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Google has launched the Student Voice initiative, whereby 15-17 year old Australian students will be able to vote online in a mock election reflecting the current Federal election.
The goal is to help these students learn more about elections and also provide a perspective on how Australia's future voters (who will be eligible to vote in the following Federal election) may vote.
The launch has been supported by videos by Julia Gillard and Bob Brown.
I applaud Google for launching and managing this initiative, however it distresses me that no Australian organisation has tried to make something like this a reality. It is a shame that we are relying on a foreign-owned company to broaden Australian democracy, while Australian companies, institutions and other organisations sit on the sidelines and do nothing to support democracy in this country.
Also interesting is that this approach involves online voting. Today's high school students are already likely to expect to be able to vote online in real elections and the Student Voice initiative could further reinforce this expectation.
Perhaps, over time, this type of initiative will be a trigger that encourages Australian governments to support online voting (with appropriate security in place).
Certainly this initiative could help Google position itself as a potential provider of online voting facilities in the future. I would also expect to see them rolling out similar Student Voices in other jurisdictions over time, after using Australia as a guinea pig.
Student Voice launch video
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Google launches Student Voice mock Australian election for high school students | Tweet |
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Using Gov 2.0 techniques to save money across government | Tweet |
Around the world governments are tightening their belts. After the recent global financial crisis many countries' governments have borrowed heavily from financial markets and released these funds as stimulus packages - placing them in deficit.
Australia is no different, although we have very successfully kept our deficit to a smaller percentage of GDP than most other western nations.
For government agencies, long used to efficiency dividends and a philosophy of doing more with less, it is important to constantly 'health check' their budget decisions to ensure that public money isn't wasted and is most effectively spent.
The US, UK, Canada and other governments have begun more intensively involving citizens and public servants in the process of identifying waste and potential efficiencies - a process which has produced some large results in a short time in some jurisdictions.
How are they doing this?
By employing Gov 2.0 techniques, providing access to budget and revenue data online in machine-readable formats and by engaging their staff and the community via social media tools.
Here's a few examples.
UK Spending Challenge
The UK recently launched a public 'Spending Challenge' asking UK citizens to contribute their ideas for reducing their national deficit.
Managed through a website and a Facebook group, the Challenge has attracted more than 31,000 ideas so far, with the government aiming to include the best in their October 2010 budget review.
US SAVE Award
The US is holding their second annual SAVE award which allow public servants to submit and vote on ideas for cost savings which can be applied within government departments.
Last year SAVE attracted 38,000 ideas and President Obama says (in the video below) that many are being integrated into agency budgets. The top four entries were voted on online by American citizens and the winner got to meet the President and received national acknowledgement.
For the 2010 SAVE award, so far there have been over 17,000 ideas submitted and 153,000 votes.
Canadian public sector data used to expose a $3.2 billion tax fraud
David Eaves has written a fabulous case study on how the release of public data in Canada uncovered systemic tax fraud within the charity sector and helped legitimate charities and the government close down these operations.
It is a very powerful case for making public data available to allow people outside governments to apply their expertise to assist governments.
How many of these techniques could be applied in Australia?
I'd argue that all of them have merit and could be applied in appropriate ways by our Federal, State and Local governments - potentially on an ongoing basis.
None of the examples above involved enormous government expense and, where the processes have been concluded (for the 2009 SAVE awards and in the Canadian example), there have been significant measurable returns on investment.
In other words, they've saved the community money in net terms - with the cost of running the different initiatives a tiny fraction of the savings to the public purse.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Catching up in London... | Tweet |
I'm off to London for a few weeks on Tuesday and will be catching up and speaking with some Gov 2.0 people there to find out what's happening in the UK.
if you have any suggestions on contacts I should catch up with, please drop me a Tweet or email.
Social media and the federal election | Tweet |
While the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that the major political parties are "Parties miss the mark in Twittersphere", the current Federal election is likely to see social media used in more diverse and effective ways than ever before in Australia.
Why and how?
Here's some samples.
Statistics
- Australians aged 18+ in 2009: 16,812,886 (ABS)
- Australians aged 18+ who use the internet: 14,122,824 (ABS/Nielsen)
- Australians enrolled to vote: 13,869,021 (Australian Electoral Commission via ABC Campaign Pulse)
- Australians using Facebook: 9,300,240 (Facebook via ABC Campaign Pulse)
- Australians using MySpace: 1,400,000 (Nielsen via SMH)
- Australians using Twitter: 1,150,000 (Nielsen via ABC Campaign Pulse)
- Australian internet users spent 17.6 hours per week using the internet, but only 13.4 hours watching TV, 9.3 hours listening to radio and 3.4 hours reading newspapers. (Nielsen)
- Almost 50% of Australian internet users watch TV and use the internet at the same time. (Nielsen)
Sites
And here's a few of the sites supporting Australians through the election:
- Election Leaflets
Photograph and map electoral leaflets distributed across Australia
- Twit worm
An online worm using Twitter to measure sentiment, used in the leaders debate
- Twitter trends
A custom version of Trendsmap created by the ABC for the election to track mentions of electoral issues
- Twitter #ausvotes
The primary Twitter hashtag being used to discuss the election
- Australia 2
Site for people to share and vote for their top priorities for Australia
If you know of other websites and social media tools created for the election, please let me know.
Friday, July 23, 2010
View 100 Australian Governments' twitter feeds in one page | Tweet |
It's all well and good to say there's over 200 Twitter feeds from Australian federal, state and local governments - but to get a picture of the level of activity, and see what they're saying, look at eGovAU's Twitter feed here (note that it is a free service and occasionally down for maintenance).
This page displays 100 of the accounts based on those with most recent tweets, a useful way to view the most current tweets.
You can also follow the Australian-gov tweets list to view them.
Engaging with and trusting citizens to participate in the democratic process leads to great rewards for the state | Tweet |
The title of this post reflects the key statement that stood out for me in the London.gov.uk blog's post Economic benefits of data release
This article puts some solid numbers behind the value of open data initiatives in government, from the US's Apps for Democracy mash-up competition (50 entries in 30 days, valued at $2.5m for a $50,000 prize outlay) to Canada's exposure of a $3.2 billion tax evasion fraud when public financial data was released in machine-readable form.
We've already had several examples of open government initiatives in Australia. Both the ABS and Geosciences Australia release significant amounts of data under Creative Commons licenses, and a number of state agencies do the same. We've also had three mash-up competitions, the first by the Gov 2.0 Taskforce last year, the others through the NSW and Victorian governments.
I've not yet seen any modeling of the value of these Australian public data releases, which is a shame as I'm sure they would demonstrate value for money, however the international experience is quite clear,
Actively engaging citizens and empowering them through machine-readable data adds value to government processes and initiatives.
