The document discusses the rise of social media use in Australian government, with over 73% of agencies now using social media for official purposes. It explores how the concepts of open government are expanding through Gov 2.0 initiatives that empower citizens to participate more directly in decision-making. Gov 2.0 represents a shift towards creating a more participatory relationship between governments and citizens through the use of digital technologies and open data.

1. Craig Thomler
Gov 2.0 Advocate
Managing Director
Delib Australia
11 June 2013
Social media and Gov
2.0 in Aussie
government

2. What is
social media?

3. About.com – Media is an instrument on
communication, like a newspaper or a radio,
so social media would be a social instrument
of communication
Affilorama - Social media is content created and shared by individuals
on the web using freely available websites that allow users to create
and post their own images, video and text information and then share
that with either the entire internet or just a select group of friends
BlackBox Social Media – Social media is any online media platform
that provides content for users and also allows users to participate in
the creation or development of the content in some way
CubixDev - Social Media is the new term for socialising
online. It allows people to freely interact with each other
online where-ever they are and whenever they want
Fresh Networks – Social media is people having
conversations online. These conversations can
take a variety of forms; for example, blogs and
comments or photo sharing
Health is Social – Social Media is the
meeting place between people and
technology
Get a Social Boost –
Digital word of mouth
Michelle Digital – Social
media is life online
Optimize Your Web Presence – Social media are online venues,
such as social networking sites, blogs and wikis that enable people
to store and share information called content, such as text,
pictures, video and links
ProPR – Social media are online communications in which
individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and
author. To do this, they use social software that enables anyone
without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up
content and to form communities around shared interests
Relationship Economy –
Social media is
communications
The Financial Brand – Social
media isn’t about the media, it’s
about being social
Webgeekly - Social Media is generally any
website or service that uses Web 2.0
techniques and concepts
Wikipedia - Social media are media
for social interaction, using highly
accessible and scalable publishing
techniques
Many definitions for social media…

4.  Facilitates user-generated content
 Facilitated by social connections
 Distribution is zero or low cost
 Supports flowing discussions (low barriers to
participation)
 Allows the community to ‘do’ for themselves
 Use open frameworks that support integration &
extension
Social media has in common…

5.  Blogs
 Groups and Forums (Whirlpool, Google Groups)
 Wikis (Wikipedia, Wikispaces)
 Social networking (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Google+)
 Social bookmarking (Delicious)
 Social news (Digg, Reddit)
 Micro-blogs (Twitter, Yammer)
 Community Q&A (Yahoo Answers)
 Multimedia sharing (YouTube, Slideshare, Scribd)
 Ideas markets (Dialogue App, Ideascale, GetSuggestion)
 Collaborative budgeting (Budget Simulator)
 Product and service reviews (Epinions, Yelp)
 Emerging tools (Group buying, Pinterest, Crowd funding)
 Each has different uses
Social media includes…

6.  Just for teenagers and young adults
 50+ age group is the fastest growing on Facebook and Twitter
 30% of Facebook users are aged 35-49
 Average age of Twitter users is 31, of LinkedIn users 39 years old.
 All low quality content
 An independent study in 2005 by Nature Magazine found Wikipedia and
Encyclopedia Britannica had about the same rate of errors
 Since then, reviews in 2007, 2008 & 2012 have found Wikipedia is at least as,
if not more, reliable than commercial encyclopedias in a range of topics.
 Unproductive
 “People who surf the Internet for fun at work - within a reasonable limit of
less than 20% of their total time in the office - are more productive by about
9% than those who don’t”.
Dr Brent Coker, Dept of Management & Marketing, University of Melbourne
 Going away
What social media is not…

7. What about
Australia?

8. Source: Sensis Social Media Report May 2012
93%
99%
99%
100%
97%
99%
98%
65+ yrs
50-64yrs
40-49yrs
14-39yrs
Female
Male
Total
Australia’s internet use

9. Source: Sensis Social Media Report May 2012
Australia’s social media use
38%
62%
38%
62%
Never
Use social media
2011 2012

10. Source: Sensis Social Media Report May 2012
Australia’s social media use
38%
6%
19%
36%
38%
9%
24%
30%
Never
Less than weekly
Weekly
Everyday
2011 2012

