The World Cup: Around the world in IT

Australia

Population: 22.3 million

Climate: Variable

Economy: GDP is $1 trillion. Ranked as the 21st biggest importer of goods and 23rd largest exporter worldwide.

Government: Democratic, current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

Famous for: Boomerangs, kangaroos, koalas, Uluru (Ayre's rock), soaps (Neighbours, Home and Away et al)

Star player: Telstra

Top IT industry: Green Country is aiming to have 100 per cent renewable energy in the next 10 years thanks to advances in technology.

Major IT contributions: Birth of electronic pacemaker and bionic ear. What's more, multi-pathing that enabled wireless connections to truly take off properly was developed by Dr John O'Sullivan's Australian team at the CSIRO.

Germany

Population: 82 million

Climate: Moderate

Economy: GDP is $3.65 trillion.

Government: Federal parliamentary republic, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Famous for: Berlin Wall, car making

Star player: Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, SAP

Top IT industry: Largest maker of solar tech and wind turbines, worldwide.

Major IT contributions: Key role in MP3 development. Encoding of the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2 started in Germany. The automated chip card was also developed by German scientists.

Ghana

Population: 23.3 million

Climate: Tropical

Economy: GDP is $16.7 billion. Major foreign exchange and export activity in cocoa, diamonds, gold, timber and other areas.

Government: A presidential representative democratic republic. His Excellency John Atta Mills is president and is head of state and government.

Famous for: Textiles, in particular the Kente cloth. Gained independence from Great Britain in 1957.

Star player: theSOFTtribe Limited (SOFT)

Top IT industry: Software development, ambitions to excel in outsourcing too.

Serbia

Population: 7.3 million

Climate: Varied

Economy: GDP is $50.1 billion.

Government: Headed by Mirko Cvetkovi.

Famous for: Certain wines,

Star player: Telekom Srbija and Telenor

Top IT industry: Communications more mobiles than people and just under 90 per cent of population have fixed line telephones.

Major IT contributions: Nikola Tesla who invented many things in the field of mechanical and electrical engineering was Serbian.