for those who would make a difference
May 18, 2011
What is We First?
We First is a new way of looking at the world authored by Simon Mainwaring. It’s a personal and professional response to a sea of fears that surround us everyday.
March 6, 2011
The below tweets are @ThomKearney‘s attempt to share part of @BethNoveck‘s testimony to Cdn Parliament http://ow.ly/48GeM #w2p #goc on March 2nd, 2011
1. Go Open – Government should work in the open. contracts, grants, legislation, regulation and policies should be transparent #w2p #goc
2. Open Gov Includes Open Access – After the public has paid once, it shouldn’t have to pay again. #w2p #goc
3. Make Open Gov Productive Not Adversarial –Gov”t shld invest in providing the data that people really want and will use. #w2p #goc
4. Be Collaborative – Rulemaking should be open to public early to allow for constructive alternative proposals. #w2p #goc
5. Love Data – Design policies informed by real-time data. Release data for economic benefit. See http://ow.ly/48Ga7 for more #w2p #goc
6. Be Nimble – Forcing organizations to act quickly discourages bureaucracy and encourages creative brainstorming and innovation. #goc #w2p
7. Do More, Spend Less – Design solutions that do more with less. Instead of cutting… ask if there is another way…#w2p #goc
8. Invest in Platforms – … Focus on going forward practices of creating raw data and real engagement. #w2p #goc
9. Invest in People – Changing the culture of government will not happen through statements of policy alone…. #w2p #goc
10. Design for Democracy..ask if legislation enables engagement that uses people’s abilities and enthusiasm for the collective. #w2p #goc
Ten Principles from Beth Noveck @BethNoveck related via Twitter by @ThomKearney
March 2, 2011
Over the last two years we’ve seen a concerted effort by governments across Australia to increase the level of online engagement, debate and discussion involving public agencies.
In 2009 the Government 2.0 Taskforce, commissioned by then Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner and chaired by Dr Nicholas Gruen, conducted a six month process of engaging public servants via online channels, pioneering the use of blogs, Twitter and Facebook to demonstrate how it was possible for the public service to effectively communicate, engage, consult and be consulted online.
Late in the same year the Australian Public Service Commission replaced its Interim Protocols for Online Media Engagement (originally released in late 2008, with the updated Circular 2009/6: Protocols for online media participation.
Early in 2010 the Australian Government released its response to the Government 2.0 Taskforce’s final report, agreeing with all except one of its recommendations (and simply deferring the remaining recommendation to after another related review was completed).
Since then we’ve seen the MAC innovation report, Empowering change: Fostering innovation in the Australian Public and the Ahead of the Game report from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, outlining steps to reform the public service.
There’s been the Declaration of Open Government, the initiation of the Government 2.0 Steering Committee, the launch of GovSpace (a blogging platform operated by the Government and open to all agencies to use).
We’ve seen more than 260 government agencies and councils join Twitter, wide ranging activity on Facebook and a proliferation of social media policies at local, state and Commonwealth level.
Agencies in Australia are using social media in ways that would have been unacceptable and unachievable even two years ago, some demonstrating world class engagement online. Some states have comprehensive action plans in place and official usage of social media by agencies in some places is approaching one hundred percent.
I don’t have the same level of information about Commonwealth agencies (there is no central register of activity or survey results, as there are for some states), however most have established some form of social media beachhead in support of campaign or corporate needs.
With all this official usage you might expect to see vibrant and active online communities of public servants discussing shared issues and best practice, or to see public servants listening to and contributing actively to online policy discussions.
Many groups set up for public servants seem to have reasonable memberships – several hundred people at least – however most of these members are silent, with at most 10% carrying on a halting conversation.
February 26, 2011
I have been representing Russia on Communication On Top International forum in Political communications section with the “Why in Russia and the BRIC countries the e-government could stimulate economic development” report. Here is the presentation I’d like to share with you.
Today I would like to bring to your attention one of the best (in my opinion) presentations, it was presented by Sultan Al Baziу of Saudi Arabia.
I also got the opportunity to ask him some questions about e-government and e-officials in his country.
February 4, 2011
When we look at the effects of technology on the future of our militaries we should remember that the past has shown that early adopters and pop media pundits will suffer from optimism bias and exaggerated both the pace and pervasiveness of changes in our society. For our part, our perceptions of the future will be shaped by military cultural and our risk adverse hierarchical environment. History has also shown there are no revolutionary technological changes, just the rapid evolution of those that exist.
