GovCamp Canberra – one week away!

GovCamp Canberra looks like it will be a fantastic event (I'll confirm afterwards as I'm attending).

If you've not registered to attend, it's probably too late to be there in person - though if you're on the waiting list you may get a spot at short notice if anyone pulls out.

However GovCamp will be livestreamed (if your organisation lets you stream video), liveblogged (if your organisation doesn't block blogs) and tweeted (if you're allowed access to Twitter). Keep an eye on the GovCamp Canberra site for details.

It's also not the only event on during APS Innovation Week 2012. Look at the full list of events at the APS Innovation blog.

I've included the GovCamp media release below, which provides more information.


GOVCAMP 2012 MEDIA RELEASE MAY 21 2012

GovCamp Canberra is coming up on the 5th June and event organisers anticipate a lively day of discussions, leadership, case studies and workshops, with attendees invited to share their ideas and find new opportunities to collaborate and innovate in the public service.

The sold out free event provides a platform for public servants to share and identify ideas on how government can better achieve its goals, promote transparency and support initiatives which encourage greater particpation by citizens with government.

Spokesperson Pia Waugh said “times have changed, public servants now understand the importance of change and innovative ideas in delivering a public service, particularly to meet fiscal pressures. It is critical for public servants to continually adapt to changing Australian citizen’s needs and this event is a great way to share how people have been doing just that”.

“Having GovCamp as part of 2012 Innovation week has really cemented the idea that we need free flowing conversations like this on a regular occasion. The fact we can do it as a free event, with the support of some wonderful sponsors, means it’s a good choice for government agencies to have their staff attend”.

This years GovCamp will cover a number of areas around innovation within the APS and the implementation and progress of Gov 2.0 projects. Speakers will also look at how government can better deliver services into the future.

“We are fortunate that this year we have some very senior level staff coming along to talk about innovation, technology and change at a strategy level and how they think government needs to evolve. We are hoping this type of direct interaction between a range of different leveled staff from within the public service will generate some very frank discussion”, Waugh said.

GovCamp speakers include the Australian Information Commissioner, John Macmillan AO, an Academic Forum with leading research on Public Sector Innovation chaired by Sandford Borins, a case studies panel showcasing leading examples of innovation in practice, a Senior Leaders Panel and the closing speech by Andrea Di Maio, a public sector innovation and Gov 2.0 expert from Gartner.

The lunch time address is a specially recorded speech from Mike Bracken from the Government Digital Service, UK Government Cabinet Office.

You can view the event information, including the schedule and speakers at www.govcampau.org. The event will be live streamed so check the website for video details closer to the date or register on the waitlist to be advised about the live stream details.

Organisers: #Gov2au, Rewired State, eGovernment Technology Cluster
Gold Sponsors: Adobe, MailChimp, Palantir
Silver Sponsors: Cisco, Google, Ninefold, eGovernment Technology Cluster, CSIRO, AGIMO
In-kind Sponsors: Link Digital, Newcast, Salesforce, University of Canberra

Contact Pia Waugh on 0400 966 453 for any other media enquiries.

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2012 FaHCSIA Information Awareness Series: Social media in action – what’s happening in Australian Government, 24th May 2012

If you've interested or involved with social media in government and have some free time on 24 May, a useful way to spend it might be attending the 2012 FaHCSIA Information Awareness Series forum - Social media in action – what’s happening in Australian Government

I will be giving an updated chat on Gov 2.0 adoption across government and other speakers will include:

• Communication and media expert, Madeleine Clifford, on the successful campaign, The Line; and
• Government digital records management leader, Katharine Stuart, on the responsibilities and challenges for Government record keeping with social media

Details for the forum are below:

When? 
10.00 – 12.30, Thursday 24th May 2012

Where? 
FaHCSIA Auditorium,
B Block Tuggeranong Office Park
Cnr Atthlon Drive and Soward Way,
Greenway.

How? 
RSVP to the 2012 Information Awareness Committee

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GovCamp Queensland 2012 liveblog

I am in Brisbane all day today at GovCamp Queensland with roughly 200 Queensland public servants and will be liveblogging the event as far as possible, plus capturing the twitter feed for the day (which uses #GovCampQld).

