This new website is a continuation of the experiment that I started back in 1996 when I first published a website as a Senator in the federal parliament. Things have changed since then and if active participation in our democracy is going to grow, then I believe that growth will be closely associated with, even driven by, social networks.
In the spirit of this, I hope that you find my new web site encourages participation and engagement. Please let me know what you think about it, and the issues too! Check out my initial moderation policy, and the history of my online efforts here and leave your comments below.
We are still tagging all my old content, so the tag cloud is slightly skewed for the coming week or two, plus we are finishing the migration of some old media releases as well, so please keep that in mind!
Here we go!
Kate
21 Comments
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Hi Kate,
Well done! A big step in the right direction for engagement
Cheers,
Rae
Hi Kate,
It certainly is a Brave New World. Glad our ACT reps are among those taking the first brave steps…
Cheers,
Michael.
Great work. Using a proven blog like WordPress is also wise.
However be aware that you will have broken image (?) links because some content references a site at http://www.katelundy.info. This site is http://www.katelundy.com.au.
Click on your “about” page to see what I mean. http://www.katelundy.info/main/images/stories/site.gif – does not appear for this reason.
Nor does http://www.katelundy.info/main/images/stories/rowing.gif
It’s easily fixed, though.
Now please focus on content and useful resources and you’ll earn my vote.
John Hilvert
Hey John and all, have fixed the 404 images from the about page. My fault, and I think there might be a few more. Thanks for the feedback!
The new site is a great format to promote discussion, and being able RSS the site is a much better idea than constant email updates or having to constantly come back to the site to see what’s changed.
Looking forward to some opinion posts!
Thanks for dragging our government into the 21st century
I believe this is the first politician’s web site I’ve added to my RSS reader!
Nice new site, Kate. An effective use 2.0 tech! We’re looking forward to creating some cross-content with you.
Hi Kate,
lovely clean and efficient website.
see you Wednesday evening with the Cancer Council Adventure Ride!
Hi Damian
How did the ride go? It wasn’t foggy which was good. Please send me links to any pics, sites or blogs about the event.
Kate
Hi Kate, just checking out the site – really good and easy to use, I like the whirlpool topic choice on the right. See you soon
regards
Archie Wilson, Cisco
This is a great experiment! Kate, thank you for showing the way forward. Government is missing so many fantastic opportunities to enage because there is so much fear about not being able to control content and messages. I’m looking forward to Government 2.0 on Monday.
“Taking Australia forward with openness and vision”
“Openness” – ironic considering the plans to filter/block/ban websites deemed unsuitable for a 15 year old child to view.
http://www.inquisitr.com/27288/
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/web-filters-to-censor-video-games-20090625-cxrx.html
While I agree that there needs to be more transparency in government practises and that the internet is the best medium for communicating with, and providing transparency to the general public, I find it ironic that Senator Conroy has been so “non-transparent” when it comes to his ideas for the mandatory internet filter.
“Broadband’s losers could vote Labor out”. Senator Conroy’s mandatory internet filter proposal has crept in scope so much that I will be voting Labor out next election, as will the majority of the population over 15 who play games (given the average age of ‘gamer’ in Australia is 30, this is a significant number).
“Government 2.0″, catchy term, unfortunately filtering most of the internet goes against the ideals underpinning Web 2.0 – openness and freedom of information.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your comment. As an avid gamer myself I understand your concern. I’ll make sure I talk to Senator Lundy about it.
Cheers,
Pia
ICT Policy Advisor
Office of Senator Lundy
Lots of features, but all I want to do is send you an email on an issue, and I can’t seem to find your email address or any email function that works on your contacts page.
Hi Robyn,
my apologies, the contact form was out of action for a day or two as the plugin was upgraded. Please go to the contact page and email us through the form there. Thanks!
Cheers,
Pia
Office of Senator Lundy
Dear Kate
Great – but largely useless for us here – so PLEASE – a text only version for us Telstra “pair-gain” victims here in Queensland.
