initiative called KiwiSkills, designed to tackle digital literacy, or core computing skills, in New Zealand.

The KiwiSkills Project involves a multi-prong approach, each component designed to remove or reduce the barriers to digital literacy. However more than that, KiwiSkills is a vehicle for NZCS and the IT Profession as a whole to tackle digital literacy in our own communities throughout New Zealand.

This post is a call to action. It’s time for us all – NZCS, our members, and the wider ICT Profession to tackle digital literacy together, and today we announce a number of initiatives that we hope will make a real difference to the digital future of a great many New Zealanders.

However we need your help – please read on.

Following research showing New Zealand losing $1.7 Billion per year by not sufficiently tackling digital literacy, the NZ Computer Society (NZCS), a non-profit incorporated society focused on ICT education, today announced the immediate availability of a number of additional educational tools and initiatives to help improve core computing skills in New Zealand.

The tools, released as part of the Society’s KiwiSkills Programme designed to improve digital literacy, were released today to improve the awareness and availability of digital literacy benchmarking and training options and to help New Zealanders assess their core computing skills.

Rebecca Boyce, who oversees the NZCS KiwiSkills Programme, said today "What’s clear from recent research is that the first step in tackling digital literacy in a community is to improve the awareness of benchmarking standards and the availability of training and assessment programmes such as ICDL, the International Computer Driving Licence".

"The steps announced today are designed to do just that; make these tools more accessible and available than ever before and, combined with the over $300,000 of digital literacy training and assessment NZCS is providing to charities and communities in need at no cost, will make a real difference to New Zealand," Boyce said.

The initiatives announced today include:

• A free Skills Analyser on the www.kiwiskills.co.nz website, allowing New Zealanders to quickly gain an idea of their relative core computing skill level.


• An up-to-date listing of where to go to tackle digital literacy in New Zealand, with details of all KiwiSkills digital literacy training and assessment providers throughout the country listed on the KiwiSkills website.


• For those unable to get to a KiwiSkills Training Provider or wanting to undertake training at home, the ability to access low-cost ICDL training instantly from the KiwiSkills website.


• NZCS members, numbering thousands of IT Professionals throughout New Zealand, now able to access and provide discount digital literacy training for their clients, colleagues, friends and family to help address digital literacy in their own communities.

"NZCS is focused on promoting digital literacy education for the general public and these tools and initiatives will make a genuine difference to the future of thousands of New Zealanders currently left behind by the digital divide," Boyce said.

"ICDL is the world’s most widely accepted digital literacy standard. ICDL is the only United Nations UNESCO-endorsed programme and has assisted over 10 million individuals in 149 countries and 41 languages around the world," Boyce concluded.

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Background

Earlier this year the NZ Computer Society (NZCS) commissioned research looking at the impact of not addressing digital literacy in New Zealand.

The resultant research report, completed by research consultants KnowledgeWeaversNZ on behalf of the Society, analysed the findings of research conducted throughout the world then applied the result to New Zealand’s environment to find the expected outcome of implementing similar programmes en masse in New Zealand.

In terms of improved productivity, the report conservatively projects average savings per worker in New Zealand of $1820 per annum as a direct result of improved ICT skills and confidence after implementing a digital literacy standard such as ICDL. Projected across 70% of the country’s working population, this results in a net productivity improvement of $1.7 billion per year.

In response to the findings of the report, NZCS announced the KiwiSkills Programme, a resourced core project of the Society to help tackle digital literacy in New Zealand.

The research report is available here: http://bit.ly/diglit, and more information about the KiwiSkills Programme is available at www.kiwiskills.co.nz


About the NZ Computer Society

NZCS is the professional body of ICT Professionals, and as a non-profit incorporated society works with industry, academia, Government and the wider community to achieve its mission of increasing the education, standards and professionalism of the New Zealand ICT profession, and the base-level computing skills and confidence of New Zealanders.


About ICDL

The International Computer Driving Licence, or ICDL, is the leading global digital literacy certification programme, with over 10 million participants in 148 different countries.

ICDL is vendor-neutral and is made up of 7 modules including Concepts of ICT, Using the Computer and Managing Files, Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Using Databases, Presentations, and Web Browsing and Communication.

ICDL is NZQA Accredited and endorsed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and is overseen internationally by the not-for-profit ECDL Foundation and in New Zealand by the non-profit New Zealand Computer Society (NZCS).

The breadth of ITCP, New Zealand's professional accreditation in IT, has been highlighted by the Certification being awarded to an IT specialist lawyer, Rick Shera, a partner at Lowndes Jordan in Auckland.

Shera is the first IT lawyer to gain the well respected ITCP certification from the New Zealand Computer Society (NZCS) and joins hundreds of other ICT Professionals to be accredited with ITCP.

Paul Matthews, Chief Executive of NZCS today said "ITCP is a professional certification, much like that which exists in most other professions. It is one of several initiatives undertaken by NZCS and the industry to mature ICT into a true profession”.