Follow all the excitement below.

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Social Media in Government - Day 2

I'm attending the full second day of the Social Media in Government conference, however will not be liveblogging until after morning tea as the first two presentations, on The Line (FaHCSIA) and the Don't Turn a Night Out into a Nightmare campaign (Health and Ageing), both represent areas which I've blogged about before.

I am, however, catching Tweets as they occur.

Below is my liveblog for the rest of the day...

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Reflection on Tenille Bentley's presentation from Day 1 of Social Media in Government

Tenille Bentley, founder of Socialite Media is now presenting on trends in engagement by people.

She says that the amount spent by state government on online engagement vastly under-rates the proportion of people's media time spent online (around 41%).

Tenille is illustrating the falling reach of newspapers and as their circulations decline, how their ad rates are going up, asking why?

Se says that social media presents an opportunity for government to re-engage with the community and target specific audiences, as a large proportion of the community is adopting social media, whether government likes it or not.

Tenille says that social media management is a skillset in its own right and believes a social media presence requires 100% focus to manage effectively.

She says she understands how overwhelming social media can be, particularly with the range of channels, and recommends keeping an eye on the top four channels - Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.

Tenille says that each channel reaches a separate audience and is used in a different way.

• Twitter - BBQ conversation, Very Powerful (about 1.2M Australian users - keep an eye on Tweetups)
• LinkedIn - Business Conversation, Speed Networking (2.2M Australian users - business focus)
• Facebook - Smart Casual Conversation, 80/20 rule, Business Page (10.5+ Australian users)
• YouTube - Information, Entertainment

Tenille says it is important to look at how consumer behaviour has changed. For example, 20 years ago few people cared about organic eggs, now people want to know where their eggs come from and how chickens are treated. Consumers have changed - they want to see what goes on behind the scenes, why they should be associated with you, before becoming brand loyalty.

The circle of trust is critical - Talk -> See -> Like -> Trust -> Try -> Talk - Tenille says that just as we engage in small talk to size up people in a meeting before engaging and trusting, consumers (citizens) need to engage with organisations in conversations before they trust them.

She says the first thing organisations need to do is to be seen on social media channels, as people are already talking about you. If you are not seen you are doing damage to your brand and reputation.

Tenille says that next you must be engaging actively - don't simply link your accounts together and send information blindly (like linking media releases to Twitter, Twitter to Facebook, etc). Consumers look at your social media presence and assess whether it is in their language and then whether you are really engaging in conversation.

She says that a social media channel with no conversation is unhealthy, and consumers will see this and judge you accordingly.

Tenille says that once you have built trust through engagement, people will either try (your product or service) or talk about you (online and offline) - this is where ROI comes in, which can be very hard to effectively measure, but can be seen in the actions of the community.

Tenille says that people only go to organisational websites when they want to learn more about an organisation. For an organisation to proactively get information to the community it needs to create connections, engaging with consumers through channels such as social media and she says that if you position yourself as a thought leader in your industry people will start coming to you for advice.

Tenille says that the web has gone past the point of being optional for organisations. If you don't have a website, people won't trust your organisation is credible. The trend is towards social media going the same way - people look for whether organisations are engaging actively with their customers. Very soon an organisation without an active social media presence will not be seen as credible.

Temille says that people spend 7.8 hours per week on social media and fanning two of their favourite brands per week. Neilsen reports that 73% of online Australians prefer to engage with their favourite products, brands and services through social media. She says the 'smoko' has been replaced by the 'socialo'.

She says she often gets asked about the return on investment for social media - she asks them, what is the return on ignoring?

Tenille illustrates her point with a case study on Dominos - who had a negative video appear on YouTube and responded with a media release and traditional media engagement, however sales kept falling. Finally they convinced their CEO to create a video that went on YouTube - moral: don't rely on traditional media to address an issue discussed via social media. Respond in a like way.

