Published on the 20/01/2015 | Written by Beverley Head
Australia is set to overhaul the way it tracks and measures information and communications technology statistics, and attempt to assign higher priority to key data…
After years of hit-and-miss ICT statistics collection the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Department of Communications have announced a review of ICT statistics with public consultation open until 27 February.
According to Diane Braskic, director of innovation and technology, statistics; “Information and communications technology statistics assist government, business, researchers and the community to make informed decisions.”
In the past however the ABS has been criticised for the timeliness of some of its ICT reports, also for some of its definitions, particularly ICT workplace definitions which has made it hard in the past to identify skills shortages with any certainty.
As part of the overhaul the ABS is now encouraging companies to provide their own definitions for ICT, to identify any “critical data needs” and share with the Government how official data is used.
The ABS and DoC have also invited enterprises to reveal whether there is “data that your organisation holds which are, or could be released publicly to add to the available information on ICT? Please include any administrative or ‘big data’ sources”. It also asked for suggestions about the role that private enterprise could play in the collection and dissemination of publicly available ICT statistics.
