[LINK] Tanner eyes web 2.0 tools

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Tanner eyes web 2.0 tools
Karen Dearne
November 04, 2008
The Australian IT
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24601440-15306,00.html

The federal Government plans to trial online public consultation through 
blogs and other web 2.0 tools early next year, Finance Minister Lindsay 
Tanner says.

"The rise of internet-enabled peer production as a social force 
necessitates a rethink about how policy and politics is done in 
Australia," he said. "In the longer term, governments will have to adapt 
to information's new online centre of gravity. This is not an 
undesirable thing; there are significant opportunities for government to 
use peer production to consult, develop policy and make closer 
connections with the citizens it serves."

Speaking at the launch of Melbourne University's new School of Social 
and Political Sciences, Mr Tanner said he was taking steps to 
"reinvigorate" efforts in this area. We could and should be leading the 
way in adapting our old processes, yet we lag behind other nations in 
both the scale and pace of reform," he said. "The way humans engage with 
each other using peer networks is changing fast. Witness the 
unprecedented bottom-up momentum driving Barak Obama's campaign for the 
US presidency."

Mr Tanner said the Government not only had to adapt to a world moving 
online, but would have to do so at an ever-increasing pace. "As a huge 
creator and manager of information with an obligation to be open and 
transparent, we have little choice," he said.

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Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au