Gov 2.0 hits NSW

Meanwhile in NSW, Gov 2.0 is a topic of conversation with this NSW Public Sphere event at Parliament House last Friday, the Government's Information@the centre website announcing work being done to develop a roadmap on how to manage information, an apps competition for ideas and use of NSW data, and that a catalogue of government data-sets will be publicly available soon. Stilgherrian (in Crikey) said the Premier was a surprise speaker at the event (I can't see the speech or media release on the Premier's website). This is worth repeating

"Rees stressed that the digital revolution means government can never be the same again.

The only question is whether political leaders will work with the technology, or fight against it. For us in Australia, there can only be one answer. We must enlist these Web 2.0 technologies in the cause of democracy and freedom. And that means changing the way we do business.

First, it means greater openness. And that in turn means governments have to overcome old habits of secrecy and control. That’s a huge cultural change - something that will take years to accomplish. But we’ve got to begin the journey now.

Second, we’ve got to be interactive. The old one-way street style of politics has to go. Government in the Web 2.0 era is about listening and responding. It’s a dialogue, not a monologue. And I’m determined that the NSW Government will embrace Web 2.0 technologies in everything we do.

Rees says today’s NSW Sphere will be a precursor to a larger, whole-of- government forum to drive these ideas through the NSW Government."

All very good news.