Online Consultation with Australian Government

The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) have released the report: "Consulting with Government - online". This recommends an Australian Government online consultation forum for community consultation. They are now inviting agencies which are already using Web 2.0 for online consultation to come and talk about it. A later event will be held for agencies keen to use Web 2.0 for consultation.

AGIMO are not advocating scrapping existing agency consultation forums. They are to be commended for their cautious approach, compared with the UK Government's over hyped "Power of Information TaskForce".

The 32 page report is available in PDF and RTF versions. Curiously the PDF version is 2.3 MB, whereas the RTF version is only 138 KB. One of the practices I would like to see, and which AGIMO normally follows, is to produce small efficiently formatted electronic documents. In this case it appears someone pushed the wrong button when generating the PDF. A genuine web version (in HTML) would be better, but if the PDF could be made a reasonable size that would be good. Below is the executive summary and the recommendations from the report, converted to efficient HTML:

Executive Summary

The convergence of broadband and Web 2.0 technologies is transforming the way people use the internet to communicate and interact. As people embrace the interactive internet they expect to be able to interact with the Australian Government (the Government) using these new technologies. The increasing use of information and communication technology (ICT) to enhance government service delivery provides opportunities for agencies to engage and involve citizens and communities in new ways.

While traditional ways of engaging will continue, agencies are exploring online approaches for involving the community. To assist development in this area, the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), a business group of the Department of Finance and Deregulation, conducted a public consultation on the proposed development and functionality of an Australian Government Consultation Blog.

The consultation sought the public’s view on online consultations and aimed to identify the public’s reaction to the concept of online consultation and whether people were interested in participating in such consultations. It also explored the motivational factors for participation and asked the public about general expectations of online consultations with government.

The consultation was conducted in three phases; a public discussion paper, focus groups and an online survey. The consultation was also discussed in popular Australian blogs.

In all three phases of the consultation there was overwhelming support for the concept of a Government consultation blog and discussion forum. Respondents expected that online consultations should form a part of the Government’s policy consultation process. However, when it came to actually participating in a Government forum, there was evidence to suggest that people who are not already engaged in online and political discussions would not actually participate. Respondents who had a positive interest in an Australian Government consultation forum indicated they would read and contribute to a blog.

Respondents provided a range of opinions on registration, moderation, the functionality of an online consultation website and privacy and security. The topic of moderation attracted the most debate amongst respondents. While the principle of automatically scanning comments for offensive language, and removing it automatically, was supported by the majority of respondents, many respondents rejected attempts to censor fringe but substantive opinions, however they were expressed. Respondents were enthusiastic about real time ‘web chats’ with Ministers, where people could pose questions and see them answered online. The idea of direct and immediate interaction with the top decision makers was of high importance to respondents.

Generally the public consultation indicated support for the development of a government online consultation web space that includes blogs, online discussion forums and details of public consultations. The findings suggested ways that the Government could encourage the public’s participation in online consultations. Respondents said they would be more likely to participate in government consultations if:

• the discussion topic were relevant to their personal circumstances;
• they had the opportunity to nominate the topics for discussion;
• discussion forums included the participation of Government officials;
• a range of registration options were available;
• the site was well designed, easy to find and use;
• participants were free to express their opinion without censorship; and
• it were unbiased in its operation.

Recommendations

ONE: To foster greater citizen participation in government policy making, the Australian Government should consider establishing an Australian Government online consultation forum, to complement existing forms of community consultation. It should:

• be accessible from a single online entry point - www.australia.gov.au; and
• progress in a phased approach with a few initiatives as a trial of the proposed functionality and to test and address some of the issues around registrations, participation and moderation.

TWO: Following an initial trial period, the Australian Government consultation forum should evaluate citizen and government participation and usage and, if appropriate, consider progressing to an interactive consultation forum. The interactive forum should:

• include a range of consultation mechanisms like blogs to generate ideas to inform the shaping of public policy and discussion forums to generate discussion around specific topics;
• include the ability for users to suggest topics for discussion;
• be easy to find and use and be comparable, in functionality, to existing online forums;
• include mechanisms that acknowledge contributions, allow users to rate other comments and provide email alerts of upcoming consultations;
• include policies for acceptable use, registration, participation, privacy and moderation guidelines; and
• include a feedback and evaluation section for users, both the community and government, to allow users to shape the site and for the continued improvement of the consultation forum.