Now how do we share that message clearly with senior decision-makers?
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Contribute to the draft Unofficial Australian Government Social Media Handbook | Tweet |
Lisa Howdin, who now works with me, has been compiling a set of guidelines and information around how to develop, write, manage and moderate social media tools in Government in the form of a wiki.
She's looking for contributions from people across Australian government who are working in this area and have learnings they can add.
If you've had experience operating a government social media channel, please consider sharing your ideas in this wiki so all of your peers across government can benefit.
If you're new to the area, the Handbook, whilst still in development, already has lots of useful information that might be useful to you.
Visit the Unofficial Australian Government Social Media Handbook at: http://government20bestpractices.pbworks.com/Unofficial-Aus-Govt-Social-Media-Handbook
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Blizzardgate - the perils of taking away user choice in online engagement | Tweet |
Vanessa Paech has written a post on a topic I was considering writing about recently - online identity and what can happen when an organisation decides to force users to use their real identity online.
As Vanessa's post is so good, rather than trying to do the topic justice, I shall take the lazy way out and simply commend her post to you, Online community identity and choice: Blizzardgate.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Vote for an Aussie in the Top 10 Who are changing the world of Internet and Politics in 2010 | Tweet |
PoliticsOnline and the World eDemocracy Forum have opened voting for the 11th Annual award for the Top 10 Who are changing the world of Internet and Politics in 2010.
I'm proud to have been nominated for a second year in a row, alongside Senator Kate Lundy. A third Australian has joined us in the nominations for 2010, Berge Der Sarkissian, the founder of the Senator Online political party.
To vote for one of the three Aussies, or for another of the fantastic nominees (such as Tim O'Reilly), go to the Top 10 Who are changing the world of Internet and Politics in 2010 page at Politics Online.
Senior executive learnings about social media | Tweet |
Marketing Daily has published an excellent article on the learnings of top executives about using and engaging via social media.
All of the realisations and strategies mentioned apply equally to the public sector.
You can read it at, Top Execs Dish About Social Media Strategies.
The legislative challenges of Gov 2.0 - such as enrolling to vote online | Tweet |
Government 2.0 has a number of challenges in Australia and around the world - developing the appropriate public sector culture, getting the right policies and technologies in place and, often overlooked, ensuring that our laws allow for the innovative use of online channels.
The latter challenge is being faced right in the ability for Australians to enrol online to vote.
Due to the Federal election the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has been inundated with people wanting to enrol at the last minute. The matter of online enrolment has been raised by GetUp!'s enrolment website which states "Enrol to vote: It should be easy!". Get Up! initially attempted to provide a web-based enrolment system, however this was disallowed by the AEC.
This was also discussed in a Sydney Morning Herald article, Hitch in plan to get voters on a roll a sign of the times.
This is a clear example of how our laws have not kept pace with technology. Australia's 1918 Commonwealth Electoral Act's section 101 (1) states that people must "fill in and sign a claim". The AEC has interpreted this as meaning that a physical signature is required to enrol to vote in Australian elections.
This makes it necessary for Australians enrolling to vote 'online' to print and hand sign their forms, either hand-delivering or posting them to an Electoral Office.
In one concession to modern technology, it is possible to scan a signed form and email it to the AEC - however a photograph of the form (which is for all intents and purposes a scan) emailed to the AEC is not acceptable.
There are likely to be many other areas where our laws are not designed for a digital society - with other clear examples being our copyright and defamation laws which are struggling to cope in a world where digital copies are cheap and fast to make and private comments are publicly visible online.
Based on these legal issues, beyond the work to adjust public sector culture or simplify online engagement, one of the real tests of many governments' commitment to Gov 2.0 will be in how they adapt their laws to suit a changing society.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Australian Government makes Open Government Declaration | Tweet |
In one of his final acts before retirement, Minister Lindsay Tanner has released the Open Government Declaration - one of the recommendations of the Gov 2.0 Taskforce's Final Report.
Released at the AGIMO blog, the Declaration states that the Australian Government is:
committed to open government based on a culture of engagement, built on better access to and use of government held information, and sustained by the innovative use of technology.
Three key principles were outlined,
- Informing: strengthening citizen’s rights of access to information, establishing a pro-disclosure culture across Australian Government agencies including through online innovation, and making government information more accessible and usable;
- Engaging: collaborating with citizens on policy and service delivery to enhance the processes of government and improve the outcomes sought; and
- Participating: making government more consultative and participative.
I'm very pleased to see this step, albeit released by a senior cabinet Minister rather than the Prime Minister.
However I am disappointed that Minister Tanner is leaving politics and will not be able to lead the ongoing implementation of the Open Government agenda.
With Minister Faulkner, who spearheaded the recent Freedom of Information reforms, also stepping down from a Ministerial role, there is a great deal of interest in understanding who will be advocating for and leading the Gov 2.0 agenda in the Australian Government.
While Senator Kate Lundy is a leader in the Gov 2.0 space, she does not currently hold a Ministerial position and it is unclear whether she would in a future Labor government.
If the Liberals win the upcoming election it is very unclear who would take the lead on Government 2.0
Significant cultural change is required across the public sector to embed Government 2.0 in standard practice and to carry out many of the other recommended reforms in the Australian Public Service.
Given it is very early days as yet, senior political leadership is required to drive the necessary reforms.
My question is who, after this Federal election, will provide the political leadership and support for these reforms (particularly those related to Gov 2.0)?
Or will they be placed on the backburner ahead of more immediate political issues, leaving the Australian Public Service progressively unable to deliver community services or factual, frank and fearless advice to its government masters?
Friday, July 16, 2010
Gov 2.0 advocate named one of the top 100 most creative people by Fast Company | Tweet |
It is rare to see government officials named in the ranks of the most creative or most innovative people.
However in Fast Company's The 100 most creative people in business 2010, Beth Noveck, the Deputy CTO White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has been named as the 35th most creative person.
I've never met Beth, but have exchanged emails, and I would like to congratulate her for being the only public servant represented out of 100 amazingly creative people.
I hope that as Government 2.0 becomes normal practice we see many more public servants represented in these types of lists - not just in the US but also in Australia.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
ALP launches social media community in their website | Tweet |
THe Australian Labor Party has just launched a social media community designed to provide ways for party members and the community to interact and provide ideas to the ALP hierarchy.
Launched by Karl Bitar in a blog post, Australian Labor's New Community Space, the system includes a 'ThinkTank' for discussion and voting on issues and 'LaborConnect' a system to support grassroots networking and community formation.
The Liberals also have integrated social media into their website with My Liberals, which supports the expression and support of ideas.
