Thursday, September 06, 2012

RightClick 2012 round-up

I attended and keynoted RightClick 2012 yesterday in Perth and wanted to share my notes, which I presented as a round-up at the event, as well as my presentation.

It was a good event, with an excellent turn-out of WA public servants. From the feedback I overheard, the attendees were pretty happy with the event.

After giving my presentation on Shiny New Toys (why humans love them and what this means for rational decision-making), I took notes on the other presentations - as well as tweeting some of the highlights, as did others via the hashtag #rightclick.

Below my presentation is a copy of my notes....



Notes from the event
As the keynote speaker I started by telling the audience that humans weren't naturally rational thinkers - which might not have been the best way to open an event!

However I also explained how we can use processes to recognise and compensate for the risk of impulsive or otherwise non-rational decisions, employing methodologies such as POST (People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology) from Forrester Research.

In the next presentation, Tracey from Australia Post told us that we already have enough technology to last a lifetime. The question is - how do we use it in more meaningful ways?

She talked about Australia Post's 'Launch and Learn' process, where they don't spend excessive time on complex business plans, launch fast, iterate quickly and kill solutions where they don't resonate with customers, rather than allowing them to live on, draining resources.

Brady, also from Australia Post, then told the audience that they are now thinking screens, not platforms such as 'web' or 'mobile'.


He talked about the huge cost-efficiencies of online, how Australia Post was able to handle 50 million online contacts with an investment of less than $1 in staff, whereas their contact centre costs $50 million to service 5 million contacts.


Brady also talked about how agencies need to unleash the social media talent already within them, hiring where necessary to buttress skills and capabilities and get senior buy-in, the higher the better!

Next, Meg from Archives in State Records talked about her role and the challenges facing archivists in taking 25 year old records and preserving them for ever in accessible formats.

She explained the importance of archives, and how data from them had been used to prevent a man from being deported (through finding his primary school records) and where data was not provided to archives it cost a great deal more for an infrastructure project, which had to dig up the building to find the power conduits when there was no record of their location.

She reminded agencies that it was their responsibility to keep their data for the 25 years before it was handed to Archives, and that metadata was important, particularly for digital information that it is difficult to see inside.

Meg told the audience that it is possible, and not to painful, to archive social media channels - with Archives WA using backupify, downloading and storing the data every week.

David from Ernst and Young then challenged the audience to think BIG - about big data.

He said it can inform and support government policy and service delivery.

David outlined how we need to rethink how we collect, store and analyse big data, and said that while humans had created 2.75 zetabytes of data in our history up until now, we were likely to double this in the next two years.

Next Peter from the State Library brought the audience back into the physical world - at least most of the way - with 'books and bytes'. He detailed how people want access NOW and how while the library was attracting 1.5 million visitors each year through the door, it was receiving a million online, and was almost as much a virtual organisation as a 'bricks and mortar' one.

Peter discussed the YES Enquiry system, which is capturing customer questions and staff responses, allowing them to be reused and to keep answers consistent over time.

He advised the audience to let staff use the technology early, so they are familiar with it, and reminded that it was critical to train staff on new systems BEFORE they went live so that they could help customers effectively. Otherwise customers might lose faith in staff and the organisation, and staff would themselves feel disempowered and demotivated.

Peter recommended that all systems be built with a feedback system, so your customers can comment and help you improve over time. Peter also discussed how the library was now in competition globally against other libraries, however that digital was their future.

Finally, Colin Murphy, the WA Auditor-General, reported on the latest round of testing of WA agency firewalls. He said that agencies had hardened their outer firewalls, but haven't done much work to address internal defensive layers.

He recommended more risk management, appropriate configuration and testing and regular software updates.

Colin said that they've flagged the cloud for future reviews and reminded the audience that they need to be mindful of security frameworks to use it well.

Colin also said that he was hopeful that agencies were now on an upwards trend regarding the security of their systems, with more than half above the 'red line' used to test security.

