Local Government Web Network

Public Sphere: Government 2.0

2009-06-21T13:05:34Z

Sat in the car heading down to Canberra for the second Public Sphere, Reem, Bern (from Mosman Council), and I have been talking about the possibilities of local government on the web, and the challenges that face the web staff in councils. In New South Wales we’re on varying levels when it comes to our websites, or web services. Many are still tackling the basics of getting a functioning, usable, accessible website up, whilst others are experimenting in the realms of social media. Open data, open government, and open web, is something most are still learning about, let alone being at a stage where these methodologies will be incorporated into the building of new web services. For example, with a quick count it looks like less than 50% of councils in NSW have even one RSS feed, on the other hand we’ve seen more and more councils utilising social media such as YouTube, and gradually we’re seeing councils popping up on Twitter.

So it’s a mixed bag when you look at New South Wales as a whole, and this is not surprising with the huge regional diversity we have (as we do around the whole of Australia). Another big factor being the lack of fast broadband, which makes it difficult for councils to make their websites an important part of the services they provide their communities, and as a key community engagement tool. But Reem are excited by the individuals we’ve met and are connecting with through our network, and new networks and events such as Public Sphere. You can feel that there is a change happening from within and at the top of government, and it looks like we’re all starting to head in the right direction in realising the potential of the web. We’re collaborating, sharing our ideas, and beginning to build our Government 2.0.

The second Public Sphere hosted by Senator Kate Lundy is focussing on Government 2.0: Policy and Practice will be taking place in Canberra at Parliament house on Monday 22 June. Tickets sold out quickly but you can participate online - there will be a live video feed, live blogging and an accompanying Twitterfeed with hashtag #publicsphere.

Reem and I will be presenting a quick 10 minute presentation on Challenges in Local Government. See our presentation below, and other Public Sphere presentations on Slideshare.

Challenges In Local Government

WE Believe In Community - register now

2009-06-21T12:20:25Z

We’re happy to announce that registrations for our conference - WE Believe In Community - are now open!

Like last year we are keeping the ticket prices as low as possible. This conference is not about making money, it’s about getting people together to share ideas and learn.

Early Bird discount available until 10 July: only $475.00 +GST (that’s a discount of $75.00!)

To register, and for a full list of ticket options and prices please go to: http://conference09.lgwebnetwork.org/tickets

Conference speakers and program

We’re very happy to have recently added Jason Ryan to the bill. He will be talking about Government 2.0 in our afternoon plenary session. He is one of a great list of speakers we’re very happy to have on board this year.

The draft conference program is also now available along with a full list of speakers and workshop sessions. We’ve got a few more to add which we’ll announce in the coming weeks.

Help us out and we’ll help you out

Are you feeling generous? Do you want to get connected with the local government web peeps? Perhaps you’re looking for a bit of promotion in turn for a good deed, or maybe a free ticket? - we’re happy to hear from companies or individuals if you think you can help out.

Please visit our site for a list of the things we need help with: http://conference09.lgwebnetwork.org/help-out

Ideas Forum

Don’t forget, there’s still time to win a limited edition red iPod by contributing to our ideas forum! Your ideas and feedback will help us deliver a better conference.

If you register or comment or add/revise an idea between by 5pm Friday 12th June you will be in the running to win!

http://lgwebnetwork.ideascale.com

Welcome to the Public Sphere

2009-06-04T03:48:47Z

Recently, Kate Lundy, Senator for the ACT, launched a new initiative called “Public Sphere” to engage with the community on topics of national interest.

The concept aims to bring people together online to share their views on various topics, in addition to hosting a physical meet up that is live streamed over the Internet. The meet up allows people to give their two cents in short ten minute presentations on whatever aspect of the topic they choose, either in person, via skype, YouTube or other means.

Each Public Sphere runs for two weeks and all feedback from the presentations, comments on the blog, via Twitter and any other contributions will be collated into briefing papers and distributed to members of parliament and available to the public.

