Open Government – Embargoed in Alberta
Is the Embargo dead? Some say yes, clearly not everyone. In the case of Lynda Steele and Global Edmonton, and the three minute violation of the Government of Alberta (GoA) Embargo of the Ted Morton, Minister of Finance and Enterprise, and the Budget 2010 press conference, I can understand the strict stance by the Public Affairs Bureau to enforce adherence to such an agreement. Understanding and agreeing with the actions taken are two different things however.
Also, many probably know by now, this wasn’t entirely Lynda Steeles’ fault by the way, someone else is culpable within Global for the release of certain information. Further, I like the folks over at CTV, and yet people should know they played a key role in this situation too.
By the way, in an Open Alberta, Ted Morton and his team would have been collaboratively and transparently working with citizens on the budget. In an Open Alberta, we might be able to contribute to the budget directly via a wiki. There’s less need for the work behind closed doors, big political announcement machine if we’ve all worked on the budget together and there has been lots of open discussion about priorities along the way. However, that type of environment doesn’t sit well with people who like to have control.
I clearly understand what an Embargo is and the need for accountability in support of that agreement. However, evidence continues to suggest that the GoA hierarchy, indeed many governments and bureaucracies are not ready for the current digital reality. In Seattle, I listened to Douglas Shuler, of Evergreen College speak about “civic intelligence.” The “command and control, vending machine” government model is ill-prepared for the social web, is ill-prepared for our collective “civic intelligence.” The difference is how some are being proactive and how others are clinging onto the last few strands of the government processes established in the previous century.
Lynda Steele and Global Edmonton et al, are banished by the PAB for the rest of 2010. Along the same lines of accountability, does that mean that Mack Male (@mastermaq) has been banned or had something more severe happen as a result of action taken by the Government of Alberta for a security breach of the Budget 2010 website a day before the Embargoed press conference? Notwithstanding the fact that it was so simple to do, I’m not aware of anything happening there regarding that hack. I’m not advocating that something should happen to Mack, just asking a question about an incident related to accountability on several levels and from different angles.
For example, how should we as Albertans hold the GoA accountable for their inability to secure “our” digital assets? The argument offered by Bart Johnson, Director of Communications for Alberta Finance and Enterprise who said in an Edmonton Journal article, “It’s a concern that someone should be able to access a site that is secure, but I want to emphasize that all he got a look at were blank pages and placeholders.” Just because the pages were blank doesn’t alleviate the issue of poor GoA Internet security processes and the inequality of reactions to said breach. At the risk of comparing apples and oranges to some degree, which infraction and reaction was worse?
What we really need to do is analyze how not only this government works, but how others do as well. We as citizens need to tell decision- makers what we want from them. Explain how we want information delivered to us or how we want to access that information from government or its agencies. Explain to them that they need to get up to speed on the social web, integrate it into processes and commit to working side by side with us at more than just the odd stakeholder engagement town hall.
We need to explain that a $70M contract to one large vendor is actually moving away, some might say backwards, from an Open Government direction. We need to ensure that Assistant Deputy Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Ministers, MLA’s, MP’s, Mayors, Councillors, and other government officials actually learn the difference between the social web, real-time web, and Web 2.0 and how to deploy in all situations as appropriate.
Experience suggests that much of the decision-making, elected official hierarchy is passing judgement in the dark on this issue. Not just in our province at all three levels of government, but in other provinces and countries for that matter. In addition to our work performed inside government, the signs are all around us. Only a few decision-makers show up for ChangeCamp Edmonton, Social Media for Government Conference only had Mayor Glenn Taylor participate, Open Gov West had a few elected officials in the room for opening statements and announcements, but the majority moved on pretty quickly and didn’t attend the panel discussions or breakout sessions. This is a continuing trend and it needs to change for countless reasons.
Below is a series of images drawn by public servants about their perception of their work environment as it relates to the use of social media, you can draw your own conclusions about how they feel…
Updated August 21, 2010
A Competitive Alberta
I attended a reception and dinner hosted by the Alberta Chambers of Commerce tonight as part of the Political Action Day event on behalf of the Sherwood Park and District Chamber of Commerce.
