James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

I think that the next step in this fun form of activism should be for Anthill to send the nice receptionist in Minister Tanner’s office a big, fat bunch of flowers. She deserves it!

According to independent online media service Scopical, the Minister’s media advisers were quick to downplay the phone-in: “I wouldn’t say it was particularly large… it’s probably under one hundred.”

Wait a minute!

Our team of bespectacled mathematicians at the ‘Anthill Institute’ (imagine pristine white laboratories and multiple security passes… or me, in convalescing state, with calculator in hand) has done the numbers and…

That’s up to 16 calls every hour.

Or…

One call every four minutes!

The tight-lipped nature of the response (a pre-prepared comment, at the ready) and obvious awareness of ‘the cause’ suggest to me that an impression was made. I too would be doing me best to avoid media follow-up.

According to the same spokesperson…

“The caller’s names have all been recorded and they will be sent to the Minister, and he will review it.”

That’s a good start.

But, while organising our big, bouquet for the Minister’s lovely and ever-courteous receptionist, I also plan to find a company that delivers nuts. Not cashews. Not almonds. No, I’ll be sending a package that says:

“The scrapping of Commercial Ready was JUST PLAIN NUTS!”

I have prepared a letter that I invite readers to download, stick on company letter head and send to the Minister. If you’re feeling really adventurous, also send some nuts. (Heh heh.)

If you don’t have a lot of time, I have set up an easy email link with a pre-drafted email.

Click the link and a pre-drafted letter/email will appear.

Make sure that you take advantage of this easy tool we’ve set up before you go home today. Follow-up is important.

Lastly… Did we make a difference? Honestly, I don’t know.

My natural belief is that activism is good. It’s a necessary part of our system (because elected officials and their staff aren’t always right). And for those who took part yesterday, you’ll also know… it feels good too!

While some of you might be tiring of ‘Anthill Activism’ (Antivism?), others are just getting revved up. As such, I’ve decided to create the ‘Anthill Army’. (This brand of ours knows no bounds!)

If you want to take part further or be invited to join us in other activities with political purpose, click here and fill out the form.

And, of course, please post your experiences, thoughts and suggestions about yesterday and the future below.

James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

It’s time to take action.

First, a round up…

Update#1: Wayne Fitzsimmons (Anthill reader and director of Melbourne-based M-Group, which invests in IT start-ups) has managed to get his views about the scrapping of CR published in a story in The Age today. It’s definitely worth a read. Importantly, your traffic might open the eyes of The Age to this issue.

To read the article, click here.

Update#2: I’ve been invited to speak on this topic on ABC Radio National’s Breakfast Show, tomorrow at 6:40 or 7:40. I’ll do my best. Wish me luck, tune in and call in. Keep the conversation happening.

After a broadcast, they usually post the stories (click here).

And finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

As promised, it’s time to start this thing.

Tomorrow (19 June 2008), I’ll send a text message inviting readers to help me ‘Target the Toe-Cutters’.

To leave your mobile number and join the protest, click here.

The decision to cut the program was met in reference to a report completed by the Productivity Commission. Essentially, it was the been-counters under Lindsay Tanner’s portfolio that made the call.

Hence, our ROUND#1 target…

• The Hon Lindsay Tanner MP, Minister for Finance and Deregulation.

I’ll be inviting readers to call the Senator’s Parliamentary Office in Canberra (02 6277 7400), between 10am and 4pm, as Parliament will be sitting. That’s 200 calls in six hours if we all participate (you do the maths).

Of course, we need to be as courteous as possible (it’s not the poor dear on receptions fault).

Here’s what I’d like you to explain…

“My name is [insert your name] and I’d like to officially voice my concern about the unexpected closure of the Commercial Ready Program in May of this year and I hope that Minister Tanner will make funding available for an alternative grant program when Innovation Minister Kim Carr completes his Innovation Review in late July. Can you please make sure that Minister Tanner gets this message.”

The generally helpful receptionist will probably try to cut you off (particularly if you are call 50 or more) to explain that you should send a letter or email (we can do that later).

