The CIO Australia Show

There's been much talk lately about the so-called Web 3.0 sparking debate as to whether it is indeed the future of digital communications (Facebook's or rather ‘Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg certainly thinks so) or rather an over hyped concept driven by brands struggling to maintain relevance, and indeed revenues amid growing competition (Zuckerberg would of course tell you it’s not.)

If we take a wider look at the various technologies analysts tell us define Web 3.0 – or the metaverse - there are actually many that CIOs and other tech leaders should take seriously.

The internet of things (and expanded IoT – yes that’s also now a thing) virtual reality and especially augmented reality, and of course digital twins for example.

The ideas of decentralised control and individual ownership are firmly embedded in Web 3.0 as well. And regardless of whether you think blockchain and NFTs have been overhyped, it’s hard to argue they’re not going to have some role to play in the future.

In this, our final episode, we talk with Jonathan Kempe, founder and CEO of supply chain tech startup Shipz, and Johnny Serrano, CIO alumnus and global CIO at Australian mining safety company, Ground Probe, about the various opportunities - real or imagined - presented by Web 3.0, the realities of what’s been achieved to date and what we might expect to see in terms of its impact on businesses and industry in the future.

Organisations in the public and private sectors were faced with a once-in-a-century crisis, with CIOs and their teams thrust into the front line, delivering digital solutions in quick time that undoubtedly saved countless lives, while changing healthcare forever.

In this episode we talk to Richard Taggart, executive director digital health and innovation at Sydney Local Health District, one of Australia’s largest public health corridors, and Alan Pritchard Director of EMR and ICT Services, with Victorian public health agency Austin Health.

Two genuine warriors of digital health in Australia – and, fittingly CIO50 alumni – they discuss what they and their teams accomplished in the trenches throughout the pandemic, from managing the surge of COVID-19 cases and rush for vaccines, standing up telemedicine and virtual hospitals, transforming systems for managing patient data, and what all of this will mean for the future of digital healthcare, assuming that we will one day be in a post-pandemic world.

It’s that time of year again, with nominations now open for the CIO50 awards both in Australia and in New Zealand.

The program is now in its 7th year down under, and has been running for four years across the ditch, creating a proud and growing alumni group underscoring the high calibre of technology leaders operating in this part of the world.

In this episode, David Binning speaks with CIO Australia's editor-in-chief, Byron Connolly, and CIO New Zealand's editor, Cathy O'Sullivan, about their respective CIO50 programs for 2022.

Who should enter and how, what this year's judges are looking for, plus explanation of some exciting new categories that reflect the evolving nature of technology leadership in this part of the world.

Earlier this month this was a good deal of excitement – probably mixed with horror for some – following ‘revelations’ in the tech and indeed mainstream press that one of Google’s chat bots had become sentient.

The call – or rather we might say alarm – was raised by software engineer, Blake Lemoine who asked a number of questions of the LaMDA chat bot he had been working with, which communicated several eerily-human responses including its desire to be considered a person with feelings and to be formally recognised as an employee at Google. 

LaMDA stands for the Language Model for Dialogue Applications and is a family of neural language models developed by Google. 

In internal memo to some 200 Google staff, Lemoine described a chat bot he’d been working with as a seven-year-old child that wants the world to be a better place for all.

Suffice to say Google issued a prompt response dispelling the idea that it was sentient, with Lemoine placed on forced leave.

Leaving aside all the predictable analogies with sci-fi books and films, the incident does raise interesting questions about the current capabilities of AI systems and what we might expect to see in coming years. 

We already have voice-driven systems – as well as chatbots – able to discern customer sentiment, so it’s not too farfetched to imagine more emotionally intuitive and responsive systems, say supporting sales and marketing, as well as health, in particular mental health.

Tune in to hear a fascinating conversation with Tathagat Banerjee, founder and CEO of Sydney-based startup Video Translator AI, as well as Julien Eps, head of the School of Engineering and Telecommunications with the University of NSW and a member of the NSW Smart Sensing Network.

As you’ll hear, while true sentience – itself a debatable term – is no doubt a stretch, Blake Lemoine’s experience serves to remind us that AI has nevertheless come a long way in a short period of time, with exciting new applications that effectively mimic human capabilities already in use.

We’re coming up to almost two years since the first episode of The CIO Show, which was a two part series discussing how Australian organisations were progressing with artificial intelligence. The scorecard was less than glowing, with much lower confidence and greater fear than most other developed economies.

Fear arising both from perceptions of AI as something super complex and other worldly, and from the rising chorus of voices concerned that the ‘machines were coming’ and jobs, life as we know it was under threat, all amid a seeming torrent of ethical and legal challenges – real and imagined.

On the other end of the spectrum, many organisations still viewed AI as some sort of panacea, increasing pressure on tech leaders to deploy solutions that had it written on the tin, with inevitable disappointing results. Lack of consultation and buy from the c-suite and wider workforce was among many other problems cited as impeding the progress of AI across Australian enterprises.

So where are we now? Joining us to try and answer this far-from simple question is Michael Ciavarella, former CIO with Swimming Australia and now CTO with online fashion retailer, A&S Labels, Professor Michael Blumenstein, Deputy Dean research and innovation with the University of Technology, and Louise Francis, ANZ country manager and research director with IDC.  

It’s been just over a year since Australian media giant Nine was rocked by a major ransomware attack pushing its head of IT and the company’s first true head of cyber onto a true war-footing.

Coming amid a sharp rise in cyber attacks throughout the pandemic, it nevertheless delivered a jolt to many Australians, seeing such an established and recognised brand fall victim to something like this. As we know the attack led to some broadcast and other operations being seriously disrupted, as well as an almost 3 percent dip in the share price as news got to market.

