Amphibious Ship for Earthquake Relief

The Royal New Zealand Navy reported that multi-role vessel (MRV) HMNZS Canterbury was alongside in Lyttelton when an earthquake struck on 22 February 2011. The ship was able to immediately begin relief operations.Unfortunately Media reports indicate that the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has no comparable ships available to assist, with all in for repair. ThisRead… Read more »

Green City Streets – Web 2.0 for Sustainable Transport

Just started a blog called Green City Streets (http://greencitystreets.blogspot.com/). The blog’s purpose is to explore the application of Web 2.0 techniques to create more sustainable transportation systems. It’s a topic I have been interested in for many years; here are a few of my papers on the subject: An Integrated Web 2.0 Approach for ImprovingRead… Read more »

The Internet and Australia parliamentary democracy

I was a little surprised to find myself mentioned in “The Internet and Australia parliamentary democracy” by K Magarey (Parliamentary Affairs, Oxford University Press, July 1, 1999):Tom Worthington, an influential IT policy commentator, has reflected that the process of the government’s entry to the on-line environment amounted to a process of ‘reconciling traditional bureaucratic cultureRead… Read more »

The indispensable university

“The Indispensable University: Higher Education, Economic Development, and the Knowledge Economy” by Eugene P. Trani, Robert D. Holsworth (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010) discusses the role of the unviersity in the twenty-first century economy. I happened across this book because it references my summary of The Cambridge Phenomenon (on pages 22, 153 and 265). Product DescriptionRead… Read more »

Passion We Can Learn From These Superheroes

As much as I enjoy public service, these people enjoy it even more. I’m not kidding. They don’t have powers, but they raise money for charity, build awareness and sometimes break up fights. Gov 2.0 should look at their passion when it comes to delivering better services to citizens. See and download the full galleryRead… Read more »

Scamming S.A.T. takers?

A woman received a phone call from someone claiming to be from The College Board who wanted $129 for materials related to the S.A.T. that her grandson had supposedly ordered. Original post

Web Author Handbook Template for Government

Maintaining a consistent government website is tough when you have multiple authors. Download this free template and use it as a starting point for your own Web Author Handbook. Customize it how you wish and adapt it for your own government’s needs. Download Word and PDF templates here: http://www.govgirl.com/2011/02/web-author-handbook/ Original post

Digital Education Revolution Report

The Austrlaian National Audit Office has issued a report on the “Digital Education Revolution program — National Secondary Schools Computer Fund”. The auditor found the administration of the fund generally sound with school principals generally positive about it.The report provides a useful Summary of the Digital Education Revolution. Most of the $2.4B funding for theRead… Read more »

The end of the IT department

37 Signals’ David Heinemeier Hansson: When people talk about their IT departments, they always talk about the things they’re not allowed to do, the applications they can’t run, and the long time it takes to get anything done. Rigid and inflexible policies that fill the air with animosity. Not to mention the frustrations of speakingRead… Read more »