chieftech’s blog

We are taking advantage of the fact that Robin Hamman will be here in Sydney for our Social Business Summit to run a special half-day masterclass in Canberra on Monday 22nd March.

Featuring Robin and facilitated by Anne Bartlett-Bragg, the masterclass will address:

• How existing government activities can be undertaken with more impact, wider reach, and effectiveness using social media;
• Who should do it (and who shouldn't);
• The guidelines and roles a government agency will need; and
• Measuring success for different stake holders.

Please contact me at james.dellow@headshift.com or call 0414 233711 for more information or if you would like to register for the masterclass.

I'll be taking a bit of back seat at this event, but it will give you the chance to hear from two other very experienced people from the Headshift team. Robin's profile speaks for itself, meanwhile you may not be aware that Anne was the other primary author to the Project 8 guidelines I've been talking about a lot recently :-)

Anne was also the lead consultant for Taskforce Project 15, to assist the Australian Law Reform Commission to run an online engagement pilot with their stakeholders.

Last week, internet activists calling themselves “Anonymous” temporarily brought down the Australian governments’ networks and they’re threatening to do it again. Anonymous, a “hacktivist” group, formed through the subculture website 4Chan. Jon Stewart speaks to 4Chan’s founder Chris “Moot” Poole.

Interesting to note that our 'local' Australian issue with the proposed mandatory Internet filter caught the attention of the BBC's Digital Plant radio show, thanks in part to the DDoS attack by the 'Anonymous' group. The story of the relationship between 4Chan and Anonymous was also something I hadn't heard before. They also discuss the radical idea that, perhaps one day, a DDoS might be seen as a legitimate form of protest - at least, they argue, there are no broken windows at the end of it.

Personally, I think the filter is a waste of time for all the technical reasons people have been talking about (like private dark nets) and I hope, if the legislation is successful, that we don't see dramatic changes to cost and speed of Internet access. However, I'm much more concerned about the risk of scope creep and the message this sends to other nations about freedom of speech.

In that respect I'm happier with Kate Lundy's position that:

"legislating to protect the presence and availability of an open Internet service would clearly solve several of the public concerns whilst also showing the world that Australia takes freedom of speech and association very seriously."

This isn't a local issue. In our attempts to protect one group, we actually contribute to putting others at harm.

It was a really pleasant surprise to find Anne Faulkner, from the UK's online centres, here in Australian and attending BarCamp Canberra 2010. Anne is a champion for digital inclusion in the UK and does it in a way that I don't think I've seen anyone do here in Australia just yet.

Anne Faulkner, Head of Policy and Business Development for the UK online centres network, kindly agreed to share her observations from BarCamp Canberra 2010 about the differences between the UK and Australia in terms of social innovation and digital inclusion.

This is a montage of short clips filmed (using my Flip video camera) at Barcamp Canberra 2010, which explores some of the themes of Government 2.0 and Social Innovation from the day.

BTW My slides from Barcamp ('Remixing Gov 2.0' and 'Hello. My Name is, Social Business Design.') and the session I ran on Gov 2.0 on Friday (which is really the extended version of my Barcamp presentation) are also all available online.

What is Government 2.0 all about? And how can Knowledge Management help staff in government agencies to meet its objectives?

The Federal Government sponsored Government 2.0 Taskforce presented its final report at the end of 2009 - see http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/gov20taskforcereport/index.html

As part of the Taskforce's consultation process, they commissioned the creation of Online Engagement Guidelines and a Web 2.0 Toolkit. This was designed to provide guidance to government agencies using web 2.0 tools and provided a recommendation for a toolkit of web 2.0 technologies that agencies can use based on principles of shared services and re-use.

James Dellow will provide a briefing on:
* The Government 2.0 Taskforce
* An overview of the new Online Engagement Guidelines and Web 2.0 Toolkit
* How you can make use of it
* How your Knowledge Management skills and practices can contribute to enabling Government 2.0

James will then facilitate an open discussion on the topic, using a conversation cafe style format.

Thanks to the ACT KM community and Brad Hinton at AusAID, I'm taking advantage of the fact that I'm down in Canberra this weekend for BarCamp Canberra by running this session tomorrow (Friday) about Government 2.0, with a focus on the Online Engagement Guidelines I helped to write for Taskforce Project 8.

In 2010, the Gov 2.0 community needs to think harder about how this movement will bridge economic disparity. Open data, open source, social media, transparency and collaboration are great, but look around the room at the people it serves and ask yourself, ‘how is this bridging the digital divide?’

I’m not saying Gov 2.0 isn’t accomplishing this on some scale. I’m saying there needs to be more of a conscious effort to do so. There needs to be consideration as to how this is catering to more than just the iPhone-wielding, Twitter-tweeting community, or we risk further alienating those who need government most.

An important point. Its something I've talked about back at the Public Spheres on Government 2.0 in Canberra and Sydney. However, its also important to remember that Government 2.0 doesn't need to save the world - it just need to contribute to help saving lots of little bits of the world in ways that really count. Its one reason why Patient Opinion continues to be one of my favourite case studies for meaningful Government 2.0.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) will turbo-charge our digital economy and enable Australia to become a global leader in using the online world - the world of the 21st century. It will make possible new ways of delivering all essential services.

We need to start planning now for this new world to ensure we maximise the opportunities that the National Broadband Network will provide.

The Government is hosting the Realising Our Broadband Future forum to map the applications and business models that will thrive in Australia's high speed broadband future.

The Prime Minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd MP, will open the forum and a number of key speakers, including NBN Co. CEO, Mike Quigley and Jeff Cole, Director USC Annenberg School, will outline the potential of the NBN for Australia's digital economy. The forum will be co-chaired by Dr Paul Twomey and participants will include leaders from all parts of Australia.

Participants will contribute to five discussion streams. Over two days, these streams will debate the possible new applications and business models that will emerge in an NBN-enabled world, conduct a reality check of where we are now, and map what needs to be done to take full advantage of our high-speed broadband enabled digital economy.

Forum participants and the general public can contribute to the discussion via twitter and collaboratively edit the map of our next steps. Plenary sessions of the forum will be webcast live, with audio streaming of other sessions.

Talking of the fact the government is already making attempts to engage online, the next big online engagement is the Realising Our Broadband Future forum later this week.

Unfortunately I'm still working on Taskforce Project 8 and won't be able to attend, but I'll be keep an eye on proceedings. Even if you can't participate on the day (in person or online), you can still get involved by submitting and voting on ideas (although I think you'll need a Google account since they are using Google Moderator).

The model for this event has been strongly influenced by Sen. Kate Lundy's Public Sphere approach.