I have been catching up on some reading the past few days, and came across Joel Makower’s post introducing the Green Confidence Index.

The index is a monthly research report “tracking Americans’ attitudes about and confidence in their leaders and institutions, nationally and locally, on the subject of environmental responsibility, as well as in their own understanding of issues and their willingness to make green purchasing choices”.

Joel has often lamented the irregular survey’s on the public’s willingness to “buy green” in the past, and this seems like a concrete step towards creating a stronger data-set and getting a clearer indication of attitudes.

Two comments in Joel’s introduction stood out for me. In describing the September results of the first component of the index, “Responsibility”, he notes:

Responsibility — how well various groups and institutions are addressing environmental issues: too much, enough, or too little. The groups include the U.S. government, state and local governments, major corporations, individuals’ own employers, their neighbors, and themselves (weight: 40%).

Later, he reports:

Another question asked what sources of environmental information Americans use and trust. The bad news for companies: Corporate websites and blogs ranked last in a list of 13 media types in terms of their use and trust. Word of mouth was seen to be potent: Friends, family, and colleagues ranked highest as the most used and trusted, followed by consumer ratings and reviews. Green blogs and websites had the biggest trust-use gap: they are a trusted information resource, though their usage lags.

I think both of these are reflective of the power of peer networks. In the first, the proximity of a person to their peers creates a tendency to see them as more trustworthy, therefore perceived to be more likely to be doing the right thing. (One could also argue that respondents wanted to not be seen as doing the “wrong” thing.)

The second point is a reflection of the well understood trend, exemplified by Edeleman’s Trust Barometer, that peers hold much stronger influence than corporations.

While I’m clearly biased given my line of work, I can’t help but equate these things back the role that social networks have to play in advancing sustainability…

There’s a sample report available for free if you’re interested in the results of the initial surveys. The service is then charged at an introductory annual fee of USD$299 (usually USD$499).

I read this report from the BSR 2009 conference with interest – especially “BSR’s road map for achieving success in this new world:”

1. Promote innovation for sustainability.
2. Embrace systems redesign.
3. Maximize the power of networks.

My thinking, though, is that by focusing first on point 3 organisations can better achieve points 1 and 2. Thoughts?

I’m looking forward to reading through the remainder of the session summaries from the conference – from what I’ve seen so far it seems like it was a very good event.

Yesterday I attended the NSW Public Sphere event at Parliament House in Sydney. Lots of highlights were covered via Twitter which you can find by searching for the #nswsphere tag. [Disclosure: I was a sponsor of the event]

The day was packed with short presentations – a format that I hope may change in future Public Spheres (having at least part of the day as more workshop/forum oriented I think would be beneficial) – both from the tech community advocating what they think is possible from Government and from Government agencies themselves sharing some of the more innovative projects that are currently underway.

I don’t fully have a sense of the mix of participants in the audience (i.e. between citizens and public servants) but I did get a slight impression that we were all of similar persuasions – i.e. that there was a bit of “preaching to the converted” going on.

This is still beneficial, of course, as it gives people a chance to support each other, connect and “share notes”. Perhaps future events focusing less on “Web2.0″ and on the more salient public issues we face will connect people from more diverse backgrounds.

Apps4NSW

The Premier came for a visit, announcing a $100,000 initiative for “innovative digital applications and web services using public and government data relating to New South Wales” (more from Stilgherrian at Crikey).

This is a great incentive and is likely to spawn some interesting results – though I do hope to see some of the $$ applied to existing initiatives as well as new proposals. My hope is that this initiative prompts Government departments to more actively consider open data and APIs for their respective domains.

Other highlights

• Paul McLeay, Member for Heathcote, who has allocated over half of his discretionary budget to develop a Community Engine-based tool for engaging constituents to decide where government funding should go.
• Stilgherrian’s talk, while ostensibly about risk vs. paranoia, veered across a number of topics (in a good way!) – from rethinking Government structures based on our current needs/social structures and capabilities, to iterative development of policies (using China as an example) – and for me was thoroughly thought provoking.
• The first half of Matthew Crozier’s presentation exploring risks echoed my experience/thoughts, though I think many in the audience – myself included – disagreed with his statements about anonymity. I also question his claim that a third-party moderated solution for community engagement was the best model – esp. given his vested interest in making such a statement.
• Pedro Harris, from the Land and Property Management Authority, demonstrated some of the (seemingly vast) geo-spacial datasets that the State is collecting and, in some cases, making available for public use.
• John Vandyke, from the team that manages the Transport Info service, talked about some new API developments (called TDX and based on open XML standards) launched to select developers early this month.

Reflections

Jeffery Candiloro also talked about the My Representatives project which he claims is the only place where you can enter your address to find the important information that the site presents (electorate details, political representatives etc.).

During his talk he mentioned that his research pointed to over 580 representatives elected Chambers (he wasn’t able to 100% confirm these numbers!) at the various levels of Government in Australia, yet it has taken a citizen technologist to actually provide that information in one place – and in a way that is usable for the “average punter”.

