Government ICT Update - April 2013

Peter Bisley — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 04:00:09 +0000

IN THIS ISSUE:

Strong interest in the Common Web Platform
Guidance issued on technology solutions to assist appropriate use of email
Update on all-of-government cloud computing
Update on Government ICT Strategy
Insights from MIT digital transformation research
Independent benchmarking completed on the one.govt network service
Microsoft Windows XP migration progress surveys
GOVIS 2013 registrations now open
More Information

Strong interest in Common Web Platform

DIA has run seminars about the Common Web Platform for government agencies and vendors in February and March, attracting strong interest from government agencies and vendors alike.

The seminars followed the announcement on February 7 by Internal Affairs Minister, Hon Chris Tremain that a Wellington-based company, SilverStripe, was the successful vendor in a tender process for the platform.

DIA Senior Product Manager Bene Anderson co-presented the seminars with Sig Magnusson of SilverStripe. Over 200 people in total attended the seminars, with others on the waiting list. There was a wide cross section of government agencies at the seminars, ranging from large government departments and ministries to smaller crown agencies.Suppliers of web services also attended to find out how they can work on the platform.

The Common Web Platform enables government agencies to more easily create and deliver high quality websites to New Zealanders through a consistent, high quality, and improving platform on which to build the next generation of government websites.

Part of the Common Web Services initiative, it aims to reduce duplication of effort and streamline web service procurement by for a wide range of government agencies. It plays a key role in the Rethink Online programme, reducing fragmentation of information and services across agencies and channels.

For more detail, see the Common Web Services page on ict.govt.nz, or email online@dia.govt.nz

Guidance issued on technology solutions to assist appropriate use of email

On 27 March 2013, the Department of Internal Affairs issued interim advice on technology options to assist in the prevention of unintentional release of information through email attachments.

While the issue is primarily due to human error, there are technologies available that can substantially reduce the likelihood of these disclosures.

The Department of Internal Affairs is working with other agencies to develop further guidance on this issue.

The interim advice has been issued to Chief Information Officers. Further copies can be provided to State services employees by emailing gcio@dia.govt.nz

Update on all-of-government cloud computing

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Internal Affairs Minister Chris Tremain has announced that proposals are being sought for an all-of-Government Desktop as a Service (DaaS) contract.

There has been strong industry interest in the RFP. Around 40 people attended an industry briefing in Wellington on Tuesday, 19 March.

The Department of Internal Affairs would still like to hear from agencies who are interested in Desktop as a Service or would like more information. Please email gcio@dia.govt.nz

Office Productivity as a Service (OPaaS)

An RFP for OPaaS was placed on the GETS site late last year. The procurement process, which was due to have been completed at the end of February, has been extended. The phasing in of OPaaS is being investigated. The implementation of email/calendar services could be offered as the first phase.

Update on Government ICT Strategy

Since October, DIA has been working with a taskforce drawn from a range of agencies on an ICT Strategy and Action Plan to 2017. The draft strategy is now in pre-Cabinet consultation with departmental ICT and Information Management leaders.

Once the Strategy has been approved, it will be published on ict.govt.nz

Insights from MIT digital transformation research

Professor Peter Weill and Dr Peter Reynolds from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Centre for Information Systems Research (MIT CISR) held workshops with a diverse group of government ICT professionals on 28 February. The workshops were sponsored by the Department of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Social Development, and Inland Revenue, and are part of an ongoing sponsorship relationship.

At the workshops, attendees were shown some of the latest case studies from MIT CISR’s research in digital transformation. Through the ongoing sponsorship relationship, New Zealand government employees can get access to the MIT CISR online research base. MIT is one of the world’s premier universities, topping the QS World University rankings in 2012, and the CISR’s research is some of the latest and best in this area.

Please email gcio@dia.govt.nz for information on how to sign up

Independent benchmarking completed on the one.govt network service

In October 2012, the Department of Internal Affairs contracted with an independent third party to benchmark one.govt against other offerings in the market, and the results have been finalised. This exercise was conducted under the terms of the contract with Dimension Data to ensure that the pricing of the service remains in line with the expected benefits of the service. Participating agencies will be contacted shortly with further detail relating to the pricing of this service. The information can be made available to eligible agencies on request.

For more information, please contact Ross McElwain, one.govt Product Manager, on Ross.McElwain@dia.govt.nz

Microsoft Windows XP migration progress

The Department will be contacting agencies which have not fully migrated from Windows XP and Office 2003. This is to ensure that they are making sufficient progress to fully move off these products by April 2014.

Agencies who reported that they are in phases 1-4 will be contacted this month, while those agencies who reported that they are in phases 5-8 will be contacted in June.

For more information about this initiative, please contact 414@dia.govt.nz

GOVIS 2013 registrations open

The GOVIS Conference 2013 will be held on Monday 17 and Tuesday 18 June 2013 at the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa. Early Bird registrations are now open.

The theme for GOVIS Conference 2013 is Collaborations and Cloud:

Collaborations – find out what makes a successful collaboration and hear important learnings from less successful collaborations.

Cloud – no longer the scary unknown, cloud is now Business as Usual for New Zealand Government – or is it?

Registration for the GOVIS Conference 2013 is now Open. Check out www.govis.org.nz/GOVISConference/GOVISConference2013.aspx for more details and registration options.

More information

This newsletter is intended to update you on progress with the government ICT programme. We invite your feedback to help us ensure it meets your needs.

Please keep an eye out for future updates, and contact us to share your views or offer assistance.

John Roberts

Acting Director, Government ICT Strategy & Planning

If you have any questions regarding this Government ICT Update, please contact:

Matt Ross,

Manager Agency Engagement,

gcio@dia.govt.nz

phone (04) 494 5775

Your comments, questions, and feedback are invited.

NZGOAL Guidance Note 1: Website copyright statements

Keitha Booth — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 23:24:48 +0000

This Guidance Note 1 sets outs:

suggested minimum requirements for agency website copyright statements;
guidance on applying NZGOAL, on taking care of third party rights, logos, emblems, design elements and trade marks, and on when it is appropriate to usethe term “Crown copyright”; and
a sample website copyright statement (in both plain text and HTML).

Read Guidance Note 1

NZGOAL Guidance Note 2: File formats

Paul Stone — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:27:54 +0000

This Guidance Note provides practical advice for agencies when selecting the formats for releasing public information and data for re-use in accordance with the 2010 NZ Government Open Access and Licensing framework (NZGOAL), as required by the 2011 Declaration on Open and Transparent Government.

Application of this advice will assist agencies to assess data readiness for re-use in line with the 5 Star Open data measure.

Format Principles

Cabinet has approved the following format principles:

NZGOAL Open Format Principle (paragraphs 49-50)

“When licensing copyright works and releasing non-copyright material for re-use, agencies should:

(a) consider the formats in which they ought to be released, taking into account, where relevant, the wishes of those who will or are likely to re-use the works or material;

(b) release them in the formats they know or believe are best suited for interoperability and re-use and are searchable and indexable by search engines; and

(c) in the case of datasets, add their details into data.govt.nz.When releasing works or material in proprietary formats, agencies should also release the works or material in open, non-proprietary formats”.

Re-usable Principle in NZ Data and Information Management Principles

“Data and information released can be discovered, shared, used and re-used over time and through technology change. Copyright works are licensed for re-use and open access to and re-use of non-copyright materials is enabled, in accordance with the New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing framework.

at source, with the highest possible level of granularity
in re-usable, machine-readable format
with appropriate metadata; and
in aggregate or modified forms if they cannot be released in their original state.

Data and information released in proprietary formats are also released in open, non-proprietary formats. Digital rights technologies are not imposed on materials made available for re-use”.

Guidance

Agencies must plan to and move to the ideal state of creating, storing and releasing data and information in open, non-proprietary and machine readable formats . This will evolve as agencies update their information systems, move to open standards, introduce web services and/or amend their publication processes. This will ensure that information released by agencies is also reusable.
Agencies releasing data and information in proprietary formats must move to releasing the data also in open, non-proprietary and machine readable formats. This may initially involve releasing in different proprietary formats, for example, tables in a report released in portable document format (PDF) also released as separate MS Excel files. The next step would be to release the tables also as an open Comma-separated Values file (CSV) and to progress to the standard open formats listed below.
Agencies must work with users of their data and information to understand the formats they prefer to enable them to re-use this material.
Agencies will then progress along the 5 Star Open data measure.

