GovScape is a new type of public-purpose knowledge start-up.

The GovScape social knowledge initiative is being built in alliance with successful programs like Gov20 Radio and GovCamp together with over five years of journey by the X360 team and their public innovation networks.

Its thematic focus will be on:

• Public sphere momentum
• Public-purpose innovation
• Public sector transformation

Shaping the collective journey

Most importantly, the most ambitious part of GovScape is the aspect that everyone can also make happen: participation.

GovScape is about mobilising and amplifying what we call ’social knowledge’… living, dynamic intelligence learned and shared through the collective experience of public sphere thought leaders and practitioners. It’s something we’re all part of whenever we meet up with others at events, share ideas online or write long-form papers.

GovScape is about taking a more mindful, strategic and collaborative approach to such open, social knowledge sharing.

It will support policy-makers and public service practitioners in:

• communicating their priorities and learnings in fresh, engaging ways
• more easily contributing to as well as consuming collective knowledge
• leveraging the ’public value’ of their work through accessing case studies of best practice as well as emergent practice

GovScape programs will be exploring themes such as:

• Craig Thomler, Gov 20. Advocate and General Manager Delib Australia
• Mary-Anne Williams, Associate Dean Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney
• Susan Sly, Chief Information Officer, VicRoads
• Don Easter, IT Supplier Advocate, Australian Government

Photo courtesy CeBIT Australia

For me, [the relationship between e-Government, Gov 2.0 and open government] is very much a continuum, and a continuum with people on very different parts of the maturity curve at any point in time.

The broad-ranging conversation tackles questions such as:

• What are the connections between e-government, Gov 2.0 and open government – is it a continuum?
• What is the role of citizens in creating “Society 2.0”?
• Why is big data important to government?
• What are the big questions for 2014?

A lot of Gov 2.0 is government having conversations with itself… there’s an internal dialogue that’s going on within government that’s possibly the most important part of it because it’s actually government questioning “Are we doing things the best possible way, and can we improve it?

About the Panel

About Susan Sly

Susan Sly has worked in the IT industry for thirteen years with prior experience in HR and management across the oil and gas industry, Defence and state government.

Susan’s role in VicRoads spans strategy, security, operational service delivery, project management, business intelligence, spatial services and sourcing for VicRoads information management and technology capabilities.   VicRoads processes more than 22 million transactions a year for 3.7 million licensed drivers and 4.9 million registered vehicles, manages 22,000 km of road network and supports a range of planning and enforcement activities for road safety purposes.

Susan’s key priorities for the next two years are embedding new practices and team capabilities to reflect emerging industry standards, supporting productivity initiatives across the business, operationalising new technology suites and enhancing the use of the organisation’s information stores.  Particular interests that she will progress include the use of social media to share knowledge & enhance productivity and enhanced industry engagement within the government environment.

About Craig Thomler

Craig is one of Australia’s leading social media and Government 2.0 advocates and practitioners, having spent more than 15 years working in the online industry, including five in Australia’s Commonwealth Public Service.

In 2009 Craig was awarded the inaugural Government 2.0 Individual Innovator Award by the Australian Government’s Government 2.0 Taskforce and in 2010 was named one of ‘The Top 10 Who are Changing the World of Internet and Politics’ by PoliticsOnline and the World eDemocracy Forum in France.

Recognised internationally as a social media and Government 2.0 leader, Craig presents regularly around the world on new media strategy and practice and blogs at eGovAU) (http://egovau.blogspot.com)

About Mary-Anne Williams

Professor Mary-Anne Williams is one of Australia’s leading researchers in Knowledge Representation, and Past President of KR Inc, the peak body for Knowledge Representation. Mary-Anne chaired the Australian Research Council’s 2012 ERA Panel for Mathematics, Information and Computing Sciences and served on the ARC College of Experts. Mary-Anne leads the emerging area of Social Robotics in Australia, is listed on 25 women in robotics you need to know about, and serves as Review Editor for the prestigious Artificial Intelligence Journal. Mary-Anne is a Fellow at Stanford University, a Guest Professor at the University of Science and Technology China, and her work has been adopted by industry, notably Infosys and IBM Research. This year she chaired the Industry Track at the International Semantic Web Conference.

About Don Easter

Don Easter is an accomplished senior executive and company director with extensive experience and networks internationally and in Australia.  Don has led turnaround, growth and considerable change programs in both large and small companies.

His expertise includes sales, product development, operations, risk management and setting and executing strategy.