Jeffery’s project, along Open Australia, demonstrate both:

1. the sorts of tools that I think should be naturally provided by Government given they are the authoritative source of this information; and failing that,
2. the power of data being exposed using web technologies when utilised by such citizen generated tools

On the latter point, Mark Stanton from Gruden is right to point out that data availability should be the first priority – and the Premier’s announcement suggests the Government supports this view.

Still find it disappointing that it has taken citizen efforts to provide this basic data – the details of our relevant representatives and the Hansard record respectively – that is fundamental to a healthy democracy.

I wonder if this is in part a result of what James Dellow from Headshift described as Government being more interested in the management of IT projects, rather than looking for solutions to the citizenry’s needs? (I’m paraphrasing here, but I think that captures the gist of what James said – you can check out his presentation on his blog – I would also heartily recommend reading Headshift’s paper for the Centre for Policy Development.)

This sentiment I think was echoed throughout the day – from technologists keen to point out that it’s not about the technology but about service delivery, to Peter Cooper when he said that “it’s not about Government2.0, it’s just Government – it’s what the people expect”, to Penny Sharpe (the convener of the conference) who suggested that she hoped to extend the Public Sphere process to a wider set of challenges rather than just technology (an initiative I wholeheartedly support).

In my workshops on social media and networking I do try to get this point across – so I was pleased to see this perspective so broadly reflected in the proceedings.

In all it was a fantastic day; kudos to Penny Sharpe and her staff for organising the event. During his announcement the Premier noted that he has given the green light for NSW Public Sphere to be more broadly developed across Government – I’m looking forward to participating in such future events…

Update 2009-09-08: Updated to correct a statement of fact thanks to Jeffery’s clarifying comment.

Regular readers may recall that I have a initiative of donating 1% net profit to causes I support each quarter.

I spotted in politician blogger Penny Sharpe’s recent email out that the NSW Public Sphere conference, was looking for support to cover the costs of the event.

As a big believer in more transparent and representative government, and of the power of social/web 2.0 tools for helping in this aim, I decided to apply the funds from last quarter (plus a little bit of a “top-up”) to support NSW Public Sphere.

Though not my intention, technically this makes Zumio a “sponsor” of the event. I’m proud to be associated with the event in this context, but my main hope is that NSW Public Sphere will help spark further advancement of what’s being termed “Government 2.0″.

As far as I know the organisers still need further funds to cover costs, so if you think you can help, contact Penny (details on her site) to let her know.

Of course, I’m also looking forward to participating in the event. If you’re going, I’ll see you there :) Otherwise keep an eye out for the #nswsphere tag on Twitter for ongoing commentary throughout the day.

I’ve mentioned OpenAustralia here in the past and have also mentioned it in a number of the workshops I’ve given over the past 12 months (Disclosure: I’ve also supported them financially and am friends with some of the key volunteer contributors).

OpenAustralia is a grassroots effort to make the Hansard more accessible. The initiative is expanding into State politics and this has sparked an interesting exchange with the Clerk of Queensland Parliament.

The concerns outlined in the Clerk’s response to OpenAustralia’s requests are familiar to me having been raised in a number of the workshops I’ve facilitated over the past few months. These include issues of:

• Copyright
• Liability relating to re-publishing
• Resourcing
• “Authorative source” concerns

As the momentum increases in the “Government 2.0″ space these issues will be raised more and more often, I suspect. How the OpenAustralia appeal goes will be of great interest – perhaps setting the tone of future exchanges in the space.

UPDATE 2009-09-07: CeBit (Hannover Fairs) have since turned down my pro-bono offer of services to run this workshop – so the information below is no longer relevant/accurate.

I’m excited to announce my participation in the up-coming CeBit Gov 2.0 conference, my first public engagement as part of Inspire Digital.

The conference will be taking place in Canberra on 19 October and I’ll be participating both in the panel discussion before lunch and also running one of the evening workshops. The current (somewhat “beta”) blurb for the workshop is:

Getting buy-in for your social media initiatives

In this interactive workshop, we will move beyond the introduction of social media platforms in Gov 2.0 and will focus on providing participants with the necessary tools to develop a plan to achieve buy-in for social media initiatives within the organisation. The focus will be on how to get ideas across the line with key stakeholders in your organisation and how to tackle the concerns that are often raised, including:

• linking initiatives to your organisation strategy and objectives
• potential risks surrounding engagement
• ROI measurement
• resourcing

This is a new workshop that has evolved from my key learnings during the past 12 months of delivering presentations and workshops to a variety of folks wanting to learn more about engaging social media & networking. It’s honing in on the “next steps” to take once you’ve got an idea that you think might be worth pursuing. My aim is for it to be complementary to the conference program – hopefully we’ve achieved that objective.

That program is looking pretty good too – if you’re interested or working in Government 2.0 (I’m personally not a fan of the term, but it seems to have stuck) it’s well worth checking out. I’m looking forward to checking out a number of speakers on the day in addition to the sessions I’m involved in.