The first of these workshops on the topic of “High Bandwidth in Australia” was held on Thursday 7 May in Canberra and I was lucky enough to be able to watch the live stream and participate via Twitter. To provide clarity, it was made clear that this topic was not about the national broadband initiative or any implementation details, rather the focus was on the possibilities high bandwidth offers communities, business and individuals.

The range of people presenting was impressive, and the topics were diverse. There were a couple of presentations that caught my eye. The first was by Roger Clarke an academic and consultant who talked about government service delivery in the new contexts of (a) broadband, (b) highly diverse access devices, (c) highly diverse patterns of use, and (d) highly diverse human needs. I thought this was a really valuable presentation to make us actually stop and assess what we’re trying to do with regard to opening up government, and really thinking about the way different people and groups use different types of technology.

Another stand out presentation for me was by Adrian Blake. Adrian was responsible for creating a broadband network in Cooma using a shared trenching arrangement with AGL. Now most of this was very technical and well over my head, but really highlights how one small company working collaboratively with the support of the community can build their own network. It really highlighted for me the failings of Federal Government’s broadband policy, because if this guy can do it, around 10 years ago, how come the Federal Government can’t do it!? Adrian’s slides are available as a pdf.

This was a brilliant workshop, and I found the presentations diverse and really engaging. Other standouts were James Purser talking about opportunities for online collaboration. James’ Youtube video and James’ slides, and Michael De Percy talking about citizen engagement and community participation online in Canada in comparison with the Australian experience. Here are Michael’s slides. Thanks to Kate Lundy (@KateLundy) and her advisor Pia Waugh (@PiaWaugh) for getting this concept up and running so quickly and so successfully. I’m really looking forward to the conversations that Public Sphere has and will generate, and the model it provides for Local Government in engaging the community.

For a full agenda and presentations please check out Kate Lundy’s blog.

Update!

The Public Sphere Wiki has now been set up and is open to contributions:

http://www.katelundy.com.au/2009/05/27/draft-briefing-paper-from-public-sphere-topic-high-speed-bandwidth/
http://wiki.katelundy.com.au/PublicSphere1

We would love all participants to look over our briefing paper and contribute. We have tried to keep it simple and easy to read/scan with the ability to use the reference materials to get further information on any particular topic. It is a first attempt at a format for the Public Sphere, so if you can think of a better way to format the outcomes, we’d love to hear about it (or you can just do it).

The wiki page will be publicly editable for a week (instructions on the page) and then we’ll clean it up for final publishing. Depending on how a week plays out, we may extend this timing for future draft processes (as our main target audience for the edits are the participants in the topic, however anyone can obviously contribute to the briefing paper). We would expect any further commentary on the briefing paper to be made on the blog post where we post the final version. The wiki page (and all edits) will remain publicly available.

We have also linked as much reference material (videos, slides, websites) from the original event schedule if you are looking for any of this material:

http://www.katelundy.com.au/2009/04/29/public-sphere-1-high-bandwidth-for-australia/

LG Web Network Conference 2009 - what do YOU want?

2009-05-15T04:53:13Z

We are starting to plan the program for the Local Government Web Network Conference for 2009, so now is the time where we’d really like your feedback to help us make a better conference for you.

To get your feedback in a more interesting way, we are taking a leaf out of Web Directions book, and launching an Ideas Forum. This will allow you to post ideas, comment on other people’s ideas, and vote on the things you really like or maybe don’t think are a great idea.

Reem and I are passionate about delivering you a conference where you will come away inspired, excited about new possibilities, full of new knowledge, and hopefully new connections and friends. Your ideas and feedback will help us deliver you a conference that is suited to your needs. So don’t just sit there, post a new idea now!

We want ideas for topics and presentations, suggestions for workshops, and if you are interested in presenting we’d love to here about it.

We will post some of the ideas we’ve had to get you started. It is easy to add your ideas, and if you can’t think of anything then you can comment or vote on other people’s suggestions.