Don has managed businesses in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the United States of America with appointments that have included Managing Director of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Australia, Senior Vice President Private Equity for ABN AMRO and General Manager, Credit and Risk for AGC.

In his part-time role as Information Technology (IT) Supplier Advocate, Don brings strategic leadership, access to decision-makers and senior executive weight to help enhance industry-led activities aimed at raising the competitiveness of IT SMEs firms and linking them with business opportunities.

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Episode links and resources

• GovInnovate 2013 

Big qs for 2014 via panel: How do we do it better, how do we get leadership mandate, what can tech do, how can ppl connect #GovInnovateCeBIT

— Cofluence (@Cofluence) November 28, 2013

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We talk with John McMillan, the Australian Government’s Information Commissioner, about what the OGP might mean for a nation well-known for its early adoption of Gov 2.0 and other forms of connected government.

Professor McMillan is a long-time advocate of the principles and practices of open government. His model for open government balances freedom of information with privacy protection and the promotion of information policy, and he offers some thoughts about the practical challenges facing Australia and other governments in the pursuit of greater openness, and the opportunities that OGP membership presents for collaboration.

One of the strong themes in information policy reform has been the need for a better framework to enable information sharing within government, between governments, and between government and the community, and that involves a commitment to open data, it involves a commitment to proper privacy and security protection – so governments need to be cooperative and [the OGP] is another platform for them to do that..

About Professor John McMillan

Prof John McMillan AO was appointed Australian Information Commissioner in November 2010 to head a new office responsible for freedom of information, privacy protection and advice to government on information management policy.

John was formerly the Commonwealth Ombudsman from 2003–2010 and the Integrity Commissioner (Acting) for the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity in 2007. He is an Emeritus Professor of the Australian National University. He is co-author of a leading student text, Control of Government Action.

In the 1970s, John was a founding member of the Freedom of Information Campaign Committee, which led the public campaign for enactment of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 . He is a National Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and former President of the Australian Institute of Administrative Law.

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Episode links and resources

• Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website and on Facebook
• Open Government Partnership
• OAIC Report: Open public sector information: from principles to practice
• Govhack
• My School website
• US Government’s OGP Action Plan

60-second snapshots

On the role of all tiers of government:

On the economic impetus of open government:

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• Twitter hashtags: #opengov #opendata #ogp

As the deadline for submissions approaches for the News Challenge on Open Government, John Bracken, the Knight Foundation’s Director of Media Innovation shares his observations on the journey so far and provides some insights for making project submissions, as well as how everyone can contribute to this timely Challenge to accelerate better ways that government and citizens can interact.

By putting a focus on and valuing the conversation and engagement around the ideas, our hope and expectation is that… even if you aren’t among the winners… even if you’re coming in and sketching out on a cocktail napkin a tool you would hope to see – the spotlight that we can help to put on the community that we’ve brought together around this contest… will leave your idea better off even if it’s not funded.

About John Bracken

John Bracken is director of media innovation for the Knight Foundation. He oversees the Knight News Challenge, Knight’s prototype fund, its journalism and technology investments. Bracken has over 10 years experience as a philanthropic investor in digital media, media policy, innovation and global internet freedom, having previously worked at the Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.

Bracken is a frequent presenter at media and technology conferences and serves as an adviser to 1871, a co-working resource for digital startups in Chicago.  A 2009 fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago, Bracken has a masters degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He writes @jsb, johnbracken.net and at the Knight Foundation blog.

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Episode links and resources

• Knight Foundation News Challenge site and FAQs
• Knight Foundation website
• Challenge Blog posts
  • What you need to know as #newschallenge deadline nears
  • Answers to the 7 most common News Challenge questions

60-second snapshots

On sparking conversations about Open Government:

On how Open Government fits the Knight Foundation’s communication focus:

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Ahead of taking formal applications, an “inspiration phase” has been launched for the 2013 Knight News Challenge. Some $5 million of Knight Foundation funding will be announced in June for innovative projects around Open Government. Amid much talk (and much tech) focused on more open, transparent, connected governments – as well as the emergence of the 58-nation Open Government Partnership – this Challenge program aims to enable projects that in the broadest sense foster better communication in support of the Open Gov movement.

We hear from Chris Sopher, Project Manager for the 2013 Knight News Challenge, about the Challenge goals and how the inspiration phase will help potential participants to shape their submission ideas through a new online space developed with OpenIDEO.

What are the ideas in Open Government that can help build the field, can help explore new ideas, new approaches to trying to engage people in Government or inform them about what’s happening in their community in a new way?