List of file formats and their level of openness

Format	Machine readable	Fully open	Partially open	Non-proprietary	Can be used for:
Microsoft Office Suite (docx, xlsx, pptx)	Not for data	-	Since 2007	No	Office documents; need open format also
Portable Document Format (PDF)	No	No	Yes	Yes	Office documents; need open format also
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)	Not for data	Yes	-	Yes	All documents
Extensible Markup Language (XML)	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	All documents
Comma Separated Values (CSV) file	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Tables
	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Geospatial data; shapefiles
Open Geospatial Consortium Web Feature Service (WFS)	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Geospatial data; shapefiles
Open Geospatial Consortium Web Mapping Service (WMS)	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Geospatial data; shapefiles
ESRI ArcMAn and ArcGIS	Yes	-	Yes	No	Geospatial data; shapefiles
Rich Text Format (RTF)	Not for Data	-	Yes	Yes	Office documents
Rich Description Framework (RDF)	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Any dataset
Linked RDF	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Any dataset

Definitions

Open

In the simplest terms, an open format is a format that has an open standard associated with it. An open standard is made through a transparent, collaborative process, fairly accessible for zero or low cost, mature and supported by the market.

Non- proprietary

Proprietary formats are formats designed to work only in the proprietary programmes that created them. When releasing high-value public data and information for re-use, it should be released in open and non-proprietary formats. However, if a proprietary format is commonly used the data may be released in a proprietary format, as well as a non-proprietary format.

Machine readable

Machine readable data is data that is designed to be consumed directly by computer programs (application) without a human middleman.

Open Government Case Study: Infoshare

Paul Stone — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:56:42 +0000

Infoshare: access to over 30 million aggregated, confidentialised, timeseries data

Change from closed subscription service to self-serve online tool

Available in different forms to meet needs of users

Confidentiality and privacy of individuals protected at all times

Over 82,000 users in first year of release increased to over 100,000 over thefollowing year

Users value online access that is free of charge

Government and business use the data to carry out analysis and provide information for researchers and analysts

Infoshare: described as “a valuable and serious piece of data research”

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

Purpose of Agency

Statistics NZ is New Zealand’s national statistical office and leader of the Official Statistics System. It has been delivering New Zealand's most important official statistics for 120 years.

What has been released for re-use?

Infoshare, a self-service open online data tool on Statistics NZ’s website, contains over 30 million aggregated, confidentialised, time-series data. More than 110 million cells of data on topics include:

economic activity (eg price indexes and production figures)
demographic measures (eg births and deaths)
a long-term historic series of population and economic data
arrivals and departures of the population and visitors
wholesale and retail trade
exports and imports
building consents.

Data is available in Excel (.xls), comma delimited (.csv) or Table Query (.tqx) formats.

Release rationale

Statistics NZ wished to increase access to data for decision-making by replacing INFOS, a closed subscription service with only about 90 data subscribers. Data release via Infoshare complements the release of statistical information in other forms such as reports and products. Statistics NZ releases information in different forms to meet the needs of a diverse range of users.

Risk mitigation

Supporting users - Users were given information about the new Infoshare tool both during development and after release. Ongoing user support is also provided.

Confidentiality and privacy - The confidentiality and privacy of individuals is protected at all times as required by the Statistics Act. Data is adjusted to make sure that no individual or business can be identified. Under specific conditions, researchers can access anonymised individual level data via the Microdata Access Services.

Data integrity and quality - The integrity and quality of data is considered throughout the statistical production process and sound statistical methodology is applied.

Cost and timeframe

The Making Information Freely Available (MIFA) programme provided baseline funding of $1.06 million. Infoshare was released in two stages in 2008 and 2009. After the initial set-up it became part of Statistics NZ’s core service to users. In 2013/14, it will be incorporated into NZ.Stat, a free web tool that will provide additional functionality, including machine to machine data transfer.

Impact

Opening up the data has resulted in a vast increase in its use. In its first year, more than 82,000 users were recorded. In 2011/12 there were more than 100,000 users.

Economic and social impacts

Auckland management consultants Coriolis Research use Infoshare “all the time as a primary source of data, particularly trade data” for client projects. They value online access that is free of charge.

NZ Retailers Association creates data tables (mostly business demography data) to help members to:

compare themselves against the market
understand the dynamics of their specific market sector
take decisions based on fact rather than ‘gut feel’.

First NZ Capital regularly uses data from Infoshare, converting them into charts and performing correlation analysis with data from other sources.

The Reserve Bank reproduces Statistics NZ data on its website, providing a macroeconomic statistics hub for researchers, analysts, and decision makers.

Efficiency impacts

Infoshare contains information on Government finance including financial information for local authorities, Crown Research Institutes, and the Public Health Sector (District Health Boards).

The Reserve Bank uses economic and social statistics from Infoshare to set monetary policy for New Zealand.

Local and central government agencies use Infoshare data for a wide range of policy making, research, and analysis.

Transparency and democratic impacts

Releasing Infoshare data for re-use:

makes it easier for government agencies to work together
reduces the cost of providing an existing government service
reduces the cost of accessing and processing this information for existing users.

Users can now access the data in Infoshare free of charge.

The Reserve Bank uses data from Infoshare in research, which is published via a variety of channels, including the Reserve Bank Bulletin, discussion papers, and analytical notes.

In his blog Econometrics Beat, Canadian economist David E Giles describes the historic long-term, social and economic data series available in Infoshare as “a valuable and serious piece of data research”.

Preview	Attachment	Size
	Infoshare-Case-Study.pdf	81.12 KB

About the common web platform

bene anderson — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 05:44:30 +0000

CWP aligns with the Directions and Priorities for ICT by prioritising investment in shared solutions, improving the management and content of Government's web presence, and rationalising investment, procurement and delivery of ICT infrastructure and software. It is key part of the Rethink Online programme, reducing fragmentation of information and services across agencies and channels. It also demonstrates innovation and improvement across a connected, collaborative public sector to create Better Public Services.

Eligible agencies are actively encouraged to adopt the Common Web Platform (CWP).

What is the Common Web Platform?

"A Platform as a Service offering for government websites"

Once you have signed the CWP agreements, you can request a new website instance within three business days. This can be small, medium, large or a custom instance. There is an agreed pricing structure of the setup and monthly cost for each type.

The platform does not mandate a common functionality or look and feel, and each agency can customise their website as they see fit.

Overview of the platform services

A website instance is a staging and production environment with the CMS installed, and access to CWP services.

A Base CMS install will include:

Features for content publishing, including workflow, content embargo/expiry, preview and rollback functionality
Default templates which are mobile-friendly and standards-compliant
Public-facing website features such as site search, forms, RSS and pages in multiple languages

The CWP services include:

Managed hosting, backup and disaster recovery, backed by service levels.
Source code repository, code reviews and change control
Management portal - the agency web team can login to this online site to access support information and submit requests.
Training and Support for developers working on the platform
Co-funded development pool – each month hours are contributed into the pool. The CWP product manager will collate feedback from the participating agencies, and decide which new features to make available to websites on the platform.

What types of websites are intended to use CWP?

The types of websites that suit the base CWP offering are government informational websites. CWP is also well suited to urgent websites, as the install presents standard publishing templates, which can be used with only minor cosmetic changes to quickly launch a website.

Can CWP be used for websites with transactional functionality?

The base CWP install offers limited transactional functionality through web forms. Agencies can develop transactional functionality or use CWP as a front line CMS, coupled with back-end transactional systems. Agencies would take responsibility for this work, including reviewing the development work for standards compliance and security.

What is the technology platform?

The content management system (CMS) selected for the platform is SilverStripe. The CMS runs on open-source software (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP). The platform will use the iGovt (Real Me) login for secure publishing and authentication. The search engine will use Solr and source code will be managed using Git. All websites will have IPV6 addresses.

Download an overview of the Common Web Platform architecture (PDF, 465KB)

SilverStripe Ltd is managing the platform, in contract to the Lead Agency Internal Affairs.

SilverStripe is a Kiwi company and develops the CMS. With this system, they build websites and applications for government organisations, businesses and non-profit organisations in New Zealand and Australia. The CMS has been downloaded more than 520,000 times and counts about 5,500 active members from around the world.

SilverStripe Ltd has produced a screencast and online demo to summarise existing capabilities of the software. Further capabilities will be added over coming months to form CWP:

http://vimeo.com/53125346

http://ss-express.silverstripe.com

Another New Zealand company, Revera, provides the infrastructure for CWP. Revera is contracted to Internal Affairs through Infrastructure as a Service.

How were the providers selected?

A working group of members from ten agencies was setup to agree a set of common website requirements. An RFP was issued to the web community for solutions. A team of web experts from five agencies evaluated the proposals and selected the solution.

When is the platform available?

The CWS platform will available by mid 2013. There is a group of agencies, the early adopters, who will have launched websites on the platform by then.

How do eligible agencies use the platform?

Eligible agencies who wish to use the panel are required to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with DIA.　
Once the MOU is signed, the agency meet with the Relationship Manager at SilverStripe, to work out which size website instance meets their requirements
The agency signs a Participating Agency Agreement with SilverStripe
For future website instance setups, the agency can request them through the CWP Management Portal

Agencies who wish to find out more and obtain copies of key documents should email online@dia.govt.nz.

