James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

The following blog post was first published as the Editor’s Note of Anthill Magazine Aug/Sep 2008 (AA29)

Why do people keep asking me to be reasonable?

It was George Bernard Shaw who gave us the maxim, ‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.’

As you know, we like to question common assumptions at Anthill, fight conventional wisdom, rally together to combat commercial stupidity.

We particularly enjoy it when we’re able to rattle some cages in partnership with our readers, because if progress depends on the unreasonable man (and woman), just imagine what an unreasonable army of Anthillians can achieve.

And we’ve been busy lately, joining our readers to collectively protest the surprise closure of Commercial Ready, inviting Anthillian blog readers to contribute to our Magazine 2.0 experiment and, in this edition, we contradict some basic assumptions of business and test the boundaries of ‘freeconomics’.

A recent highlight of Anthill activism, and the first of the examples above, took place on 19 June when ‘up to one hundred’ annoyed constituents, according to one of Minister Lindsay Tanner’s media spokespersons, called the offices of the Federal Minister for Finance and Deregulation to voice their collective concern over the Federal Government’s decision to cut Commercial Ready (CR).

The decision to cut CR, one of Australia’s most successful grant programs to support innovation, was made in reference to a report completed by the Productivity Commission, part of Minister Tanner’s portfolio, which found that the program supported too many projects that would have gone ahead without public support.

Of course, that’s easy to say once a project has raised development finance elsewhere, enhanced by the endorsement implicit in a government grant, and, only then, proven commercially successful. The scrapping raised the ire of our readers and almost anyone dedicated to the development of Australian innovative, new-to-world technologies and the companies that support them.

A stream of angry comments communicating the frustration, disappointment and general dismay of many Australian entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, scientists, technologists and innovation professionals began to appear on the Anthill blog, accompanied by a swelling ant hill of emails and letters to the editor.

And then, with a bit of help from Anthill, this general ire began to manifest itself into action, a ‘flash protest’, a mass ‘call-in’ to the Minister’s parliamentary office in Canberra with a simple message:

“My name is [insert name here] and I’m calling to voice my concern at the closure of Commercial Ready. Can you please make sure that the Minister gets my message?”

Normally an uninspiring and fairly bland sentiment such as this would go unnoticed, particularly if the 30 word message was presented by just one, lone and often lonely recalcitrant (as is generally the case). However, when delivered by ‘up to one hundred’ people, over a six hour period, orchestrated by email and SMS, the impression created becomes hard to ignore, representing one call every 3.6 minutes, relaying the same repetitive message.

Surprisingly (at least to me), all this ‘rabble rousing’ (without the rabble) has caused some of our observers (and even supporters) to criticise this editor because, by providing the technology and guidance to coordinate this flash protest, we complicated the jobs of our elected officials.

What the!?

To set the record straight, I am a proponent of positive change. (That’s how I ‘lean’.) However, change for the sake of change is just plain dangerous. And it’s the responsibility of every unreasonable man and woman to exclaim vigorously, “Hey! There’s a baby in that bathwater!” whenever the need arises, irrespective of their political persuasion or slant.

As I post this blog, Federal Innovation Minister Kim Carr has yet to make any decision on the matter, after declining to do so until the outcomes of the National Innovation Review, chaired by the respected Dr Terry Cutler, are released. (However, he did contribute his thoughts on Australian innovation in an Op-Ed column for the current edition.)

I, for one, without the benefit of hindsight, am excited. Like Anthill’s editorial ethos, the recommendations won’t please everyone. But that’s fine, so long as Australia keeps producing unreasonable people, progress will prevail.

Posted by Paul Ryan, Editor, Anthill Magazine

Thanks to everyone who emailed, posted comments on this blog and volunteered to participate in Anthill’s imminent ‘flash’ protest against the federal government’s axing of the Commercial Ready programmes. Your response was, quite simply, overwhelming. (Literally. It melted this blog for a few hours.)

A clear and vocal majority of you obviously share our dismay regarding the abolition of one of the government’s most effective initiatives supporting start-ups in Australia. Plans for appropriate Anthillian activism are in development, but have been delayed briefly due to the hospitalisation of Anthill founder/publisher James Tuckerman for back surgery (perhaps brought on by his recent bouts of revolutionary fervour). James went under the knife at 2pm yesterday afternoon. The operation was a complete success and he’ll be back in the trenches before you can say “people power”.

So sit tight, comrades. Action is at hand. James will return (with even more spine) ready and raring to defend the interests of innovative Aussie start-ups.

If you’d like to pass on your best wishes for James during his convalescence, please leave a comment below. And if you want to help save Commercial Ready (or have it replaced by an even better programme), there’s still time to do your bit and get involved. Sign up here.

Cheers,

Paul Ryan
Editor
Anthill Magazine

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.