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		DRAFT RECORD - EC-BSG REFUGEE SANITATION MTG A2
EVENT:	EC-BSG Construction 		IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST			REF:UNCAAMd2

TOPIC:	Management - Review proposed Memorandum of Understanding [MoU]

DATE:	Mon 29 Apr 2019				TIME: 14:30 - 15:55

VENUE:	Building Y, 3rd floor room 6 (Y.3.06)
	School of Computing Engineering and Mathematics 
	Kingswood campus  UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SYDNEY

THEME:	Review European Commission "Blockchains for Social Good" Challenge

AGENDA:	Review Memorandum of Understanding for Project Joint-Venture 

ATTENDEES:

	Chair:	Professor Srinath PERERA [SPR]	Samudaya NANAYAKKARA [SNK]
	Sec:	Stephen GOULD [SGG]		Amer HIJAZI [AHJ]
						Dr Ali Al-ASHWAL [AAW]
MANAGEMENT SUMMARY

		A	Update EC-BSG H2020 Participation
		B	Project Management Issues
		C	CSIRO/ACS Blockchain 2030 - benefits for SMEs ?

A	UPDATE EC-BSG H2020 PARTICIPATION

SPR said, although he is very keen to progress the Refugee Sanitation Construction 
project, given the timescale to complete a submission by 03 Sep 2019 and the 
commitments that his department had at the moment, they would not be able to respond to 
this round of the EC-BSG Challenge

SGG said it was appreciated that it was a very short time to comply with "Technical 
Readiness Levels 7 - system prototype demonstration in operational environment [TRL7]" 
for this H2020 Challenge however given previous experiences with other "Challenges" it 
was likely that there would be similar "Blockchains for Social Good" challenges in the 
future

SPR said that his group knew very little about the Halisa International Network [HIN], the 
Open Interchange Consortium [OIC] or the Sustainability Action Network [SAN] or who 
received the emails

SGG said that is why each has a web-site with the various histories of the Special Interest 
Groups such as the 22 OIC Interest Groups including the XML Interest Group since 1999 
and "UNHCR & EWB - Zambia Volunteer Cryptocurrency" Special Interest Group [UNA]

Each of the Networks is similar to organisations like ebXML Australia and the 
"Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards [OASIS]" in that 
they are unincorporated associations

The Chairman of the Sustainability Action Network [SAN] is Peter AXTENS LLB (Retired)
the economic guidance was provided by retired Macquarie Uni lecturer Don ARCHBOLD 
with the Committee members appearing in the minutes of each meeting

SPR said the University had its own General "Memorandum of Understanding [MoU]" 
which the University's legal department prefer to use

SGG said they would be pleased to review that MoU if a copy could be supplied

However, as SPR had approached us on 12 Mar 2019 to participate in the EC-BSG 
project, is why our draft MoU had been submitted for consideration as it contained topics 
such as the Volunteer eCredits process which may not be familiar to the University

B	PROJECT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

AHJ said it would be helpful if a full project plan could be provided so that they could 
understand what resource commitments are required 

At the last meeting on 08 Apr 2019 it was agreed that a draft project plan would be 
provided around 06 May 2019 once the MoU had been agreed

SGG said at this stage the only commitment requested from c4SMC was to provide a plan
to implement a proposed Sanitation Biogas plant (which was emailed through on 20 Apr 
2019) in a local council area to give an indication of costs and resource metrics on waste 
management statistics

SGG said that he had been involved with RUBAC Project Management for many years since 
his School in the UK had participated in a Project Management joint- venture in 1990.

In fact the University of Western Sydney had adopted a similar coding system with each 
building given a letter, each floor a number and each a room a number eg Y.3.06

Then within each room there will be a certain number of assets for stock control purposes 
hence the development in 1999 of an On-line Resource Asset Management Process [RAMP]
to provide an On-line record of each asset purchased by a person/family/company/school/
university

This coding structure for assets should be based on the "Standard Business Reporting"
Program [SBR] developed by Red Wahoo and Price WaterhouseCoopers for the Australian 
Government in 2007 as "a long-term initiative to cut the red tape confronting business 
when reporting to Government"

SGG said when in 2011 he obtained a Diploma in Project Management using the PMBoK
[Project Management Book of Knowledge] methodology, one of the competencies was 
Manage Project Communications using Committee and Group Support System [GSS] 
communication processes

During this course it revealed research by the University of Arizona into 4,000 projects in 
1996 resulted in the following lessons about GSS

