Net Traveller: Leveraging the Webfor the New Australian Government

Brian Stonebridge, Director of Service Improvement and Interoperability Projects, AGIMO at the new Department of of Finance and Deregulation (created yesterday) talked about "Leveraging the Web to Collaborate in Government: GovDex Case Study", at the Enterprise conference. Unlike many of the previous speakers who used powerpoint slides, Brian actually demonstrated the GovDex tool live, showing online collaboration with the French government. He used learning to dance the Salsa as a metaphor for interdepartmental and international collaboration for IT systems.

One question with this is to what extent the nature of bureaucracy will inhibit the use of Web 2.0. Web based social networking assumes personal, informal and spontaneous communication. Government agencies usually work through impersonal, formal and planned communication. Will the benefits of Web 2.0 be possible in the government environment and in large companies with similar structures.

Collaborative Government Suite
"A suite of tools to support interagency and cross jurisdictional projects"

The newly elected Australian Government has indicated a stronger focus on working across jurisdictions to deliver better results for Australian citizens and firms. The Australian Government Information Management Office, a Group within the Department of Finance, is building a suite of tools to support this agenda.

General
GovDex Tools

National Service Improvement Framework (NSIF)

The NSIF is a suite of re-usable documents and tools that aim to deliver enhanced collaborative service delivery arrangements across government departments and agencies. The NSIF is a structured approach to collaborative service delivery across traditional boundaries. The Framework provides a tiered approach for Government agencies to follow when seeking to collaborate. The Framework defines a process where potential partners to collaboration can build on agreements in incremental tiers. A key component of the NSIF is the provision of a Collaborative Head Agreement which provides an "off the shelf" MOU to fast track the legal treatment of risks associated with inter agency collaboration.

For more information please contact Liz Marchant on Liz.Marchant@finance.gov.au, or go to www.nsif.gov.au

Australian Government Architecture (AGA)

The Australian Government Architecture (AGA) aims to assist in the delivery of more consistent and cohesive service to citizens and support the more cost-effective delivery of ICT services by government, providing a framework that:

Provides a common language for agencies involved in the delivery of cross-agency services;
Supports the identification of duplicate, re-usable and sharable services;
Provides a basis for the objective review of ICT investment by government; and
Enables more cost-effective and timely delivery of ICT services through a repository of standards, principles and templates that assist in the design and delivery of ICT capability and, in turn, business services to citizens.

For more information please contact Peter Leach on peter.leach@finance.gov.au

Government Data Exchange (GovDex)

GovDex is an Australian Government initiative to facilitate business process collaboration across portfolios, administrative jurisdictions and agencies. It promotes effective and efficient information sharing, governance structures, tools, methods and re-usable technical components.
GovDex is comprised of 3 components:

a collaborative workspace;
a registry/repository; and
tools and methods.

GovDex is currently being used across the Federal Government as well as the NSW, QLD, VIC, SA and WA State governments. More

Standards Governance

Government policy objectives in the 21st century require greater agility by agencies. This often requires collaboration across portfolios and jurisdictions. Complex policy objectives related to water management, carbon trading, standard business reporting, national security, tax fraud etc all require the participation of a wide range of agencies.
Standardisation of information and processes can provide significant benefits to Australian governments through reduction in risk, increase in reuse and a higher level of interoperability (and hence efficiency) within and across jurisdictions. They support the effective delivery of services to citizens and business.
In this context it is important that agencies have a mechanism for agreeing on a "standardised" way of exchanging data to help achieve those business outcomes.

For more information please contact Brian Stonebridge on Brian.Stonebridge@finance.gov.au

Government Information Exchange Methodology (GIEM)

If you are working on a project that includes a requirement for XML message exchange between agencies (G2G) or between business and government (B2G) then GIEM provides the hands-on tools and methods to help you achieve your goals in accordance with whole-of-government standards. GIEM is a model driven approach to interoperability that is based on international standards and best practices. GIEM provides a top down architectural approach that ensure that the final technical components are aligned with government standards and meet business goals and requirements.
GIEM has been submitted to the UN/CEFACT as part of the review of UMM.
It has been successfully used in a number of projects.

To see more go to GovDex Tools