Engage:
getting on with Government 2.0
Nicholas Gruen
Government 2.0 Taskforce
24 Feb 2010
Parliament House
Outline
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Government 2.0 – it’s not the technology
Towards collaborative intelligence
Web 2.0 platforms as public goods
Turbocharging the ecology of reputation
Information from the periphery
The two tranches of Government 2.0
• Online engagement
• Public sector information
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How are we going?
• Not as well as the best
• How we can join the best
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Government 2.0, coming ready or not
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What is web 2.0
– Web 1.0 was
• Point to point – e-mail
• Broadcast – firm to customer (and back) - websites
– Web 2.0 is collaborative web
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Google 1998 – a collaborative site
Wikipedia 2001 – the community writes an encyclopaedia
Blogs early 2000s – self-publishing and discussion
Facebook 2004 – social networking
Twitter 2006 – new communications platform
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What characterises Web 2.0?
• Web 2.0 isn’t fancy technology
– The technology is simple and ubiquitous
• Web 2.0 is a culture change
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Collaborate don’t control
Improvise, share, play
Users build value, the technology can let them in
Be modular: use others’ stuff, let them use yours
Build for user value - monetise later
What characterises Government 2.0?
• Government 2.0 isn’t fancy technology
– The technology is simple and ubiquitous
• Government 2.0 is a culture change
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Collaborate don’t control
Improvise, share, play
Users build value, the technology can let them in
Be modular: use others’ stuff, let them use yours
Build for user value – bureaucratic drivers can come later
What is government 2.0?
• Web 2.0 platforms are public goods
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Google 1998 – a collaborative site
Wikipedia 2001 – the community writes an encyclopaedia
Blogs early 2000s – self-publishing and discussion
Facebook 2004 – social networking
Twitter 2006 – new communications platform
• And governments exist to build public goods
• Yet Government didn’t build any of them
• Nor did existing firms or NFPs
What is government 2.0?
• How can governement/large organisations respond?
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Adapt the new tools
Explore the potential for openness to optimise mission
You’re sitting on platforms of huge social value – PSI
Build new platforms/public goods
Why does web 2.0 matter?
• Organisation without organisations
• Web 2.0 slashes cost of new social formations
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Makes connections of all kinds
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Collaborations of all kinds for purposes
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Reduces hierarchy – permits experimentation,
improvisation
• Informational, social, organisational
• Economic - Social - Cultural – Political\
• From anywhere, by anyone
• By massively lowering the cost of
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Failure – meetup.com
Experimentation - Google
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‘Tanta’ is quoted by the Federal US Reserve
Steve Randy Waldman quoted by Paul Krugman
• By turbocharging the market for reputation
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Why does web 2.0 matter?
Authority
Reputation
Contribution
Identity
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Web 2.0 makes connections?
Martin Piotte and Martin Chabbert
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What’s in it for government
• The National Library
Newspaper digitisation
project
• Site has run 24/7 since
launch in 2007
• 23% of correctors are
overseas
• Over 7 mil lines of text
corrected
• Julie Hempenstall has
corrected over 300,000 of
them!
Designing a website
The old way
=>Management => employees => clients => specs =>
tender
The new way
=>Management => employees => clients => specs => tender
- With hacking events throughout
- Unleashing the power of play, of association
- Between ideas and perspectives
- Between people
- Between agencies
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Public sector information
• Information is special
– The internet’s capacity to disseminate and transform it make it a potential public
good
– If it already exists – economic efficiency and equity says we shouldn’t lock it
down, shouldn’t try to sell it again
• A national resource to be managed for public purposes
• Having been vigorous in taking the wrong turn in the 1980s
– requiring higher cost recovery from its information-agencies
• Australia has taken the lead on this
– In 2001 – geospatial information distributed at marginal cost (generally zero
cost)
– In 2005 – ABS likewise
Find, Play, Share
1. If it can’t be spidered or indexed, it doesn’t
exist;
2. If it isn’t available in open and machine
readable format, it can’t engage;
3. If a legal framework doesn’t allow it to be
repurposed, it doesn’t empower.
Play, show, tell
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Public sector
information
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http://specialsleader.whereilive.co
m.au/maps/Melbourn
e-swoop-hotspots.php
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Does your agency have useful data
Release it and find out!
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Central finding
• Australia has some of the world’s best examples of
Government 2.0
– Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum first to use Flikr
– Future Melbourne Wiki was a world leader
• But other countries are taking whole of government
action to transform their policies and their institutions
– UK
– US
– New Zealand
A Declaration on Open Government
• Online engagement by public servants should be enabled
and encouraged.
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Robust professional discussion benefits their agencies,
their professional development, and the Australian public;
• Public sector information is a national resource
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releasing as much of it on as permissive terms as
possible maximises its value and reinforces democracy;
• Open engagement at all levels of government is integral
to promoting an informed, connected and democratic
community, to public sector reform, innovation and best
use of the national investment in broadband.
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Other recommendations
• Establish a lead agency to coach, enable, advocate
and co-ordinate effort
• Use Information Commissioner to deliver
accountability to the open government policy
• Encourage Agencies to engage and innovate online
• Encourage public servants to engage online
New APSC Guidelines
• Web 2.0 provides public servants with
unprecedented opportunities to open up
government decision making and
implementation to contributions from the
community. In a professional and
respectful manner, APS employees
should engage in robust policy
conversations.
• Equally, as citizens, APS employees
should also embrace the opportunity to
add to the mix of opinions contributing to
sound, sustainable policies and service
delivery approaches.
• Employees should also consider carefully whether they should identify themselves
as either an APS employee or an employee of their agency.
• There are some ground rules.
• The APS Values and Code of Conduct, including Public Service Regulation 2.1,
apply to working with online media in the same way as when participating in any
other public forum.
• The requirements include:
– being apolitical, impartial and professional;
– behaving with respect and courtesy, and without harassment;
– dealing appropriately with information, recognising that some information
needs to remain confidential;
– delivering services fairly, effectively, impartially and courteously to the
Australian public;
– being sensitive to the diversity of the Australian public;
– taking reasonable steps to avoid conflicts of interest;
– making proper use of Commonwealth resources;
– upholding the APS Values and the integrity and good reputation of the
APS.APS employees need to ensure that they fully understand the APS
Values and Code of Conduct and how they apply to official or personal
communications. If in doubt, they should stop and think about whether to
comment and what to say, refer to the Code of Conduct, consult their
agency’s policies, seek advice from someone in authority in their agency, or
consult the Ethics Advisory Service in the Australian Public Service
Commission.
– Agencies may find it helpful to provide guidance and training to employees in
using ICT resources, including personal use, the use of social media, and any
rules or policies about representing their agency online. It would be
particularly helpful to workshop scenarios around some of the more complex
or ‘grey’ issues that arise for employees in deciding whether and how to
participate online, in the performance of their duties or otherwise, consistent
with the above principles.
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PSI recommendations
• Ensure the ‘default’ for PSI is
– Findable
• Agencies to publish comprehensive schedules of PSI to be audited by the IC
– Machine readable and transformable
– Gratis (free as in beer)
– Libre (free as in speech)
• Unless it is kept confidential for good reasons of
– Privacy
– Confidentiality
– Security
Which are agreed by the Information Commissioner
• Accelerate take-up with data.gov.au
• So it becomes an increasingly valuable public good
– A pre-competitive platform for use, adding value and innovating
Enthusiasm counts
Complacency isn’t an option
Take a look at Sidewiki . . .
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Ubiquitous Computing: the connected society
• Triangulation: Putting together 2+2
– Location plus voice recognition
plus history plus context
• Seniors green man time
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