The Centre for Policy Development has released a new e-book that calls for Australia to ‘upgrade its democracy’ by combining open access to government information with collaborative policy development to increase citizens’ participation in the decisions that affect their lives.
The Government2.0 Taskforce, a Labor Government initiative announced at Senator Lundy’s second Public Sphere event in June 2009, is currently compiling its report on how to open up access to public sector information and use online tools to improve dialog between government and citizens.
‘Upgrading Democracy’ presents 16 case studies and articles from Australia and overseas for the Government2.0 Taskforce from a diverse audience including the Minister for Finance and Deregulation the Hon Lindsay Tanner and Senator Kate Lundy.
Senator Lundy and Pia Waugh presented ‘Case Study: Public Sphere as a Gov.20 example of Open Government’ in which they analyse their approach to online engagement with citizens through “Public Spheres”.
Senator Lundy identifies “three pillars of open government- citizen centric services, open and transparent government processes and facilitating public and private innovation”.
The e-book is available at http://cpd.org.au/insight/upgrading-democracy
Other contributors to ‘Upgrading Democracy’ and key players in the Gov2.0 community include Martin Stuart Weeks from Cisco, Kat Szuminska from Open Australia, Mark Elliot from Collabforge, Lee Bryant from Headshift, Matt Crozier from Bang the Table, Stephen Collins from acidlabs, Amy King, Michael Richardson, Barry Saunders and Miriam Lyons from Centre for Policy Development.
Media contact: Annika Hutchins (Senator Lundy) 0407 458 882
