Posts By Craig Thomler

Guest post: Public engagement: more customer service than comms

Today I’m featuring a guest post from Pia Waugh, former IT Advisor to Senator Lundy, convenor of the recent Canberra GovCamp and GovHack and one of the luminaries of the Australian Gov 2.0 scene. As she plans to continue to update this post, for the latest version visit her blog at http://pipka.org/public-engagement-more-customer-service-than-comms/ Public engagement: moreRead… Read more »

In government in Tassie? Come along to the IPAA Forum on Transforming public engagement through social media

I’m headed to Tassie in early August and whilst there will be presenting at an IPAA forum on the topic of Transforming public engagement through social media. If you’re in a Tassie state agency or local government and interested in Gov 2.0, social media or community engagement, I’d like to invite you to consider comingRead… Read more »

Mapping government policies online – Govmonitor, a great new aussie site

For all the attention on government policies, the various announcements and documentation on political party sites, it can be very difficult to compare and contrast where different parties sit on different issues and, for governments, difficult to keep track of whether they are sticking to their election policies or amending them for pragmatic, political orRead… Read more »

Mapping government policies online – Govmonitor, a great new aussie site

For all the attention on government policies, the various announcements and documentation on political party sites, it can be very difficult to compare and contrast where different parties sit on different issues and, for governments, difficult to keep track of whether they are sticking to their election policies or amending them for pragmatic, political orRead… Read more »

If citizens can help explore galaxies, unfold proteins, track birds and transcribe texts, why can’t they help analyse government data?

One area of Gov 2.0 I really think hasn’t been thoroughly considered or adopted by many governments, including in Australia, is the process of having citizens help in the creation, exploration and analysis of data. Is it due to a lack of time, money, imagination or courage? I don’t know, but I would dearly loveRead… Read more »

If citizens can help explore galaxies, unfold proteins, track birds and transcribe texts, why can’t they help analyse government data?

One area of Gov 2.0 I really think hasn’t been thoroughly considered or adopted by many governments, including in Australia, is the process of having citizens help in the creation, exploration and analysis of data. Is it due to a lack of time, money, imagination or courage? I don’t know, but I would dearly loveRead… Read more »

Great new site – The Digital Engagement Guide

Over in the UK, Helpful Technology has released ‘The Digital Engagement Guide‘, which aims to become one of the best sources of useful examples, tools and practical advice about how UK public sector organisations can engage online. The site touts itself as “Part bookmark collection, part reference manual, part Q&A site, it’s a place toRead… Read more »

Automating online activities without IT intervention – using web tools to make jobs easier

There’s often lots of small – and not so small – activities that communications teams want to carry out online that would make their jobs easier, but aren’t really tasks to give to IT teams. For example, you may wish to update your agency’s Facebook and Twitter profile pictures when your logo changes, automatically postRead… Read more »

ACT Government planning to release a data portal and real-time bus information in reusable formats

Brought to my attention by @maxious, the ACT government has said in response to their Estimates process that they are building a data portal which they aim to have ready in July 2012. Discussed in ACT’s Hansard, Andrew Cappie-Wood, Head of Service and Director-General for ACT, said that, “There is a lot of interest inRead… Read more »