When traditional media exposes public service bloggers

On Monday, 27 September 2010, Grog, of the Grog's Gamut blog, was outed by James Massola of The Australian as Greg Jericho, a federal public servant who happens to blog on matters of politics.

Massola, in his article Controversial political blogger unmasked as a federal public servant, has questioned Grog's right to challenge journalistic views, veiled under the question of whether, as a public servant, he was entitled to blog about politics.

Grog addressed this question through his own blog in a post, Spartacus no more, where he outlined the APSC's guidance, which states:

It is quite acceptable for APS employees to participate in political activities as part of normal community affairs.

APS employees may become members of or hold office in any political party.

APS employees, whether or not they are members of political parties, are expected to separate their personal views on policy issues from the performance of their official duties. This is an important part of professionalism and impartiality as an APS employee.

Where an APS employee is involved in publicly promoting party or other views on certain issues, and where their duties are directly concerned with advising on or directing the implementation or administration of government policy on those issues, there is potential for conflicts of interest.

Grog went on to say that he's never commented on anything other than publicly available material and did not comment on matters related to his specific duties.

I have never written anything which I have gleaned through work. All information I use comes from the media or press releases or public reports. This is pretty clear from anyone who regularly reads this blog – you never find “breaking” or “inside” news here – you find opinion and analysis.

The only thing that I find noteworthy about this 'expose' is that it demonstrates the fallacy of the argument that keeping your personal and professional identities separate online is an effective mechanism for resolving unwarranted perceptions of inappropriate online engagement.

While it is nice to believe that you can post online under a pseudonym and remain anonymous, this is rarely sustainable in the long-run. When someone is 'exposed' as using a pseudonym it becomes newsworthy simply due to the sensation.

I wish all the best to Grog - Greg Jericho.

And in the interests of the continued growth of Gov 2.0 in Australia, I hope he will have the clear support of his managers.

COVERAGE (EDITED):
Follow the discussion of this topic on Twitter using the hashtags #groggate and #grogsgate.

Statistics on the use of the Twitter hashtags is available at What the trend.

• Stats for #groggate
• Stats for #grogsgate

Articles and posts for 27 September:
ABC The Drum - Grog's great anonymity gamble
An Onymous Lefty - Grog-gate: Outing as bullying
Ariane's Little World - A person is not their job
B Sides - Privacy is not a gift for journalists to bestow or withdraw
Catherine Deveny - Groggate
Catallaxy Files - MSM arrogance
Core Economics - Transparency and blogging
Crikey / Pure Poison - The Grog’s Gamut outing: In whose interest? 
Crikey - The whys and wherefores of bureaucratic blogging
Dermott Banana - Outings 
eGovAU (here) - When traditional media exposes public service bloggers
Girl with a satchel - Monday Media Study: Grazia's Bingle Bungle & Groggate
Herald-Sun - Get away with you
Hoyden About Town - If you can’t defend yourself, you shouldn’t be allowed to speak
IAIN HALL's Sandpit - Grog’s Greg outed … so what? 
I'm not Tina Wheeze - LOVE, ANON
Larvatus Prodeo - Grog’s Gamut outed by The Australian
Mediakult - Not navel gazing at Media140 (mentions in the conclusion)
Misc and Other - Why I don’t use my real name on twitter
Mumbrella - Australian outs blogger Grog’s Gamut
Mumbrella - Why the Grog’s Gamut outing harms The Australian
Random Black Heart Glitter Moments - On #groggate
The Accidental Australian - Outing the anonymous blogger. Good for the gander?
The Angry Exile - MSM vs Blogosphere - UPDATED
The Australian - No anonymity to bloggers, tweeters
The Australian - Twittersphere hit by storm over whether political blogger had a right to anonymity
The Bannerman - No Opinions Without Reality…or, Who Is James Massola?
The Conscience Vote - Who has the right to speak?
The Failed Estate - Now that We Have Your Attention...
The Gutter Trash - The Australian launches attack on Independent Blogger Grog’s Gamut
The news with nipples - Who gets to be anonymous?
The Vicious Circle - The Grog’s Gamut Irony
The Vicious Circle - Jack the Insider on team #Gamut?

