Exercise 9.2 Research and evaluation in Government 2.0

1. Summarise the use of:

Wiki drafts of papers for public discussion

It's still early days for the development of government wikis for public discussion. In Australia Kate Lundy uses a wiki for public engagement on briefing papers, policy and legislation development: http://wiki.katelundy.com.au/ In the U.S the Obama administration is "trying its hand at wiki-style policy development" (Beizer, 2009) in the third stage of its Open Government initiative. The platform it chose is called MixedInk, which enables participants to post content in collaboration, as is done on Wikipedia. An example is the CIO/OFT Policy Wiki: http://wiki.cio.ny.gov/wiki/Main_Page

Zyskowski (2009) says that "of all the Web 2.0 technologies, the wiki might be the one that most embodies the new spirit of the Internet: collaborative, transparent, efficient and unpredictable in a good way" but these may also be some of the reasons why governments have not yet embraced wikis as a way to faciliate public policy discussions. Governments may also fear that their power to govern will be impeded if citizens, for example, groups with their own specialised agendas, have too much input into policy creation. The kinds of collaboration and communication made possible by Web 2.0 tools have not yet been shown to be more advantageous for governments than traditional methods so it's probably wise for them to sit on the fence for a while. In addition, they are probably asking, as Crovitz does (2008), "Is there a risk that the wisdom of crowds as relected in Web 2.0 won't turn out to be so wise?"

Twitter in Government

All levels of government have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.

Individual politicians like to use it as a public relations tool. Here's a list of them:

http://ozpollietweeters.pbworks.com/FrontPage

Departments, agencies etc are using Twitter to send out news updates:

http://twitter.com/cabinetoffice
http://twitter.com/mosmancouncil
http://twitter.com/dsrwa





2. Did you see yourself as a supporter of Government 2.0? If so how did you benefit? If not then explain why.

I believe that our government should act as a kind of "social lubricant to enable citizens to employ their own ideals in furtherance of their own goals" (Government 2.0 Taskforce, 2009, p.5) and that it should employ tools which improve its responsiveness to individual and community concerns, and encourage collaboration with the community.

Government 2.0 benefits the community in a number of ways. It makes governing more transparent and accountable and therefore less open to abuse; it enables citizens to contribute skills and knowledge which may not otherwise be available to those in government; it facilitates community engagement in government processes and it provides an effective means for the government to distribute information.


References:

Beizer, D. (2009).White House tries hand at wiki-style policy development. Federal Computer Week. Retrieved October 23, 2009, from http://fcw.com/Articles/2009/06/22/Web-White-House-open-government.aspx

Crovitz, L. (2008, May 12). Information age: From wikinomics to government 2.0. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition). Retrieved October 23, 2009, from Proquest Central database.

Government 2.0 Taskforce. (2009). Towards Government 2.0: An issues paper. Retrieved October 22, 2009, from http://gov2.net.au/blog/2009/07/23/official-issues-paper-released/

Zyskowski, J. (2009). Tending the wiki garden. Federal Computer Week. Retrieved October 23, 2009, from http://fcw.com/Articles/2009/01/26/Tending-the-wiki-garden.aspx?sc_lang=en&Page=1