· Coming soon: Australian government online? ·
AGIMO released a report in the last few days: "Consulting with Government - online".
Here's the interesting bits:
...When it came to actually participating in a Government forum, there was evidence to suggest that people who are not already engaged in online and political discussions would not actually participate ... While most participants considered the consultation blog a good idea in theory, few thought they would personally contribute to it in practice.
And this ...
Respondents were enthusiastic about real time 'web chats' with Ministers, where people could pose questions and see them answered online.
So ... the recommendations from this report are:
ONE: ... "the Australian Government should consider establishing an Australian Government online consultation forum, to complement existing forms of community consultation."
TWO: Following a trial period, the forum mentioned above should "evaluate citizen and government participation and usage and, if appropriate, consider progressing to an interactive consultation forum." This is where the blogs and online discussions come in.
Hopefully the Government will "consider" this forum soon so we can test it out and see if it works for the citizens of Australia.
Wednesday July 9, 2008
Categories: General
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I’m sorry to be pessimistic but I fear that Canberra is moving sooooooooooooooo glacially on this that we are going to remain behind the 8 ball for a long time to come. I can just see them trotting out a shiny new gestetner in 3 years time when countries like NZ, the UK, Estonia etc etc etc have shiny new Canon Digital Copiers.
From lots of off the record conversations I had during Web Directions Government I can only report that there is a palpable atmosphere of paranoia down there. Plenty of smart clued up people working on the web in Australian government, but their enthusiasm and passion is being sapped daily by moribund, “para culo” (that expression is so much nicer in Italian :) management that have literally no idea about the web.
What to do? I’ve never worked in government, nor even a large organisation, so I literally have no idea. Someone better come up with something a bit better than stuff like this and the 2020 Summit soon though.
— Maxine Sherrin 10 July 2008 #