I’ve been looking around at some of the interesting social networking tools that are coming onto the market, such as Webjam, for some that could be rapidly implemented within our firewall. I apply some fairly rigorous criteria. Any system must: Meet W3C, Federal, Department and Agency web standards Support at least AA accessibility (and preferably…
When making major decisions government departments commonly consult broadly to capture the various views of different segments the community. However when engaging in live or online public discussions, the same departments are often highly concerned about the risk of people expressing strong contrary views. It’s one of the contradictions I’ve found in government – a…
My experience in both the public and private sectors has been that organisations often face enormous resistance against the introduction of social media channels for staff. Given how new social media tools are, this, in my view, reflects similar resistance to other new innovations, such as the introduction of: phones on every desk (staff could…
New Zealand is a beautiful place to visit and I have fond memories of my last trip there. It also happens to be one of the most happening places in eGovernment, at least in this part of the world. In fact I feel a little disappointed in Australia’s progress at the national level compared to…
I have to admit that for a long time I’ve been a blog skeptic. Who actually sits down at their computer to read someone else’s personal journal? I think this has been one of the barriers I had towards blogging myself – I felt that I’d get better mileage out of talking ideas through with…
Part of my interest in social media at the moment is related to how I’m encouraging its use within our agency. I’m very interested in hearing about what other agencies are doing. At work we have a team rolling out a community of practice using a wiki-based system, with an extranet to follow. I hope…
I’m on a bit of a social media kick this weekend due to all the fantastic resources I’ve found on the topic in the last several days. I wanted to flag a couple of these in particular that I found useful, and may be useful for others. My first great find was a CIO magazine…
A quick addition to my post on real-time government, here’s more background on how online technologies are being used to enable real-time government. Watch Congressman’s Culberson video stream for an explanation of an approach he’s using to reach his constituents as a ‘real-time representative’.
I was able to take part in an inpromptu live online video and text discussion this morning between Congressman John Culberson of Texas and initially with the Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal, and then with Grover Norquist, the President of Americans against Tax Reform (pictured below) at a fund raising event in the…
As the business manager of my agency’s website and intranet I see it as part of my responsibility to understand what is happening in the medium and use the same tools being used by our website audience. It’s similar to the concept of walking 1,000 miles in another person’s shoes. For instance, this blog. One…
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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