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On 21 June Victoria announced the winners of its App My State competition, with prizes being given out by the Premier. A list of the winners and a video of the presentation is here.
A few days later on 24 June NSW announced the winners of the Apps4NSW competition, with their own video.
Most competitions end when the prizes are awarded. The top entries get some kudos, while everyone else goes home empty-handed, their entries forgotten.
However in an Apps competition, such as NSW and Victoria's events, the award ceremony is only the beginning.
Between these two competitions there's been about 300 Apps and ideas generated that use government data to assist citizens. The cost of developing and capturing them has been around $200,000 in prize money.
Assuming that on average these Apps and ideas could cost $20,000 each for a government to develop, the total value of these competitions has been around $6 million dollars - a direct return of 30x the prize money invested.
These Apps and ideas are now publicly accessible. This means that any other government, organisation or individual can review them and use them to stimulate further innovation, leveraging their value beyond the original competition. Some of the best Apps and ideas may be extended beyond their home states, or replicated elsewhere in the world - generating further public value.
At the same time around 500 state government datasets have been released to the public in a reusable format. This data represents millions of dollars of investment by taxpayers which is now accessible to and usable by them. Now the approach to opening data has been trialed we are likely to see more public data released into the public domain.
On top of the Apps and the data, NSW and Victoria have demonstrated that there is public interest in these types of competition, making it more likely that other jurisdictions will consider holding their own similar events.
Also this event has helped support and demystify the cultural changes required by public services to be more collaborative, transparent and innovative. The value of this to citizens is incalculable.
So what's been the major impact of these competitions?
They have helped wedge open a door to government openness and transparency that, over time, will open wider - allowing more light in, and more value out.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
What's been the impact of Victoria and NSW's Gov 2.0 Apps competitions? | Tweet |
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The six villains of Gov 2.0 | Tweet |
This post by Steve Radick was brought to my attention by Steve Davies of OzLoop.
I thought it was worth flagging here and noting that these are not simply Gov 2.0 villains, but are the opponents of innovators and change-leaders in every organisation.
The six villains of Gov 2.0.
How many of these villains have you encountered - and what are the superpowers that can be used to defeat them?
Friday, July 09, 2010
Making Public Sector data happen - just do it | Tweet |
A concern I often hear raised in the public sector is that they can't release public data yet because it may not be 100% perfectly accurate, or it needs to be accessible to 100% of the population, or it needs approvals from all the involved areas first.
The UK has taken a clear step to solving all of these issues in one fell swoop.
It has mandated that all 434 local councils in the country release details of all of their financial transactions over 500 pounds publicly, in machine-readable format and it is OK if they don't get it 100% correct the first time (data can be updated later).
The Guardian's article, Local government data: how to make it really open details how pressure from Downing Street - directly from the UK Prime Minister - is shortly going to result in a flood of public sector data from councils.
This is an excellent approach to opening the floodgates. Once they are open, and data starts streaming out, councils and agencies will work hard to ensure that the data released is as accurate and timely as possible.
Where data isn't completely accurate, as has been the experience of agencies in Australia releasing geospatial datasets, there's a plethora of organisations and individuals happy to point out inaccuracies which can then be corrected - improving the overall data quality and improving government's capability to make good decisions.
So will we see an Open Data Declaration in Australia from our Prime Minister, which mandates that government agencies and councils just get their data out there?
While Australia has a Westminister system, there are major differences between our system and that of the UK government.
Within our Federation, with States and Territories holding many of the powers, this type of cross-government declaration can't simply come from Canberra, it requires the support of the States.
That can make it much harder for Australia to rapidly and holistically move in the same direction (as the UK is doing). In certain regards we are more like the US where a patchwork of states are moving in roughly the same open data direction, at different speeds and with different levels of expertise and resourcing.
Perhaps this video explains the process best.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
100 Ideas to Help Engage your Community Online - the book and the wiki | Tweet |
Bang the Table has released a fantastic little handbook for online community engagement.
Titled 100 Ideas to Help Engage your Community Online the book provides 10 ideas in each of 10 topics.
The book has been released under Creative Commons (BY) - allowing organisations to reuse, share and mash it up for their own needs - provided they attribute the creators.
To help this along, and in recognition that online community engagement is a living topic, I have converted the book into a wiki, allowing anyone to add their own topics and ideas.
I hope this proves useful, and becomes a living resource for online community managers across governments and the private sector.
View the wiki at: http://engageonlineideas.pbworks.com
Or download the original book from: 100 Ideas to Help Engage your Community Online
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
The most popular eGovAU posts for 2009-10 | Tweet |
I've been looking over my posts for the last year and thinking about how many people may have missed some because they didn't notice them for the few days they were on the front page.
So I thought I should highlight some of the most read posts in my blog over the last year. How many had you read?
Where's the payoff? Convincing citizens to engage with government
Governments regularly hold consultations. However what's the payoff for the public? This post explores some of the reasons people engage and how to build online mechanisms that encourage participation.
28 reasons why organisations avoid social media - (try it as bingo)
There's many reasons - good and otherwise - that organisations give for avoiding use of social media. This post provides a guide to 28 of them - designed to be used as 'social media bingo' in your meetings. See if you can address all of them!
Australian government Twitter accounts
One of the most popular posts on my blog isn't a post at all, it's a page listing as many government Twitter accounts from Australia that I can find. Listing around 200 accounts it's a strong reminder that government is already actively engaging online.
Australian Gov 2.0 Taskforce publicly releases final report - and most project reports
The Gov 2.0 Taskforce broke ground internationally in providing recommendations on Government 2.0 to a sitting government. Their final report received accolades globally and the project reports released alongside it have been a treasure trove for aspiring Gov 2.0 professionals.
Youtube offers free branded channels to government departments globally
The news that YouTube was giving away free branded channels to government departments was not widely discussed, however my blog post on the topic has been of ongoing interest to government agencies around the world.
What does 'transparent' mean for government?
This post looks at what transparency really means for Australian governments. It discusses what should and can be transparent and what needs levels of secrecy to run effectively.
Creating a social media policy for your department - here's over 100 examples to draw on
If your agency is engaged via social media you need to consider whether your staff need guidance on when and how to effectively engage to protect both them and you. This post raised awareness of the resources available to develop such guidance.
