The National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS), an Australian Government initiative administered by Diabetes Australia, last month released the a national online map of the spread of diabetes in Australia. Located at www.diabetesmap.com.au), the service is a wonderful example of how online map systems (in this case Microsoft’s free Virtual Earth tool) can be ‘mashed-up’ with…
As reported in the Wired blog post, Hackers plundering Brazilian rain forest, a hacking ring controlled by logging companies has been alleged to allow harvesters to unlawfully access government logging databases and issue extra ‘transport permits’ to remove resources (trees) from the Amazon. This has been a challenge for Brazilian authorities, who have arrested 30…
While speaking to a colleague earlier in the week about the rush on access to government support in some areas of Australia due to the current economic conditions, I realised that it is a very good time for the public sector to build capacity and skills. The IT skills crunch has affected Australian government for…
As reported in Friday’s Sydney Morning Herald in the article, Australian court serves documents via Facebook, Today in what appears to be a first in Australia and perhaps the world, Master Harper of the ACT Supreme Court ordered that a default judgement could be served on defendants by notification on Facebook. Previously both email and…
The eGovernment Resource Centre has tipped me off that the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has set up a consultative Future directions blog for two weeks with the purpose of soliciting public comments that will contribute to the development of a Future directions paper for the digital economy. It’s good to see…
Governments collect and distribute a massive amount of public data each year. It is a continual challenge to make this data accessible and usable for citizens, commercial organisations, researchers, scientists and policy makers. This challenge isn’t limited to a few dedicated statistical organisations, such as the ABS. Many other government departments collect, collate and publish…
The US Army is about to set up several islands in the virtual world Second Life to explore the effectiveness of the medium as a recruiting tool. Reported in The Inquisitr, the article, titled U.S. Army to setup camp on Second Life, the army is looking to provide virtual experiences, such as parachuting and using…
Ari Herzog has begun a series on social media best practice in his blog, AriWriter. Kicking it off is a fascinating interview with Utah’s Chief Information Officer, David Fletcher, providing an insight into how Utah has implemented its online strategy, taking it to win the Best of the Web award for US state governments twice…
I’ve been following the blog of the Hon Penny Sharp MLC, Red Leather, as one of the best examples in government of blogging and a strong proponent of the use of the online channel. In late October she gave a speech to the NSW Parliament regarding the level of online engagement by NSW MLCs. Published…
I’ve been reading an article in the New York Times regarding the public competition Netflix has been holding. The competition, named the Netflix Prize, has a prize of US$1 million for the individual or group who can improve their movie/TV recommendations engine by 10%. The article, If you liked this, sure to like that, discusses…
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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