There’s still talk, from time to time, about the digital divide between internet users and those without internet access. It is said that the divide will produce a long-term group of privileged people with ready access to the world, while leaving those in remote areas, with low literacy or low incomes, trapped in a cycle…
I’ve recently been looking around some at some of the ‘white-label’ social network services. They allow anyone to establish their own branded social network at little or no cost. Most include features such as personal profiles, blogs, forums, newsfeeds, photo and video libraries, live chat, email lists, calendars as well as widget markets (with custom…
I believe that one of the major shortcomings in Australia is the lack of financial support outside the public sector for open government initiatives. The UK has the Hansard Society, the US has the Sunlight Foundation – but what does Australia have? Granted there is the embryonic OpenAustralia Foundation, a registered charity devoted to open…
The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) has launched RTA Live. This new website provides live updates on road conditions across NSW, including road work, fires, floods, accidents as well as feeds from 67 traffic cameras across Sydney. There’s also a widget embeddable on blogs and websites to provide traffic information. Displaying the data on…
I’ve been reading up on the gaming of the Time.com 100 Poll in 2009, where vote rigging saw the founder of 4Chan elevated to the top position and the order of names in the poll manipulated to spell out ‘MARBLECAKE ALSO THE GAME’ (see the video below). While there are often legitimate reasons to create…
Microsoft has just released a beta version of Internet Explorer 9, however is still having to ask organisations to stop using Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). Despite lacking the ability to fully view the modern web IE6, released nine years ago, is still used by a number of Australian organisations, including some government agencies. The Sydney…
To kick-off this week, I thought it might be useful to link to an excellent video from the US’s Sunlight Foundation providing a glimpse into why there’s growing interest in making public information collected and managed by governments public. It doubles as an introduction to the Public = Online campaign, which is being used in…
A blog is a blog is a blog in the same way that a TV show is a TV show is a TV show. That is to say, there are many kinds of blogs in the same way there are many different kinds of TV shows, depending on their goals, audience, subject matter and format….
An extremely thought-provoking post about The street as platform written by Dan Hill in February 2008 has been brought to my attention by Darren Sharp. The post explores the virtual life of a city street, all the digital data exchanging hands between systems, infrastructure, vehicles and people in the street unseen to human eyes. While…
I’ve spoken before about the fantastic Historic Australian Newspapers archive program at the National Library to digitalise old newspapers, coupling OCR scanning with a online crowdsourcing tool that allows the public to fix mistakes in scanned text. One of the key people behind the program, Rose Holley, recently presented at Mosman Library about the initiative….
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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