Euan Semple has a great post over on LinkedIn about the challenges in giving the people responsible for maintaining the status quo in organisations and institutions the responsibility for generating and embedding radical change in the same institutions and organisations. I see this too. The people best qualified to maintain stability in institutions are rarely…
Last week the Digital Transition Office (DTO) released a draft of its API Design Guide for public review. An API, or Application Programming Interface, is an approach that defines consistent methods of inputting and outputting data into a software system based on internet protocols. APIs are regularly used by Web 2.0 services as a standard…
Traditionally governments have taken cues from banks and social networks for innovative ways to design online services to make them easier to use. However it may be time for public servants to think about online service design with their stomachs. I don’t know how many public sector digital design professionals have visited McDonalds lately, but…
One of the big distinctions I’ve noted between working in the public and private sector is in the level of friction when attempting to get things done. I define friction as the amount of red tape, process, procedure and protocols that slows down the achievement of a defined goal. The more red tape, the more…
Australia’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has now announced the review panel for MP remuneration expenses, and in my view it’s close to becoming another missed opportunity to improve government engagement, accountability and transparency with the community. The panel will consist of five ’eminent’ individuals. Two will be former politicians (one Labor and one Liberal), one…
I’ve been reading about a new entrant in the government online consultation market – Balancing Act, a simulation tool for involving the public in government budget consultations. It joins a range of other tools for this type of ‘trade-off’ consulting online – including Budget Allocator from Bang The Table and, my favourite, Budget Simulator from…
Practically everyone in Australia has followed the entitlements issue triggered by media reports of House of Representatives Speaker, and Liberal politician, Bronwyn Bishop’s helicopter trip from Melbourne to Geelong over the last three weeks. While at times other politicians were reluctant to criticise Bishop’s expenses, on the basis that most politicians spend quite a bit of…
I had a great chat on Monday with one of the best online comms people in federal government, which touched on how the role of social media has evolved within agencies and how this matched the overall evolution and maturing of social use by the community in general. I’ve thought through this and roughly mapped…
Freedom of Information (FOI) has always been a tricky area for governments, a delicate balance between accountability and exposure, with successive parliaments around the world tweaking their national and state FOI laws in attempts to prevent disclosures damaging to various governments of the day, while also meeting public and media demands for transparency. We’ve seen…
Last week it was announced that the first driverless car trials would begin in Australia in Adelaide. Supported by the South Australian government and the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB), the two-day trial involves Volvo’s XC90, Bosch’s driverfree technology and Telstra’s network. I’m a big fan of self-drive cars and have followed Google’s US self…
This archive mirrors the original eGov AU blog — Craig’s professional commentary on AI, digital government and technology in public life, running since 2006.
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