The interface between man and machine will improve, allowing us to interact and assimilate information faster than ever. Culturally we will become knowledge nomads, global networkers and sifters of social media, taking threads of news, information and entertainment from the web and weaving it into our own personal data stream. These evolutionary jumps in technological will be fuelled by the symbioses of technology and culture and the paradox that the more technology affects culture the more it will be shaped by our expectations. With each technological advance we need to define and understand the social and ethical implications of using new technologies and their effects on military culture and ethos.
January 19, 2011
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about collaboration and Game Theory. More specifically I’ve been examining and re-examining the Prisoner’s Dilemma in hopes of learning more about how transparency affects collaboration, and I think I may be on to something.
Primer
Game theory attempts to mathematically capture behaviour in strategic situations (games). The prisoner’s dilemma is a fundamental problem in game theory and demonstrates why two people might not cooperate even if it is in their best interest to do so.
From Wikipedia:
Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated the prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies for the prosecution against the other (defects) and the other remains silent (cooperates), the defector goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act?
January 19, 2011
We hear a lot about great customer service and how important it is becoming again, especially in today’s economy. Last week I attended the San Diego Business Journal’s annual conference on economic trends. One of the speakers stated in no uncertain terms that a key driver of the economic recovery will be the customer experience. The companies that “get it” will thrive while others will continue their downward spirals.
We know that customer service in government is critical too, but not always for the same reasons. Some of what we are here to do (protect the environment, public health, and safety) is enforcement or regulatory in nature, and are not always looking for repeat customers. Then again, some of us are – consider parks, recreation, libraries, and educational programs to name a few. We want people to come back!
December 29, 2010
Beginning on February, 2nd 2011 at 8:00pm eastern we are pleased to announce that right here on @PSleader we will feature a #GovChat SPECIAL Chat guest on a LIVE tweetchat hosted by @ThomKearney !
These tweet chats will be conducted utilizing the hashtag #GovChat and can be followed through the #GovChat link at what the #hashtag http://wthashtag.com/Govchat And our ongoing schedule for future chats as well as the links to transcripts from our chats already completed will always be available at http://bit.ly/GovChat
Please join us the first Wednesday evening of each month for #GovChat to personally get to know, discuss hot topics and ask questions of our SPECIAL guests on #GovChat !
December 29, 2010
The social media enthusiast that I am, I started wondering about how to continue improving constituent connections over the next five years here in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Yes, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, MeetUp, etc… all play a significant role, but there is something even bigger I believe we need to focus more efforts on: mobile government.
Also called mGovernment, mobile government is an extension of online government connections to mobile platforms and the tactical use of these applications which are only possible using mobile phones, iPads, laptops, and any other devices that utilize wireless infrastructure. mGovernment can assist with making public information and other governmental services available to citizens anytime, any place, and the ubiquity of mobile devices mandates their employment in government functions, e.g. a mass text in an emergency, like a gas leak. However, several government agencies and public sector organizations are hesitant to adopt mGovernment. Why? Because experimenting with these technologies in the public sector is far more risky than the private sector.
December 22, 2010
The Government of Canada is currently reliant on proprietary file formats and proprietary software applications, which lock it into a licensing bind with a single software manufacturer — Microsoft. There is not only a question of cost — as we pay a monopoly corporation for per-seat licenses to run software that already dominates the market — but more importantly, there is the question of future access to our own data. In this post, I’d like to share my thoughts on both issues.
Before you dismiss the idea of a major institution losing access to its stored data as ludicrous, consider this quote from Natalie Ceeney, chief executive of the UK National Archives:
“If you put paper on shelves, it’s pretty certain it is going to be there in a hundred years. If you stored something on a floppy disc just three or four years ago [2003-04], you’d have a hard time finding a modern computer capable of opening it. Digital information is in fact inherently far more ephemeral than paper. The pace of software and hardware developments means we are living in the world of a ticking time bomb when it comes to digital preservation.”
The UK National Archives includes a collection of 900 years of written material. As of 2007 they estimated that 580 terabytes of their data (the equivalent of 580,000 encyclopedias) was stored in file formats which have since become extinct.