Next Tenille is using QPS Media's use of social media during the Queensland floods as an example of how government can use social media, becoming a trusted information source, build engagement and address issues quickly - countering misinformation and also feeding traditional media. She says it also improves situational awareness.

Tenille has also showed examples of Barack Obama's campaign use of social media and how NSW Police has used social media for recruitment and community engagement. She says that focus groups from NSW Police have indicated that people trust information coming direct from the police more than they trust the media. She says that the NSW Police Superintendent has said that social media allows police to highlight the good work they do in the community.

She's now talking about the Best Job in the World campaign by QLD Tourism and how much attention it drove on a relative small budget ($1.2 milion) - receiving over 8.4 million unique visitors, 36,000 video applications, over $400 million in media value and estimated to have reached over 3 billion people.

Tenille is now running through how to use the top four.

She recommends that for Facebook that organisations design a professional landing page and post in a measured way. She says 44% of people unlike a Facebook page because it is updated too frequently. Tenille says they update the Socialite Media Facebook page twice per day, LinkedIn once per day, Twitter 5-15 times, plus conversation management.

For Twitter Tenille says it can be used for sending short messages to a bunch of people publicly, to a specific person publicly or to a specific person privately. As it is short you don't get to ramble.

She says Twitter can be used to monitor your brand and monitor and share industry/topic news, generate leads, promote events, drive traffic to a website.

Tenille says that LinkedIn has a solid corporate profile, with an average user age over 40, income of US$100,000 and professional background. LinkedIn receives 1.2 million comments and posts to groups each week and there's 2 billion people searches each year. Business pages now allow comments, providing greater utility.

She says that many recruitment agencies use LinkedIn as their first port of call for finding staff.

YouTube is good for education and campaign releases and Tenille says it can be integrated into other channels, as a medium where "a picture paints a thousand words". She says ensure that you upload clips, that you post both professional and 'candid' (less professional) videos - which humanise organisations. She recommends linking to clips that support your message.

Tenille says that organisations need to tell people about their social media channels and, not link them together but ensure there are clear paths between their channels.

She says that organisations should define their social media goal, strategy and 'angle' - including assessing their risks, putting them into scope with what social media represents (not overstating risks that aren't really risks applicable to social media).

Tenille recommends that oganisations listen first and be responsive to audience needs, that social media is used consistently and effectively - quality, not quantity.

She says it takes about 80 hours to develop a full social media strategy, pre-planning and approvals take around 75 hours.

Tenille reckons it requires 26% of people's working week to manage social media.

Tenille says that she focuses on education first, to ensure organisations understand whether social media suits them.

I'm now off to the office for the day - will blog more of the event tomorrow.

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Reflection on Mia's Facebook presentation from Day 1 of Social Media in Government

I'm only here for a few presentations today at Informa's Social Media in Government conference, so are blogging rather than liveblogging the presentations.

First up this morning is Mia Garlick, now at Facebook and previously with experience in Commonwealth Government and with Google.

She's talking about using Facebook in government.

Mia has started by talking about how Facebook is a social graph for for connections between people & between people & organisations.

She says that researchers recently tested the six-degrees of separation

Mia says there are 800 million users globally of Facebook - counting users as those who check into Facebook at least once per month. Over 10 million Australians are in that group and over 50% of these users (globally and in Australia) access Facebook daily.

Mia says that Facebook has several valuable uses for government including for identity, engagement and advertising.

Identity refers to representing agencies online. Mia says the best approach is to create a page. She says that the page mechanism includes an option for government organisations via the Corporate and Organisation option.

Mia says it is important to understand the difference between a profile and a page - profiles are for persons, pages are for organisations. Profiles are multidimensional, when people friend each others' profiles they see each other's information.

Pages are unidimensional, when people fan a page the page owners don't get to see the fan's details.

Mia says it is important to curate pages. She says that Page administrators cannot turn off comments as Facebook is about engaging in social behaviours, not avoiding them. However people can create blacklists of words and profanity filters to manage comments and develop a policy and terms of use for the page. Mia says that administrators can also mark comments as spam or abusive.

