theConnectedRepublic.org

UK Government Strategy on Greening ICT

pauljohn — Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:50 pm

Author: pauljohn

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:50 pm

This summer the Uk govt published its strategy on greening govt ict

http://www.cio.gov.uk/documents/greening_govt_ict/greening_gov_ict080724.pdf

It claims to be the first govt anywhere to do this but I am sure there will others who will dispute this. The strategy seems a step in the right direction but as far as I can see does not contain much recognition of the fact that ICT can play a key role in reducing non-ICT emissions. This is a pity, since the solution to the climate change challenge is certainly not reducing the use of ICT to a bare minimum!!

Use of web 2.0 in citizen engagement

msweeks — Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:54 pm

Author: msweeks

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:54 pm

There are some interesting discussions about exactly this issue in various jurisdictions. The New Zealanders are having a lively debate about the way public servants should address the opportunities of the Web 2.0 world. If you chase down Jason Ryan, who is communications manager at the State Services Commission, you will find a rich debate about the principles and guidelines that could be used to make it easier and more productive to use web 2.0 tools from within government.

Another contribution to the discussion comes from UK eGovt Minister Tom Watson who, in response to the Power of Information report, developed these simple social media guidelines for civil servants:

Principles for participation online
Be credible
Be accurate, fair, thorough and transparent.
Be consistent
Encourage constructive criticism and deliberation.
Be cordial, honest and professional at all times.
Be responsive
When you gain insight, share it where appropriate.
Be integrated
Wherever possible, align online participation with other offline communications.
Be a civil servant
Remember that you are an ambassador for your organisation. Wherever possible, disclose your position as a representative of your department or agency.

You can find this and a lot of other discussion around this challange on the Power of Information implementation task force blog - http://powerofinformation.wordpress.com/

The task force is chaired bvy former Lib-Dem Member of Parliament Richard Allan, himself an assiduous blogger and now head of government affairs for Cisco in Europe.

Bev Brown-Sweeting

Bev Brown-Sweeting — Fri Aug 08, 2008 6:05 pm

Author: Bev Brown-Sweeting

Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 6:05 pm

Hello:

I am a public servant working for the Government of Nova Scotia, Canada. I am also a student in the Masters of Public Administration (Managment) program at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

The Connected Republic has been part of my current course, Managing the Information Resource. This course was developed by Dr. Keith C. Sullivan and our professor is Dr. Jeffery Roy, associate professor in the School of Public Administration at Dalhousie University, who specializes in multi-stakeholder governance, service transformation, and electronic government.

I look forward to learning more from the discussion forums and resources on this site. My exchanges here and use of the site will also be part of a project I am completing on the impact of web 2.0 on citizen engagement. To that end, I will add a simple poll to this introductory post to try out the technology.

Regards,
Bev

World Bank primer on "Climate Resilient Cities"

Russell Craig — Thu Aug 07, 2008 1:54 am

Author: Russell Craig

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 1:54 am

Just came across this recent publication from the World Bank - gives some interesting insights into the Climate Change challenges cities in Asia face and, even better, offers tools for understanding and addressing them.

http://eapblog.worldbank.org/node/142

OPEC 2.0

ChrisCook — Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:49 pm

Author: ChrisCook

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:49 pm

What this comes down to is the need for a workable "enterprise model" or legal and financial structure for a global utility/monopoly - which is what a "market" whether in bandwidth or energy, actually is.

I wrote this

http://www.exchange-handbook.co.uk/index.cfm?section=articles&action=detail&id=38754

about seven years ago, and Michel Bauwens picked up on it here

http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Market_3.0

...see in particular the reference to the partnership-based "Market Corporation" "cooperative of cooperatives".

Access to public information: where do you draw the lines?

Russell Craig — Wed Aug 06, 2008 1:37 pm

Author: Russell Craig

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 1:37 pm

The post below is a compendium of responses to an e-mail sent by Jeff Frazier to IBSG colleagues the other day. It seemed too interesting to leave in the inboxes, so here it is.
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Interesting. We talk about democratizing data...what are the implications.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/technology/03essay.html?ex=1218427200&en=3db026f16815a123&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Jeff

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The issue of what privacy means in an age of ubiquitous information has been building for years. This also conflicts with another movement -- open government.

