Think big, Hackett tells Australians on eve of Internode departure

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simon-hackett

news Internode founder Simon Hackett has exhorted Australians to think about their legacy and how they can “leave a good result behind”, in a heartfelt speech given on the eve of his departure from the Internet service provider he founded and arrival as a board director at the National Broadband Network Company.

Hackett is one of the most recognisable faces in Australia’s technology sector, courtesy of his role leading Adelaide-headquartered national broadband provider Internode for several decades, as well as involvement in numerous technology-related endeavours such as bringing the first Tesla electric car to Australia and more. In November last year, a year after his company was acquired by iiNet, Hackett was invited by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to join the board of NBN Co. He accepted the role, which required him to resign any involvement with iiNet or Internode.

Today Hackett published the audio and transcript from a speech he gave at a live performance event in Adelaide on 27 November last year — the day of his departure from Internode and the day before he took up the new role at NBN Co.

In the speech, the Internode founder said he wanted to challenge those listening to find those things around them in society — whether that be helping a neighbour, building a new thing or anything that played to their own skillsets and desires — and spend time on them to leave a good result behind them.

Personally, Hackett said the “longest unbroken single relationship” he had had in his life hadn’t been with a person, but with a company — Internode. “I’ve spent my business career through that company connecting people to this thing called the Internet,” said Hackett. “I became, in effect, a ‘high technology plumber’. And through that ‘plumbing’ I have found a lot of personal pleasure because I really like making people happy – and that turns out to be a way that I found that my particular skill-set allows me to make people happy.”

The Internode founder said he would be sad about leaving Internode, but the reason he had left was very much about being a “good ancestor” (the theme of the event) and leaving something behind.

“I’m doing that because I’m conceited enough to believe that twenty years of skills that I’ve learned in the past can be applied in the future to try to produce more social equity and that’s something that I happen to care about,” said Hackett. “This very abstract notion of hooking us all on the Internet is something I’m deeply involved with, obviously.”

“I happen to believe that that next big utility, that next big way of connecting to our homes and our businesses beyond power, water, gas and sewerage – that next set of ‘pipes’ – can be tremendously important to us if they are available to everyone, if they work properly, and if they cost the same for everyone. They’re actually things that have a social equity.”

“So I care a lot about that, and so I’m devoting the next few years of my life to trying to make that environment better, precisely in the hope that the National Broadband Network can be a part of the ‘ancestry’ of this country in its future, that’s a positive one for all of us. It lets us do new things in our future that weren’t possible in our past. And I think as I get older I’ve found that more and more I want to do things in my life that are capable of leaving a trial behind me that is about more than just my own needs and more than just about what I want to do.”

Another example of the way Hackett was pursuing in this vein was his creation of the Base64 startup incubator in Adelaide, based in a historic building which Hackett is refurbishing.

opinion/analysis
This isn’t a normal story for Delimiter — no controversy, not much technical stuff, etc. It’s more about emotions and about Hackett’s thoughts on his (extremely interesting) life and his choices.

However, I wanted to post something about this on Delimiter because I think technologists of all stripes often get a little bit too caught up in the technology they they are deploying or using, and don’t stop to think about the wider implications of what they’re doing. It’s because as a rule, we all find technology itself so fascinating that it’s hard to be interested in the bigger picture. I often do this myself. How often have I wanted to upgrade my desktop PC to the latest specification … despite the fact that what I mostly do on it all day is merely type text for people to read on the Internet?

Hackett’s comments are a timely reminder that technologists matter — we matter deeply — to society. In the 1980’s, the 1990’s and even the 2000’s, technology was often seen as a geeky thing which only nerds would be interested in. However, in this period of intense technological change in which we are enmeshed, it’s going to be very important for technologists to think about the impact we are having and the legacy we are leaving. We need to help others understand this new reality we are continually entering.

I think we can all agree that Hackett’s work has been tremendously important over the past several decades in bringing the Internet — the universal communication and knowledge-sharing network — to all Australians. Perhaps it’s a good time to think about what each of us plans to do for the next two decades. If we think about it in a deep enough manner, perhaps we’ll be able to find a path as meaningful as Hackett’s.

For my own part, I’ll be writing. That’s my thing. Mainly about technology, but also about other things. Enough people seem to think that’s a good idea so far, and it’s working well for me at the moment. I suspect they will need to pry my keyboard from my cold, dead hands in about 60 years ;)

Image credit: Internode

18 COMMENTS

  1. I think he is going to be hamstrung with NBNCo and not able to achieve what he believes he can achieve. He will be one voice of many on the board and his path has already been decided. He has good intentions but his named will be marred by a shoddy outcome.

    Happy to be proven wrong as we’ll get the network that Australia needs to succeed in the future but we all know what we’ll get from this government and NBNCo.