She also says it is important to get senior executives across what is acceptable commenting. She says she has had senior government officials contact her asking for pages to be taken down as someone commented that "the government was stupid". She essentially said - let it go, people say this kind of stuff from time to time, does it really hurt you or reflect on them?

Due to the nature of Facebook, people don't often see your page - they see snippets of content in their newsfeed. Mia says it is important to ensure these snippets are interesting and engaging to make a Facebook page effective.

Mia says that the number three thing talked about in Australia on Facebook for 2011 was "Census" and number six was Victorian floods" (in their "memeology" list) - showing that government cannot ignore the channel as people are using it to discuss topics and issues that government is deeply invovled with.

She's now talking about South Australia's Strategic Plan and how they used Facebook to support engagement and feedback.

She says that while in government we are used to writing a large report and releasing it in a consultation with a list of questions, many people don't engage well or respond in this approach as it is overwhelming and they have limited time. The South Australian government broke the Strategic Plan into bitesize chunks they wanted feedback on and released them individually for people to respond to. Mia says this was very effective for South Australia, with over 1,300 comments received for one particular chunk and over 500,000 citizens reached via Facebook, with 10,000 participating.

Mia says that the South Australian government recognised that they engaged a new group through Facebook that they could not reach through traditional engagement mechanisms.

She's also given an example of Facebook advertising in Canada and how it can target specific demographics or geographic locations quite effectively.

Finally, Mia is highlighting the Facebook 'Coming together' page on peace which provides a view of how people are connecting and engaging across wars.

Mia also says that around 80% of Facebook users are using privacy setting in Facebook, which helps to create a separate between work and personal identities.

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RightClick presentation

I've been a little busy this week, what with my wedding on Saturday, however here, belatedly, is my presentation from last Friday at RightClick.

Gov 2.0 in a gov 1.0 world

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GovCamp Australia liveblog

I've been pinged by Pia Waugh to liveblog today's GovCamp AU event.

What is a GovCamp? The official definition is: GovCamp is an event in the spirit of BarCamp for governments and other public institutions to share social and technology solutions to turn them into Government 2.0.

Note this won't be a full view on the day, as there are three rooms. I'll be presenting a couple of times as well. However I'll link to other posts as I can (and include the hashtag in my liveblog to provide a separate perspective).

The event is also being filmed, so there will be a record available online shortly afterward.

It can also be directly followed on Twitter at #govcampau

For other GovCamps around the world visit govcamp.org

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My presentation for the AMI Government Marketing and Communications Conference

I am presenting from 3.20pm today, and my presentation is now available on slideshare, viewable as below.

Developing an agency social media infrastructure

View more presentations from Craig Thomler.

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Liveblog from AMI Marketing & Communications Conference - Day 2

I've taken some time off this morning to put together some extra slides for my presentation, so are not yet in the room, however have a liveblog running to capture the tweeters who are...

My presentation is at 3.20pm today and will be on slideshare shortly afterwards.

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Liveblog from AMI Marketing & Communications Conference - Day 1

Hi,

I'll be liveblogging parts of the AMI Marketing and Communications Conference today and tomorrow.

You can also follow the conference at the hashtag #amigov2011

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Walkley PR Conference Liveblog

I will be liveblogging much of the Walkley Public Affairs in the Nation's Capital conference today.

See below for the liveblog, or follow the event on Twitter under the tag #wpanc.

There is also a blog for the day at http://walkleypanc2011.posterous.com/ written and edited by a team made up of the Walkley Foundation's Kylie Johnson and Flynn Murphy, along with University of Canberra communication students, led by Grace Keyworth and Mel Evans.

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Booked into the CeBIT Gov 2.0 conference in October yet?

I'll be missing the Gov 2.0 conference that CeBIT is holding for the third time this October (25-26 October) due to my honeymoon. However I do recommend to others that they consider attending.

In my view this is the most mature Gov 2.0 conference in Australia and has managed to step beyond the '101' nature of most similar conferences.

For details visit www.gov2.com.au

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Gov 2.0 at the 2011 Public Affairs Conference

You may still have time to consider attending the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance and the Walkley Foundation's Public Affairs Conference in Canberra from 5-6 September this year.

