Government 2.0 Steering Group update: March 2011

The Government 2.0 Steering Group has met twice since our last update in December 2010. For the benefit of new readers to this blog, the Steering Group is the body formed to oversee the implementation of the Australian Government’s response to the Government 2.0 Taskforce. Membership of the Steering Group includes senior public servants from agencies which have been assigned tasks as part of that response.

Summaries of the February and March 2011 Steering Group meetings and a copy of the Government 2.0 Work Plan (the Work Plan) as of March 2011 are available below:

• Government 2.0 Steering Group Meeting 7-8 Summary RTF (56k)
• Government 2.0 Steering Group Meeting 7-8 Summary PDF (79k)
• Government 2.0 Work Plan March 2011 RTF (242k)
• Government 2.0 Work Plan March 2011 PDF (120k)

Since our last update, a broad range of work has been undertaken to implement the Work Plan. Here on the AGIMO Blog, the Office of Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and the Attorney-General’s Department, both Steering Group member agencies, contributed guest posts about the new Information Publication Scheme (IPS) and new draft public sector licensing guidelines for Australian Government agencies. The OAIC also launched a new blog of its own as part of a broad program of consultation about the IPS.

Facilitating the release of more public sector information has been a particular focus of the Steering Group. AGIMO, the National Archives of Australia and the Australian Bureau of Statistics also worked together to establish the metadata requirements for data.gov.au, which was released recently. The ongoing maintenance and enhancement of data.gov.au, particularly working with agencies to publish more data on the site and develop guidance about data publishing best practices, will be a large, important and ongoing piece of work.

An important point to note in the above meeting summary relates to the Steering Group’s meeting schedule. Over time, as the implementation of the Work Plan has progressed, the number of items requiring decisions from the Steering Group has decreased.  As such, the Steering Group decided at its 3 March meeting to change its meeting frequency from a monthly to a quarterly basis.

This decision is a sign of the shift in the Steering Group’s activities from implementation to strategic oversight. The Steering Group is confident that a framework now exists to encourage agencies, including non-Steering Group agencies, to undertake Gov 2.0 activities. This framework includes online participation guidelines for public servants; the Government’s Declaration of Open Government; the IPS and draft licensing guidelines discussed above; advice for agencies about releasing information and engaging online; and enabling services such as govspace and data.gov.au. In light of these initiatives, the Steering Group believes that a quarterly meeting schedule will be sufficient to allow it to carry out its role in implementing the Government’s response to the Government 2.0 Taskforce.

The Steering Group will continue working to support and build on the above initiatives. I welcome any feedback you may have about its activities.