Real-world web engagement
Richard Bajraszewski from the CPA library explains how web services solve genuine problems.
Just about anyone and everyone has the opportunity to make available online their own digital content. These opportunities are often associated with online companies and services that have either grabbed media attention or notoriety, or whose success has derived from a multitude of users logging on.
The web also offers examples of the application of these types of services to working out real problems or eliciting opinion and feedback. Two examples of governments trying to encourage collaboration and involvement are from France and New Zealand.
Cyber budget is an online game from the French government that encourages users to try to balance the French Budget. If you are successful you will be shown sequences of boatloads of English coming over to France from across the Channel to share in your triumphs. Failure could see your compatriots escaping to England!
In trying to tap into the opinions and thoughts of its citizenry, as part of its Police Act review, the New Zealand Government used a wiki to get contributions for a rewrite of the Act itself. There is no guarantee that these online contributions will be taken on board, but moderator comments on the site indicate the suggestions are being taken seriously. This is a welcome enhancement to the submissions often sought from interested stakeholders when legislation is due for change. You wonder how this might be applied to a review of, say, Australia's much-maligned tax Acts.
The public consultations page from the Australian Government contains a link to its report Principles for ICT-Enabled citizen engagement, with some current examples and opinions on online engagement included.
As mentioned in February's Webwatch, the knowledge networks team will be bringing you more opportunities to contribute, interact with and share knowledge online to help you stay informed and up to date. CPA Australia members can contact the knowledge networks team with their experiences of Web 2.0. If you are maintaining a blog, MySpace or FaceBook pages, have uploaded items to YouTube, or have written or contributed to wiki pages, or are using any other web services, we would like to hear from you.
Further information
Reference: March 2008, volume 78:02, p. 19