The conference has a significant Government 2.0 and open government flavour, looking at the new toolkit of digital communication and engagement options available to public relations professionals and the effects of the FOI reforms on public relations.

There is also what looks to be a very interesting case study on the Clean Energy Future digital campaign including its social media and web engagement.

I'll be presenting a keynote (on Government 2.0) at the event and participating in one of the panels.

Other speakers specifically in the Gov 2.0/Open Government area will include Professor John McMillan, Australian Information Commissioner; Hank Jongon from DHS; Sandi Logan from Immigration; Tom Burton from ACMA; Kylie Johnson, University of Canberra journalism academic Julie Posetti; and Greg Jericho, known for his blog Grogsgamut.

if you can't attend, keep an eye on Twitter - there should be plenty of interesting titbits from the day.

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If you're in Perth, don't miss the RightClick 2011 Conference

I will be making my first trip to Perth to speak at the RightClick 2011 Conference on 30 September.

If you're in town, or can make it there, I recommend that you consider attending.

The event is organised by the Institute of Public Administration WA (@ipaawa) and the event hashtag is #rightClick

More details below:

Transform the Way You Communicate - RigthtClick 2011 Conference

Over 10 million people in Australia have a Facebook account and up to 2 million use Twitter and LinkedIn. So how can you control what people say about you and what are the security implications for your organisation?

Simple answer, you can't control what people say but you can develop policies which address internal and external communication and security risks.

Attend RightClick 2011 and find out how you and your organisation can effectively use social media and new technologies in the workplace both safely and securely. Hear case studies from the public and private sector and the challenges and opportunities technology has provided.
Discussions will include:

• Why should government adopt digital media?
• Benefits of social networking services.
• Implications for policy makers and those employing young people in the workplace.
• Expanding young people’s digital citizenship.
• Communicating and engaging internal & external stakeholders.
• Security and privacy issues.
• The role of a Government 2.0 Advocate.

Download conference program

Who should attend?
Any professional interested in developing and using technology more effectively in the workplace.
Tell your colleagues:
We encourage you to tell interested colleagues about the conference.

Date

Friday 30th September 2011 
9:00am - 4:30pm
Hyatt Regency Perth

Cost

Member

$399.00
 

Corporate Member

$515.00

Non Member

$630.00

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Don't forget to register for Australia's first Govcamp

A Govcamp is an unconference specifically for government people, discussing government-related topics (usually, but not always related to community engagement, IT, the internet and Gov 2.0 topics).

They've become a regular feature of the landscape in the UK, US, Canada and even New Zealand, however there's been less interest in Australia for running one - despite our successes in holding similar unconferences such as BarCamps and PubCamps.

Now, however, Australia is going to get its very first GovCamp, being organised by Pia Waugh and held at NICTA's offices in Canberra with support by AGIMO.

The (free) event is being held on 10 September from 10am - 4pm, and only has 100 spots for attendees (many of which have already been snapped up).

If you are interested and want to learn more, or want to RSVP right now, go to the GovCampAU homepage.

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Why is no-one running 'Government 2.0 202' courses?

There seems to be a consistent supply of people new to Government 2.0 filtering through the various events I track around Australia.

Whether commercial conferences, 'Masterclasses', government-supported events or university courses - many (though not all) now providing decent '101' or introductory information and case studies on social media use for government and even on open Public Sector Information.

However for people who already employ Government 2.0 techniques, have been involved in designing and implementing social media initiatives and channels, there's really no 'step-up' courses available in Australia to provide the greater depth and expertise these people are looking for.

Essentially, Australia is well supplied with '101' introductory courses to Government 2.0, but there's no '202' or '303' courses - intermediate and advanced training to help people build on their experience.

These more advanced courses would help improve government's effectiveness in social media by moving us to more complex and strategic use of digital channels to meet citizen needs.

There's certainly people around with the experience to run such courses, both from a strategic and implementation perspective. Many are presenting actively at the various '101' events.

