Posts
Queensland's Office of the Information Commissioner recently released a new guideline, Accessing Government Information. A step-by-step guide for the general public (PDF).
This is a commendable publication, providing a plain English guide to the rights of consumers and explaining to citizens how to go about framing and asking for government information.
However...
Having guides for citizens on accessing government information, while useful, represents the old world rather than the new.
Employing Government 2.0 approaches we should reverse this approach. Rather than government telling citizens how to navigate agency processes to access public information, the public should be telling government how information should be presented to them.
The community should write the guidelines and have agencies follow them, rather than the current position where agencies act as the authoritative bodies and citizens the applicants.
Unfortunately I think governments remain a long way away from the goal of being citizen-centric. Particularly where it relates to public data.
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Governments remain a long way away from citizen-centricity | Tweet |
Monday, July 04, 2011
Should government agencies embrace co-production for policy and services? | Tweet |
Ovum has published an interesting article by Steve Hodgkinson on Co-production: the new face of public services.
In the article Hodgkinson concludes that,
Agencies now need to nurture and embrace co-production by design, or risk either failing to harness this new resource or being left behind like old-style monopolists in an increasingly dynamic and competitive public services market.
What do you think, do government agencies need to integrate the wisdom of crowds in the design of public policy and services?
Or do agencies need to focus on developing their own internal design capabilities, using tried and true engagement, consultation and test processes to fine tune public policies and services to community needs?
Friday, July 01, 2011
UK central government spending data released on data.gov.uk | Tweet |
data.gov.uk has dramatically revised its layout (for the better!) and recently released 557 datasets (1.8 million entries) representing all UK government spending over 25,000 pounds under the section Open Spending.
This represents a new milestone in open data releases around the world and provide a new range of insights into the financial decisions of the UK government.
Gov 2.0 Canberra lunch with Margaret Manning on 'beyond social media' - 13 July 2011 | Tweet |
July's Gov 2.0 Canberra lunch will feature a presentation by Margaret Manning, global CEO and co-founder of Reading Room, a digital communications agency with offices in London, Manchester, Australia and Singapore.
Margaret will be speaking about what comes beyond social media.
Full details are below.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Twitter for newsrooms - useful for government media professionals | Tweet |
If you're not watching the #gov2au hashtag, you might be interested in the latest support information from Twitter - how to use the service effectively for newsrooms.
Twitter for Newsrooms provides information on using Twitter to search for news sources and breaking news, how to tweet effectively and engage an audience, branding, publishing via Twitter and support information.
It contains a range of examples of how media professionals and organisations are using Twitter for news-gathering, filtering and distribution.
I recommend passing on the link to your media people and Ministerial media advisors.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Public Sector Innovation Toolkit released | Tweet |
The website is part of the APS-wide innovation agenda, designed to help public servants develop and apply innovative solutions.
Published under a Creative Commons Attribution license, the Innovation Toolkit is being used to,
As a living resource I expect to see the toolkit growing and maturing based on the feedback of its users as a world-class tool for public servants.
- provide information about the innovation process, tools and approaches that can support innovation in public sector organisations
- provide updates on developments in APS innovation
- provide links to relevant information and research
- discuss issues relating to public sector innovation
- ask for input
- highlight examples of innovation in the public sector.
Are telephones a natural medium for internet natives? | Tweet |
I wanted to share this interesting post discussing the challenges faced by people used to online communications technologies when attempting to use old technologies like the telephone.
Technology’s Child: Why 21st-Century Teens Can’t Talk On the Phone discusses how phones conversations are "both too slow and too fast" and don't provide mechanisms for thinking about and carefully editing what is said.
Will telephone ettiquette become a victim of the internet revolution, replaced by new skills?
Time will tell.
