An Aussie’s Take on Google I/O

I spent last week at Google I/O, Google’s annual conference for developers held in San Francisco. This conference is all about making the web a better place -- the nuts and bolts of software development that most folks don’t ever think about when they add apps to their Android phones or when they log into their Gmail. What’s interesting about all these developers getting stoked about building the apps of the future is that they take one thing for granted: high speed Internet connectivity. That’s not to say they don’t recognise that sometimes connectivity is slow or erratic -- they do, and we’re all trying to find ways to make sure our apps can work in those situations. What I mean is that their starting assumption is that high speed connectivity is fast becoming like electricity or running water -- never far away when you need it, and plenty of it. I love this optimism -- and it’s this optimism that is bringing the National Broadband Network to Australia.

Out of all the exciting announcements that came out of Google this week, every single one of them relies on high speed broadband. YouTube movie rentals -- tick. Syncing your music library and movies from Android Market across your PC and your Android tablet and phone -- tick. Using a Chromebook, where your apps, games, photos, music, movies and documents will be accessible wherever you are and you don't need to worry about losing your computer or forgetting to back up files -- tick. These products will run on the networks we we have now, but just imagine their potential -- and the potential of the ideas of all the developers in Moscone Center and those around the world watching Google I/O streamed over YouTube -- when we have high speed Internet everywhere.

Most of us in the Sydney office wish we had a dollar for every time someone asked us about the NBN, “Yeah, but what are you going to do with all that speed?” or “What’s Google’s vision for how to use all that bandwidth?” I think we saw a taste of it at Google I/O.

Posted by Alan Noble, Engineering Director, Google Australia

Have a say in your Broadband Future

The Australian Government is holding an event, Realising Our Broadband Future, at UNSW in Sydney this week to talk about the applications and business models that will thrive in Australia's high speed broadband future. At Google we've been very supportive of the vision for ubiquitous high-speed Internet access in Australia for driving innovation and stimulating the digital economy and we'll be presenting in various sessions at the conference.

On Thursday morning Vint Cerf (our Chief Internet Evangelist) will be giving a keynote address, to be followed by David King (Senior Product Manager at YouTube). David will talk about new business models that are emerging for media companies in the digital economy. I'll be chipping in as Lead Editor on a stream focusing on Smart Infrastructure.

It's great to see Government opening up the event for participation online for everyone in Australia. The Open To Ideas forum lets you submit questions and ideas for discussion as well as voting on other people's ideas - this uses Google Moderator. Make sure you submit your vote today. You can watch live webcasts of the event here.

Posted by Alan Noble, Head of Engineering Google Australia and NZ