Tom Worthington, a well-known lecturer at the ANU, is revamping the COMP7420: Electronic Data Management summer session course to integrate more Gov 2.0 and Web 2.0 features.
Tom has invited input from those in government with experience in the Gov 2.0 field.
For more information, and to provide feedback, visit Tom’s blog Net Traveller.
eGov AU
Craig Thomler’s personal eGovernment thoughts and speculations from an Australian perspective
One great topic is to do site analysis. Show why government websites don’t rank well in the search engines, besides for their trademark terms and about adware and which companies or groups are buying ad space that redirects you off of the government site, pops over it or opens a new tab when you reach it to get their message across on it. Another great one is about real time surveying and how taking a day or two to respond is a to long. You need to remove some of the process….I know Government Operations and HR people are cringing lol.
Craig Thomler commented that I am revamping the course “Electronic Document and Records Management” (COMP7420) at the Australian National University, to make it more relevant to Gov 2.0. Appended is the official description of the course.
My dilemma is that I need to to teach what will be useful to public servants (and those who provide services to public servants) in February 2011. I don’t want to teach old fashioned paper based record keeping, but nor do I want to talk about how wonderful everything will be one day when Web 2.0 is fully implemented. What I teach needs to be something which the students can take to work the same day and implement.
I had this same problem of being on the “bleeding edge” with my previous course “Green IT Strategies” (COMP7310). But fortunately by the time I had the course running for a year, the Australian Government practice had caught up with what I was teaching about the role of computers in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. My plan is to use the same approach with web 2.0: the students learn about current practices and then for their assignment writer a report for their boss to propose how to advance what their agency does.
By the way, this course is intended for Australian public servants, but anyone in the world can enrol, since the course is done entirely online. I would welcome some examples of how to incorporate web 2.0 and social networking into the formal business of government from elsewhere in the world.
Electronic Document and Records Management COMP7420
Web 2.0 and social networking have created a demand for rapid access to information in commercial and not-for-profit organisations. Government 2.0 provides open access and greater involvement in the decision making of government. Smart phones and tablet computers using wireless networks allow mobile access to cloud computing resources world wide. This poses a challenge for organisations to provide access and input, while maintaining the security and integrity of records, and the privacy of personal information. This course investigates how traditional records management techniques and document formats have been adapted to the Internet era.
The use of web technology for practical e-commerce and e-publishing applications is emphasised using case studies, standards and guidelines of real organisations. Emphasis is placed on the information needs of Australian government agencies, but is also applicable to the private sector. This course identifies the steps that can be taken to accelerate the uptake of electronic documents by government, in conjunction with small and medium-sized enterprises. It enables the participant to learn practical skills for incorporating e-commerce into their organisation. The focus is on document representation, knowledge discovery, storage and retrieval.
More information is on the course web page: http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7420/.
This course is offered subject to sufficient enrolments.
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to do the following:
Describe the use of electronic documents, the recordkeeping framework, processes and systems in an organisation (SFIA Level 3).
Evaluate options and make recommendations for the use of electronic documents, recordkeeping frameworks, processes and systems in an organisation (SFIA Level 5).
24% Contributions to the 6 weekly discussion forums
76% Two assignments, due in weeks three and six, 38% each.
An undergraduate degree.
Access to computer and internet