The Greens don't have a similar social networking space on their site as yet, however I expect that it is only a matter of time.
Keep an eye on the Gruen sessions | Tweet |
If you're interested in advertising and maybe even watch the Gruen Transfer, don't forget to keep an eye on their web-only content, particularly the Gruen Sessions.
The latest session discusses Tourism Queensland's "Best job in the world" campaign, one of the best examples of how to use social media to generate interest and consumer choice (next to Old Spice).
What's been the impact of Victoria and NSW's Gov 2.0 Apps competitions? | Tweet |
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.
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.
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Recognising the first followers in Gov 2.0 | Tweet |
When I started this blog the level of online discussion in Australia around Government 2.0 was almost nil.
I didn't set out to be one of the leaders in the Gov 2.0 space, I simply wanted to have good conversations with my peers, to share expertise and knowledge and thereby improve our collective professional skills.
Now there is significantly greater involvement with hundreds of people getting involved in developing and introducing Gov 2.0 initiatives across government and in the not-for-profit and private sectors.
Mandates, to varying degree, are in place at federal, state and local levels and while not all public servants embrace or understand Government 2.0, almost all are aware of it as something they must consider in their planning and future programs.
Government 2.0 could be seen as a movement, beginning overseas and now embraced in Australia. However how does a movement start?
The below three minute video from Derek Silvers's post, Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy was brought to my attention by Tim Longhurst.
In my view it demonstrates how movements may grow, recognising the vital importance of the first followers - those who are willing to stand alongside a leader and embrace a new movement before it is popular. Those who dare to risk ridicule (or worse) in order to support something that they believe in.
Have you ever dared to be a leader or a first follower? If so this video recognises the risk you took.
And if you're someone who has always hung back until you'd look ridiculous by not joining in - consider being a first follower in the future. You might find it liberating.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Still on the Internet Explorer 6 web browser? Microsoft tells organisations to ditch it | Tweet |
Microsoft has just released a beta version of Internet Explorer 9, however is still having to ask organisations to stop using Internet Explorer 6 (IE6).
Despite lacking the ability to fully view the modern web IE6, released nine years ago, is still used by a number of Australian organisations, including some government agencies.
The Sydney Morning Herald, in the article Microsoft begs users to ditch IE6 quotes Microsoft Australia's chief security officer, Stuart Strathdee as saying “IE6 has a lifecycle. We’re well beyond its expiry date”.
The article also stated that,
Strathdee said corporate users who haven’t yet upgraded to IE8 fearing the loss of customised ERP and CRM systems were probably running outdated versions of those and should look to upgrade them all. He said the company would be happy to help customers do so.
“It’s only a very small number of queries on those systems that would be locked to IE6,” he said.
“For us security and privacy are closely related. We’re really pleading with people to upgrade.”
Is your agency still using IE6?
If so the question becomes, are your senior management aware of the security and reputation risks they are taking by doing so?
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The next level for Government 2.0 conferences | Tweet |
Gov 2.0 conferences have become very popular in Australia in the last year, however many are still focused on introducing the concepts of Gov 2.0, rather than exploring some of the aspects, and challenges, of the topic in depth.
Geoff Mason is currently working towards a series of more advanced events, covered in his blog post, Sick of conferences telling you what you already know?.
So if you're finding the regular fare of Gov 2.0 conferences a little too basic or repetitive, have a read of Geoff's post and consider how you could be involved.
ACT launches Fix My Street - but not like the UK Gov 2.0 service | Tweet |
The ACT has launched a Fix My Street service providing ACT residents with methods for reporting and tracking "municipal service requests" online.
According to the site, ACT residents can submit service requests using a menu of topics and even create an account to track the progress of their own requests.
While a major step forward, unlike the popular UK service of the same name, the ACT's version of Fix My Street may only be used by ACT residents rather than by local governments across the country.
The ACT version also does not include photos, allow residents to view the service requests submitted by others or provide details on the number of service requests received or addressed.
A service similar to the UK's site was developed during one of the Gov 2.0 Taskforce's mash-up events last year, named It's Buggered, Mate.
The OpenAustralia Foundation is also working towards introducing a version of the UK's Fix My Street in Australia.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
iPhones dominate Australian mobile internet access | Tweet |
Tiphereth Gloria has posted on Digital Tip a very interesting post regarding how iPhones dominate mobile internet access in Australia.
Quoting June 2010 figures, her post iPhones dominate Australian mobile internet says that iPhones account for 93% of mobile access, with Android, Blackberries, Symbian and other operating systems combined only accounting for 7% of the market.
Overseas iPhones account for 60% of mobile internet access - still a huge share, but significantly less than the Australian experience.
Of course these figures were provided by Apple - I've not seen independent statistics - but they are still striking.
If your agency websites are not customised for access via iPhones you're potentially less accessible to a large proportion of the mobile internet market.
media140 OzPolitics: How the real-time web is transforming politics - Canberra 29 July | Tweet |
media140 #OzPolitics is a one-day Canberra coming up at the end of July that will explore how social media - the real time web - is transforming politics in Australia.
Featuring a range of speakers including politicians; political journalists; bloggers; public relations experts; academics; and lobbyists, this will be the first event of its type in Australia and will look at how recent new media innovations are transforming how Australian democracy and government operate.
If you can't attend, keep an eye out for the event online by following the #OzPolitics hashtag on Twitter.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Gov 2 and social media events calendar for Australia | Tweet |
I am not aware of a central calendar for all of the Gov 2.0 and social media events run in Australia, so I've created one.
I welcome submissions to the calendar and will also be trying to keep it up to-date with the events I learn about.
To add an event please email me: craig[dot]thomler[at]gmail[dot]com
The public URL is: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=g67v5rd3hgi5867oosei76u4v0%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Australia/Sydney
For feeds use the XML: http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/g67v5rd3hgi5867oosei76u4v0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic
Why public data should be public - a US view | Tweet |
To kick-off this week, I thought it might be useful to link to an excellent video from the US's Sunlight Foundation providing a glimpse into why there's growing interest in making public information collected and managed by governments public.
It doubles as an introduction to the Public = Online campaign, which is being used in the US to bring greater awareness to the need to make public data public, in real-time online.
Bor those with a deeper interest, below is the campaign launch, filmed at Google's DC offices. Be warned it is over an hour long.
Friday, June 25, 2010
With a change of leadership, what's next for Gov 2.0 in Australia? | Tweet |
Four years ago Government 2.0 was a barely known concept in Australia and social media was regarded by many in Canberra as a youth fad.
President Obama made social media 'cool' for politicians by using it as a key plank in his run for office. Since his election he has spearheaded a Gov 2.0 agenda of increased transparency and engagement which is in the process of transforming the US government.