From: Executive Summary and Recommendations, Consulting with Government - online, AGIMO, 2008

We are pleased to announce that the report, Consulting with Government - online , has been released this week and is available from

http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/consulting-with-government-online/index.html

The report presents findings and recommendations of our public consultation and research work on the Australian publics interest in consulting with Government online.

To further our work in this area we will be organising some roundtable events for agencies who are already consulting online using Web 2 technologies. If your agency is one of those and we have not yet spoken to you and you would like to participate please let us know.

It is anticipated that a second event will be held later in the year for agencies who are exploring the use of web 2 technologies and online consultation. If you are interested in attending this event we would also like to hear from you.

Please feel free to pass the report onto anyone you think may be interested....

Web Policy & Online Technologies
Australian Government Information Management Office
Department of Finance & Deregulation
Minter Ellison Building
25 National Circuit
BARTON ACT 2600

Secure Web Collaboration Across Government and Industry

The March Canberra WIPA/WSG meeting, today discussed government use of web based collaboration, including for sensitive matters at Cabinet level.

Brian Stonebridge, Department Finance and Deregulation
Topic 1: GovDex: a tool to support collaboration across government agencies

Brian Stonebridge talked about how to invest in ICT facilities which did not need to be kept adding to respond to government policy. The particular example was GovDex. A five nation collaboration workspace was demonstrated. This provides support for meetings between governments. Another example was support for the Australian Government ICT Standrads Group. One hot topic this is being used for is to establish the Australian Government position on OOXML (a position has been decided, but not released). Another demonstration was for communicating to new graduate staff. GovDex is secured to IN-CONFIDENCE level of security (PROTECTED cabinet level security and video is planned for GovDex 2).

My first thought was that the tools demonstrated would appear primitive to a group of teenagers organizing their social lives: Surely the Australian Government has something more advanced? Some of the discussion seemed very quaint and last century, for example pointing out that not all graduates may be working in Canberra and the Internet could be used to contact them. In the 21st Century the assumption that staff would be in a particular city, seems an odd one. I would have thought that a 21st century organization would make no assumptions as to where in the world there staff were working from. But the use of such tools need to be learned and also the government's security and public policy issues are difficult ones which most users do not face.

AGIMO is taking a gradual approach of fitting the tools into the usual bureaucratic processes. Ultimately this approach will not work: the processes will need to be changed to improve productivity. The main value of GovDex and similar tools will ultimately come from facilitating the change in these processes.

While I have been a registered GovDex user for some time (they let government consultants in), this talk was still very useful for me. I had the impression that GovDex was just for computer projects. Brian pointed out it can be used for any government project which needs secure collaboration. An example of this is that in the morning I was asked how a wiki could be provided to support the Australian Government's Review of the National Innovation System. My immediate reaction was to say "you can't do that, bureaucrats are not allowed to use wikis" (altought I teach them how to in an ANU course). But GovDex should be ideal for this providing the needed collaboration, but within a structure which supports the needs of government policy development.

Michele Huston, National Library of Australia
Topic 2: Wikis at work

Michele Huston talked about how wikis work in practice, with people initially experimenting and then settling down to organize their information. She discussed problems with the technology, including the editor. She suggested the simple editor has advantages in encouraging people to use simple designs (and at least having to work with wiki markup).

She pointed out a wiki is not intended as an archive, publishing work flow, secure documents or for blogging. These should rightly be done with other tools, although they can be interfaced.

Web collaboration for government

The March Web Standards Group meeting in Canberra features talks on the use of web technology for online collaboration in government agencies. Recommended:

March Canberra WIPA/WSG meeting

RSVP for this event below. 28 people have registered

Date: Thursday 27 March, 2008

Event Details

Time: 2.30 pm - 4.50 pm
Where: NLA Theatre, lower ground floor, National Library of Australia, Parkes Place, Parkes, ACT 2600
Cost: Free

First speaker: Brian Stonebridge, Department Finance and Deregulation
Topic 1: GovDex: a tool to support collaboration across government agencies

Brian Stonebridge is Director of the Collaborative Services Team in the Department of Finance and Deregulation. He has worked for a number of years to develop collaborative tools aimed at promoting a more harmonised approach to the delivery of government services. Brian is also active in the standards space and participates in a range of international standards fora. He represents Australia at the United Nations Committee for the Facilitation of Commerce and Trade.