Downloads

Preview	Attachment	Size
	Common Web Platform Architecture Overview (v1.4).pdf	465.47 KB
	Common Web Platform presentation.pdf	2.06 MB

About the Common Web Services Panel

bene anderson — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 05:14:54 +0000

The syndicated services panel is now available for eligible agencies to use. The panel is made up of 7 sub-panels for the following resource types:

1. Information architects

2. Usability advisors

3. Website testers

4. Front-end web developers

5. Graphical/visual designers

6. Website technical writers

7. Accessibility consultants.

Who are the providers on the panel?

The panel directory lists the service providers who have been selected for the panel.

How do eligible agencies use the panel ?

1. Eligible agencies who wish to use the panel are required to sign a participation MOU with DIA.

2. Once the MOU is signed, DIA will provide the full panel directory to the agency.

3. The agency can contact the vendors to seek information.

4. The agency must sign a Participating Agency Agreement with a vendor prior to engaging the vendor to do work.

5. For each engagement with a vendor, the vendor and agency must agree a Statement of Work.

6. CWS is administered by DIA and operated on a cost recovery basis. Therefore, an annual user fee will apply to agencies using the panel or platform.

Agencies who wish to find out more and obtain copies of key documents should email online@dia.govt.nz.

How much will it cost an agency to use the panel?

Initial annual fee for agencies is $2000. This will be reviewed annually to ensure that the fee is appropriate to recover costs of managing the contracts and the performance of the vendors. 　No fee is required from the panel vendors.

Are agencies required to use CWS providers?

No. This initiative is 'opt in.' However the size and scale of the panel should make it very attractive to most agencies and for most projects.

CWS is consistent with the Government ICT Directions and Priorities. Priority 4.1 directs agencies to 'Rationalise investment, procurement and delivery of ICT infrastructure and software.' As such, agencies are strongly encouraged to participate.

Can an agency use a vendor from the panel for more than the categories they have been selected for?

No. The panel and the participating agreement between selected vendors and agencies can only be used for work in the categories the vendors has been selected for. If an agency wishes to use a vendor for other work, they must conduct a separate purchasing and contracting process for this.

Will an agency who is already using a vendor who is not on the panel be required to change vendor?

No. The syndicated services panel is optional for agencies and is there to simplify the procurement and engagement of these types of resources. An agency that is happy with its current commercial arrangements for these resources is under no obligation to use the panel and so can continue to operate within their existing contracts.

What if the annual fee seems too high for an agency?

Although the mandatory procurement rules require all agencies to follow formal procurement processes for contracts greater than $100k in value, many agencies have internal procurement policies which require formal processes for contracts less than $100K as well. These processes incur significant effort in tender management, legal review and contract negotiation. 　

However, this panel has established a consistent contract with all selected vendors and so the process required to utilise the panel significantly reduces the effort, time and cost to engage with the vendors.

In addition, some of the selected vendors have agreed to offer discounted rates to agencies who engage with them via the panel.

What should I do if I'm working on a smaller web project and don't want to pay the $2000 user fee?

Agencies are of course welcome to go through their own procurement processes just as they have done historically.

For many agencies and projects, the value proposition will be clear. However, if not, agencies are encouraged to do their own cost/benefit analysis.

Panels - listed by provider

Company	URL	Panels
3months	www.3months.com	Front-end developers
Affinity ID	www.affinityid.co.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors, Website testers, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers, Website technical writers
Aura Information Security	www.aurainfosec.com	Website testers
Boost New Media	www.boost.co.nz	Information architects, Website testers, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers, Website technical writers
Catalyst.NET Limited	http://catalyst.net.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors, Website testers, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers, Accessibility consultants
Chrometoaster New Media Limited	www.chrometoaster.com	Information architects, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers
ClearPoint Limited	www.clearpoint.co.nz	Front-end developers
Clicksuite	www.clicksuite.co.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors, Website testers, Graphical/visual designers
Contented Enterprises Limited in partnership with the Royal NZ Foundation of the Blind and Accessibility NZ	http://contented.com www.accessibility.kiwi.nz	Website technical writers, Accessibility consultants
Culture Workshop	http://cultureworkshop.co.nz	Information architects
Datacom Systems (Wellington) Limited	www.datacom.co.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors, Website testers, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers, Accessibility consultants
Design By Insight	www.designedbyinsight.com	Information architects, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers
DNA Design	http://dna.co.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers
Enlighten Designs	www.enlighten.co.nz	Website testers, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers
Equinox Limited	www.equinox.co.nz	Website testers
Experience	www.experience.net.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers, Website technical writers
Gusto	www.gustodesign.co.nz	Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers
Heyday	http://heyday.co.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors, Graphical/visual designers, Website technical writers
IntegrationQA	www.integrationqa.co.nz	Website testers
Intergen Limited	www.intergen.co.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors, , Graphical/visual designers, Website technical writers
Learning Media	www.learningmedia.co.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors, Website testers, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers, Website technical writers, Accessibility consultants
Netco	www.netco.co.nz	Website technical writers
NV Interactive	www.nvinteractive.co.nz	Information architects, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers
Ocean Design Group Limited	www.oceandesign.co.nz	Graphical/visual designers
Optimal Usability	www.optimalusability.com	Information architects, Usability advisors, Website testers
Pikselin (formerly Shift)	http://pikselin.com	Information architects, Usability advisors, Website testers, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers
Planit Software Testing Limited	www.planittesting.co.nz	Website testers
Provoke Solutions Limited	www.provoke.co.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors
Qual IT Solutions Limited	www.qualit.co.nz	Website testers
M&C Saatchi	www.mcsaatchi.co.nz	Information architects, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers
Samdog	www.samdog.co.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers, Accessibility consultants
Signify Limited	www.signify.co.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors, Website testers, Front-end developers
SilverStripe Ltd	www.silverstripe.com	Information architects, Usability advisors, Website testers, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers, Accessibility consultants
Sparks Interactive	www.sparksinteractive.co.nz	Information architects, Usability advisors, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers
Squiz	www.squiz.co.nz	Front-end developers
Sysdoc	http://sysdocgroup.com	Information architects, Website technical writers
TACTICS Limited	www.tactics.co.nz	Website technical writers
Terabyte Interactive Ltd	www.terabyte.co.nz	Information architects, Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers
The Church	www.thechurch.co.nz	Front-end developers, Graphical/visual designers
Webstruxure Limited	www.webstruxure.co.nz	Website technical writers
Writeclick	www.writeclick.co.nz	Website technical writers
Write Limited	www.write.co.nz	Website technical writers

Providers - listed by panel

Information Architects

Affinity ID
Boost New Media
Catalyst.NET Limited
Chrometoaster New Media Limited
Clicksuite
Culture Workshop
Datacom Systems (Wellington) Limited
Design By Insight
DNA Design
Experience
Heyday
Intergen Limited
Learning Media
NV Interactive
Optimal Usability
Pikselin (Formerly shift)
Provoke Solutions Limited
M&C Saatchi
Samdog
Signify Limited
SilverStripe Ltd
Sparks Interactive
Sysdoc
Terabyte Interactive Ltd

Usability Advisors

Affinity ID
Catalyst.NET Limited
Clicksuite
Datacom Systems (Wellington) Limited
DNA Design
Experience
Heyday
Intergen Limited
Learning Media
Optimal Usability
Pikselin (Formerly shift)
Provoke Solutions Limited
Samdog
Signify Limited
SilverStripe Ltd
Sparks Interactive

Website Testers

Affinity ID
Aura Information Security
Boost New Media
Catalyst.NET Limited
Clicksuite
Datacom Systems (Wellington) Limited
Enlighten Designs
Equinox Limited
IntegrationQA
Learning Media
Optimal Usability
Pikselin (Formerly shift)
Planit Software Testing Limited
Qual IT Solutions Limited
Signify Limited
SilverStripe Ltd

Front-end Web Developers

3months
Affinity ID
Boost New Media
Catalyst.NET Limited
Chrometoaster New Media Limited
ClearPoint Limited
Datacom Systems (Wellington) Limited
Design By Insight
DNA Design
Enlighten Designs
Experience
Gusto
Learning Media
NV Interactive
Pikselin (Formerly shift)
M&C Saatchi
Samdog
Signify Limited
SilverStripe Ltd
Sparks Interactive
Squiz
Terabyte Interactive Ltd
The Church

Graphical/ Visual Designers

Affinity ID
Boost New Media
Catalyst.NET Limited
Chrometoaster New Media Limited
Clicksuite
Datacom Systems (Wellington) Limited
Design By Insight
DNA Design
Enlighten Designs
Experience
Gusto
Heyday
Intergen Limited
Learning Media
NV Interactive
Ocean Design Group Limited
Pikselin (Formerly shift)
M&C Saatchi
Samdog
SilverStripe Ltd
Sparks Interactive
Terabyte Interactive Ltd
The Church

Website Technical Writers

Affinity ID
Boost New Media
Contented Enterprises Limited
Experience
Heyday
Intergen Limited
Learning Media
Netco
Sysdoc
TACTICS Limited
Webstruxure Limited
Writeclick
Write Limited

Accessibility Consultants

Catalyst.NET Limited
Contented Enterprises Ltd in partnership with Royal NZ Foundation of the Blind (RNZFB) and Accessibility NZ
Datacom Systems (Wellington) Limited
Learning Media
Samdog
SilverStripe Ltd

Common web services

bene anderson — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 04:49:35 +0000

On September 13 2012, Hon Chris Tremain, Minister of Internal Affairs, announced a cross-government approach to procuring web services called Common Web Services (CWS). The Department of Internal Affairs is leading this work, in conjunction with a range of other agencies. See the Minister's media release: New procurement initiative to save time and money (Beehive website).

