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Encouraged by the success of a imposter claiming to be the NSW Police on Twitter, the NSW Police have now taken over the account and are using it to constructively communicate information to the public.
Reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, Twitter con gives police tweet idea, the NSW Police Twitter account is being used for awareness raising, to issue warning notifications and appeal for public assistance.
Anyone in Sydney who wishes to learn more about the NSW Police's decision should consider attending the next In the Public Interest event on the evening of Wednesday 17 June where Strath Gordon the Director of Public Affairs for NSW Police will be discussing the initiative.
The NSW Police join a range of other state and local government agencies in Australia using the platform for real-time public communications.
As yet no Federal government agencies are using the service, but based on the widespread use in the US, Canada and the UK this is only a matter of time.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
NSW Police now officially on Twitter | Tweet |
Australian Government launches Human Rights Online Consultation by forum | Tweet |
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) has launched an online forum allowing Australians to provide their views and ask questions about human rights in Australia.
Hosted by Open Forum, the discussion forum is open until Friday 26 June 2009.
29/05/09
CORRECTION: Per the comment from Leon below, this discussion forum is not being operated by the Australian Human Rights Commission (former HREOC), it is being operated by the National Human Rights Consultation.
What strategies might be employed to adopt greater use of Web 2.0 in government agencies? | Tweet |
The title of this post is derived from the question the US government is currently asking American citizens in the Open Government Brainstorm.
The site allows individuals to suggest ideas for open government, and rate those of other - providing a prioritisation list that the US Federal government can then choose to act on.
Other questions the site asks the public to consider are,
They all seem to reflect the same questions we're grappling with in Australian government - albeit in a more fragmented manner.
- How might the operations of government be made more transparent and accountable?
- How might federal advisory committees, rulemaking or electronic rulemaking be better used to drive greater expertise into decisionmaking?
- What alternative models exist to improve the quality of decisionmaking and increase opportunities for citizen participation?
- What strategies might be employed to adopt greater use of Web 2.0 in agencies?
- What policy impediments to innovation in government currently exist?
- What is the best way to change the culture of government to embrace collaboration?
- What changes in training or hiring of personnel would enhance innovation?
- What performance measures are necessary to determine the effectiveness of open government policies?
The Open Government Brainstorming site is build on an online tool, Ideascale, which I've used personally. It is extremely easy to use and fast to set up.
I often wonder what it will take to get Australian governments to use similar cheap and fast online tools to consult the Australian people.
However at least we can leverage off the ideas suggested in the US using this site.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Aussie pollies being invited to tweet | Tweet |
In an example of how the public is pushing government towards embracing the online channel, the TweetMP site has been launched to encourage tweeting by Australian politicians.
The site features a method to invite Australian Federal parliamentarians to set up a Twitter account, includes a full list of publicly tweeting MPs and their latest tweets.
There is also an API that allows MP twitter feeds to be integrated into any website - which OpenAustralia is now using.
Apps for America competition launches - cash prizes for best mash ups of government data | Tweet |
In conjunction with the Data.gov launch, Sunlight Labs in partnership with Google has launched the Apps for America 2 competition to find the best mash ups using US Federal government data.
Over US$20,000 is being given away for open source online applications using the Federal datasets at Data.gov based on the following criteria:
- Transparency: Does the app help citizens see things they couldn't see before the app existed?
- Permanence: Will the app be usable over a long period of time? Does the idea have survivability?
- Design & Visualization: Does the app look great? Does the app visualize data in a new and interesting way?
The UK government holds similar competitions.
I wonder what innovation the Australian government could unlock if it made public data available in machine-readable formats, then held its own competition.