I have to admit that the highlight for me was two-fold. First, when the premier stated that our proposed hospital here in Sherwood Park (and others across the province) would be going ahead. Also, when I went up and said hello to Premier Stelmach and shook his hand after the post dinner Q&A. He provided me with a warm hello and mentioned that he hasn’t been out to Sherwood Park in awhile. Premier, the invitation to return and speak at a Chamber function is certainly open.
A question was put to Premier Stelmach by Danielle Klooster from Red Deer in support of earlier discussion about a “diversified economy” and asking about specific strategies the Government of Alberta had in play that were designed to open up new international markets, and foreign investment thus making us more competitive.
“That’s a loaded question,” the premier responded. In other words, a complex question. The premier talked about education being a key to a diversified economy, he referred to Port Alberta although not by name, and understanding the larger picture such as an “open skies” agreement that would change all the protectionism of Air Canada and allow foreign airlines to enter Canada with routes to places like Abu Dhabi, a location the premier visited recently.
During this, I couldn’t help but think how much more competitive Alberta would be if it was “Open.” How municipalities across our province would benefit and by extension Albertans-at-large. A more efficient government, considerable tax dollars saved, increased private sector opportunities.
Premier Stelmach mentioned that tomorrow a Competitiveness Bill will be brought forward and is expected to pass, he considers this an important Bill because in his words, “Alberta will not retire.” Explaining that being strong stewards means smart succession planning for future generations.
As many know by now, I believe that an Open Government Framework should be a key part of a “competitive Alberta” today and in the future. Time will tell if this idea starts to gain traction, I hope it does. Let me know what you think.
AUMA Mayors’ Caucuses Presentation
Wow, what a wonderful couple of days with great people.
Alberta has some really terrific elected officials at the municipal level and AUMA as an organization is doing some amazing things. As we found out today with the joint-announcement made with the AUMA, Government of Alberta and AAMDC covering the new Municipal Climate Change Centre to be housed at the new AUMA building.
Below are the presentations that I referenced several times of the course of the two days for you to use and in the case of the PPT you can download that, I just ask that you continue to keep the branding in place and provide credit as have done…
data.alberta.ca
This afternoon I was invited to participate in the first of three Mayors’ Caucuses being held by the AUMA. This first group of Mayor’s were representing communities of 2500 people or less. I was on a panel with Mayor Jerry Iwanus (@bawlfbomber) representing the Village of Bawlf Alberta and Grant Ainsley of Grant Ainsley Inc., a media and management consultant from Edmonton.
I found our experience to be fascinating albeit too short, and yet, it was great to hear Jerry and Grant provide their perspectives. What I found even more fascinating was the group of Mayors and their questions. Grant asked how many of the audience was on Facebook and I’d say nearly 75% put up their hands. This is a good sign. When it comes to twitter however, only three folks not including myself identified themselves as being micro-bloggers.
65 minutes!
There were questions about time commitment, what tools to use, how to engage regionally via the social web but actually the most fascinating question was really more of a statement for the record by a Mayor, who’s first name was Barb, I didn’t catch the name of her community but she wanted to raise the issue about ambulance response times being nearly 65 minutes in her community. Essentially, she explained that Alberta Health Services AHS had cut services which affected her region. Now if you’re a citizen having a heart-attack first responders “can give you an IV and an aspirin while everyone waits for the ambulance,” said the Mayor. When Barb asked if any other communities were experiencing similar service reductions other hands definitely went up. Are you kidding me? What are we doing in this province? We’re not broke, why are we operating as if we’re a developing country when it comes to essential services?
AUMA’s President Darren Aldous who is also the Mayor of the Village of Breton, Alberta said that the good folks at the AUMA will be submitting the formal written communications on this issue to the Government of Alberta and AHS which is great.
So much could be done
However, here’s where social technologies could play a direct role in terms of communications in a case like this. While paper is being submitted through formal channels, towns and villages with small councils and little in the way of resources could be leveraging other means to get the word out, gather support and consensus and get things moving. Of course, my head jumps to Open Data and how if only the province moved immediately towards releasing a data catalogue people could start creating value-added services that could help these hard-working folks and the citizens in their communities.
I’ve said before that Premier Stelmach and his administration need a CIO who could then align with the Open Data Movement here in Alberta and launch something real (instead of a broken link) - data.alberta.ca.
