Posts
media140 #OzPolitics is a one-day Canberra coming up at the end of July that will explore how social media - the real time web - is transforming politics in Australia.
Featuring a range of speakers including politicians; political journalists; bloggers; public relations experts; academics; and lobbyists, this will be the first event of its type in Australia and will look at how recent new media innovations are transforming how Australian democracy and government operate.
If you can't attend, keep an eye out for the event online by following the #OzPolitics hashtag on Twitter.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
media140 OzPolitics: How the real-time web is transforming politics - Canberra 29 July | Tweet |
Monday, June 28, 2010
Gov 2 and social media events calendar for Australia | Tweet |
I am not aware of a central calendar for all of the Gov 2.0 and social media events run in Australia, so I've created one.
I welcome submissions to the calendar and will also be trying to keep it up to-date with the events I learn about.
To add an event please email me: craig[dot]thomler[at]gmail[dot]com
The public URL is: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=g67v5rd3hgi5867oosei76u4v0%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Australia/Sydney
For feeds use the XML: http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/g67v5rd3hgi5867oosei76u4v0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic
Why public data should be public - a US view | Tweet |
To kick-off this week, I thought it might be useful to link to an excellent video from the US's Sunlight Foundation providing a glimpse into why there's growing interest in making public information collected and managed by governments public.
It doubles as an introduction to the Public = Online campaign, which is being used in the US to bring greater awareness to the need to make public data public, in real-time online.
Bor those with a deeper interest, below is the campaign launch, filmed at Google's DC offices. Be warned it is over an hour long.
Friday, June 25, 2010
With a change of leadership, what's next for Gov 2.0 in Australia? | Tweet |
Four years ago Government 2.0 was a barely known concept in Australia and social media was regarded by many in Canberra as a youth fad.
President Obama made social media 'cool' for politicians by using it as a key plank in his run for office. Since his election he has spearheaded a Gov 2.0 agenda of increased transparency and engagement which is in the process of transforming the US government.
In Australia, we saw social media used in a basic manner in the 2007 election, with senior politicians starring in their own Youtube videos, beginning them with "good morning" and MPs were proud of their garish MySpace pages and email lists.
The public service also began using social media more widely around the same time, although a few early adopters were already blogging or using other social networking tools.
Gradually, through 2008 and 2009, more government agencies began adopting new media approaches to communicate with their audiences. In particular state governments such as Victoria's led this charge, engaging their citizens in online consultations and competitions.
Agencies such as Geoscience Australia and the ABS began adopting Creative Commons licensing, making much of their data available for public reuse - free.
The Gov 2.0 Taskforce, launched in July 2009, brought active Federal Ministerial support and increased awareness to the area, culminating in the Taskforce's widely read Final Report which provided a set of recommendations to advance Gov 2.0 adoption, the majority of which have been adopted by government.
This was followed by the APS Reform report, Public Sector Innovation Report and the Freedom of Information Amendment legislation, each playing its part in encouraging government to be more open, engaging and interactive online.
Today there's over 200 Australian Twitter accounts from government agencies, well over 50 blogs and at least 30 Facebook pages, not to mention various forums, competitions, open data feeds and other Gov 2.0 initiatives and activities that are underway.
Much of the Federal activity was actively support by Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, who initiated the Gov 2.0 Taskforce and whose portfolio includes AGIMO (the Australian Government Information Management Office). Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was also a supporter and set an example for his Ministers with his blogs and online chats.
We've now seen the first Australian transfer of power in the Gov 2.0 age, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard taking over the reins of the Australian Government and Minister Tanner indicating he will retire at the next election.
The roots of Government 2.0 have been growing in the public service, however experienced talent is still few and far between and budgets are tight - Gov 2.0 still requires nurturing and support to thrive, particularly if the soil became less accommodating.
This raises a serious question for Government 2.0 advocates and practitioners both inside and outside government. With new political leadership, how deep is the commitment to Gov 2.0 approaches to openness and engagement? Who will drive the momentum at a Federal Ministerial level into the future?
This question is compounded by an impending election which may see the present government change its shape a second time, or potentially be replaced by one of another persuasion.
This will make the next year an interesting one for Gov 2.0 in Australia - we may see it thrive or die back.
What do you expect to happen?
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Six ways government needs to be more like Facebook (to be successful at Gov 2.0) | Tweet |
I was reading an article at Mashable today about What Facebook gets right and it got me thinking.