On February 7 2013, the Minister announced the selection of the Common Web Platform (CWP), which is also led by DIA and compliments the Common Web Services Panel. CWP will enable government agencies to more easily create and deliver high quality websites to New Zealanders. It will provide a consistent, high quality, and improving platform on which to build the next generation of government websites. See the Minister's media release: Wellington company secures Government ICT contract (Beehive website).

Why common web services?

The goal of CWS is to reduce duplication of effort and streamline web service procurement by for a wide range of government agencies by:

Creating a syndicated panel arrangement that enables agencies faster access to a full range of design and build services
Establishing an externally managed common web services platform (CWP) which provides a common content management system (CMS) for eligible agencies that choose to adopt it, and the infrastructure and hosting required for web sites developed on this platform.

By streamlining the tender process as appropriate, agency staff will be able to focus on their core function: to provide government information online.

Common Web Services Panel benefits both agencies and web service providers. Agencies will no longer have to tender for their outsourced online projects, saving time and money, and allowing staff to focus on their core function of providing government information online.

Suppliers will also benefit, saving time and money preparing tender documents. This is expected to be especially valuable to small-medium sized companies who will now be able to focus on their core business of providing excellent services to government agencies.

Find our more about the panel services, and the approved list of 42 providers >>

The Common Web Platform will facilitate higher levels of sharing and reuse of website features and investments between government departments, helping consistency and reducing costs.

Find out more about the Common Web Platform >>

Frequently asked questions

Which agencies are eligible to use CWS?

Almost any entity in the public service, state sector, or state service is eligible to use CWS. 　Refer the lead agency agreement section 1.1 definitions:

each Public Service department, as defined in section 27 of the State Sector Act 1988;
the New Zealand Defence Force, the New Zealand Police, the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, the Parliamentary Counsel Office, the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Parliamentary Corporation;
each Crown Entity, as defined in section 7 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 but excluding school boards of trustees;
each organisation listed in the fourth schedule to the Public Finance Act 1989;
the Reserve Bank of New Zealand;
the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General, the Office of the Ombudsmen, and the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment;
each corporation listed in the first schedule to the State Owned Enterprises Act 1986;
regional councils, territorial authorities, school boards of trustees and agencies associated with a Ministerial portfolio if, in each case, an application to join this Agreement is approved by the Government Procurement Solutions team (or any successor) of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment; and
any other organisation, agency or collection of persons that does not fall within the above categories but which the Lead Agency and the Service Provider, in consultation with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, agree may be treated as an eligible agency for the purposes of this Agreement;

Refer to http://www.ssc.govt.nz/state_sector_organisations for the list of agencies.

Can an agency use the panel and not the platform?

Yes. The syndicated services panel exists independently of the CWS managed platform and can be used by all eligible agencies whatever web technologies they use. This recognises that agencies are currently using a wide range of technologies but all will require the types of resources provided through the panel from time to time.

Can an agency use the platform and not the panel?

Yes. The choice of your professional web services is separate from the platform. You can choose to use your existing suppliers, internal teams or vendors procured through the Common Web Services panel or from somewhere else.

Who's been involved in this initiative?

A cross-agency Working Group has developed a service vision for Common Web Services and is working together to deliver to this. The Working Group includes representatives from the Department of Internal Affairs, Treasury, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture and Heritage, Ministry of Social Development, Crown Law, Treasury, Inland Revenue, Ministry for Primary Industries, Maritime NZ, PHARMAC, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Ministry of Transport, and NZ Transport Agency.

Why is DIA leading this work?

The Department of Internal Affairs is the functional lead for Government ICT.

What are the savings of using it?

Reducing the cost and duration of web projects by simplifying requirements gathering, speeding up procurement and reducing the time spent on development.
Reducing website management costs across government by leveraging economies of scale and reducing duplicate investment in compliance.
Reducing legal costs in establishing contracts, since CWS syndicated procurement uses Statements of Work.
Making it easier and cheaper to comply with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's Mandatory Rules for Procurement by Departments.
Reducing unnecessary investment by supporting agencies to reuse technology and designs already developed by other agencies.

Open Government Case Study: InfoConnect

Paul Stone — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:51:25 +0000

Users can access timely and accurate road condition information

InfoConnect began as a pilot and has now been developed into several websites and apps

Developers haveaccess to real-timetravel information forfree

NZTA recognised the need to involve third parties in solution delivery

Potential for InfoConnect to provide significant economic benefit to New Zealand

NZTA can focus on its core business of collection of data

Third parties work on innovative ways to distribute NZTA information to road users

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page).

New Zealand Transport Agency

The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) creates transport solutions for a thriving New Zealand through four core business functions:

planning the land transport networks;
investing in land transport;
managing the state highway network, and
providing access to and use of the land transport system.

InfoConnect

InfoConnect is an NZTA initiative to help ensure road users have access to timely and accurate road condition information.

The ultimate aim of InfoConnect is to help empower road users to make their own travel choices and decisions by having access to useful information.

It includes state highway road and traffic information, webcam coverage in Auckland, Waiouru, Otaki, Paremata, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, planned road works, unplanned road closures and delays, maps, and holiday traffic information.

Features of InfoConnect

InfoConnect allows developers and third parties to access real time travel information from the NZTA for free. In return, the NZTA asks that those developers and third parties ‘add value’ by re-packing and re-publishing road-related information in a timely and accurate manner.

Risk mitigation

NZTA had been approached by a number of third parties requesting access to highwayrelated information that NZTA collected, which placed NZTA at risk of forming ‘ad hoc’ commercial arrangements with various third parties.

NZTA recognised that only a small component of services within the information technology arena could be delivered by them and that, to meet road user demands for information, they needed to partner with proven third parties who specialised in providing technical solutions to deliver NZTA information.

The decision was made to provide free information to ‘registered’ developers under ‘Terms of Use’. NZTA could then monitor uptake and have a view of who is delivering the best products in a proven manner.

Cost and timeframe

InfoConnect was developed for $380,000 and has been estimated to have a potential net benefit of between $6 to $60 million per annum.

Economic and social impacts

Several applications and webites that demonstrate usage of InfoConnect data are available, including the following:

AATrafficWebCams
Virtual Highway
NZTraffic
AA Roadwatch
HowsTheTraffic
AA Maps
AA Roadwatch
MultiCam Wellington
MultiCam Auckland
Auckland Traffic Cameras
Yahoo! Traffic
Auckland TC.

InfoConnect has the potential to provide significant economic benefit to New Zealand. For example, a developer using a combination of Auckland traffic data feeds from InfoConnect has over 1200 users, growing at more than 70 new users per week. It is ranked number one in Navigation, number 68 in New Zealand.

See further examples at https://infoconnect.highwayinfo.govt.nz/opencms/opencms/infoconnect.

Efficiency impacts

By providing information for free, the NZTA is able to focus on its core business of collecting road condition data and managing the State Highway network while third parties with technology expertise can work on innovative ways to distribute the information to road users.

InfoConnect enables road users to contribute to the webportal, whereby APIs are served up and monitored within an operational data store and enterprise service bus (ESB) framework architecture. Users can also be split into normal and high priority.

Transparency and democratic impacts

The following factors were identified as critical to the success to InfoConnect:

number of project applications launched: 5 per year
increase from 6,000 to 30,000 unique visitors per year
developer satisfaction survey over 75% (surveyed annually)
75% of road users report an improved ability to make informed road user and travel decisions
the InfoConnect website is available for use by developers and third parties 98% of the time.

Currently InfoConnect has approximately 150 registered users.

