Internet World Australia 2k - 6-8 June 2000

Connecting Government Forum

8 June 2000, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre

What's New: Preliminary Program

About the Event

Internet World Australia's one day government forum will present Australia's top speakers on the topic of Access for All.

This year's forum explores the topic of access for all, both from the point of view of Government providing information to citizens and in obtaining input from citizens.

Commercial web sites can target a particular market segment and customer demographic. However, democracy demands that Government cater for the needs of all citizens and treat them equally. This paces additional requirements on Government, to make sure that web sites are accessible to the visually impaired, people on slow links in country areas, people using old equipment, those who speak languages other than English. It is important to respond to the different ways people actually make use of government services online. This requires redefinition of the relationship between government, people, information and services.

There are some relatively simple and cheap ways to make web sites more accessible. Are these being used? Are they adequate? Are they really needed? Will new technologies, such as wireless Internet, improve access, or increase the divide between information rich and poor?

Government is as much about listening to the views of the people, as of issuing information to them. How effectively are politicians and bureaucrats using the Internet for consulting and listening? Have early fears of spam e-mail campaigns clogging politicians mailboxes been overcome? Are there still agencies or MPs not accepting e-mail? Has the opportunity been taken to more efficiently collect views on-line?

Preliminary Program

TIMESESSION
9.00 - 9.15WELCOME by Tom Worthington, Conference Chair, Visiting Fellow, Australian National University, an independent electronic business consultant and author of "Net Traveller - Exploring the Networked Nation"
9.15 - 9.45Opening Address, John Ridge FACS, President of the Australian Computer Society
9:45 - 10.15Universal Service Obligations and People with Disabilities, Michael Bourk, Associate Lecturer, University of Canberra
Systems
10.15 - 11.00Practical implementation of the DCITA Online Strategy, Ian Barndt, Manager Online Projects, Department of Communications, IT & the Arts
11.00 - 11.30Morning Tea
11.30 - 12.15Government metadata standards for online resource discovery, Andrew Wilson, Project Manager, Australian Government Locator Service, National Archives of Australia.
12.15 - 12:45Public Key Infrastructure - An Implementation Case Study, Peter Anderson, General Manager, Government Public Key Infrastructure , Office for Government Online
12:45 - 1.00PANEL DISCUSSION - With the morning's speakers
1.00 - 2.00LUNCH
2.00 - 2.05Afternoon Session Introduced by Sue Scott, Co-chair, Director of the Online Legal Access Project, Law Foundation of NSW
E-democracy
2.05 - 2.30Making Parliament More Participatory On-line, Andrew Freeman FACS, Director, Community Affairs Board, Australian Computer Society
Content
2.30 - 3.00The Better Health Channel, Dr Jeff Langdon, Manager, Better Health Channel, Department of Human Services, Victoria
3.00 - 3.30Getting the right information onto government web sites, Julie Johnson, Coordinator Internet Computing, Edith Cowan University
3.30 - 4.00Afternoon Tea
On-line Communities
4.00 - 4.30Marion Online Initiative, Margaret Price, Principal Consultant, Aspect Computing Pty Ltd
4.30 - 5.00Empowerment - Knowledge Management for the Whole Community, Mr Victor Perton, Shadow Minister for Multimedia, Victorian Parliament
5.00 - 5:30PANEL DISCUSSION - With the afternoon's speakers

Preliminary List of Topics and Speakers

Tom Worthington Tom Worthington FACS will chair the government forum again.

Tom was the first web master for the Australian Department of Defence. In 1999 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society for his contribution to the development of public Internet policy. Tom is a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the Australian National University, an independent electronic business consultant and author of "Net Traveller - Exploring the Networked Nation".

Sue Scott will join Tom this year as co-chair.

Sue Scott is the Director of the Online Legal Access Project (OLAP). OLAP is a project of the Law Foundation of NSW and involves a number of research and policy initiatives designed to improve the accessibility and quality of online legal information. These include researching user needs, developing a metadata enabled legal search engine, and developing best practice guidelines for legal web sites.

