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Steve Davies, one of the top proponents of Gov 2.0, has launched aversion of Govloop specifically for Australian public servants named OzLoop.
The site aims to support public servants in collaborating and sharing experience and expertise in the same way GovLoop, which is now over a year old, supports over 10,000 US public servants.
Showing posts with label whole-of-government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label whole-of-government. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
OzLoop launches | Tweet |
Friday, September 18, 2009
Gov 2.0 Taskforce announces second project round - asks for quotes | Tweet |
The Gov 2.0 forum has released a second round of projects for quotes including for a Whole of Government Information Publication Scheme, Online Engagement Guidance and Web 2.0 Toolkit for Australian Government Agencies, Framework for Stimulating Information Philanthropy in Australia and Hypotheticals — Ethical and Cultural Challenges of Digital Engagement by Government - amongst other projects.
Full details of the projects are available at the Gov 2.0 Taskforce's blog in the post, Submit a quote for our round two projects.
If only I didn't have a full time job already :)
Friday, August 21, 2009
Is your team ready to implement Gov 2.0? | Tweet |
I found an interesting post on Govloop the other day by Martha McLean, Bureaucracy 2.0 – make sure your team is ready to stand and deliver.
This identified a challenge that is facing public servants - do we prepare our teams to engage in Gov 2.0 activities (possibly preempting the need), or do we wait for senior leadership to define the direction.
Over the nearly three years I've worked in the public service I was primarily focused on lifting the awareness of the online channel in the eyes of senior management. This involved putting in place appropriate reporting systems, flagging how the channel could be used to solve various organisational 'problems' in a cost-effective manner, and flagging all the outside research demonstrating that real people used the internet in real ways to resolve real issues - sometimes bypassing government services altogether.
I am hoping that over the next few years I can spend less time on the basics of internet education and spend more of my time helping develop public sector capabilities in utilising Gov 2.0 techniques and tools to improve government outcomes - through spreading knowledge and demonstrating successful outcomes.
It's a big vision, but all the best ones are.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
From concept to implementation - Digital Britain | Tweet |
The UK has moved forward from its recent Digital Britain report to release an Implementation Plan. This details how the government proposes to turn the actions within Digital Britain into reality.
A very interesting, and not overly long, document, the plan lays out clear governance structures, responsibilities and accountabilities for rolling out Digital Britain.
It's a model other governments could choose to use to take the step from Gov 2.0 vision to actualisation.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Are you making a submission to the Australia Gov 2.0 Taskforce? | Tweet |
The Government 2.0 Taskforce has been requesting submission in response to their recently released, Towards Government 2.0: An Issues Paper.
So far there are four submissions listed on the Taskforce's website.
Now while these may not represent all the submissions received to-date (as it may take time to process and put them online), it does worry me that out of Australia's 1.2 million public servants (based on Public Sector news) that there appears to have been so few submissions received to-date.
If you are involved with, affected by or interested in how government should change to face the challenges of an increasing digitalised society, than please read the Issues Paper and respond with your views via the submission process.
Or at least read the submissions thus far and reflect on whether your views have been reflected.
Your views may influence the direction the Taskforce and government takes in the Gov 2.0 space.
You have until the start of business, 24 August.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Government 2.0 Taskforce holding Open Forums in all states | Tweet |
Australia's Gov 2.0 Taskforce will be holding Open Forums in every state and territory of Australia over the next few weeks, seeking input from a range of audience groups - government, industry, academics, NGOs and interested others.
If you wish to influence the future of the Australian government's Gov 2.0 agenda, look for details and RSVP for one of these meetings from the Taskforce's website at http://gov2.net.au/roadshows/
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Introducing a common web reporting platform across federal government | Tweet |
Over the last few years I've often thought about the value of having a complete picture of web traffic to the Australian government.
This would require a common way to track and report on the usage of each discrete government website and the ability to track and measure the traffic between them over time (using anonymous user data).
I see enormous value in this approach. Firstly it would help government departments holistically understand how citizens see the inter-relationships between different government services and information across agency boundaries.
