Posts by Andrew E
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Just in case anybody has missed the immortal George Carlin that Giovanni referred to earlier.
P.S. Plays NSFW sound recording on loading the page...
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Investment in capacity is another.
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Surely a Windows box full of expensive, proprietary software that needs updating every 8.6 seconds should be enough for any government department? Anyone who says otherwise is clearly a nasty longhair who hates capitalism.
This isn't about use of open source, per se, although some of that might have been involved. More about helping NZ help itself to develop open standards, e.g. on geo-spatial, and to innovate on things like use of online tools for citizen engagement. And knifing the Government Shared Network - can't be taking revenue away from the duopoly in order to save taxpayers money, can we?
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I notice some functions like eGovt being transferred from SSC to DIA. Anyone know more about the reasoning or the implications?
Sacha, it's the Government Technology Services that are moving to DIA on 1 July. The policy bit of ICT that remained with SSC has just been eviscerated through 'disestablishment' though. Thoroughtly thoughtless and idiotic destruction of capability and expertise. Kiss goodbye to any serious improvements to government information architecture, standards and innovation. Now all they'll do is count the PCs on desks of other departments.
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You'd think someone getting on their high horse about numeracy would know the difference between a percentile and a decile, wouldn't you?
See Muphry's Law.
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Andrew: if one were reimplementing, I think talking to them about what they've learned would be the very first thing to do.
Stephen - it would be worth talking to the Rob (McKinnon?), who does the NZ version of They Work For You as well, to see what his experience of working with MySociety is. AFAIK MySociety might well be open to tech transfers to a non-profit for free/low cost. OTOH, if the government were to propose adopting their engine to do something useful to improve operation of the OIA, they'd probably seek some recompense. Since the latter would involve porcine wings flapping over Bowen Street, you (and others) have an open run at it.
Mark - there has been considerable wailing and gnashing of teeth by some local authorities in the UK regarding transparency of their replies to requests filed via the site. They've been told to grow up and stop griping. The kind of community you're talking about would be helpful I think.
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It doesn't look technically challenging (famous last words).
Contact I've had with MySociety about an improvement I suggested to them (not geotagging in that instance) indicates some parts of the back end are pretty challenging.
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A really helpful contribution would be if they could adapt What Do They Know from the MySociety folks to New Zealand.
I'll second that. It's a fantastic idea which provides a good public resource both of stuff that's been dug up, and areas people are looking into.
Even more useful would be to use their apparent geospatial background to add geotagging to the requests and responses. A Google Earth layer for accessing official information that relates to your locality?
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That's a great blog! Very useful ...
Well, it's not bad for a couple of IT people who are new to this whole OIA thing that's been around for more than 25 years (in this country). I/S's and Steven Price's blogs are more informed. A really helpful contribution would be if they could adapt What Do They Know from the MySociety folks to New Zealand.
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In the meantime, I will continue to get my news from around the world for free and focus on the bright side. I get to read the Guardian and the New York Times on-line while living in a lovely harbour city, instead of reading Stuff and the NZH on-line from my desk in London. It seems like a fair trade-off to me.
Exactly!