I was browsing the other night and again came across some comments on the Government 2.0 Task Force. It is an interesting initiative and I am uncertain as to how much it will achieve to be very honest. But nonetheless, it is inevitable in a democratic society and with the more on-line "savviness" of the younger generations.

I added my comments to the short article by Lisa Harvey on "What about the rest of us?". I provided similar feedback on the Taskforce's Terms of Reference to a public company I was chatting to a while back.

So here is my view of the Terms of Reference.

The Government 2.0 Taskforce (‘Taskforce') will advise and assist the Government to:

1. make government information more accessible and usable - to establish a pro-disclosure culture around non-sensitive public sector information; The only thing that Web 2.0 adds to this is the "usable" part and perhaps the "accessible" part - but that is more in the context of "cheaply accessible". Governments have always had the choice to make information available and accessible. Why they feel they need a "pro-disclosure culture" now should have nothing to do with Web 2.0.

2. make government more consultative, participatory and transparent - to maximise the extent to which government utilises the views, knowledge and resources of the general community; Again, this has always been possible. Web 2.0 should make it more efficient to do so.

3. build a culture of online innovation within Government - to ensure that government is receptive to the possibilities created by new collaborative technologies and uses them to advance its ambition to continually improve the way it operates; Now that is a valid aim perhaps directly related to Web 2.0. The issue is "innovation". Governments have not often been innovative, which often involves risk of some sort. The difference in this case might be the push to make it happen regardless of the cost ...only governments can really do that ....the NBN for instance.

4. promote collaboration across agencies with respect to online and information initiatives - to ensure that efficiencies, innovations, knowledge and enthusiasm are shared on a platform of open standards; and This is a BIG call and desire. There are at least two issues at play here a) Where is the platform(s) available? My experience is that government agencies tend to not know what is available to them internal to a department let alone in another department. It will require a significant amount of internal to government marketing. b) we are an aging population and the public service reflects that demographic. What is easy and familiar to a <30 year old is certainly not familiar to someone say 40+ in some instances. My experience is that many many public servants find it difficult to use the features of Microsoft Word properly, let alone to use a wiki, twitter (if they are allowed), forums etc. Some government departments don't even permit WWW access!

5. identify and/or trial initiatives that may achieve or demonstrate how to accomplish the above objectives. Interesting. Where will they trial it and among who? I suspect they will only trial it among those that want to use it (hence they will seek volunteers)....not the ones who don't ...a sort of self fulfilling experiment that will provide a way improving what they do for those that want to use it ....but for those that don't ...what do they do? More of this below I hope.

The Taskforce will advise Government on structural barriers that prevent, and policies to promote, greater information disclosure, digital innovation and online engagement including the division of responsibilities for, and overall coordination of, these issues within government. This is a government cultural change that needs to occur. The public doesn't need encouragement to have government become more open. I think some of this may have to do with governance.

The Taskforce will work with the public, private, cultural and not for profit sectors to fund and develop seed projects that demonstrate the potential of proactive information disclosure and digital engagement for government. More information can be found on the Taskforce's Project Fund page. Not sure how the "public, private, etc sectors" can help "proactive information disclosure" ..I presume within government. The government has to do this with its policies and public servants. Those sectors can help with digital engagements though.

In particular the Taskforce will also identify policies and frameworks to assist the Information Commissioner and other agencies in:

1. developing and managing a whole of government information publication scheme to encourage greater disclosure of public sector information; Not related to Web 2.0 though!

2. extending opportunities for the reuse of government information, and considering the terms of that use, to maximise the beneficial flow of that information and facilitate productive applications of government information to the greatest possible extent; A few motherhoods here and laudable aims. It will mean "sharing" of information which I suspect in many cases would be problematic with privacy issues. But there are lots of bits of information that could be shared without those constraints ...contracting, tendering, projects ....etc. So targeting what to share I think is the best start for this one.

3. encouraging effective online innovation, consultation and engagement by government, including by drawing on the lessons of the Government's online consultation trials and any initiatives undertaken by the Taskforce. OK ..."effective" is the operative word here.

There are three general challenges as I see it:

• I suspect much of what they wish to do has nothing to do with Web 2.0 as a government has always been able to make information available - it has simply been their choice of how much. Accordingly, the only real assistance Web 2.0 will provide is to make the accessibility and manipulation of what is made available more efficient and widespread (you don't have to come to Canberra to access a hard copy file for instance - you can do it over the web).
• The issue of more sharing and so on between government agencies will be interesting. The challenges are many and not related to the "ease of sharing" that Web 2.0 may provide = silos, legislative issues, discomfort with software, the huge training bill ultimately .....to name a few off the top of my head.
• Using tools to share information or to collaborate is going to favour certain types of people ...and that is perhaps the younger generation. Australian demographics say we are an aging population, so the likelihood of the older generation having unbalanced representation due to the lack of Web 2.0 skills is a real issue ...the legislation will be slanted toward those that participate not those that DO NOT participate. I found this quote from Kate Lundy very interesting:

I think it is fair to say it represents the wisdom of the crowd that participated in this Public Sphere topic. This was quite a crowd too. In addition to the 35 speakers, there were 170 attendees, 400 watching the live video stream and over 1500 watching the live wall (Twitter, Flickr and liveblogging feeds). These people and others constituted 41 blog commenters, over 20 bloggers, 300 people tweeting and 22 wiki contributors.

 

It may have represented the wisdom of the crowd that participated .....but that is the actual point ....it represents those that participated....not those that did not (which is probably about 99.99999% of the population). I suspect this is how the "trials" will go too ....and everything will be positive no doubt because of it.

 

However.....having said all that ...it has to happen and it has to start somewhere.....and this is a good start. I hope a lot of positives come from it.