Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

Canberra suggests, for example, that existing networks can be built upon through the creationof public service juries based on the criminal jury model as a possible mechanism: “Publicservice juries would operate on the same basis as the criminal jury system. We trust citizensto make life and death decisions why not public value ones?” 137 The success of these juriesis dependent on their being comprehensively briefed on the merits of the issues they are beingasked to consider, as well as judicious use of that mechanism.However, use of these tools also raises issues of concern and risks to traditional ways ofworking that need to be managed. The Commonwealth Government has already engaged138with this issue promulgating guidelines on the use of social media, and the Government 2.0Taskforce endorsed those guidelines in its report:including the declaration that Web 2.0 provides public servants with unprecedentedopportunities to open up government decision making and implementation to contributionsfrom the community. The taskforce agrees that, consistent with APS values and code ofconduct, APS employees should be actively encouraged and empowered to engage online.The ACTPS must harness and apply its knowledge better in order that the creation, capture,use, reuse and storage information will contribute to the achievement of its objectives. TheACT Government has invested heavily in the communications and networking infrastructureto enable all arms of Government to communicate across a private optical fibre network.However the way it collects, stores, accesses and analyses information is fragmented and thedatabases and other digital data used to facilitate access are often unknown outside of theimmediate group of individuals working using them.Each agency has its own intranet, website, workflow systems, and document managementsystems. The single largest barrier to effective knowledge management is organisationalculture – built on silos, knowledge hoarding and protection of fiefdoms. The repositories ofknowledge (systems, people (tacit knowledge) and information (i.e. explicit knowledge)) 140are not accessed in a systematic way and have no whole of government strategic frameworkgoverning their access and operation. If the ACTPS is to continue to build a highperformance culture then it needs to understand the data held, sort the data to understand itsstory, make an inventory of its intellectual capital, improve existing processes, and move to alearning culture.In an environment where web technology plays an increasing role in our society, when theway people interact has changed and the rise of ‘wicked problems’ in public policy – publicservants are required to find innovative solutions. Information and communicationstechnology (ICT) has become inextricably linked with the idea of continuous improvementand business change through its ability to accelerate, amalgamate and replace processeswhich in the past may have happened separately. The ACT Government has significantly139137 ANZSOG Institute for Governance (2009) pp.3,9.138 Australian Public Service Commission (2009d) Circular 2009/6: Protocols for Online Media Participation. Canberra.139 Commonwealth Government (2009) p.xviii.140 Bock, W. (1998) Knowledge Management http://www.knowledgepoint.com.au/starting_out/Articles/so_wb001a.htmlGoverning the City State: 90