Senator Lundy live online from CeBIT Germany

Senator Kate Lundy will be speaking live online from CeBIT Germany at 9:30pm AEDT.

“Connected Worlds” is the main topic at CeBIT 2010, and Senator Lundy will be speaking about how the Australian Government has set the scene through policies such as the National Broadband Network, the Digital Education Revolution and the FoI reforms to put ICT at the heart of social and economic growth.

She will also discuss the Australian Gov 2.0 Taskforce report (launched December last year) which is a practical blueprint for a more open, transparent, participatory and open government. The Senator will discuss the important of open data, citizen-centric services and the collaboration of government with citizens to co-design the government of the future.

She will also discuss important changes to ICT procurement in the Australian government, and some of the opportunities and challenges facing the industry today. ...

ps: Seems a long time since we sat around a cafe table in Canberra, discussing how to put the nation online.

Floating Modular Building

The International Building Exhibition in Hamburg has moved into a new modular floating building: "IBA DOCK" (English Transaltion). The building is made of shipping container sized prefabricated modules. It is not clear if these are actual shipping containers, which would be appropriate, given Hamburg is a major shipping port. The modules are on a a 50 x 26 m concrete pontoon, moored so it can ride over a storm surge. As well as good insulation, the building has a solar powered heat pump to extract heat from the water.

Gritty Production of Cabaret in Sydney

Cabaret at the New Theatre in Sydney is not the glamorised 1972 film version of the Broadway musical. This is a darker, grittier production. For those only familiar with the musical numbers, the story abruptly introducing anti-Semitism and the Nazi rise to power can be a shock. However, in this production there is a sense of menace from the start. The performers of the fictional Kit Kat Klub are both sexy and threatening.

The story is based on two autobiographical novels by Christopher Isherwood and set in Berlin before World War II (the stage version changes the struggling author from British to American, whereas the movie changed him back to British). Isherwood describes arriving in Berlin by train and being befriended by a charming smuggler and drawn into a wild nightlife of Berlin.

Some of the places mentioned explicitly in the books and hinted at in the stage show are still recognisable in post-cold war Berlin. The Friedrichstrasse Station is still a good place to get a cheap meal.

ps: Isherwood gets an oblique reference in the science fiction TV show Torchwood, with one character exclaiming "I am a camera".

E-Government in Europe

Professor Dieter Rombach, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering will talk on "Demand-Driven E-Government – A European Perspective" at NICTA in Canberra 19 August 2009:

NICTA SEMINAR A Big Picture Seminar Series Event

Demand-Driven E-Government – A European Perspective

Professor Dieter Rombach (Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering )

DATE: 2009-08-19
TIME: 12:15:00 - 13:30:00
LOCATION: NICTA - 7 London Circuit

ABSTRACT:
In Europe, barrier-free access to government services is being promoted as a means towards a true common market. Fraunhofer IESE has established an Alliance for E-Government aimed at supporting municipalities, states and federal government in Germany, as well as all countries in Europe on this mission. The E-Government strategy at Fraunhofer builds on the lessons learned from E-Commerce. In E-Commerce the break-through came in Business to Business (B2B) interactions - not Business to Commerce (B2C). The Fraunhofer IESE group, learning from these interactions is focusing on Government to Industry (G2I) in order to demonstrate a good Return on Investment (ROI) from innovative E-Government. Fraunhofer IESE provides the necessary software engineering methods ranging from requirements engineering, to architecture and security evaluation required for effective E-Government operations. Professor Rombach’s presentation will focus on recent projects with the State of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Federal Government – with whom Fraunhofer serves as an independent advisor.

Bookings are essential for this FREE event. RSVP Pam.Shearmur@nicta.com.au by 17 August.

Note: There is no cost associated with attendance, however NICTA requests pre-registration as a light lunch will be served following the presentation.

BIO:
PRESENTER: Professor H. Dieter Rombach is Executive and Founding Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE). He is a member of the Board of the overall Fraunhofer orgnisation and in that role he chairs the ICT group (13 institutes, 3000 scientists). Professor Rombach is also spokesperson for the Fraunhofer E-Government Alliance consisting of 10 Fraunhofer institutes. He is a Full Professor in the Fachbereich Informatik (Dept of Computer Science) at the Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Germany and holds a chair in software engineering. Prior to his current position, Professor Rombach held faculty positions with the Computer Science Department and UMIACS (University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies) at the University of Maryland, College Park [1984-1991] and was a member of the SEL (Software Engineering Laboratory, a joint venture between NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Computer Sciences Corp, and the University of Maryland) [1986-1991]. In 2003 he received the Distinguished Postdoctoral Award from the University of Maryland.

