Posts By Craig Thomler

Round up from GovHack 2014

GovHack is over for 2014, with teams finishing their hacks by 5:30pm on Sunday, 13 July. With over 1,200 participants organised into 176 teams, 204 projects were developed in under two days, with 138 projects (based on my count) eligible for the approximately $70,000 in national prizes. Note: GovHack has informed me they are stillRead… Read more »

Round up from GovHack 2014

GovHack is over for 2014, with teams finishing their hacks by 5:30pm on Sunday, 13 July. With over 1,200 participants organised into 176 teams, 204 projects were developed in under two days, with 138 projects (based on my count) eligible for the approximately $70,000 in national prizes. National prizes will be awarded in a redRead… Read more »

GovHack is underway – but what is it?

I’m participating in GovHack this year, spending my weekend working with a team to build a cool tool from open government data. If you’re a bit unclear on what a Hack is, the five minute segment below from ABS News 24, featuring GovHack national coordinator Pia Waugh should give you a better idea. If youRead… Read more »

Google Glass as a Certain Reality

This morning I attended the Innovation Month event “Google Glass as a certain reality”, hosted by the Department of Education. It was a great event, and extremely well attended (well over 100 people in the audience), featuring very engaging talks from Alexander Hayes, Matthew Purcell and seven of his students from Canberra Grammer School. TheRead… Read more »

How Having a Dinosaur in Your Corner Can Help With Innovation

It’s quite common for those of us on the pointy end of Government 2.0, innovation, agile and open source/open data and similar ‘progressive’ thinking to refer to people who seem reluctant and risk-averse as ‘dinosaurs’. The terminology crosses the government/corporate divide – indeed I’m hearing it now more often in reference to senior management inRead… Read more »

The Importance for Government of Respecting Open Source and Open Data Copyrights

An interesting situation has arisen in Italy, with the country’s Agenzia delle Entrate, the Italian revenue service and taxation authority, accused of copying OpenStreetMap without respecting the site’s copyright license. As documented on the Open Street Maps discussion list, Italy’s OpenStreetMap community discovered a little over three months ago that the maps used by theRead… Read more »

What Happens to Governments When the Trust Disappears?

It’s difficult for governments to remain effective when the support of citizens evaporates. History is littered with failed states, civil wars and insurrections resulting from society’s loss of trust in their rulers and governance systems. In authoritarian states this support is often built on fear, coercion and control, which can prove to be very fragileRead… Read more »

Unlocking Budget Data in Australia: the BudgetAus Collaboration

Republished with permission from the International Budget Partnership blog This post was written by Rosie Williams of InfoAus. Unlocking Budget Data in Australia: the BudgetAus Collaboration Budget transparency in Australia has recently taken a big step forward with the first ever release of federal budget data in machine readable format. Prior to this year, budgetRead… Read more »

Australia Leaps to 2nd Place in the United Nations eGovernment Study

The United Nations defines e-Government as “the use and application of information technologies in public administration to streamline and integrate workflows and processes, to effectively manage data and information, enhance public service delivery, as well as expand communication channels for engagement and empowerment of people.” In brief – it’s about using IT strategically and tacticallyRead… Read more »

Australia leaps to 2nd place in the United Nations eGovernment Study

The United Nations defines e-Government as “the use and application of information technologies in public administration to streamline and integrate workflows and processes, to effectively manage data and information, enhance public service delivery, as well as expand communication channels for engagement and empowerment of people.” In brief – it’s about using IT strategically and tacticallyRead… Read more »