Towards Government 2.0
The Australian Government Web 2.0 Task Force has published an issue paper titled: Towards Government 2.0: An Issues Paper (35 pages) and opens a public consultation that closes on the 24 August 2009. Page 33 of the states:
"Making a Submission: Terms of Engagement
We welcome your written submissions. There is no set format required and submissions need not be formal documents.Submissions in electronic format are preferred and can be emailed to us.
If that isn’t possible, you can mail them to:
Government 2.0 Taskforce Secretariat Department of Finance and Deregulation John Gorton Building King Edward Terrace Parkes ACT 2600AUSTRALIA
We also offer the option to make online submissions through our Consultation page.
The Introduction (page 7) in the Issue paper states:
A number of reviews and processes have pointed to the importance of greater dissemination and reuse of public sector information and greater online engagement with citizens/between governments/between governments and citizens. At the Australian Government level, for example, these include the Cutler Review into Innovation4, and the Gershon Review into ICT use and management5. Some State governments have also been making important strides. Most recently the Victorian Government has released its Report of the Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee on the Inquiry into Improving Access to Victorian Public Sector Information and Data, Parliamentary Paper No. 198 Session 2006-2009, June 2009.
Proposed legislative change, including proposals for the establishment of an Office of the Information Commissioner and amendments to Freedom of Information legislation to impose a publication scheme on all agencies underpin an agenda of greater public access to government information.
The proposed Office of the Information Commissioner will incorporate the existing Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Handling privacy well is important to generating the trust and confidence in the community necessary to optimize community engagement in Web 2.0 initiatives.
Many government agencies are currently involved in aspects of information policy development. Many are also exploring the use of new tools and techniques to improve the way they work. The Taskforce seeks to build on this work and to accelerate this process of change to allow more open access to, and use of, the information created and/or funded by government. Equally important, the Taskforce will explore the issue of effective consultation, engagement and collaboration with citizens. This work will inform the framework for an Information Policy that can be applied across the Australian Government.
In this paper we elaborate on issues relating to public sector information. We have covered these at greater length than other issues under reference because there has been greater policy development in this area compared with innovation and online engagement. The relatively smaller space devoted to the latter themes in this Issues Paper does not signal that we view them as being of lesser importance.”
On page 6 of the paper a number of key questions have been posed:
- How can we build a culture within government which favours the disclosure of public sector information?
- What government information should be more freely available and what might be made of it?
- What are the major obstacles to fostering a culture of online engagement within government and how can they be tackled?
- How can government capture the imagination of citizens to encourage participation in policy development and collaboration between citizens and government?
The paper contains 35 specific questions that have been presented to assist the consultation process and to stimulate feedback. Respondents to the consultation are not limited to the questions posed.
How widely should policy to optimise the openness of public sector information be applied? Should it be applied beyond government departments and, if so, to which bodies, for instance government business enterprises or statutory authorities?
What are the ways in which we build a culture within government which favours the disclosure of public sector information? What specific barriers exist that would restrict or complicate this and how should they be dealt with?
What government information would you like to see made more freely available?
What are the possible privacy, security, confidentiality or other implications that might arise in making public sector information available? What options are there for mitigating any potential risks?
What is needed to make the large volume of public sector information (a) searchable and (b) useable? And in each case, what do we do about legacy information in agencies? How might the licensing of on-line information be improved to facilitate greater re-use where appropriate?
How does government ensure that people, business, industry and other potential users of government information know about, and can readily find, information they may want to use, for example, the use of a consolidated directory or repository for public sector information?
Should governments mandate that information should be only kept and stored in open and publicly documented standards? Could such a stipulation raise costs or reduce flexibility?
What approaches should the Government use to allow information to be easily shared?
How can the initiatives and ideas of agencies be harnessed for the benefit of agencies across government? How can duplication of effort be avoided?
Are these complaints and appeals processes sufficient? Are additional processes needed for government as it engages in the Web 2.0 world?
What should government do to foster a culture of compliance with information and records management policies and best practice?
What recordkeeping challenges are posed by both the re-use of government information, and in the mechanisms of development of government policy and practice through interactive citizen engagement?
How does government manage the costs and risks of publication of inaccurate information?
What criteria might we adopt in ensuring that agencies make data available in a reasonable time-frame? (And how might we define a “reasonable timeframe”?)
It often takes quite some time to compile and create consistent and reliable data – especially for large data sets. When is it appropriate to release limited and possibly less accurate data and where is it appropriate to wait for higher quality and more extensive data? Where various principles are in some tension with each other, for instance quality and cost or timeliness, how should trade-offs be made?
What can we do to better promote and co-ordinate initiatives in this area? How can we draw key departments together?
What sort of public sector information should be released under what form of copyright license? When should government continue to utilise its intellectual property rights?
When should agencies charge for access to information? Should agencies charge when they are providing value-added services? What might constitute ‘value added services’ (eg customisation of information)? In what circumstances should agencies be able to recover the costs of obtaining the information or providing access? A common model in the private sector is ‘freemium’ distribution whereby many, often most, users are supplied with some product or service for free whilst others pay for use in large scale commercial enterprise (for instance AVG anti-virus) or for some premium product (for instance Word Web). Are there similar models for public sector information and/or do they merit further consideration?
How can government take advantage of public private partnerships to increase access to public sector information without unduly constraining opportunities for third parties to use and reuse the information?
What international activities relevant to this Taskforce should the Taskforce be considering and what needs to be done to improve cross-border use and interoperability of information?
How can best practice be facilitated, identified, rewarded, and further propagated?
Have you engaged with the Australian government via a Web 2.0 channel? Which one/s? If so, why and what was your experience? If not, why not? What can be improved?
How can government capture the imagination of citizens to encourage participation in policy development and collaboration between citizens and government?
What sort of privacy issues might dissuade individuals from engaging with government via collaborative technologies? What sort of steps can we take to ensure that personal information is used appropriately? What options are there for mitigating any potential privacy risks?
How can government make it easier for people to engage on policy and other issues and make sure the opportunities are as open and accessible as possible?
What trade-offs must be considered between government using commercially available and popular online platforms and ensuring inclusive participation with all members of society and how should those tradeoffs be made?
How can public servants comply with the APS values17 and other protocols whilst still participating in online engagement? Should existing rules including legislation be changed and/or adapted to facilitate greater online engagement?
How does government provide sufficient room for personal debate and passionate dissent but still ensure appropriate levels of moderation in online forums? Should moderation be ‘outsourced’ and if so in what circumstances and how? How might volunteers from the commenting community be selected to moderate?
What are the barriers to fostering a culture of online innovation within government? Which of those barriers should be maintained in any Government 2.0 initiatives? Which of those barriers should be removed? How should this be achieved? What different norms can or should apply to Government 2.0 efforts?
To what extent can government assist the uptake of Government 2.0 by centrally providing standard business management guidance and tools to avoid agencies having to ‘reinvent the wheel’ when considering their own online engagement guidelines?
How can government engage with individuals and stakeholders to support the development of innovative policies, programs, practices and service delivery? Are there good examples of where this is happening?
To what extent can we promote such an approach in the public sector and are there any examples of emerging practice?
How can such expertise be governed so as not to unduly stifle innovation?
To what degree is the opportunity for Government agencies to participate in the Web 2.0 world inhibited, or severely compromised, by issues such as security? How might this problem be overcome, in general and by individual agencies, within current legal and policy parameters and how might these parameters be changed to assist in overcoming these problems?
What role could the proposed OIC play in encouraging the development of Government 2.0? Are there practical recommendations the Taskforce might make about how the OIC might best fulfil its functions in relation to optimising the dissemination of Government information?
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