Today the Minister for Finance, Lindsay Tanner and the Special Minister of State Joe Ludwig made a ground breaking announcement for Australia. They released the Australian Government response to the Gov 2.0 Taskforce Report which was launched in December last year and will be launching a Declaration for Open Government in the near future. This is very exciting news!
The Gov 2.0 Taskforce Report response is excellent, with almost all recommendations agreed to. The Department of Finance will be acting as the lead agency for the Government 2.0 agenda,
“providing leadership, resources, guidance and support to agencies and public servants on Government 2.0 issues”
A Government 2.0 Steering Group will be involved in developing and overseeing the work plan and it includes representation from many key departments and agencies including the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the proposed new Office of the Information Commissioner, the Australian Public Service Commission, National Archives of Australia and more.
A lot of the report recommendations that have been agreed to include more consultation and collaboration throughout the public service, which is a fantastic measure to better leverage some of the wonderful work and expertise happening throughout the public sector, and will help create more of a culture of cross jurisdictional sharing and collaboration.
The Government response talks about the active use and implementation of Web 2.0 into normal business practices, which is both exciting and challenging, and I look forward to the good work from many public sector projects being used as shining examples for others to learn from, and innovate on top of.
It was very exciting in the Gov 2.0 response to see a government commitment to ensuring that “all public enquiries funded by the Australian Government should ensure that all submissions are posted online in a form that makes them searchable, easy to comment on and reuse”. I feel that this is an important step forward for participatory government, and am very pleased that my Public Spheres have been helpful in demonstrating how a consultation can successfully integrate online contributions, and how valuable such contributions can be when you engage meaningfully with the public.
It was also very exciting to see the agreement to use permissive copyright for publicly accessible works. It makes government information more accessible and usable by citizens, and there was also a great commitment to further accessibility through the implementation of the Gov 2.0 agenda, which will be vital in ensuring we are inclusive.
I’d love your thoughts on the Government response to the Gov 2.0 Taskforce Report, and I will be doing everything I can to support the progress and implementation of this agenda. Congratulations to Minister Tanner and Minister Ludwig, the Gov 2.0 Taskforce & Secretariate, and a big thank you to all the other folk who have put so much work into this, especially all the individuals from the community and industry who have contributed so much value, enthusiasm and inspiration to the process through their Tweeting, blogging, mashups, comments and participation on the Gov 2.0 Taskforce website (http://gov2.net.au/)and at the Gov 2.0 Public Sphere (http://www.katelundy.com.au/category/campaigns/publicsphere/open-gov/).
To support this initiative, I will be working in conjunction with Minister Tanner and AGIMO to collate and show off Australian Gov 2.0 case studies, so please start thinking about you can present your own Gov 2.0 projects with video.
I would love to have as much Aussie innovation on display for the world to see at the international Gov 2.0 Expo in Washington DC at the end of the month (http://www.gov2expo.com/), where I’ll be presenting about Australia’s Gov 2.0 progress.
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The interesting thing will be if the fairly general statements around public service engagement will be enough to change the culture of secrecy and spin control that seems to pervade government departments. I have some grave doubts as to whether things will change.
Congratulations to you and everyone who has worked to make this happen. In a time of hearing about all the things not going ahead or not just now (some of that news being actually very agreeable for some of us
it is frankly surprising and also tremendously encouraging to hear the news about the Declaration and the other recommendations which have been given the go-ahead.
Agree with Peter. As the taskforce report points out there will be a huge amount of cultural resistance to this. I see a lot of very passive, very half-hearted compliance unless there is genuine pressure applied to agencies for a sustained period of time.
Thanks for the responses Peter, Des and James. Your perspectives are really useful. I do think however that this is a good start, and keep in mind it is a response to the Taskforce recomendations, not an all inclusive strategy, so specific ideas around dealing with the necessary culture change would be very welcome
Cheers,
Pia
ICT Policy Advisor to Senator Lundy
Don’t mean to sound too negative Pia. Very excited about the response in general.