The theory of transparency of government was nice to support in the past when it could not easily be implemented. The Internet changed all that. In the US, especially, where there are "freedom of information" laws requiring the disclosure of many public records, this has become a sore point.

This is probably not new to most of you, but the examples, like Jeff's, still have a dramatic effect. Others I can offer:

Norm Jacknis

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Brings new meaning to "if you do the crime, do the time".

As we know, this issue has been brewing for a while. Aside from all the philosophical ins and outs, for me it highlights the importance of government having decent data management practices in place so that information available through these sites at least 1) is accurate and 2) complies with all relevant laws and regulations regarding its accuracy, content, availability and the rights of subjects (e.g. correction etc.).

Russell
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This is terrifying, if inevitable. Will it lead to policing 2.0 - where we continuously persecute the once guilty as a community?

By the way check out the AKAs here!:

http://criminalsearches.com/details.aspx?id=31422553

Simon Willis

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Although the phrase "continuously persecute the once guilty as a community" is loaded emotionally, this is in fact a policy that is pursued in much of the US with regard to sex offenders. In many states, you can find where they live on the web, once they have been released from jail.

I understand the reasoning behind this, that this is an abominable crime with a very high repeat rate. However, a pattern has been set and it is conceivable other crimes could be added to the list for "continuous persecution."

Norm

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"To the Lions"....funny how history repeats itself. Interestingly, in the U.S., this information included on this site is publicly available. Until recent developments in "information scraping" software, access to this information was a chore. The government holds valuable personal information...I believe now, the Internet is the "Trusted" source for personal information. Terrifying. I predict a privacy revolution within 10 years.

Jeff

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See also www.crimereports.com and DC's http://data.octo.dc.gov "with 215 real time feeds covering zoning permits to health care to potholes" (referenced in 7/27 article in Citiwire.net ). The data is primarily used for city management purposes, but much is made available to the public.

Such uses can generate a backlash against the Internet. In Henrico County, VA, there was concern about real estate records (public records) being accessible to Internet searches. The compromise was to terminate the Internet site but to keep the records public and make them accessible only by phone searches -- much (but not all) of the information formerly on the Internet is now only accessible through an automated phone system.
See Q and A from their site below.

Fred Thompson

Quote:

Q. Where is the real estate information, e.g., who lives in what property, how much did they pay for it, etc.?
A. Although we've had the capability to put real estate and appraisal information on the Web for several years, we have not done so due to privacy concerns that have been expressed to us repeatedly by many individuals. Nevertheless, these are public records and accordingly you can check them at public access computers at the Eastern and western Government Centers.

There's one other option you may want to try. You can obtain information on any real estate property in Henrico County using a touch-tone phone. Call 804-755-7380, the County's Real-Data interactive voice response system, and follow the instructions.

The Real-Data system allows you to search for information on a piece of property by its address, the owner's name, the parcel's identification number, or an account number. It provides a considerable amount of information, such as who owns a particular piece of property, its assessed value, sales data, information on improvements, details on the structure such as age, size, style and type of construction, the number and types of rooms, the heating system, and much more.

You can also choose to have this information faxed to you or to another party by following the instructions on the Real-Data system.

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Of course, it's also causing governments to rethink what is public and non-public information. Even in an age of general bias towards making more public information readily available through digitization (for transparency, to enable creative applications through mashups, etc.), some governments have moved to remove information from the public record because what was considered acceptable in an age of 'practical obscurity' of paper records is no longer considered acceptable (e.g. information about property owners on land records).

Joan McCalla
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Somehow I think I'd rather have this problem than the reverse (government not releasing information into the public domain). It reminds me somewhat of Dimitri's point about positive versus negative rights.

Also, it seems to me that this situation may take us back toward pre-industrial days (temporarily at least) where, for most, it would have been much harder to escape your past than today because people (generally) lived in smaller groups, had less mobility and everyone knew your business (kind of like New Zealand is today!).

