NZ Government 2.0 ... Where Is It? [Updated]

We're approaching the one year anniversary of Welington's eGovernment Barcamp and I'd like to know two things:

1. Will there be another?
2. Wat has the "government" done?

On the first I have heard rumblings but I suspect it needs a committed bunch of people to demand that it happens - get over to the mailing list and make your voice heard.

As to the second, I read with great heart that the conversation is starting to happen. Laurence Millar's* posting, What does Web 2.0 mean for government?, is a great start and raises a fundamental hurdle that government agencies need to address, set the data free!

I am a little perturbed by the comments left as it seems that there is a desire to "talk" more ... NO!!! Talk some but DO more. This is not rocket science, there are companies larger than the NZ Government doing it, there are organisations with more at stake that the NZ Government doing it ... so why aren't they doing it?

My opinion?

• Outside the walls of most NZ government agencies is seen as "them"
• Some of "them" own newspapers, TV stations and radio talkback malarkey
• If we fvck up "they" will crucify our Minister
• If (s)he gets bad press we will get shouted at
• We'd better be 100% perfect before we do anything
• 100% perfection takes time (ie, eternity)

*sigh*

As Laurence ends his post:

So we need to increase the urgency with which we apply Web 2.0 to government - open up our content, expose our data so that it is easier to consume, rather than applying resources to redesign information dissemination. By creating objects that others can assemble we are likely to be significantly more successful at ensuring New Zealanders have access to the government information when, where and how they prefer.

Urgency does not come from "more talk" which is merely procrastination at best and paralysis by analysis at worse.

Get agile (formally or informally) and start to release small and often.
Take a look at the "event" information you are currently publishing and mak sure it's also avaiable via iCal. Look at the contact information you're setting out and use hCard - how about using the New Zealand specific hCard generator as supplied by the SSC?

In fact, look at all your information on your agencies website and see what micro formats you can use right now!

[updated] added NZ specific hCard generator

* Laurence Millar is the New Zealand Government CIO