1. Open government and technology —
new directions and challenges
Presentation to 30th Anniversary of the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 conference

2. • 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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3. 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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4. Some key developments
Year 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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5. 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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6. Policy responsibilities include
• Attorney Generals Department
• Department of Finance and Deregulation,
including AGIMO
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7. Towards an Australian Government
Information Policy
Principles 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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8. 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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9. Commonwealth government publications recorded in
National Bibliographic Database
8,000
7,000
6,000
5,000
Titles
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
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10. 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.
120%
100%
80%
Not online
60%
Online
40%
20%
0%
2001 2011
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11. One agency – a decade of change
• 2001 publications – where did online publications go?
Agency A: 2001 online publications
locations in 2012
On agency
No longer website
available online 28%
29%
Pandora
24%
On another
website
(university, OECD)
19%
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12. Agency B – early adopted of online
publishing
Agency B - 2001 publications
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
published electronically not published electronically
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13. Agency B 2001 electronic publications
Available
online
21%
No longer
available online
79%
Available online includes title available on PANDORA (20%) and a university website (20%)
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14. Discoverability
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15. 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/2
008-09_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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16. Challenges: finding
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17. 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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18. Developments
• DOFD and NLA in discussion
• Publications are
– A Policy record
– Fundamental to transparency
– Potential use cannot be predicted
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19. 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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20. 2013
• An election before 30 November 2013
• Machinery of government changes
coming
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