In Australia, we saw social media used in a basic manner in the 2007 election, with senior politicians starring in their own Youtube videos, beginning them with "good morning" and MPs were proud of their garish MySpace pages and email lists.
The public service also began using social media more widely around the same time, although a few early adopters were already blogging or using other social networking tools.
Gradually, through 2008 and 2009, more government agencies began adopting new media approaches to communicate with their audiences. In particular state governments such as Victoria's led this charge, engaging their citizens in online consultations and competitions.
Agencies such as Geoscience Australia and the ABS began adopting Creative Commons licensing, making much of their data available for public reuse - free.
The Gov 2.0 Taskforce, launched in July 2009, brought active Federal Ministerial support and increased awareness to the area, culminating in the Taskforce's widely read Final Report which provided a set of recommendations to advance Gov 2.0 adoption, the majority of which have been adopted by government.
This was followed by the APS Reform report, Public Sector Innovation Report and the Freedom of Information Amendment legislation, each playing its part in encouraging government to be more open, engaging and interactive online.
Today there's over 200 Australian Twitter accounts from government agencies, well over 50 blogs and at least 30 Facebook pages, not to mention various forums, competitions, open data feeds and other Gov 2.0 initiatives and activities that are underway.
Much of the Federal activity was actively support by Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, who initiated the Gov 2.0 Taskforce and whose portfolio includes AGIMO (the Australian Government Information Management Office). Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was also a supporter and set an example for his Ministers with his blogs and online chats.
We've now seen the first Australian transfer of power in the Gov 2.0 age, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard taking over the reins of the Australian Government and Minister Tanner indicating he will retire at the next election.
The roots of Government 2.0 have been growing in the public service, however experienced talent is still few and far between and budgets are tight - Gov 2.0 still requires nurturing and support to thrive, particularly if the soil became less accommodating.
This raises a serious question for Government 2.0 advocates and practitioners both inside and outside government. With new political leadership, how deep is the commitment to Gov 2.0 approaches to openness and engagement? Who will drive the momentum at a Federal Ministerial level into the future?
This question is compounded by an impending election which may see the present government change its shape a second time, or potentially be replaced by one of another persuasion.
This will make the next year an interesting one for Gov 2.0 in Australia - we may see it thrive or die back.
What do you expect to happen?
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Six ways government needs to be more like Facebook (to be successful at Gov 2.0) | Tweet |
I was reading an article at Mashable today about What Facebook gets right and it got me thinking.
Facebook, despite its many failings, does some things very well. Things that if governments also did well would help them be successful in the 21st Century.
Consider if Facebook was a country, with 500 million citizens - what lessons could other nations learn?
- Hold citizen attention
Facebook is used on average six hours per month by its citizens. This is achieved by providing reasons to give the site attention, such as personalising news and information to be relevant to an individual citizen and providing various ways to get engaged.
This compares to under 30 minutes spent on all government sites each month by individuals, according to my figures from Hitwise.
Consider how much government spends on television and radio trying to get our attention for a few seconds each day. How much could be saved if government spent money on building and operating websites that truly engaged and informed citizens rather than attempting to push out the views of agencies and providing generalised information which cannot be personalised to an individual's needs?
- Design for individuals in a scalable way
Facebook is designed for individuals, with the central component being individual profile pages. These pages contain all the information an individual citizen has shared with Facebook and can be modified to share or not share each piece of information with others.
If governments allowed individual citizens to have all their information pertaining to government aggregated in a single (secure) place online, we'd be moving towards a citizen-centric government.
Individuals could self-managed their information, controlling which agencies could access which pieces. These profiles could also scale to contain as much information as was required (but no more) as government offered new services or benefits.
- Connect 'like' groups
On top of individual profiles, Facebook makes it easy for citizens with similar interests to connect in groups. These allow individuals to discuss news and events, share ideas, research, learn and debate. They engender the best of democracy - forums where each can provide their views as part of a group discussion, moderated based on individual group rules.
Governments around the world are starting to form citizen groups to discuss and debate issues, provide suggestions and submit ideas - however the machinery of government isn't designed to help citizens to form their own groups, it's the government's way or the highway - individuals are left to their own devices.
If governments began creating the environment and providing the tools for individuals to form their own groups - as President Obama's website did through his campaign - this could be a powerful way to spread an understanding of democracy, promote engagement and deliver real results over time.
- Monitor behaviour and trends in real-time
Facebook is constantly studying how its citizens act, group and behave in its site, giving it a continual flow of information on trending interests and issues. This allows the website to identify key topics and address them early, supporting its citizens and preventing some potential issues from blowing up.
This type of ongoing monitoring is also highly important for government. We've seen many calls for government to monitor social media channels to understand community sentiment and keep a finger on the pulse in a way that previously was impossible.
However many governments still rely on traditional gatekeepers - pollsters and lobbyists from interest groups - to provide them with insights. This approach can be prone to distortions, deliberate or otherwise, as few people are able to be truly objective - particularly when they are tasked with pushing specific agendas important to those funding their lobby groups. How representative of the community these groups may be can also be questioned.
- Respond quickly to citizen criticism
Facebook recently came under a lot of criticism for its privacy controls. Did it study the situation carefully for twelve months? Hold a royal inquiry? Label those raising concerns as a small group of lobbyists misleading the public? No.
Through monitoring its citizens Facebook was already aware of and working on the issue. It was in a position to respond quickly to the criticism, rolling out a set of simplified privacy tools which addressed many peoples' concerns.
Government can often be slow to react to criticism - or react by attempting to close it down rather than hear it out. This is partially due to having to study situations first - whereas Facebook's continual research keeps it aware of trending issues.
Governments can also be slow to take action, requiring layers of approval and bureaucracy to be observed before making even simple and commonsense changes. Simplifying these processes and keeping a closer eye on the pulse of the community will help any organisation to reduce the effort required to manage and address issues, saving money, time and reputation into the bargain.
- A platform for others to build on
If you're a Facebook citizen than you'd be aware of the thousands of applications built on top of the service - from games to business applications. These applications rely on Facebook to provide the platform - data, commands and systems. In return they significantly increase the use of Facebook and the value of the information it holds - a win-win-win for Facebook, the application developers and Facebook's citizens.
Government needs to similarly move towards becoming a platform, opening up its data and systems to allow others to develop applications on top.
Imagine opening up government systems to allow an organisation to develop an end to end business registration system which allowed a citizen to register a company, get an ABN, register for state licenses and apply for development grants. The tool would help many people to start their businesses, provide an application developer with revenue and simplify the administrative burden for agencies at the same time. Similarly imagine being able to incorporate geospatial mapping data from multiple states and ABS statistics to allow a business to decide where to place its new offices.
