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Around four weeks ago the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) launched its first online consultation with 11-17 year old children on the topic of Cyberbullying.
Announced via the Australian Labour Party's website back on 4 May, Youth to advise on cyber-bullying and cyber-threats, the consultation involves 15 schools and 305 students from across Australia in a secure moderated forum.
I haven't seen this consultation get much attention from the media or across various government sources, which is an enormous shame given how groundbreaking this work is for Australia.
If the Australian government is now able to consult minors online, surely we're able to establish online consultative forums for other groups in the community.
Hopefully a case study on this consultation will be released and provide other departments with details on how the DBCDE has gone about securing and moderating the forum.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Department of Broadband consulting teens and pre-teens online | Tweet |
Twenty theses for government 2.0 | Tweet |
Following the style of the ClueTrain Manifesto, Steve Radick has developed twenty theses for Government 2.0.
To quote his post,
Just as the Cluetrain laid out 95 theses that described the new global conversation taking place via the Internet, here are 20 theses (I’m not nearly as ambitious as the Cluetrain authors) for carpetbaggers, gurus, civil servants, contractors, and anyone else interested in Government 2.0.
A number of the theses are very pertinent for the egovernment area in Australia and, in my view, demonstrate in practice the difference in thinking between 'digital natives' and 'digital immigrants' (or 'digital convicts' as a colleague from the ABS typified people who are being forced into the online world).
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
NSW Police now officially on Twitter | Tweet |
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.
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.
