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In a initiative to improve electoral records, the NSW electoral commission is asking citizens to geocode their own location.
The initiative relies on the prevalence of GPS units in peoples' smartphones and other devices, coupled with an online system which allows people to locate their homes online and confirm that they have been mapped correctly in the electoral database.
Details on the initiative are available at the Elector Geo-Location System pages of the NSW electoral commission's site.
I hope this initiative won't remain limited to NSW, there's application for this approach across all Australian electorates.
What will be interesting after the collection of this data is how it will be used, beyond mapping electorates.
For instance the geomapped locations of Australian addresses, appropriately de-identified, could be used to supplement other geolocational records, improving the ability for emergency services to reach addresses in a crisis.
They could also be released freely as open data - after all the government isn't paying citizens for the data.
That would certainly be a better outcome than locking up public data in an organisation such as PSMA Australia Limited, a government-owned corporation, which collects public data and then resells it back to Australians.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
NSW electoral commission asking citizens to geolocate their own addresses | Tweet |
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
How do we keep the idiots at bay? | Tweet |
I read an excellent article today in the Harvard Business review by Bill Taylor about Why Do Smart People Do Such Dumb Things?.
Taylor explores why good ideas go disastrously wrong, why innovation often appears to lead to disaster, concluding that Warren Buffet had the right of it,
Leave it to Warren Buffet to offer a thoughtful perspective. In a memorable, hour-long PBS interview with Charlie Rose during the 2008 crisis, Buffet gave a master class in how the world got into its economic mess and what we can learn from it.This progression from innovation to imitation to idiocy is not limited to the finance market. We've seen it occur in advertising, in property, in fashion, toys and engineering. In fact it occurs in virtually every industry and profession - including in government.
At one point, Rose asked the question that scholars, pundits, and plaintiffs attorneys will be debating for years: "Should wise people have known better?" Of course they should have, Buffet replied, but there's a "natural progression" to how good new ideas go badly wrong. He called this progression the "three Is." First come the innovators, who see opportunities that others don't and champion new ideas that create genuine value. Then come the imitators, who copy what the innovators have done. Sometimes they improve on the original idea, often they tarnish it. Last come the idiots, whose avarice undermines the very innovations they are trying to exploit.
So how do we keep the idiocy at bay, keeping innovators and (effective) imitators in ascendency?
Taylor doesn't answer this question, so I thought I might throw in a few thoughts.
Firstly we need to train people to distinguish between imitation and idiocy. Provide them with the skills and experience to draw a line in the sand, resisting ideas and approaches that would fail.
Secondly we need to benchmark and share in-depth case studies. Share not only what worked but why it worked and how it worked - or why it did not. The psychological, economic and engineering principles that were applied to turn an idea into an effective execution. This builds greater understanding of the principles underlying success or failure, not simply the 'bling'.
Finally we need to foster continuous innovation. When people have the skills and experience, coupled with ready access to examples of success and failure, they are better equipped to create new concepts and build on existing ideas whilst identifying the paths that would lead to idiocy.
Of course, at the same time, we need to educate upwards and outwards - help senior managers, political offices and external stakeholders understand what works and why. While this mightn't totally prevent them from getting caught up with a novel idea, or rejecting an effective one, it at least helps them understand afterwards.
In Gov 2.0 we're already seeing the imitators attempting to mimic innovative successes from the past few years. That's fine, it can appear safer to go second or twenty-third - although rarely does an imitation aim to reach exactly the same audience, exist in the same environment or get executed in the same way, by the same people.
In the end, I expect we will never be able to completely keep idiocy at bay, but we can, at least, contain it.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Queensland Police demonstrate best practice emergency communications management via social media | Tweet |
They have also been a wake-up call to communications and media professionals across government on how to effectively inform and engage the public via social media.
Queensland Police, through their twitter account, @QPSMedia, Facebook page, Queensland Police and YouTube channel, have demonstrated world's best practice emergency communications management through social media.
