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Government 2.0 Action Plan: Background Research - part 2

Department of Premier and Cabinet, August 2010

Background Research - Sections 1 - 6

7. Overcoming barriers
8. Strategic directions
Appendix 1: Consultation participants
Appendix 2: Government 2.0 in Other Jurisdictions
Appendix 3: Web Usage Trends
Appendix 4: Web 2.0 Glossary of Applications
References

7. Overcoming barriers

Leadership

Leadership commitment to Gov 2.0 is a foundational step in a Gov 2.0 Action Plan. The Premier has taken a leadership role in open government and stated that it is a priority for this government. Similarly through the EDIC Inquiry, the legislature has also taken a leadership position. The same leadership commitment needs to be demonstrated by the administrative arm of government.

The consultation process across the VPS indicated support for distributed leadership with a model of a term-limited WoVG taskforce as a incubator or catalyst for establishing basic, common aspects of Gov 2.0. The task force would comprise representatives from across government. The taskforce would disband at the end of their term and departments would drive and run with Gov 2.0 as they would with any matters within their area of responsibility. To assist in transitioning from the taskforce to embedding in departments, it may be beneficial to provide two social media experts as a resource over a 12 month period to support departments.

Governance

Currently in Victoria there is no clear owner of Gov 2.0. The choice of owner will be critical in how Gov 2.0 is positioned in Victoria, whether as a broad initiative in opening up government which is the ideal, rather than narrowing it to maximise financial return on PSI or giving it a technical focus.

All of the skills and expertise required to implement and drive Gov 2.0 do not sit in the one place. Designating and mandating a lead or host government owner with primary responsibility for developing the IMF and/or driving implementation of the Gov 2.0 Action Plan is critical to the success of the initiative and in managing any risks associated with it.

By way of example, the Commonwealth Government has situated responsibility with the Department of Finance and Deregulation in recognition of the micro-economic reform that Gov 2.0 brings and that PSI is a strategic public asset. Gov 2.0 is seen by the Commonwealth as principally a strategic issue not a technology issue, though having access to the appropriate technology platform to implement it Gov 2.0 is essential.

Defining PSI will build a common understanding across government and with citizens as to the scope of Gov 2.0. A common definition will also assist in managing risks.

Mandating common WoVG policies, standards and processes for data classification, management and release will provide consistency and rigour to mitigate risks. They will also facilitate release, build confidence in the system and avoid inefficiencies in duplication across departments and also avoid the systemic risks of inconsistent approaches across departments.

Technology platform

There are limitations of the technology platform within the VPS, including:

• departments having inconsistent access to Web 2.0 tools and differing practices;
• the WOVG standard operating environment;
• bandwidth constraints;
• lack of technical standards; and
• lack of specific guidance on data classification and protection.

A dedicated task force lead by Government Services Division and involving relevant representatives from departments and agencies could be mandated to provide a blueprint for a common platform, architecture, procurement of cloud IT services and social media applications and set of technical standards across WOVG to enable Gov 2.0.

Consistent with the approach of departments adopting Gov 2.0 on a fit for purpose basis, there should be a suite of Web 2.0 tools made available from which departments can choose to suit the particular business need.

Overcoming the Technological Barriers

The United States has dealt with the technological barriers to Gov 2.0 by creating a website (apps.gov) which centralizes approved Gov 2.0 applications, making the search, procurement and implementation of those applications far more streamlined and consistent.

The key feature of the website, apps.gov, is that it contains links to pre-approved software and – where appropriate – procurement methods and prices, so that departments and agencies seeking a Gov 2.0 application know that they are already compliant with federal policies. In many cases, apps.gov has pre-negotiated a standardised – and government-specific – set of usage terms and conditions. This overcame a central concern that many had regarding the government using social media.

Importantly, the site retains several disclaimers, advising government employees that they may still need to abide by the specific policies of their agency or department, particularly in relation to social media. A similar coordinated whole-of-government approach to overcoming software barriers could be readily adopted in Victoria.

Data readiness

So that the Gov 2.0 initiative is of a practical and manageable scale and scope, priority data sets should be identified as the focus of implementation. Priority data sets are likely to have one or more of the following characteristics:

• Accurate and reliable: The data is known to be of good quality and accuracy and can confidently be made readily available.
• Small in scale or scope: Releasing smaller data sets that can be readily classified will build capacity and confidence.
• High value: The most commonly requested data sets are likely to be of high value to the public. Qualifications regarding data reliability can be made in line with the ABS DQF.
• Beneficial: Data that can enhance services or outcomes for the community in areas such as health, education, welfare and public safety.

Culture

The culture of bureaucracy tends to be risk averse. Some levels of the bureaucracy may be less comfortable with the loss of control that Gov 2.0 means. The experience of any large organisation in taking on new approaches suggests that successful adoption comes through practical and incremental implementation. The VPS may well be no different.

In addition, the suite of measures addressing other risks and barriers are likely to provide support for and build cultural acceptance of Gov 2.0. These include leadership support and governance frameworks, permission under social media protocols, the development of the IMF and building VPS skills and capacity. A specific change management program and awareness and education program about Gov 2.0 would also assist in promoting the benefits to be realised by Gov 2.0.

Permission

There is a lack of clarity around who is authorised to speak on behalf of government generally and the concern is heightened in relation to social media. In principle the official use by the VPS of social media should come under the same general policies and guidelines that apply on a whole of government basis to the use of other media and forums to explain and provide information on government policies and programs and to engage with citizens. This would provide consistency of approach that aligns with well established and understood policies and customs within the VPS.

Importantly, social media has particular characteristics that warrant consideration:

• Social media is an amplifying technology where information and views can be spread very quickly and widely. Once material is within the social media domain, there is little control or influence over how it might be used or misused.
• Social media demands real time engagement. This means forms of authorisation that apply to traditional communications will not translate easily to situations in which fast approval is required.
• Social media is more than just a tool for communication and engagement with the public. It can be used to develop and deliver policy. As such it needs to be used by both policy officers and communications officers in the performance of their duties.

For these reasons the exercise of particular care is called in relation to social media at two critical levels:

• Internal rules within the VPS: These are internal protocols to give clarity to public sector employees on who has authority and responsibility to represent a department and how they should conduct themselves in social media. This would comprise a hierarchy of policies commencing with the Code of Conduct, then subsidiary departmental policies dealing with online participation and specific internal procedures and guidelines within departments to meet their individual needs.
• Externally in the rules of engagement for citizens: These are public protocols to give clarity to citizens on what they can expect from Gov 2.0 portals and how they are expected to conduct themselves. These rules of engagement would include terms of use, acceptable use, codes of conduct for users, disclaimers, privacy statements and moderator processes.

Therefore, the development of a specific WoVG high level principle-based social media protocols, sitting within and consistent with higher level VPS frameworks such as the Code of Conduct, would be of benefit as an element in a package of measures enabling and supporting the adoption of Gov 2.0 and managing associated risks. The development of a WoVG social media resources kit to assist departments build their departmental approaches would also assist.

A separate paper has been developed to explore these issues and implications in more detail.

Funding and resourcing

There is a need to provide clarity on how Gov 2.0 initiatives will be funded. This might involve a mix of central funding for initial common initiatives with specific departmental initiatives being funded through existing departmental budgets.

It is likely that in the initial stages of implementation there will be a need for additional resourcing, particularly with skilled staff qualified in data classification and management. Over time, as internal confidence and capacity is built and Gov 2.0 becomes more mature, it would be expected that Gov 2.0 becomes a normal part of departmental operations.

Individual departments will need to consider their detailed resourcing requirements for Gov 2.0 initiatives in terms of skills set, volume of full time equivalent staff needed to manage it, provide content and maintain real time engagement as well as ongoing maintenance. Gov 2.0 is not a once off cost.

Skills and capability

As mentioned above, Gov 2.0 will require staff skilled and competent in data classification and management so that processes under the IMF are implemented and complied with.

In addition, the skills and capability of staff across the VPS to work with Web 2.0 tools is uneven and needs to be developed. Web 2.0 is a learning by doing technology. A number of education and training initiatives will be needed to build VPS capacity in the required skills. The costs of training and skilling-up teams to implement Gov 2.0 initiatives may be significant when aggregated across WOVG.

Pricing

As envisaged in the government's response to the EDIC inquiry, the IMF will include developing appropriate pricing models for release of PSI with no cost/marginal cost as the default. No cost or marginal cost as a default enables maximum use of a strategic public asset and is therefore consistent with principles of public resource management. It is an important element in micro-economic reform as public information is a public good and assists the efficient functioning of markets.

Level of community interest and expectations

The community's level of interest and willingness to engage in Gov 2.0 should not be assumed. Because the community is not homogenous, the public or sections of it may not be interested in engaging with government. Government may not be seen as a trusted or preferred medium for citizen engagement. Some citizens may choose to participate anonymously or pseudonymously which may affect the quality and reliability of the engagement.

Not everyone is Web 2.0 savvy or has access to Web 2.0. As Gov 2.0 will be used in conjunction with (not instead of) traditional methods of engagement, these issues would not be a significant barrier. As traditional methods tend to favour certain types of stakeholders, Gov 2.0 may actually broaden engagement and allow particular groups or sub-groups to be targeted for inclusion.

Once having engaged them, citizens' expectations of engagement may be altered by Gov 2.0. These expectations will need to be managed by making clear that not all data will be released, that not all of it will be free and that engagement does not necessarily mean that government will always act or create policy in line with community and individual participant's feedback. Strategic, well structured, moderated and focused Gov 2.0 engagement will be necessary to ensure the engagement process is successful and that expectations of government is made clear.

The adoption of pilot approaches on citizen engagement to see what works and accumulate learning will build capacity as well as reduce risk both internally and externally. Over time this can be scaled up.

8. Strategic directions

After careful consideration of the strategic options in implementing a Gov 2.0 Action Plan, the approach to implementation was refined to: think big, start small and scale fast.

In driving Gov 2.0 adoption, there are four broad areas which must be supported through staged implementation: leadership, participation, transparency and performance. Importantly, the Gov 2.0 Action Plan will be an iterative process, with the overall Plan continued to develop based on the input, ideas and energy of the Victorian Public Service.

Monitoring and Evaluation

At this stage in the evolution of Gov 2.0 thought leadership on the measures of effectiveness are still being developed. It will be important in developing specific Gov 2.0 initiatives to include measures of success so that these can be monitored and evaluated regularly. As Gov 2.0 is intrinsically "a learning by doing" media, real time evaluation will be important so that the initiative can be adapted for feedback. Therefore is a need to develop both leading and lagging indicators.

The media lends itself to automatically collecting a range of statistics, which are proxies for citizen interest and benefit and may be lead indicators. These measures include:

• Followers/friends on twitter/Facebook.
• Re release of PSI – data most viewed/downloaded.
• YouTube – most viewed.
• Online portals – most accessed.

Lagging indicators could include:

• Surveys of citizen satisfaction included on Gov 2.0 sites.
• Numbers of VPS employees attending Gov 2.0 related training.
• Numbers of VPS employees using VPS Hub.
• Stocktake of Gov 2.0 initiatives across VPS at periodic intervals to assess take up rates.
• Independent reviews by a designated expert panel of eminent persons. This would be similar to the model of the COAG Review Council for evaluating COAG's National Reform Agenda. This could involve citizen representation or participation.
• Specific measures determined by individual departments in developing the business case for investment in particular Gov 2.0 initiatives.
• Looking at the costs of existing methods of service delivery or citizen engagement and dimensioning the size of the potential cost savings through use of Gov 2.0 tools. This could provide a benchmark against which to assess the prima facie value of a specific initiative.

Appendix 1: Consultation participants

Adam Todhunter - DTF
Alison McClelland - DPCD
Amanda Finnis - DIIRD
Amanda Martin - DPCD
Annalise Bamford - DPC
Andrew Howard - DH
Anthony Bendall - Deputy Privacy Commissioner
Bruce Jenkins - DIIRD
Bruce Weston - DPI
Catherine Ewart - DTF
Chris Hewett - DH
Chris Lassig - DSE
Chris Riordan - DHS
Darren Whitelaw - DOJ
Despina Babbage - DIIRD
Felicity Brown - VicRoads
Fiona Ellis - DOT
Geoff Beggs - DTF
Gerardine O'Sullivan - DH
Grant Clarke - DIIRD
Greg Stenton - DH
Isabel Parsons - VGSO
Jillian Hiscock - DOT
Jolanda Zerbst - VicRoads
Justine Heazlewood - PROV
Karen Lau - SSA
Katrina Reynen - DEECD
Kelly Gardner - State Library of Victoria
Lisa Kerrigan - DIIRD
Loris Strappazzon - DPI
Louise Hill- DPCD
Luke Featherston - DTF
Mark Bryant - DPI
Mark Elliott - Collabforge
Martin Stewart-Weeks - Cisco
Michael Hopkins - DOT
Michael Hudson - DIIRD
Patrick McCormick - DOJ
Paul Baron - Tourism Victoria
Paul Chandley - DHS
Paul Roberts - ACMA
Peter Allen - Public Sector Standards Commissioner
Peter Williams - Deloitte Digital
Petrie Bernard - DTF
Phil D'Adamo - DOJ
Rob Baulman - DPC
Ryan Heath - DPC
Sally McIntyre - DPC
Sarah Jane McCormack - DSE
Shaun Ashdowne - DPI
Steve Harris - Swinburne
Steven Harris - DTF
Sue Jaquinot - DPCD
Tom Burton - ACMA
Vanessa Hose - DTF
Vignesh Gowrishankar - DPC

In attendance
Amit Golder - DPC
Bronte Adams - dandolo partners
Maria Katsonis - DPC
Janice van Reyk - dandolo partners
Richard Willder - DPC

Appendix 2: Government 2.0 in Other Jurisdictions

Commonwealth

Commonwealth Response to the Government 2.0 Taskforce

The Commonwealth Government has commissioned and responded in May 2010 to a set of recommendations from the Government 2.0 Taskforce chaired by Dr Nicholas Gruen. The Commonwealth agreed or supported in principle nearly all of the Taskforce's recommendations.