ABOUT FRAUNHOFER IESE: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is Europe’s largest organisation for applied research with 1.4 billion Euros in research funding (1 billion from industry). Founded 60 years ago to rebuild Germany after the war, the institute now boasts 54 research institutes spread across 40 sites in Germany. Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE) aims to shorten the time needed for transferring research technologies into industrial practice. The Institute employs about 180 scientists, operates a sister institute at the University of Maryland (about 25 scientists), and finances about 75% of its operating budget via industry projects.

Cebit 2009 on Green ICT

Cebit 2009 in Germany in March will feature Green ICT. There will be a joint conference on "Sustainability in the Digital World" with the German Federal Ministry of Environment and the Federal Environmental Agency. Translation by Google:

Annual Conference: Sustainability in a digital world

Place: Forum "green IT World" at the CeBIT in Hanover (Hall 8), 5 March 2009

Agenda

from 9:30 Login
10:30 Welcome Moderator Dr. Matthias plate
10:35 Greetings Ernst Raue, Managing Board (Deutsche Messe)
10:40 Perspective of national policy, Sigmar Gabriel, Federal Environment
Green IT now! The chance competitiveness and environmental protection
11:05 Perspective of the economy, Martin Jetter, a member of the BITKOM Bureau
Green IT - work and live in the mobile world of tomorrow
11:25 Perspective of an international organization, Graham Vickery, Principal Administrator (OECD)
Green IT – improving the environment and boosting the economy
11:45 Coffee Break
12:05 Perspective of an IT provider, Prof. Urs Hölzle, CTO (Google)
Green IT in Practice - The green energy program from Google
12:25 Perspective of a user, Klaus Mühleck Hardy, CIO (Volkswagen)
BlueMotion IT by Volkswagen
12:45 Lunch Break
13:45 Impulse Statements:
From the energy-resource efficiency - New Challenges and Opportunities for Green IT

PD Dr. Klaus Fichter, Director (Borderstep Institute)
From the energy-resource efficiency - New Challenges and Opportunities for Green IT

Cornelia Heydenreich, Senior Advisor Corporate Accountability (German Watch)
Greenwashing or real opportunity for the Environment

14:15 Lighter, quieter, elegant: Challenges and opportunities for efficient materials IT solutions
Wolfgang Christmann, CEO (Christmann and media)
Resource-efficient IT solutions - from desktop to the supercomputer

Jochen Polster, Managing Director (AMD)
Future trends in IT equipment: Lightweight, portable, elegant

14:45 Green IT: the example of resource savings Teleworking

Dr. Stephan Scholz, CTO (Nokia Siemens Networks)
Environmental efficiency in and through ICT - A positive overall balance

Dr. Reinhard Höhn, company representative for the Environment (IBM)
e-place: opportunities for new office and work concepts

15:15 Conclusion & Outlook
Dr. Ulf Jaeckel (BMU) and Dr. Mario Tobias (BITKOM)

15:35 End

Solar Energy Research at the Fraunhofer Institute Germany

Professor Eicke R Weber from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems will give a free seminar at the ANU in Canberra 29 July 2008.

Contact: kim.burgess(a)anu.edu.au

CSES SEMINAR SERIES

Solar Energy - Fraunhofer Institute Germany

Professer Eicke R Weber (Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems)

DATE: 2008-07-29
TIME: 19:30:00 - 20:30:00
LOCATION: Engineering Lecture Theatre

ABSTRACT:
Professor Eicke R. Weber is the Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and Professor of Physics and Applied Sciences at the Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany. The ISE institute has a staff of approximately 670 people and an annual budget of more than 36 million Euro. It is one of the world's leading research institutes in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency. The focus of Professor Weber's research is the analysis of lattice defects in Si and compound semiconductors. Recently he specifically studied how ('good') solar cells can be produced from upgraded metallurgical ('dirty') silicon with high metal content. url: www.fraunhofer.de

BIO:

Professor Weber studied Physics at the University of Cologne, Germany. From 1983-2006 he lectured at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the University of California, Berkeley - since 1991 as Professor of Materials Science. In 1990 he was appointed visiting professor at the Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan and in 2000 at the Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan. In 1994 he received an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award. From 2004-2006 he served as the chair of the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Graduate Group in Berkeley. He served as president of the Alexander von Humboldt Association of America (AvHAA) from 2001-2003 and in 2003 he was elected founding president of the German Scholars Organization (GSO). In 2006 he received the Award of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande) of the German President.