Brian will talk about the opportunities for government agencies to use GovDex. GovDex is a resource developed to facilitate business process collaboration across policy portfolios and administrative jurisdictions. GovDex promotes effective and efficient information sharing, providing governance, tools, methods and re-usable technical components that government agencies can use to assemble and deploy information services on their different technology platforms.

Second speaker: Michele Huston, National Library of Australia
Topic 2: Wikis at work

Michele Huston is the Director of Web Publishing at the National Library of Australia. Her group undertakes web design for the main web site, authoring support for staff and develops the interfaces for complex web-based systems for the management and delivery of the Library's collections. Michele has been working with the Internet for 15 years and is particularly interested in exploring ways that the Library can benefit from popular Internet applications. In addition to the wiki project that is the topic of this presentation, she has championed a collaboration that allows Flickr users to add photos to Picture Australia and a new catalogue that includes book reviews from Amazon and allows Library card holders to leave comments.

Michele will talk about her experience implementing a wiki at the National Library of Australia. This talk may be of interest to you if you are considering incorporating a wiki at your work place to support various forms of collaborative activity. This is not a talk about the process of implementing a wiki, but is a case study on using a wiki to support the Library's extensive and varied collaboration activities. This wiki exercise did not start with a value proposition explained in business terms nor the assumption that users knew precisely what they wanted out of these tools. The wiki experience was a learning experience both for IT support and for the users. Michele is lucky enough to work at an organisation that isn't afraid of making a few (educational) mistakes!

Web collaboration for government

The March Web Standards Group meeting in Canberra features talks on the use of web technology for online collaboration in government agencies.The first talk features GovDex, a tool specifically developed for Australian Government ICT projects, and the second: the use of wikis in organizations. Recommended:

March Canberra WIPA/WSG meeting

RSVP for this event below. 28 people have registered

Date: Thursday 27 March, 2008

Event Details

Time: 2.30 pm - 4.50 pm
Where: NLA Theatre, lower ground floor, National Library of Australia, Parkes Place, Parkes, ACT 2600
Cost: Free

First speaker: Brian Stonebridge, Department Finance and Deregulation
Topic 1: GovDex: a tool to support collaboration across government agencies

Brian Stonebridge is Director of the Collaborative Services Team in the Department of Finance and Deregulation. He has worked for a number of years to develop collaborative tools aimed at promoting a more harmonised approach to the delivery of government services. Brian is also active in the standards space and participates in a range of international standards fora. He represents Australia at the United Nations Committee for the Facilitation of Commerce and Trade.

Brian will talk about the opportunities for government agencies to use GovDex. GovDex is a resource developed to facilitate business process collaboration across policy portfolios and administrative jurisdictions. GovDex promotes effective and efficient information sharing, providing governance, tools, methods and re-usable technical components that government agencies can use to assemble and deploy information services on their different technology platforms.

Second speaker: Michele Huston, National Library of Australia
Topic 2: Wikis at work

Michele Huston is the Director of Web Publishing at the National Library of Australia. Her group undertakes web design for the main web site, authoring support for staff and develops the interfaces for complex web-based systems for the management and delivery of the Library's collections. Michele has been working with the Internet for 15 years and is particularly interested in exploring ways that the Library can benefit from popular Internet applications. In addition to the wiki project that is the topic of this presentation, she has championed a collaboration that allows Flickr users to add photos to Picture Australia and a new catalogue that includes book reviews from Amazon and allows Library card holders to leave comments.

Michele will talk about her experience implementing a wiki at the National Library of Australia. This talk may be of interest to you if you are considering incorporating a wiki at your work place to support various forms of collaborative activity. This is not a talk about the process of implementing a wiki, but is a case study on using a wiki to support the Library's extensive and varied collaboration activities. This wiki exercise did not start with a value proposition explained in business terms nor the assumption that users knew precisely what they wanted out of these tools. The wiki experience was a learning experience both for IT support and for the users. Michele is lucky enough to work at an organisation that isn't afraid of making a few (educational) mistakes!

ICT for Government

The plenary session after lunch at the ACS Canberra Branch Conference was by Ann Steward, Australian Government Chief Information Officer on a "ICT in Government - The Way Forward". Whereas Senator Conroy talked in the morning broadly about programs for the community, Ann's brief is to support and guide those delivering ICT within government agencies. She provided a detailed summary of how ICT is to be done in support of the new government.

