[LINK] Interview: Finance Minister, Lindsay Tanner (Part Two)

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Finance Minister, Lindsay Tanner (Part Two)
By Brett Winterford
Aug 24, 2009 4:54 PM
itNews
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/153456,exclusive-finance-minister-lindsay-tanner-part-two.aspx

How the internet changes politics.

In June, the Federal Government announced it would spend $2.45 million 
on a 15-member Web 2.0 Taskforce, to investigate new ways in which the 
Government might interact with its public.

In Part Two of iTnews' interview with Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, 
we discuss how the internet is likely to reshape the future of the 
political process.

iTnews: What is the Web 2.0 workforce all about?

Tanner: The Web 2.0 taskforce is really about how government relates to 
the wider world. It is really dealing with two separate but related 
questions. The first relates to government data. By definition, across 
government there is this vast quantity of miscellaneous data of all 
shapes and sizes. Some of it readily, publicly accessible, some of it 
not particularly sensitive or secret but nonetheless either not made 
public or made public in a way that makes it difficult to use.

The former Government, to its credit, made most of the ABS' [Australian 
Bureau of Statistics] work available free. With the idea being that it 
will increase business productivity, and that some businesses will even 
emerge built around manipulating and making better use of that data.

So that's the first objective of the taskforce - to scope that question 
with some thoughts about how to make our information more accessible and 
useful. The second is essentially government blogging, how to use Web 
2.0 technologies to improve the dialogue between government and the rest 
of society. My one line description of this is that this is broadly 
moving from a bilateral conversation to a multilateral conversation.

Although there is a whole set of mechanisms for government consultation 
- whether it's a one-off exercise when you have a one in ten year review 
of a system or whether its ongoing, round-the-clock feedback processes - 
because they are totally dependent on traditional mechanisms, the 
outcome is they tend to function bilaterally.

So you might make a submission to an inquiry I am running, and I might 
respond to that submission, but someone down the road might be 
completely unaware of what's in your submission and vice versa, unaware 
of my response to your submission, and vice versa. And therefore you 
don't get the depth and richness of engagement that you get when have 
got genuine conversation going on - when the Government is one party in 
a room full of all different parties that can all engage with each other 
as well as the Government.

iTnews: What got you thinking about blogging as a potential solution?

Tanner: The old world example that got me thinking about this is a gym 
that I used to attend in Melbourne.

They have this cute little system, where there is a complaints and 
queries pad in a prominent spot in the weights room. You scribble down 
whatever - why is this machine broken, when are you going to get a new 
treadmill, whatever. And there is a space for staff responses at the 
bottom. You pin these notes up on the board. At any given time there are 
a dozen or fifteen of these things pinned up on the board, and even if 
you don't fill one out, you can idly just scan and scrutinise them.

So the process of interaction between users and staff - whether it is 
about what needs to be fixed or a thank you note for that matter, is in 
a sense public and involves everyone, rather than being bilateral.

That made me think - this is precisely what Web 2.0 technologies and 
blogging enables. You can actually have that conversation openly and 
publicly when everyone is in on the deal, rather than Government being a 
hub-and-spoke - a model where you have fifty different conversations 
with fifty different players, none of whom can hear the other 
conversations. That is what is driving my commitment to push this thing 
through.

iTnews: What challenges lie in setting up government blogs?

Tanner: There are a number of big challenges. One is resources. By 
definition, a deeper process of consultation and discussion means there 
has to be somebody there flying the flag on behalf of the Government, 
answering questions from the Government point of view.

Secondly and perhaps more significant is the issue of 'authority to 
speak'. There is a very traditional structure with governments where 
there is a pyramid structure - the person at the top of the pyramid is 
the public face and makes the statements.

There are very good reasons for that of course. If you have fifty people 
purporting to speak on behalf of the Department of Finance, the chance 
they are all saying the same thing is not very high, and aside from the 
obvious political issues that raises, there are practical issues. If 
you're trying to find out what the Department's position is on a given 
issue, and you're confronted with half a dozen different versions, it 
makes it pretty hard for you to know - particularly if you're a business 
- making decisions, should I invest in this or that?

You want to know what the Government's position is. Half a dozen 
versions don't add up, and that's a problem.

So we are trying to working out a model where you don't end up with that 
problem but you also don't end up with Government participation in blogs 
being little more than a regurgitation of press releases.

They are the kinds of issues we are asking this taskforce to toss around.

-- 
 
Regards
brd

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