I'd welcome any ideas on how to move us forward, keep the introductory courses for those still new to the area, but provided advanced training for those who now need it (at an appropriate cost).

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It's time to register for BarCamp Canberra - coming on 19 March

On Saturday 19 March Canberra is hosting the 4th BarCamp Canberra, a free one-day user-generated not-for-profit 'unconference' covering topics ranging from social innovation, Gov 2.0, web, technical development, science communication, critical thinking, sustainability and the environment.


If you've attended previous BarCamps you'll know how exciting and fun they can be, packed full of interesting and unique presentations and sessions and a great opportunity to network. It's well worth giving up a day of your weekend to attend.

New to BarCamps?
If you've not been to a BarCamp before and are a little concerned about the lack of an agenda, free attendance, or the expectations that attendees all participate - don't be.

There have been over 800 BarCamps run in more than 350 cities around the world over the last five years. The format is well-tested and delivers consistent outcomes - good speakers on interesting topics and a very engaged group of attendees who benefit from each others' knowledge.

BarCamp Canberra is now in its 4th year and regularly attracts 100-150 attendees.

This year will be even more exciting as the event is being held in the ANU's brand new College of Business and Economics, which allows for more attendees and more simultaneous presentations.

How are speakers 'selected'?
As an unconference, BarCamp Canberra doesn't have set speakers or an agenda. On the morning of the event attendees nominate to speak and, usually, write their presentation and name on notes and stick them to a schedule on butcher's paper.

Others attendees can choose which presentations they attend.

This bottom-up approach is what makes BarCamps unique, as anyone can speak on any topic, allowing for wide-ranging discussions and unique presentations.

You don't have to speak and you don't have to come all day - and both attendance and lunch is free.

To learn more about BarCamp Canberra, visit http://barcampcanberra.org/ and http://barcampcanberra.org/profile/

To register, go to http://bcc2011.eventbrite.com/

To learn more about the global BarCamp movement visit www.barcamp.org

Note: I am one of the 'unorganisers' for BarCamp Canberra.

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Canberra Gov 2.0 lunch - 8 December

It has been a big year for Government 2.0 in Australia, both at the federal and state levels. The Victorian Government in particular has committed to releasing the majority of public sector information under an open copyright license, continued to improve its whole-of-government intranet and released the Government 2.0 Action plan: a comprehensive strategy for guiding Victoria's government 2.0 efforts.


To celebrate the close of the Gov 2.0 year, and to discuss the initiatives in Victoria, we're lucky to have Maria Katsonis, from the Victorian Government's Department of Premier and Cabinet, in Canberra.

Maria is currently the Principal Adviser, Public Administration in the Department of Premier and Cabinet, leading projects that examine issues that shape and influence the Victorian public sector. This has included the development and implementation of the Government 2.0 Action Plan released earlier this year and the VPS Innovation Action Plan released in 2009.

Previously Maria was Executive Director of Public Policy and Organisation Reviews at the State Services Authority where she led reviews at the request of the Premier, Ministers and Secretaries. She has also held the role of Assistant Director, Social Policy in the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

Maria has a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and is a Fellow of Leadership Victoria.


I know this is short notice, however if you are able to join us at Café in the House in the Old Parliament House for lunch Maria will be providing an interesting and insightful glimpse into how one goes about establishing and executing a whole-of-government Gov 2.0 program.

Register here

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Storming the gates of the policy makers

On a recent visit to Melbourne (for pleasure) my partner and I stayed in a hotel near the curious sculpture pictured below.

Great Petition by Susan Hewitt and Penelope Lee. Burston Reserve, Melbourne.

Photo: Diana Diiorio   Source: Arts Victoria

Reading the plaque, we learnt the sculpture was a representation of the "the great petition", a document signed by 30,000 Victorian women and presented to the Victorian government in support of allowing women to vote in the state.

The petition was presented in 1891. However Victoria didn't grant women the vote until 17 years later in 1908.


Following this, while we were attending TedxMelbourne on Saturday, one of the speakers used a slide depicting Rosa Parks who was arrested, tried, and convicted for disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance after refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to make room for a white passenger on 1 December 1955.

