[LINK] online policy consultation

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Apparently the Rudd Government's two week trial of "online policy
consultation for an e-democracy future" has been quite successful.

<http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2008/092>

<http://www.dbcde.gov.au/communications_for_business/industry_development/
digital_economy/future_directions_blog/topics/thanks_and_so_long>

Thanks and so long .. 23 Dec 2008

As we indicated on our introduction page, this blogging trial is time 
limited so that we can take everyone's comments on board and get to work 
on the future directions paper. This is the last post and we will be 
turning off comments across all topics at 3 pm tomorrow. (24th Dec 2008)

We have had an, at times, close to overwhelming response to the blog—over 
1500 comments—a large number of which discussed the issue of filtering, 
as expected. Various comments provided useful feedback on how governments 
can and should blog and we had some repeat commentators coming back to 
engage thoughtfully on each topic, like Verity Pravda.

In addition to tracking comments on the blog, we have also followed 
discussion about the blog in mainstream media and on other blogs and 
online forums.

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald said bloggers 'panned' us, 
especially because of our Terms of Use and Moderation Policy. PCMag had a 
number of criticisms of the blog, including the blog's policies; but 
ITWire opined that the rules 'seem designed to keep the signal-to-noise 
ratio as high as possible, and that should encourage the maximum 
participation by real people (as opposed to link spammers and trolls, 
both of which are all too common in unmoderated spaces)'.

Dave was worried that the nature and quantity of comments about filtering 
would dissuade the Government from blogging again. Greg thought 
government blogging was a 'welcome move' that was likely to 
generate 'useful and representative responses'. On its government affairs 
blog Microsoft welcomed the effort but remained sceptical. Google posted 
to their public policy blog that the government blogging was a good 
thing, particularly the discussion of open access.

All in all, we appreciate everyone who took time to engage with this 
first attempt at blogging by the Australian Government and we will 
reflect in the new year on the many lessons we have learned, in the hope 
that we can ensure that future online engagement efforts are more 
productive for everyone. 

Something that we have realised is that there are no established 
community norms about how people respond online to government and a lot 
of the nuances about how government functions are not transparent. This 
possibly led to some frustration in how we set up the blog, how we 
responded and what action is taken in response to the many comments we 
received. Hopefully, when the Government blogs again, we can work 
together in building up norms and improving the transparency. As Steve 
from Ovum wrote '[t]he challenge for governments, however, is to 
structure the passion of bloggers into constructive dialogues.'

As for the Digital Economy Future Directions paper, we aim to release it 
in the first half of 2009. 

In developing a roadmap for Australia to become a leading digital 
economy, we will join other countries who have similarly expressed their 
digital vision. France recently released Plan Numerique 2012, the UK has 
announced its intention to develop a Digital Britain Plan and New Zealand 
circulated its Digital Strategy earlier this year. Even in one of the 
world's leading digital economies—the US—the incoming Obama 
administration plan outlined some ideas for promoting the US as a digital 
economy. So stay tuned...
--

Season's best,
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia