Australian Government explores ways to use Web 2.0

Stuart Corner
Monday, 22 June 2009 13:04

Business IT - Technology

The Australian Federal Government has set up a taskforce to investigate how it can use new 'Web 2.0' approaches to expand the uses of Commonwealth information and improve its consultation and engagement with citizens, and it has given it $2.45m, courtesy of Microsoft, to put its ideas into practice.

The taskforce will be chaired by Dr Nicholas Gruen, CEO of Lateral Economics of who is billed as "a prominent blogger and one of the key thinkers on regulation and technology in Australia." Other members have been drawn from the private and public sectors and academia. A full list is available on the taskforce's web site http://gov2.net.au.

The taskforce was launched by the minister for finance and deregulation, Lindsay Tanner, and the Special Minister of State, senator Joe Ludwig at a Government 2.0 Public Sphere event in Canberra, hosted by senator Kate Lundy and designed to improve government engagement with citizens through Web 2.0 tools.

Ludwig said: "This taskforce builds on our FoI reforms to date by seeking to free up government data and information to enhance government accountability. It will also allow business and others to innovate with government information so that it is more useful and compelling to others."

He added: "Importantly, the taskforce will not just provide advice to government. It will also be able to fund initiatives and incentives which demonstrate the value of government 2.0 objectives."

$2.45m has been allocated to the taskforce to support the development of Web 2.0 tools and applications that either enable engagement between government and the community or support the innovative use of government information. These funds are in addition to the running costs of the taskforce; these will be met by the Department of Finance and Deregulation.

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