Not a topic that has inspired much discussion so far! But here at eKnowledge Structures, Dagmar Parer and I have been wrestling with our brief under Taskforce Project 7.

The proposed new Freedom of Information legislation, together with the Bill establishing the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) are scheduled to come into Parliament by 2009. If the Bills are passed, the Commissioner will have some fairly wide powers relating to Commonwealth information management. The Information Publication Scheme (IPS) will be mandatory for all Commonwealth Departments and agencies. Queensland has been in the forefront with such Schemes, basing its approach on the UK model. It has clearly influenced not only the new Commonwealth legislation but also the Government Information (Public Access) Act in NSW, and the Right to Information Bill in Tasmania.

We are considering how these schemes might be constructed and implemented in a way that actually results in assisting the Government’s objectives for more pro-active and open disclosure of, and around, information held by Government agencies.

Some questions to kick off discussion are:

• There is a risk that the IPS will be seen by agencies as just an additional compliance chore to add to their existing list – Annual Reports, Senate lists of files, etc. How can we minimise this risk?
• Can the IPSs be implemented so that they act as a catalyst for more integrated agency information management planning and practices, and clearer information pathways for the public?
• The Bill (section 8A) refers to ‘operational information’ which must be published, and allows that ‘the agency may publish other information held’. Is there a right balance between maximum pro-active disclosure under these clauses and the potentially extra costs of publishing and maintaining very little used material on agency websites?
• Can we use IPS’s to advance the visibility, availability and utility of government data from a much wider range of agencies?
• How best can the OIC create initial momentum for a positive roll-out of Schemes across government, and then assist agencies in the on-going plans required by the new Act?

Or any other comments!

Government 2.0 Taskforce Emailed Submission

Author: Andrew Leigh

Submission Text:

From the standpoint of researchers, one of the things that the Taskforce should strongly support is more data. A few examples are below.

• State and territory governments should release geocoded crime statistics of all crime reports. See for example this website created by the New York Times:
http://projects.nytimes.com/crime/homicides/map

• FaHCSIA should release all data (including prices and quality ratings) from its annual Child Care Census.

• The Taskforce should encourage projects such as the digitisation of MP interest registers by http://www.openaustralia.org/.

I’d like to open this thread up as a kind of repository to which anyone can add to an inventory of data sets that should be made public. Andrew has mentioned data held by state government agencies. Of course our only clear jurisdiction is in the Federal arena but I think we should be prepared to both talk about and make suggestions/recommendations regarding data held by other agencies – it’s up to them whether they want to accept them. In that spirit I’ll reiterate something I’ve argued previously namely that we should publish (pdf) data on individual companies workers compensation premiums where this provides reasonable information about their past safety record.

So please feel free to use this thread as a record of all the data you, the community think does, should or might exist that we should be trying to get freed to enable us to lead slightly more informed, and so slightly better lives.

For example over the last five years I have worked closely with a number of government projects designed to develop policy, technical and licensing solutions – such as the Government Information Licensing Project (GILF) (see its Stage 2 Report).  Our team has also worked closely with federal agencies such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics who are now providing free PSI under CC licences, AGIMO and the Cross Jurisdictional Chief Information Officers Committee (CJCIOC). 

I know that most governments in the country are now doing work in this area and many individuals and industries are also active.

Can people let us know what they are doing, proposing to do or want to do in this space?  Preferably for the record, make a comment on this blog but if you wish communicate with us is in some other way. 

(Note, this is intended to be a first cut at a project which the Taskforce may wish to do in a more systematic way, and as a result we’re likely to return to the subject more formally. But in the meantime, I thought this would be a useful preliminary exercise).

In June 2008 the OECD recommended a set of principles for enhanced access to and use of PSI.  Australia is a member of the OECD.

The Review of the National Innovation System (Cutler Review) in the Venturous Australia report in late 2008 recommended amongst other things that “Recommendation 7.7 – Australia should establish a National Information Strategy to optimise the flow of information in the Australian economy.”  (See Chapter 7 generally)

A comprehensive literature review of access policies and principles has been undertaken by our research group at QUT.

 Last Thursday the Victorian Parliament’s EDI Committee released it report titled: Inquiry into Improving Access to Victorian Public Sector Information and Data