Previously AGIMO could only offer gentle guidance to agencies about their ICT strategies. With the change of government, AGIMO can have more of a say with agency projects, but still emphasizes consulting and guidance, rather than enforcement.

Ann mentioned that FedLink will come to tender shortly. ICON, the internal system used across government will also progress.

AGIMO is working on templates and patterns, structures and standards. AGIMO's business reference model will be in the next APSC State of the Services Report.

The acronyms used by AGIMO can get a bit bewildering, but thankfully most are standards ones used around the world (an example is SOA: Services Oriented Architecture). With AGIMO exclusive ones, there is usually a quick summary and detailed report on the AGIMO web site.

One success at a practical level has been the Australia.gov.au search facility which agencies can choose to use. Something which will be much harder to do is to create a single sign-on for clients of agencies. this is being done with the Australian Government Online Service Point and the delivery of online services. Rather than just do these sort of initiatives and hope for the best, user satisfaction surveys have been used to see what is working and is wanted.

The latest annual survey, due out soon, shows that the number of people contacting the government using the Internet at least once in the year was up from 20% to 59% from the year before and 25% use the Internet for most of their contact with government. Ann made a plea for agencies to look to coordinate information channels, including mobile and web.

AGIMO is working with DIISR on simplification of government forms and with Centerlink on authentication of clients. Also there is GovDex, which provides an online environment for government people to coordinate such work.

Ann mentioned ICT skills and the needs of government. One example is the ICT Apprenticeship Program. This was a pilot program in 2007 and has been launched last week for 2008, with 51 apprentices in 15 agencies. Not all the apprentices are young and more are needed. Ann described the fact that there were only one or two females amongst the apprentices as "unacceptable". There is a female mentoring program which may address this.

The PM is leading by example with a "citizen centric" approach to government.

In addition agencies need to work on business continuity, as with the e-security national agenda. Agencies need common agreed protocols in the event of disruption to services, such as telecommunications.

Ann said that agency based procurement does not necessarily result in the possible bulk savings. There may be more coordinated procurement for areas other than where it has been done with telecommunications.

AGIMO will participate in CEBIT Australia in May 2008 in Sydney.

See also from AGIMO:

• 2006 e-Government Strategy, Responsive Government: A New Service Agenda
• Australian Government Architecture (AGA)
• Australian Government Online Service Point (AGOSP) Program
• FedLink
• GovDex
• Telecommunications - Australian Government Arrangements
• ICT Strategy Skills
• ICT Management Consultants multi use list

My own take on AGIMO work:

• Australian e-Government Guide
• ICT Skills in the Australian Public Service
• Standards for a Civil Society, Government and Commerce: Pocket Government
• Management of Electronic Records in the Australian Government

Australian GeoNetwork Developers Group

On 1 August 2007 I attended the initial meeting of the Australian GeoNetwork Developers Group at the impressive Geoscience Australia (GA) green building in Canberra. These are my notes from the meeting (not official minutes). The GA building is worth visiting, even if you are not having a meeting.

Geoscience Australia

... Geoscience Australia plays a critical role by producing first-class geoscientific information and knowledge. This can enable the government and the community to make informed decisions about the exploration of resources, the management of the environment, the safety of critical infrastructure and the resultant wellbeing of all Australians.

From: About us, Geoscience Australia, 2007

GA have a public exhibition of minerals and seismic instruments, as well as a map shop (which also sells polished rocks) and a library and cafe, which the public is welcome to use. This is well worth a visit for tourists. Also they are having an open day 26 August 2007.

Geoscience Australia provides part of the Australian Tsunami Warning System (such systems haven't had all the bugs shaken out of them yet). GA also acquire seismic and other mapping data to help with mineral exploration, natural resource use and are looking to provide access to it via the internet, which is why they were hosting the meeting.

Office of Spatial Data Management

The meeting was called by Ben Searle, General Manager, Office of Spatial Data Management in Geoscience Australia, which looks after Government mapping policy:

The role of the Office of Spatial Data Management (OSDM) is to:

• provide administrative support to the Spatial Data Policy Executive (SDPE) and the Spatial Data Management Group (SDMG);
• implement the workplan and manage the working groups established by SDMG;
• facilitate sharing of experience and expertise between Australian Government agencies;
• provide technical advice to the SDMG;
• promote efficient use of Australian Government spatial data assets;
• represent the Australian Government's interests in spatial data coordination and access arrangements with the States and Territories; and
• foster the development of a private sector spatial information industry.

