Open government and technology — new directions and challenges

Presentation to 30th Anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 conference

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• Government publications are vital to understand policy and its implementation

• In an era of evidence based policy documents used to support policy development will increasing be public – short term access models are not adequate

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Government information

Types Purposes

Reports What has the agency done?Accountability Can be issue specific

White papers For consultation on policy

Green papers Policy announcements

Research Evidence base/open policy making

Guidelines Implementation/service delivery

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Some key developmentsYear Report/change

1964 Commonwealth Parliamentary Select Committee on Parliamentary and Government Publications report (Erwin report)

1997 Management of Government Information as a National Strategic Resource (Wainwright report)

1997 AGPS moves to NOIE

2006 Joint Committee on Publications Distribution of the Parliamentary Papers Series

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Year Report/change

2009 Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0

2010 Electronic distribution of the Parliamentary Papers Series

2010 FoI Act changes including the Information Publications Scheme

Establishment of Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

2012 Senator the Hon Penny Wong announces “greater reliance on publishing online only”

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Policy responsibilities include

• Attorney Generals Department• Department of Finance and Deregulation,

including AGIMO

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Towards an Australian Government Information PolicyPrinciples on open public sector information

1: Open access to information – a default position

2: Engaging the community

3: Effective information governance

4: Robust information asset management

5: Discoverable and useable information

6: Clear reuse rights

7: Appropriate charging for access

8: Transparent enquiry and complaints processes http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/papers/issues_paper1_towards_australian_government_information_policy.pdf

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What has happened to government publishing?• Devolved responsibilities• Overall trend reduction in “publications” of

around 50% over the past decade (recorded in NBD)

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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 20120

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

Commonwealth government publications recorded in Na-tional Bibliographic Database

Tit

les

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Agency in 2011• Consistent with figures from the NBD which show reduced publishing (NBD)

by about 50% from 2001 to 2011.  • Now majority are online.

2001 20110%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

Not online

Online

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One agency – a decade of change

• 2001 publications – where did online publications go?

On agency website29%

On another website (university, OECD)

19%

Pandora24%

No longer available online29%

Agency A: 2001 online publications loca-tions in 2012

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Agency B – early adopted of online publishing

published electronically not published electronically0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Agency B - 2001 publications

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Available online21%

No longer available online

79%

Agency B 2001 electronic publications

Available online includes title available on PANDORA (20%) and a university website (20%)

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Discoverability

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Issues: Long term access

– Agencies often have only the most up to date manual or guidance

– Around 10% of material is not online (see http://www.anao.gov.au/uploads/documents/2008-09_Audit_Report_37.pdf and this study)

– Directories - only latest information online– Machinery of government changes mean

website addresses change and documents are “archived” or lost

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Challenges: finding

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Issues

• Do we have the right policy mechanisms?• Are individual agencies the appropriate

solution?• Is creative commons or public domain the

right policy framework?

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Developments

• DOFD and NLA in discussion• Publications are

– A Policy record– Fundamental to transparency– Potential use cannot be predicted

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Questions

•  Do agencies have a common understanding that long term access is important?

• Do we have an infrastructure that supports this?

• Do we have the right legal environment? • What can we do about the “dark age”?

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2013

• An election before 30 November 2013

• Machinery of government changes coming