“The take up of ITCP has been fantastic and has exceeded our expectations. It is now recognised as a must have qualification for senior practitioners in the New Zealand ICT space and, because it relies on internationally accepted standards, is also an excellent entrée into overseas markets", Matthews said.

Asked why he had decided to become certified Shera said “For me it’s a tangible recognition of the fact that ICT law is multidisciplinary. I could not practice in this area without a detailed knowledge of the internet, computing and telco industries themselves so it is good to have that recognised. The application process itself was thorough and makes me even more thrilled to have achieved what I see as a very valuable certification.”

“The accreditation of ‘periphery’ IT practitioners such as IT lawyers and others is certainly not a given,” Matthews continued. “Mr Shera received ITCP because he could demonstrate a thorough understanding of the concepts and knowledge that underpins ICT, the proven ability to apply that knowledge in his area with positive results, an appreciation of what it means to be an ICT Professional, and a willingness to practice in accordance with the Code of Professional Conduct”.

“ITCP is an independent accreditation for those serious about practicing as a professional in the wider ICT sector”, Matthews concluded. “The definition of what makes an IT Professional is certainly broad, however the fundamental principles apply across the board. We’re delighted that Rick has worked through the comprehensive assessment process and emerged with ITCP”.

ENDS

Newsline is NZCS's regular newsletter, outlining some of the latest happenings in the Society.

In This Issue

• Introduction from the CEO: With Charitable Intentions


• FREE Audio Podcasts of previous NZCS Events


• IMPORTANT: New Constitution and Code of Professional Conduct


• Latest on Software Patents - Minister's Announcement


• NZCS ICT Mentoring Programme Launches


• NZCS is all a-Twitter


• KiwiSkills - What's it all about?


• ICT Standards Fund: over $30,000 for ICT Standards work thus far


• LinkedIn Group for NZCS Members and ITCP Recipients


• NZCS 50th Anniversary Conference - D-DAY APPROACHING!

You can view this month's edition here.

Dunedin is currently in the process of putting together a formal Strategy to coordinate digital development in the region. As with NZ's Digital Strategy and that of other regions, we've analysed the draft and made a submission.

As an ex-Dunedinite myself, I must admit to being pretty excited the city is starting to understand the real potential of both a digitally enabled population, and an environment fostering innovation and entrepreneurial success. Due to it's isolation and pipeline of talent from the city's two tertiary institutions, Dunedin provides the perfect environment for this.

We were also very pleasantly surprised by the content, and the city's understanding of the need for education and skills to formulate a core focus of the Strategy.

You can find out more about the Dunedin Digital Strategy here.

NZCS's submission is available here.

Despite what appears to be a big-budget lobbying effort by the pro-patent fraternity, Hon Simon Power announced today that he wouldn't be modifying the proposed Patents Bill hence software will be unpatentable once the Bill passes into law.

This is significant. As we've previously pointed out software patents aren't black and white, and there are certainly pros and cons. However on balance, we believe they represent a far greater risk to smaller NZ-based software providers than opportunity, and there are many cases where they have significantly stifled innovation.

We believe it's near impossible for software to be developed without breaching some of the hundreds of thousands of software patents awarded around the world, hence many software companies in New Zealand, creating outstanding and innovative software, live a constant risk that their entire business will be wound up overnight due to litigious action by a patent holder.

This has led to many a "patent troll" company, primarily in the US. These are non-software companies who exist only to buy up old patents with the sole intention of suing innovative software companies for apparent breach of these patents. The effects of this have been chilling.

Make no mistake, the intellectual property contained in software should be protected. However Copyright provides significant protection, as per other similar activities. The very nature of software should preclude it from patentability in our view.

The case against software patents has been laid out well by companies such as Orion Healthcare and Jade Corporation, probably the two largest software exporters in New Zealand by far.

Orion's Ian McCrae recently stated:

Obvious things are getting patented. You might see a logical enhancement to your software, but you can’t do it because someone else has a patent. It gets in the way of innovation.

If an inventor has a really original and outstanding idea, then a patent might be merited. But, in general, software patents are counter-productive and are often used obstructively.

We are a software company. Our best protection is to innovate and innovate fast.

Jade sent me this note in support of NZCS's position on software patents:

Jade Software Corporation does not support patents related to software.

Reflecting this position we withdrew from applying for patents a number of years ago.

We believe the patent process is onerous, not suited to the software industry, and challenges our investment in innovation.

As I understand it, Orion and Jade together represent around 50% of New Zealand's software exports, so the fact that they have come out so strongly against is significant.

There's a good reason these companies and most other NZ-based software companies don't support software patents. The risk they pose to genuine, innovative and hard working New Zealand software companies is simply too great.

We believe this is a win for innovative New Zealand software companies who will now have a reduced, albeit still present, risk when creating innovative software.

