Each year in the Department of Innovation, members of our Graduate Development Program are responsible for a major project on which they report to our Departmental Executive. This year one of the graduate groups has been tasked with looking at Government 2.0 and associated possible opportunities for the Department.
Recently, as part of their project, the graduate group arranged a seminar on social media and government by two speakers – Todd Wright of Threesides, and Craig Thomler, a leading Gov 2.0 practitioner in the Australian Public Service.
In the spirit of openness that underlies Gov 2.0, and with the consent of Todd and Craig, we’re sharing the presentations and the video recordings of their talks.
Weekly bits of interest – 30 August 2010
Developments and articles of interest from the last week:
- The public service is often accused of being too risk averse when it comes to innovation. With any innovation or new approach there needs to be a consideration of the benefits as well as the risks. In this post Craig Thomler looks at some of the legal benefits of engaging with social media.
- In this piece Dr Tim Kastelle from the University of Queensland looks at three different ways that organisations can fail at innovation – ignoring the small innovations, ignoring the big innovations, and looking at idea generation over idea execution.
- read more…
Weekly bits of interest – 23 August 2010
Developments and articles of interest from the last week:
- In this piece Uri Neren looks at innovation within the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in the US, and how conditions of limited resources, connectedness, and diversity have shaped its innovation capabilities.
- read more…
Open wide, come inside, it’s innovation
This is a post from our colleagues Brant Smith and Helen Bailey at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Imagine if you could solve your problem by simply asking a question? Chances are that one of your colleagues or someone outside your department already has the solution to your problem or is willing to work with you to find an answer.
This sort of collaboration is the basis of a model called ‘open innovation’ and it’s the future of innovation. That’s what we heard and discussed at the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) Dynamics of Innovation conference in Spain in June.
Weekly bits of interest – 16 August 2010
Developments and articles of interest from the last week:
- The Victorian Government has released its Gov 2.0 Action Plan.
- In this article Steve Ressler, founder of the collaborative site GovLoop, showcases three recent innovative developments in the US public sector.
- read more…
APS 200 Public Sector Innovation Project
I am Mark Paterson, Secretary of the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and I want to share with you information about a new project that I am sponsoring.
The Project aims to find ways of promoting innovation in the Australian Public Service (APS). There is a growing recognition that innovation is essential for good government. More so than ever in the face of new and more complex problems, rising public expectations and the need for public sector agencies to do more with less.
In early August, the APS Secretaries Board met and approved a project to oversee action on the recent report Empowering Change: Fostering Innovation in the Australian Public Service.
Developments and articles of interest from the past week:
- In this blog post from NESTA, Philip Colligan talks about the release of a new report on co-production.
- This article discusses the potential of cloud computing to assist public sector innovation.
- read more…
The Public Sector Innovation Network
One of the things we do at the Government Innovation Policy team is host and support the Public Sector Innovation Network. This Network began as part of the Management Advisory Committee project on public sector innovation as a mechanism to involve and hear from public servants.
The Network is open to public sector employees and academics. The Network currently includes people from across the Australian Public Service, the state and territory public sectors, local governments, and academics with an interest in public sector innovation.
Up until now the Network has been primarily an information sharing forum. Now that this blog has been launched, we’re considering how the Network’s role might evolve.
Improving innovation in the public sector is not an issue unique to Australia – there are many countries looking at how to boost innovation in their public sectors. One of the countries we mentioned in the report Empowering Change was South Africa who has been doing some interesting work through their Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI).
Last week, as part of an Australia/South Africa Symposium, we had the opportunity to meet with the CEO of the CPSI and some of her colleagues. We got to hear a lot about their Centre and the work that they are doing.
Developments and articles of interest from the past week:
- This piece from John Steen at the University of Queensland looks at the recent mega-trends work of the CSIRO and the value of scenario thinking for innovation.
- In this post, Dr Nicholas Gruen (who was Chair of last year’s Gov 2.0 Taskforce) urges public servants to engage online – for instance, on blogs. read more…