I love the US approach, explicit directives with timeframes and very public league tables.
Of course it’s understandable to have reservations about what the extent and speed of uptake of recommendations is likely to be. But just from my perspective as a former public servant, I’m actually impressed by the progress that has been made. I’d like to suggest for consideration also that in terms of achieving change there are other ways than are encompassed by the language of “sustaining pressure” on agencies.
There is the possibility of change bubbling up, as distinct from being pressured down, so to speak. The value of a Government commitment to a policy that embraces and encourages a “Gov 2.0″ culture and related procedures is that it gives every public servant, including the most junior in the pecking order, a government-endorsed frame of reference. If “the way things are done” can be shown often enough to be out of whack with stated government policy, then there is internal pressure to bring about change.
I’m not arguing for no pressure – or at least no regular nagging – being applied, especially to the more recalcitrant of agencies. I’m saying it’s not, and should not be, the only way.
Actually if you start to cultivate the “social” cultural style which I see as implicit in the Gov 2.0 approach, then it just may be that what bubbles up and out may be a greater force for evolving the culture and the practices and processes than periodic pressure from “on high”.
More seriously, if you only rely on pressure from above, my hunch is that the kind and extent of change a lot of us hope for may be a very long time coming.
Colour me not particularly optimistic – I have been trying for months to get access to particular government data for a simple but very useful app. It’s like talking to a wall. Nope more than that, it’s like talking to a stupid wall.
And of course, there needs to be a push to get the states doing something as well, but that will be even harder.
Hi Kate, Pia, et al
Knowing a little about the way that web policy gets passed around Canberra, I think the response is right on the money.
We talk a lot about cultural change and so it is good to always bear in mind the culture we are talking about.
Broadly, and from my observation, the APS is quite agile when it comes to taking on web stuff from on high. Agencies generally are looking for direction from AGIMO on the web space. It’s not secret that pre-gov 2.0, I thought AGIMO was way off the mark.
The gov 2.0 thing has almost given me whiplash. From being off the mark, AGIMO is now spot on.
So, back to the culture thing. I believe it is relatively simple. We need to get the message to the agencies that this gov 2.0 thing is a green light. Perhaps we can ask Kate to tour the agencies over the next 12 months and present alongside the agency boss. Honestly, something along those lines would probably get us a long way down the track.
The first cab off the rank is the high-level statement. My thoughts are that it needs to be very clear on where the line is. This might be best communicated by detailing what is the ‘closed’ and ‘not allowed’ side of the line. Then agencies can use common sense and official policy to engage on any issue.
Mostly, the road ahead is about talking through and communicating what “engage” really means. I am sure that the discussions will be going on beyond our lifetimes. So, let us all revel at being here, right at the start of the discussion.
All in all, a big thumbs up to the gov. A bigger thumbs up for the TF and AGIMO. Of course, the normal thumbs up to Kate. Where would we be without our champion.
cheers
jimi bostock
PUSH agency
There is a lot of interest from APS staff in using Gov 2.0 techniques and I think the government’s response will go a long way towards supporting those who have been suggesting and implementing Gov 2.0 initiatives due to their benefits.
However there are still many regulations and governance practices that must be reviewed, reinterpreted or adjusted to allow the process-driven public service effectively approach Gov 2.0 in a timely (rapid) and cost-effective manner. To make engagement successful, there ia the need to streamline approvals for things such as public responses and moderation of public comments (where moderation is used at all) in order to allow conversations to begin and communities to form.
Also for public servants – and politicians – for whom the concept of ‘letting go’ and allowing authentic online engagement to occur is a new and scary concept, unlike their previous experience or the directives they have received in the past. I hope we will see substantial change management support and training to help these groups normalize Gov 2.0 within their worldviews.
Otherwise it will remain a long and rocky road towards the widespread embedded use of Hov 2.0 within government agencies. Change had to occur in the heart as well as the head to be lasting.
Cheers
Craig