If government is able to make the public-owned data it holds more accessible online and open appropriate doors into key services tremendous value will be created for the entire community.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Twitter's demise widely over-reported | Tweet |
Late last year the Australian and international media was full of stories about the demise of Twitter.
Articles talked about how the service's growth had slowed - perhaps even reversed - and that there were clear signs that people were tired and looking for the next big thing.
Six months later and Twitter has released some new figures on usage which demonstrate how the service has continued to grow. Reported in Read Write Web, in the post Just the Facts: Statistics from Twitter Chirp last April, Twitter had grown to over 105 million global users, with 300,000 signing up each day.
With 600,000 searches on Twitter daily, the service receives 3 billion requests each day.
The site received roughly 180 million unique visitors each month, with 60% of tweets coming from third-party applications and 37% of Twitter users using their phones to tweet.
Given that Twitter only had around 8 million unique website visitors in March 2009, the figures don't appear to indicate a service in decline.
Now that over 500 Australian journalists and news media people (or follow the Twitter list here) and more than 200 government bodies in Australia and 49 Federal politicians (plus an unknown number of state and local elected representatives) have Twitter accounts, any Agencies who have not yet learnt to tweet are beginning to look very 20th Century.
By the way if your department has Twitter accounts that aren't on my list, please add yourself via a comment or in the Google spreadsheet.
After all what good is a Twitter account that you don't tell anyone about!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Australia's first political leaders' Twitter debate happening in NSW at 11.15am | Tweet |
According to the Sydney Morning Herald article, Twitter debate for NSW leaders Keneally, O'Farrell and Rhiannon, NSW's political leaders will stage Australia's first political leadership debate via Twitter this morning at 11.15am.
Featuring NSW Premier Kristina Keneally from the Labor party, Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell from the Liberal party and Greens party leader Lee Rhiannon and moderated by Channel 9's Kevin Wilde, the debate will be tagged under the hashtag #penrithdebate.
The leaders will be taking questions from the public using the same hashtag.
Note that you don't need to be a Twitter user to watch the debate, although to ask a question or comment you will need an account.
It will also be possible to simply follow the leaders and moderator via Tallyroom.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Victoria Police recruit tweeting and YouTubing their Academy training | Tweet |
In a move designed to improve awareness and understanding of the process by which officers are trained (and encourage more quality candidates), Victoria Police is supporting one of its new Academy recruits to tweet their way through training.
Announced in Victoria Police News as The Twittering recruit, Stephanie Attard begun her career as Victoria Police's first recruit tweeter on 7 June this year.
From the article,
Armed with an iPad, 21-year-old Stephanie from Gladstone Park, will ‘tweet’ every day between 7am and 5pm about her time at the Academy.Stephanie's Twitter account already has over 1,150 followers and she's actively and candidly responding to questions.
Stephanie’s Twitter account, http://twitter.com/vicpolrecruit, will be unedited, and all tweets will be straight from Stephanie’s own finger tips.
And it won’t be just the good experiences she will share on her micro-blog - Stephanie will tweet about her good days and her bad.
Videos of Stephanie's experiences are also being distributed via the VPBlue YouTube channel. Fortnightly videos are planned through the 23 week training process.
This type of approach can be an extremely valuable recruiting tool for any kind of organisation if allowed to be authentic and unscripted (as the Victoria Police effort appear to be).
Victoria Police are now widely using social media tools for community engagement and outreach, including their Twitter account, @VictoriaPolice (with a well constructed Twitter policy here).
They are also very active Facebook participants with both a main Victoria Police Page and a Recruiting forum and hold regular online chats on topics of community interest.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Gov 2.0 Heroes Day - 15 June | Tweet |
GovFresh celebrates Gov 2.0 Heroes Day every year on 15 June.
Gov 2.0 Heroes Day celebrates, in the words of GovFresh,
...citizens inside and outside government who go above and beyond the call of duty and creatively leverage technology to build a more open, transparent and collaborative democracy.
The 'usual suspects' of social media are being used to share information and support communications, including a Facebook page, Twitter account and YouTube - which already features a range of video interviews.
There's also an interview with Luke Fretwell, founder of GovFresh, about the day.
Who would you consider a Gov 2.0 hero?
Friday, June 11, 2010
Reinventing website perfection | Tweet |
Traditionally, in my experience both in the private and public sector, the way to build a 'perfect' website has been considered to be;
invest a large quantity of resources, personnel and time at the start of the development process,
use this investment to build all the functionality that the developers can dream up, write all the content the communicators can think of and test it with audiences,
launch the 'perfect' website and hope it works, and then
replace the website (fixing most of the bits that failed) after 3-5 years by repeating the process again.
Personally I've never liked this approach. It places a lot of reliance on using past knowledge to guess future (organisational and audience) needs, involves investing a lot of resources upfront with limited ability to terminate or redirect projects until after they have failed and it also results in websites that degrade in effectiveness over time which can lead to progressively greater reputation and legal risks.
I'd like to see the process for developing a 'perfect' website reinvented. The new process must involve a low upfront cost, the ability to be flexible and agile to meet changing needs quickly and be capable of making a website more and more effective over time, improving reputation and reducing legal risks.
But how is it possible to achieve all these goals at once?
The answer is actually quite simple and well understood by successful entrepreneurs.
Rather than aiming for a perfect site on release day after an extended development period, the goal is to quickly build and launch a site that meets at least one critical audience need.
Once the site has been launched, ensure there are tools for monitoring how it is used and identifying user needs. Then progressively build extra functionality and write more content, guided primarily by the needs of your audience.
This approach ensures the site has enough value at launch to be successful, albeit in a more limited fashion than a 'kitchen sink' website (with more functionality at launch). It also ensures that the website grows progressively more useful and relevant to the audience you aim to serve.
In this way the site becomes increasingly perfect in a more realistic way - perfect for the audience who use it, rather than 'perfect' for the stakeholders who think they know what different audiences want.
We see this approach taken with all kinds of websites and products - from Apple's iPhones through to online services such as Gmail.
It's time to see more of this approach used with government websites as well.
After all - don't we want to create the 'perfect' website for our audiences' needs?
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The next generation of government | Tweet |
Living in Australia we are fortunate to be able to often look overseas to view the trends that will shape our lives and our workplaces already beginning to unfold.
While Australians often consider our country an innovative leader in many areas, my fifteen years in the online sector have suggested that, for the most part, we lag on average 18-24 months behind the United States in our thinking and activities in this industry.
That's why I found the article Watch out...Here Comes the Next Generation of Government by Steve Ressler (founder of Govloop) so interesting.