From: About OSDM, Office of Spatial Data Management, Geoscience Australia, 25 Jan 2006

Australian GeoNetwork Developers Group

There were about 20 people present at the meeting in the Geoscience's Scrivener Room (the room has a wavy ceiling which improves the acoustics, but the computer controlled daylight adjusting lights were distracting). This was scheduled to start at 9:30am, but I was 20 minutes late, just as Ben was finishing the introductions. Here is the agenda annotated with my notes:

Agenda

1. Introduction, Ben Searle.

2. Overview of Meeting objectives, Ben Searle: Ben suggested the need for both companies and researchers to be involved. He suggested that open source should be used and that Australia needed to work with international standards.

This what was on the agenda as Possible Meeting Objectives:

• Establish a management mechanism - Terms of Reference?
• Agree on a ‘single point of contact’
• Determine who wants what and who can contribute resources
• Establish short and long term needs
• Determine need for a technical meeting
• Identify the User Community
• Identify possible software developers
• Agree on open source principles
• Identify possible resources

Much of what was discussed in the meeting was geospatial specific and my only experience of that was helping with the Sentinel fire tracking system. (including an experimental alternative web interface designed for mobile phones).

3. Overview of GeoNetwork application, Kate Roberts: Kate talked about the BlueNet MEST project:

The BlueNet project will establish a national distributed marine science data network linking universities to the AODC, to support the long term data curation requirements, and data access needs of Australia’s marine science researchers.

BlueNet will build infrastructure to enable the discovery, access and online integration of multi-disciplinary marine science data on a very large scale, to support current and future marine science and climate change research, ecosystem management and government decision making. ...

From: BlueNet, University of Tasmania, 2007

BlueNet are using the GeoNetwork open source software. Their system is up and running but most records are not yet available to the public. However, the system has a similar interface to other GeoNetwork implementations, such as the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' (OCHA) "Maps-On-Demand".

Kate mentioned ISO 19115, the Geographic Information Metadata standard from ISO , the Z39.50 protocol and problems with security got a mention (LDAP seen as the solution). Problems with flexibility of the software for handling XML data and IP of different data sets (including provision for Creative Commons). ePrints also was mentioned. Many of these issues were familiar, particularly how to share information while retaining the owner's rights.

Kate then gave a demo. Unfortunately the text was so small I could not read any of it, apart from the logo on the top of the screen. Perhaps UTAS needs an web accessibilty course.

One question asked was how to use the thumbnail images on the right side of the screen. At first these seemed to be purely decorative and so the issue did not seem relevant. But on the next screen it turned out that this was where on the screen commands were displayed.

The term "clone" was used to indicate "copy". This was confusing and also is potentially emotionally loaded for the general public, with the debate over human cloning.

A very complex nested metadata form was then shown. This could be useful for metadata experts (and the students I teach metadata to), but will be unusable for the average user. A simpler web search type interface is needed.

My only quibble with the technical standards is that GeoNetwork use of Z39.50 is a bit dated (and something only a librarian could love). Web Services would be a better idea. However, Z39.50 might be needed to interoperate with other repositories.

The OakLaw project (Open Access to Knowledge or OAKL), got a mention as they are looking at adapting Creative Commons for Australia (Prof. Brian Fitzgerald from QUT talked about it at the National Scholarly Communications Forum 2007). It was suggested that the Queensland Government was looking to use CC for government data. This then could be applied to Commonwealth data. The people doing Oak Law at QUT have already produced an Australian version of the Creative Commons license. This would seem to be adequate for use by government agencies (but I am not a lawyer).

The demo then showed a map of Tasmania, at different resolutions and pop-up windows of data from features on the map. The interface could do with some of the user friendly features of Google Maps.

In some examples the thumbnails were small maps, which looked useful.