A follow-up article from James Massola explaining his decision to 'out' Grog, released at midnight on 28 September:
The Australian - Why I unmasked blogger Grog

Articles and posts for 28 September:
A Shiny New Coin - no, I am GrogsGamut
ABC The Drum - Bullet by bullet, the bloggers win the war
An Onymous Lefty - Jeremy's ear (not really on topic but mentions as an aside)
Ash's to Ashes blog - Confessions of a Blogger
Australia Incognita - Anonymity and the blogger
Blogging Townsville - Mudoch's approach to his papers' critics - will Island View be next?
Crikey - Simons: it wasn’t unethical to name Grog’s Gamut
Crikey - The Oz’s Bolt loose … science of pop-news … (touches on)
Crikey / Pollytics - Gibbons throwing poo
Crikey / Pure Poison - Don’t you know who I’m not?
Crikey / Pure Poison - Massola raises the stakes
Goonanism - A Passing Note on Grog’s Gamut
Grahame LJ - Anonymity and blogging
Happy Antipodean - Tuesday, 28 September 2010 
Larvatus Prodeo - #Grogsgate and the right to privacy
Mumbrella - Blogger-outing journo: Grog’s Gamut was tweeting during work time
Online Opinion - Blogs and anonymity - another News conspiracy?
Ozylum – Asylum in Australia - New Media 
Peter Martin - No-one should be forcibly reduced to a single identity
The Australian - A storm on the internet (Why should web writers escape scrutiny and responsibility?)
The Australian - Journalist threatened over Twitter outing
The Australian - The Oz declares war on bloggers: Rosen
The Australian - Blogosphere and Twitter no more than an echo chamber
The Bannerman - How Do They Insult Us? Let Us Count The Ways
The Canberra Times - The outing of a favourite blogger
The Failed Estate - The Empire Strikes Back
The Gutter Trash - The Australian: Accused of Just “Making Stuff Up” (Again)
The National Times - Tweets get messy as mainstream media takes on the blogosphere
The Riot Act - On Greg Jericho, groggate, and the public service.

Articles and posts for 29 September:
ABC The Drum - Why I'm quitting Twitter (Groggate given as influential)
Billablog - Who will be the next Grog-gate?
Dave from Albury's Weblog - Outing an amateur
HarrangueMan - Speaking of partisan chum buckets...
Insert Clever Title Here - Now we know who Grog is... what changed... #groggate
Instances of Ass Clownery - James Massola is an Ass Clown
Preston Towers - To Grog or Not to Grog
The Australian - Speak Queasy (see section on 'The Battle of Jericho)
The Dummer Press - We're under attack!
The Register - Media group faces both ways on the issue

Articles and posts for 30 September:
ABC The Drum - Quality sets The Australian apart
Black Dog - The Australian's War on Australia
The Australian - Grog blogger keeps his job
The Notion Factory - Anonymous


Articles and posts for 1 October:
Cafe Whispers - Fran speaking frankly (small mention)
Crikey - And the Wankley goes to… The Oz’s war on everything (bloggers, this week)
SBS World News Byte Me - #grogsgate raises enduring questions
The Bannerman - Burn Baby, Burn!

Articles and posts for 2 October:
Daily Dose - Kate’s Corner ~ Being “Outted” in Australian Society
Happy Antipodean - Saturday, 2 October 2010
James Purser [INSERT WITTY CATCHPHRASE HERE] - Grog Thoughts
The Australian - Test of Twitter-led revolution reveals a character limit

Articles and posts for 3 October:
Billablog - Grog-Gate 2  or We aren’t the ones who don’t get it, YOU are!
B Sides - A couple more points about Grogsgate
Crikey - The Content Makers - More on the Ethics of Outing Grog’s Gamut 
Gary Sauer-Thompson's Weblog - Conversations - Twitter
Kate Carruthers - My Amplify - the continued misunderstanding of the relationship between Twitter & activism is getting annoying #groggate
Still life with cat - More on Grog's Gamut
The Australian -  Salvos lobbed in the great blog war of '10
The Bannerman - Questionable Irony
The Bannerman - Going Through Hell, On A War Horse Called ‘Right’ 

Articles and posts for 4 October:
ABC The Drum - Anonymous sources no window to truth
Aide-Memoire - Twitter, commonsense and journalism #groggate
My Red Crayon - Grog Gate, may his legacy be a change for the better.
Restless Capital - Last word on #Groggate
sminney's posterous - "Media" 2-10-10 Deconstructed
Sydwalker.info -  Naked Lies & Long Noses: from Watergate to #Groggate (a mention)
The Australian - As the anonymous walls of Jericho fall, the great blog war of '10 begins

Articles and posts for 5 October:
A Shiny New Coin - To speak in the first person
ABC The Drum - The Australian. Think. Again.
Aide-Memoire - Public discourse and private citizens – how free is freedom of speech? #groggate
Crikey - The Content Makers - Information Brokerage and Citizenship. More Reflections on Grogs Gamut
eGovAU - In the noise of #Groggate, don't forget those silenced
SkepticLawyer - Journalists are Luddites #groggate
Sydney Morning Herald - Journalists' jealousy behind a blogger unmasked  The Canberra Times - Battle of Jericho
The Punch - Hitting journos where it really hurts: a handy guide
Upstart - Narcissus, Grog’s Gamut and a self-obsessed media