We need more sites like what Gisela Hippolt-Squair is doing over at the Alberta Geological Survey
Without providing specifics on my ideas here, there’s no doubt that lives and services could be improved in rural Alberta nearly overnight.
Imagine your family member waiting while having a heart-attack for 65 minutes just to have an ambulance arrive and the only reason, as explained by Mayor Barb, is due to funding cuts…it’s absolutely shameful. Just because you’ve chosen to enjoy this great province in a rural setting shouldn’t mean you also dramatically increase your chances of dying because of it. Rural Alberta, indeed rural communities in general simply get little to no respect.
I’m excited that there’s more to learn during two additional social media related panel sessions tomorrow with Mayors from medium and large communities. Expected to be in the room are provincial MLAs…Hmmm, this is going to be fun.
Do citizens care about Gov 2.0?
In a word, NO. If you walked down main street of your town and ask the average citizen what Government 2.0 is, you’d probably get a blank stare and maybe even a bonk on the head for wasting their time.
Well then, who should be paying attention to the Government 2.0 movement?
Elected officials, town or city administrations that’s who. Ultimately citizens want their roads cleared, buses to run on time, garbage picked up and…well you get the point. Citizens want services in exchange for tax dollars. Most of the time citizens feel like they’re getting the short-end of the stick and they’re not afraid to light-up the complaint line and let you know about it either.
Why don’t they care?
Most people get into their car and turn the key, they’re not interested in precisely how the engine works with each turn of the crankshaft. Should the car break down, they’ll take it to a guy who knows how to fix it and frankly, they’re mostly upset about the cost and inconvenience of the whole ordeal and not so much the part. The same goes for Gov 2.0, and most people absolutely care-less with respect to the fact that I’m writing a book on the topic. As far as they’re concerned, I might as well be writing about typewriter maintenance.
That’s ok, I’m not discouraged and here’s why. Do open government initiatives save tax dollars? Absolutely! Do open government initiatives improve the quality of life for massive amounts of citizens? Absolutely! Do Web 2.0 technologies play a key role? Once again absolutely! These are the end results and outcomes citizens care about. Should Premier Stelmach fire-up a conversation with kids in government about what the province should do? Of course, yesterday in fact, truth is I know he’s already having those kinds of chats. The real test will be if the Government of Alberta gets past the chatter and takes action. We’ll have to wait and see but at this point the province is lagging behind. I know, no surprise right? Despite that fact, we’ll keep cheering them on.
If you’re a town administrator or Mayor and you do not understand these concepts, it is recommended that you get up to speed quickly. Will it mean more work? Oh the cry of the overworked bureaucrat. Of course! In the short-term, learning new things always means more work, and there’s terrific payoffs for your community should you be able to heard the rest of the cats in your administration.
The potential payoffs
- Increased citizen engagement
- Increased process efficiencies
- Increased relevant communication reach internally
- Decreased tax dollar spending on IT, while increasing available applications driven by the private sector
- Increased information distribution which will lead to improved citizen conveniences
- Increased awareness of the community-at-large, good for economic development and tourism
- Increased opportunities for collaboration internally and with other levels of government
- Government speeds up – HURRAAYYYY!
There are others and this is quick list for you to consider. As for motivation to care, we’re heading into a municipal election year are we not? Hmm, you may want to be careful, your opponent or a citizen at a town hall may be well-versed in these areas and you could find yourself at a disadvantage at the worst possible time. The outcome being that you suddenly have plenty of time to read my book and the soon to be released expanded edition on typewriters.
My personal pipe dream
Imagine a world where the federal government banned the phrase “that’s the way we’ve always done it” and began to collaborate in real-time internally and with provinces and the provinces shared data and information in real-time with cities and towns and they in turn all shared that data with us…(appropriately of course).
Unfortunately, in order for that to happen we need leaders. Leaders who care about what I’ve just written above and leaders who care about you. Further, we need administrations who don’t cringe at the hint of learning and implementing something new. We need leaders who demonstrate caring through action rather than words to placate. Leaders driven by the motivation to collaborate for the greater good rather than by identifying barriers out of fear of losing their jobs.
That my friends, is why in many cases, this is a pipe dream and yet I remain optimistic.
