Open government in Australia

Craig ThomlerApril 2013

Who am I?

What is Delib?

What is open government?

• Citizens have a right to access government documents and proceedings to support effective public oversight

• Citizens have a right to have their views considered during government decision making.

Dates back to European Enlightenment in the 18th Century.

Traditional open government

Has been expanded to include:

• Citizens have a right to access, repurpose and reuse government open data (PSI)

• Expectation that government should develop and use open systems, sharing them across agencies and communities.

• Decision-making should be citizen-centric, government’s role is to coordinate, curate views & implement citizen decisions.

Open government today

The big change in openness…

PresentCitizens are (or wish to be) active participants in governance processes and decisions.

PastCitizens considered passive subjects of governments (albeit with some right to scrutinise decisions and processes).

Source: https://www.facebook.com/FatherPiotrWisniowski

Open Government is often confused with Gov 2.0

What’s the difference?

Open government is the philosophy (Why).

Government 2.0 is about the process & tools for achieving open government (How).

IMHO - the difference

Using tools and techniques enabled by digital technologies to bring citizens 'inside the tent'.

Empowering citizens to be active participants in government decision-making processes and supporting them to do for themselves.

Opening up public data for public reuse to inform and enable new insights, better decisions and more effective policy.

Initiatives from individuals and non-government organisations as well as government.

Government 2.0 includes...

Open Government Partnershipwww.opengovpartnership.org

Principles:

• Increase the availability of information about governmental activities.

• Support civic participation.• Implement the highest standards of

professional integrity throughout our administrations.

• Increase access to new technologies for openness and accountability.

58 countries participating already

Government 2.0(in my humble opinion) represents a fundamental shift

in the relationship between

citizens and governments,

to the benefit of both.

Source: Sensis Social Media Report May 2012

Australia’s internet use

Source: Sensis Social Media Report May 2012

Australia’s social media use

Source: Sensis Social Media Report May 2012

Australia’s social media use

What about Australian governments?

In mid-2012:

73% of Australian Government agencies reported using social media for official purposes

The social media majority

What the Australian Government is using social media for..Answer choice Response Share

For stakeholder engagement or collaboration 32 54.24%

Operating an information campaign 25 42.37%

Responding to customer enquiries/comments/complaints 25 42.37%

For engaging with journalists and media outlets 24 40.68%

For engagement or collaboration with other government agencies

24 40.68%

Monitoring citizen, stakeholder and/or lobbyist views and activities

17 28.81%

For a public consultation process 16 27.12%

For a stakeholder or other restricted access consultation 13 22.03%

Other type of activity (i.e. recruitment, crowdsourcing, staff) 11 18.64%

For policy or services co-design 7 11.86%

Over 1,000 online consultations in last four years

Over 860 Departmental Twitter accounts

Over 120 agency blogs

Over 250 Facebook pages

Over 300 agency mobile apps

Over 200 agency YouTube channels

At least 12 data competitions (13th in June)

At least 6 open data sites (7th coming in May)

All levels of Aus government

Growth in Twitter use

Open Government (through Government 2.0) allows governments to take on influential new roles

Government as media

Government as convenor

Government as platform

Crowdsourcing

Thank you!

Questions? Craig Thomlercraig@delib.net@CraigThomler

http://eGovAU.blogspot.com