Feds to crowdsource ideas for NBN talkfest

The Federal Government plans to use Twitter, Wikis and other live social media technologies to feed suggestions from the general public direct to the stage at its Broadband Forum next week.

Community Groups from around the nation are being urged to come together to listen to webcasts of the 'Realising our Broadband Future' forum, discuss the material presented and make live contributions fed back into the event via a wiki and Twitter stream.

Their contributions will then be used to form the basis of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's closing address to the conference.

The forum will also feature presentations by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, NBN Co chief Mike Quigley, Google's Vint Cerf and former ICANN chief Paul Twomey, all discussing use cases for the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Pia Waugh, advisor to Senator Kate Lundy, will moderate contributions by community-based 'remote nodes' and update a wiki.  

Parramatta Council in Sydney's West has already signed up to host a community forum, which will be led and moderated by the council's Lord Mayor and include members of the area's local chamber of commerce, among others.

Waugh told iTnews that some six further nodes are being set-up around the country. She said that while Senator Kate Lundy has called on other interest groups and local communities to consider forming their own, she expects to cap the number of nodes at ten.

"This is the first time this approach has been used on this scale of policy," she said.

Waugh said most of the nodes will run a half-day session, streaming content from the main event to set the tone for discussions, then using online tools hosted by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, participants will chat with the moderator about what contributions they would like to make.

The conference is also using Google's freely available Moderator tool to discuss potential topics for discussion at the event.