From the Gershon Review, which is changing the way in which government departments use and procure ICT systems, through Freedom of Information reforms, to the Government 2.0 taskforce, Australia's federal representatives are reconsidering the role ICT can play.

At the apex of that revolution are three things: a growing commitment to citizen-centric government services; moves towards more open and transparent government; and a quest for greater innovation underpinned by wider access to useful government information.

Labor is promising that Government 2.0 will turn the relationship between citizens and their government upside down. To that end, it has appointed a Government 2.0 taskforce, headed by economist and blogger Nicholas Gruen.

But can it deliver?

Labor Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, Special Minister of State Joe Ludwig and Canberra's Kate Lundy certainly believe so.

Tanner has long championed open government, authoring a book entitled Open Australia as far back as 1999. Former Special Minister of State John Faulkner was also a champion of open and accountable government. Under Ludwig, Labor promises Freedom of Information reforms will continue. And Lundy, long a champion of the internet as a means to engage with citizens has in recent months held a series of ''Public Sphere'' conferences that have employed different web 2.0 technologies to facilitate discussion about public policy.

Public Sphere 3, which will be staged in Wollongong soon, will look at how government can harness innovation in the Australian ICT sector.

Longer term, Lundy says, the plan is to export the Public Sphere model on site and web-based participation in speeches and debates on a given topic, bundled together into a Wiki and presented as policy input to non-ICT related topics.

The point of the Public Sphere workshops, Lundy says, is participation. Not the technology itself, but the opportunities for engagement technology offers.

''It's about using social networking tools to build content on a public website,'' she said. ''Just because we are using technology doesn't mean these conferences have to be about technology. I would hope these public spheres will be used in a whole range of areas.''

The establishment of a Government 2.0 taskforce, headed up by economist and blogger Nicholas Gruen, demonstrate Labor's commitment to open government.

''What is happening now with Government 2.0 is we are saying yes, we do want to innovate in this area, yes, we want to be more open,'' she says.

''The government has asked him [Gruen] to come up with a very specific strategy to highlight how Government 2.0 can work, to draw out where the government can use Web 2.0 can social networking tools.

''There is a growing list of very practical things geo-spatial information is a good example of low-hanging fruit, collected by the government, that could be made public, and it's a good example of things that could be done immediately.''

Gruen speaks boldly about (slowly) turning around what he calls a ''risk-averse'' culture in the public service.

He agrees with Lundy on the ''three pillars of Open Government'' and throws in an emphasis on ''pushing'' data out, rather than people having to seek it.

''This isn't something you can wave a wand and say it shall happen. The Crimes Act makes it an offence punishable by two years imprisonment for a public servant to release information they are not authorised to release.''

But like Lundy, Gruen says he has already identified low-hanging fruit reforms that have the potential to open up access to government information which can be easily implemented. But with his feet under the virtual desk for little more than two weeks, Gruen is reluctant to talk specifics. He is full of praise for the ''information agencies'' specifically the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the National Archives which have, he says, taken to digitisation and sharing information readily.

And he agrees that websites like OpenAustralia.org, a not-for-profit project run by four technologists, could easily produced by a government committed to information sharing. OpenAustralia collates data from the Register of Members Interests, speeches from Hansard, and biographical information from the Aph.gov.au website, sending out email alerts on individual MPs to subscribers.

It has been such a success that one-third of its subscribers have email addresses ending in .gov.au.

Nathanael Boehm, one of the four people who helps run the site in his spare time, says OpenAustralia grew out of a thirst for more freely-available government information.

''We are trying to make content more accessible, and more understandable,'' Boehm says.

''At the moment OpenAustralia is still very much based on the Hansard, it's about easy access to data and aggregating data.

''Currently you do have to be somewhat familiar with parliamentary procedure and the political environment to understand it all.''

Boehm, then, welcomes a commitment to Government 2.0, but can see room for his site and more government-run sites.

''There is a lot of good content there.''

Anecdotally, the desire for easily available information is growing.

Hansard reporters confess to using the service, such is the reliability of the site compared to the Government's own ParlInfo service.

Gruen says that Open Australia and sites like the ''spending dashboard'' recently launched by the US Government point the way ahead.

''I'm not sure that we would set that up, but it's within our remit to say that's a good idea, and to fund experiments towards it,'' Gruen says.

''It's certainly true that some countries have been faster out of the blocks than we have been. The UK has an office of public sector information but they are not so far ahead. This openness is something that suits Australians too, we tend to be practical not ideological.''

gov2.net.au

ka telundy.com.au/category/campaigns /publicsphere/

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