He recommended that agencies don't shy away from 'Shiny New Things' where they offered value for organisations, but that instead they ensure that they understand the risks and implications for security and take appropriate mitigations as required.

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Monday, September 03, 2012

Public Sector Design - Design & Thinking Screening

Heard about design and design thinking but not sure what it is or what it has to do with the work of the public service?

Interested in design but want to know more? Want to meet others interested in design in the public sector?

I've just learnt about a great upcoming event that is being hosted by the Australian Centre for Excellence in Public Sector Design and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

It's the screening of a new film about design - 'Design & Thinking' - to be held on 20 September from 5:15pm and followed by drinks and nibblies.

To learn more go to: http://publicsectordesign.eventbrite.com.au/

About the film

"Design Thinking was applied as a term and methodology by a design firm in 2008.

It was received as a tool to solve every problem, from daily life decisions to business challenges to world hunger problems.

Attention and debates followed; some insisted on design education in all K-12 schools, some declared it is just marketing tool for that firm, some hoped it would turn his company into Apple. Some said it's nothing new, just a new packaging of how creative people do things.

How do we fully engage organizations to think about the changing landscape of business, culture and society? Inspired by design thinking, this documentary grabs businessman, designers, social change-makers and unlikely individuals to portray what they have in common when facing this ambiguous 21st century.

What is design thinking?
How is it applied in business models?
How are people changing the world with their own creative minds?

It is a call to the conventional minds to change and collaborate."

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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Australia's first 3rd Generation open data site - from the ACT

The ACT government today announced the soft-launch of their new open data site,  dataACT, through their equally new  Government Information Office blog.

In my view this is now the best government open data site in Australia.

What makes it the best?
  • Data is available in a range of common reusable formats - from JSON and RDF through RSS and XML - as well as CSV and XLS for spreadsheet users.
  • Visualisation tools are built into the site, so data is not only useful to data scientists and programmers, but to the broader public who can chart and map it without having to leave the site.
  • The built-in embed tool allows people to take the data and rapidly include it in their own site without any programming knowledge.
  • Users can reorder the columns and filter the information in the site - again without having to export it first, and
  • discussions are built into every dataset by default.
It follows a 'generational' path for open data I've been talking about for awhile.

Most open data sites start as random collections of whatever data that agencies feel they can release as a 'quick win', to meet a government openness directive. They then progressing through more structured sites with rigour and organisation, but still only data, through to data and visualisation sites which support broader usage by the general community and finally into what I term 'data community sites', which become collaborative efforts with citizens.

In my view dataACT has skipped straight to a 3rd Generation data site at a time when other governments across Australia are struggling with 1st or 2nd Generation sites.

Well done ACT!

Now who will be the first government in Australia to get to a 4th Generation site!

Read on for my view of the generations of open data sites:

1st Generation: Data index

  • Contains or links to 'random' datasets, being those that agencies can release publicly quickly. 
  • Data is released in whatever format the data was held in (PDF, CSV, etc) and is not reformatted to web standards (JSON, RDF, etc).
  • Some datasets are released under custom or restrictive licenses.
  • Limited or no ability to discuss or rate datasets
  • Ability to 'request datasets', but with no response process or common workflow

2nd Generation:  Structured data index

  • Some thought regarding selective datasets, but largely 'random'
  • More standardisation of data formats to be reusable online
  • More standardisation of data licenses to permit consistent reuse
  • Tagging and commenting supported (as in a blog for the site), with limited interaction by site management
  • Workflows introduced for dataset requests, with agencies required to respond as to when they will release, or why they will not release, data
  • Ability to list websites, services and mobile apps created using data

3rd Generation: Standardised data index

  • Standardisation of data formats with at least manual conversion of data between common standard formats 
  • Standardisation of data licenses to permit consistent reuse
  • Tagging and commenting supported, with active interaction by site management
  • Data request workflows largely automated and integrated with FOI processes
  • Ability to filter, sort and visualise data within the site to broaden usage to non-technical citizens
  • Ability to embed data and visualisations from site in other sites
  • Ability to list, rate and comment on websites, services and mobile apps created using data

