Posts
Mosman council has published information and guidelines for how their organisation will engage citizens via Twitter.
It's very clear and well-constructed, providing a model for how other government agencies can represent a Twitter channel publicly, building on my post on Getting started with Twitter in Australian government.
By the way, if you were wondering how many Australians used Twitter, there are indications that the figure is over 1 million based on extrapolation from this analysis by Lucas Ng, How Many Australian Twitter Users Are There? And What Clients Do They Use?.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Creating appropriate guidelines for Twitter engagement | Tweet |
Us Now released free online - film about government, citizens and mass collaboration online | Tweet |
Earlier this week Us Now film Ltd announced that Us Now, its documentary on how the Internet is changing how citizens engage with and what they expect of government, was available online for free viewing, download and distribution.
What is the film about? In the words of its creators in the UK,
In a world in which information is like air, what happens to power?The movie has already taken the public sector in the UK and the US by storm as it provides a close look at what is occurring online, busting many of the myths and uncovering some simple, but profound, truths.
New technologies and a closely related culture of collaboration present radical new models of social organisation. This project brings together leading practitioners and thinkers in this field and asks them to determine the opportunity for government.
I recommend this movie to public servants engaged in, or developing policy including, the online sector.
It is also vital viewing for politicians seeking to understand the shifts occurring in the community and how they will affect future campaigns, political processes, policy development, citizen engagement and service delivery.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Government 2.0 paper released | Tweet |
Cisco's global strategic consulting arm (IBSG), has released an interesting white paper on Government 2.0 (PDF).
It takes a long hard look at the opportunities for the public sector in using online media to engage the public, arguing that,
In a world where sharing information is so easy, public agencies should aim to improve citizens’ ability to access information, provide feedback, and view the feedback of other citizens. Ultimately, we should move toward a world where the background information, the thinking, and the options for every public sector decision and action are easily available to citizens.
There are numerous case studies of activities being taken by governments around the world - even one from Australia.
It's a good read for senior executives in the public service who are looking to understand how the world is changing - and the opportunities and risks for their departments for embracing the changes versus hanging back.
European egovernment awards open for submissions | Tweet |
The European Union's annual egovernment awards are now accepting submissions (online only naturally) at www.epractice.eu/awards.
I find the various egovernment awards around the world a great source of inspiration as to different ways the online world can be used by governments to save money, improve access to services and information and involve citizens in the processes of government.
Incidentally the Australian e-government Awards (or e-awards) are holding their award ceremony tonight at CEBIT to announce the winner from 10 finalists.
Keep an eye on AGIMO's website tomorrow where I expect we will see the results.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The implications of the Ice TV High Court decision for government data | Tweet |
I've had a long time interest in Ice TV. In fact about five years ago I was considering investing in the company, or encouraging my then employer (ActewAGL/TransACT) to invest in it as an extension to their cableTV service.
For anyone unaware of the company, they sell electronic program guides (EPGs) for free-to-air channels for use in Digital Video Recorders (DVRs).
The EPGs are used by DVR systems to allow people to 'set and forget' record their favourite shows for later viewing - such that the DVR records the shows every week, regardless of whether the TV channels move the timeslots around.
Ice TV didn't simply rip off TV guides from the newspaper however, they had people watch the TV channels and record program names and times - then filled the gaps with information from existing program guides.
Ice TV has been involved in a several year legal battle with Channel 9, who claimed they held copyright over their program guide and even the small bits that Ice TV was using to fill gaps was a breach of their copyright over the literary work that was their program guide.
After years of litigation, the High Court has ruled that Channel 9 did not own copyright over program guides - because the information could realistically only be presented in one way... The time, then the program name.
Whilst not a legal expert, I foresee that this may have major implications for many pieces of information government in Australia creates. For instance copyright protection may be void for rail, bus and ferry timetables, tables of basic data (such as this electorate list on the CSA website) and most, if not all, of the data released by the ABS online (which is largely under Creative Commons licenses anyway).
Taking the High Court ruling, as this government data can realistically only be portrayed in one way (Name, Data), it is no longer protected under Australian copyright laws.
This counterdicts the actions by NSW RailCorp to prevent republishing of rail timetables in mobile applications (which the NSW government has already forced them to back down on), and probably some similar activities elsewhere in Australia.
This also impacts the business sector - data in annual reports, tidal charts, exchange rates, and much more are now, under the High Court ruling, probably not covered under our copyright laws.
I'm interesting to see how this will be used by free data advocates - and what the legal responses will be.
The transcript of the Radio National discussion this High Court judgement is at The Law Report - Ice TV.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