The Knight News Challenge is international and open to submissions from governments and public sector agencies as well as civic innovators, private sector and non-profit organisations. If you’re considering a pitch, don’t miss this episode!

About Chris Sopher

Chris Sopher is project manager on Knight Foundation’s Journalism and Media Innovation team. He has written and spoken around the world about young people’s engagement with news and civic life through his project Younger Thinking.

Prior to Knight, Chris researched digital media and public policy at the Emerging Media Research Council and helped found the national college mentoring nonprofit Strive for College. He earned a bachelor’s in public policy analysis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a Morehead-Cain and Truman Scholar.

Feature image courtesy Joichi Ito

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Episode links and resources

• Knight Foundation News Challenge site and FAQs
• Knight Foundation website
• Blog post about why Knight is doing the Open Government challenge
• Blog post: An opportunity for massive reinvention
• News Challenge winners from each of the three rounds in 2012: Networks, Data, Mobile

60-second snapshots

On framing Open Government:

On what the Knight Foundation is hoping to achieve from the Challenge:

On making public information useful as a key focus area:

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Nigel Shadbolt discusses the realities of harnessing the potential of open data for governments, businesses and citizens. With Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor Shadbolt is the joint head of the newly formed Open Data Institute in London which he summarises as “… building the supply side; building capability and empowerment; developing a demand side”.

Calling for “a real forensic commitment to open data”, he explores new economic models needed around open data as well as the need to better understand where and knowing how the value is being generated.

There’s a feeling that the job is never done – it’s eternally vigilant process of trying to improve the quality, improve the format, improve the ease of publication.

Professor Shadbolt also shares his hopes and aspirations for the Open Government Partnership in the next 12 months.

About Prof. Nigel Shadbolt

Nigel Shadbolt is Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Head of the Web and Internet Science Group, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton.  With over 400 publications he has researched on topics ranging from cognitive psychology to computational neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence to the Semantic Web. He was one of the originators of the interdisciplinary field of Web Science and is a Director of the Web Science Trust, and of the Web Foundation – both organisations have a common commitment to advance our understanding of the Web and promote the Web’s positive impact on society.

In 2009 the Prime Minister appointed him and Sir Tim Berners-Lee as Information Advisors to transform access to Public Sector Information. This work led to the highly acclaimed data.gov.uk site that now provides a portal to over 9000 datasets. In May 2010 he was asked by the UK Coalition Government to join the Public Sector Transparency Board – this oversees Open Data releases across the public sector. In April 2011 he became Chair of the UK Government’s midata programme – which seeks to empower consumers by releasing their data back to them. He is Chairman and Co-founder of the Open Data Institute, based in Shoreditch, London.

He was also a founder and Chief Technology Officer of ID protection company Garlik Ltd. In 2008 Garlik was awarded Technology Pioneer status by the Davos World Economic Forum and won the prestigious UK national BT Flagship IT Award. In December 2011 Garlik was acquired by Experian Ltd.

Prof Shadbolt is also an international speaker at the  ICEGOV 2012 conference – to see more about the conference, visit here.

Feature images courtesy josema and RSLN

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Episode links and resources

• About Prof Nigel Shadbolt
• About the UK Open Data Institute
• Data.gov.uk
• UK Open Data Innovation Community
• UK Public Data Principles
• 5 stars of open data
• Legislation.gov.uk
• Wired magazine article: “Professor Nigel Shadbolt outlines plans for Open Data Institute” – 22 May 2012
• The Guardian article: “Government data PDF enthusiasts will be ‘dealt with’, says Maude” – 17 Oct 2012
• A Right to Data – interview with Chris Yiu of Policy Exchange

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The electronic government landscape is increasingly pointing towards a diffusion of power, and an increased role and voice for citizens in public decision-making.

Tomasz Janowski from the UNU-IIST Center for Electronic Governance discusses some of the global trends that he is observing: participatory democracy, the increased regulation of new service delivery channels and the need for leadership in ICT services, challenging the notion of what “whole of government” really means in practice.

With positions of CTO, Chief Knowledge Officer, Chief Innovation Officer emerging, we also see the Government CIO as a consolidating role speaking on behalf of government information technology to other functions of government, and also to the public.

Tomasz also shares some of the recent discussions and shared experiences emerging from the W3C e-Government interest group around the use of social media in Government.

About Dr Tomasz Janowski

Tomasz Janowski is a Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology in Macao, where he founded and heads the Center for Electronic Governance. Previously, he was a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, UK, where he obtained PhD in Computer Science and Assistant Professor at the University of Gdansk, Poland, where he obtained MSc in Applied Mathematics. He also worked for software companies in Poland and the U.S.

