2. Realising Jefferson’s dream:
Engineering for Serendipity
Nicholas Gruen E ngruen@gmail.com
Chair, Government 2.0 Taskforce T @nicholasgruen
3. Outline
• What is Web 2.0? Why does it matter?
– Public goods and the value of openness
• Government 2.0 in Australia
– Getting it going
– What we proposed
– How it’s going.
4. Jefferson’s enlightenment dream
He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction
himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his
taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That
ideas should freely spread from one to another over the
globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and
improvement of his condition, seems to have been
peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when
she made them, like fire, expansible over all space,
without lessening their density in any point, and like the
air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical
being, incapable of confinement or exclusive
appropriation.
Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson, August, 1813
6. So
ci
al
po
lic
#
y
Se Mo
c u r tg
rit ag
is e
at
io l es
n
Poo d
7. Public goods
Public goods . . . present serious
problems in human organisation.
Vincent and Elenor Ostrom - 1977
Public goods –
goods that no-one
will supply if the
government
doesn’t
8. Language
The Theory of
Moral Sentiments (1759)
• The social
preconditions
of markets
(Public Goods) The Wealth
of Nations (1776)
• Private Goods
Adam Smith
Some crucial public goods are not government built – they’re emergent
9. Public Goods [The public good of]
Justice . . . is the main
pillar that upholds the
whole edifice. If it is
removed, the great, the
immense fabric of
human society . . . must
in a moment crumble
into atoms.
Adam Smith
Private Goods
11. Web 2.0: explosion of emergent public goods
Web 2.0 platforms are public goods:
Google (1998)
Wikipedia (2001)
Blogs (early 2000s)
Facebook (2004)
Twitter (2006)
Government didn’t build any of them
12. The economics of abundance: a new birth of ‘free’dom
Public goods as an opportunity Public goods as a problem
The freedom of ideas is the liberation of our species Public goods . . . present
serious
problems in human
organisation.
Vincent and Elenor Ostrom - 1977
13. Reconfiguring the ecology of private and
public goods
– Public access to state assets: ‘Government as
platform’
• Release of public sector information
• Intangible state assets as public goods
– Building platforms that others won’t
– Opening up to global profit and not-for-profit
endeavour
• With global competitions like
• Kaggle
• Volunteers
– Integrating state capabilities into private platforms
– Reconfiguring boundaries
– Data sharing PPPs
26. 1. Correctionsmachine-translation error
User spots are saved and instantly
2. shown make text corrections as they read.
and clicksotherthis text’.
Users to ‘Fix users.
• The National Library Newspaper
digitisation project
“No stop-work,” • Site went live without launch in
2007 and correction has been
wharfies told
24/7 since
An application for a four hour stop work
• ~ 20% of correctors are
meet- overseas
• 30 mil lines of text corrected
• Julie Hempenstall from Bendigo
has corrected > 500,000 lines!
• Anne Manley from Narrawena
has corrected > 680,000
28. Public private partnerships
• Current PPPs play to each sector’s
weaknesses
• With private sector expanding into areas
that the public sector is better at
– Infrastructure financing, planning risk
• But Web 2.0 is building subtle new PPPs
29. Private goods => Public Goods
Private Goods
• Meeting private
needs
• Linking to other
websites
Google monetises Public Goods
with ads
• Google uses this
information to rank
sites
• Everyone benefits
30. Private Goods
• Platform for
recording data
Sales of data
Public Goods
• PLM aggregates
data and shares it
back as public and
private goods
38. Reconfiguring state boundaries:
Government as wholesaler
• Utility reform shrank natural monopoly aspects of utilities
• Government 2.0 involves governments ‘wholesaling’ core services
and opening up retail.
• Utility reform opened space for for-profit competition
– Motive is economic
• Government 2.0 energy can come from for-profit or not-for-profit
– Motives economic, social and democratic
43. Improvising an info-
structure
Global CrisisCommons
Within 2 hours of #eqnz
Global volunteers parse
300,000 tweets.
“Shell 58 Barrack Rd out
of petrol – only diesel”.
Agencies fussed, helped
and obstructed.
44. Outside the walls: Inside
the machine worksa25t n
• If Justin McMurray
w
y ou
hours a week for Verizon, who
might be prepared to volunteer
for:
w ay Archives,
ny
– Galleries, Libraries,
a
Museums
t– The research sector?
en – Helping
ernm • the aged,
o v • the sick,
G
• the disadvantaged?
re
Justin McMurry, Keller, • the environment?
ig u Texas
• Volunteers from the helpers and
nf
helped
C o
52. Global Competitions
Predicting HIV viral load • Revenue or sales
forecasts
00
• Traffic forecasting
5 • Energy demand
U S$ • Predicting crime
• Tax/social security fraud
• Hospital casualty demand
Competition closes 77% • Identifying great
• Teachers
1½ weeks 70.8%
• Schools
State of the art 70% • Hospitals
• and their best practices
Accuracy of Prediction (1 – 100%)
53. We could not be happier with the result. The Kaggle approach
has set a new benchmark in Government for the development
of successful predictive models, delivered quickly and
very cost effectively.
In particular, the flexibility of the winning predictive model will
enable its application to other major transport routes to the
CBD and allow for the addition of other factors such as
weather and incident.
