freedom of information

eGovAU

Senior public servants need counselling, not coddling if they fear to provide frank and fearless advice under the public’s gaze
Bycraigthomler 15 April 2016

This week several of Australia’s highest ranking public servants, including the Secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the head of the Australian Public Service Commission, publicly endorsed the position that Australia’s current Freedom of Information laws were restricting public servants from providing frank and fearless advice to government. To put this in context, the…

Read More Senior public servants need counselling, not coddling if they fear to provide frank and fearless advice under the public’s gaze
eGovAU

The uneasy relationship between Freedom of Information and open data
Bycraigthomler 27 July 2015

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…

Read More The uneasy relationship between Freedom of Information and open data
eGovAU

Will the Australian Government take an open government approach to developing its Open Government National Action Plan?
Bycraigthomler 12 July 2013

Now that Australia has finally sent a letter of intent to join the Open Government Partnership, I’ve been reading examples of how other jurisdictions went about developing their National Action Plans (a requirement of OGP membership) to foster and support government openness. It is clear that one of the key attributes of the most meaningful…

Read More Will the Australian Government take an open government approach to developing its Open Government National Action Plan?
eGovAU

Freedom of information advocacy: a global snapshot, from Open & Shut
Bycraigthomler 11 July 2013

I’ve had no time to blog this week due to family commitments, however thought it worth drawing attention to Peter Timmins’ fascinating post on freedom of information, over at his Open & Shut blog. Titled Freedom of information advocacy: a global snapshot, the post provides information on the recent report from the Freedom of Information Advocates…

Read More Freedom of information advocacy: a global snapshot, from Open & Shut
eGovAU

GovHack 2013 – my top ten picks
Bycraigthomler 3 June 2013

Last weekend (31 May – 2 June) was a big weekend for Government 2.0 in Australia, with the first truly national GovHack held across eight locations, including seven of Australia’s eight major states and territories. With over $170,000 in prizes, and around 100 national and local prizes on offer, GovHack 2013 attracted 900 participants, who…

Read More GovHack 2013 – my top ten picks
eGovAU

Mainstream media takes first steps in adopting open data hacker culture
Bycraigthomler 5 February 2013

On Monday 4 February The Age hosted the Data Newsroom event, where teams had an opportunity to dig into three previously publicly unreleased datasets, Political party funding data, which lists what companies donate money to which political parties. A database that includes the archives of all Age articles along with key words and relationships between…

Read More Mainstream media takes first steps in adopting open data hacker culture
eGovAU

Open Australia launches ‘Right to Know’ FOI request site
Bycraigthomler 28 November 2012

The process of requesting documents from the government, though enshrined in Australian law, can be difficult for many people – taking significant time, causing significant frustration and resulting in inconsistent and substandard outcomes – as I found when asking government agencies some simple question about which public social media channels they operated and which web…

Read More Open Australia launches ‘Right to Know’ FOI request site
eGovAU

But we’re the experts! Why the ‘internal expert’ democratic governance model is gradually failing and what can be done about it.
Bycraigthomler 18 November 2012

Most public sector agencies are designed as centres of expertise on policy and service delivery. By gathering, or training, experts in a given topical area and marshalling and directing this expertise to resolve specific issues and goals, agencies have been designed to design and deliver effective and sound policy and service delivery solutions to governments for communities….

Read More But we’re the experts! Why the ‘internal expert’ democratic governance model is gradually failing and what can be done about it.
eGovAU

OpenAustralia Hack(s)fest on FOI – for hackers, media, activists & FOI gurus
Bycraigthomler 5 November 2012

The OpenAustralia Foundation will be holding the first Australian Hack(s)fest as part of the countdown to the launch of their new FOI assistance site, designed to make it easier for ordinary Australians to put in FOI requests to Commonwealth agencies. The event, being held in Sydney at Google’s office, will be held on the weekend…

Read More OpenAustralia Hack(s)fest on FOI – for hackers, media, activists & FOI gurus
eGovAU

Why do agencies struggle with FOI and open data so much?
Bycraigthomler 29 October 2012

The linked email conversation (in a blog post), Freedom of Information Request for Classification Data, provides an interesting insight into the struggles government agencies are having with FOI and open data and with the difficulties applicants are having accessing data which should be available in reusable formats. In this case information which is publicly available…

Read More Why do agencies struggle with FOI and open data so much?