Tomasz’s research focuses on Electronic Governance (EGOV) policy and practice including foundations, education, development frameworks, models and design, measurement, etc. He directs EGOV research, transfers research results into practical instruments, and applies such instruments in government policy and practice. Under his leadership, the EGOV center developed a capacity-based EGOV development framework EGOV.*; built instruments to support the use of this framework; applied the framework in Afghanistan (EGOV.AF), Cameroon (EGOV.CM) and Macao SAR (e-Macao); and contributed to EGOV awareness- and capacity-building in Argentina, Bahrain, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ghana, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Nigeria, Palestine, Philippines, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam and other countries.

Tomasz is the co-founder and an international speaker at the  ICEGOV 2012 conference – hear his sneak preview (5 mins) of the conference here.

Feature image courtesy UNU

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• United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology and the Center for Electronic Governance
• The Cluetrain Manifesto
• W3C eGov interest group
• W3C eGov LinkedIn group

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David Ferriero is the 10^th Archivist of the United States and Head of the National Archives and Record Administration, including the Presidential Libraries.  The collection includes some 12 billion pages and 40 million photos and now holds all Federal Government tweets.  We explore the linkages between open government and record-keeping public data as well as how social media is challenging the notions of what defines a ‘record’.

Our mantra has been from the very beginning that you can’t have open government without good records management.

This interview comes a day after the opening of the National Archive’s first Office of Innovation.  The Archivist – or “Collector-in-Chief” – discusses large-scale public record-keeping in the digital era and offers advice for smaller libraries and public collections.  Mr Ferriero also declares his well-known enthusiasm for using social online channels to push archived content and digital assets to ‘where the people are’, including his Wikipedian-in-residence initiative.

About David Ferriero

David S Ferriero is a librarian, library administrator, and the 10th Archivist of the United States. He was Director of the New York Public Library; and before that, he was the University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke University. Prior to his Duke position, he worked for 31 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology library. Ferriero is the first librarian to serve as Archivist of the United States.

National Archives and Records Administration

On July 28, 2009, President Obama nominated David Ferreiro to be 10th Archivist of the United States. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on November 6, 2009; and he was sworn in to his new office on November 13, 2009.

Ferriero used the public occasion to express his view that the National Archives is at a “defining moment with regard to our existing electronic records, social media communications, and emerging technologies being used throughout government offices.” He also noted “issues of collection security, the future of the Presidential Library system, backlogs in processing, staff job satisfaction, stakeholder relationships, preservation and storage needs.”

President Obama appointed Ferriero to simultaneously head the new National Declassification Center, which “has been given four years to go through 400 million pages of federal documents that remain top secret. They date to World War I.”

Other career highlights:

• MIT Libraries: Ferriero was Associate Director of Public Services at MIT Libraries. His MIT library career spanned 31 years.
• Duke University Library: Ferriero was the Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke University from 1996 through 2004. Ferriero was the first Duke university librarian to address the members of the university’s Board of Trustees in person. He was actively involved in the evolution of North Carolina’s Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN).
• New York Public Library: Ferriero was the Andrew W. Mellon Director and Chief Executive of the Research Libraries at the New York Public Library (NYPL) from 2004. In 2007 his role expanded with additional responsibilities as director of New York Public Library’s (NYPL) Branch Libraries. He was responsible for the management and operations of NYPL’s Research Libraries since 2005 and the Branch Libraries since 2007. He presided over a major restructuring, which was accompanied by elimination of some positions and the creation of new ones.
• Cataloging: Ferriero was the NYPL’s Partner Representative in OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), which with its member libraries co-operatively produces and maintains WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog. During Ferriero’s tenure, the library stopped using the unique “Billings classification system” for its reference books in the Rose Reading Room (main reading room).
• Google digitization partnership: The NYPL joined the Google Books Library Project during Ferriero’s tenure. Google and major international libraries have agreed to making collections of public domain books available for scanning to be offered to the public online, without charge.
• Relationship with Wikipedia: As part of his tenure at the National Archives, Ferriero has taken an active interest in working with Wikipedia, of which he has called himself “a huge fan”. When questioned about the National Archives’s engagement with Wikipedia, his response was “The Archives is involved with Wikipedia because that’s where the people are.” Under Ferriero’s aegis, the National Archives has worked with the Wikimedia Foundation since 2009, having had a Wikipedian in Residence as well as uploaded thousands of images to Wikimedia Commons. He has quoted a blogger in saying: “If Wikipedia is good enough for the Archivist of the United States, maybe it should be good enough for you.”