Articles and posts for 6 October:
eGovau - Stats on articles and posts for #Groggate (includes statistics on all articles mentioning Groggate listed in this post)

Articles and posts for 7 October:
Crikey - The Content Makers - Pseudonyms and Anonymity – a Previously Unpublished Case Study.
Mediakult - Blogging under the radar (references Grog)

Articles and posts for 8 October:
Townsville Bulletin - Cowardly world of bloggers
Blogging Townsville - The Townsville Bulletin celebrates our first birthday with style

Articles and posts for 10 October:
Peter Martin - The Australian does not follow a party line
the political sword - Grog, do come back – we need you

Articles and posts for 11 October:
ret's posterous: Cowardly world of bloggers - jeez that's rich

Articles and posts for 14 October:
The Australian - Grog's blog back in business

Articles and posts for 16 October:
Woolly Days - Grog rations (NEW)

Articles and posts for 17 October:
RickyRobinson.id.au - The Australian and the new Battle of Jericho

Related information and news:
ABC - Mark Scott's speech: The Quest for Truth: Quality Journalism and a 21st Century ABC (where Grog's comments about the mainstream media were first seem as influential) 
Grog's Gamut - Election 2010: Day 14 (or waste and mismanagement – the media) (the original article from Grog referenced by Mark Scott)

Australian Press Council - Balancing privacy and press freedom
Online Journalism Blog - Time to talk about legal
Restless Capital - Brief historical reflections on anonymity and pseudonymity
The Australian -  Twitter speaks and the ABC listens
The Australian - Hobby writers keep pros on their toes
The Advertiser - Censoring free speech in the secret state
The Herald-Sun - Outrage as South Australia's Rann Government, Opposition unite to gag internet election debate
The Sydney Morning Herald - Iranian blogger jailed for 19 years (Aside - Don't we use 'gaoled' anymore?)
The Guardian -  No one gains from blowing the cover of this secret policeman
J352: Intro to Online Journalism - Blogger outed by journalist on Twitter
The Wall - BBC’s Marr blasts bloggers: socially inadequate, pimpled, single and seedy


Other mediums:
27 September - ABC Q&A - Politics, Betrayal and Sex (See closing remarks from Senator Conroy)
1 October - The Australian Media Series Audio Webcast - Grogs-gate: A storm in a tweetcup
2 October - 702 ABC Sydney - The Sunday Panel - To Twitter or Not to Twitter (see last few minutes)
3 October - Cartoon - grogsgamut droogisheep #274


A UK view from their 2008 Civil Serf debate:
DavePress -  Public servants must blog, despite Civil Serf

There's a Twibbon in support of Grog.

There's also a Facebook page, If 100,000 people like this page I'll name my firstborn Grogs Gamut.

There's this T-shirt (I work in the public service and I tweet) and this T-shirt (Murdoch outed me and all I got was this crummy hashtag #GrogGate T-Shirt) - created by Black Bobs

And a poll I've set up asking - Do journalists have a right to remain anonymous?

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Will social media only come into its own in government when budgets run out?

The US Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich spoke this morning at Media140 #Ozpolitics on why President Obama used social media in such an innovative way during his election campaign.

Bleich said that it wasn't because President Obama particularly believed that social media was taking over from traditional media and it wasn't because his campaign team felt it would differentiate them from other Democratic candidates.

It was because they didn't have any choice.

Back in 2006 while Obama had enormous appeal as a Senator he didn't have the basics to win an election. No money, endorsements, name recognition or consultants.

He was running against Senator Hilary Clinton - who had been a household name for two decades, had a good funding machine, had locked up most of the big endorsements and had good consultants.

The core group of 'true believers' supporting Obama may have been passionate, committed and hardworking but they were underdogs. And, Bleich says, while Americans (and Australians) love an underdog, they normally stay under.

To compensate for the lack of supporters ready to contribute million-dollar donations, President Obama's team had to build campaign funds from grassroots supporters, at an average of $60 at a time.

To replace a lack of endorsements from national political leaders, Obama's team had to seek endorsements at a local level, from individual town leaders across the United States.

He had to get his name into widespread public use and he had to get advisors who could use special tools to catch up with Senator Clinton's advantages.

We all know the outcome. President Obama raised over US$500 million via small donations, built huge brand recognition across the United States and created a network of over 6.4 million engaged voters, who organised and influenced locally.

