Email? So-last-year!

Today’s world is dominated by social media, the facebooks and twitters of the world, and in the workplace we are constantly reminded to get with the times and make use of these growing networks.

We have recently been asked about online tools to aid innovation. So we thought it might be worth letting others know about one available tool: Govdex.

Govdex is a network for government which we at Innovation Policy have found very useful for our work. Govdex is an online collaboration mechanism for use across government. It is a secure, private web-based space that helps agencies share documents and information. Govdex has the added benefit of being able to be used for ‘in-confidence’ material while most other networks can only be used for unclassified material.

Govdex is a free service run by the Department of Finance and Deregulation which also provides training and IT support for the system. Its intuitive design makes it user friendly even for those stakeholders who aren’t tech savvy. While it was designed for use by government, government users can invite any group of stakeholders to be members – they just need a valid email address to join.

Instead of emailing a group of people and receiving different responses and having to collate changes, you can have members update a document directly on Govdex with tracked changes. Your members can discuss issues in a forum-like setting. You can create a calendar as well as archive documents such as meeting minutes so they remain accessible for the group long after the event. Administrators of a group have the authority to determine who has access to which areas, which is great for sub-committees who may need a separate space of their own.

In the Innovation Policy branch we administer two Govdex committees for two different communities and find it an effective mechanism for reducing paperwork, emails and encouraging collaboration between members. The Department of Finance and Deregulation also runs one for those interested in Gov 2.0. However there are so many uses for Govdex, we are only just starting to make full use of them. All that is required is a bit of imagination and you will be surprised at what you can let it do for you.

I am sure there are other similar platforms to Govdex within government (not just the APS), if so, please share. Also, if you have had the opportunity to use Govdex and wish to comment, please do so!