    • It’s unfortunate, I’m sure he would’ve had a lot more potential as a board member if the NBN wasn’t so politicised as it is – especially since the whole board itself is lead by a liberal stooge

  2. “pry my keyboard from my cold, dead hands in about 60 years”
    I wonder if the keyboard will have been superseded in 60 years.

  3. ““I happen to believe that that next big utility, that next big way of connecting to our homes and our businesses beyond power, water, gas and sewerage – that next set of ‘pipes’ – can be tremendously important to us if they are available to everyone, if they work properly, and if they cost the same for everyone. They’re actually things that have a social equity.”

    This intrigued me, Simon’s done a great job with internode but if he really believed what he has said, why is he supporting MTM (HFC specifically) when the CBN will not produce a utility grade equal access communication system of the caliber of the power grid or water/gas mains?

    • Maybe his tweet says it all:
      Simon Hackett ‏@simonhackett Jan 22

      @JasonClareMP @SenatorLudlam @ZDNet @zyzzyvamedia I’d love 100% FTTP. SR shows it would mean 50-80% retail price hike. Do you want that?

      • The SR numbers are pure fiction and have been ripped to shreds by multiple reputable journalists and even a few economists!

        • The SR numbers also very conveniently forget there are a 3 premium speed tiers above 100/40mbps available on FTTP which will be very useful to businesses and generate significant revenues for nbn co and IPS’s.

          And that’s just the tip of the dodgy iceberg!

      • Even if the SR numbers are accurate, I’d be happy to pay 50%-80% extra given the performance of the service would be 10x – 100x more than what I get now. Additionally, I’d be able to get rid of my phone line (which I currently need) thus saving me ~$30 / month which would cover the 50% increase.

        Admittedly, I’m on the high end of Internet usage. However, I’d have thought the plans were going to be tiered so as those at the lower end would be minimally affected price-wise compared to current plans. Also, if you’re someone unlucky enough to have to use Mobile / 4G for home internet use, then you’re already paying a premium for very little quota. An NBN connection that’s 50% – 80% more expensive than an existing ADSL connection could still end up being cheaper than, or at least quite competitive with, a Telstra Mobile / 4G connection.

        To summarise, my answer to Simon’s twitter question is a resounding YES.

        It’s also the answer to socially equitable internet access:
        “if they are available to everyone, if they work properly, and if they cost the same for everyone. They’re actually things that have a social equity”

        So Simon is working to two opposing goals:
        1. Available to everyone and cost the same for everyone
        2. Doesn’t cost an extra 50% – 80% over current plans

        It’s impossible to have it both ways.

      • What I don’t get is how they keep looking at cost and saying FTTP prices will be higher because of this, all while ignoring useful life and therefore the period over which the payback can occur.

        Surely 73B being paid back of a 30 year period is a lot less needing to be paid back each year, and therefore lower prices, than $41B that has to be paid back in 10 years.

      • @John Just in case you are interested in some analysis of the the SR’s dodgy numbers…

        http://www.zdnet.com/creative-maths-taint-nbn-strategic-reviews-revenue-argument-7000025705/

        just to whet your appetite:

        “The first is a matter of timing: the SR’s revenue forecasts only extend until the end of FY2021, even though the same table shows that the current rollout wouldn’t be complete until the end of CY2024 – halfway into FY2025.

        In other words, the painfully apples-and-oranges analysis ignores three and a half years of what would be the current NBN’s most important revenue-earning years in what can only be an attempt to paint Scenario 6 as delivering higher revenues.”

        there’s plenty more too if you care to look…

  4. “How often have I wanted to upgrade my desktop PC to the latest specification … despite the fact that what I mostly do on it all day is merely type text for people to read on the Internet?”

    Well, that’s the thing though. You have two choices:
    1) limit yourself to the capacity you have indefinitely
    2) increase your capacity to allow for more demanding tasks (peak capacity)

    Sure, there’s an expense, but you can either never do those more demanding tasks, or spend money so that you can sometimes do them. Think about peak electricity demand, for instance.

    I seized on this because it’s a parallel for a lot of choices in life. You don’t always need “the best”, but when you do need “the best”, it’s good to have “the best”.

    • And here’s where it gets interesting, the solution chosen by Labor is actually not the most technically advanced solution available – to use the PC analogy they did not choose the intel Xeon powered workstation but the intel i7 powered PC!

      They could have chosen an AON (Active Optical Network) design but they chose a PON (Passive Optical Network) which delivers most of the performance of an AON network but at a tiny fraction of the cost!

      The Libs on the other hand are trying to flog us an old AMD Arhlon 64 in a new case with a new screen but the guts are still massively out of date and will hamper productivity gains that a new i7 PC would provide.

    • I doubt any company in the world would roll out a new copper network to replace an old one, they would (are) all using fibre.

      In that way, it’s only “the best” as that is what the industry is using as standard replacement equipment for copper line.

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