Mr Ferriero is a Co-Chair and speaker at the  ICEGOV 2012 conference – hear his sneak preview (5 mins) of the conference here.

Biography source: Wikipedia
Feature images courtesy David Ferriero

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Episode links and resources

• The Archivist’s blog:   AOTUS: Collector in Chief at http://blogs.archives.gov/aotus
• Favorite Records of the Archivist of the United States (AOTUS)
• David S Ferriero: Speeches and Writings
• US National Archives
• US National Archives and Open Government
• US National Archives wiki
• US National Archives blogs
• US National Archives on Facebook
• US National Archives on Flickr
• US National Archives on You Tube

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Theresa Pardo is well known for her work leading the Center for Technology in Government (CTG). This discussion looks at public value and taking a portfolio approach to open government, as articulated through the CTG’s Public Value Assessment Tool.

In this interview, Theresa explores several dimensions of what it means for governments to authentically deliver public value. Her position that “engagement is not either/or… we need a more nuanced understanding of what we mean by engagement” makes great sense when we think about harnessing diverse perspectives and disciplines to better understand the value that open government can add. The Public Value Assessment Tool asks the questions that practitioners can use to create value-based portfolios of open government initiatives.

We think not so much in terms of measures… but helping government management and government leadership think about value in a way that is more broadly based than the bottom-line return-on-investment models… in government, we need to think beyond the bottom-line.

Theresa also discusses her belief that the next generation of open data will be more about creating community-oriented data resources – creating and presenting data in ways that are of use to specific communities.

The Center for Technology in Government at the University of Albany at the State University of New York are hosts of the 2012 ICEGOV international conference.

About Theresa Pardo

Theresa Pardo is the Director of the Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany at the State University of New York.

Theresa’s current portfolio includes the development of a public value assessment framework for U.S. federal government open government initiatives funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), and the development of models of social and technical interactions in cross-boundary information sharing and integration as well as information technology enterprise governance. In addition to funding from NSF, Theresa’s research at CTG has been funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Library of Congress, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, the United Nations and New York State and local government agencies, among others.

Theresa is a Research Associate Professor at the Rockefeller College of Public Administration and Policy and an affiliated faculty member of the College of Computing and Information at the University at Albany. She is one of the founding developers of the highly ranked Government Information Strategy and Management curriculum at Rockefeller College. The academic program focuses on the policy, management and technology dimensions of information and technology use in the design and delivery of government programs. In 2008, Theresa received the University at Albany’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

Theresa is also the co-chair of the ICEGOV 2012 conference – hear her sneak preview (5 mins) of the conference here.

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Episode links and resources

• Center for Technology in Government (CTG)
• CTG projects
  • A Public Value Analysis Tool for Open Government Planning
  • Opening Government: Modeling the Informational Relationships between Government and Society
  • Moldova – social media and open government
• Philly Rising Collaborative

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The 54 countries of the Commonwealth of Nations represents more than 2 billion people across every region of the world and a vast diversity in development and capacity.

Professor Tim Unwin, well-known as UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, now heads up the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO). In this wide-ranging and provocative discussion, he explores the impact of ICT across diverse economies, the value of technology for governance and also provides an overview of the CTO’s work.

Prof. Unwin claims that, while it can change the relationship between citizens and the state, technology by itself doesn’t change very much.  It is how people use the technology that matters.  He also argues that social media’s role in participatory democracy may be over-hyped, and that while technology can accelerate change, it only does so for those who have not only access but also the literacy to use it, and that an over-focus on technology can in fact create a greater development divide.

If ICTs are to be used effectively by governments, all their people need to access them – otherwise, they’re going to lead to greater inequalities.

About Prof. Tim Unwin

Tim Unwin has been Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation since September 2011. He is also Chair of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK, UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, and Emeritus Professor of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. From 2001-2004 he led the UK Prime Minister’s Imfundo: Partnership for IT in Education initiative based within the Department for International Development (DFID), and from 2007 he was Director and then Senior Advisor (until 2011) to the World Economic Forum’s Partnerships for Education initiative with UNESCO. His recent work has concentrated  on the use of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), and in 2004 he created the ICT4D Collective at Royal Holloway, University of London, which is now one of the world’s leading centres for ICT4D research and teaching.

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Episode links and resources

• Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation
• CTO Strategic Plan (PDF)
• Tim Unwin’s blog
• The ICT4D Collective

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