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Government ICT Update - December 2012

Peter Bisley — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 22:58:14 +0000

IN THIS ISSUE:

Redevelopment of newzealand.govt.nz
Windows XP migration update
New Zealand Government Web Standards Consultation
Changes in governance to support ICT functional leadership
More IPv6-ready websites to be available
GOVIS 2013 dates announced

Redevelopment of newzealand.govt.nz

The Digital Engagement team at Internal Affairs has begun planning the redevelopment of newzealand.govt.nz. The site was launched in 2002 and last redeveloped in 2008 with very few improvements since then.

One of the key project goals is to deliver information in a way that is based on the needs of users, rather than the structure of government. The Digital Engagement team plans to build an alpha site in order to test information design concepts and content models. The alpha site will be a limited release site, and it will be used as an early prototype. It will enable Internal Affairs to demonstrate early concepts to other government agencies. The team aims to deliver the alpha site in February 2013.

The next stage of the project will be to deliver a publically available beta site in June 2013. Ideally the beta site will enable the collaborative development of user- centred content across multiple government agencies.

If you 'd like more information, check out the NewZealand.govt.nz category on the Web Toolkit blog, or email the Digital Engagement team at online@dia.govt.nz

Windows XP migration update

DIA is currently surveying agencies about their plans for migration from Windows XP and Office 2003 to supported systems.

Thank you all for your responses to this survey. In the New Year, the Department of Internal Affairs will contact agencies, prioritising those who reported limited progress in their migration or other significant challenges.

As previously reported, a large number of agencies have shared documentation to help others with their migration planning and implementation are available on a shared workspace. The workspace can be accessed here.

To share information, all you need to do is upload it directly to the relevant folder in the shared workspace.

Agencies are particularly interested in detailed designs, example business cases, application packaging documentation, requirements documents, and training materials.

If you need a login to the workspace or have any questions of comments, email 414@dia.govt.nz

New Zealand Government Web Standards Consultation

The Department of Internal Affairs recently began consultations on the next generation of New Zealand Government Web Standards. As well as government agencies, we're consulting with disability community representatives and organisations, and external vendors.

The proposed changes to the Web Standards will help agencies improve their delivery of accessible online content and services over time in a manner that prioritises issues identified by disability communities and optimises investment.

A consultation document has been distributed to government agencies, as well as representatives of disability communities and organisations, and external vendors. Participants have been invited to review the consultation document and submit responses.

To have the best possible Standards, we need to receive a good number of high quality responses to the consultation document. If your agency has already allocated staff to this task, thank you. If not, please note that the deadline is 22 February 2013, just 30 working days away.

Questions about the web standards consultation can be sent to web.standards@dia.govt.nz

Changes in governance to support ICT functional leadership

The Government Chief Information Officer Colin MacDonald is reviewing ICT leadership for the New Zealand government sector.

The GCIO has set up two new groups to represent the strategic ICT interests of government sector organisations in the review, to help shape the approach to the enhanced responsibility for functional leadership of ICT across government.

An ICT Taskforce is developing a new ICT Strategy to 2017. The taskforce has worked primarily with a selection of twenty-two agencies. It expects to conclude its work with a formal report around March 2013.
An ICT Functional Leadership Reference Group of deputy chief executives from across government has also been set up.

In the meantime, the ICT Council is in abeyance. The Council’s achievements to date include:

Supporting implementation of the Directions and Priorities for Government ICT
Championing the needs of government agencies in the Government Common ICT Capability Roadmap.
Encouraging collective approaches to the delivery of ICT services with government and
Leading key government-wide ICT initiatives, including Infrastructure as a Service, the Cloud Programme and Common Web Services.

Colin MacDonald recently thanked all Council members for their contribution, giving particular mention to Sam Knowles leadership. Colin noted that Sam has provided focus and commitment to the Council’s aims, and has been passionate as an advocate for the transformation of government ICT.

More IPv6-ready websites to be available

Government agencies have made good progress in making their websites compatible with IPv6.

Two major achievements have been the IPv6 enablement in September 2012 of www.health.govt.nz, the core website of the Ministry of Health, and the IPv6 enablement in November of www.beehive.govt.nz.

In February 2012, the GCIO set the expectation that, as government agencies make public-facing and external Internet services accessible over the IPv6 protocol. This transition is expected to occur by building IPv6 compatibility in as agencies refresh their technology and applications.

For more information about IPv6-enabled government websites, visit www.ipv6.govt.nz

GOVIS 2013 dates announced

The GOVIS Conference 2013 has just been announced. It will be held on Monday 17 and Tuesday 18 June 2013 at the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa. Early Bird registrations will open in mid-March 2013.

The theme for GOVIS Conference 2013 is Collaborations and Cloud

Collaborations – find out what makes a successful collaboration and hear important learnings from less successful collaborations.

Cloud – no longer the scary unknown, cloud is now Business as Usual for New Zealand Government – or is it?

The 2013 programme will offer great content and lots of opportunity for networking. More details would be available on www.govis.org.nz soon.

The GOVIS Committee is calling for papers from presenters for the 2013 Conference. To register your interest, please submit this Call for Papers form by 21 February 2013.

This newsletter is intended to update you on progress with the government ICT programme. We invite your feedback to help us ensure it meets your needs.

Please keep an eye out for future updates, and contact the Department of Internal Affairs to share your views or offer assistance.

Stuart Wakefield

Director, Government ICT Strategy and Planning

If you have any questions regarding this GCIO Update, please contact:

Matt Ross,

Manager Agency Engagement,

gcio@dia.govt.nz

phone (04) 494 5775

Your comments, questions, and feedback are invited.

NZ Government CIQ Profiles

Peter Furnish — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 21:28:33 +0000

The OASIS CIQ Standard is an international standard for customer information interchange quality. It includes personal and organisational names, addresses, party attributes and party roles and relationships. The profiles of the OASIS Customer Information Quality Standard (CIQ v3) provide a New Zealand Government definition of the use of OASIS CIQ for data exchanges.

OASIS CIQ deals specifically with data exchange of customer information by providing a set of predefined XML Schemas for data exchange structures. The data scope of OASIS CIQ includes personal and organisational names, addresses, party attributes and party roles and relationships. A common data scope and structure and exchange encoding format are a foundation for data exchanges between Government Agencies. Standardardisation of data exchanges for these core elements of data has significant potential for increasing interoperability and reducing implementation cost and complexity. OASIS CIQ is not a data storage standard and the profiles look exclusively at data exchange requirements.

The purpose of developing a New Zealand Profiles of the OASIS CIQ Standard is to remove the inherent ambiguity in the CIQ standard for New Zealand Government implementations of the standard. The base OASIS CIQ Standard is an international standard that accommodates a broad range of international requirements and therefore is capable of handling many international name, address or other party related formats. To do this the standard has to be relatively loose and extensible. For example, the standard is capable of accommodation any variety of international address formats from, at the most rudimentry form, a single composite string, through to a fully defined and complex multipart structure. However, the base standard provides no guidance on what choices should be applied in this large range of options. Therefore it is possible, without additional guidance or definition, to use the OASIS CIQ standard and still be creating different and incompatible data exchanges (all of which comply to the standard). Is relatively simple for two parties to define and agreed a CIQ implementation format for a single unique exchange, however this then becomes complex and inefficient for a community of users that include numerous unique variants of the standard. Successful and efficient implementation of OASIS CIQ for a community (in our case NZ government agencies) therefore requires the community to agree rules for CIQ use and the development of a standards profiles does just that. The NZ Government OASIS CIQ profiles provide community rules and guidance.

The New Zealand Government CIQ Profile will increase interoperability and reduce the complexity and cost for agencies implementing OASIS CIQ based data exchange services.

The New Zealand Government OASIS CIQ Profiles provide guidance and rules for the use the standard OASIS CIQ schemas for the exchange of;

Personal (individual and joint names) and Non-Personal Names (organisations, objects)
Addresses
Party Roles and Relationships

A significant number of New Zealand Government Agencies from a broad range of sectors have participated in the development of the CIQ Profiles.

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Open Government Case Study: Campermate

Paul Stone — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 02:48:14 +0000

Intended to reduce negative impact that freedom camping has on the environment and create a better experience for campers

Leveraged data from various external sourcesincluding central and local government and private sector

Application would have been developed more quickly if source data was readily available and open

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

CamperMate

CamperMate is a smart phone application created by a company called Mogeo, and is available at www.campermate.co.nz providing information about local facilities to campers/travellers throughout New Zealand.

Media coverage about the mess left behind by freedom campers before the rugby world cup (2011) sparked the idea for this application. The creators of CamperMate interviewed campers and asked them why they thought the problem became so bad. The main response was that there was little to no information about where commonly required facilities are.

