Posts By Craig Thomler

Has Gov 2.0 in Australia got too boring too fast?

Clay Shirky once said, about social media, that “These tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.” Over the past year I’ve seen extremely encouraging signs across government in Australia that the use of social media has reached this point, become boring, as it has been normalised into agency operations. Most federal andRead… Read more »

Has Gov 2.0 in Australia gotten too boring too fast?

Clay Shirky once said, about social media, that “These tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.” Over the past year I’ve seen extremely encouraging signs across government in Australia that the use of social media has reached this point, become boring, as it has been normalised into agency operations. Most federal andRead… Read more »

The decline of national sovereignty and impacts on society

The concept of national sovereignty has evolved over the centuries however has retained at its core the notion that nations, defined by geography, have the right to manage their own affairs and movements across their borders as they see fit, as well as to interact as recognised state entities with other states and other legalRead… Read more »

Being mindful of personal social media use in the APS

Senator Abetz, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service, has written a fantastic blog post commenting on the need for Australian Public Servants to be mindful of what they say (and how they say it) on social media. The post, Public Servants should exercise care with social media, is in the Senator’sRead… Read more »

Canberra University launches Graduate Certificate in Social Media and Public Engagement

Universities in Australia have lagged behind public and commercial use of social media and need for their staff to be trained in effective development and implementation of online engagement approaches. However this looks to be changing with the launch of Canberra University’s Graduate Certificate in Social Media and Public Engagement. As a one year part-timeRead… Read more »

Rethinking government IT to support the changing needs of government

We recently saw a change in the federal government in Australia, with a corresponding reorganisation of agency priorities and structures. Some departments ceased to exist (such as Department of Regional Australia), others split (DEEWR into two departments, Education and Employment) and still others had parts ‘broken off’ and moved elsewhere (Health and Ageing, which lostRead… Read more »

Farewell to the Victorian Government eGovernment Resource Centre

The Victorian Government eGovernment Resource Centre was launched more than ten years ago as a repository of news and information about eGovernment from around the world. The eGovernment Resource Centre in 2002 The site (at www.egov.vic.gov.au) grew to contain tens of thousands of resources and articles on eGovernment and related topics, attracting tens of thousandsRead… Read more »

Which license should government open data be released under? (CC0 vs CCBY)

An interesting article was brought to my attention by John Sheridan as below, on the use of CC0 licensing of government data. RT @digiphile: Advocates Release Best Practices for Making #opengov Data “License-Free” http://t.co/4mWWaUhsIY #opendata #cc0 #gov2au— John Sheridan (@sherro58) December 15, 2013 The article, Advocates Release Best Practices for Making Open Government Data “License-Free”,Read… Read more »

The great Gov 2.0 ‘sporting’ contest between Australia and Britain

Not this urn… It’s December, and Brits and Aussies alike have turned their thoughts to Christmas, family, parties, holidays and travel. There’s also a very special content underway down-under between Britain and Australia, consuming the thoughts of millions. It all revolves around a very particular type of urn… An urn containing the ashes of AustralianRead… Read more »