Australia is an interesting country. We’re one of the world’s oldest democracies, with a strong tradition of free and independent (of government) media. We have universal public health care and a strong separation between politics and religion and between politics and the enforcement of our laws. We have an apolitical civil service with an extremelyRead… Read more »
Australia has been at the forefront of social media use by government agencies for a few years now (though don’t tell them I said so or they might get complacent). However I think this is possibly a world first. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) yesterday released the first tranche of results from Australia’s 2011Read… Read more »
Australia has been at the forefront of social media use by government agencies for a few years now (though don’t tell them I said so or they might get complacent). However I think this is possibly a world first. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) yesterday released the first tranche of results from Australia’s 2011Read… Read more »
As the world changes, so must our institutions – particularly government, including government agencies. Without getting into how hard or easy it is for government agencies to change (recognising there’s a diversity of views), any change should, necessarily be for the better. So how should they change? In which ways should they reinvent themselves toRead… Read more »
Today at 11:30am the ABS releases the first tranche of the 2011 Census’s data – including the core demographics. How is this Gov 2.0 related? There’s a number of ways. First, this is the first time the majority of Census data will be released, from day one, under a Creative Commons license as open dataRead… Read more »
With the news this week that Fairfax is following News Ltd in introducing paywalls to their major metro online news mastheads, organisations need to think deeper about their social media strategy. With a paywall strategy two things happen. Firstly a large number of people stop using the paywalled websites. For example it’s been reported inRead… Read more »
Following on from mapping all Australian Politicians using Twitter (which has unfortunately declined by two with Senators Bob Brown and Nick Sherry retiring), I’ve created online “newspapers” based on key groupings, so it is possible to get a daily dose of what Australia’s Federal Politicians on Twitter are talking about. To view them go toRead… Read more »
With the tools available today, influence over government policy is no longer the preserve of the wealthy, the well-connected or those people with a significant TV, radio or newspaper presence. While traditional media and interests still have significant influence, social media has allowed individuals to become far more influential. Blogs, forums and social networks giveRead… Read more »
Refreshments at #pmtea Photo by @clementine_ford Last Friday Prime Minister Gillard sat down with a group of influential female bloggers, online women’s forum managers and journalists in, what I hope, is the start of an active engagement with online influencers by the Australian Government. As a blogger I have been on the receiving end ofRead… Read more »
In my copious spare time, I’ve been pulling together a list of social media channels used by our Federal politicians. The question I wanted to answer was “Are our Federal politicians using social media effectively to connect with their constituents?”, particularly given the level of activity by government agencies, lobby groups and media online. SurprisinglyRead… Read more »