[LINK] Government 2.0 Report

[Tom Worthington]

The final report of the Government 2.0 Taskforce, headed by Nicholas
Gruen is now available "Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0":
<http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/gov20taskforcereport/">.

The report is only available in PDF (1.6 MB) and Microsoft RTF (4.9 MB)
formats. At 157 pages this is a very large report.

An easy to download and read HTML version of the report will not be
available until mid-January. In the interim, I have converted the
executive summary and recommendations from RTF to HTML using
OpenOffice.org and HTML Tidy:
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/12/government-20-report.html>.

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Key points

     * Government 2.0 or the use of the new collaborative tools and
approaches of Web 2.0 offers an unprecedented opportunity to achieve
more open, accountable, responsive and efficient government.
     * Though it involves new technology, Government 2.0 is really about
a new approach to organising and governing. It will draw people into a
closer and more collaborative relationship with their government.
Australia has an opportunity to resume its leadership in seizing these
opportunities and capturing the resulting social and economic benefits.
     * Leadership, and policy and governance changes are needed to shift
public sector culture and practice to make government information more
accessible and usable, make government more consultative, participatory
and transparent, build a culture of online innovation within Government,
and to promote collaboration across agencies.
     * Government pervades some of the most important aspects of our
lives. Government 2.0 can harness the wealth of local and expert
knowledge, ideas and enthusiasm of Australians to improve schools,
hospitals, workplaces, to enrich our democracy and to improve its own
policies, regulation and service delivery.
     * Government 2.0 is a key means for renewing the public sector;
offering new tools for public servants to engage and respond to the
community; empower the enthusiastic, share ideas and further develop
their expertise through networks of knowledge with fellow professionals
and others. Together, public servants and interested communities can
work to address complex policy and service delivery challenges.
     * Information collected by or for the public sector — is a national
resource which should be managed for public purposes. That means that we
should reverse the current presumption that it is secret unless there
are good reasons for release and presume instead that it should be
freely available for anyone to use and transform unless there are
compelling privacy, confidentially or security considerations.
     * Government 2.0 will not be easy for it directly challenges some
aspects of established policy and practice within government. Yet the
changes to culture, practice and policy we envisage will ultimately
advance the traditions of modern democratic government. Hence, there is
a requirement for co-ordinated leadership, policy and culture change.
     * Government 2.0 is central to the delivery of government reforms
like promoting innovation; and making our public service the world’s best.

From: "Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0", Government 2.0
Taskforce, Department of Finance and Deregulation, 22 December 2009

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-- 
Tom Worthington FACS HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/people.php?StaffID=140274