[Linux-aus] Helping the Australian Government learn how to collaborate better

[Cameron Shorter]

Thanks Luke,

Will be great to have you on board, and great to have some help 
gathering support.

I'm currently collating a draft for a response, and am hoping to have a 
straw man to collaborate around by the end of this weekend.

At the moment I'm working in a Google Doc (to allow for easy collection 
of review comments). But if someone knows something better to use before 
we start collaborating, then I'm ready to switch.

Cheers, Cameron

On 20/2/18 10:31 am, Luke Carbis wrote:
> Putting my hand up to help. Any past proposals or responses to 
> government that have been submitted by Linux Australia would go a long 
> way, should this idea get buy-in / approval.
>
> I’m confident I could collect a decent amount of signatures from the 
> Australian WordPress community.
>
> I have experience with submitting /petitions/ to the government in the 
> past (read in parliament), which was extremely difficult and 
> impossible to do digitally (actual papers must be submitted with hand 
> written signatures, all sorts of rules about how many signatures per 
> page, where on the page they can be written, etc.), but I’m not sure 
> if that would apply here?
>
>
> – Luke Carbis
>
>
>> On 20 Feb 2018, at 8:38 am, Cameron Shorter via linux-aus 
>> <linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au <mailto:linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au>> 
>> wrote:
>>
>> The Australian Government has asked [1] for ideas for their next Open 
>> Government National Action Plan. I think we need to respond and call 
>> on government agencies to learn how to collaborate more effectively, 
>> and to learn from our methodologies within the Open Source community.
>>
>> I think that it has been great that governments around the world have 
>> embraced very positive principles around Open Government [2], but 
>> their implementation has fallen short due to a lack of understanding 
>> of what makes Open Communities work effectively.
>>
>> Selection of the term “open” (as in “open source”, “open data”, “open 
>> government” ...) is a bit of a marketing blunder. It focuses on 
>> “what” (free software) and distracts us from the more important 
>> questions of “how” and “why”. Governments have been publishing "open" 
>> datasets but not considering the more important aspects of 
>> collaboration and project sustainability.
>>
>> I propose that Linux Australia submit an open letter recommending 
>> that the Australian government recognise the limitations of current 
>> government collaboration initiatives. We should provide practical 
>> guidance on how government should address collaboration in the 
>> upcoming Open Government National Action Plan.
>>
>> If others believe this is worth pursuing, I'm prepared put in a 
>> significant amount of the work required to get such a proposal 
>> written. (I have quite a bit of material which I can draw upon already).
>>
>> Questions:
>>
>> * What's involved in getting buy-in/approval to write something on 
>> behalf of Linux Australia?
>>
>> * What process has been used in the past to collaboratively craft 
>> responses from Linux Australia?
>>
>> * I suspect it would be valuable to collect signatures from multiple 
>> organisations and individuals in order to add weight to the open 
>> letter. Any suggestions on ways to achieve this?
>>
>> * Anyone else interested in helping crafting such as response?
>>
>> Who am I?
>>
>> For those who don't know me, I've been involved in the geospatial 
>> open source community for over a decade. Of note, a few years ago I 
>> co-authored [3] an open letter on behalf of open source community 
>> which resulted in us successfully defending geospatial open standards.
>>
>> [1] 
>> https://mailchi.mp/73feb7beca31/developing-australias-next-open-government-national-action-plan-2018-1107129?e=0429b6534e
>>
>> [2] https://www.opengovpartnership.org/open-government-declaration
>>
>> [3] 
>> https://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/06/03/2229245/gis-community-blocks-esris-geospatial-open-standard-rest-api
>>
>> -- 
>> Cameron Shorter
>> Technology Demystifier, Learnosity
>> Open Technologies Consultant
>>
>> M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>>
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>

-- 
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier, Learnosity
Open Technologies Consultant

M +61 (0) 419 142 254

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