Commonwealth Government

Part of Australian Governments on the Net: A baud rate mismatch. by Tony Barry
Last update 3 July 1994
With it's dispersed nature and the links with research organisations the Commonwealth Government sector has been most active on AARNet.

So incoherent has been the Commonwealth approach to AARNet that it has been up to individuals like Peter Talty of the Australian Computer Society and employed at the Department of Primary Industry and Energy to set up a demonstration Government Gopher. This gopher has pointers to the few government services that exist in gopherspace and notional links to departmental servers where none exists. This AUSGOV Gopher Demonstration will probably only have a limited life.

Information Exchange Steering Committee

In theory this Interdepartmental Committee coordinates Commonwealth Activity but like many IDCs it's power is limited and it's influence over powerful departments slight. While Commonwealth activity remained centred round GOSIP the lack of interoperating applications prevented a central role for this committee. Now that press reports indicate that GOSIP is loosening up in the US, the Federal Government's IESC has issued a discussion paper and TCP/IP can be mentioned in polite company it's role may become more important.

An Information Paper on the role of this committee states -

The Commonwealth Government's Information Exchange Steering Committee (IESC) is an advisory body, responsible for providing guidance on policies and strategic directions regarding Information Technology (IT) and related issues, including telecommunications.

and that -

In 1988, Cabinet formally endorsed the role of the IESC to:

In March 1991 Cabinet determined that Finance, the Department of Administrative Services and the (then) Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce, would form the core membership of the Committee, with other agencies serving on a rotational basis.

At the same time, the role of the IESC was expanded by Cabinet to include:

Government Inquiries

The Commonwealth Government has established a number of inquiries relevant to the development of the network. Three of these are -

Government Research, Information and other Bodies

Increased support for AARNet was promised over a year ago and got caught up in CRC politics. Recent discussion in the press suggests that this may be getting closer to resolution.

Australian Bureau of Statistics

The ABS has been negotiating with the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) to provide their statistical data to universities for a flat per annum fee. They have mounted a gopher server internally which will deliver the data. This service will be known as AUSSTATS Gopher Online Time Series Dissemination Service. The ABS data files are stored in Lotus-123 format. To test this the ANU has mounted a sample of the data on their Elisa service where it can be downloaded.

Australian Environmental Resources Information Network

ERIN has a
  • web and gopher server.

    Australian Geological Survey Organisation

    AGSO operates a
  • web server.

    Australian Government Publishing Service

    AGPS has email and is actively considering electronic publishing. It offers it's GOLD service via commercial services but no access to AARNet so far. Recently it has been reported to be entering into an agreement with a Canberra company, Softlaw to publish electronically with Softlaw's proprietary hypertext system.

    Australian National Botanic Gardens

    ANBG operates a
  • web and gopher server.

    Notable features are the interface to SQL based Herbaria databases and bird calls which attract a lot of interest.

    Bureau of Meteorology

    The Bureau of Meteorology offers a gopher server which has current weather forecast. So far however they do not supply the live satellite weather images which are available from many academic sites.

    CSIRO

    Almost on a weekly basis another CSIRO Division mounts a web server. At the last check there were -

    National Library of Australia

    The National Library of Australia maintains a web server. They are also holding discussions with other Departments to assist them with electronic publishing.

    Telecom

    Telecom maintains a web server with a wide variety of links to useful services.

    Commonwealth Departments

    Departmental activity at the moment outside of those aspects indirectly associated with internal research bodies is slight. No doubt GOSIP considerations have not made a more active role easy.

    Attorney-General's Department

    The Attorney-General's Department plans to offer it's SCALE service generally across AARNet and has a tender out for redevelopment of the service.

    Department of Administrative Services

    The Department uses telememo mail. They are contemplating putting services onto AARNet. Within the Department, Purchasing Australia is contracting to publish information concerning it's activities.

    Department of Finance

    The department is negotiating with the National Library to offer some information over AARNet.

    Department of Primary Industry and Energy

    The Department maintains a public gopher server which gives access to it's services Within the Department, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics ABARE has full access to the net and is a heavy user, but are behind a firewall and no access into ABARE is allowed except for email and netnews.

    The ABRE Library has a Web server up and running on a Mac with links to agricultural and natural resources information. This includes a link to the library catalogue. It is not available for access outside ABARE,

    Tony Barry
    Centre for Networked Access to Scholarly Information
    Library
    Australian National University
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