Government 2.0
The Australian Government 2.0 Taskforce recently released a draft of the 159-page report "Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0" for comment.
The draft report was published on the Gov 2.0 Taskforce blog on 7 December and is currently open for comment until 16 December. Due to the way the report has been researched, informed and assembled with input from the Gov 2.0 community since the creation of the Taskforce earlier this year it is expected that people will already be familiar with the content of the report and that there aren’t errors, ommissions or surprises.
I started a contract with Centrelink this week so I admit I have not yet had the chance to read the report thoroughly and while I hope to do so before submissions close I can certainly share my thoughts on what I had read thus far.
It really is quite a good document. The structure, focus and quality of writing impressed me – I enjoyed reading it. It’s backed up with numerous quotes and references which lend the report credibility with examples of adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in Australian and internationally which give the concept of Government 2.0 itself credibility.
The recommendations proposed by the Taskforce in consultation with the community are exciting – and not particularly as standalone items but in the context of the current high-level attitude towards Government 2.0 which led to the commissioning of the Taskforce means that I am very optimistic that the recommendations will be seriously considered and likely implemented.
I really believe in the public and economic benefit of Government 2.0. It’s not about playing with shiny toys, it’s not about Members of Parliament on Twitter or Facebook and it’s not about the pretence of community consultation. We’re talking real, genuine, open collaboration and citizen engagement, involving real people in the design of policy, programs, services and service delivery in order to deliver higher efficiency, lower cost and better targeted projects that meet real needs and are responsive. Agile deployment of services, not back-room 3-year projects that you only hear about once they’re done … and out of date and no longer relevant. As for public sector information (PSI) and open data … well nothing needs to be said there, we’ve already seen evidence of that happening particularly with the launch of data.australia beta and the GovHack event.
And of course because I work in this space I’m excited about the projects I’ll continue to be involved with over the next few years. The social media and collaborative project management initiatives I helped pioneer at the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) and now the corporate social media strategy development and channel implementation work I’m doing at Centrelink coupled with user experience and social experience design with user research etc are an important aspect of deploying Web 2.0 technologies in government and part of Government 2.0 so I’m keen to see the profile of these types of projects raised. So as far as the report recommendations go I’m going to be watching #2 and #3 closely as I hope to see more opportunities to work with this agenda in the new year.
The role I currently have with Centrelink is quite unique and I feel privileged to have been approach for the job. If the Taskforce recommendations are implemented it means there will be a lot more work for people like myself – so I admit I have a vested interest. Nonetheless, this report is good for Australia – for governments, business and citizens. It’s progress. I’ve heard comments from people who are pessimistic about the report, about the Taskforce and so on, but I think given the evidence to date that we’re heading into a time of real reform, real change. Not lip service but genuine transparency, openness and collaboration. A cultural shift in governments’ attitude to citizens and citizens’ attitude to government – working together as a partnership, no longer commands barked down from castle walls to the peasants below. Be pessimistic if you want, but still I urge you to support this concept, these principles, to support Government 2.0 and to support this report.
// purecaffeine.com is a user interaction and UX design, social media and Government 2.0 blog run by professional Canberra, Australia web user interaction designer Nathanael Boehm, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.
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Hi Nat,
I’m interested in finding out more about your unique job :)
Cheers,
Craig
Sure, we should catch up sometime soon! It’s a unique role – we’re still trying to figure out exactly what it is, but it’s partly R&D and partly corporate communications standards which covers everything from organisation-wide social media strategy and framework development, channel implementation, accessibility and style guide standards, and evaluating new technologies. Very exciting stuff at a time like this!