This might sound like a fairly soft and obvious message. However, many, many different people saying the same thing will make a great and immediate impression. And we want this to be the first thing brought to the Minister’s attention when he returns to his office from Parliament.

For a start, just try to get those few sentences out of your mouth, before you are cut off. Practice it first. Say it out loud.

If you are asked questions that you don’t know the answer to, politely reply, “That’s all I wanted to say. Can you make sure that he gets that message? Thanks for your time.”

Try not to mention Anthill, because I’ll play the media card post protest and see if I can get the Minister’s Media people to comment on the unexpected run of phone inquiries (get the ‘inside’ story).

Remember, this only works if a critical mass takes part. Don’t think, “With so many people involved, my call won’t be missed.” Just in case everyone things that!

Let’s just hope we make an impression.

James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

Rumours of my spinal injury have been greatly exaggerated.

Well…. Not really.

When you see the words ‘potential impotence’ among the risks of surgery, you know that things are about to get serious (a state of mind I’ve never been fond of).

Fortunately, the risks have passed. And in my convalescent state, I’ve had plenty of time to brood. It will still be some weeks before I’m no longer home-bound but that won’t prevent me from finishing what we (you and me, my friends) have started.

At the end of this month, the extended period of the Innovation Review will come to its conclusion. That doesn’t leave much time to get a clear and helpful message across.

Below are just some of the interesting comments left in response to my post two weeks ago:

Allan Aaron said:
“It’s imperative that anyone with an interest in seeing this situation redressed makes a strenuous argument to the national innovation review at innovationreview@innovation.gov.au and, of course, to their government representatives.”

Tim said:
“Perhaps James or Chris could offer a place where participants could contribute their thoughts.”

Paul Cheever said:
“I now want to prepare and distribute across the governments and the Panel a profile of active venture interests stories.”

Liesl asked:
“If we want to take an active role in lobbying government, and show quantifiable national benefit of the grants, and the loss to the country of CR dying, where should we make a noise?”

After reading these blog comments, while stuck at the Epworth, I had a number of epiphanies. (Thank the good soul who invented Morphine. Hopefully, not another Commercial Ready casualty).

Epiphany #1… Hassle the Hasslers

Anthill’s proactive stance would not have take shape unless our readers had hassled us first. Of course, we were naturally dismayed at the scrapping of CR. We have encouraged and promoted many, many CR success stories in our brief history.

But it was not until you, our readers, asked us to take a stand that we began to review our options.

So… it seems sensible to bring this matter to the people and outlets (other media) that can further emphasise the need for CR or a CR alternative to the decision makers and the broader public.

Here’s my first test suggestion…

Text Q&A en masse.

Q&A is an ABC Television program that brings together political leaders and asks viewers to text their questions. We now have over 200 people who have registered to use SMS as a tool for a ‘flash protest’. Why not unleash the power of 200 on the ABC and see what happens?

If successful, I propose that we hit Sunrise (K Rudd has a weekly spot), then talk-back radio. Maybe even The Seven-Thirty Report?

Readers, I’ll need your help.

Please tell me if you think this is a good idea (or have I simply exceeded my prescribed dose of painkillers for the day?). If so, I’ll SMS the number to text and a sample message. (Perhaps you can let me know what you think a helpful question might be?) Also, what radio and television programs feature our political leaders in your neck of the woods? (I hung up my PR hat many moons ago.)

In short…

1. Is this a good idea?
2. What’s a good message or question?
3. What other outlets should we take our message to?

Epiphany #2… Make our anxiety known to the political decision makers

On this issue, many a buck has been passed.

I don’t want to name names, but… Oh heck…

According to various newspaper reports and comments made publicly during speeches (and a virtual sack of email messages to Anthill), the following two political representatives have voiced disappointment at the scrapping of Commercial Ready.

• Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research
• Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy

However, if you ask who is to ‘blame’, it seems that the trail invariably leads back to a bunch of faceless number-crunchers in Finance (Lindsay Tanner’s portfolio).

• The Hon Lindsay Tanner MP, Minister for Finance and Deregulation.

But! I personally elect my officials to make decisions. Yet, I cannot find an official happy to concede that this decision was made under his/her mandate of responsibility.

