For a mobile robot there are no power points in the field. The technology for virtual enterprises already exists, but it can only be marketed to large companies. It will be an advantage to large corporations. But smaller companies will link into their systems. As geography becomes less important, Australia has an enormous opportunity to reach new markets we couldn t look at.
Software is one.
India has huge software companies up and running. But Australians don t buy Australian software. Networking technology offers a huge opportunity. In Canada Nortel took on 10,000 new researchers last year. Motorola has 300 software engineers in Adelaide, and researchers producing intellectual property in other cities.