Sue is particularly interested in equity of access to information and the role that online technologies can play in this. She is currently undertaking her Masters of Adult Education thesis looking at how community agencies access and use legal information. Sue has extensive experience in online training, information management and delivery of information services and was the winner of the 1998 Jean Arnot Memorial Fellowship for her paper "Mapping the Internet".

Opening Address, John Ridge FACS


President of the Australian Computer Society

Ian Barndt Practical implementation of the DCITA Online Strategy, Ian Barndt, Manager Online Projects, Department of Communications, IT & the Arts

This talk will focus on the development of an Online Services Strategy for the Department of Communications IT and the Arts. It will discuss the methodology and approach used to define online services and the change management needed to implement the strategy. Online services are a new and emerging issue. There is now real pressure for agencies to put their services online. This presentation will highlight the issues and options agencies need to consider in planning their online services.

Ian Barndt is the Manager of Online Services at the Department of Communications, IT & the Arts), where he is managing the development and roll-out of an Online Strategy for the Department. He has over 16 years of hands-on systems development and IT policy experience in the Federal Government, the past two years at the international level. Mr Barndt has an impressive portfolio of successes in strategic planning and systems design and development in distributed multi-agency client-server, EDI and online systems, including Integrated Customs - Quarantine clearance system, and the Government Information Centre. He has served on many senior inter-departmental, joint industry and international committees, including Public Key Infrastructure, x.500, EDI, Resource Discovery, Integrated Service Delivery and Electronic Commerce.

Government metadata standards for online resource discovery, Andrew Wilson, Project Manager, Australian Government Locator Service, National Archives of Australia.

The role of metadata in online resource discovery and organisational record keeping; The Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS) Metadata Standard; the record keeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies; The Australian Governments Interactive Functions Thesaurus (AGIFT); and National Archives guidelines on the design and implementation of electronic record keeping systems in government agencies and for the archiving of government Websites.

Andrew has been working in the archives and records field since the late 1970s. He has extensive experience with the Archives Office of NSW and at the NSW Legislative Assembly working as an Archivist. From there he went to the NSW Office of Australian Archives in 1984, followed by a short stint as an Archives and Records Management consultant. He returned to Australian Archives in 1989 and moved to a position in the Canberra Office of the organisation in 1990. Andrew has worked in most of the areas one can as an archivist - information services; appraisal and disposal; legislative analysis; descriptive standards. Since late 1998 he has been project manager for the Australian Government Locator Service, a resource description metadata standard based on Dublin Core. He is am also responsible for the National Archives' Recordkeeping metadata standard and various other online projects, such as the archiving websites policy and guidelines.

Michael Bourk Universal Service Obligations and People with Disabilities, Michael Bourk, Associate Lecturer, University of Canberra

Looks at universal service policy in relation to people with disabilities. Universal service obligations that have been placed on telecommunication carriers by successive federal parliaments since 1975, have socio-political implications for those developing government internet policy. Will policy in telecommunications service delivery which benefited many who have disabilities be followed in Internet policy?

Michael Bourk is a lecturer and postgraduate scholar at the University of Canberra. In 1998, he graduated with a Masters of Arts by research in Communication. Michael developed an interest in the quality of services for people with a disability through his work as a support worker. Between 1994 and 1998 he worked with the ACT Society for the Physically Handicapped, and the Residential Services division of the Canberra Health Department. His duties brought him into daily contact with people with various physical and intellectual disabilities and the policies shaping their lives.

Andrew Freeman Making Parliament More Participatory On-line, Andrew Freeman FACS, Director, Community Affairs Board, Australian Computer Society

This session will focus on how the internet could help make Parliament more participatory in relation to the general citizenship. The principal author of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Economic, Legal and Social Implications Committee (ELSIC) submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Procedure made in May 1999 will talk about the implications of the Internet for parliament.

