Hugh Halloran

COMPETITION in the local travel guide market will hot up with the release next month of a new publication aimed at the State’s growing backpacking industry.

THE State Government has bowed to industry pressure and suspended its WA-MAID industry development program.

AUSTRALIA’S information technology industry is in a bind.

IPT Systems has won a legal action in the WA Supreme Court against a former director of the company.

THE State Government’s official launch of its SPIRIT program in early October will be welcomed by the local technology industry.

SPIRIT might be a popular program with the local ICT industry, but another associated initiative – WA-MAID (Western Australian Major Alliances for Industry Development) – has attracted almost unanimous criticism.

WINTER is over, summer is on its way, and so is the usual deluge of slip-slop-slap advertising.

FINDING an attractive way to get your message across is becoming easier by the week.An increasing number of corporate communications professionals are setting up as ‘one-man-shows’, although that description is not actually very appropriate.

THE State Government’s decision not to support the Pinnacle Blue supercomputer came as no surprise to those in WA’s technology sector.

TWO Perth technology companies have more in common than racing each other to be the world leader in refractive laser eye surgery.

WINNING awards is nothing new to the directors of Lasata Software, so it is no surprise to hear Steve Wall and Tony Farrell were on a plane to Hong Kong, then Canada, within days of accepting their latest prize.

TWO weeks after WA Business News questioned the future of the Pinnacle Blue supercomputer, the State Government has dumped the project.

THE directors of Software Engineering Australia (WA) will fight a decision to withhold funding considered crucial to the software incubator’s future.

A GOVERNMENT report on the IDEA (Innovation, Development, Employment and Applications) project at St Andrews, north of Perth, will not be finished until October, four months after State Cabinet was to receive it.

DIRECTORS of multimedia firm Imago will this week announce the company’s future – a future that will almost certainly involve the sale of the business.

MEMBERS of the City of Gosnells’ business community intend to start their own telecommunications company with the aim of offering businesses cheap phone calls.

IF ever a company adopted a name that had interesting business connotations, it was Imago.

THE series of mergers and acquisitions in the resource industry is beginning to affect the next level of that industry – the support services companies.

SIX months after final State Cabinet approval was expected, the future of the Pinnacle Blue supercomputer project is no closer to being announced.

ONLY a few months after winning a national award, the ABC’s Perth website has broken through the 100,000 visits per week mark.

THE directors of multimedia developer Imago have received at least six offers from parties interested in buying the business.

AUSTRALIAN Information Industry Association chairman Phil Foxwell is keen to put his personal stamp on the organisation in the next year.

A DELEGATION of business, government and education representatives will promote WA’s technological and business capabilities in a visit to Malaysia next month.

BOAT Torque, a name synonymous with ferry services to Rottnest Island, is to disappear from Perth’s seascape.

NUMEROUS challenges await the WA branch of the Australian Information Industry Association and its new chairman Phil Foxwell.

FOLLOWING its signing of a joint venture deal in Singapore, pSivida Ltd is aiming to formalise two collaborative relationships in Australia by year’s end.

THE work of a small Perth software developer SigPoint Pty Ltd is being recognised by the movers and shakers of California’s Silicon Valley.

WHEN the subject of computer software arises most people probably think of web browsers and common programs such as Windows, and Word.

HAVING endured difficult trading conditions for the first half of last financial year, Perth’s Apple-Macintosh computer vendors report they have turned the corner in recent months.

AMID continued uncertainty about the viability of many technology companies, two listed Perth companies have reported strong quarterly financial results.

AN Australian company that will launch a countrywide IP-based telephone service on July 31 doesn’t want its identity to be known.

TRANSPERTH held the first in a series of Short Message Service (SMS) trials with passengers this week.About 650 people participated in the trial, which has been promoted on Transperth’s recently revamped website.