4th Generation: Data community

  • Strategic co-ordinated release of data by agencies to provide segment-specific data pictures of specific topics or locations
  • Standardisation of data formats with automatic conversion of data between common standard formats
  • Standardised data licenses
  • Tagging, commenting and data rating supported, with active interaction by site management and data holding agencies
  • Data request workflows fully automated and integrated with FOI processes with transparent workflows in the site showing what stage the data release is up to - (data requested, communicated to agency, considered by agency, approved for release, being cleaned/formatted, legal clearances checked, released/refused release)
  • Support for data correction and conversion by the public
  • Support for upload of citizen and private enterprise datasets
  • Ability to filter, sort and visualise data, including mashing up discrete datasets within the site to broaden usage to non-technical citizens
  • Ability to request data visualisations as a data request
  • Supports collaboration between hackers to co-develop websites, services and mobile apps using data
  • Integrates the capability to run hack events - potentially on a more frequent basis (form/enter teams/submit hack proposals/submit hacks/public and internal voting/Winner promotion)

    5th Generation: Integrated data platform

    • A common platform for all national, state and local data, with the capabilities for each jurisdiction to make use of all Generation 4 features.
    • Integrated mapping environment for all levels of government, enabled with all available open data.

      Read full post...

      Wednesday, August 29, 2012

      Register now for the next Canberra Gov 2.0 free lunchtime event - 19 September 2012

      It's time to register for the next (free) Government 2.0 lunchtime event in Canberra - this time featuring Matthew Gordon from OurSay.org and Gina Beschorner from the Department of Human Services.

      Matthew will be talking aboutOurSay’s approach to public engagement in government and business decision making, drawing upon experiences holding forums with government agencies, political candidates, local government, media corporations and industry.

      Gina will be providing a view on how DHS manage their consultation blog - speechbubble and discuss their social media monitoring and activities responding to customers in forums and blogs.

      The event is on at DEEWR's lecture theatre on Marcus Clarke Road on Wednesday 19 September from 12:30 - 1:30pm.

      For more information and to register, go to http://gov2septact.eventbrite.com/

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      Tuesday, August 28, 2012

      Empowering science with Web 2.0

      Science and the scientific process is core to the delivery of modern government, with its focus on evidence-based policy and sound social research.

      So it's about time we had an organisation in Australia focused on exploring how the arrival of Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 is affecting science - how it is conducted, reported and used, how citizens engage in it and governments fund it (apparently the Australian Government believes this too - the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Tertiary Education is involved with the launch event).

      'sciencerewired' is being launched by media140 Australia as a new organisation dedicated to exploring the intersection of the internet and science, starting with a one day event in Adelaide on 11 October this year.

      This will involve participatory workshops, case studies and strategies for developing effective digital science communication and citizen science programmes.

      Attendees will learn about the latest insights and strategies in social media, crowd-sourcing methods, community management, remote digital technologies and big data and how they can and are being applied to science communication and citizen science.

      The event's themes will include:
      • Active and passive citizen science strategies and platforms
      • Managing and growing active science communities
      • Remote learning technologies, connecting people across borders
      • Dialling down the jargon, how to talk science to non-scientists
      • Big data and visualising complex concepts
      • The democratisation of science
      • Gamification (theory of gaming and applications to science)
      • Using tablets, iPads and moblie devices in science communication
      • Blogging for science and using video and audio effectively
      Speakers will include representatives from ScienceAlert, The Labshare Institute, theSkyNet, VIVOmiles, Atlas of Living Australia, RiAus, Veritasium and other innovators and digital pioneers in the field of citizen science, science education and communication.

      sciencerewired is hosted in partnership with the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, Royal Institute of Australia, COSMOS Magazine, iiNet, TechNYou and media140 Worldwide.

      Find out more and see the full event programme online

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