Visit the Ideas Forum at http://lgwebnetwork.ideascale.com

The conference this year: WE Believe In Community

Well we’ve decided that the name works well as community is what it’s all about, so we’re sticking with the “WE Believe In Community” theme. We’ll also be launching a full conference website next month as things got a little crammed on the blog last year!

Conference peeps and presenters

Dates:
The conference will be on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 August 2009, in Sydney. Put it in your diary now!

A change of format:
This year we are changing things slightly based on feedback from last year. We will be running a day of workshops which will likely be half day sessions, and the second day will be in a similar format to last year with split streams, a couple of plenary sessions, and the presentations will usually be from 30 mins to 1 hour.

New this year - the conference dinner!
We are extremely excited to be giving you a full conference dinner this year. This will allow a nice social element to the conference. Of course we checked out the location ourselves which will be at Subsolo Spanish Restaurant and Tapas bar. Check out Reem’s blog post for the low down on the food.

Cost:
We have not confirmed costs yet, but again we will be keeping this as low as possible. This conference is not about making money, it’s about getting people together to share ideas and learn.

Register your interest:
If you want to keep updated about the conference and be the first to know when registration is open, register your interest to receive conference updates.

We look forward to seeing your feedback in the Ideas Forum, and hope to see many of you at the conference in August.

Help victims of the bushfires in Victoria

2009-03-24T14:08:30Z

On Monday morning I switched on the TV and was presented with images of absolute devastation. As the images flashed before me I began to have some idea of the true horrors of the Bushfires in Victoria. Everything I did that day seemed so utterly pointless when there were people waking up without homes, knowing they’d lost family members, or not knowing. That was Monday, and the tragedy is still unfolding.

Police fear that that the death toll may rise to 300. Thousands of people are without homes. Many are still waiting to hear whilst the coroner continues the heavy task of identifying bodies. I cannot begin to imagine the agony all these people are going through.

This is a devastating tragedy that will call on the good will of the Australian people to help heal, and around the world.

If you are affected by the bushfires or concerned about existing fires visit: ABC Meblbourne Bushfire Help Page and keep and eye on the BOM weather warnings page.

Here are some ways you can help

Donate to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire appeal: Call 1800 811 700 or make a donation online. They are experiencing a bit of an overload on their website and phone system, so please be patient.
Donate to the Gipsland Emergency relief fund.
Donate blood to help the burns victims.
To volunteer visit the Go Volunteer Victoria website or call the Volunteering Australia Hotline on 1300 366 356.
If you are based in Sydney there will be a special dawn chorus this Sunday at the Opera House.
Check he ABC Melbourne How Can I Help page for lots of other ways to show your support.
There’s also a huge list of links for ways you can help on OurCommunity.com.au.

The web community like many others are doing their bit to help:

SitePoint are having a book sale until this Friday and donating 100% of the donations to victims of the bushfires.
And here’s a nice idea from John Allsopp at Web Directions to gather your mates and donate what you can in the spirit of St Valentine.

More information

There’s many ways to follow the story unfolding online. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are obvious places to look, but I’ve also listed some interesting and useful links below.

Photos

See The Big Picture with these stunning and very sobering photographs.
ABC Your Photos - Victorian Bushfires.
Victorian bushfire photos on Flickr.

Maps

Map of current fires across Victoria.
ABC Bushfire map showing latest news, human costs, and current threats.
SMH Map showing epicentre of the fires and number of victims claimed.

Media coverage

ABC Bushfire Community site - useful information for those affected and stories from the community.
ABC Bushfire emergency site - news coverage.
The Australian - news coverage.
Sydney Morning Herald Bushfire coverage - news coverage.
Herald Sun - interactive photo gallery and news coverage.

I am also pleased to say the the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW have offered Victorians affected by the tragedy any assistance that NSW councils can provide.

Please donate now or help in whatever way you can.