11. Source: Facebook March 2013 / ABS Census 2012
Facebook in NSW
Based on residents aged 15+
2,109,315
1,020,701
3,599,380
2,620,620
NSW
Sydney
Use Facebook Don't use Facebook
(72%)
(63%)

12. Source: Facebook May 2013 / ABS Census 2012
Facebook in Victoria
Based on residents aged 15+
1,534,209
1,235,920
2,821,040
2,024,880
Victoria
Greater Melbourne
Use Facebook Don't use Facebook
(62%)
(65%)

14. What about
Australian
governments?

15. In mid-2012:
73%
of Australian Government agencies
reported using social media for
official purposes
The social media majority

16. What the Australian Government is
using social media for..
Answer choice Response Share
For stakeholder engagement or collaboration 32 54.24%
Operating an information campaign 25 42.37%
Responding to customer enquiries/comments/complaints 25 42.37%
For engaging with journalists and media outlets 24 40.68%
For engagement or collaboration with other government
agencies
24 40.68%
Monitoring citizen, stakeholder and/or lobbyist views and
activities
17 28.81%
For a public consultation process 16 27.12%
For a stakeholder or other restricted access consultation 13 22.03%
Other type of activity (i.e. recruitment, crowdsourcing, staff) 11 18.64%
For policy or services co-design 7 11.86%

17. Over 1,000 online consultations in last four years
Over 860 Departmental Twitter accounts
Over 120 agency blogs
Over 250 Facebook pages
Over 300 agency mobile apps
Over 200 agency YouTube channels
At least 12 data competitions (13th in June)
At least 6 open data sites (7th coming in May)
All levels of Aus government

18. Growth in Twitter use

19. Open government & Gov 2.0

20. • Citizens have a right to access
government documents and
proceedings to support effective public
oversight
• Citizens have a right to have their views
considered during government decision
making.
Dates back to European Enlightenment
in the 18th Century.
Traditional open government

21. Is expanding to include:
• Citizens have a right to access, repurpose
and reuse government open data (PSI)
• Expectation that government should
develop and use open systems, sharing
them across agencies and communities.
• Decision-making should be citizen-centric,
government’s role is to coordinate, curate
views & implement citizen decisions.
Open government today

22. The big change
in openness…
Present
Citizens are
(or wish to be)
active participants
in governance
processes and
decisions.
Past
Citizens considered
passive subjects of
governments (albeit
with some right to
scrutinise decisions
and processes).

23. Source: https://www.facebook.com/FatherPiotrWisniowski

24. The difference between
Open Government and
Government 2.0

26. Open government is the philosophy (Why).
Government 2.0 is about the process & tools
for achieving open government (How).
IMHO - the difference

27.  Using tools and techniques enabled by digital
technologies to bring citizens 'inside the tent'.
 Empowering citizens to be active participants in
government decision-making processes and
supporting them to do for themselves.
 Opening up public data for public reuse to inform
and enable new insights, better decisions and
more effective policy.
 Initiatives from individuals and non-government
organisations as well as government.
Government 2.0 includes...

28. Government 2.0
(in my humble opinion)
is creating a fundamental shift
in the relationship between
citizens and governments,
to the benefit of both.

30. Inform
Consult
Involve
Collaborate
Empower
Source: IAP2.org
Gov 2.0 by goal

31. Inform http://www.police.act.gov.au/crime-and-safety/crime-statistics.aspx

32. Inform https://www.facebook.com/theline

33. Inform http://www.detentionlogs.com.au/data/incidents

34. Inform http://theopenbudget.org/

35. Consult http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/spend_spendingchallenge.htm

36. Consult http://surveys.getup.org.au/s3/YourElectionSurvey2013

37. Involve http://www.challenge.gov

38. Involve http://www.fixmystreet.org.au/

39. Collaborate http://transcribe.naa.gov.au/

40. Collaborate http://www.electionleaflets.org.au/

41. Empower http://stjornlagarad.is/english/

42. Empower http://hackerspace.govhack.org/?q=groups/open-index

43. • Doesn't replace existing approaches...
it can supplement and amplify them
• Doesn't work for all audiences or
issues...
but does work for some that are
otherwise unreachable/intractible
• Gov 2.0 & social media can't solve
problems…people do
Gov 2.0 & social media caveats

44. Craig Thomler
craig@delib.net
@CraigThomler
http://eGovAU.blogspot.com
www.delib.net/australia/
@Delibaunz