Secondly it would support smaller agencies to cost-effectively develop appropriate reports and access the data they need to improve their online presence and provide ROI for online initiatives. Rather than web reporting sophistication being a factor of agency size it would become a consistent core whole-of-government capability, regardless of agency size, budget, technical skills and inhouse web expertise.
Thirdly this approach would help executives and web professionals moving between government departments as they could expect a consistent level of reporting for the online space no matter where they worked. This would cut down learning curves and help improve the consistency of online channel management across government.
Finally, having standardised and consistent web reporting would lead to consistent and more accurate reporting to parliament of the overall size of the government's online audience, and the share held by each department, supporting decision making for the use of the online channel.
So could this be done?
I think it could.
We have precedents for whole-of-government licenses in the use of technologies such as Funnelback for search (which crawls all government sites for Australia.gov.au and is available for departments to use for their web search) and Adobe Smartforms for business forms (via business.gov.au).
The technology for whole-of-government online reporting is readily available without requiring major changes to how any department operates. The reporting could be deployed simply by requiring the addition of a small piece of code to every web page on every site, as is used by systems like Google Analytics and WebTrends On-Demand. Departments could even continue to also use their existing in-house tools if they so chose or exclude websites where special circumstances applied.
Through aggregating the reporting function, more funds and expertise could be focused on producing more meaningful and useful reports. Standard report templates could be developed for departments to use - or not - as they preferred.
Finally, this approach would provide cost and procurement efficiencies for government. Only one procurement process would be necessary to select the product, rather than individual processes being conducted by various agencies. The scale of the federal government means that government could purchase and maintain the tool at a much lower cost per department than it would cost a department to purchase an appropriate tool.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
UK Prime Minister driving government 2.0 to address global issues | Tweet |
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has given an astounding presentation, Gordon Brown: Wiring a web for global good, in opening TED Oxford. It firmly establishes his interest and commitment to the use of new technologies by government to aid in the solution of global and national issues.
To quote from the synopsis,
We're at a unique moment in history, says UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown: we can use today's interconnectedness to develop our shared global ethic -- and work together to confront the challenges of poverty, security, climate change and the economy.Despite being highly inspiring, the video (embedded below) is worth watching to gain an understanding of how seriously Government 2.0 and the benefits of new technologies are being taken in leading countries around the world.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Building a business case to move from IE6 to a modern web browser | Tweet |
Here's some notes useful for a business case justifying an upgrade from Internet Explorer 6 to a more modern web browser that I prepared last week for a colleague at another organisation.
It supports the priority in Australia 2 to Upgrade all government web browsers.
Please add to them in the comments if you see points I've missed.
Goal
Encourage a government Department to upgrade from Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) to an industry supported web browser.
Background
The IE6 web browser was originally released by Microsoft in 2001.
Over the last eight years it has been updated twice, Internet Explorer 7 was released in October 2006 and Internet Explorer 8 in March 2009 (with developer previews available since March 2008).
Since 2001 the entire web browser market has changed. Netscape ceased developing Navigator (in December 2007) and new browsers entered the market including Apple's Safari in November 2003 (version 4 released June 2009), Mozilla Firefox in November 2004 (version 3.5 released June 2009) and Google Chrome in December 2008.
These entrants, and the long-standing Opera web browser, have significantly driven innovation in the market.
IE6 support
The IE6 browser, being two versions behind, is no longer supported by Microsoft and is in rapid decline in community usage.
Major websites and organisations are progressively ceasing support for IE6, meaning that increasing numbers of websites are not accessible using the browser. For example, Google, the top accessed website in Australian and across the world, has advised that it will no longer be supporting IE6 for its applications.
A campaign to encourage people to shift away from IE6 has been operating online for several years with significant success and has support from Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Balmer, who stated that,
Microsoft recommends end users that are browsing the web with Internet Explorer 6 to upgrade today to benefit from numerous improvements including security features and usability enhancements.Web standards
Interoperability is key to enabling developers to continue to create great user experiences on the web. Our commitment to the technical community continues with our significant investment in Internet Explorer 8.
We continue to believe in the importance of supporting the end users and encourage the technical community to work with us in securing a good transition for the users that today are using IE6.
IE6 does not adhere to web standards as defined by the WSG and as reflected within the Acid2 test.
As stated in Wikipedia's page about Acid2,
Acid2 tests aspects of HTML markup, CSS 2.1 styling, PNG images, and data URIs. The Acid2 test page will be displayed correctly in any application that follows the World Wide Web Consortium and Internet Engineering Task Force specifications for these technologies. These specifications are known as web standards because they describe how technologies used on the web are expected to function.Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3 and Safari 2+ all successfully pass the Acid2 test. IE6 and IE7 fail to pass the Acid2 test (as did earlier versions of other web browsers).
This test will eventually be supplanted by the Acid3 test, which is currently only passed by Safari 4, Opera 10 beta and Chrome 3.0.17.
It is not yet necessary for organisations to use Acid3 compliant web browsers as not all the test conditions within Acid3 have been passed by the W3C at this time.
Browser market shares
IE6 is currently in rapid decline, with the primary users being organisations who have not yet upgraded to more modern web browsers. Home users have predominantly upgraded to more modern web browsers.
It is estimated that Internet Explorer has between 52 and 74% web browser market share in July 2009 depending on the specific measurement site (source: Usage share of web browsers). Firefox has between 18 and 31%, Safari 2.6 - 4.1%, Chrome up to 3.1% and Opera up to 3.3%.
Internet Explorer 6 is estimated at having 15 - 25% market share globally. However in Australia this share is reportedly much lower, at around 9% (StatCounter)
Benefits of an upgrade
- Moves the organisation to a supported web browser,
- greater compatibility with web standards,
- future-proofs the organisation's web browsing for several years (as major sites cease IE6 support),
- aligns staff with citizens' use of the internet - statistics for Australian web use show that the Australian public predominantly use modern browsers,
- provides a greater level of security whilst browsing,
- supports tabbed browsing (opening multiple pages in one master window),
- allows use of modern web features within the organisation's intranet,
- there is no product cost for an upgrade from IE6 to a modern web browser.
- Some legacy internal systems may not be fully interoperable with modern web browsers,
- security impacts will need to be investigated to ensure there is no increased risk of systems penetration,
- greater ability to access modern websites may increase internet use for work purposes - thereby increasing network load.
- Political risk for Minister if questions asked within parliament on reasons for use of old and unsupported technology (as is already occurring in the UK),
- organisation will continue falling further behind current web standards,
- organisation will progressively lose access to key online services as they cease IE6 support,
- greater security risks due to less security in IE6 than more recent web browsers,
- increasing difficulty in upgrading internal systems that require web browsers as modern versions of content management systems and other web-based solutions are less and less likely to support IE6,
- need to invest in optimising (dumbing down) the organisation's websites for IE6 simply to support staff,
- difficulties in meeting web standards if testing cannot be conducted on modern, web standards compliant, web browsers.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Rate Australia's Gov 2.0 priorities from PublicSphere | Tweet |
Priorities from the recent Government 2.0 Public Sphere are now available for public comment via the Australia 2 BETA website before being handed over to the Government 2.0 Taskforce for consideration.
For a recap of the Public Sphere visit Senator Kate Lundy's website.
To comment and vote on the top Government 2.0 priorities visit the Public Sphere section of Australia 2 BETA.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
UK government releases template strategy guide for Twitter use by Departments | Tweet |
The UK government has released a 20-page Twitter templated strategy guide to assist departments in using the channel to engage and support citizens.
Adapted from the strategy used by the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) by Neil Williams, head of corporate digital channels at BIS, the guide provides a comprehensive view on how to begin using Twitter and how to use it in a professional manner.
You can view Neil's post about the strategy in a guest post on the UK Cabinet Office site, Template Twitter strategy for Government Departments.
The template itself is available from Scribd to view online and can also be downloaded as a PDF (or in plain text from the Scribd site).
Reflecting that over 19 UK government agencies are now using Twitter (compared to three in Australia and over 40 in the US), the strategy has already received widespread international attention.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
APS Values and Code of Conduct in practice guide updated to including blogging and social media | Tweet |
I'm not quite sure when these edits happened, but reading through the APS Values and Code of Conduct in practice last night I noticed that they have been updated to comprehensively include blogs and social media (particularly Section 15: APS employees as citizens).
If you've not read this recently, it is worth reviewing to see how online channels are now integrated within the code of practice for Australian federal public servants.
This extends the effect of Circular 2008/8: Interim protocols for online media participation.
Social media participation by public servants in Australia is slowly becoming an accepted part of the landscape.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
ACT government launches online public consultation about how citizens wish to be engaged | Tweet |
The ACT Chief Minister's Office, in conjunction with Bang The Table, has launched a consultation asking Canberra residents how they prefer to be engaged by the government.
I've been taking a look at some of the comments being made and there are some very clear preferences for not using telephone consultation, ensuring that people get the opportunity to speak in physical consultations and ensuring that engagement occurs before political decisions are made.
If you're a Canberran, take a look at the consultation and have a go at participating in it if you wish to better understand how this form of online consultation can work.
The consultation is online here.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Where should government go with single sign-on? | Tweet |
Single sign-on is often seen as one of the Holy Grails of the internet - the ability to use a single logon to access all your secure online accounts and conduct transactions with whoever you choose.
This is seen as a way to make life easier for citizens/customers, allowing them to move easily from provider to provider, just as they may choose to move from store to store in a mall. It also reduces 'password fatigue', where users have too many passwords to remember and, correspondingly, is expected to reduce the IT cost of lost passwords.
The main risk of single sign-on solutions is also related to passwords - having a single logon for everything stored in a central location theoretically makes it easier for a hacker or identity thief to completely compromise an individual.
It might appear that the public sector has an advantage in moving towards a single sign-on for egovernment services. We have the dollars, expertise and computing power to pull together large IT projects, we don't have internal competitive pressures and possess the legislative power to change any laws necessary to allow citizens to access all government services via a single logon.
In contrast the private sector is fragmented between thousands of entities, potentially all competing for their slice of the online pie. Different online services are tied up with different intellectual property and sharing this IP would seem counter-intuitive to increasing profit margins.
However in practice the situation has been very different.
In the commercial world large and small organisations have been lining up behind a single standard for single sign-on, OpenID.
The OpenID Foundation estimates there are already over 1 billion OpenID-enabled web users and that more than 40,000 websites globally support the system.
OpenID is supported by the biggest online, authentication and IT players, including Microsoft, IBM, Verisign, PayPal, Google and Yahoo and was recently implemented by Facebook.
The system is fast becoming the global ID standard for authenticating users to websites - although I am unaware of a single case around the world where a government has adopted the same system.
On the government front single sign-on services are less developed. In Australia we've had the proprietary MyAccount service available for sometime now, linking Centrelink, Medicare and CSA customer accounts. MyAccount requires users to register separately for each agency's online service then link them together by registering a separate (fourth) account. This separate account can then be used to log into the online services for each of the agencies.
This service is presently being expanded. Australia.gov.au has indicated that they will be adopting the same single sign-on mechanism and that more agencies will be coming shortly.
The UK government has similarly been working on an independent single sign-on solution. This has encountered issues that I am sure Australia will also face - different services require different security levels, and stepping between the security necessary is more complex than simply offering a username and password.
The question in my head is whether it is possible for government to adopt the (free and open) OpenID standard rather than spend the time and money required to develop and expand a separate proprietary system.
In other words, do we need the government to continue to invest in a second 'single' sign-on when the commercial world is already well-advanced in a global solution?
The issue isn't that simple unfortunately. There are many reasons why a government may wish to own its own authentication system, such as national security, protection of citizen privacy, custom ways to 'step-up' to higher security levels (though this is also possible in OpenID).
However it is important to reconsider the value of a separate government system is from time to time, particularly if the commercial world is heading in a different direction.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
A blueprint for making government data reusable online | Tweet |
US federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, has outlined a blueprint for government data at the 2009 Government Web Managers conference.
As reported in GCN, Kundra advised that,
Government data prepared for public reuse should be offered in multiple-formats, be machine-readable and adhere as closely as possible to lightweight standardsThis is likely to be a guiding principle for the upcoming www.data.gov site, which has the express purpose of making US government data available for citizen reuse as a governmentwide repository of data feeds.
This vision goes far beyond merely making a limited set of US government information publicly available in proprietary formats. In Kundra's words, “We need to make sure that all that data that’s not private can be made public”.
Per an earlier GCN article,
By opening vast realms of data that federal agencies are now keeping in-house, Kundra hopes to spark new ways of using that information to better serve citizens and even create new industries.
In principle that would be a fantastic outcome for any government to achieve for its country - but is it realistic?
Kundra has addressed this topic as well,
Kundra cited examples of how the publishing federal government information has already “fundamentally transformed the economy” in certain areas. When the National Institutes of Health published its results from mapping the human genome, the agency “created a revolution in personalized medicine," in which hundreds of new drugs were created. When the Defense Department opened Global Positioning System readings for public use, an entire new industry of geolocational devices was born.
In Australia we're beginning to see governments unlock their vaults of data, with services such as CData from the ABS being one of the most impressive steps.
However in this, as in most other areas of egovernance, there's many challenges to overcome before either the US or Australia can fully realise the potential benefits of allowing the community to innovate with public data from a range of agencies.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
"we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative," - President Obama | Tweet |
The title of this post was used recently in the White House blog to announce the expansion of their online presence to reach into a range of social media including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, adding to their presence on Flickr, Youtube, Vimeo and iTunes.
Named White House 2.0, the post also quoted President Obama calling on government to "recognize that we cannot meet the challenges of today with old habits and stale thinking."
It's clear that the US is taking a strong stance on online participation, with the current President spearheading the use of social media to "reach beyond the halls of government" to engage the public.
It will be interesting to see how the US position continues to unfold, and what other national governments learn from the US experience.
Friday, May 01, 2009
Victoria police launches local crime stats online in MyPlace | Tweet |
I applaud Victoria Police for their latest foray into online engagement, MyPlace.
As highlighted in Victoria's eGovernment Resource Centre, the Victorian Police have launched MyPlace as,
An interactive mapping service provide by Victoria Police which is updated every three months so you can see what is happening in your suburbs and hear directly from your local police Inspector about the work being done by police in your neighbourhood.
It is great to see government making this type of public information more easily available to the public in more intuitive and usable ways.
The chat function is an extra bonus. Scheduled chats with the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police are a great tool for raising community engagement. The general public do not often get to communicate with senior police in a convenient and open environment. I hope in future this will be broadened to include chats with other senior Police officers, and potentially an ongoing blog highlighting the good work done by Victoria Police.
However, and this is a small however, I am disappointed that all the wonderful data provided by MyPlace is not available as a standard geoRSS or XML feed or API so that people can reuse the data (under appropriate Creative Commons copyright).
Google launched a wonderful feature last Tuesday which makes it much easier for the public to access, interact with and understand data from US government - doing a fantastic job of integrating data from various different local, state and federal agencies into a seamless experience.
If Victoria Police had taken an open approach to their public data Google, Microsoft and other online services could have shared the 'heavy lifting' of modelling the data by postcode at no cost to the government. This would have then allowed developers across Victoria and across the world, to build innovative new applications using the data.
These applications could include heat maps of crime statistics, integrating crime figures into rental, home and business purchase listings or school selections or even allow high school students doing school projects to compare crime stats with employment and income levels and other ABS census data (if the ABS made its data available in this manner as well) to explore the factors that lead to crime. Many other useful applications are possible, however will, for now, remain unexplored.
At the end of the day MyPlace is a great first step for Victoria Police - and should be considered by every other police force in Australia - and it would be fantastic to see it taken further into openness and transparency, by Victoria or others.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
eGovernment interoperability is a cultural, not a technical issue | Tweet |
This post from Oliver Bell's OSRIN blog, eGovernment Interoperability Frameworks, time for a rethink?, served to crystalise thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head for awhile.
Oliver contends that most of the technical standards for interoperability via the internet have been resolved, with commercial and citizen usage of the internet built on these standards over the last ten years or more.
He argues that the primary issues remaining are around the cultural willingness for different parts of government and different governments to work together and with the commercial sector to deliver interoperable services online.
While I am not an IT architect by training (in fact I come from a business stream), my formal education and twenty years of working experience have taught me a fair amount about how to connect systems together to achieve outcomes (not always IT systems).
In my experience there are no insurmountable engineering issues - you can always find a way to exchange data in a meaningful way using the right translators and formats.
However sometimes the engineering issues appear to be insurmountable because of entrenched interests and policies - human rather than technical issues.
These often arise, in both commercial and public sectors, out of procedure-driven cultures, political struggles, poor communication, lack of knowledge, pride or prejudice.
Solve these cultural and human issues, allocate some funds and the engineering issues around interoperability largely go away.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Australia ranked lucky 13th in egovernment - down from 7th position in 2008 | Tweet |
The Waseda university in Japan has released its 2009 Waseda University International e-Government Ranking, the fifth consecutive report on how 34 leading countries are progressing in their egovernment activities.
Australia managed to reach 13th position, down from 7th in 2008. In fact Australia experienced the second greatest year-on-year fall in ranking of any country (only Hong Kong did worse).
Australia ranked 6th in 2007, 8th in 2006 and 6th in 2005.
The top ten for 2009 included Singapore (who beat the US into the top position for the first time in the ranking's history), USA, Sweden, UK, Japan, Korea, Canada, Taiwan, Finland, Germany, Italy and Norway.
We did beat New Zealand, who came in at 19th place (down from 15th last year).
The ranking found that network preparedness was a requirement for success, with countries with more mature (and faster) networks being more effective at launching and maintaining egovernment initiatives.
It also found that usability was a key factor in the adoption of egovernment services and that more countries were treating this as a key priority.
Other factors included a shift towards a central online portal for nations and the support and scope of the whole-of-government CIO in terms of egovernment initiatives.
Web 2.0 adoption was also highlighted as a factor, particularly in the success of Asian countries - who now hold 4 of the top 10 positions in the ranking.
Australia scored in the top ten for two areas of egovernment, Interface Function and
Applications and e-Gov Promotion. We did not reach the top ten for the other three areas, Management Optimization, National Portal or CIO in Government.
A press release with details of the ranking is available at www.giti.waseda.ac.jp/GITS/news/download/e-Government_Ranking2009_en.pdf.
A press release for last year's ranking is available at www.obi.giti.waseda.ac.jp/e_gov/2008-02_World_e-Gov_Ranking.pdf
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Making laws align with egovernment | Tweet |
I've come across some interesting situations recently where technology is far in advance of legal frameworks, placing governments in a position where agencies may be breaking - or at least bending - laws by using certain online tools.
Twitter is a case in point. The technology was invented after the Spam Act was passed and it is not actually email, however it does permit the sending of advertising messages out to thousands or even millions of people. How is this covered? Personally I'm not sure, however I'd hazard a guess that legal opinions will probably vary.
Another example is the use of services such as YouTube, Facebook and other social media tools. All come with terms of use attached which may in some cases contravene government legal requirements.
This hasn't yet become a pressing issue in Australia and the use of YouTube in particular has become quite widespread across government, with at least 20 agencies using it to host and distribute video.
In the US there's also a great deal of use of YouTube by local state and federal agencies.
In this case federal agencies have been in a legally gray area. While they are only answerable to federal law, YouTube's terms of service specify that its users are liable to the applicable state libel laws.
Also of concern is that in the US anything the government publishes is in the public domain and freely available for reuse (unlike in Australia where agencies generally attach copyright to their work). YouTube's terms also specify that the user posting the video is responsible for the video - which is not the approach the US government takes.
As in most situations, where new technology meets old laws it's the laws and how they are interpreted that changes. In this case the US federal government is negotiating with YouTube to change the conditions to legitimise its use of the channel.
This has been discussed quite broadly in Nextgov, particularly in the article Feds and YouTube close to reaching a deal to post video.
I wonder how Australian government agencies will handle the inevitable conflicts between laws and society in the online world - particularly when dealing with services often created, owned and managed out of overseas jurisdictions.
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