Here’s my second test suggestion…

Phone or mail each of the leaders’ branch offices.

Once again, en masse, on a prescribed day (announced by SMS). If you deem this suggestion a good one, we’ll text the numbers. All we’ll need from you is to open the text and hit the call button twice. Most mobile phones will do the rest. We can also send a sample message (or, once again, please make any suggestions you like below).

Unfortunately, this second suggestion requires that we make a pest of ourselves, which can be counter-productive. That’s why I’m suggesting branch offices. Each branch office takes a log of calls, which carry through to the elected representative and their advisers. A call is more powerful than an email (email lost its currency as a political tool when it became too easy to tap and send).

It’s easy to imagine that 200 phone calls in one eight-hour day (that’s 25 calls an hour) would be enough to make an impression without forcing the cogs of political branch-office politics to grind to a halt.

But if anyone has a better idea, we’re all eyes and ears. Maybe a template Letter that can be downloaded and sent via snail mail would be a more effective idea? After all, they say a letter is worth 10,000 constituents.

In short…

1. Is this a good idea?
2. What’s a good message or question?
3. Are there others that we should be contacting as well or instead?

Epiphany #3… Make all this count

The sad truth is that cancelled programs rarely, if ever, get reinstated. They are more likely to be resurrected in a different form or not at all.

This is partly because politicians are extremely reluctant to ‘back-flip’ on a decision (as any opposition will describe a public change in position, no matter how sensible, as just that: a back-flip).

So… while all these activities will demonstrate that a CR alternative is necessary (and that the electorate is unhappy and watching), positive suggestions are required, preferably ideas that are not simply opportunistic (like many of the 630 submissions to the Review already received).

Applications for the Innovation Review officially ended in May, but ‘unofficially’ the Review has indicated that it is prepared to accept late submissions of high importance.

Please do as Allan Aaron suggests above and mail ideas and suggestions to the National Innovation Review at innovationreview@innovation.gov.au and, of course, to your government representatives.

At Anthill, we will be packaging up all your comments from my previous post and submitting them to the PTBs (powers-that-be). We also recommend that you visit the Review website to check out the suggestions of others.

Last words…

If CR is unlikely to get a reprieve, why should we do this?

Firstly, because despite the ‘efforts’ at engagement (Forums, Submissions etc), which were based on genuinely good intentions by a group of smart and well-meaning people, the whole process, nevertheless, still stinks of an innovation system that is no longer innovative (in my humble opinion).

Forums and Submissions attract opportunism of the worst kind. Who else wants to spend hours in a town hall? Or weeks devising a submission except people with something to gain? This is something that I’ve climbed on my old soapbox about before (“Did you get your say at Senator Carr’s Innovation Review?”).

Secondly, while the Panel is made up of some of the smartest innovation experts Australia has produced, the members also only represent representatives of the baby-boom generation.

Yet, the technologies now available to drive real collaboration and engagement are largely created, driven and preferred by the people who have the most vested interest in a nation with robust innovation capabilities – Gen X and Gen Y.

Finally, not everyone has the luxury of being able to lie at home, writing blog posts and making cracks about prescription medicines (or fighting for innovation in Australia). And it would burn my soul not to use this opportunity (the scrapping of CR) to rouse interest in this debate and put innovation in the hands of the innovators.

If you think any suggestions seem too demanding, off-track or unlikely to engender an appropriate response (or your involvement), please let me know. In return, I’ll try to keep things as simple as possible (via SMS).

What say you, Anthillians? Is this the way forward or am I quietly turning into a crack-pot recalcitrant, going insane with only soft-toys, Tremazapan and my laptop for company?

James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

Have you ever heard of a ‘flash protest’? It’s similar to a ‘flash mob,’ where a group engages in seemingly spontaneous but actually synchronised behaviour.

The concept has been attributed to Bill Wasik, an editor at Harper’s Magazine, initially as a kind of street performance. Popular examples of the ‘flash mob’ concept involve getting dozens of people to perch on a ledge stone in Central Park (all making bird noises), a ‘zombie walk’ in San Francisco and an incident where over 100 people ‘froze’ perfectly still in New York’s Grand Central Station for one minute.

