Siri, Cortana and the ATO's Alex: the rise of the service avatar With the availability of intelligent virtual assistants like Siri, Cortana and Google Now fundamentally changing the service expectations of citizens, federal government agencies are increasingly
Digital disrupts all of society — including politics and public policy August 5, 2016 By Simon Banks Who remembers that the 2007 election was the “MySpace election”? In 2016, the election battle was fought on Facebook, Twitter and even on Weibo. Of course,
Brushing up on the plain English essentials July 27, 2016 By Dr Neil James Despite the bad press they get, public servants, on the whole, can actually write. It’s just that from the moment we start drafting briefing notes,
Innovation as a public good: what are the building blocks? July 25, 2016 By Andrew Simon Early this year, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a world-leading innovation think tank, released a ground breaking report entitled “Contributors and Detractors: Ranking Countries’ Impact
Digital government report card: which states are leading? July 20, 2016 By The Mandarin Rapid progress on digital transformation has been made by most governments across Australia since 2015. But jurisdictions have been progressing at different rates and pursuing
The adblocker generation: can't beat them, understand them July 6, 2016 By Ryan Griffin I’ve just opened a YouTube link to watch a seven-second video clip. But before I can enjoy the ensuing moment of feline-related humour, I’m hit
Why digital transformation demands plain English July 6, 2016 By Dr Neil James A few years ago, a major government enterprise spent a small fortune transforming its website. Very late in the piece, a lone voice asked a
Design thinking in government: solutions for the people July 5, 2016 By Dr Nina Terrey A genuine problem confronts policymakers and service delivery managers every day. These are problems that are indeterminate, they are difficult to grapple or bound and
Seven things government can learn from business on digital change July 1, 2016 By Justin Di Lollo The truism “digital is changing everything” is no less true for the public sector than for just about any other part of the economy. But
The 'we economy' and why government must learn to share June 30, 2016 By The Mandarin For several years analysts, consultants and commentators have warned of the dangers of digital disruption, urging organisations of all kinds — private and public —
Our $770b infrastructure deficit and smarter ways to invest June 28, 2016 By Paul Foxlee In Australia, we spend a lot of time talking about infrastructure. We’re passionate about our ports and roads. We are committed to our local hospitals
Organisational culture can eat strategy for breakfast June 23, 2016 By Michael Papay & Andrew Simon We recently saw a few references to this statement on social media and wanted to understand where it originated. It’s been around awhile, and is
The mitigation plan you need for inevitable cybersecurity attack June 22, 2016 By The Mandarin The disturbing reality of a successful hacking attempt looms over all businesses, government agencies and websites that hold any form of public data. But organisations
How government can unlock billions of dollars in savings June 19, 2016 By The Mandarin In the United States in 2006, two former Google employees formed a company, Weatherbill, to provide weather insurance to ski resorts, large event venues and
