--- Upon
commencing on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 6:09 p.m.
MR. OXLEY: To
close us out and to highlight some of the policies of the OECD I want to
introduce Richard Simpson, the Director General of Electronic Commerce at
Industry
Richard...?
MR. SIMPSON:
Thank you, John; thank you, Michael and your panellists for an excellent
concluding session I agree.
Don't look so worried, I only have five minutes and
I'm going to take even less than five minutes to conclude. John worried everybody, I think, what he said
"Here is the Chair of the ICCP and he is going to summarize the policy
lessons coming out of today" and people thought "Oh, my God, 8:30
maybe."
‑‑‑ Laughter
MR. SIMPSON:
No, I just have a few things to say.
An excellent final session. When you follow Michael Geist to the podium
it's always an easy job because he doesn't leave very much on the table and I
don't have too much to pick up, except
really, well, maybe mop up work and comic relief. The comic relief you have already heard I
have to say, so don't expect any more jokes.
First, I want to thank all of the speakers today and
you, the participants in the forum, for the outstanding contributions you made
to the event and to our knowledge about the participative web.
I don't think anyone can leave here today with any
doubt...maybe I will put it another way, without a sense of amazement about the
profound changes that are under way in the economy and society, brought about
by the participative web.
What is really remarkable, when you look across the
range of these impacts, is the way in which they pose challenges and
opportunities right across the community, from governments, where there are
clearly major shifts in policy going on and in the future to deal with the new
web, but also the transformation of business models that are happening.
I think David Crane said in one session that there's
this accelerating pace of change, and I certainly think that's what's happening
in the business community. It was
highlighted right at the opening session.
I was talking to one of our business people in ISP,
and had felt a little bit intimidated by the fact that, you know, electronic
commerce is my business, so to speak. I
work with the OECD, and we try to understand what's happening in the economy,
and with the information communications technology specifically, but I was a
little intimidated because, you know, some of this stuff, like, I really hadn't
had any direct experience of it, I had heard about most of it, and I was really
worried about how far behind I was falling.
I was talking to Tom Copeland, one of our ISPs, and he
said, You know, I'm really learning a lot here.
I'm in this business, but I really wanted to find out what some of my
customers were using the web to do. And
I thought, Okay, well, that's the test of a very effective event. When you can have somebody who's involved in
that business learning something, not just policy‑makers, then that's
really fantastic.
So I mean the shifts in government policy are
happening, you have transformation of business models, but the one sleeper in
this whole thing is the fact that we are almost reinventing our civic culture.
The changes in associational and political life are
astounding. Even though there's lots to
come in the governmental policy area and in terms of business transformation, I
think this is the one that's really going to be, to use a phrase that Michael
likes to use, the elephant in the room.
I think this is the one that's maybe going to have the most changes for us
in the future.
So that's what I have taken away from the general
themes of the conference.
Mais
finalement, je voudrais remercier les personnes qui ont organisé le forum pour
votre travail extraordinaire: le groupe à l'OCDE mené par Graham Vickery et
Sasha Vincent, et aussi les membres de l'équipe d'Industrie Canada, Sherry
Scott, Josie Broka, Anthony Forano, they happen to be over there. I could mention four or five other members of that
team and people working in the OECD who have made the conference a
success. I want to thank them for their
work. Nous sommes tous d'accord, je
suis certain, que les résultats sont excellents.
Speaking about results, and keeping in mind my
responsibilities as chair of the ICCP, we will be taking those results back to
the ICCP, which is meeting here tomorrow and Friday. And certainly we will take the policy
implications which the panel has very expertly summarized for us, but I think
also from today we will be taking back more than that.
I think we have really seen the major elements of a
vision of the future of the global Internet economy, which will be built around
the participative web. And that's very
important for us at this time because, as most of you know, a ministerial
conference is being organized by the OECD for June 2008, which will take place
in Seoul, Korea, and its subject‑matter is exactly this issue: the future of the global Internet economy and
this will be the type of thing which will very much inform our discussions
tomorrow and Friday and into the future.
One final point, we will be all invited to a reception,
which will start in about 30 seconds officially. I think John is probably going to give you
the details about where exactly it's being held. We are certainly very pleased to be inviting
you to that reception, on behalf of Research in Motion, RIM, the BlackBerry
people, who we are very proud of in
Thank you, again, for an excellent, excellent day's
work.
--- Applause /
MR. OXLEY: I'm
not going to say anything other than thank you.
Off to the right, in the main room, okay, you will
notice there's a little card in your welcome packages, with some coupons on it,
as well, too, our lovely friends, Research in Motion, are sponsoring a
party. Please take all you have learned
to you from the wonderful conversation of the panellists and go enjoy yourself
off to the right.
Thank you so much.
‑‑‑
Upon recessing at 6:17 p.m.