Also, in some societies draconian efforts are made to make one's failings permanently visible through practices such as maiming people for certain crimes etc. In others (e.g. New Zealand again) there is massive public support for publicising both the crimes and the current whereabouts of convicted pedophiles.

Tricky stuff really.

Russell

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It will be interesting as we continue to see the millennials (gen y) nonplussed by the idea of privacy - it's hard to imagine that they won't "grow out of it", but right now it seems to be of little consequence to them. Regardless, what has to remain private is that data that can compromise our identities, and that may some day universally be a biometric signature. Progress is being made faster than policy can keep up. Should we be evangelizing this?

Carolyn Purcell

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Interesting debate. - The view of all the trees does not necessarily increase the transparency in the forest, and I think there is not only a line to be drawn between public and non-public information, but also between public and published information.

Peter Gruetter

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As we've been discussing for some time, the potential for an internet backlash is something that shouldn't be brushed off. The ever-escalating sophistication of security breaches, the mushrooming net neutrality debate, the generally successful monetization of the web and the inherent, explicit (but opaque) control that this conveys to those on the edge, are creating the conditions for a "save us from ourselves" hysteria.

When the public sector, as arguably (I'd lean to undeniably) the most trusted holder of personal information, allows and tacitly (or worse) supports the release of details that might breach that trust, it has the potential to become a catalytic event viz the above.

Russell is absolutely correct that information management policies and practices need to evolve with urgency. Information needs to be seen as both a matter of the public trust as well as elemental to future prosperity, safety and success. Real collaboration, fully enabled by technology, will not and cannot take root in such thin soil as exists today...

Terry Ansari

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I agree. Having just finished Jonathan Zittrain's book we should all be concerned about where the Internet may go next.

Looks like one of the major threats right now is emerging in Canada (as a step towards crossing the border?) -

see: http://artthreat.net/2008/03/net-neutrality-canada-under-si

Russell
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Throttling/shaping isn't solely a Cdn issue and with the internet potentially being swamped in the next 2-5 years, depending on who you listen to, the issue seems only set to grow. If you like, I can send you a copy of a letter that ITAC (the Information Technology Association of Canada; I'm on the Board) sent to federal regulators on the topic recently. Only a few months ago, the same regulators felt there was no pressing need to review the matter, but now find themselves quite caught up in it...

Terry

Progress of New Zealand e-government

yenping — Fri Jul 25, 2008 5:29 am

Author: yenping

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 5:29 am

It feels like an eternity since my last visit to the forum, and look how it's grown!

I spent the last couple of hours threading through the posts in the forum and the blog, and I must admit that this could get addictive - with posts ranging from the hilarious (government jargon) to the informative (collaborative government groups using tools like Ning) to subjects that resonate uncannily with the very thoughts that I have been having at work over the last 72 hours (feeds, civil servants blogging, online fora for communities of practice in local government. . .).

Anyway, I am now a fan and thanks to your RSS facility, I am also now subscribed.

(To those who are wondering: my name is Yenping, a policy researcher with the ICT Strategy and Innovation group at the State Services Commission in New Zealand. . .)

But more to the point: I am pleased to report that a lot has been going on in the New Zealand e-government front.

We have been rushing the report on the progress of New Zealand E-government to press , and the work really gathered momentum over the last 6 months after about two years of intense research activity. Progress Toward Transformation was launched last month via a post on the State Services Commission blog.

This report took a snapshot of how citizens are experiencing government services at the moment to see how ICT can improve upon them in the future. This orientation toward the future is underlined by the section on - "What e-government will look like in 2020?" - where we invited expert stakeholders to contribute their thoughts on the future of e-government. It also highlights e-government initiatives that we considered transformational which, as you might expect, included a survey and analysis of the developments in the New Zealand "Govt 2.0" landscape.

But there's fresher ink yet on the subject of Govt 2.0 - you might want to check out the thoughts that the New Zealand Government CIO, Laurence Millar, had just penned on "What Web 2.0 means for E-government" .