		Table 1. Lessons learned about GSS in organisations

1	GSS technology does not replace leadership.

2	GSS technology does not imply any particular leadership style.

3	GSS can make a well planned meeting better; and it can make a poorly planned
	meeting worse.

4	Individuals must have incentive to contribute to group effort.

5	GSS can reduce labour costs by more than 50% and project time by up to 90%.

SGG said the OIC had used GSS on 23 Aug 1996 at the Decision Support Centre in North 
Sydney to agree the Objectives, Mission Statement and Members Services of the Open 
Interchange Consortium [OIC]

And based on the research of the University of Arizona and the economic value of 
Volunteer work by Dr Duncan IRONMONGER for the Queensland Government in 2008, 
Western Australian Government in 2009, South Australian Government in 2011 and the
Victorian Government in 2012 a current volunteer hour appears to have an economic value 
of Au$ 37.50

Hence this formed the basis of the OIC value of a Volunteer hour based on different 
volunteer contributions in Committee and GSS meetings

SGG said there is additional research that the HIN/OIC/SAN networks were prepared to
share including:

1	The Australian eName and Address Standard AS4590 allowed software developers 
	to use both a simple and complex address format in software applications

	Red Wahoo claimed that Standards Australia had nominated Red Wahoo as the 
	Author of the Australian XML Name and Address Standard and consequently 
	received royalties from the sale of the AS 4590 standard by SAI Global

2	In 2006 at the OASIS Sydney Conference an international Committee agreed that the 
	complex address format must be used in all eCommerce Applications to eliminate the 
	need for each eTransaction to be checked to confirm which address format was used

3	in 2008 the CIT Committee of the National eHealth Transition Authority [NEHTA] had 
	published "8 Candidate Standards" for eHealth Applications with all but EDIFACT 
	being owned by overseas organisations not public bodies

C	CSIRO/ACS BLOCKCHAIN 2030 - BENEFITS FOR SMES ?

SPR said the Australian Computer Society [ACS] has just released its opinion of Blockchain 
called "Blockchain 2030  - a Look at the Future of Blockchain in Australia"

SGG said it would be interesting to review that opinion however there were concerns that 
"Blockchain" would be like the Y2K issue in that considerable Public Money would be spent 
trying out a new methodology which was unlikely to provide any benefits for the Community

On 09 Apr 2019 the CSIRO and the Australian Computer Society [ACS] released the following
"Blockchain 2030  - a Look at the Future of Blockchain in Australia" which is prefaced by:

"Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger technology whereby a database is distributed 
across numerous users, and changes to the database are validated by consensus among the users. 

While it is best known as the platform for Bitcoin, blockchain technology can be widely applied to 
improve business processes, increase transparency, and drive the creation of new jobs and
industries.

Over the last decade, blockchain technology has grown in popularity and use, and has already
begun to disrupt existing markets in Australia and around the world. 

The opportunities blockchain presents have been invested in, studied, explored, and considered, in 
almost all sectors of the economy. 

Blockchain has attracted significant public and private investment, and introduced previously 
non-existent products and services across multiple industries. 

Despite its potential, there is significant uncertainty regarding future adoption of blockchain 
technology in Australia. 

For instance, there are unknowns around blockchain's capacity to work at scale while remaining 
decentralised, and protect confidentiality whilst also being transparent. 

The extent to which the public will trust decentralised systems is also uncertain. 

These uncertainties raise the question: can blockchain progress beyond the hype to deliver 
tangible, high-value applications and a thriving industry for Australia, or will blockchain amount 
to little more than a market bubble ?

This prologue by ACS identifies that "Despite its Potential, there is significant uncertainty 
regarding future adoption of blockchain technology in Australia"

This concurs with our own research that although current Blockchain models may be adopted 
by large organisations with significant CIT Budgets, Systems Analysts and Programmers, 
Blockchain is unlikely to be adopted by Small and Medium-size Enterprises [SMEs] without in-
house CIT expertise

If there is a Volunteer Credits Cryptocurrency in place, particularly if it is supported by the
United Nations, then perhaps SMEs will adopt and more important support a local Volunteer 
eCredits system like Hull-Coin in the UK

Hence the importance of an On-line training program to explain to SMEs how Cryptocurrencies 
and Blockchain technologies could benefit them 

PROPOSED NEXT STEPS

		ACTION					WHO	WHEN		FOR		

1  Invite other organisations EC-BSG submission		SGG	M 06 May	SAN

2  UWS Memorandum of Understanding			SPR	F 10 May	SGG

3  Agree MoU for future joint venture projects		UWS/SAN 	Jun 2019


Stephen GOULD
Projects Co-ordinator
SUSTAINABILITY ACTION NETWORK
 
B: PO Box 517 Neutral Bay Junction NSW 2089
E: ehn.1a3posgg@gmail.com
M: {61}(4)1600-9468 


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