Features of CamperMate

The application uses the phone’s GPS to locate the user on a map, otherwise the website allows you to enter a location. The user can select the following categories which the application looks up and then displays the locations sites or services near the user:

rubbish bins
public toilets
dump stations
campsites
petrol stations
supermarkets
free wifi zones
police stations
hospitals
hostels.

Sources of data

As well as gathering some of their own data, the creators re-used data from various external sources, including central government, local government, not for profits and the private sector.

None of the data was readily available as open data, and it took time to get in contact with the right people within organisations and additional time to source and convert the data. Most requests for data were met with enthusiastic support.

If the original source data had been readily available as open data, the application would have been developed more quickly and maintaining its accuracy would be an easier task.

Some data sources were more accurate than others, however there is a feedback mechanism built into the application that enables users to point out errors or add information that is missing. This is a good example of an effective use of crowdsourcing to improve the accuracy of the data over time.

Outcomes

This application brings together information required by travellers and makes it easily accessible through one source.

A private company has re-used the data to provide a value added service that enhances the experience of travellers, both domestic and international.

Citizens and visitors can make better decisions that both improve their experience while travelling in New Zealand and contribute to a sustainable environment.

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Open Government Case Study: NZ tide prediction data

Paul Stone — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:52:09 +0000

Many third party applications of LINZ’s NZ Tide prediction data

New Zealand MetService uses tide prediction data on its public weather website

Business has added value, innovated and created new products

Communities and people are using the visualisations

Commercial and recreational boaties use the applications

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

Purpose of agency

Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) is a New Zealand government department responsible for managing property rights, location information, and Crown land. LINZ is also responsible for providing charts and hydrographic services, producing specialised nautical charts to aid safe navigation in New Zealand waters and certain areas of Antarctica and the South West Pacific. LINZ publishes annual and fortnightly Notices to Mariners as well as other important nautical and tidal information.

High value public data released for re-use

LINZ releases tide prediction data at http://www.linz.govt.nz/hydro/tidal-info/tide-tables/ which is the authoritative source of tide prediction data in New Zealand. Tables are provided in both PDF and comma separated text (CSV) format. Instructions to use the text files are provided.

Examples of re-use

A number of third party applications re-using the data have been developed, including the following:

NZ Tides Pro - this iPhone app, developed by a New Zealand application developer “Wingism”, re-uses New Zealand tide prediction data. There are over 50 comments against this application at the Apple App Store, all positive about its ease of use or usefulness, rating on average 4.5 stars out of 5
NZ Tides - This Android app by Jevon Longdell has 10,000-50,000 downloads, and an average 4.19 out of 5 rating (57 ratings)
TidePlan - this Android application has 1,000 - 5,000 downloads, average 4.4 out of 5 rating (30 ratings). The tide information provided is currently limited to New Zealand ports only
Tide Prediction - an Android application by muchoviento. Enables offline viewing of graphical tidal charts. An event view shows the times for ebb and flood. 100,000 - 500,000 downloads; average 3.8 out of 5 rating (1065 ratings)
QuickTide - offers tide predictions for anywhere in New Zealand from an Apple Mac. A simple interface provides tide heights and times information.

Several businesses are using the data including:

Oceanfun Publishing - http://ofu.co.nz/ specialises in the production and supply of high quality graphics, conveying sun, moon, and tide information. Tidespy is the free tide info area of the website. The website states that “we supply reliable and verified tide data. This is why we use figures computed by official government agencies”. Oceanfun also offers web tools like an application programminginterface (API) and produce a calendar and a series of 7 pocket-size booklets of tide predictions
New Zealand MetService - uses the LINZ tides data on its public weather website and includes LINZ data on the weather page in daily papers.

Economic and social impacts

Developers have created one iPhone app, three android apps and one Mac app
Oceanfun Publishing develops visual representations of tides, relying on the LINZ tides prediction data as a reliable and verified source. They mash it up with fishing information & regulations
the New Zealand Metservice uses the LINZ tidal prediction data on its website to complement its free weather forecast data
commercial & community newspapers, fishing & boating magazines & websites like windsurf.co.nz use the visualisations
the public can understand & interpret Oceanfun and the MetService’s visualisations of the LINZ tide data
the applications make it easier for commercial & recreational boaties, or anyone who wants to use beaches or be out on the sea to make good risk management decisions
they also allow prediction of the impact of flooding for coastal regions, and for planning & emergency management purposes
BRANZ has integrated boundary, property & topographic data with their data to give the public information on earthquake & corrosion risk zones

Efficiency impacts

other agencies re-use the LINZ tide prediction data applications, complementing other data sources
central and local government use LINZ tidal prediction data for planning, emergency management and advisory purposes

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Open Government Case Study: Economic Indicators

Paul Stone — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 20:34:56 +0000

Data released includesGDP, CPI, BOP, andproductivity statistics

Users can subscribe tospecific releases or use online tools to find more detailed information

Data available in a range of formats

Confidentiality andprivacy of individualsprotected at all times

Data is used for reporting by othergovernment agencies,for research by students and by media to report on the New Zealand economy

Data re-use includesfinancial reporting byother governmentagencies and contributing to policydevelopment

Government agenciesand other organisationssave resources by reusing economicindicators data foranalysis and decisionmaking

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

Purpose of agency

Statistics New Zealand is New Zealand’s national statistical office and leader of the Official Statistics System. It is New Zealand's major producer of official statistics, delivering and disseminating the most important statistics that require the highest levels of credibility and integrity. Statistics NZ is governed by and administers the Statistics Act 1975

What high value public data has been released for re-use?

Economic indicators data is regularly released by Statistics NZ. Most of these indicators are updated on a quarterly and annual basis. The releases include:

gross domestic product (GDP), New Zealand’s measure of economic growth
consumers price index (CPI), used to calculate the inflation rate
balance of payments (BOP), which shows New Zealand's financial transactions with the rest of the world
productivity statistics, which measure how efficiently production inputs are being used within the economy to produce output.

The public can browse, access, and download the data on Statistics NZ’s website. They can also subscribe to specific economic indicator releases or use the online tools to find more detailed information. The data is available in MS Excel (.xls), comma delimited (.csv), table query (.tqx) and Beyond 20/20 table format (.ivt).

Release rationale

Businesses can use economic indicator data to add value, innovate, and create new products to spur economic growth. The government, community organisations and the general public can also use economic indicators data in a number of valuable ways. In order to serve a wide range of users, the statistical information is delivered in a broad range of formats, including information in reports and products, through to the release of aggregated data, and restricted release of microdata via the microdata access services.

Risk mitigation

Confidentiality and privacy - The confidentiality and privacy of individuals is protected at all times. The Statistics Act governs the way that Statistics NZ manages confidential information. This information can only be used for statistical purposes, must be kept secure to prevent unauthorised access, and must not be released where it could lead to disclosure of individuals' details. Where necessary, Statistics NZ adjusts data to make sure that no individual or business can be identified using techniques such as random rounding, collapsing categories, and suppressing cells.

Data integrity - Statistics NZ uses administrative data as the primary source of business information, with statistical surveys used to fill the gaps that cannot be met from administrative sources. Robust processes are in place to manage both the supply and use of administrative data to ensure this does not compromise the quality of statistical outputs.

Cost and timeframe

Release of data for re-use is part of Statistics NZ’s core business and does not incur additional cost.

Economic and social impacts

financial institutions and private research agencies (eg. BERL, NZIER) use it for research, forecasting, and public and social policy analysis
ANZ Bank uses GDP data and traffic flow data from the NZ Transport Authority to construct the ‘Truckometer’, a monthly economic indicator
schools, universities, and post-graduate students use it when carrying out research on the economy
news media use it to inform the general public and to verify and add to stories about the New Zealand economy
the Reserve Bank uses it for their Financial stability report and the official cash rate announcements
Treasury uses it to prepare the Budget, the Monthly economic indicators publication and economic impact reports

Transparency and democratic impacts

using GDP data, Treasury publishes information about crown entities and Stateowned Enterprises, setting out total Crown debt, operating balance, expenses, and revenues as a percentage of GDP
the 100 companies mash-up used economic indicators data to inform the public about the factors that affect prosperity
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and New Zealand Customs Service use it for international trade negotiations and border control
Ministry of Economic Development uses it to understand the economic impacts of tourism and provide a wide range of information on domestic and international tourism
Productivity Commission uses Statistics NZ productivity data to increase awareness of productivity and to find ways to grow productivity to improve the well-being of New Zealanders
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development uses trade and investment data on New Zealand, which originates from Statistics NZ’s trade and investment figures
interest groups like the NZ Institute, Council of Trade Unions, and Business NZ, along with non-government organisations, use the data to support their respective group’s policies and initiatives

Efficiency impacts

New Zealand Superannuation entitlement computation is linked to the CPI and average weekly earnings
information on inflation and wage rates is used by individuals, unions, private businesses, and government to inform negotiations of remuneration-related contracts
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, together with the Treasury and Statistics NZ, produce the Economic development indicators report, which tracks New Zealand’s medium-term economic performance over time and compared with other OECD countries
Local Government NZ, through BERL, published the Local Government Economic Indicators Framework that identifies the contribution of local government to economic growth in New Zealand as a whole

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Open Government Case Study: Parliamentary Counsel Office

Paul Stone — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 02:00:23 +0000

Provides free public access to New Zealand legislation

Subscriber atom feed can be set up to alert users when new versions are available

Subscriber website and web feed combined allows users to create their own collection

XML data behind website is machine readable

DTDs freely accessible

Commercial users subscribe to the dataset, making it easy to maintain the currency of their products

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

Purpose of agency

The Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO) is New Zealand's law drafting office. It isresponsible for:

drafting most New Zealand legislation
publishing New Zealand Acts of Parliament, Bills, and Statutory Regulations, both inhard copy and online on the New Zealand Legislation website.

