Accelerating the digital researcher on the information superhighway

The internet has grown over the past 50 years from a network connecting computer science researchers funded by the US military, to a network connecting two billion people worldwide. Internet users span all ages, abilities and interests, and the web has equally transformed the world for scientists and researchers. We can tackle problems with a scale and speed previously impossible. Universities and government are ensuring that the internet's possibilities for transforming the way we work are made available for large-scale research of a global, collaborative nature. The current focus on supporting the use of the internet to facilitate big science started 10 years ago in the UK with advocacy for eScience---the 'e' standing for 'enabling' rather than 'electronic'. In Australia, the term was generalised to 'eResearch' five years ago to cover the complete spectrum of research, including humanities, social sciences, medicine and all branches of science.