Last year Justin Trudeau, now Prime Minister of Canada, broadcast the launch of his campaign using Facebook Live, and livestreamed his party’s launch event. Also last year UK political parties made extensive use of Facebook for live online Q&A sessions, speeches and debates. Now it is Australia’s turn, with Malcolm Turnbull announcing today (and Bill…
I’ve had a long involvement in the energy industry, having cofounded two startups in the sector, one that is now listed on the ASX. Why energy, when my background is digital? Because the industries are extremely similar – far more similar than archaic regulations environments allow them to do. Like the media, for most of…
Many organisations have begun integrating words from the language of innovation into their vocabularies. It’s increasingly common to hear terms like ‘fail fast’, ‘lean’, ‘agile’, ‘prototype’, ‘user-centric design’, ‘discovery phase’ and ‘startup’ used by both senior leaders and line staff when discussing the design of their services and development of IT solutions. More organisations are…
Earlier this week I started getting LinkedIn messages of congratulations for my work anniversary (thanks to everyone who sent them). When I checked, it was for my work on this blog, which is now eight years old. That’s decent for a blog lifespan, where the majority are abandoned within the first year. Thank you to…
It is fairly well understood – even embraced – in government today that without taking some risk there can be no innovation. However it’s important to keep in mind that the reverse of that statement is not true: without innovation there can be no risk. Increasingly we’re seeing government agencies take at least baby steps…
Back in 2009 I predicted that government communications professionals only had about 10 years to gain social media skills or become unemployable. At the time I received quite a bit of scoffing and pushback from senior communications professionals in government. They believed that digital wouldn’t grow very fast and would remain a minor component in…
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…
On Monday this week I participated in the cocreation workshop for Australia’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) National Action Plan (NAP) commitments. For background on the Open Government Partnership (OGP), refer to opengovpartnership.org, and for Australia’s membership process refer to my blog post on the history (egovau.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/contribute-now-to-australias-open.html) and the government’s site (ogpau.govspace.gov.au). The workshop involved roughly 60…
Across April I’m spending a week participating in government-run sessions to contribute to the democratic life of our nation. I’ll spend two days with CSIRO, supporting their startup commercialisation programs, a day with the NSW Department of Transport supporting their deliberations on future transport needs and policies and a day with the Department of Prime…
The Australian government is again looking to reshape its entire digital presence, through creating a single .gov.au site that will somehow negate the need for people to understand how government works in order to engage with it effectively. Created by the Digital Transformation Office, you can visit the Alpha, and comment on it at www.gov.au/alpha/…
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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