Andrew Freeman FACS, is the Director of the Community Affairs Board of the Australian Computer Society (ACS). In that role he oversights the work of the ACS Economic, Legal and Social Implications Committee (ELSIC), Health Informatics Committee (HIC), National Computer Education Committee (NCEC), and Women in Technology (WIT) committee. He is the Australian national representative to the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Technical Committee 9 (Computers and Society).

The Better Health Channel, Dr Jeff Langdon, Manager, Department of Human Services, Victoria

The Better Health Channel was launched in May 1999 as part of the Victorian Govenment's "channels" strategy to provide all relevant government information on line by 2001. The Better Health Channel seeks to provide quality assured, accessible health and well being information on line. A secondary initiative is to provide Internet points of access to the BHC in hospital waiting rooms and similar areas. A pilot program of 120 terminals is being rolled out during 2000. Jeff Langdon is the manager of the initiative for the Department of Human Services which is "hosting" the channel.

Jeff Langdon is an experienced speaker in public. In earlier roles in the broadcasting and community development industries he has presented papers to national and international conferences. He has held senior positions on national boards and committees and made numerous representations to government.

Getting the right information onto government web sites, Julie Johnson, Coordinator Internet Computing, Edith Cowan University

This presentation will consider the issue of getting the right information onto government web sites. It will review pertinent research about identifying client's information needs. Techniques for discovering the gaps in client's knowledge are outlined. A tour of strategies currently being employed by government web sites to meet the information needs of client groups will be provided.

Julie Johnson is the coordinator of the Internet Computing degree at Edith Cowan University. She has had a long career in providing public information services and writes and researches in the area of online government information services.

Marion Online Initiative, Margaret Price, Principal Consultant, Aspect Computing Pty Ltd

Presentation of a case study for the development of the online community in Marion, South Australia; an initiative driven by the local council in partnership with selected private sector organisations.

Margaret Price is a Principal Consultant for Aspect Computing in Adelaide. Over the past 9 months, Margaret has bee the project director for the Marion Online project, a new business initiative being undertaken by Aspect through an alliance with the City of Marion. Margaret has had over 30 years in IT, primarily in the State public sector in South Australia. In September 1997, Margaret was appointed General Manager, Strategic Planning and Policy, with whole-of-government strategy responsibilities.

Victor Perton Empowerment - Knowledge Management for the Whole Community, Mr Victor Perton, Shadow Minister for Multimedia, Victorian Parliament

The state of Multimedia in Victoria; how Government is using Multimedia to empower citizens, and what the future holds for Government in the 21st Century and the information age.

Victor Perton is Shadow Minister for Multimedia and Shadow Minister for Environment and Conservation in the Victorian Parliament. Victor is a keen and enthusiastic advocate of Australia as a centre of the new information economy. He recently completed his term as Chairman of the Victorian Law Reform Committee. Victor is a member of the Research Board of the Alliance for Converging Technologies, a new international program for government leadership in the digital economy based in Boston, USA. He is also a member of the Federal Government's Expert Group on E-Commerce.

Public Key Infrastructure - An Implementation Case Study, Peter Anderson General Manager, Government Public Key Infrastructure, Office for Government Online

The Commonwealth has some ambitious plans for the use of Public Key Infrastructure in Government. This presentation will outline the practical issues involved in the development and implementation of Public Key technology. It also draws out the lessons of broader interest to other users and vendors.

Peter Anderson is currently the General Manager, Government Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Branch within the Office for Government Online. His responsibilities include the Gatekeeper initiative and the development and deployment of the Australian Business Number Digital Signature Certificate (ABN-DSC). His current responsibilities map closely with the work being undertaken by the National Electronic Authentication Council. Peter worked in the private sector for several years before moving to Canberra in 1972 to take up a position in the Australian Public Service. He has tertiary qualifications in production engineering, politics and history and information technology.

To register: Internet World Australia 2k
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