I recommend you read Steve's article. It provides some insights into how public organisations must reinvent themselves to attract the best young staff, and how they much reinvent their relationship with their communities to remain relevant.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
The difference between Gov 1.0 and Gov 2.0 - as demonstrated by the Queensland and Victorian State Governments | Tweet |
I see a lot of examples of Gov 1.0 and Gov 2.0 these days, but one I saw recently struck me an an object example of the differences between these approaches - how far Australian government has come, and how far there is left to go.
In May the Victorian government quietly launched its ICT Plan Blog to consult online on issues related to the production and use of ICT.
As the blog's About us page states,
This ICT Plan Blog exists for people interested in contributing to the Victorian Government’s consideration of issues relating to the production and use of information and communication technology (ICT). Interested users are encouraged to share their ideas and thoughts. This discussion will assist in shaping the Victorian Government’s future policy and actions.
In the same month the Queensland government launched the quarterly ICT in Focus online newsletter, which was billed as,
your quarterly newsletter to keep you updated on the activities of Queensland Government ICT, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division of the Queensland Government Department of Public Works. The department is Queensland's lead agency in the application of whole-of-Government information management and ICT. The aim of this newsletter is to provide you with progress on our initiatives.
The difference between the two speaks volumes about the internal struggles in understanding and culture that are going on within governments in Australia and around the world.
Victoria's ICT PLan Blog is designed to consult and engage the public in an active debate about the state government's ICT plans and policies. It recognises that the community and commercial sector are involved and active participants in government with significant stakes in what government does and how it does it.
Queensland's ICT in Focus newsletter is designed to tell the public what the government has decided to do. Its approach suggests that the government knows best and, while acknowledging that the community have a right to know about the government's actions, it could be perceived as communicating that the public is simply a passive recipient of government's decisions.
Inherently there's nothing wrong with Queensland's approach, it is how many governments, of all persuasions, have engaged the public over many years.
However today, with Gov 2.0 progressively increasing its impact on jurisdictions around the world, Gov 1.0 approaches to inform communities may be beginning to appear more and more out of place.
Soon governments who seek to only inform and not engage may be perceived to be out-of-step with their peers (less competitive) and out-of-touch with their citizens (less democratic).
Or perhaps Governments still focused on informing and limiting engagement are already perceived as out-of-touch. What do you think?
Thursday, June 03, 2010
The art of leveraging small announcements to drive Government social media engagement | Tweet |
Governments love big announcements. Billions of dollars in spending, bold new projects and initiatives, launches and major events.
These types of announcements are believed to be the best way to cut through the media storm, attract journalist interest and public attention.
These big announcements appear to work well for traditional media channels, that are always chasing the next big story. However the approach does not work as well in social media channels.
The first difference to consider is that when launching a new initiative a government department can reach out to existing traditional media channels with existing audiences. However in many cases a government department may not yet have aggregated their audience online, making it much less effective.
The big launch tweeted to a dozen followers, or posted on a Facebook page that has only been liked by the families and friends of departmental staff, won't create the type of stir intended and may even send an incorrect signal that it isn't worth engaging via social media channels.
Secondly big announcements tend to require much preparation, approval and timing. This makes them annoyingly difficult to release online at precisely the same time as a Minister steps up to a podium to deliver his speech. Even if you release the online announcement at precisely the right moment, it may take minutes, hours or even days (for web domains or searchable information) to become available to the audience.
Thirdly, big announcements are usually rare and there's large gaps between them. While in traditional media the news will be filled up by all kinds of other announcements and events, on a department's social media channels there is no other news to release, leaving them looking sporadic and disinclining audiences to follow them closely.
What I advocate governments departments do is to by all means make the big announcements, particularly via traditional media to create interest and drive people to an online channel, but also use social media channels to make series of regular small announcements through the life of a campaign or program to sustain and grow online interest.
If you're managing an information campaign then you have a range of information available and approved for release. Whether you're releasing videos, publications, factsheets and FAQs or rolling out and completing many small projects within a bigger one, break up your information into 'bite sized' (usually single themed) chunks and distribute them, a few at a time, through your social media channels.
Some people say they have nothing to say, or get concerned that their information may be 'old' because it is already in their website. However it is important to realise that while they might be very familiar with their web content as they visit and think about the website all the time, their audience does not. Every useful, practical, challenging and interesting snippet of information can form the basis for a tweet, a blog post or a Facebook announcement. In some mediums each snippet of information can be published several times through a month - such as on Twitter, where people are not watching your every tweet.
By feeding your social media channel with these small and regular snippets of information (but not too often - no more than a few tweets or one or two posts or Facebook announcements each day) you give your audience a reason to sign-up, to revisit, to share your messages with their friends and to engage with you.
These small announcements can lead into important conversations, giving you even more opportunities to engage in meaningful dialogue and to listen to the views of your audience as they reflect on the information you have provided.
Even more important, when you do have a big announcement, you'll have a pre-prepared, engaged and interested social media audience ready to listen, reflect, share and engage, improving your reach and cut-through and demonstrating how effective social media can be to reach audiences directly without relying on journalists to cover your big announcement.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Should public servants comment online on the operations of other departments? | Tweet |
A matter I've been mulling over for some time has been whether Australian public servants should comment on the operations of other government departments - at whatever jurisdictional level.
I am aware of several cases where individual public servants have commented on a difficult personal situation they experienced with another agency and received an informal complaint, via their own senior management, from the senior management of the other agency (who had used social media monitoring to track them down). Generally the complaint was that by commenting in a less than positive manner they were calling the integrity and reputation of another agency into question.
This raises major considerations for public servants as they engage online personally or professionally. While it is very clear from the Australian Public Service Code that public servants should uphold the integrity and reputation of the public service, there is less clarity around whether public servants should comment on operational matters that affect them personally.
It also raises questions about the role and rights of public servants - can they possess all the rights of other citizens as well as act responsibly as employees of the government? Are they entitled to raise valid concerns about government operated services based on their and their family and friends' personal experiences?
Here's some examples to clarify the type of situations that I see may emerge:
- If a public servant is organising a passport for a family member and the process goes badly astray, can they comment online about the issues they experienced with the Department of Immigration?
- If a public servant finds traffic is slowed to a stand-still due to road works during peak hour, can they complain online about the Roads Authority?
- Finally, if a public servant is inappropriately treated by counter staff at a government shopfront, can they discuss their poor customer service experience online?
However as more public servants take to social media (and more social media users are employed by government), the frequency of these types of incidents is likely to grow.
I wonder how our systems will need to adapt.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
CEBIT eGovernment Forum liveblog | Tweet |
I'm a little late starting, due to a late plane and sourcing power and wi-fi, but hope to liveblog the eGovernment Forum throughout today.
