Tree of Knowledge

While it’s still anyone’s guess what will actually come out of the 2020 summit, I’m finding the posting of delegates 100 word big idea statements in the blogosphere surprisingly rewarding. The usual suspects (Gans, Leigh, Norton et al) have all posted their excellent and unsurprising (for those who follow their work) thoughts. In this vein, Andrew Leigh has posted Amy King’s Big Idea today which echoes the Power of Information mantra that this blog and others have been beating the drum for recently.

Question: If you could do one thing in your stream area, what would it be? What is it that you think would make the most difference?

My goal in the governance stream is to find ways to provide more and better data to the public on how Australia is faring in education, the economy, the environment, healthcare and other major social and economic indicators. Measuring and opening up access to public information puts governments in a vulnerable position; failures cannot be easily hidden. Yet the benefits are immense: data transparency means researchers can find better solutions to public problems; traditional and newer media sources can critically debate their government’s actions; individual citizens can better understand and take responsibility for their own problems; public policies can be more objectively evaluated; and governments remain answerable to the citizens they serve.

ICT enables us to realise this goal of course, but I’ll put on my broken record again and say that the key is cultural change within government. There isn’t going to be a single ‘killer-app’ that unleashes the stores of government data into the public sphere, instead it’s going to be the slow and grinding work of believers inside government opening up the doors. That being said, the more people like Amy knocking from the outside, the easier the job will be for the true believers on the inside.

Amy is a sometime co-author of Andrew’s and has an intimidating impressive CV. Keep an eye out for her….

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