But it can also be used for political purposes. Let me give you an example…

Not so long ago, a small group of Belorussian citizens decided to stage a protest against the autocratic President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. The country had cut loose from the USSR after the collapse of European Communism. While many former Soviet states embraced the democratic process, Belarus retained a state-run economy and a President reluctant to give up his own brand of unchecked power.

So, what would you do if you were part of a small group eager to bring about political change in a state-run country like Belarus?

Option A: Stage an angry protest, with placards and organised chanting, where you would most probably be arrested during the planning phase, before even the first slogan could be shouted.

Option B: Stage a ‘flash mob’ by inviting participants through email and SMS to ’spontaneously’ show up at a public location and join other disenfranchised citizens in the act of eating… wait for it… ice-cream!

The second option is exactly what happened in Belarus in May 2007, soon followed by a mass ‘reading’ protest, and later a mass ’smiling’ protest. The two main benefits are obvious: 1) The plan cannot be ‘thwarted’ by the establishment due to the viral and instantaneous nature of new communication technologies; and, 2) It’s hard to arrest someone for eating ice-cream, reading or smiling without attracting international condemnation.

Of course, there’s also nothing more liberating (and nothing more politically destabilising to an autocratic state) than the public’s realisation that other’s are equally dissatisfied with the status quo.

Back to Commercial Ready…

According to the AFR, on 19 May 2008, at least 220 aspiring technology entrepreneurs were caught in the surprise axing of the four-year $700 million Commercial Ready program in the federal budget.

For a full grants overview (the good, the bad and the ugly), click here.

These people had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars collectively on their applications, and were offered little more than a letter explaining what other funding programs they might be eligible for.

However, according to many industry pundits, the closure of this program also has significant longer-term implications for innovation in Australia.

As reported by Slattery’s Watch, Ian Birks, CEO of AIIA, recently stated: “SME innovation and growth is a critical component of Australia’s aspirations in the information economy… and we cannot afford to fall behind in these areas.” While TVP General Partner Mike Zimmerman commented that he believes the death of Commercial Ready “will be an enormous blow to SMEs in the ICT sector… Many of the industry’s successful start-ups (and their investors) had seen the CR grant as THE critical government program supporting innovation.”

And from Perth-based venture capital investor Matt Callahan, published in the AFR: “Wow - that is probably the biggest damaging stake into the start-up companies’ heart I have ever heard of. I am stunned.”

Anthill also received an alarmingly large number of anonymous and public comments. Hence, this blog post.

So, what’s the plan?

Step #1: Add your comments below. Is there a genuine complaint to be made? If so, where should this complaint be directed? Your feelings, thoughts, opinions and suggestions will shape our actions.

Step #2: Join us in the first stage of a ‘flash protest’. You won’t be required to go anywhere or do anything complicated - just make a phone call when prompted by SMS.

To leave your mobile number and join the ‘flash protest’, click here. (Of course, we won’t pass on your private details to anyone else. This is all about activism! The power’s in your hands.)

Step #3: Forward this blog post to everyone you know who will be detrimentally affected by the scrapping of Commercial Ready (and anyone you know who is likely to feel strongly about the impact it’s closure will have on Australian innovation).

Step #4: Wait. Over the next five days, we’ll form a plan based on your comments and suggestions and the volume of responses we receive, and then alert you via SMS (see Step #2).

Here’s our ‘out’ clause…

If this ‘call-to-action’ fails to generate a significant response, we’ll drop the cause and move on. If the Federal Government introduces changes that will circumvent the complaints, we’ll again move on. And lastly, if this begins to get beyond us (we’re a small team at Anthill), we might need to review our position (and get back to work, so the next issue comes out).

Whatever the outcome, we’ll keep you posted, as we’re sure that whatever path we take, the outcome will present an interesting story on the rise of social networking technologies and ‘digital activism’.

What next? Get active, Anthillians.

To join the ‘flash’ protest, click here.

Leave any comments or remarks you might have below.