What high value data has been released for re-use?

The New Zealand Legislation website (www.legislation.govt.nz) was launched in January 2008, providing free access to Acts, Bills, Statutory Regulations, and Supplementary Order Papers. An integral part of the website is a subscriber section, which was promoted through data.govt.nz in July 2011.

The subscriber section provides access to current and previous versions of all documents, in XML and PDF formats.

When a new document or a new version of an existing document is published to the website, PDF and XML versions are added to the subscriber section.

The website also includes a subscriber web feed, which alerts users when new versions of documents are published.

The subscriber website, combined with the subscriber web feed, allows anyone to download and maintain their own database of New Zealand legislation.

In addition, in August 2011 the PCO released the Document Type Definitions (DTDs) for legislative documents. The DTDs define the structure of the XML versions of legislation.

Release rationale

providing access to legislation is a fundamental part of the PCO’s role
there is no copyright in New Zealand Acts, Bills, or Statutory Regulations, simplifying release considerations
the PCO provides access to legislation through the NZL website and through printed copies, but the XML data behind the website is well-structured and machine readable and need not be limited to the PCO’s chosen publication platforms
by making the XML versions of legislation and the associated DTDs freely accessible, the data becomes available to be used and repurposed by business, researchers, and citizens

Risk mitigation

There were no specific risks associated with the release, as the data was already published in another format and copyright considerations do not apply.

Cost and timeframe

It is difficult to identify specific costs in relation to the subscriber section, as it is an integral part of the drafting and publishing system as a whole.

Access to the DTDs could only be provided after they passed out of copyright, three years after their purchase.

Economic and social impacts

four entries in the 2011 Mix & Mash NZ competition use the XML documents to examine and present law in new ways. The winner of the Open Government category, Definer.org.nz by Mohammad Abdullatif, uses defined terms to construct a dictionary of terms used in legislation
private-sector publishers monitor changes to the legislation dataset using the subscriber web feed, allowing them to maintain the currency of their commercial products and to alert their own subscribers to legislative developments.

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Open Government Case Study: NZ Schools Mobile Application

Keitha Booth — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:50:51 +0000

Schools and education information via smart phones

Uses current technologies to deliver schools information people want

$20,000 development costs

Real estate companies use the application to show school zoning

Provides easy access to school ERO reports

Other agencies can use it to improve their services

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

Purpose of Agency

The Ministry of Education (MOE) is the Government's lead advisor on the New Zealand education system, shaping direction for sector agencies and providers. This includes:

strategic leadership in the sector
support and resources for education providers
school property portfolio management
support and resources for teachers
interventions for target student groups
support and resources for the community
strategic leadership in the tertiary system.

High value public data released for re-use

The NZSchools native iOS and Android applications have exposed the following public data via a Google maps mashup:

basic school information (decile, principal, roll, contact details)

School Enrolment zone
Education Review Office (ERO) reports
school website links
MOE funded school bus routes
Learning Areas outside the Classroom (LEOTC)
non-residential Historic Places.

The application re-uses data and information from the MOE education information and analysis databases, the Historic Places Trust and ERO.

Funding has been allocated for developing an iPad version incorporating Google Streetview, public bus routes and emergency management features.

Release Rationale

make school information easily accessible to the public via a visual mapping interface on mobile devices
assist educators by displaying local resources such as LEOTC and historic places sites
use GPS location finding to target schools in the user’s local area by default
provide parents with a mobile visual display of schools near their specific address
increase MOE capability in mobile device information usage.

Risk Mitigation

Licensing and legal issues – MOE worked with ERO and the Historic Places Trust to ensure all information was without any licensing or legal issues.

Data Integrity – All information used was already publicly available and has been accessed from existing systems and databases. An existing Help Desk system was utilised to record and address any data issues which were referred to the source systems as required.

Cost and timeframe

Development of both formats of the application cost $20,000. Additional staff time was used in project management, testing and liaison with ERO and the Historic Places Trust. The release process from start to finish took about 1 year.

Economic and social impacts

Real estate companies use the application for display of local school enrolment zones
news media use data and graphics from the application
parents may access local school information including ERO reports based on where they live
parents may access local school zone and other information including ERO reports when looking to buy or rent a new home.

Transparency and democratic impacts

School performance is made available via access to ERO reports
Since release at the end of March (last 2 months) there have been over 600 downloads of the iOS apple app and over 100 Android downloads.

Efficiency impacts

It brings together several sources of information to one mobile access point
ERO and the Historic Places Trust have been provided with another means of providing greater visibility of their information to the public
teachers (and parents) can use the app to assist student achievement.

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Syndicated LAR Services Panel

Matthew Ross — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:32:21 +0000

The Department as Lead Agency has implemented a syndicated panel of Microsoft license administration and management services by Large Account Resellers (LARs).

This allows any G2012 Microsoft Framework Agreement Eligible Agencies to contract with any of panel providers for LAR services. These services are in two parts:

Basic LAR Services - The core services that are required to acquire and administer Microsoft licenses and related agreements
Additional LAR Services - In addition to the Basic LAR Services, each panellist proposed what other services could be provided by the Respondent that are related to its role as a Microsoft LAR

At this stage the contract for the Basic LAR services has been contracted with the following LARs:

Datacom
Dimension Data
Fujitsu
Gen-i
Insight

Over the next several months the Department will be incorporating the relevant Additional LAR Services for each panel member.Agencies are able to select any of the above panel members to provide LAR services. This panel will allow agencies to use a standard approach for ordering and administering Microsoft licenses. This panel is not mandatory for agencies but for those who use it, it will streamline the license procurement process and reduce duplication of effort.

For more information about Microsoft Licensing Framework including license rules and transferring and/or reassignment of Licenses, the LAR panel and/or Eligibility criteria please email G2012@dia.govt.nz

Open Government Case Study: 2006 Census

Paul Stone — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 02:30:16 +0000

Released aggregated, confidentialised data from 2006 census

Meshblock dataset can be integrated with other information to assist analysis

Data is adjusted to ensure that no individual or business can be identified

Release of data for re-use included in core budget

Business is using public data innovatively

Property developers, iwi authorities, and prospective home buyers gain value from census data

Provides details of government funding and/or expenditure

Provides evidence base informing and encouraging external participation in policy development

Supports cross-sector service delivery, eg. other agencies and NGOs use it to improve their service

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

Purpose of agency

Statistics NZ, New Zealand’s national statistical office and leader of the Official Statistics System, has been delivering New Zealand's most important official statistics for 120 years. It is governed by and administers the Statistics Act 1975. Under Section 3 of the Act, Statistics NZ holds a census every five years.

What high value public data has been released for re-use?

The census is one of New Zealand’s most important data sources and much of the census data is released for re-use. Statistics NZ released aggregated, confidentialised data from the 2006 Census including information on age, ethnicity, income, workplace, dwelling size and other variables.

Data included summary statistics, aggregate data in the NZ.Stat tool available via the Statistics NZ website (previously Infoshare and Tablebuilder), and a meshblock dataset. Data is available in comma delimited (.csv), Excel (.xls), Access (.mdb), Table Query (.tqx) and Beyond 20/20 (.ivt) formats.

The 2006 Census meshblock dataset contains counts at the meshblock level for selected variables from the 2006, 2001 and 1996 Census of Population and Dwellings, rebased to 2006 Census boundaries. This dataset also contains counts for area units, wards, territorial authorities, and regional council areas. The meshblock dataset can be integrated with other databases or mapping systems to assist analysis and decision making. Examples of re-use can be found at www.data.govt.nz/dataset/show/2286.

Release rationale

Releasing data for re-use is part of the census programme. Under the Statistics Act, release of official statistics must be balanced with the protection of personal information. A dedicated project team develops products and data for release, including output systems, tools, and supporting metadata. For each new census, changes and improvements to this range of products are made, based on user feedback.

