What do the public servants think?
Steve Collin’s blog post expands on the article I pointed to recently from Lavartus Prodeo on the use of Web 2.0 by politicians and government (Thanks to Penny Sharpe for pointing me to both articles). Steve makes the same point I made in response to the Lavartus Prodeo blog post, which is that the real opportunity for social networking in a democracy is to link the public servants to the public. My particular beef is about making government data available freely online, both in raw form, and interpreted from the view of government. But there is so much more that could be achieved, so much more richness in terms of conservation and interaction. I’d be very keen to hear from people in the public service about their views on this.
Written by Paul Dalby on 26 May 2009
~ by litfuse on May 26, 2009.
Posted in new media, nrm, research
Tags: data, democracy, government, Lavartus Prodeo, Penny Sharpe, public service, social networking, Steve Collins, web 2.0
On the matter of making public information more freely available online, I think the type of licensing / policy framework addressed by http://www.gilf.gov.au/ is a great start.
Thanks Mike
Mike Seyfang also pointed me to this article by Mark Elliott http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/3112-4049 which is proposing ideas along the same lines as this blog post and its links. #opengov
I hope you liked the talk. It seemed to go over really well at GOVIS – http://www.govis.org.nz/conference2009/govis-2009-conference-handbook.htm.
There seems to be a growing and rich community of politicians and public servants whose thinking is at or moving in the direction I posited in the talk I gave. We’re working on running an initial event in Canberra to bring this thinking closer to the minds of the public sector and politicians. We have more than a little interest.
You can keep up with discussions at the Government 2.0 Australia Google Group – http://groups.google.com.au/group/gov20canberra?hl=en-GB
Thanks Steve. I’ve joined the google group
I think political leadership around the issue is critical, ala the words which Blair and Obama have uttered about open government and engagement. There are many public servants who are active and interested in the social media space, although, interestingly, not many in Australia who officially represent their organisations online. The extent to which public servants can ‘lead’ transformation is unclear – the event which Stephen mentions will test this, and that’s a great thing.
Good point Fergus. Tis easy to be disparaging about the ‘politics’ angle but leadership is essential. I think @katelundy is showing some of that in the process behind http://tr.im/mvMW – PublicSphere issues wiki.
Would be interested in other people’s opinion on that effort. Tis certainly prominent in the world of online social media where I live.
I’m pretty close to Kate Lundy’s project, so can talk to anyone who’d like to about it. Can also put you onto her adviser, Pia Waugh, who seriously knows her stuff.
Kate is trying hard to walk the talk of open government and she needs our support as much as possible. She’s 100 per cent for real.
One of the real blockages is the requirement for public servants to get permission to get anything into the public domain.
This makes it really difficult for them to engage in media like this.
One day they will be allowed greater freedom. THe challenge is to find a way that allows them to do it.