Page 4034 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 20 September 2011
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for historic reasons, they are not and cannot be quickly adapted. Data also need appropriate and meaningful metadata. People’s privacy needs to be respected. The law must be upheld. And, as with other aspects of open government, if access to data is worth doing it is worth doing well.
To that end, the government is taking a methodical approach. First, we are developing an ACT government information policy that will explicitly address the issues of how to improve access to government datasets, including formatting and metadata. Under this policy, each directorate will need to show that it has a clear plan to make existing, non-exempt datasets available. This policy is part of the ICT strategic plan and is scheduled for completion before the end of the year.
To help the government and the directorates prioritise and focus their efforts, we will host an online community consultation later this year, targeting researchers, developers and the public, so we can understand which government datasets are likely to be most in demand.
All of the work of recent months in relation to open government has been made easier by the fact that for the past few years our Territory Records Office has been busily developing standards and guidelines for digital record keeping. More recently, over the past six months the office has developed a digital record pathway to improve strategic digital record keeping right across the government. The pathway recommends mandating digital formats for long-term records and the use of open standards, consistent with policy of the National Archives. This work by our own records office puts us in a good position to really push forward with a number of our open government initiatives. The groundwork is laid.
As members would know, my government has already been actively exploring ways to encourage more Canberrans to participate more directly in the work of government. The government’s updated community engagement manual released last week highlights the potential of social media in this regard. More than a million Australians are active users of Twitter, while Facebook reportedly has 10 million or so active users. Governments cannot ignore these figures any more than business can.
My colleagues and I in the past month or so have conducted two virtual community cabinets, using the social networking service Twitter, to test the appetite of Canberrans for this kind of short and sharp, one on one access to cabinet ministers. While we did not know what to expect, I am pleased to say that the feedback has mainly been positive. We are looking at future events, building on our experience with Twitter cabinet but incorporating real-time, online forums as well as social media to allow for more in-depth discussion than is possible in 140 characters. As with Twitter cabinet, these forums will be a leap into the unknown, but I think Canberrans will be as keen as I am to give it a go.
I might also say that it is not just ministers who are testing the potential of these new methods of connecting with their fellow Canberrans. Every directorate has a potentially powerful and productive role to play as we open up avenues for the community to better engage with the workings of government.
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