Social Media in Government

Following tweets and blog posts from the Social Media in Government Conference being held in Canberra this week. It sounds like some of the speakers also presented at Gov 2.0 or the Digital Management Summit so I am glad I didn't sign up for this one.

I love following the tweets with links to presentations and other sites that are being discussed! It is almost like attending. Craig Thomler is doing a liveblog link in his blog and commenting on presentations and the twitter hashtag is #socialmediagov

I have started my Masters in Knowledge Management at Charles Sturt Uni and am trying to get through my readings without being side tracked. Such interesting topics!! I am doing two library subjects before moving on to KM: The Information Society and The Digital Environment.

Also coming to terms with how my agency may be different from other Gov departments and agencies when it comes to open access, creative commons publishing etc. Challenges!! We have recently jumped into the social media world with a new blog, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube accounts. Small steps. I am also almost ready to publish our Information Publication Plan (IPP) which is required under the Government's IPS.

Gov 2.0 Conference - Canberra October 2011

A bit of background: Gov 2.0 (Government + web 2.0) is all about Government moving towards a more transparent, open culture. A recent taskforce made several recommendations – most of which the Australian Government agreed to. This has led to a drive towards increased engagement with the public: seeking input to agency policy and strategy, uptake of social media (or web 2.0 technologies) by agencies to help support this and increased openness and sharing of Government information/data and processes.  

My summary of some of the slides and presentations:

·         Nicholas Skytland, Director - Open Government Initiative, NASA – amazing!!! Great presenter, he and the team have created a culture of innovation and collaboration at NASA. The slides don’t really convey the power of his talk but some of them have interesting facts and quotes (tweeting astronauts etc). They do a lot of crowd sourcing where they ask the public (amateur star gazers) to help them identify stars and planets. They have found that putting scientific questions out into the public domain often provides a correct answer or solution faster than their scientists could. Watch this amazing concept drawing.

·         John Sheridan, First Assistant Secretary Agency Services, Australian Government Information Management Office – good to hear what AGIMO and the government is doing and planning for the future. PSI = Public Sector Information. John's blog post on the event

·         Chris Beer, IT Develop Manager, Department of Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government – interesting concept – MyRegion.gov.au. Connecting services, data and people by location in real time.....

·         Patrick McCormick, General Manager, Online Collaboration and Citizen Engagement, Department of Justice Victoria – another great speaker, this Vic Gov department are also doing fabulous things with social media and open data. Again some of these slides won’t make much sense without the commentary but some are interesting. Their internal social media policy video is a great example of transparency and sharing resources, it is available on YouTube with many other government departments adapting it for their use.

Andrew Schatz, Senior Lawyer, AGS Media – a lawyers cautionary words on using web 2.0 and open access to government information. Need to balance risk and benefits.

Rachel Spalding, Assistant Commissioner Policy, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner – need to balance open access to information and privacy.

ActKM conference - part 3

Stephen Byrne - Developing people to develop knowledge 
Sha Reilly - The unknown unknowns - making sense of expertise.

These were really interesting activities around mapping roles and capabilities to create a capability framework. Fascinating to see the range of KM capabilities and skills at the event, but would work well for any role or team in an organisation to identify gaps and outline future learning needs.

I definitely want to use this technique in the future.

Matthew Tukaki - Preparing your organisation for the future.


This was one of the most inspiring presentations I have heard for ages. Great story and well told. Matthew talked about going into an organisation as a consultant to look at their processes and structure. I was so inspired I didn't take notes......

Matthew Cain - Using IS to promote KM - iArmy wiki page

This presentation created quite a discussion around the room. It was great to see the military using new tools for sharing and managing knowledge. iArmy allows troops on the ground to communicate real time problems and experiences back to headquarters and leaders. Cain talked about the importance of organisational buy in and the importance of participation at top levels for this program to work. In such a hierarchical structure if the person at the top is taking note, those under them will make sure they are onto it too!

