Some of you might be aware that at the red carpet event for GovHack 2014 in Brisbane, the Queensland government’s Assistant Minister to the Premier on e-government, Ray Stevens, announced the Premiers Awards for Open Data. The Awards are a competition to come up with the best use of the 1,400 datasets released by the…
I’ve been tracking the number of Australian Federal politicians using Australia’s leading social channels for two years now, seeing the number using at least one of Facebook and Twitter grow from 79% in April 2012 to 90% in November 2013 to a current level of 92%. What’s even more interesting is in the details, which…
A few years ago I heard it said by political advisors that one hand-written letter to a Minister counts for more than 100 emails on the same topic. The perception was that if someone sat down and wrote their thoughts in long-hand it showed more interest and commitment than if they typed and posted them…
There’s a great article over at TechRepublic by Lyndsey Gilpin on how the computer algorithm behind HealthMap detected the recent Ebola outbreak nine days before it was identified by health authorities. In How an algorithm detected the Ebola outbreak a week early, and what it could do next, Gilpin describes how by tracking, collating and corroborating…
Last week the Clean Energy Regulator released a calendar that illustrates when other government agencies use National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting data. Called the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting publication calendar, this is useful data for locating government reports on energy and climate change. It also serves a secondary role in highlighting the importance of the…
I’ve attended DrupalGov today in Canberra. Below is my presentation for people who missed it. There’s also a recording that will become available in due course. How open source is powering government from Craig Thomler
Having centralised systems for voting is the standard approach for countries around the world. In most places it is simply accepted that the government funds the system for election and referendum voting – funding the polling places, ballot boxes, officials and vote counting systems, whether this be directly or at arms length via a body…
I’ve done some work analysing who actually won the National awards at GovHack based on the official results at govhack.org/2014-winners/, and this is what I’ve discovered… There were 87 National GovHack awards given out to Projects and Teams, with one GovHack subcategory (Best Science Reporting) unawarded. Of these, 66 awards were awarded to Teams for…
The NSW government today launched the NSW Premier’s Innovation Initiative, a program seeking expressions of interest in projects that support NSW government innovation in four focal areas – Congestion, Social Housing Assets, Open Ideas and Open Data. The process will invite organisations and individuals to submit Expressions of Interest setting out proposals the government could…
Eileen Culleton, the Founder and CEO of the Emergency 2.0 Wiki has been offered a speaking slot at the 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference (#IDRC2014) and is crowdfunding the money she needs to get there. The International Disaster and Risk Conference from IDRC is one of the world’s premier risk management conferences, attracting over 1,000 delegates…
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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