For media tech veteran, Damian Cronan, Nine’s chief information and technology officer, it was a career shaping experience like nothing he’d faced before, kicking off around 2am on the morning of Sunday May 28 last year. By his side was the newly appointed group director of IT security, Celeste Lowe, one of Australia’s most respected cyber experts.

Together they provide a candid and insightful look at how one of Australia’s biggest media companies dealt with its biggest ever cyber threat; how the ‘war room’ was created, what immediate actions were taken, and how the experience has shaped the organisations future strategies and technology decisions.

The Digital Transformation Agency, or DTA, was established back in 2016 with an ambitious charter to steer the Australian public service towards being a world leader in the creation and delivery of digital services.

Few would argue that it’s fallen well short of that, with a string of high profile projects failing to deliver despite going way, way over budget. The agency has also had a different boss for almost every year of its existence, alarming rates of churn across staff and senior management, and an increasingly secretive and unaccountable culture, as any journalist who’s tried to speak to the DTA can attest.

Several major changes were set in train by incoming chief executive Chris Fechner – who unsurprisingly declined to join us – with the upshot being the DTA is shifting away from actually managing large-scale digital projects to operating in more of an advisory capacity.

Meanwhile, the Australian National Audit Office has commenced its audit into the DTA’s procurement practices, the highly anticipated findings of which are due in September.

In this episode of The CIO Australia Show, we’re fortunate to have three of Australia’s foremost experts on digital transformation in government: Lesley Seebeck, former chief investment and advisory officer at the DTA; Marie Johnson, chief executive at the Centre for Digital Business; and Rowan Dollar, chief information officer, Catholic Education, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.

All three guests cite various reasons why the DTA has had its day, including arguably the biggest that you just heard at the top of the program. They also share their thoughts on how a more effective and consultative replacement might be created.

As anyone who follows the Australian CIO50 would know, former Revenue NSW CIO Kathleen Mackay topped the list in 2021 largely for her work in applying AI and machine learning to help develop better systems and processes for identifying - and managing - vulnerable people with outstanding fines.

Somewhat awkwardly for her, Revenue NSW, and if we’re honest us at CIO Australia as well, the NSW Ombudsman released a report late last year concluding that that machine technologies used by Revenue NSW between 2016 and 2019 (Mackay’s tenure was largely after that period) to garnish monies owed for fines were applied unlawfully. The Ombudsman called for significant reforms in how the technologies should be used right across the public sector.

It spawned an inevitable flurry of headlines proclaiming ‘Robodebt 2.0’, and was no doubt viewed by many working in tech as an unnecessary setback on the road to governments harnessing machine technologies to deliver better quality services to people, communities and businesses, and generally improve lives. There are many examples of this happening.

But the Ombudsman report was probably also a wakeup call, reminding us all that governments face unique challenges in deploying AI and ML technologies compared with the private sector, including legal, privacy and political factors that need to be carefully balanced.

In this episode we talk with the NSW Government's chief data scientist, Dr Ian Opperman about his work as one of Australia’s – and the world’s – leading proponents of ethical AI systems, and Jeannie Marie Paterson, professor of law, co-director of the Centre for AI and digital ethics at the University of Melbourne, about the impressive potential – and significant challenges – for better utilising machine technologies across the public service.

On November 18, the achievements of 50 of Australia’s leading technology and digital executives were celebrated at the Sydney launch of the CIO50 awards program.

In this episode of The CIO Show, the last for 2021, CIO Australia’s editor-in-chief, Byron Connolly, speaks to Dr Steve Hodgkinson, CIO at the Victorian Department of Health, who placed number two in the list, and Helen Clifton, chief digital officer, who placed number three this year.

A CIO5o stalwart, Steve Hodgkinson has been a champion of agile in the Australian public sector He discusses the way technology has been used to help the healthcare sector deal with the worst pandemic in 100 years. He also discusses the impact of the platform+agile approach he developed and how it is being copied by other state government departments, local government councils, and health services.

Meanwhile, the media sector has undergone rapid change in recent years; the effects of digital disruption has been widespread and brutal. The ABC’s Clifton discusses how the organisation uses digital tools in engaging audiences, particularly around the delivery of key community services.

Hodgkinson and Clifton also talk about where they see the CIO role evolving over the coming years as organisations shift to more flexible, hybrid working environments.

One of the key CIO trends we’ve seen throughout the pandemic is that tech leaders have now come to be seen as business leaders in ways we’ve not seen before.

And as you’ll hear in this episode, to such an extent that it’s likely the role of CIO – including possibly the title itself – will shift even further away from being focussed just on technology, towards being a vastly more integrated role.

But what do CIOs need to do – and know –to be become more effective leaders? And what of those CIOs with genuine ambitions to move into CEO roles?

Cyber security is a key concern for CIOs and those executives charged with hiring them. It’s an area that requires as much of an understanding about governance and compliance as it is about technology these days.

And what about things like business management? Or other disciplines that might indicate a command of soft skills? On that expression – whether you like or not – it might actually be losing its currency as things like emotional intelligence and the ability to understand and manage people become increasingly a given.

Syed Ahmed, chief digital officer with mental health group, Innowell, has augmented his extensive tech credentials and experience with an MBA. He says it’s becoming increasingly important for tech leaders to equip themselves as true business leaders, whether they intend to take on such extended responsibilities or not.

Louise Francis, country manager and research director for IDC A/NZ notes that for those tech leaders that do have higher ambitions, it’s essential that they develop a deeper understanding of change management, amongst other things.