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If you followed the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington earlier this month, you may have seen Nicholas Gruen's presentation on redefining public goods.
If you haven't, it is well worth reviewing (see below) - as are many of the other presentations from the event.
These presentations are available online, together with slides, from the event's website.
His slides are embedded below.
Redefining Public_Private Partnerships Presentation
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Redefining public goods - by Nicholas Gruen | Tweet |
Monday, September 20, 2010
Complete the ANZSOG survey on the economic value of open government | Tweet |
The South Australian government has commissioned ANZSOG to conduct a research study on the topic of
"Economic value of open access to government-held data and information"
ANZSOG is seeking respondents who can provide information about the approach of their organisations to the collection and dissemination of data and/or information, as well as their personal views on this topic.
They are particularly interested in hearing stories about experiences with open access to government data and/or information (be they positive, negative or neutral).
The survey can be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/govinfosurvey
The survey should take approximately 20 minutes, depending on how much
detail you go into and is divided into the following sections:
- Introduction
- Access to data
- Cost recovery
- Characteristics of data
- Benefits of access to data
- Barriers to sharing data
- Health questions (for those working in the health industry only)
- Mining industry questions (for those working in the mining industry only)
- Conclusion
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Keep your eyes on Media140 #OzPolitics on 23 September | Tweet |
In what is looking like another milestone for Government 2.0 in Australia, the Media140 #OzPolitics event on 23 September at Old Parliament House has an amazing lineup of speakers exploring how the real-time web is changing the face of Australian politics and government engagement.
It features a range of presentations as well as five panels, on
- How are real time & social media platforms changing political communication?
- The changing role of traditional political news gatekeepers in the age of the real time web,
- Controlling the message in the real time web era,
- Alternative views of political news, and
- Gov 2.0: Participatory Democracy & Citizen Engagement
I'll be liveblogging the event (wifi willing) and participating in the Gov 2.0 panel.
I believe it is still possible to register for the event. However if you cannot make it, you can follow it on Twitter via the hashtags #ozpolitics and #media140.
Friday, September 17, 2010
US launches Challenge.gov | Tweet |
The US government recently launched Challenge.gov, a site allowing US agencies to manage and promote challenges, prizes and competitions where the community is asked to help solve a wide range of public governance issues - all in one central location.
The challenge concept is a simple one. By tapping into the wisdom of crowds governments and other organisations are able to provide better and more cost-effective solutions to problems, large or small.
It's hard to see the downside of this approach. Government pays a small amount to incentivise participation in the challenge (a prize). If none of the challenge entries provide a better solution, or are not approaches that a government cannot adopt, the time and money cost is negligible. If a better solution - or multiple better solutions - are entered, then government has made a significant gain at little cost.
The US has taken this a step further by embedding the challenge 'DNA' into a low cost technique available to public servants with the support of the political arm of US government.
Already there are over 40 challenges on the site, with many, many more to come.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Are social media professionals unfairly constrained by organisations? | Tweet |
When organisations hire accountants they are allowed to use specialist financial software to do their jobs.
When organisations hire customer service representatives they are given training and scripts and are then allowed to speak to customers on the phone - monitored for performance reasons but free to communicate in appropriate ways without approval of every word.
When organisations hire graphic designers, project managers, multimedia producers and programmers they are given access to appropriate software and computer systems.
So why is it that, when hiring social media professionals, organisations don't give them access to their 'tools of the trade'?
In many organisations it is not possible to access social media channels - such as Facebook or Twitter - due to old-style internal IT access policies. Tools to monitor social media channels are also often blocked, making it difficult to track what customers and clients are saying about an organisation, identify opportunities or head-off potential issues.
In many cases organisations scrutinise all social media interactions at senior levels (down to 140 character tweets). These approval processes can add significant time and effort to online responses, making it difficult to interact at the pace required for social media. Imagine if telephone conversations or live conference presentations were treated the same way.
Also often those employed to implement social media systems and manage these channels are not provided with training and support - certainly not to the level of a phone customer service representative - despite being in the position of interacting with the public every day.
Even when organisations are serious about adopting social media, their policies, processes and procedures may not be designed to allow social media to work for them. This can lead to mixed messages (as when customers are invited to fan an organisation's Facebook page - which staff are not allowed to access during work hours). This can even lead to social media engagement becoming a liability, where its use is so constrained that it casts the organisation in a worse light.
These issues are occurring in private as well as public sectors organisations - perhaps some corporations have not realised that restricting access to social media can seriously damage your business.
Progress is also very uneven and often driven by senior personalities. Organisations and agencies with clear Gov 2.0 Action Plans are driving ahead, whereas others are still considering whether twitter is a legitimate business communications channel - either from a lack of knowledge, lack of leadership or lack of interest.
How can social media professionals ensure that our organisations give us access to the tools we need to support the goals of our organisations?
How do we break down the barriers to using social media when we cannot demonstrate successes due to these same barriers?
How do we convince senior management that social media professionals are skilled and trustworthy employees who should be treated with the same respect as other trained professionals?
And how do social media professionals juggle the need to be educators, innovators, strategists, change managers, implementers, communications specialists and leaders at the same time?
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