Friday, October 30, 2009

The growing mobile internet landscape - but where's government?

2009 has been called the year of mobile internet - and with good reason.

The iPhone has become the fastest adopted consumer electronics product in history. Google's Android has become a serious mobile platform and smartphones of every shade have continued to multiple exponentially.

The mobile internet has been growing faster than any digital platform in history, as the below chart from Morgan Stanley as reported in TechCrunch's article, How The iPhone Is Blowing Everyone Else Away (In Charts), demonstrates.



So how is Australia's government getting involved in the mobile revolution?

We have seen the first smartphone games - from the Department of Defense and VicRoads.

We've also seen applications that mashup government data such as FoodWatch NSW using the NSW Food Authority database and the National Toilet Map.

However to my knowledge no state or federal government services have - as yet - been delivered on a native smartphone platform.

I wonder when we'll see the first. I don't expect they are far away.

By the way, while Australian governments haven't developed many applications, efforts are now underway to classify the thousands that already exist, as reported in the ITnews article, Classification board seeks to censor iPhone apps.

Read full post...

Using forums to engage the community

Dr Crispin Butteriss of Bang the Table gave the presentation below at the IAP2 Conference in Perth October 2009.

It provides an excellent view of how governments can use forums to engage communities, including unveiling what types of feedback you can expect.

Thanks to Matthew Crozier who brought my attention to this over at Ozloop.

Read full post...

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Media after empire - what's next for old media?

Mark Scott, the Managing Director of ABC, has written a very interesting piece in Unleashed about the future of 'old media' empires entitled, Media after Empire.

While it's not specifically about Government, I thought it had some very interesting comments about 'empires' which resonate with some of the challenges that the public sector faces in the digital age.

Read full post...

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Short takes for public sector management - Shift happens & Did you know?

If you're having difficulty getting across to your management the magnitude of the impact of the internet and changes in society, try showing them one or more of these videos - each is only around eight minutes long.

They provide a snapshot (in figures) of the changes taking place in the world.

In case you experience resistance, mention that Did you know 3.0 was used by New York State's CIO, Dr Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, in her presentation at the recent CEBIT Gov 2.0 conference.

Did you know 4.0 (2009)


Did you know 3.0 (2008)


Did you know 2.0 (2007)


Shift Happens (Did you know 1.0) (2006)

Read full post...

Finding Australian government on social media

It can be quite hard at times to find out who in Australian government is doing what using social media.

However due to a new service from the Victorian government it is possible to easily see what Victoria's state and local governments are doing online.

Hosted at Victoria Online, the social media section provides,

a comprehensive list of social media pages for local, state and federal government. This includes RSS feeds, podcasting, photo sharing and various other online communication tools.

Read full post...

Bookmark and Share