Monday, June 01, 2009

Open Government Public Sphere Camp on 22 June at Parliament House - call for speakers and attendees

EDITED: Monday 9 June, 2009: The Open Government Public Sphere Camp has been renamed 'Government 2.0 Public Sphere Camp'. This more effectively communicates the content and purpose of the event. Other details have not changed.

The second of Senator Kate Lundy's Public Sphere series has been combined with the Canberra BarCamp unorganisers' Gov 2.0 concept to create a jointly-run Open Government Public Sphere Camp.

To quote from Senator Lundy's site,

Open government is a rising topic of debate across the world. Trends in technology, media and public opinion have made it both more possible and more necessary for governments to reconsider what and how information is made freely available to the public.

This Public Sphere event will gather views on how creating an even more participatory form of government in Australia will improve the effectiveness of public administration, enable communities to better help themselves, promote renewed engagement in the democratic process and enhance our capacity to respond to emerging complex social, geopolitical and environmental challenges. We expect the topic and resulting event to bring together government practitioners and decision-makers, and interested parties outside of government.

If you have an interest or are formally participating in open government initiatives, there are opportunities to both attend and speak at this event.

There will be two distinct sessions during the day, the morning will concentrate on government policy, engagement and leadership, as well as issues that limit the capacity for Open Government.

The second session in the afternoon will focus on open government systems, standards, data and best practices.

To learn more or sign-up for the event visit Public Sphere #2 - Open Government: Policy and Practice.

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Friday, May 29, 2009

DEWHA appoints a New Media head

The Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has become the first Australian Federal Government agency to my knowledge to appoint a New Media head.

I've previously commented on the rising trend in governments overseas to acknowledge the importance of online and new media by appointing New Media and Social Media Directors, and the US President has renamed the Public Relations Office as the a Public Engagement office, however up until now no Australian Federal Department to my knowledge had recognised the importance of the medium in this fashion.

Both Forrester and Nielsen have reported that they are the most used media for Australians, as has AGIMO's Interacting with Government Report, which found that online was the preferred channel for engagement with government and in 2008 the internet became the number one channel last used by the Australian public to interact with government.

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New book - What every intranet team should know

Step Two Designs has released the book, What every team should know written by James Robertson.

The book is designed as a 'quick start' for intranet teams and provides practical advice on how to plan, design, manage and grow intranets.

Combining over 13 years experience in intranets and building on the free reports available from Step Two's website, I reckon the book is well worth a look.

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

Department of Broadband consulting teens and pre-teens online

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.

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Twenty theses for government 2.0

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).

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