Facebook, despite its many failings, does some things very well. Things that if governments also did well would help them be successful in the 21st Century.
Consider if Facebook was a country, with 500 million citizens - what lessons could other nations learn?
- Hold citizen attention
Facebook is used on average six hours per month by its citizens. This is achieved by providing reasons to give the site attention, such as personalising news and information to be relevant to an individual citizen and providing various ways to get engaged.
This compares to under 30 minutes spent on all government sites each month by individuals, according to my figures from Hitwise.
Consider how much government spends on television and radio trying to get our attention for a few seconds each day. How much could be saved if government spent money on building and operating websites that truly engaged and informed citizens rather than attempting to push out the views of agencies and providing generalised information which cannot be personalised to an individual's needs?
- Design for individuals in a scalable way
Facebook is designed for individuals, with the central component being individual profile pages. These pages contain all the information an individual citizen has shared with Facebook and can be modified to share or not share each piece of information with others.
If governments allowed individual citizens to have all their information pertaining to government aggregated in a single (secure) place online, we'd be moving towards a citizen-centric government.
Individuals could self-managed their information, controlling which agencies could access which pieces. These profiles could also scale to contain as much information as was required (but no more) as government offered new services or benefits.
- Connect 'like' groups
On top of individual profiles, Facebook makes it easy for citizens with similar interests to connect in groups. These allow individuals to discuss news and events, share ideas, research, learn and debate. They engender the best of democracy - forums where each can provide their views as part of a group discussion, moderated based on individual group rules.
Governments around the world are starting to form citizen groups to discuss and debate issues, provide suggestions and submit ideas - however the machinery of government isn't designed to help citizens to form their own groups, it's the government's way or the highway - individuals are left to their own devices.
If governments began creating the environment and providing the tools for individuals to form their own groups - as President Obama's website did through his campaign - this could be a powerful way to spread an understanding of democracy, promote engagement and deliver real results over time.
- Monitor behaviour and trends in real-time
Facebook is constantly studying how its citizens act, group and behave in its site, giving it a continual flow of information on trending interests and issues. This allows the website to identify key topics and address them early, supporting its citizens and preventing some potential issues from blowing up.
This type of ongoing monitoring is also highly important for government. We've seen many calls for government to monitor social media channels to understand community sentiment and keep a finger on the pulse in a way that previously was impossible.
However many governments still rely on traditional gatekeepers - pollsters and lobbyists from interest groups - to provide them with insights. This approach can be prone to distortions, deliberate or otherwise, as few people are able to be truly objective - particularly when they are tasked with pushing specific agendas important to those funding their lobby groups. How representative of the community these groups may be can also be questioned.
- Respond quickly to citizen criticism
Facebook recently came under a lot of criticism for its privacy controls. Did it study the situation carefully for twelve months? Hold a royal inquiry? Label those raising concerns as a small group of lobbyists misleading the public? No.
Through monitoring its citizens Facebook was already aware of and working on the issue. It was in a position to respond quickly to the criticism, rolling out a set of simplified privacy tools which addressed many peoples' concerns.
Government can often be slow to react to criticism - or react by attempting to close it down rather than hear it out. This is partially due to having to study situations first - whereas Facebook's continual research keeps it aware of trending issues.
Governments can also be slow to take action, requiring layers of approval and bureaucracy to be observed before making even simple and commonsense changes. Simplifying these processes and keeping a closer eye on the pulse of the community will help any organisation to reduce the effort required to manage and address issues, saving money, time and reputation into the bargain.
- A platform for others to build on
If you're a Facebook citizen than you'd be aware of the thousands of applications built on top of the service - from games to business applications. These applications rely on Facebook to provide the platform - data, commands and systems. In return they significantly increase the use of Facebook and the value of the information it holds - a win-win-win for Facebook, the application developers and Facebook's citizens.
Government needs to similarly move towards becoming a platform, opening up its data and systems to allow others to develop applications on top.
Imagine opening up government systems to allow an organisation to develop an end to end business registration system which allowed a citizen to register a company, get an ABN, register for state licenses and apply for development grants. The tool would help many people to start their businesses, provide an application developer with revenue and simplify the administrative burden for agencies at the same time. Similarly imagine being able to incorporate geospatial mapping data from multiple states and ABS statistics to allow a business to decide where to place its new offices.
If government is able to make the public-owned data it holds more accessible online and open appropriate doors into key services tremendous value will be created for the entire community.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
