Open Data

A lot of public information is made available online, but few government agencies have made efforts to present their data in a reusable open format such as semantic XML or even a decent RSS feed, outside of the iron-clad press releases. Using open data formats could instantly open the floodgates for citizen collaboration. An example cited was the Campaign Against Dengue. Jon Peterson started the twitter feed (@sgdengue and had to rely on URL scrapers to pull relevant bits of information and redisseminates it via Twitter. He had previously created a Singapore Dengue Map, showing dengue hotspots via Googlemaps. Imagine what he could do if the National Environment Agency provided the necessary data.

The same can be done for traffic conditions to help the user make real time decisions. Open data formats or RSS feeds for the Government Electronic Business website would help potential vendors obtain instant updates relevant to their product offering.

There is a certain protectionistic mindset we need to overcome. Yes it is true that opening data sets probably means surrendering how the data is to be framed from a communications perspective, but it comes at the cost of allowing our developer base to create useful applications of the data the government might not have seen.

Duplication of Online Efforts

Microsites

The Singapore government probably has more websites than the majority of other governments. The launching of microsites probably occurs every other day. Just looking at the sidebar of the Land Transport Authority alone, you can find a microsite for every recent endeavour. A separate site for the MRT’s Circle Line, another for their transport masterplan and many, many more.

While microsites serve as promotion points, we need to ask ourselves if it should have been the job of the government agency’s main site. For the most part, an over-reliance on microsites dilutes the main brand of the agency. Jussi suggested that an overall brand be apparent to the user through the use of a consistent visual design.

The diversification of online assets affords different communication tones, as Victor Tan from the Health Promotion Board explained. HPB launches a variety of campaigns to promote good health, from anti-smoking campaigns to healthy lifestyles for youths. Each serves a different audience and employs a different tone to reach out to them.

Aggregators

The government is also extremely active in seeking out possible whole-of-government initiatives, normally resulting in some sort of information aggregator. Search engines that search all government websites, citizen portals or one-stop resource portals for business owners, the government has created a great number of repositories, pulling information from all government agencies.

Apart from the common problems of data integrity (which could be solved by using open data formats), the creation of these aggregators introduce confusion as the number of entry points has increased quite exponentially for the user. Do I now go to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority or do I go to OneEnterprise? The overall information framework is not clear to the user - which sites are the aggregators and which sites are the actual agencies.

Isn’t Google the aggregator that we all use?

Identity

One extremely pertinent question that was raised: “Why are government agencies so afraid of being boring?”

A recent survey showed that users of government-agency websites do not expect the websites to be interesting or vibrant. They require the site to serve their information needs, answer their questions and solve their problems in as expedient a manner as possible. So why do government agencies keep trying to web 2.0-ise their websites, sometimes adding pointless games and heavy decorative graphics?

My own insights as a government employee and as a previous vendor for private-sector organisations is that clients often lose sight of the main objective. Sometimes the technology becomes the main objective, and this should never be. Even at recent social media seminars, one would always hear “Your organisation needs to be on Twitter / Youtube / Myspace / Facebook”. The adage “build it and they will come” might have fit organisations in a time when money was aplenty. In these days of recession, public-sector organisations who lose sight of the main purpose for existence and opt for “cool” could find themselves on the wrong end of a tweetdeck-frenzied public.

Engagement

As the government seeks to engage the public, the line between users’ feedback and eventual action taken needs to be clear and evident if engagement efforts are not to be perceived as a farce. The problem is that public policy takes a long time to craft and refine, whereas Zappos and Threadless are able to react almost instantaneously to feedback.

Useful examples cited included Whitehouse.gov and Number 10 as successful government engagement efforts. The leader of the country takes time to answer the questions of the everyday citizen. This is something the Prime Minister’s Office could definitely look into.

The non-Singaporean WebSG participants made a very interesting statement: Singapore has a greater proportion of bloggers compared to almost anywhere else in the world. Everyone and their mother has a blog. The suggestion was that greater efforts could be put by the government in listening to existing online conversations, whether blogs or twitter, and that in itself would yield an immense amount of feedback.