Senator Lundy gave a significant speech for the NICTA Big Picture seminar series on Government 2.0: co-designing a better democracy. It is a 45 minute speech, and covers open government, open data, Gov 2.0, her Public Spheres initiative and much more. We hope you enjoy. Full details at http://www.katelundy.com.au/2009/11/25/nicta-speech-government-2-0-co-designing-a-better-democracy/ ---- Big Picture Seminar If the first incarnation of the internet saw the democratisation of information and made us all publishers, the second incarnation of the internet, Web2.0, is the democratisation of innovation and decision-making, and will make us all co-designers of civil society in the 21st century. This brings with it a great deal of responsibility, perhaps more than most people realise. The role of our Government during this phase of evolution for our system of democracy becomes incredibly important as it will set the tone for how and why citizens could and would engage. Any period of significant change presents opportunities as well as risks. For Government, a high bar is set by citizens as to their expectations. In this way, these opportunities and risks are amplified through the prism of politics. Today, I will discuss some of the opportunities and risks that present themselves to the Australian Federal Government as the uses of the internet continue to consolidate around Web2.0 tools and functions. We describe the opportunity Web2.0 presents to Government as Gov2.0 and I believe that Gov2.0 offers the best opportunity for a forward-thinking, future-oriented government to co-design with the citizens of this country, the government of the future: Government that in enabling, empowering and encouraging of citizens to fully participation in the society in which they live. Foundation policies: I am not surprised ICT is once again a leading public policy item of great interest and discussion. At the highest levels of Australian politics we are seeing an enormous shift in the mainstream use of technology, in particular through social media and online networks. The delivery of new ICT skills and social and economic infrastructure through the Labor policies of the Digital Education Revolution (DER) and the National Broadband Network (NBN) creates a transformational environment for Australia. I’m both professionally and personally very proud of these policies because they address two necessary foundations of capability and capacity: investing in the skills of next generation AND a universal high bandwidth network. With these transformative policy foundations in place we can begin a conversation about what we can do with the internet, with data, with our collective intellect to improve our lives in a sustainable way, take care of those in need and save our planet from the ravages of climate change. Governments have a responsibility to provide the leadership to achieve these aspirations. Government is both the initiator of new ideas as well as responders to ideas emerging from the community. How these ideas get traction and enter public discourse is changing as internet usage grows and people take control over their sources of information and how they engage. More Australians are engaging with the government online and everyday more people are getting their news online than any other way. Social media tools have changed the game, as a broad demographic range of people start connecting to each other, and sharing knowledge directly, rather than relying on the government and traditional media for information. Online communications – particularly over the past two or three years – have created a thirst for more genuine dialogue with government, for the sorts of transparent, real time and many-to-many communications that people enjoy every day with each other on social media platforms such as Facebook, Youtube or even Twitter. Many of these social media tools are hyped up in the traditional media at the moment, and I hear people questioning their usefulness, reflecting on the banality of much of the discourse. I can tell you as someone who is actively experimenting and trying to engage through these tools, that there is a lot of value to be found, particularly when you put social media to work for a specific purpose. Most people in my experience are more than happy to contribute meaningfully to a conversation, so long as the outcome is meaningful, which means being prepared to act upon the good advice received. It can be a risky business but, as Machiavelli says: All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's possible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer. Machiavelli This is a major challenge for government. So it is inspiring to see government departments and agencies have already been experimenting with social media tools, with no major disasters