Blog: Government 2.0 Taskforce

from Pool team, 09.10.09

One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war!

Click over to The Government 2.0 Taskforce website and give Pool (and yourselves) the thumbs up! The Gov 2.0 taskforce has called for the online community to nominate agencies and public servants at every level of the Australian government as part of their Government 2.0 Innovator prize. The prize aims to recognise groups and agencies who are 'succeeding at innovative uses of technology, including Web 2.0, and promoting greater openness', and the good news is that Pool has made the grade! By giving Pool the thumbs up you can help bring our community to even greater attention.

Jessica Coates of Creative Commons Clinic nominated Pool because “it's doing an excellent job of bringing Web 2.0 and interactive creativity to the national broadcaster, [and] opening up opportunities for members of the public to interact with and contribute to ABC programming...”In particular, Jessica pointed towards Gene Pool and its release of some items from the ABC vault, saying there are “few examples of public broadcasters worldwide giving the material they create back to the public who paid for it”. But we know Pool is so much more than that! It is a space where users can interact, and, as the City Nights broadcast showed, produce some truly amazing content.

Amongst the excellent nominees joining Pool are yourHealth.gov.au, Open Australia and the National Archives of Australia.

At the launch of the Govt 2.0 Taskforce Chair Dr. Nicholas Gruen singled Pool as one of 3 projects which have raced to the forefront. Check out the launch video address here.

But it's not just the Web 2.0 taskforce that has talked about the work we're doing! Pool was also asked to present at the recent One Web Day event at the New South Wales Parliament. You can see more on the One Web Day blog. We also featured at the recent New South Wales public sphere event in September. You can see more about the work of the Public Sphere events here.

Over the last 12 months ideas about Government 2.0 and greater public engagement have begun to take hold in the Australian community. The work of the taskforce in particular has raised the broader issues of the role of community, and how information can be made more available via the web. We're very excited that the work we've all been doing at Pool is getting recognised, and some see Pool as a 'Government 2.0 champion'!

If you agree don't forget to get over to government 2.0 and give your community the thumbs up.

If you're new to Pool we always love to hear any of your comments and thoughts. Log-in to Pool and you’ll see a comment box below this post. If you’re not a member, why not take a moment to join.

Image by Mike Baird licensed under this CC License.