The Commonwealth intends to take a number of steps to implement Gov 2.0 including:

• Making a declaration of open government and committing to the principles of openness and transparency.
• Requiring agencies to identify barriers and nominate pilot Gov 2.0 style projects to be implemented within 12 months.
• Creating a centralized online portal to facilitate access to de-personalised PSI.
• Creating a Commonwealth Gov 2.0 Steering Group and Office of the Information Commissioner.

The APS Blueprint – Implementing Gov 2.0 in the Commonwealth Public Service

On March 29 2010, the Commonwealth Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) released Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for the Reform of Australian Government Administration. The Blueprint recognizes that "Australia faces unprecedented challenges to address citizens' increasing demands, rising expectations and seemingly intractable social problems in a tight fiscal environment".

• Recommendation 2.1 of the Blueprint aims to "enable citizens to collaborate with government in policy and service design" by:
• Developing and implementing new approaches to collaboration and consultation with citizens on policy and service delivery issues; and
• Making public sector data available to the wider public in a manner consistent with privacy and secrecy laws.

United States

One of the first actions of the Obama administration was to emphasise to all heads of departments that the government must be transparent, accountable, participatory and collaborative. In pursuit of this, President Obama's administration issued two memoranda calling on government bodies to adopt a presumption of 'openness' with government information and requiring a radical increase in the amount of public data available to the citizenry.

In 2009 the Obama Administration published its Open Government Directive, outlining four steps and corresponding binding deadlines for government agencies to implement the principles of transparency, participation and collaboration in government. The directive compels agencies to publish government information online, in an open source format, and for agency leaders to ensure a culture of open government prevails. The directive also requires each government agency to determine its obstacles to implementing an open government framework, and how it intends to overcome them.

The Obama Administration's directives prompted the creation of an online government data warehouse, data.gov, in order to increase public access to high-value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the US Government. Through the website, citizens can work together to create the best possible tools to improve the use of government data.

Data.gov – measuring its success

Data.gov is an open government initiative of President Obama's administration. The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. As the initiative is less than a year old (commenced in May 2009), measuring its benefits is still premature. However, the site provides real time statistics on downloads that provide lead indicators of its success.

For example:

• Year to date monthly hits 73,616,161.
• Year to date visitors 1,734,713
• Year to date downloads 438,079

Of the categories of data sets available, Geography and Environment dominates all other categories representing 41,201 (or 45%) of the data sets downloaded out of a total of 92,350 data sets available. If the experience of the United States is a reliable indicator, this would suggest that geodata is likely to be of high value in the Australian and Victorian context.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has acknowledged that it must rethink the ways in which government must adapt to a world in which people regularly use the internet. To that end, it created the Power of Information Taskforce (PoIT) to bring together interested parties from government, industry and the non-governmental sector to discuss how information communications technologies can enable better government service delivery.

A major finding of the taskforce was that Government consultation efforts can be greatly enhanced by consulting with existing interest groups in their established online communities. A similar approach involves employing social networks and existing forums and blogs to target a different audience than would traditionally respond to government consultation.

The Power of Information Taskforce's report concluded that the public sector can and should help people online in the places they go to seek help. Digital communications technologies clearly offer the potential for new methods of consultation around government policy.  The report sets out a set of immediate measures that could be taken to start taking advantage of this potential.

Show Us A Better Way

The UK government actively solicited "ideas for new products that could improve the way public information is communicated" through an online competition, ShowUsABetterWay. The government provided a £20,000 cash prize to help develop community-driven ideas for improving government communications. To facilitate the community's ideas, the government made available large amounts of previously invisible non-sensitive public information.

Some of the applications developed as a result of the competition include:

• Can I Recycle It? A search engine to build awareness and ensure compliance with recycling rules and norms.
• UK Cycling: A tool to help plan cycling routes and unlock new possible routes to help the cycling community.
• Loofinder: A location finder for proximate public toilets, based on postcodes and street names. The tool also displays a map, opening hours and facilities available at the bathroom.