Rosa Parks sits in the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956 after the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled segregation illegal on the city's bus system.
Behind Parks is Nicholas C. Chriss, a UPI reporter covering the event.
Source: United Press photo. Location of Original: New York World-Telegram &
Sun Collection.

This event was a trigger for the African American Civil Rights movement. Rosa's act and the subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott led to a change in the local ordinance within 381 days (by cutting bus revenues by 80%).

However this was a local change only. The Civil Rights movement is not considered to have ended until 13 years later, with the passing of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 (excluding the Black Power Movement which lasted until 1975).


Another TEDxMelbourne speaker, Tania Major, mentioned the long struggle of Indigenous Australians to be fully recognised as Australian citizens. From Federation to full voting rights in 1965 took 64 years, with full recognition in the Constitution occurring only after the referendum of 1967.

Source: New Matilda, The Myth of Aboriginal Voting Rights

In these and other cases of major social change, while some individual members of established authorities were sympathetic, institutions were bound by precedents and processes which made change slow and, in some cases, torturous.


On Wednesday evening (24 November), there was an event at the University of Canberra about Employee 2.0, featuring a panel of speakers including Mike Higginbotham, the Senior Social Media Advisor for Telstra (via Skype), Simon Edwards, Microsoft, Director Corporate Affairs, John Sheridan, First Assistant Secretary, Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) and chaired by Michael de Percy, Lecturer, Faculty of Business & Government, University of Canberra.

Panel at Employee 2.0 event (#emp2au)
Photo: Leigh Blackall

Following the twitter feed for the event, several of the comments struck me:

• leighblackall: #Web2, #gov2, #emp2au should be considered more as social movements (#webism) than techno determined 
• leighblackall: Question to #emp2au: if #web2 is a social movement, like feminism or even socialism, seperate from technology, how would you comment?... 
• M_Hickinbotham: @leighblackall I think it's a populist movement #emp2au #web2 
• iseit_uc: Web 2.0 may be as big as the Industrial Revolution? #emp2au Better get into it!  

Web 2.0 as a social movement?

In many respects I can see this being a fair view. To quote the wikipedia definition,

Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals and/or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change.

In this case the social issue might be the equitable access to information and to the capability to create and share content fairly in support of social (and organisational) goals. Gov 2.0 could be looked at as the right to increased participation in government processes (engagement and collaboration), an improved understanding of how governments operate (transparency and openness) and greater capability for individuals and communities to choose self-determination (government as a platform - empowering, but not controlling citizens).


When thinking about Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 as a social movement, it is useful to reflect on how long it took for other major social movements to effect real change.

The examples I've given above took, respectively, 17, 13 and 64 years to reach a, more or less, final resolution.

Given that the term Web 2.0 was coined in 2004, and Government 2.0 in 2005, the fact that these terms are already on the lips (and in some cases in the hearts) of our politicians and senior public servants is a sign of how far the 'Web 2.0 social movement' has already come.

To speak emotively, the 'Web 2.0 movement' has stormed the gates of policy makers. The rising tide of internet users have already had a profound impact on how businesses operate and how nations are governed.

For everyone already engaged with this 'movement', you can be proud of the degree of change that has taken place in such a short period of time, effectively 5-6 years.

However storming the gates is only the first step. We need to work together to define a long-term vision of what the world beyond the gates should look like.

• What should a 'Net-empowered society' look like? 
• How do individuals and businesses operate successfully within it? 
• How do we govern ourselves effectively, adapting digital tools to best serve the needs of citizens?

This need to 'image the future' is, in my view, a pressing and necessary step if we wish to collectively choose a path towards a future that we collectively want, rather than stumble blindly into a future which marginalises or limits our choices.

That's one of the main reasons why I'm involved with the Australia's Government 2.0 Futures project, collecting and collating the views of a desired future from a broad international group of thinkers and practitioners to provide input into the most important debate the internet faces:

Now that we've stormed the gates of policy-makers, what do we tell them we want for a collective future? 

What do you imagine the future should look like?

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