Garages are for more than just cars. Photo: Virginia Starr
IT'S a world of acronyms and they're a speciality of government and academia.
BTW, I'm avoiding OMG on religious grounds and LOL ever since someone thought I was sending them lots of love - and that does make me laugh out loud.
But the acronym of the week is definitely ABAL - the Australian Broadband Applications Laboratory. It's going to be a great way for some very bright people to make a lot of money, because it's the digital version of the humble garage - that magical place of true Aussie insight and invention.
Of course the temple of the backyard is also the traditional home of the family car but that's not half the story. It's also where the old fridge ended up for dad's beer, followed by the old TV and the old couch. The microwave arrived next and there wasn't any real reason to live in the house - that's until the kids formed their band.
Apart from being a source of great consolation and meditation for all the dads who couldn't get rid of their stress with yoga or Pilates, the garage has also been a place of money-making invention.
It was in a garage in Seattle that Larry Page and Sergey Brin invented Google. They were down to their last $100,000 when an angel investor put in another $100,000 and turned it into $43 billion.
It wasn't just Google that was invented in a garage. A few years earlier, Steve Jobs invented the Apple computer in his backyard. And don't forget the Rasmussen brothers who spent hours in their Sydney garage inventing Google Maps.
Forty years before all that, Dr David Warren nutted out the ''black box'' flight recorder at the end of his driveway. What amazing people we are, inventing everything from the stump-jump plough to the CSIRO team's internet WiFi - the essential component of 800 million computer devices worldwide.
''And don't forget the secret ballot,'' says Louise. ''I wish I could forget the last one,'' says Charlie.
Now that the national broadband network is almost with us, it's time to get serious about making the most of it. We will soon go from the pathetic position of 18th in world broadband speed to being in the top five within a decade.
And this is where ABAL at Melbourne University comes in. I am told Sydney is working on something similar. If you have a great idea for the internet, but no development capital, you can apply to ABAL. If selected, you will go into the lab to test your invention on an internet version of a flight simulator. Suddenly you have got your own garage!
Our online industry is about 4 per cent of gross domestic product. And we have only just started.
With the NBN, we will connect the whole country in ways we can barely imagine.
Take the example of a stroke patient in rural Australia. The first four hours are critical, but 95 per cent of medical experts are in five capital cities. Too bad for the 30 per cent living outside them. But with super-fast broadband, the rural hospital and the city specialist become one life-saving team.
Getting clever with the internet seems to be a good idea for 22 million Australians who could, virtually overnight, have their brain power available to 7 billion people worldwide. It's worth thinking about and we don't have to be a brain surgeon to work that one out.
Harold Mitchell is the executive chairman of Mitchell Communication Group.
