While agencies often invest significant money into tools for tracking trends on social media, one of the simplest ways to detect and monitor the rise and fall of key topics and issues online is through Google Trends. Google Trends tracks the frequency of use of specific search words in Google searches. This represents the majority…
As an advocate for Gov 2.0 and open data I frequently encourage government agencies to work more closely with communities, tapping their expertise and experience to improve the operations of government. However I’m not blind to the risks of community involvement. Welcoming the crowd risks welcoming individuals, groups and organisations with agendas which may include…
If I were the leader of a nation that wasn’t friends with the US I would be very concerned with the successes of their eDiplomacy program and looking to counter it with my own. And if I was the leader of a friendly nation, I’d still be seeking to carve out my own eDiplomacy space,…
The Australian Parliament House recently released their new website – a major step-up from the previous site. However in reading an article about it on ZDNet I discovered that the APH had, in the process, decided to block an entire top-level domain (.info) from view by the Parliament and the thousands of people working at Parliament House…
Back in November 2010 I attended a Garner conference to speak about Gov 2.0. I was also able to attend a workshop about social media use in the banking industry. At the time I estimated that the banking industry was 2-3 years behind government in their social media effectiveness. That impression has been reinforced this…
A couple of years ago Hitwise, an internet measurement company that uses ISP logs to measure traffic to websites, reported that social media sites had become a larger source of traffic for Australian government websites than online news sites. This was a seismic change in user behaviour. Suddenly people were more likely to reach a…
In Australia about 10% of households don’t have a landline phone any more. In some other countries the figure is higher – and it is growing as people abandon the ‘fixed to one location’ phone for personal mobile phones. When calling a government agency – even a ‘free call’ line – there’s often additional charges for mobile phones,…
Below is a copy of a comment I have posted to the ABC The Drum in response to an Alan Kohler article, Big media inquiry, little industry change. I thought I’d repeat it here as it covers some of the changing landscape that government communicators are facing. I recommend reading Kohler’s article (or at least…
A favored term amongst political operatives and advisors is ‘oxygen,, the share of the public discussion a politician, government or issue manages to obtain. Sometimes the goal is to have the largest possible share, starving other commentators and viewpoints. Other times the goal is to to minimise the share of oxygen a viewpoint or issue…
Guest post by Steve Davies Yesterday I spend a little time getting involved in the ACT Government Twitter Cabinet. The focus was on Canberra beyond 2013. Lots of ideas and views exchanged. Through sheer serendipity one of my views on life struck a note with our Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher. So the next Twitter Cabinet…
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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