Interestingly, the Bilski case, a major case looking at patentability of business processes and by extension software patents, was settled in the US in the last week or so as well. At first this seemed to not have dealt with the issue or settled the case of whether business processes or especially software should be patentable in the US, however there are some interesting developments since that may mean this isn't the case after all.

For instance, according to Groklaw, the first of a huge backlog of software patent applications in the US system has been rejected due to Bilski, with the ruling that "The unpatentability of abstract ideas was confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bilski v. Kappos". On the face of it, this would appear to have the effect of canning pure software patents in the US, which is massively significant.

It will be interesting to see how this one develops.

The matter isn't over yet in New Zealand, of course. The next issue will be in ensuring that the guidelines to be developed protecting embedded systems (ie non-abstract inventions with a software component) are strong enough to remove the possibility of software patents by stealth, and NZCS will maintain a very close watching brief on this.

All in all, however, we believe this is great news for software innovation in New Zealand.

A special congratulations to NZCS Fellow and Past President Dr Gillian Reid, awarded a Queen's Service Medal for services to the community in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

In recent years Gillian has been a driving force for the adoption of ICT in elderly care, and is currently Deputy Chair of the Selwyn Foundation Board. Before this Gillian traversed both the academic world and industry, being head of IT at Sky City (amongst many other roles), as well as Head of Computing at what was then AIT (now AUT).

Gillian was the first female President of NZCS and was New Zealand representative to the South East Asian Regional Computer Confederation (SEARCC) for many years. She is also a Fellow and holds the Society's ITCP Certification.

Gillian will be speaking at the upcoming NZCS conference in September outlining the work Selwyn is doing in conjunction with Auckland University and others to revolutionalise elderly care in NZ through robotics.

The NZCS community is very saddened to hear of the passing of McGovern's Paul Reynolds (@littlehigh on Twitter) of undiagnosed leukaemia.

Paul was a very well known ICT commentator and thought leader and a real driving force in areas such as creative thinking, libraries, and digital literacy in New Zealand.

Paul was a deep thinker and never afraid to share his views.

Earlier this month Paul completed a National ICT Series speaking circuit, presenting to NZCS audiences in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton and Dunedin. His views on open data and other related concepts were warmly received, and the fact Paul was happy to take time out of his busy life to present was indicative of his passion for ICT.

Paul will be sorely missed, and our condolences to his family and very wide circle of friends.

The New Zealand Computer Society (NZCS), NZ’s independent professional body representing thousands of ICT professionals, today announced strong support for the Commerce Select Committee’s recommendation to remove patentability of software.

Following the Commerce Select Committee’s recommendation to the Government to remove software from the Patents Act, the Society polled its members (representing ICT professionals throughout New Zealand), and found that 81% of those that had a view supported the recommendation to remove Software from the Patents Act.

NZCS Chief Executive Paul Matthews said today that “This is a big issue for the ICT sector. And whilst not scientific, this poll clearly backs up previous consultation showing widespread support from the ICT sector for the removal of software patents”.

“There are a number of reasons for and against software patents, however on balance the Society, and indeed the majority of the ICT profession, believes they are harmful to the innovation of the ICT sector and New Zealand as a whole”, Matthews said.

The Society is constitutionally required to consider issues of importance to the sector and advise Government on areas of concern and hence has written to Commerce Minister Hon Simon Power outlining some of the reasons for supporting the Select Committee’s recommendations.

A copy of this letter is available here: http://tinyurl.com/nzcs-swp

“The Society strongly supports the concept of Intellectual Property and Copyright, and the right to protect property and gain commercial advantage from the creation and sale of software”, Matthews said. “However this has to be weighed against the significant damage software patents cause innovation and the far more appropriate protection provided under Copyright law”.

Conceptually, patents protect concepts or an idea whereas Copyright protects manifestation of an idea. Given the nature of software and the fact that it is built upon large layers of prior work, Patents have caused significant problems in the digital world and are unsuited to software.

“Protecting software is important” Matthews said, “in the same way that protecting movies, books and songs is important. However these all rely successfully on Copyright law, rather than Patent law, for protection. It would be ludicrous to allow patents in these areas, just as it’s illogical to allow software patents”.

“As pointed out by IP law firm Chapman Tripp recently in a release supporting patents, New Zealand is suffering from sustained and alarming Multi-Factor Productivity decline, a measure of technological innovation”, Matthews said. “However the Society sees this as actually another indication of the fact that allowing software to be patented hasn’t worked in New Zealand, hence a new approach is needed to address this issue”.

The Society also pointed out that it was not possible to run a patent system for some and an “opt-out” for others, as recently suggested, as all would be bound by the monopoly patents provided. “It’s like saying each villager can decide whether or not to pollute the village pond. Fact is, they all have to drink from it”.

“This is a complex issues, however the Society commends the Commerce Select Committee on giving serious consideration to this issue and making a recommendation based on the best interests of the New Zealand’s ICT sector and New Zealand as a whole”, Matthews concluded.

ENDS