[Aust-NZ] What Open Government can learn from us Open Source folks

Cameron Shorter cameron.shorter at gmail.com
Tue Mar 13 02:20:14 PDT 2018


Hi David,

Thanks for your multi-level government reminder, which I've wrapped into 
a sentence in the introduction:

/"... While delivered in Australia, the vision is globally relevant, for 
all government bodies, and for all levels of government."/

I don't claim to be an expert on the mandate of the Digital 
Transformation Office, but I think that like other national departments, 
they just have mandate in the national arena (and don't have mandate 
over the states). This is something governments could get much better at.


On 27/2/18 8:06 pm, David Collins wrote:
> Hello, Cameron.
>
> The document looks good, and I like the recent edits.  I would like to 
> offer the perspective of a free-lance developer, who is using open 
> spatial data from the Australian government, and the 7 state 
> governments. In the process of developing an app, I am increasing 
> accessibility to that government data, and making it more valuable.
>
> The point I'd like to make is that for my project, state government 
> data is at least as important as federal government data. For example, 
> the best roads, water ways and geographic names data is held by the 
> states.  Fortunately, most of the states have embraced Creative 
> Commons, and for the majority of the states, all of their useful data 
> is available as CC BY, which means it can be used in a commercial 
> product.  For a couple of states though, this is not yet the case.  In 
> this situation, the pricing excludes low-cost app developers like 
> myself from accessing the best available topographic data, resulting 
> in the data being only available to those with big budgets, which of 
> course include corporations like Apple, Google, ESRI, etc.
>
> I have briefly looked at the Digital Transformation Agency web-site, 
> to see who they engage with.  It includes a fairly diverse list, but I 
> have not been able to find reference to any consultation with the 
> state governments.
>
> https://www.dta.gov.au/who-we-are/how-we-engage/
>
>   * Digital 10
>   * PMO roundtable
>   * Non-government sector
>   * OECD digital economy
>   * Open Government Partnership
>
> A quote from their web-site - '/Our agency was set up in 2015 to help 
> government departments and agencies undergo digital transformation./'  
> Does this only include the federal government?
>
> I do not feel that I operate at the right level to write up a 
> recommendation in this document, but am happy for you to utilise some 
> of these thoughts if you think any of the points are relevant.
>
> Regards,
>
> *DAVID COLLINS*
> /Geologist & Developer/
>
>
> *Trilobite Solutions*
> *
> *
> http://trilobite.solutions
> *
> *
> /Woodville, //NSW, Australia, 2321/
> /Phone: +612 4930 5839/
> /
> /
>
> On Tue, Feb 27, 2018 at 8:52 AM, Cameron Shorter 
> <cameron.shorter at gmail.com <mailto:cameron.shorter at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     The Australian Government has asked for feedback on how they are
>     going at Open Government, and I've started a draft response. I'm
>     really keen to make sure that this response is well constructed
>     because I think that if listened to, understood, and acted upon,
>     then we can make a huge difference to the effectiveness of Open
>     Government worldwide - and by extension, to Open Source as well.
>
>     If you have a chance to read and provide review comments, I'd be
>     very grateful. Email me directly to get review access.
>
>     (It will take ~ 10 minutes to read. Longer if you take time to
>     think about how things should be reworded and consider what is
>     missing and should be included.)
>
>     https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jNdh4_A_cIpaHqLRFOgpvAY3JSo0Ueraam39UHFOGHs/edit#heading=h.5zu4u4o3l7zi
>     <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jNdh4_A_cIpaHqLRFOgpvAY3JSo0Ueraam39UHFOGHs/edit#heading=h.5zu4u4o3l7zi>
>
>     -- 
>     Cameron Shorter
>     Technology Demystifier, Learnosity
>     Open Technologies Consultant
>
>     M +61 (0) 419 142 254 <tel:%2B61%20%280%29%20419%20142%20254>
>
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>
>

-- 
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier, Learnosity
Open Technologies Consultant

M +61 (0) 419 142 254

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