Newstead, Australia's most open sourced town

Newstead, Victoria, is a small town with a population of around 400 people, located about 2 hours North of Melbourne. In 2008 the town held a forum on the same day as the Rudd government's national forum. The towns folk discussed what people's vision for the town was. Quite a few of the ideas involved using technology to improve the town.

In September 2008, Dave Hall moved into the area and became involved with Newstead 2021, the local community group guiding the implementation of many of the projects identified at the forum.

The town now boasts many projects which have been implemented using free/open source software, including a free wifi network, community managed website, community run internet cafe, an internet connected weather station and various blogs run by community groups. It even hosted the first StixCamp (a bar camp in the "sticks"). Most of the projects in the town have been made possible through a combination of government and private sector sponsorhip.

Technology and particularly free/open source software based solutions have made it possible to acheive a lot in a relatively short period of time. The town doesn't see itself as a technological backwater, but rather a place that wants to show others what is possible. In Newstead technology is being used to overcome social disadvantage and the tyranny of distance.

The session will be jointly presented by Newstead's resident open source geek, Dave Hall and long term resident, businessman and Newstead 2021 member, Ron Snep. The presentation will give an overview of the projects rolled out, while also discussing the technological and social considerations and issues that arose. The benefits delivered to the community will also be highlighted.

The town is already identifying the next round of tech projects to be implemented. Newstead has already staked their claim to being the most open source town in the country, next they hope to be first to be full powered by renewable engery.

Files: 

Slides in S5 (html) format(6.17 MB)

All delegates attending this session must bring and ensure: