The survey for people who make websites

A List Apart is conducting a survey on the work situations of those working in the web space - from developers and web designers, through to content managers and online publishers.

Last year the survey (held for the first time) had 33,000 respondents, roughly 1,700 from Australia. This year is expected to be much bigger.

This survey is particularly interesting as the raw (anonymous) data is released - allowing anyone interested in a particular segment to analyse this data in the way they choose.

This allows for significant insights into particular segments of the market which can be used for web team management and recruiting purposes.

I'd recommend that anyone in the online space in the public sector consider both completing in the survey this year and reviewing the result from last year.

This year's survey is open at http://alistapart.com/articles/survey2008

Last year's results are at: http://alistapart.com/articles/2007surveyresults

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UK announces new grants for egovernment projects stimulating involvement in democracy

The UK government has announced a £150,000 government scheme to encourage online democracy aimed at charities, community groups and non-government organisations.

Named the Innovation Fund, grants will be made to support projects developing new ways to encourage public participation in the UK's democratic processes and influence government policy.

This is the third year the program has been run, with 8 projects funded in each of the proceeding years.

Most interesting for those not in the UK, ideas are floated publicly in the Fund's website, making them visible to governments in other jurisdictions to study.

More information, and the latest ideas submitted, are available at www.buildingdemocracy.co.uk.

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Collaborating with citizens to add value to government data

Over the last six months a collection of libraries and museums from around the world, including the Library of Congress in the US, the Toulouse Library in France and Australia's PowerHouse Museum, have been placing copyright free images from their photo collections online in Flickr, allowing the online community to add information and commentary.

As discussed in the article Flickr, Library of Congress find something in 'Common', in USA Today, the approach has seen over 500 photos have new information added to them, from identifying individuals, locations and providing context for the images.

This approach of tapping into an existing online community of enthusiasts (Flickr is the world's largest community of photographers), providing them with public data and seeing what value the community can add (free of charge) is applicable across many different areas of government.

This isn't a unique instance of this approach. Other, and quite different examples of government-community online collaboration include;

• the SETI@Home program, which uses unused processing power on millions of home users' PCs to analyse astronomical data in the search for intelligent life,
  
• the Police Wiki Act, which was passed as an Act of Parliament last year as the first piece of New Zealand legislation to be written, analysed, discussed and finalised online involving hundreds (if not thousands) of community contributors, and
  
• the UK government's mash-up competition, where the UK is looking for community innovation in creating useful online applications involving government data released especially for this purpose.

The final example is particularly interesting as the UK government has phrased the competition as 'show us a better way', acknowledging that citizens are able to come up with better ideas than the government.

There's many other forms this type of collaboration could take. All it requires is some goverment data and the will to work with communities.

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AGIMO releases consultation blog report

Earlier this month AGIMO released a report regarding consultation with government online.

This concludes a yearlong consultation program during which AGIMO has consulted a range of stakeholders to assist development in the online consultation space.

It's taken me a little while to get to it, but the report has been very useful in directing my thinking regarding how my agency can more deeply engage customers and stakeholders in meaningful dialogue.

The report indicated that people did feel it would be of value to have an online consultation space for government, In fact 96.9 percent of those responding to the online survey were in favour.

This space would potentially involve blogs, discussion forums and details of public consultations, similar to that already in place for QLD's Get involved consultation website.

The report also suggested that there needed to be steps taken to encourage participation as people not already engaged in online or political discussions may not participate in such a site.


I found the section detailing techniques to make people more interested in participating particularly useful and relevant to any such website, and will be applying them as my agency moves towards greater online consultation - both with staff and with stakeholders and customers.

The points raised included that people would be more likely to participate if;

• the discussion topic were relevant to their personal circumstances;
• they had the opportunity to nominate the topics for discussion;
• discussion forums included the participation of Government officials;
• a range of registration options were available;
• the site was well designed, easy to find and use;
• participants were free to express their opinion without censorship; and
• it were unbiased in its operation.

Of all of these points, the one that came through most clearly to me from the report was the need to establish credibility - that any online consultation was being taken seriously by the Minister and senior public servants involved.

As it stated in the report:

It was seen by many respondents, especially those participating via the online survey, that Government officials and Ministers would be able to prove their interest in, and commitment to, the various topics under discussion by participating. Many noted the need for political impartiality. The success of any public online forum was seen to depend on the willingness of those in power to participate in the debate and respond to the issues presented.

While many respondents expressed their cynicism about Government actually participating in the discussion, some respondents were optimistic and believed that Government officials would take the website and its discussion forums seriously.

In other words, participation proves commitment to process.

I am looking forward to further guidance from AGIMO as to how they intend to move forward to develop such a consultation site.

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Government using virtual worlds for recruitment purposes

The government of Ontario has launched a job recruitment program in Second Life, one of the best known virtual worlds.

The program allows potential employees to virtually practice being a firefighter, civil engineer, medical technician or another public service profession to gain some insight into the demands of the role before deciding whether to seek a job in the area.

Quoting from the launch release,

The attraction is open 24/7 in the virtual world, and allows users to self-select the tasks they'd like to do. Once users have experienced the range of experiences available to them in Second Life, they can choose to be contacted in the real world to obtain more information about a job or to arrange for an interview. Second Life, an online, 3D social network, is home to the experience, and all users need do is sign up for a free account, and teleport themselves to the OPS Careers Island, a part of the Activ8 Island Complex owned and operated by TheSLAgency.

The interactive shop organized the virtual experience in Second Life as a part of their strategy to bring other government and public service clients into the virtual world. Managing Partner Joe Mastrocovi notes: "No longer do job seekers have to be bored by static websites explaining what jobs they could have; the virtual world offers us the opportunity to create virtual experiences for people so they know instantly whether this type of job is suitable for them."

This isn't the only government initiative in Second Life. A selection of other agencies around the world have begin using the virtual world as a testbed for various initiatives, ranging from Victoria's Melbourne Laneways to NASA's Explorer Island.

A selection of other government initiatives are listed in the Second Life wiki.

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