Federal Government establishes taskforce to fund Web 2.0 tools

The Federal Government has established a Web 2.0 taskforce that will investigate how it can help improve activity and engagement with citizens on the internet.

The taskforce, which will be chaired by Lateral Economics chief executive Nicholas Gruen, has been given part of a $2.45 million pool of funding from Microsoft to help put its proposals into action.

Its members include the engineering director of Google Australia, Alan Noble, and Microsoft Australia public sector director, Pip Marlow.

The taskforce’s terms of reference indicate it will make government information more accessible and usable, maximise the extent to which government utilises the views of the community and build a culture of “online innovation”.

The taskforce was launched by finance and deregulation minister Lindsay Tanner and special minister of state, Senator Joe Ludwig, who said in a statement that the taskforce will help the government interact with others on the web.

“This taskforce builds on our FoI reforms to date by seeking to free up government data and information to enhance government accountability. It will also allow business and others to innovate with government information so that it is more useful and compelling to others.”

“Importantly, the taskforce will not just provide advice to government. It will also be able to fund initiatives and incentives which demonstrate the value of government 2.0 objectives.”

Tanner said the taskforce will distribute funds from the $2.45 million to support development of Web 2.0 tools and applications that improve engagement between the government and general community.

Innovators who are looking to obtain grant funding do not directly apply, but rather “win” the funding by participating in competitions.