I know full well that senior officials within the Australian Public Service do not like the disclosures and discussions taking place on OZloop.



In particular, they do not like the fact that we are highlighting the systemic nature of problems often attributed to organisational culture. More to the point they do not like the fact that many of these problems are attributable to the very notions of management, leadership and hierarchy they hold dear. One word sums this up.… Continue

Undermining FOI and Open Government

The primary purpose of this post was (and still is), to provide an update on my freedom of information request to Comcare, the Australian Public Service Commission and there Australian Taxation Office. My request concerned the monitoring of OZloop and was quite detailed. If you haven't read it already, you might like to do so …

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I have seen many examples of Australian Public Service agencies undertaking sham consultations with the community, employees and stakeholders. We all have a good idea of the strategies.

• Loaded questions for surveys

• Pick a time when people…

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I have known for some time that OZloop is being monitored. What I would like to make clear is that there is nothing unusual about Australian Public Service agencies monitoring both offline and online media activities. Indeed, it is something that should be expected, not feared and not regarded as 'spying'.

However, the speed, agility and democratic nature of social media has changed the equation for the public service. Robust online conversation is increasingly the norm and it…

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After reading the Canberra Times article Bureaucrats warned against online gossip one could be forgiven for thinking that the 'silly season' has hit with a vengeance.

 

My major concern with what has been reported is that many of the views expressed are at odds…

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I recently revisited a paper entitled Perfect Policies, Putrid Practices written by Karen Grogan and Sandra Dann. The paper examines workplace bullying in the public sector.

Much of the research draws on work done around the mid 1990s. I want to draw your attention to one particular comment made in the paper concerning the degree of self congratulatory behaviour associated with having…

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About the project

The purpose of the project is to construct an ideal type of open government. The fundamentals of the approach draw on the work of the sociologist …

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Some time ago a good friend of mine drew my attention to an article by Kate Dempsey entitled Public Sector Values as a Talisman against 'evil'. The article raises questions about how such values are used, not so much the values themselves.

 

On 1 February 2012 I received a response from the…

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Yesterday President Barack Obama launched the Open Government Partnership.



Fantastic for sure >>> http://www.opengovpartnership.org/



And great to see Australia represented by our Information Commissioner, John McMillan.



So momentum is clearly building.



Now imagine, if you will, that this means that government is progressing at 70 kilometres per hour. Now imagine that public service departments… Continue

OK. Rapid fire thoughts.

 

Follow the flow of these links: 

 

Fear of change brought on by sudden onslaught of #gov20

 

HowTo.gov

 

Social media

 …

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Last month our Chief Minister gave a public commitment to having the most open government in Australia.



It is good to see some practical activity taking place with the social media presence of the ACT Government now on a single web page http://bit.ly/oShsyn



Having worked in small jurisdiction myself (Northern Territory Public Sector), I do know how agile such jurisdictions can be.



So let's keep an eye on developments in the… Continue

As you will see from my previous post on Gov 2.0 Advocacy I have been rethinking things a bit. Now to move on.



On the OZloop main page you will see that I've posted a survey on the Gov 2.0 Taskforce's key recommendation of a… Continue