1. Diving Into the Unknown: Giselle Sperber and Her
Story With www.vic.gov.au
People who want to join the fellowship program with us here at Code for
Australia all have one thing in common; they think about the future, and make
government work for you in the 21st century. A fellow is someone who wants
to dive into the unknown, and address an issue no matter what size.
That is exactly what Giselle Sperber did, as she briefly shifted her focus from
working with Code for America to Code for Australia. Giselle moved to
Melbourne for six weeks, where she spent time with the Digital Engagement
team in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet. Here, Giselle was asked
to use her tech skills to imagine what the future of the vic.gov.au website
looks like.
Giselle “was extremely excited, as (she) had never worked at a state level
before”. By taking advantage of an opportunity and venturing outside of ones
comfort zone, invaluable lessons can be learnt that may prove to be useful in
the future. You never know how much of an impact you can have until you try,
and the learning process never seems to stop, as we can see from Giselle’s
experience.
“But wait! Did you say government? Doesn’t that mean boring seminars,
boring people, and boring work?” Not at all! A 21st century government
requires 21st century thinkers, those who can provide us with modern
technological innovations, creative problem solving, and those who can talk to
people as well as computers.
Here at Code for Australia, we believe that effective teamwork and
communication are essential for success and helping to find different ways to
tackle various issues. That is exactly what Giselle and her team did, and
utilised various techniques and UX exercises to analyse and compare the
current vic.gov.au website to other examples in order to identify potential
improvements and suggestions that could be made.
After speaking with Giselle, she told us that “it was a really great experience”,
and already misses the city of Melbourne. As can be seen with Giselle’s story,
by connecting with others, collaborating ideas together, and completely
immersing oneself into a project, the fellowship program can open doors to a
vast amount of new and exciting opportunities. The fellowship program helps
us to help you, and together we can make a substantial improvement to city
life using the innovations of civic-tech.