Hi Kate

Im replying not to this interview but to the software freedom day talk which was great.

I am wondering, given that people are starting to wake up to the difficulties of being locked in by a vendor why there is no barrier to the Australian Head of Microsoft becoming Chair of the IT advisory board.

Is there no conflict of interest filter in this sector at all?
Is this the case with advisory boards all around Australia?
Is this the same kind of advice that happens for the Education sector?
If so it would explain much.

Microsoft MD to chair govt ICT advisory board
The Department of Communications Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) has revised the Ministerial ICT advisory board which will now have Microsoft Australia's managing director Steve Vamos as its chairman.
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=559847830&eid=-255

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

For me it show's again that all Howard is up to is pleasing big business at the expense of everybody else.

Help us Kate by getting these greedy, selfish and pompus Coalition Government out of power!

The biggest problem I have with the Government's approach to soliciting advice on IT matters, particularly when it comes to procurement, is they seem to talk only to the companies that have the resources to lobby, not the samll busineeses that are flat out developing theri technology and doing the hard yards tring to sell it.
SO when the same companies that have the resources to lobby are alos appointed to the advisory boards, they have an even louder voice. It makes more sense to use an advisory board to gather insights that governments normally would not be exposed to!