4. Discussion on Governance Mechanisms and Related Issues, Everybody:

This what was on the agenda for Governance Mechanisms and Issues:

• How best to arrange, manage and coordinate our activities?
• How often do we meet?
• Do we need a technical group to support a management group?
• Do we need a single point of contact?
• Who is best suited, interested and willing to perform this role?
• Should the point of contact be funded?
• How do we develop and coordinate specification development?
• How do we prioritise development activities?
• Do we allow participation of the commercial sector?
• Can they assist in they management, development and/or as project participants

There was a discussion of what mechanism for work for government agencies. This reminded me of the administrative process I helped invent invent for the creation of Internet networks and web sites of the Australian Government. This started out with a self appointed group (the Commonwealth Internet Reference Group formed in 1994) and was later formalized. I suggested a similar strategy with OSDM as the lead agency and endorsement from AGIMO.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is taking a similar approach to statistical data coordination with its National Data Network, as is proposed for geo data. I suggested using the administrative processes and terminology developed by ABS.

5. Identify Priorities, Everybody:

This what was on the agenda for Identify Priorities:

• What are the key technical issue that need resolution first?
• Do we need to hold a more technical meeting to commence the specification development?
• Identification of resources including agencies willing to support the development process, funds and other resources
• Do we need a short term and long term objective and can these be carried out concurrently?

There was then a discussion of software tools needed. Many of these were geo specific. Some were to do with XML data validation. There was discussion as to who might do software development: government agencies, companies and/or universities. I suggested that ANU students were capable of producing software, but this needed to fit in their educational program, which requires a six or twelve month cycle. It is easier to fit open source prototypes, tools and research into education, rather than proprietary production code.

Students who have undertaken ANU's "IT in e-Commerce" (COMP3410/COMP6341) and similar university courses, will be familiar with XML, XSL, DTD, CSS, knowledge discovery, Web Services, meta-data, web-based data mining, data management, security, encryption, authentication and the like. But they will still struggle with the problems of the politics of data.

There was discussion of Wikis and mailing lists (the sort of thing used for the ACS Green IT Group is using). There was also a discussion of metadata entry tools.

There was a healthy skepticism as to the status of international standards. Curiously there was no mention of Standards Australia.

6. Initial Project Plan and Timeframes, Everybody:

To be delegated to a meeting of steering and technical committees.

7. Summary, Ben Searle.

Additional Information - Possible Areas for Discussion

Meeting closed at 12:25pm.

Further thoughts

This was a very useful meeting, with people expert in the field and from leading organizations. However, a perception that government committees need to work in a particular way seems to be hampering progress. Use could make of Web 2.0 and social networking technology for consulting and coordinating the work. In this way the inertia of conventional committees could be avoided.

A major problem with efforts such as the Australian GeoNetwork Developers Group is to find who may want to be involved. This can be overcome by placing the information online so that interested people can discover it. The next step can then be taken to invite them to comment and participate. Rather than a rigid plan, anyone interested can be invited to participate, using generally agreed standards and open source systems.

An example of where a looser method of coordination was used was in the web based open source disaster management system for an Indonesian earthquake. Instead of conventional documentation, the Indonesian IT students doing the work convinced me that a Wiki could be used. The result was a more social, human and inclusive document than would be usual for an IT project.

In Which Repository?

The approach to metadata and repositories for geodata is much the same as that used for other types of data, such as statistics, documents and cultural records. The geoscience community have much to gain from being able to work with other such communities of interest and much to loose if they do not.

As an example, the ANU has an electronic repository Demetrius (named after the first Librarian of Alexandria). The holds mostly materials from the humanities, with culturally significant archives, such as photos of pubs of NSW. Geoscience also holds electronic copies of research publications across disciplines. If the Geoscience materials are not visible in the general repository it may never be found by potential users. Policy makers may not not even notice that geoscience is making a useful contribution and therefore not fund it.

Courses

ANU is offering courses in its System Approach to Management of Government Information. This was developed with the for the National Archives of Australia for teaching e-document management to public servants. It includes a short version of my metadata/e-repository lectures. This could be expanded to include more scientific aspects of metadata and geodata. That would be much more interesting for the students than learning how to file government paperwork electronically. ;-)

Smart Rooms

One aspect of Geoscience is the need to have computerized measurement equipment in the field. Following up on the lunch discussion after the meeting with some of the participants,
my proposal for a transportable smart room might be useful. As well as being used for school children at remote indigenous communities and for command and control on the new amphibious ships HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide, the technology could be used for geosciece at remote locations, with something more modest than used for arctic research.


ps: There seems to no ISO 19115 entry in the3 Wikipedia in English. Perhaps Australia could contribute one.