Here's the eGovernment Forum event program for today.
I am starting a little late - Minister Tanner has already provided his keynote via video, stating that there he will be giving a Gov 2.0 declaration, per the Gov 2.0 Taskforce recommendation in their final report, in the next few weeks.
Glenn Archer of DEEWR is giving a presentation on behalf of the Government CIO, Ann Stewart providing an introduction to Gov 2.0, the outcomes of the Gov 2.0 Taskforce, and the steps taken since.
This includes the Department of Finance and Deregulation's opening up of social media tools for staff, the Department of Immigration's social media policy and AGIMO's blog (which is post-moderated).
He has announced that the government plans to redevelop and relaunch the beta Australia.gov.au open data site into a fully fledged site.
He's also spoken about the Coordinated ICT Procurement plan, which will streamline ICT procurement across the Australian Government, and the ICT Workforce plan and career structure to help attract and retain skilled ICT staff.
And now on to the liveblog....
Monday, May 24, 2010
Watch for the eGovernment forum and Gov 2.0 innovator awards at CEBIT on Tuesday | Tweet |
On Tuesday CEBIT is hosting the eGovernment Forum, with the involvement of the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) in the Department of Finance and Deregulation.
I am attending the Forum as a guest of AGIMO to receive a Gov 2.0 Innovator Award, alongside Mosman Council and ABC Pool (per the Gov 2.0 Taskforce's Innovators contest).
Keep an eye on Twitter for my impressions of the Forum through the day (using the #gov2au and #egovforum tags).
I also aim to liveblog the Forum, or post my impressions of the day shortly afterwards in this blog.
Infallability, government and Web 2.0 | Tweet |
Many rulers, from the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt to the Czars of Russia, were seen as almost infallible leaders - divinely selected and empowered to lead their people. To question their wisdom, strength or decisions was often an offence that could be punished by imprisonment or death.
Most modern states are more lenient, however governments still place a high value on being seen to be authoritative, knowledgeable and, on occasion, infallible.
So what is the impact of new media on a government's aura of infallibility?
For a long time traditional media has been keeping governments honest. However it has relied on a relative few number of reporters providing information through an even smaller number of distribution channels. Commercial interests, limited access to information and various other restrictions have, on occasion, left many government decisions and policies with little scrutiny.
Now, with Web 2.0, almost every citizen is also a journalist and publisher. This makes it possible for almost the entire population of a modern state to keep its government under constant 24-hour scrutiny and analysis, covering almost every decision and policy.
How have governments responded to this?
Some have taken a censorship and imprisonment route, attempting to limit debate and scrutiny by imprisoning, or worse, the most vocal citizen critics.
However this isn't a route that many democratic states could (or would) choose.
Instead democratically elected governments can choose to embrace public scrutiny and, rather than attempting to maintain an illusion of infallibility, become learning organisations who acknowledge that they can continually improve their performance.
This is a huge mindset change for those in governments used to the limited scrutiny of traditional media. The change can take some time to embrace.
At the moment while some governments and their agencies have embraced scrutiny as an opportunity to improve their service delivery, policy and operations, others are still conflicted. There are still situations where some individuals in various governments attempt to control and close down public discussions or limit internal transparency through self-censorship and restricted internal communications channels.
These conflicted agencies are, in many cases, doing more harm to themselves than good. When it is publicly visible that the Emperor has no clothes, that a particular topic is of community interest or facts about a situation (potentially including videos, financial analysis and/or expert opinions) are freely distributed online, attempts to limit statements to an agency line can backfire.
In other words, attempts to protect an agency or Minister through controlling information can, instead, create greater risks to them. This activity can damage reputations, expose them as out-of-step or, in extreme cases, result in rolling heads.
Government agencies increasingly need to resist the need to control all flows of information and focus on ensuring that accurate information is available wherever people are having a discussion. They need to ensure that the community has access to the facts - both when government is right and when they are wrong.
This limits the damage of false claims and myths - when government has indeed made the most correct decisions. Equally it limits the damage and distress when government has made mistakes. This approach allows government to retain the respect and trust of the community, particularly when errors are quickly detected and corrected.
Possibly the greatest challenge for public servants related to this shift to open disclosure and less massaging of messages is that it is happening right now.
The Australian Government's Freedom of Information reform law was passed on 13 May this year, Victoria has begun adopting Creative Commons licensing in a proactive disclosure approach for public sector data and NSW's government recently appointed an Information Commissioner and the NSW Premier has directed Ministers and Departments to set "an example of unprecedented openness".
This makes it imperative for agencies to recognise that their environment has changed and adjust their internal processes as quickly as possible.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
App My State a major Victorian Gov 2.0 success | Tweet |
Victoria's App My State competition has now closed to entries, and has already been an enormous success for the Gov 2.0 efforts in that state.
The competition attracted 171 entries, 75 applications and 96 ideas, over 12 weeks.
Judging has now commenced - with the public able to vote for the 'popular choice' award and other awards now being considered by judges, with winners announced on 7 June.
The Premier has personally tweeted his thanks, showing a level of high-level engagement with the competition,
@vicpremier: Well done to all the @appmystate applicants. Top quality entries. Looking forward to giving out the awards. JB
Regardless who wins the competition, the event has already proven to be a highly cost-effective method to gather useful ideas and generate meaningful approaches to using public sector data.
Is this a once-off success? The evidence argues otherwise.
NSW is in the process of holding a similar competition with a similar level of prizes. While the competition didn't include an ideas category (EDIT 24/5/10: the competition did include an ideas category, which received 64 submissions) and occurred during a changeover in Premiers and with significantly less online promotional support, it still attracted 55 app entries over a 14 week period.
App competitions in the UK and US have also generated significant returns for governments - in particular the first Apps for Democracy competition in Washington D.C. estimated that the value of the apps produced was over US$2.2 million, for less than US$100,000 in prize value.
There is even a set of guidelines on how to run an apps competition to support agencies and states produced by Apps for Democracy.
Below I've included a video where Victorian political leadership introduce the App My State competition. Below that is a list of some of the other App competitions that have been run worldwide.
Apps competitions
Involving public sector data - there are many other examples in commercial spaces.
- MashUpAustralia (Australia)
- App My State (Victoria, Australia)
- Apps4NSW (NSW, Australia)
- Apps for Democracy (United States)
- Apps for America (United States)
- Apps for Army (United States)
- INCA – the Innovative and Creative Application Contest (Belgium)
- Apps competitions in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands and Spain
- Apps for New York (United States)
- Show Us A Better Way competition (Great Britain)
- Apps for Climate Change (British Columbia, Canada)
- Apps for Development (World Bank)
Friday, May 21, 2010
Register now! Gov 2.0 Canberra lunch - 31 May | Tweet |
After some interruptions I've now organised the next Gov 2.0 Canberra lunch, featuring two fantastic speakers, Senator Kate Lundy and Kate Carruthers.
