[LINK] Digital Government in Canberra

[Tom Worthington]

Greetings from the Australian Computer Society Canberra Branch where
Miguel Carrasco is speaking on "Accelerating the digital government
transformation":
http://www.acs.org.au/networking-and-events/events/upcoming-events/event-details?eveID=50322038132250

The Prime Minister and Minister for Communications announced the
"Australian Government Digital Transformation Office" (DTO) on 23
January 2015 "... so that government services can be delivered digitally
from start to finish and better serve the needs of citizens and
businesses ... The DTO will operate more like a start-up than a
traditional government agency, focussing on end-user needs in developing
digital services.":
https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2015-01-23/establishment-digital-transformation-office

Miguel Carrasco commented that the Australian Communications Minister is
"enamored" with the UK Government approach to digital services. This, I
suggest is not new, with the former Australian Government Chief
Information Officer (AGCIO), Ann Steward, having spent some time as
Director e-Government in the UK Cabinet Office. The DTO has issued a
draft Digital Service Standard, based on the UK Government standard:
https://www.dto.gov.au/standard

Miguel described the setting up a DTO as acting as a "beacon for
talent", but said they did not have more than six months to produce
results. He claimed that the start-up talent needed was not in Canberra.
Unfortunately he did not acknowledge the work of the ACT Government
funded Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) which is fostering startups
in Canberra. I just came from CBRIN, where former Senator, Kate Lundy,
chair of the startup company Welcomer, has  launched of a new product
which could be used by government agencies, as well as corporations:
http://www.welcomer.me/

In my view, new and existing professionals can be trained to undertake
start-up functions. The ANU is doing this with their TechLauncher
program (I have a team of students working on an education product):
http://cs.anu.edu.au/TechLauncher/project540954.html

Also the ACS runs a 12 week on-line course "New Technology Alignment" on
how to identify such transformations in organizations (I am tutoring the
course and the students are up to week 8 at present):
http://www.acs.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/56538/Subject-outline_New-Technology-Alignment-Jan-2015.pdf

One aspect of DTO is the question of how it will work with the shared
service functions in government.

ps: At the moment I am designing an innovation course specially tailored
for Canberra and will be discussing it in "Innovations in teaching
innovation" at CSIRO ICT Centre on the ANU campus, 4pm, 27 April 2015:
http://cecs.anu.edu.au/seminars/more/SID/3629


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
The Higher Education Whisperer http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/