Special Report: Online business

At the height of the tech boom almost a decade ago it would have been laughable to suggest that one of Western Australia's most successful internet entrepreneurs would offer local weather information to fishermen.

Is Perth a good place to base an online business?

Western Australia might be home to the nation's richest man and awash with riches amassed from property and mining booms, but that doesn't necessarily translate into funding for online businesses.

At just two and half years out of school, it would be easy to think Paul Slee, as part of an increasingly wired generation, is the right age to be running an online business.

For years, Charlie Gunningham has been suggesting we have an online business list in our WA Business News Book of Lists, and he took the opportunity at our recent forum to plug the idea again.

The broadband question is an inevitable subject when a group of online entrepreneurs is brought together, though the issue did not raise temperatures as much as could be expected at the WA Business News forum.

Jan Kolbusz is the kind of technology professional manager who admits he would most likely have seen out his days in senior management if he didn't live in Perth.

As the use of the web changes, society is getting more comfortable with it and engaging in deeper usage.

Government involvement in the promotion of online business development should go beyond funding and reach more deeply into society, panellists at the WA Business News Online Business forum found.