Note this is purely my view of the situation – if I’ve gotten things wrong, please correct me so I keep it in mind when speaking to others.
With a strong focus on government data, GovHack is inviting teams of programmers and designers to invent new and better ways of delivering government data to Australians and will be rewarding the best apps, data mash-ups, and data visualisations with a share of $30,000 in prize money. The event, being held in Canberra and Sydney from…
In Australia many people still treat microblogging tools such as Twitter with scepticism and scorn, or even dismiss it outright as a tool for ‘discussing breakfast’. While the more negative views are beginning to shift, due to the active role Twitter played in the Brisbane floods, Australians still largely consider microblogs as a tool for…
A separation that is widely understood within governments, but often less well understood in the rest of the community, is the separation between politics and public service. Elected public servants, politicians, ascribe to specific political ideologies and policy positions which form the basis of how people select which politicians and parties to support and cast…
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…
It looks like in the US state governments are now actively using Twitter as a tool to get messages out into the public eye. As mentioned by Static{fade} in eGov status updates via Twitter, a number of states are using it to make official announcements, distribute media releases and engage with stakeholders and citizens. Given…
The DTA’s CEO, Chris Fechner, has advised public servants to be cautious in their use of ChatGPT and other generative AI, as reported by InnovationAus. This is an unsurprising but positive response. While it suggests public servants use caution, it doesn’t close down experimentation and prototyping. Given how recently generative AI became commercially useful and…
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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