[LINK] The Open Government Partnership

[Janet Hawtin]

On 20 January 2014 15:55, <stephen at melbpc.org.au> wrote:

> Janet writes,
>
> >> http://www.opengovpartnership.org
> >>
> >> One must deplore Australia's achievements in embracing open government.
> >
> > This happened last year.
> > http://www.govhack.org/
>
>
> Yes, it's very old news for Link ..


Fair enough


> well organized and run by Pia Waugh.
>

Yes. If there are specific groups you think have useful data Pia is a good
person to approach.


> However .. she appears a candle in a forest of gloom, in terms of a truly
> open and online Australian government. Over many years, one is reasonably
> well aware of numbers of claims by various governments to present an OPEN
> government. However, this invariably means presenting information regards
> what that particular government is doing. It is NOT a two-way street with
> much if any scope for a genuine involvement of the public.
>

Open is one of those words which means a lot of different things to
different people?
big data, government data, open data are broad terms.
Some data is personal, geographic, real time, statistical, census, land
use, zoning, health.
To me it helps to be specific because there are different opportunities,
risks, costs, connectivity.

At the SA govhack a team used street data and historical images to make
images available to people in context.
That kind of mashup does mean people can access more about their community
and space.
Perhaps a future version people could add their own images.
That might not be changing government but it would be interacting with
geographic and historical image data.


> The word 'open' entails a *both way* process & involvement by Australians
> in terms of our country, and what we decide for our country in the future.
> Now, the Internet can enable decision-making involvement, in a secure and
> timely fashion.

But when did say your local member use it to reach out to
> you for your ideas, and opinions? Ever? So, they all know what YOU think?
>

Email works, all of them are available via email
They respond, some of them specifically.
It is before an election in Tas and SA so worth emailing because they are
looking to see which issues people care about.
State planning documents ask for feedback.
Perhaps it would be good if there was a way to find all of the different
kinds of open discussions
Sometimes it can be hard to find them.

We have the tools. True open governance is a two-way process. Trust folk
> to be involved in what Australia does. Do not hide behind a 13th century
> governing structure, with people sitting in the rain collecting petition
> signatures in main street, for our government which will never read them.
>

What do you have in mind?
(Which aspects of government? What kind of interaction?)