Recent records and press publicity (the Gold Coast Bulletin) here on the Gold Coast indicate that it is possible that OVER 50% of voters in surrounding areas are stuck with dial-up for the foreseable future unless they pay exorbitant rates for satellite or wireless (GSM 3G etc) connections. Even the ridiculous, yes ridiculous and laughable, Minister Conroy DBCDE statement that equivalent service to metropolitan services is 512K/128Kbits per second and 2GByte download per month with its “broadband guarantee” still means that reasonable monthly fees are up to 5 times – yes 5 times – the equivalent ADSL2 service fees available in the main cities. (Look at that Finish Government proposal that a 1Mbt/sec service be legally designated as a base MANDATORY service for its citizens soon!)
The NBN seems a long way off in Internet time and Gov 2 MUST NOT make the “digital divide”, as carefully described by Barry Jones, a further reality for the next 3-5 years!
So Kate – take the lead – give us a TEXT ONLY version of your site for the time being until we get that URGENT NBN.
Regards
Bill
(Reposting this comment from the Gungahlin response also left for Bill)
Hi Bill, thanks very much for your comments. I agree with you that Gov/political websites should be accessible, and creating a view for low bandwidth users is not always taken into account. I’ll do a little more work with our website to make it better in this regard. There has been so much to do in a short time, the website is only a few months old
I have a temporary solution which will also help you and anyone else on slow Internet connectivity with all sites that aren’t brilliant over a slow connection. If you install Firefox as your main web browser, you’ll have an option under the View menu called “Page Style” where you can specify “No Style”. This will turn off the style information of every website you look at which also removes all images/flash and other bandwidth hoggers
Hope that helps.
In terms of the infrastructure, I believe the plan is for NBN to buy as much existing infrastructure as possible, however there isn’t much you can do with a Pair Gains connection to improve it, even if you have ADSL2+ capability in the exchange. Senator Conroy gave an interesting interview on this last month http://www.itwire.com/content/view/27755/1231/ (see page 2 for the comments on RIMs and Pair Gains). It will be the case that some parts of Australia will require wireless broadband to replace existing infrastructure that doesn’t deliver quality connectivity, but remember, they’ve committed to a minimum 12Mbps for all Australians, so however they provision areas currently suffering with RIMs and Pair Gains connectivity, you’ll still be a lot better off
Hope that helps you and we’ll keep working as hard as we can on these issues.
Cheers,
Pia Waugh
Office of Senator Kate Lundy
Dear Kate
Commonwealth and Military Superannuants – CPI adjustment
Nice to see someone trying to look after Commonwealth and miliray superannuants and giving us a chance to have our say. I sent an Email to two liberal senators, one of whom was a joint sinature in your September letter to Lindsay Tanner. They were Louise Markus and Bob Baldwin
Please keep up the good work
John Griffiths
Three cheers for your new website and for championing the cause!
There is an interesting blog discussion going on at the Museums Australia NING site which relates to the use of of social media in the workplace. This stems from an initial query about some institutions blocking the use of social media for professional purposes.
An insight into some of the benefits (and incumbrances) in embracing new social media technology in the GLAM sector is outlined which may be of interest. A small quote from the transcript of your speech to the GLAM-Wiki conference was cited.
The ensuing comments are quite insightful. Clearly its a passionate debate.
Regards
David
Many thanks for the comment David. If there is anything else we can do please let us know. We are very keen to have a good conversation with the GLAM sector about open access, and the practical implications and decisions that need to be made. Get in touch if we can help at all
Cheers,
Pia
Office of Senator Lundy
KATE,
Clear & informative site! Interested in the item concerning the inequities of indexation to Australian Government/Military Super Schemes. It is beyond belief that the recent Mathews Review did not acknowledge that CPI has changed significantly as an index & bears little relevance to the real cost of existence. It did not also appear to place any weight on previous Senate Inquiries. You are no doubt aware of the myriad arguments to update the current index. Accordingly I commend you on your stance in this matter & ask you to vigorously lobby your colleagues to right this injustice.
regards, martin