Good resource to read up about "after action review (AAR)" Thinking we could use this at the end of each project we manage here.

Graham Durant-Law - Using SNA for organisational and personal improvement.

Social Network Analysis (SNA)

• organisational and personal dynamics are at play
•  there is a need to identify key staff for change management (this may be the tea lady)
• he discussed link analysis and graph analysis
• brokerage roles - personal influence
• how work really gets done - personal relationships and networks
• who are the influencers int he organisation?

Vladimir Videnovic - BI, the reinforcing steel in stories. 

New York is doing some very cool stuff with social media and public engagement!! www.nyc.gov

• NYC government - 350,000 employees, US$60 billion budget and 8 million New Yorkers!
• They have a central non-emergency contact number 311 - for all queries about roads, waste management, libraries etc - all Local Government issues relating to New York City.
• They have a central cite which mashes up and provides access to all city data - provided by different agencies and organisations. They had to move to standardised and consistent reporting to achieve this. Non-secured, non-taxpayer information only.
• There is a central citizens portal for the public to use to follow up on queries and to encourage open engagement and promote accountability.
• Mayor Bloomberg wants to know if his cops illegally park. He wants to 'sack that guy'!

That's all folks (few got it all down, eventually)! I am sure I have forgotten many good bits.

I met some lovely KMers and made new contacts too!!

ActKM conference - part 1

I thought I'd share my notes and learnings from a recent conference I attended in Melbourne. My first Knowledge Management conference!

These are some of the points I jotted down or tweeted. I guess they are largely comments I agree or disagree with and/or learning that is relevant to my current workplace or role. Quotes and notes from each speaker in bullet points and my personal notes and comments in italics!

What keeps CEO's awake at night? actKM Forum 2011 - part 1

Phillip Ruthven - CEO of IBISWorld. Keynote.

• he mentioned the importance of IP over hard assets (real estate, equipment etc)
• believes that traditional employee/employer roles will be replaced by contracting and outsourcing (we will all have/be our own company and will contract with organisations). I am not sure about this one and if it is the future, think it will impact negatively on organisational culture, staff motivation, trust and loyalty.
• adopting an 'information mindset' - a condition of survival for organisations today
• need uniqueness in organisational culture
• world's best practice (WBP) in respect for society and environmental concerns. Where does contracting fit in with that?
• important for organisations to focus on what they do best and to diversify into new products rather than across industries

Keith De La Rue - The art of conversation.

• blurring between personal and work life increasing. Must not ignore personal aspect of people at work. Share some aspects of your life outside of work with colleagues?
• organisational hierarchy can be a blocker or barrier to open conversations. This is very true in large government organisations - extremely hierarchical.
• conversations (as opposed to meetings, which have a specific purpose) and time to think, reflect or write independently are not often encouraged in workplaces but are important creative tools.
• encourage collective intelligence (greater than individual intelligence) - conversations with equal turns, no domination, social sensitivity.
• talking to others improves individual mental function
• brief friendly conversations improve executive function - working memory, focus. I know I am invigorated after a friendly conversation with someone at work, whether it be work related or personal. I gather new ideas, get feedback and learn more about the organisation and my colleagues.
• it is important to make allowances for both extroverts and introverts in conversations and meetings and communities of practice (CoP's). Attended a smart board demonstration today which allows feedback and voting via handsets or iPhones during meetings and training sessions - interesting way of including quiet or introverted team members in discussions and decision making?

I think my agency does this pretty well - it is easier to hold regular conversations in a smallish organisation. We have monthly morning teas for all staff,  weekly all staff meetings, 'brown bag' sessions where project experiences are shared, 'technology tips' sessions and several committees. Many of my best conversations occur in the tea room over the coffee machine or in colleagues offices (I think this is a benefit over open plan work spaces also). I would like to develop more training and skill sharing sessions as well as introducing communities of practice into my workplace.

More in future posts......