This brief history has been compiled because it is clear that political figures not even involved in the project at the time of its conception are now claiming the cudos.
Following his hasty departure over the Burk scandal Mal Bryce, the Deputy Premier, left Western Australia and joined the Ipswich city Council in Queensland as the business development manager . When he left the Labor Party was in chaos after the state's Premier Brian Burke had been convicted of four counts of fraud. At this time Scott Balson was establishing his new innovative business in the area of computer based marketing from Technology Park in the Perth suburb of Bentley.
One of Mal Bryce's objectives was to try to change the perspective of Ipswich - seen as backward - to a centre of innovation. The original idea was to establish a wide area network of computers linking various institutions and the city council. The longer term vision being the ability of rate payers to pay their bills, get information and check for book availability through the library. The problem was how to do this.
By coincidence Scott Balson met Mal Bryce in late 1993 after he gave a breakfast talk to people working in Technology Park - which had been one of Mal's innovative ideas in the 1980s.
Scott was having an exhibition at Technology Park in January 1994 and invited Mal Bryce to launch this exhibition for him. Mal Bryce agreed and, after giving his talk, Scott Balson demonstrated to him the concept he had developed as a proposal to west Australian Newspapers in 1993 - which put into practice the very goal that the Ipswich City Council had set Bryce. Scott's prototype demonstrated how an interactive system could allow various parts of the community to interact through a wide area network.
Scott was invited by Mal Bryce to give a demonstration of his concept to the city's CEO, Jamie Quinn, Mal Bryce and the editor of the local Queensland Times. Mark Hinchcliffe, in March 1994. Following this meeting Scott Balson was contracted to develop the working paper for his concept which he based around the backbone of the evolving Internet platform. During this four week period leading up to June 1994 he stayed at the Mt Ommaney Apartments.
His proposal was widely accepted by the wider project team which included the IT Manager, Roger Birch, Neil McPhilips, and the librarian Roger Coleman. Following the blue print's acceptance he accepted a contract on behalf of his company Interactive Presentations Pty Ltd to act as Project Co-ordinator of what was then called "Global Info-Links". Global Info-Links is based on Balson's original prototype presented to the management of west Australian Newspapers in 1993.
GIL Team in March 1995 (original members listed in bold below)
Seated left to right: Roger Birch, Jamie Quinn, Mal Bryce (Project Chairman),
Scott Balson (Project manager), Margaret Thomson, and Roger
Coleman.
Standing: left to right: Andrew Osborne, Jenny Hastie, Chris Nilon
and Neil McPhilips.
Scott Balson's proposal incorporated many of the ideals presented to West Australian Newspapers- with provision for special school nets, Senior's net and on-line library features. In fact the project was to be established in the new $17 million Global Info-Links library which created some heated discussion in council with one councillor in particular, Pauline Hanson, loudly proclaiming that the money would be better spent on roads and rubbish. Ironically Pauline Hanson was to later be recognised as Australia's first cyber-politician thanks to Scott Balson's efforts.
Over the next six months the project became reality with Australia's first Internet service going on-line on the 7th December 1994 and providing the Mayor, David Underwood, with a strong base on which to launch his re-election campaign at the Council elections in March the next year. On the 3rd February1995 the Global Info-Links project was officially launched by Labor identity Barry Jones who hailed Ipswich's technology hub. At the launch a large wooden pyramid-like structure with an acrylic head and the Global Info-Links was unveiled. Each panel of the pyramid recognised the efforts of those involved by naming the project team and the city councillor's involved in the birth of the Global Info-Links project.
The city, which prides itself in recording its historic path, would soon re-write the history of the project.
In the March election David Underwood lost his position as Mayor and under the incoming Mayor, John Nugent, a new councillor Paul Pisasale, gained a prominent position overseeing the Global Info-Links project. Within months he had displaced Mal Bryce as Chairman of the project and Scott Balson left the project in July 1995 in disgust with the way in which the project was now being managed.
Mal Bryce left not long after. In 1997 Councillor Paul Pisasale had the pyramid-like structure taken to the tip and destroyed. The memory of the official launch being replaced by a small plaque now situated in the wall of the Global-Info-Links library. In the late 90s Paul Pisasale, who was not even a councillor at the time the project was launched by Barry Jones, started to claim that he was the project's innovator.
In 1999 Paul Pisasale was exposed as being a shareholder in an on-line gambling casino project called "GoCorp" - with GIL being used to support the project.
In recent years the project has lost direction and has now become ITEL - a commercial community-based telephone carrier in Ipswich. The dreams and visions to make Ipswich a technology hub were lost the moment Mal Bryce lost control of the project and political forces started sowing their own oats for their own beneficial interest. The original vision of Global Info-Links is today little more than a telphone hub and Internet Service Provider. The original concepts developed by Scott Balson are now used by councils around the world.
Talk on the innovative GIL project given to AUSWEB by Scott Balson in March 1995