Being held at the Parliament House Members' Guest Dining Room on 31 May, Senator Lundy will be speaking on the Gov 2.0 Expo she's attending in Washington - giving a round-up of the event, what is happening in the US Gov 2.0 scene and providing an international perspective on the Government 2.0 trend.
Also speaking will be Kate Carruthers, one of Australia's foremost online strategists. Kate's talk will cover some of the social media learnings from the corporate sector - what government can learn and build on to create more successful Government 2.0 initiatives.
If you wish to attend, please register at http://egovaugov20lunch0510.eventbrite.com/
Monday, May 17, 2010
Australian Gov 2.0 showcase launched | Tweet |
If you've not on Twitter, or regularly visiting AGIMO's new Govspace blog, you may not yet be aware of the Australian Gov 2.0 showcase.
The showcase has been established as a place for the Australian Government to publicly share case studies, videos and information about various Government 2.0 initiatives taking place.
The first goal of the showcase is to allow the Australians attending and speaking at the Gov 2.0 Expo in Washington on 25 May to demonstrate what is happening in Australia in the area.
If your department has any public Gov 2.0 initiatives, you should consider listing them in this showcase, to increase awareness of what your Department is doing, to support other Australian Government Agencies in understanding and planning their own initiatives and to help highlight the successes Australia has achieved on the global stage.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Nudge your public sector colleagues about Government 2.0 - today! | Tweet |
Contrary to some media and public perceptions, most public servants are hard working and dedicated to their jobs.
This makes us busy people - sometimes too busy to keep an eye on what is going on at the peripheries of our professions.
That's why it is important for those of us who understand and follow what is happening in the Government 2.0 scene to occasionally nudge our colleagues. This is so they don't miss out on the opportunity to understand what is going on and figure it into their strategic and tactical planning.
This week - despite being enormously busy - I've found a few minutes to nudge three groups of my colleagues about ground-breaking Australian Gov 2.0 initiatives that will impact on their areas.
This including advising one group about a new research paper that used Australian blogs and forums in its literary review, concluding that these forms of citizen media offered enormous potential to build a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of community issues than could be derived from quantitative research alone. That's important for good policy.
It involved bringing to the attention of another group the release of the Australian Government budget under Creative Commons licensing, and of the Government's other statements about copyright and FOI. These policies will influence how we release public information into the future. That's important for good organisational strategic planning.
Finally it involved flagging a set of blogs and social media discussions which demonstrated how the public was using new media to talk about government services. This led to some healthy follow-up discussion on whether potentially defamatory and/or negative comments by individuals online should be given 'oxygen' by government or media. Regardless of the substance of posts it highlighted that people were very actively using online media to publicly share their thoughts and opinions about Government in ways that could influence others' views, rightly or wrongly. That's an important tool for Government communicators, policy and service delivery staff to monitor customer sentiment and address misconceptions or service issues.
Which of your colleagues have you nudged about Government 2.0 this week?
Why not nudge some of them today!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Australian Government releases historic budget - under a Creative Commons copyright license | Tweet |
Media commentators have called the Australian Government's budget "austere", "responsible" and "boring but good".
I call it historic.
Why so?
Look at the copyright information in Budget Paper 1: BUDGET STRATEGY AND OUTLOOK. Budget Papers 2, 3 and 4 have been released on a similar basis.
What is different?
For the first time in history the Australian Government has released major parts of the Federal Budget under a Creative Commons (CC BY) copyright license.
This means that the public has the right, without first asking permission via the Attorney-General's office, to copy, mash-up, reuse and publicly republish data from appropriately licensed parts of the budget. They are legally entitled to use this material, provided they attribute the source, to create new and innovative works and insights.
This differs from previous Australian Government budgets where the contents were locked up tight under Commonwealth Copyright. While substantial rights were granted for the reuse of material in news reporting and private study, there was no right to otherwise mash-up or republish material publicly without asking permission.
Is this only historic from the perspective of past national Australian Governments?
I don't think so.
To my knowledge this is the first budget released by any government in Australian at any level under a license permitting reuse in this fashion - federal, state or local.
That's a lot of governments over more than 200 years.
Is this only historic from an Australian perspective?
Internationally this may be even more remarkable.
While copyright provisions vary around the world, Australia well be the first nation in the world to publish a national government budget under Creative Commons licensing.
That make the 2010-2011 Australian Government budget a truly historic budget.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Another step for Australian Gov 2.0 - PM endorses public service reforms | Tweet |
According to the ABC, the Prime Minister has endorsed all 28 recommendations in the APS review report, Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for Reform of Australian Government Administration.
This report includes recommendations for the use of Gov 2.0 in citizen engagement and open government, turning citizens into active participants in the process of government, rather than passive recipients of government decisions.
Reform 2: Creating more open government, discusses a vision of a future APS that,
captures ideas and expertise through the transformative effect of technology by:This is another plank in the Australian Government's Gov 2.0 push, following the recent release of its response to the Gov 2.0 Taskforce's final report.
- Citizens directly communicating their views and expertise to government through multiple channels, including Web 2.0 approaches (for example, online policy forums and blogs);
- Greater disclosure of public sector data and mechanisms to access the data so that citizens can use the data to create helpful information for all, in line with privacy and secrecy principles; and
- Citizens become active participants involved in government, rather than being passive recipients of services and policies.
Friday, May 07, 2010
Emergency management with Gov 2.0 | Tweet |
The internet has proven itself time and time again to be one of the fastest platforms of disseminating information during emergencies.
The latest example has been in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
One of the largest spills off the US coast in history (though far from being the largest in the world), the spill is now threatening the marine life and economic survival of sea-based industries in four US states.
To inform people about the unfolding emergency and share news as it happens, a group of companies involved with the spill and US government agencies has been operating a website and social media presence.
According to the article Oil Spill Social Media in Read Write Web, the group includes British Petroleum, who own the oil; Transocean, who own the rig; the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The social media presence includes a Facebook page for conversations, Twitter for announcements, Flickr for images and YouTube for videos - all linked off the main site, Deep Water Horizon Response.
This type of presence can be put together very quickly when an emergency occurs. There is no cost to any of the social media tools, and they can be in place within minutes.
The approach works very well at informing the public in a more reliable and factual way than, sometimes, traditional media allows.
Provided organisations are attuned and prepared to provide information rapidly, without onerous approval processes, second guessing or political concerns, social media can be a very powerful emergency management tool in the public sector's arsenal.
