Are you supporting Australian gov 2.0 initiatives?

There are a lot of people interested in Gov 2.0 and social media these days - it's no surprise given the level of commitment indicated by political leaders in Australia and the dollars beginning to become available in the area.

However few of them appear to be actively contributing to the Gov 2.0 discussion in Australia.

Considering the number of people signed up to the Gov2 Australia list and attending Gov 2.0 events, by my estimation less than ten percentage of people are contributing over 80% of the discussion.

Now this isn't necessarily a major issue. Many people are new to the area and listening and learning, or are simply shy. What does concern me is whether this quiet majority are supporting the various Gov 2.0 initiatives being rolled out by Departments.

The Gov 2.0 area in Australian is still an infant and the scrutiny on Gov 2.0 initiatives is intense, so any indication that they do not work - such as through low participation or destructive, rather than constructive criticism, can easily set back any Department's attempts to move into a new and, frankly, scary space.

So if you're one of the quiet majority, please consider taking a small step to support the rest of the Gov 2.0 community - post a comment at a government blog, provide feedback on an online consultation or follow and retweet a government twitterer.

Most importantly, look for opportunities within your own agency to promote the initiatives of other departments to your staff and audiences.

If you're not sure which initiatives to support, here's a few to choose from,

• the Gov 2.0 Taskforce,
• DOHA's yourHealth health reform consultation,
• ABS's Betaworks website redevelopment project, or
• the Prime Minister's blog