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…
The Western Australian Department of Premier and Cabinet has launched a consultation regarding their proposed whole of government Open Data policy – citing the relative underutilisation of data and the prospect of unlocking opportunities for greater insights and services. It’s good to see WA take this step. While they’ve had data available openly, primarily through…
While common practice in many countries overseas, there’s still limited authentic consultation on government budgets undertaken in Australia – and I think we’re poorer for it. Involving the community in setting budget priorities and educating them on how a budget is developed goes a long way towards building understanding and (very importantly) trust in public…
I had an interesting conversation via Twitter with @hughstephens of Dialogue Consulting on Friday regarding how and when different consultation and engagement tools should be used by government. His view was that online surveys should not be the default consultation method for government, Possibly going to be controversial by saying that online surveys should NOT be…
I’ve had an interesting and robust conversation online in the last day regarding how Australian councils and governments are using overseas services like SurveyMonkey to collect information from citizens and residents. It’s no secret that SurveyMonkey in particular is widely used, with other tools like SurveyGizmo and Wufoo also used by many Australian councils and governments…
On the back of the UK Government’s second whole-of-government communications plan, the UK Government has been undertaking a Digital Communication Capability review asking (in simple terms), how is digital communication and engagement done, and how could it be improved? The Review has involved consultation with Communications Directors, digital engagement specialists and senior executives across the UK…
With psychedelic splendour, the ACT government has become the first Australian jurisdiction to launch a serious whole-of-government online challenges site. Through the Digital Canberra Challenge website, the ACT is now asking “Canberra’s brightest minds” to help improve government services. The first round contains two challenges, to improve the process of event approvals and to make…
There should be an interesting piece on ABC 7:30 tonight in the ACT looking at the relationship between the Australian Public Service and the use of social media by public servants. I was interviewed from Brisbane for the piece and know of several other ex public servants who were also interviewed or consulted. There’s also…
Government reports are often dry – really, really, really dry. They are also often wordy, complex, long and, due to these properties, largely incomprehensible to the broader community. Government policy and consultation documents can suffer from similar conditions. They are often quite complex, long and structured in ways that make sense to career bureaucrats but…
I wanted to bring attention to a fantastic post in Wired today, which looks at how the explosion in writing is changing how humans think and learn, and how the connections being made by greater openness and improved communication are triggering ideas and innovation. The post, Why even the worst bloggers are making us smarter,…
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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