[LINK] AIIA raises concerns on Tanner and Conroy blog

[Jan Whitaker]

Jenny,
thanks for sharing that background. Pity they didn't take your advice.

At 09:02 AM 12/12/2008, Jenny Millea wrote:

>*       Establish the blog at arm's length to government and to the 
>agencies running the consultations

nope. It's embedded right in the department. is that considered 
separate from govt in someone's head?

>*       Have clear and explicit processes for how the comments 
>generated will feed into the policy process

sort of. They are writing a paper and want comments/ideas. That's 
good. They can do a categorization of the comments and do a 
qualitative analysis of the comments for a general idea of where the 
red flags are.

>*       Manage expectations about the impact a single post or set of 
>posts will have on the overall policy direction

nope

>*       Conduct ongoing outreach activities to show the community 
>how to contribute to the policy process by using the consultation blogs

nope. I'm trying to remember if I even saw an announcement of this in 
the general media. Now we're getting the criticisms, some of which I 
agree with. Here's today's article from the Age:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/home/technology/bloggers-pan-governments-edemocracy-bid/2008/12/11/1228585002401.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Bloggers pan Government's 'e-democracy' bid

Asher Moses
December 11, 2008 - 3:36PM

Prominent Australian bloggers have lashed the Federal Government over 
its first attempt at public consultation via a blog, which has 
already been hijacked by critics of its plan to censor the internet.

In a move dubbed "e-democracy", Communications Minister Stephen 
Conroy and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner announced this week they 
would be taking feedback from Australians for two weeks on a 
<http://www.dbcde.gov.au/communications_for_business/industry_development/digital_economy/future_directions_blog>new 
blog canvassing Australia's digital economy.

Issues on the agenda include the Government's mandatory internet 
filtering proposal, the planned national broadband network, online 
regulations, access to public sector information and what Australia 
can do to participate fully in the digital economy.

All comments will be moderated by staff and be approved only between 
8.30am and 4.30pm.

Predictably, hundreds of the comments published so far have 
criticised Senator Conroy's plans to introduce a mandatory clean feed 
for all Australian internet users, which would introduce a level of 
web censorship that's far beyond that of any other Western democracy.

"I am offended that Senator Conroy has likened censorship opponents 
to child porn supporters. It is a straw-man argument and offensive to 
basic principles of democracy," one reader wrote.

Darren Rowse, a Melbourne blogging consultant whose blog network, 
b5media, incorporates more than 200 blogs, said the effort looked 
"very governmental", dry and would struggle to build a connection with readers.

"It's not engaging, personal and for me doesn't really inspire me to 
leave a comment on the content there," he said, adding that even a 
photo of the author would have helped personalise the blog.

"I've got a pretty flexible definition of what a blog is - but to me 
this is just a website that has comments on it."

Senator Conroy and Mr Tanner both said that the enthusiastic uptake 
of online communications tools such as blogging meant it was only 
natural for the Government to use these new methods of engagement to 
enhance the democratic process.

But Mr Rowse said the official look and feel, the formal writing 
style and the existence of "terms of use" and a "moderation policy" 
killed "some of the spontaneity, playfulness and personal nature of blogging".

"Some of the terms of use seem a little far fetched also - the more 
you read them the more it seems as though lawyers have had more to do 
with the setting up of this blog than anyone else," he said.

"Sure - there needs to be some protection and boundaries but I think 
they've taken it a bit far."

Duncan Riley, also from Melbourne, co-founded b5media with Mr Rowse 
before becoming a writer for one of the web's most popular blogs, 
TechCrunch, which covers internet start-ups. He has since left to 
start his own blog covering web businesses, The Inquisitr.

"While I welcome any Government department embracing blogging, even 
in a small and token way, the Rudd Government still has a very long 
way to go before it comes even close to fully utilising the tools web 
2.0 offers to increase Government transparency and engagement," he said.

He criticised the Government's persistent focus on the benefits the 
internet delivered for existing businesses and consumers, while 
failing to support the true internet economy that is being driven by 
online start-ups such as eBay and Facebook.

He noted that Israel, a country with a population one-third the size 
of Australia's, had at least 10 times more internet start-ups.

"At a time when Australia faces a recession and increased 
unemployment, web 2.0-based start-ups would offer new jobs where none 
existed before," he said.

"The whole [online blog consultation] thing is a joke considering 
Conroy's Great Firewall will kill internet speeds and drive up 
internet connection costs in Australia, potentially crippling online 
businesses."

Microsoft Australia's head of government and industry affairs, Simon 
Edwards, said he remained a sceptic as to the capacity of political 
blogs to enhance knowledge and inform decision making processes.

Mr Edwards said that, to date, such blogs had tended to be not much 
more than cliques of common interest that reaffirmed partisan 
positions and denigrated alternative points of view.

"Nevertheless I welcome the Government's trial of blogging as it is a 
recognition of the ever increasing volume of ideas, opinions and 
information that is being shared and communicated online," he said.




Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
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blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/

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sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

Writing Lesson #54:
Learn to love revision. Think of it as polishing the silver for 
guests. - JW, May, 2007
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