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A key factor in government 2.0 is that it doesn't have to be a government body that delivers the government 2.0 experience.
Sometimes government should simply be the platform providing the data and allow external organisations to provide the combined services and information that the public wants.
This can lead to faster, cheaper and more innovative service and information delivery. External parties are not bound by the same restrictions and overheads as the public sector, can draw on more diverse pools of ideas and compete to provide the best solutions.
Of course there needs to be oversight to ensure that accuracy and equity remain top of mind. Everyone eligible for a service should be able to access it, and information needs to be available in an accurate and timely fashion.
These concerns can often be managed through appropriate copyrighting (such as Creative Commons) or by having government provide a base-level service.
One of the best examples of government 2.0 in Australia fits these criteria.
OpenAustralia republishes Hansard records and the Members' Register of Interest for Federal government, making them easier to access, search and comment on.
Should government provide a similar tool?
I'd argue no. Provided government can make the information available in a basic way, and ensure the information is readily accessible to be republished by others, the government can focus its investments into other areas of improvement.
In my view this doesn't only hold for Hansard records. There are many areas across government where we would be better served by making data available in a simple reusable format and allow the not-for-profit and private sectors to provide services on top.
Below is a speech by one of the founders, Matthew Landauer, given to the employees of Google about the purpose and journey of OpenAustralia, with a glimpse into the future of the site.
A post about the speech - and the OpenHacking event OpenAustralia recently held is on the Google Code blog, Australia goes open.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Getting the government out of government 2.0 | Tweet |
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Participate in the 2009 Global Intranet Trends survey | Tweet |
Jane McConnell of NetStrategy/JMC is asking organisations to participate in the 2009 Global Intranet Trends Survey.
All participants receive a free copy of the final report.
The 2008 survey had 226 participants from almost every continent and provided key insights into trends in the intranet area.
US Federal government launches public IT Dashboard | Tweet |
I've been known to say, from time to time, that what you cannot measure you cannot manage. This is especially true in IT-based projects, which often involve significant investments and where deadlines and budgets can easily slide.
Given it has been estimated that 68% of IT projects fail to realise the benefits or outcomes they set out to achieve, it is vitally important that good measurement be in place to manage these investments and ensure that the responsible parties are accountable for the outcomes.
The US government has taken a major step towards public accountability over government IT investments with the release of the IT dashboard website.
Speaking to the Washington Post in the article, Government Launches Web Site to Track IT Spending, US Federal CIO Vivek Kundra stated that,
"Everyone knows there have been spectacular failures when it comes to technology investments," Kundra said. "Now for the first time the entire country can see how we're spending money and give us input."Featured at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York on Tuesday, the IT Dashboard provides information on US$76 billion of US Federal IT spending, breaking it down by agency and into individual projects.
The site is more than a list of numbers. It provides interactive graphics and charts which allows visitors to identify which projects are running behind schedule or over budget - as well as those on time and on budget.
The site also makes the underlying data available in open formats, able to be reused in citizen applications and cross-referenced with other information sources to generate new insights.
While the site is undoubtably a nightmare for CIOs who have inadequate cost accounting systems or a high level of date and over-budget projects, it provides an extremely valuable role in enforcing accountability on public spending and supporting both citizens and elected officials to visualise, understand and ask the right questions about government IT investment decisions.
In other words the site aids the democratic process and encourages Federal Departments to ensure that they are running their IT projects effectively - which Kundra has already seen happen in practice,
"I talked to the CIO Council and saw the data change overnight," Kundra said. "It was cleaned up immediately when people realized it was going to be made public."Consider the benefits to the US if government IT failure rate could be cut significantly - potentially doubling the value of every public dollar invested in IT.
I would love to see a similar site in Australia as I believe there would be similar benefits to the democratic process, transparency, accountability and improved ROI for the taxpayer dollar.
Below is a video explaining the site.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
New York Senate opens up its data to the public | Tweet |
The New York State Senate has launched its Open Senate initiative with an API (Application Programming Interface) allowing the public direct access to its data.
The NY Senate is also making the code freely available as open source, stating that,
As a user of Open-Source software the New York Senate wants to help give back to the community that has given it so much - including this website. To meet its needs the Senate is constantly devleoping new code and fixing existing bugs. Not only does the Senate recognize that it has a responsibility to give back to the Open Source community, but public developments, made with public money should be public.The Senate is also working towards making most NY State government data freely available on their open data site.
Contribute to the Government 2.0 Public Sphere Camp wiki | Tweet |
As an outcome of the Government 2.0 Public Sphere Camp last Monday, the points raised by speakers have been aggregated into a wiki for public comment prior to being submitted to the Australian Government as a briefing paper for the new Government 2.0 Taskforce.
If you attended Public Sphere and wish to contribute your perspectives, or are interested in reviewing the points made by the speakers and participants, please visit the Public Sphere wiki.
