Governments regularly hold consultations with their public – asking them for their views on matters as widespread as tax reform, copyright, health, culture and city planning. Whether these consultations are held through public events, print notices, online via email or social media engagement there’s one constant that governments rely on – that people are willing…
There is a trend towards greater openness in the licensing of Australian government data. Queensland’s government a few years ago put in place a framework (GILF) for Creative Commons licensing and Victoria’s government recently committing to using Creative Commons as its default copyright licensing system. Some steps have taken place at a federal level, with…
If you’ve ever been required to collect ideas from the public – or wanted to – have you considered the use of a ‘ideas market’ or similar system for collecting. allowing comments on, prioritising and reporting back on the use of ideas. Dell and Starbucks both use these systems extensively to seek public ideas to…
One of the long established principles in government and big business is that only designated staff are allowed to represent their organisations when speaking to the media. This is an extremely well-intentioned principle, designed to protect both the organisation and individual staff. The media is frequently more interested in sensation than truth and can twist…
I regard creating a sustainable online community as very hard to do. It is almost always easier to join an existing community – although this presents its own challenges. However at times it will be necessary for government agencies to consider creating their own communities online. This may be as reference groups for specific initiatives…
Many government initiatives need to be communicated to all or some of the community to increase awareness and, in some cases, encourage behavioural change. Whether advising people of changes in tax laws, informing and influencing the community’s health habits, or seeking public submissions in a consultation, there needs to be communications strategies in place to…
In my experience, where possible, Australian public servants avoid controversial topics when consulting with the public. Controversial topics are messy, unpredictable, raise high emotions and draw out divergent viewpoints – making discussions difficult to manage and control. They also often edge into political matters which are outside the scope of the public service, who strive…
I was chatting with friends on Twitter the other day regarding how useful it would be for Australian government to see positive and practical examples of online government engagement initiatives. With fortunately timing, Crispin of Bang the Table recently posted about a new report from the US based Public Agenda’s Centre for Advancement in Public…
I’ve been rereading the ABC article about the two girls who got caught in a drain and used their mobile phone to update their Facebook status, rather than call Triple 0. A representative of the Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) in Adelaide said that, If they were able to access Facebook from their mobile phones, they…
In the style of the Apps for America competitions, the US Army announced at the Gov 2.0 summit that it would hold a competition for soldiers to develop software to help the army fight wars and carry out its missions. Reported in Information Week Government, Gov 2.0: Army Announces Apps For Army Competition, the Army…
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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