Edelman's digital trends

Jefrazie — Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:16 pm

Author: Jefrazie

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:16 pm

Edelman's digital trends. This is interesting characterization nine digital trends for the future.

http://www.edelmandigital.com/blog/2008/05/open_files_nine_digital_trends_1.html

Collaborative Writing

msweeks — Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:02 pm

Author: msweeks

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:02 pm

Happy to be part ofthe experiment. Is it easy to download and install the 'commentpress' application?

El Sistema: Changing Lives Through Music

mtschang — Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:00 am

Author: mtschang

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:00 am

The arts can be a powerful, positive force for development, particularly for youth, as this story from Venezuela, which started 32 years ago.

El Sistema: Changing Lives Through Music
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/11/60minutes

What are other examples like this?

Re-booting American Democracy

pauljohn — Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:36 am

Author: pauljohn

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:36 am

A collection of interesting essays has just been published following the recent conference in New York on Rebooting the US political system. It contains essays by lots of interesting people (weinberger, benkler, shirky, rheingold) and looks lots of fun. So far I have only read the essay by Micah L Sifry and that was certainly very amusing and thoughtprovoking.

Have a look - the book is freely downloadable.

http://rebooting.personaldemocracy.com/

Whitehall shows signs of getting the message!

pauljohn — Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:01 am

Author: pauljohn

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:01 am

I am not sure what is going on in Whitehall at the moment, but there seem to be lots of surprisingly positive signs. I just came across something released by the UK Office of Public Sector Information - its a site that allows citizens to request that bits of government data are released in more useable ways. The site is fully transparent, so you can see everyone else's requests and you can support them via some voting functionality (not yet up and running). I think this is a great idea for empowering citizens and generating momentum for change.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/unlocking-service/OPSIpage.aspx?page=UnlockIndex

New Version of the Site

admin — Tue Jul 08, 2008 10:10 am

Author: admin

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 10:10 am

Yes, we are doing it again - looking to evolve and improve the site. We are looking to do a number of things:

- make the site more integrated; originally we built the site from a number of different elements which was great but means each element has a separate log in etc. We want to see if we can create a more seamless site.

- focus even more on user-generated content; we have always want this site to be based on user-generated content and to be rapidly changing. We want to emphasise this more and make it easier to search and find content. So rather than having lots of silos of content we would like to have a mass of content that the community can slice and dice anyway they want, e.g. via content tags or by contributer etc

- emphasise the community element - we want to build on the introduce yourself forum and the contributor of the month page to enable people to get a better sense of who else is in the community and what they are interested in and doing.

These three things are linked since they relate to our fundamental aim of creating a vibrant community of people interested in how connectivity can help tackle public problems.

The team we are working with on evolving the site are keen to make the process as open as possible, so everyone is welcome to see what they are up to at their project site

http://nokahuna.com/projects/142/tasks?group_by_user=false

Do add your thoughts on what we should be doing. We hope to have a proto-type of the new-look site up by the end of September and if it seems to work we may switch to the new version in October.

Saving the World Through Game Design

pauljohn — Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:19 am

Author: pauljohn

Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:19 am

I wasn't very convinced by the presentation - there's a lot of "gosh this is going to be huge" without much convincing explanation of why. I did, however, take a look at www.thelostring.com - a "game" sponsored by McDonalds in connection with the Beijing Olympics and it does show you can do some vaguely interesting things in this area. Still hard for me to see this as a really major development and I very much doubt that it will be a major part of most people's lives in 2013 or even in 2018.

We think therefore we are

pauljohn — Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:21 am

Author: pauljohn

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:21 am

I imagine most members of this community have heard of the writer and thinker Charlie Leadbitter and his We-think book. This morning I came across a short video he has down to promote it, which I think people will enjoy. I have added it on the video page, but here is the url again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiP79vYsfbo

Interested to hear people's reactions. I like the fact that it recognised that everyone talking at the same time is not conversation - and I think having productive, effective and efficient conversations on the Web is something we are all still working on ...