As part of International Open Data Day (IODD) the folks at Code for Australia organised a Sydney based workshop designed to discuss ‘Principles of a 21st Century Government’. This was one of three activities highlighted by Open Knowledge Australia ahead of IODD, so we followed up to see how it went.

There is now a detailed post up on the Code for Australia website but the seven principles discussed on the day are also highlighted below.

The principles & how we can make them happen

1. Design for people’s needs – Making things personalised, especially web services

2. Make it easy for everyone to participate – Open events for everyone to participate

3. Focus on what government can do – Government as a platform that allows other to help solve problems

4. Make data easy to find and use – duuh

5. Use data to make and improve decisions – Industry have been leveraging data for a while to improve services and programs. Let’s make it happen for government.

6. Choose the right technology for the job – It’s not a cookie cutter approach to everything

7. Organise for results – Let’s not be reactive, but plan for the future