Susan Calvert
Director, Strategy and Project Delivery Unit
Department Premier and Cabinet
56. Engagement on web 2.0
The goal is the three ‘Cs’
– Connections between people
– Connections between ideas
– Connections between possibilities
These connections are usually serendipitous
57. Engagement on web 2.0
The means include the three ‘Ps’
– Platforms (twitter, facebook, blogs, wikipedia)
– People (or Gregariousness) – beyond being
open – being outgoing and inviting others in
– Play (or improvisation) – doing new things that
make sense, like the twitter hashtag
And organisations are often bad at all these
things
60. International Reference Group
Richard Allan (Director of Policy, Facebook, Laurence Millar (Former NZ CIO)
EU) Geoff Mulgan (Director, Young Foundation)
Charlie Beckett (Director LSE’s Polis) Cameron Neylon (Biophysicist,l)
Steven Clift (Online strategist and innovator) John Palfry (Professor of Law at Harvard Law
David Eaves (Writer and speaker on public School)
policy) Jason Ryan (State Service Commission, NZ)
Ed Felten (Director Centre for Information Tom Steinberg (Founder, mysociety.org)
Technology Policy Princeton University) Hon. Mozelle W. Thompson (Facebook – USA)
Michael Geist (Chair, Internet and e- Nat Torkington (Chair O’Reilly Open Source
commerce law at University of Ottawa) Convention)
William Heath (IdealGovernment.Gov) Joe Trippi (Writer and political strategist)
Andrew Hoppin (CIO of New York State Carol Tullo (Head UK Office of PSI)
Senate)
Tom Watson (UK MP, Former Minister for
Eric Ketelaar (Emeritus Prof of Archivistics, Transformational Government)
University of Amsterdam)
David Weinberger (Harvard’s Berkman Institute)
Charles Leadbeater (consultant and author)
Dr Andy Williamson (UK Hansard eDemocracy
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger (Associate Prog)
Professor of Public Policy, National
University of Singapore) Ed Mayo (CEO of Consumer Focus)
Michal Migurski (Technology Head at
Stamen)
61. Declaration of Open Govt
• Online engagement by public servants should be enabled
and encouraged.
– Robust professional discussion benefits their agencies, their
professional development, and the Australian public;
• Public sector information is a national resource
– releasing as much of it on as permissive terms as possible
maximises its value and reinforces democracy;
• Open engagement at all levels of government is integral
to promoting an informed, connected and democratic
community, to public sector reform, innovation and best
use of the national investment in broadband.
61
62. International Reaction
This is a deeply impressive piece of work, very comprehensive with clear
sign posting. . . . A clear explanation of the serendipitous nature of
knowledge sharing in networks is probably a global first for a government
report.’
Tom Watson (UK MP, Former Minister for Transformational Government)
‘[T]he best piece of work I have seen any government organisation (and
most vendors and consultants) do about this topic.
Andrea DiMaio, Gartner
Personally, I think the draft —from its principled overview to its broad areas
of application — is a blueprint for democracies everywhere
David Weinberger (Harvard’s Berkman Institute)
The draft report is an impressive piece of work, assembling a vast trove of
good ideas and sound analysis. We will study and learn.
Andrew McLaughlin, Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer
63. Reaction to our report
The Australian Government 2.0 Taskforce Teaches Us A Lesson
Their report is the best piece of work I have seen by a government-driven initiative
around government 2.0. But I would also like to praise the way members of the
taskforce worked over the last few months.
Their blog was a constant source of thoughtful considerations, and their debate
went on in the open, being as informative as the report itself. They participated in
external debates, by reading other people’s blogs, reaching out and commenting.
For what I have seen, as I had a few chances to interact with them, the level of
engagement and openness they have achieved was truly exemplary, with a level of
humility that made their excellent skills even stronger.
2nd of top ten things
A truly excellent report in a remarkably short period of time, reaching out to experts
inside and outside government worldwide, and showing a rare attitude to listening to
other people’s opinions.
Australia is the place where the government 2.0 taskforce has
recognized the centrality of employees and the federal
government has bought into that idea.
63
78. Web 2.0 is not IT
IT Web 2.0
Mechanical Social
Technological Communicative
$$$$$ $
Elaborately planned Often improvised
Governance - Governance
Impossible - Just difficult
Government as platform
Government Departments GLAM Sector
84. Our subject matter — government and the
use of Web 2.0 tools and approaches — is
moving with dizzying speed. As a
consequence, our challenge has been to
avoid the gimmickry of the latest fad in
favour of outlining how the new
approaches might reinvigorate the time-
honoured and hard-won traditions of
modern democratic government.
85. But we can’t control social media
ed ia?
m m
strea
ain
m
ntrol
o
yo uc
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Editor's Notes
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/simon-burall/when-local-can%E2%80%99t-happen-locally Web 2.0 Ideas that work Mass Transit, Fix my street, Kaggle Ideas that don ’ t Obama ’ s brainstorming Budget challenge What ’ s the difference? Recipe(s) for success Structure All the failures are by governments
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/simon-burall/when-local-can%E2%80%99t-happen-locally Web 2.0 Ideas that work Mass Transit, Fix my street, Kaggle Ideas that don ’ t Obama ’ s brainstorming Budget challenge What ’ s the difference? Recipe(s) for success Structure All the failures are by governments
There are countless models that can be applied to solve any one predictive analytics problem. It is impossible to know at the outset which technique will be most effective.
Many are academics who want access to real world data and problems
