With the news this week that Fairfax is following News Ltd in introducing paywalls to their major metro online news mastheads, organisations need to think deeper about their social media strategy. With a paywall strategy two things happen. Firstly a large number of people stop using the paywalled websites. For example it’s been reported in…
With the tools available today, influence over government policy is no longer the preserve of the wealthy, the well-connected or those people with a significant TV, radio or newspaper presence. While traditional media and interests still have significant influence, social media has allowed individuals to become far more influential. Blogs, forums and social networks give…
Refreshments at #pmtea Photo by @clementine_ford Last Friday Prime Minister Gillard sat down with a group of influential female bloggers, online women’s forum managers and journalists in, what I hope, is the start of an active engagement with online influencers by the Australian Government. As a blogger I have been on the receiving end of…
In my copious spare time, I’ve been pulling together a list of social media channels used by our Federal politicians. The question I wanted to answer was “Are our Federal politicians using social media effectively to connect with their constituents?”, particularly given the level of activity by government agencies, lobby groups and media online. Surprisingly…
The UK Cabinet Office recently released Social Media Guidance for civil servants. The guidance goes far beyond the level and sophistication of material I’ve seen from many other jurisdictions, offering support and useful advice, not just rules and warnings. It also provides advice to CTOs and CIOs on how to oversome some of the technical…
Thanks to a tip off from John Sheridan at GovCamp yesterday, I’m happy to report that the latest Sensis figures on social media use by Australians are out – and the numbers have continued to increase. Sensis reports that 62% of online Australians are using social media, with 97% using Facebook – roughly the same…
Last year was the first Swarm in Sydney- part conference and part peer support network for online community managers. The event is returning this year in Melbourne on 13-14 September, bigger and friendlier. The website is now live, with early bird rates to attend. One of the highlights of Swarm this year will be the presentation of…
Hi, I’ll be liveblogging the presentations and judging from GovHack in Canberra below as it happens. All the tears and all the cheers as 42 entrants go head for head for around $40,000 in prizes and the street cred of being a GovHack winner. You can view all the entrants on the GovHack website. Vote…
The Bureau of Meteorology has released new data for reuse under Creative Commons licensing, ahead of the upcoming GovHack in Canberra next week, and Mark Hatcher has used it to model 153 years of Sydney weather in a short video (image to right). The higher the temperatures, the warmer the colours. This is a good example…
The Country Fire Authority in Victoria has released a infographic on their Facebook account, providing a view of the traffic and interactions on their page. Note that any organisation or individual can do this, using the free data visualisation tools at Visual.ly. I’ve taken the standard report (which is very long), cut it in half…
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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