Please don’t think I’m being critical. It’s just that as gov2, edu2, kate, etc move along, and more people attend, things will tend to fragment – a blog here, a wiki there, all with different domain names and people who staff them. It just tends to run that way. I’m only pointing out that we need to consider how to keep the conversations around the same “hive”. I’m using whirpool simply because it’s forums work, due to having various moderators (and reps from various telecos) staffing (collaborating in) the one domain, and directing people to the appropriate discussion thread. It’s a successful (sustainable)communications model.

If you know wikipedia lists, you’ll know that ‘everyone’ considers foundation-l, as the main list for the WMF, to have real problems with the signal to noise. It was fine when just a few people were using it. It’s just a problem with success, which is one tool being focussed on re wikimedia’s strategy at present. I’m just noting it early, because the WMF community is a good exponent of open governance.(or closed chaos as some believe), and is starting to address the problem of an orientation space.

The other primary issue, which has been touched on few times around here already, is the need for authentication = The Single Sign On if you like. You know the impossibility of trying to introduce a common log in into the WMF space (although some headway was made). I would just be interested to know a little about where AGOSP got to, because it’s delivery was promised (firstly in June) and we could use it to pull lots of remote groups together, and break a few cultural barriers down. It might also stop the spam filter eating my entries.

This blog is licensed under a Creative Commons 2.5 Attribution Australia License. Please see our Copyright Statement for further details.

The copyright notice you pointed out has been updated. Thanks for your feedback.

Regards,

Taskforce Secretariat

You’ll even see exactly what that activity is if you take a quick look at my blog. I live and breathe this stuff.

My comment of “people in a room” was focussed on the fact that it will be quite likely that several Canberra locals will be involved in the Canberra-based activity in the first instance.

I wholeheartedly agree that there are several highly useful, online options for doing all this.

So before we “get a smart group in a room (several times) as well as have their deliberations available as close to real-time online as possible” could we take note that .edu.au calls this form of media ‘distance learning’, and has quite a few tools available.

Nic, you might see what Pia has come up with on kate lundy’s blog, and how ‘the public sphere’ is being supported (tools and approach). And they’ll be some interesting approaches come out of the GLAMwiki conference.

I won’t go on about the practice (chicken) vs. policy (egg) arguements, and what comes first. But if it’s practice you believe in as a driver of more inclusive governmental media, then you’ve taken your first steps; well done!

If you want an example of how its handled in the ‘real world’ then whirlpool.net.au offers some instruction, and moodles are the favoured tools in the .edu space. But I’m sure you’ll choose what suits this community.

Regardless, the first step is replacing the AGIMO copyright here with a creative commons (type). It’s not the copyrights that are important; it’s what they represent (to government bureaucrats and citizens). Personally, I don’t give a stuff. But there are all these back room jobs waiting to be created by the standardization of the process.

“It is an exciting push in the direction of using social media within a public sector organisation. We’re not just using social media because it is the latest hot topic in the government. We’re using the tools to empower citizens to collectively make decisions on how their local area should be policed.

If we can convince the police that our idea can add value to their service, reduce the time they currently spend ‘engaging’ with the public and improve relationships with the communities they serve, all at the same time, we’ll be looking at some pretty big changes and perhaps a step towards giving more power to the people.”

There are ways to work ‘with the grain’ so that Web 2.0 looks like it is useful to those who are initially sceptical. The way the story is told, the site was developed with local police to show them how well designed social media tools could help them achieve what they want – better engagement with the community, saving them time and money etc.

Like you say, we know how to do this stuff so this is where we should start.

Something sponsored by Gov or APSC or the taskforce – something regular- a twitter network for Govt workers – something like Govloop

Why not use Govdex? It has wikis and forums and is specifically created for cross-government collaboration…