Their activities have been well documented in the media and blogs, some of which I've linked below, so all I'm going to say is well done Queensland Police.
I hope other government agencies around the country learn from your efforts.
A few good articles and posts about social media use during the Queensland floods
- For QPS media all roads lead to Facebook
- Social media and its use during the Queensland floods
- Police tweet on the beat during flood crisis
- Social internet news starting to click
Friday, December 24, 2010
Have a great holiday break and see you in the new year | Tweet |
I'd like to wish everyone who reads my blog a fantastic holiday break with their nearest and dearest and a great New Year.
I'm taking a break from writing this blog and plan to continue this conversation with you in early January.
Looking back
Reflecting back, I believe that 2010 has been a solid year for Government 2.0 in Australia. There's been the start of the process for bedding down the Gov 2.0 Taskforce's recommendations, the Federal introduction of FOI amendments and the move towards Creative Commons as a default license. States and local governments have been very active, with particularly highlights the Victorian Government's Gov 2.0 action plan and whole-of-government program and South Australia's social media guidelines. Locally we've seen councils bring the public into the tent on a wide variety of consultations and more collaborative planning around local areas.
Outside of the government we've seen hundreds of applications and websites created through state competitions, OpenAustralia going from strength to strength and a number of other sites created to help demystify and improve the accountability of government - though I don't think there's been the same level of activity or funding as we've seen in the UK and US thus far.
At all levels of government we've seen a great deal of 'practice' initiatives as agencies experimented and innovated with Government 2.0 approaches in non-critical areas and a few steps towards authentic online engagement by public servants in public forums, although significant reluctance is still evident and the number of public servants actually engaging in conversations online is still small.
Looking forward
I expect 2011 to be the year we begin sharing more case studies from current and new agency initiatives and Government 2.0 will become more embedded as a practice and discipline - a set of tools and techniques that are recognised as a core skillset for a subset (at least) of public servants.
I hope we'll see greater use of Gov 2.0 approaches in emergency and issues management and more agencies prepared to invest in building their Government 2.0 capabilities, although skilled practitioners will remain extremely thin on the ground and we will remain limited in our ability to source practical skills from the private sector.
For me Government 2.0 is about,
- aligning government engagement and decision-making processes with our public's preferred channels and culture,
- improving productivity through knowledge sharing and connecting within and between agencies,
- improving social outcomes through authentic ongoing community engagement, and
- improving the accountability of governments and agencies through improving access to information, analysis and well-considered opinions.
I think we'll begin seeing significant value in all of these areas in 2011.
Why not contribute?
If you're also considering the future of Government 2.0 in Australia, and around the world - perhaps in regards to your own career, or to the future of Australian society - why not provide a comment, your ideas or a contribution to the Gov 2.0 Future Project, the book and blog project Kate Carruthers and I have in motion over at www.gov2au.net.
We have already had expressions of interest to contribute from over 60 leading Government 2.0 practitioners and thinkers, from all around the world, and are looking for a diverse set of views to help us provide a tool for politicians, public servants and the public to help them think about the long-term consequences of a Government 2.0 world.
Later!
US releases national survey of social media use in State Governments | Tweet |
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) in the US has released an excellent report, NASCIO: Friends, Followers, and Feeds (PDF), which looks at social media adoption by US states, identifying best practice and sharing knowledge on how tools are being deployed.
To quote the report,
The survey examined adoption trends, current applications and expectations of social media technologies, the extent to which implementation is governed by formal policies or individual agency initiative, and perceptions of risk associated with social media tool use.
This is a fantastic resource for other governments as well and provides some key insights into who, how and why social media is being used by US state governments.
It is a must read for senior managers - particularly CIOs and Secretaries.
I strongly recommend distributing this report within your agency because, as the report says about Web 2.0 and social media,
CIOs may not have been immediately convinced of the business value of these tools as they entered the workplace, but the fact is that this is how effective governments are communicating now, and this is not just a fad.