Appendix 3: Web Usage Trends

The statistics in the table below demonstrate that web usage by most cohorts is high, regardless of employment status, age or gender. This indicates that web usage is pervasive in society.

The trends in the table below demonstrate that use of Web 2.0 tools has increased over the course of a year, while at the same there has been a slight decrease in the use of Web 1.0 tools such as online transactions.

The table below shows that social networking sites are being used by males and females equally and that usage is substantial and spread across all age groups categories of employment status except the very old and retired.

Appendix 4: Glossary of Applications

Blog: a website with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video, displayed in reverse-chronological order (most recent first). Readers are typically free to comment on the content of the blog, known as ‘posts’, and often subscribe to blogs via an RSS feed (see below).

Crowd-sourcing: taking the tasks commonly conducted by a certain group (government, business etc) and outsourcing them to a group of people or community through an open call for contributions. Web 2.0 communications technologies can be used to leverage the efforts and ideas of large masses of potential collaborators.

Data mashup: the combination of data from two or more previously unconnected data sources to provide new context and meaning to the information. An example of data mashing would be combining crime statistics with maps to visually depict incidences of crime across geographical areas.

Facebook: a global social networking website in which users create profiles and exchange text, images and links with friends, family and community members. Users can join networks based on location, workplace or educational facility and can join ‘groups’ on particular themes of interest, coordinate events and maintain a profile of themselves. Victorian Premier John Brumby has a Facebook account and currently has 2,326 friends.

Flickr: an image and video hosting website and online community. The site allows for posting of images and video, as well as user comment on that content. The site is used by many bloggers and twitter users to store images which are then embedded or linked to in their posts.

RSS: a method of publication of frequently updated online content, such as blog entries or news headlines. An RSS feed typically includes full or summarised text as well as metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. RSS feeds are read using aggregators, such as Google Reader and browser-inbuilt RSS readers.

Twitter: a free social networking and micro-communications site that facilitates the online publication of text messages up to 140 characters in length. Updates, known as ‘tweets’, are delivered to a user’s ‘followers’ in real time. Twitter is used by individuals such journalists and organisations such as the New York Times.

Yammer: a simple real-time communication tool for use within organisations, enabling employees to connect and share at work. Only individuals with the same email domain (eg .vic.gov.au) can join a given network.

YouTube: a video sharing website where users can upload, view and comment on videos free of charge

Wiki: a website (or collection of linked websites) that is freely contributed to, altered and edited by a number of users. Wikipedia is an example of a large-scale application of the Wiki principle.

Viral: something is virally spread on the internet, or ‘goes viral’, if it is spread widely across online media sources through posting and reposting by ordinary people, as opposed to a direct and continued effort by the information source. Many private corporations utilise this online form of word-of-mouth to advertise their products through viral marketing.

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Australian Bureau of Statistics, Data QualityFramework

Australian Public Service Commission: APS Code of Conduct

Australian Public Service Commission, Tackling Wicked Problems: A Public Policy Perspective, APSC, 2007

Australian Taxation Office, twitter page

Bittle, S, Haller, C and Kadlec, A, "Promising Practices in Online Engagement", Public Agenda Center for Advances in Public Engagement, 2009.

Bovaird, T, "Beyond Engagement and Participation: User and Community Coproduction of Public Services", Public Administration Review, Sep/Oct 2007; 65; 5, pp 846 – 860

Coffey Commercial Advisory, Victorian Public Service Shared Data Business Case, March 2010

Coleman, S and Gotze, J (2003), Bowling together: On-line public engagement in policy deliberation. London: Hansard Society.

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Commonwealth Government, Report of the Government 2.0 Taskforce, Engage: Getting on with Gov 2.0, (December 2009)

Creative Commons Australia

dandolo partners, Gov 2.0 Action Plan: Consultation Workshop Outcomes, March 2010

Deloitte, Change your world or the world will change you. The future of collaborative government and Web 2.0

Deloitte, Unlocking government: how data transforms democracy

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Department of Health (Vic), twitter page

Department of Justice (Vic), Cameras cut crashes

Department of Treasury and Finance, Victorian Government Risk Management Framework

Department of Treasury and Finance, WoVG ICT and e-Government Standards & Guidelines

Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee (June 2009), Inquiry into Improving Access to Victorian Public Sector Information and Data

Gov 2.0 Australia Google group

Kernaghan, K, "Moving towards integrated public governance: improving service delivery through community engagement", International Review of Administrative Sciences, 2009; 75; pp 239 – 253

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Last updated: 14 September 2010

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