I’ve read a few pieces recently, one even quoting an Australian MP, Julian Hill, where claims are made of “catastrophic risks” from AI to humanity. Some of the claims are that “ChatGPT diminishes the ability for humans to think critically”, that “AI will eliminate white collar jobs” or even that “AI will destroy humanity”. Even…
There’s a lot of evidence available now that the emotional tone of the messaging that people are exposed to on social media goes on to affect their mood, posting behaviour, and aspects of their health and actions. A study by Facebook and Cornell University in 2012 (published in 2014) that involved modifying the emotional valance of…
I’ve been monitoring the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) public consultation on the current social media guidelines for Australian public servants (APS). While they clearly aren’t interested in comments from former or potential future public servants, having neglected to publish, or even link to, my comments – which I submitted to the APSC four weeks ago – there’s…
Over the last few years we’ve seen increasing attention on the use of personal technology by politicians. From our current Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, who uses Wickr, to Hilary Clinton’s use of a personal email server, and even the struggle President Barack Obama faced to use an iPhone, politicians – like the rest of us…
More and more organisations are finding themselves the focus of social media crises. Whether the crisis originates online, or from another source, it is frequently expressed, shared and amplified via social channels, and can become a matter of national or even international attention very rapidly when handled poorly. Many organisations still struggle to deal effectively…
The other week I was in Wellington, New Zealand for the international Linked up, Loud and Literate: Libraries enabling digital citizenship conference. Below is my presentation from the day, including the story of a recent customer experience with an Australian government agency. For other presentations from the day visit nsla.org.au/digital-citizenship-2015.
I will be presenting at November’s IAP2 session in Canberra from 6-8pm on ‘Introducing collaboration into the process of planning online participation’. The session will look at how to get internal stakeholders onboard and on the same page for an online participation process, particularly when they have disparate experience and understanding of digital approaches. Using real world examples, and an interactive session involving Social…
While travelling to and from the GovHack international awards red carpet event (which was great BTW), I’ve been reading ‘So you’ve been publicly shamed‘, the latest book by Jon Ronson (the author of The men who stare at goats), and was reflecting on some of the experiences he talks about. A common theme throughout the…
I had a great chat on Monday with one of the best online comms people in federal government, which touched on how the role of social media has evolved within agencies and how this matched the overall evolution and maturing of social use by the community in general. I’ve thought through this and roughly mapped…
The first censuses reportedly took place around 5,000 years ago in Egypt, and the approach is mentioned in Exodus, one of the books of the Bible, commissioned by God in order to levy a per capita tax to upkeep the Israelite Tabernacle. The ancient Greeks, Chinese and Indians all conducted censuses before 1 AD, and…
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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