Ambassador Bleich says that social media shouldn't be thought of as creating a new way of communicating. It gives political leaders the capability to communicate with people in the same way they communicate in person.

He says that social media will replace traditional media where it is superior. It won't replace TV or other channels that are good at particular things that social media is not.

Bleich also said that shifting from campaign to governance has also posed an issue for social media use. The conversation is no longer with campaign supporters - a smaller and more supportive group. It is now with a nation, more people, more views and less support.

This view was reflected by Senator Christine Milne of the Greens during her comments on the panel 'How are real time and social media platforms changing political communication'. She said that MPs have a job to do - reading, discussing, meeting and voting. The time they can spend engaging and building relationships via social media channels is limited.

This raises an issue of authenticity. Milne says that even if MPs can spend time in social media building a 'celebrity' profile, if they cannot maintain the level of involvement and support it on an ongoing basis by delivering substance, it creates an issue.

Bleich said that Obama's campaign was able to fly under the radar, had no choice to experiment with online engagement. Whereas, Latika Bourke, during the panel discussion, said that during the Australian election most politicians went into hiding as they were afraid of being 'that politician who stuffed up on Twitter'.

So what does this mean for Australian politics and government?

It suggests to me that Australia's current political and government system will continue largely unchanged - on the surface.

While we don't face the same financial and engagement pressures as Obama's campaign there's no pressure forcing our politicians and public servants to engage online.

We're less likely to experiment and innovate while the fear of public failure outweighs the gain that can be achieved.

I realise this all sounds a little depressing for Gov 2.0 advocates - such as myself. However there are signs of hope.

Malcolm Turnbull, who was also on the panel, believes that technology has been a great democratiser - a child can make a movie with a mobile device that used to require a million dollars of equipment.

He says that despite some MPs feeling they face vitriol via social media channels, this isn't more than they previously faced via email, or even face-to-face.

He says that his engagement via Twitter is based on having a little fun, being willing to engage in a less formal way - be a little provocative, throw in some whimsy.

As we're already seeing with the growth of social media use by government there is increasing trust in allowing people to use the channel. As it becomes a normal approach to engagement the fear and scrutiny should diminish to the level appropriate to the medium and the messages.

This is likely to happen more slowly in a climate of 'business as usual' - where budgets exist for traditional media use and agencies and politicians both feel that existing channels meet their communications and engagement needs.

However change will happen. Social media will become a more important part of the mix where it is a superior medium. It just won't see the speed of adoption or innovation we saw during the last US Presidential campaign.

To give the last words to Ambassador Bleich, he said that social media can help spread facts as quickly as fictions. Government and politicians can use it to manage the 24 hour news cycle, mitigating issues by correcting news.

He says that social media, like all media since the printing press, is a two-edged sword - what's most important is that you have a handle on it.

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Media140 #OzPolitics Liveblog

Hi,

I'm liveblogging Media140 #OzPolitics today. It can also be followed via the live stream in the Media140 site and on Twitter using the hashtags #Media140, #OzPolitics and #OzPol.

My liveblog is below, or you can capture my RSS feed at: http://rss.coveritlive.com/rss.php?altcast_code=ff941a7c47



And a view of the day from FirstDogOnMoon - sourced from his FirstBlog at Crikey:

  

               


















Thanks for reading!

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Redefining public goods - by Nicholas Gruen

If you followed the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington earlier this month, you may have seen Nicholas Gruen's presentation on redefining public goods.

If you haven't, it is well worth reviewing (see below) - as are many of the other presentations from the event.

These presentations are available online, together with slides, from the event's website.



His slides are embedded below.

Redefining Public_Private Partnerships Presentation

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Complete the ANZSOG survey on the economic value of open government

The South Australian government has commissioned ANZSOG to conduct a research study on the topic of

"Economic value of open access to government-held data and information"

ANZSOG is seeking respondents who can provide information about the approach of their organisations to the collection and dissemination of data and/or information, as well as their personal views on this topic.

They are particularly interested in hearing stories about experiences with open access to government data and/or information (be they positive, negative or neutral).

The survey can be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/govinfosurvey

The survey should take approximately 20 minutes, depending on how much
detail you go into and is divided into the following sections:

1. Introduction
2. Access to data
3. Cost recovery
4. Characteristics of data
5. Benefits of access to data
6. Barriers to sharing data
7. Health questions (for those working in the health industry only)
8. Mining industry questions (for those working in the mining industry only)
9. Conclusion

The survey deadline is Friday 24 September. Any information in addition to the survey can be sent to helen.moreland@transport.vic.gov.au

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