Risk mitigation

Confidentiality and privacy - Information Statistics NZ collects can only be used for statistical purposes, must be kept secure to prevent unauthorised access, and must not be released where it could lead to disclosure of individuals' details. Where necessary, Statistics NZ adjusts data to make sure that no individual or business can be identified, using techniques such as random rounding, collapsing categories, and suppressing cells. Under specific conditions, researchers can access anonymised unit record data. See the census confidentiality rules at www.stats.govt.nz/Census/about-2006-census/methodologypapers/2006-census....

Data quality - Census data must meet the quality criteria set out in the Principles and Protocols for Producers of Tier 1 Statistics. The census aims to meet information needs with data that is fit-for-purpose. Of fundamental importance are the accuracy of the population count and statistics on the characteristics of small populations. Significant emphasis is given to ensuring the quality of core census variables including age, sex, ethnicity, and location. The 2006 Census achieved a coverage rate of 98 percent and the response rate was 94.8 percent. A post-enumeration survey measures the undercount,which was 2 percent in 2006.

Cost and timeframe

Release of data for re-use, as part of the core census budget, does not incur additional cost.

Census data is released in a phased manner following each census.

Access census data at www.stats.govt.nz/Census.aspx.

Note that the 2011 Census was deferred until March 2013 due to the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes. 2013 Census results will be released from December 2013.

Economic and social impacts

The meshblock dataset is the basis of Mashblock, a mashup site, allowing users to view census information for geographical areas
census data underpins the Wellington City Council community profiles
property developers and consultants use the census count of dwellings to assess potential property sales and demand for future developments
iwi authorities depend on census information for monitoring iwi post-treaty development plans
prospective home buyers can access census information to assess neighbourhoods and inform their purchasing decision. Census data is mashed up with property and education information and made available in property reports on Zoodle (www.zoodle.co.nz).

Transparency and democratic impacts

Te Puni Kōkiri and other government agencies use census data on Māori for reporting on initiatives to advance Māori development and well-being, such as WhānauOra and the Māori Language Strategy
the Government Statistician is required by law to use the results of the latest census to determine the number of General and Māori electorates for the next general election. Statistics NZ also uses census data to support the Representation Commission make its decisions about the revision of electorate boundaries
the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health use census data to allocate funds to schools and district health boards
census data on the size and composition of the eligible population plays a pivotal role in accurate forecasting of benefit expenditure
census data is used widely to forecast future costs across government portfolios
census data provides an important evidence base for monitoring communities and neighbourhoods where social and economic outcomes are poor or under threat, and for developing programmes to address the challenges faced by these areas.
census data supports researchers investigating social patterns. For example, detailed census data accessed via Statistics NZ’s Microdata Access Services contributes to the NZ Deprivation Index, the Cancer Trends and Census Mortality Studies conducted by the University of Otago

Efficiency impacts

The disabilities Resource Centre Southland used census data to assess the need for a new centre in Queenstown
NIU Development Inc used census data to gain government support to foster the Niuean language
local authorities depend on census data to meet accountability requirements of local government legislation, which include producing regular monitoring reports on the well-being of their populations every three years.

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Redeveloping newzealand.govt.nz

Jared Gulian — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:43:08 +0000

One of the key project goals is to deliver information in a way that is based on the needs of users, rather than the structure of government. The project is in the very early stages, and the team is currently developing a business case.

Strategic context

The redevelopment of newzealand.govt.nz is aligned with several strategic initiatives, including the Government ICT Roadmap, the Directions and Priorities for Government ICT, Rethink Online, the Better Public Services programme, and Result 10: ‘New Zealanders can complete their transactions with government easily in a digital environment’.

Broadly speaking these recent strategic initiatives place an emphasis on delivering services and information in a customer-centred manner, sharing solutions, reusing common technology, clustering online services and information around topics and audiences, and delivering better services for less cost. These principles are guiding the newzealand.govt.nz redevelopment planning. All planning is happening in close consultation with the Result 10 work in order to ensure this project is aligned with the wider Service Transformation goals.

Trends and research

The Digital Engagement team has explored overseas trends, including implementation of a collaborative content development framework in South Australia (sa.gov.au) and the innovative work currently happening in the United Kingdom (GOV.UK). The team has performed a literature review and has had in-depth conversations with colleagues from other jurisdictions.

In addition to exploration of overseas trends, Digital Engagement has completed an initial round of research focussing on user needs, information architecture, and customer experience. Research techniques included focus groups, design workshops, and online testing (card sorting, prototype testing, and tree-testing). We will be sharing research findings where possible.

Approach

The Digital Engagement team plans to build an alpha site in order to test information design concepts and content models. The alpha site will be a limited release site, and it will be used as an early prototype. It will enable Internal Affairs to demonstrate early concepts to other government agencies. The team aims to deliver the alpha site in February 2013.

The next stage of the project will be to deliver a publically available beta site in June 2013. Ideally the beta site will enable the collaborative development of user-centred content across multiple government agencies.

Throughout the project, there will be a heavy reliance on user testing, iterative development, and engagement with other agencies. The Digital Engagement team is currently exploring the viability of a Customer Advisory Panel and an Agency Working Group.

We will be approaching agencies shortly. If you 'd like more information, check out the NewZealand.govt.nz category on the Web Toolkit blog, or email the Digital Engagement team at online@dia.govt.nz.

Open Government Case Study: Marlborough District Council Floodwatch

Paul Stone — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:37:04 +0000

Real-time rainfall and river condition data in an easy to read map format

Efficient online delivery of information to the public

Careful risk mitigation

Uses existing software & hardware solutions

Better interaction between people, business and government

Encourages greater public involvement in policy development

Users can access river and rainfall data from nearly any mobile device

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

Purpose of agency

The mission of the Marlborough District Council (MDC), a NZ unitary authority, includes managing risks to public safety associated with natural events such as riverine flooding.

What high value data has been released for re-use?

Floodwatch, providing real-time rainfall and river condition data in an easy to read map format to the public, council, & contractors, was launched in 2011. It uses three datasets:

river flows – measured in cubic feet/metre, includes information on the flow rate of the region’s rivers, both actual (last 24 hours) and forecast (future 6 hours).
river levels – measured in metres, includes the current height of the region’s rivers.
rainfall – measured in millimetres, includes rainfall totals for user-designated hourly timeframes.

Telemetred gauging stations collect data continuously, feed it directly to the MDC hydro database, compare it to thresholds & deliver it nearly instantaneously to the web via an on–demand GeoRSS service. Each station’s data is presented in relation to pertinent calculated threshold levels & displayed graphically & through automated colouring.

Source gauging stations are maintained by several agencies, including MDC, Tasman District Council & NIWA. While no formal licensing is associated with the station data, pertinent agencies have agreed that it is open and freely available for use and re-use.

Release rationale

better delivery of responsibilities to protect life & property & mitigate flooding events risks;
improve public uptake, interpretation and use of regional information;
improve operational efficiencies by reducing call volumes during flooding events;
use the Internet and latest technologies to deliver information to the public efficiently;
demonstrate regional leadership within the location information sector;
support the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy and comply with the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government.

Risk mitigation

Improper use of released information - Data is in easily interpreted and map-based formats, threshold information is colour-enhanced, & pop-up terms & conditions of use include a misuse of data liability disclaimer.

Technology - Floodwatch needs uninterrupted delivery of technology layers. Source collection failure is mitigated by immediate disconnection of a malfunctioning station, halting data delivery to Floodwatch. IT, geospatial & hydrology teams monitor the system components.

Data Integrity - MDC depends on other organisations’ systems and collection approaches for some source data & on stations’ data collection and delivery systems. MDC hydrology team members actively monitor the network and data to manage any integrity issues.

Cost and timeframe

Six-month project. Minimal implementation costs. Leveraged existing MDC software & hardware solutions. MDC staff provided in kind support. Initial prototyping & internal launch. Public response via MDC email and through the MDC website has been consistently positive.

Economic and social impacts

The public and businesses in the Marlborough region can use Floodwatch data and resultant flood risk analysis for their properties to inform their interactions with other government departments;
members of the public can actively monitor real-time data and thresholds from Floodwatch during flooding events, to take proactive and efficient actions to protect lives and property;
taken over time, Floodwatch data can reveal flood risk in the region, which can be used to guide smart planning and development in the area.

Transparency and democratic impacts

Floodwatch data provides the public with a clearer picture of the spatial distribution of flood events and risk. This encourages informed and active participation in government policy development, particularly disaster management.
the success of Floodwatch and its use of existing technology solutions have spurred planning for similar online data delivery systems. An application, using river flow and aquifer data, is being planned to support water takes and entitlement management in the region. This could generate greater public involvement in this policy area.

Efficiency impacts

Following the launch of Floodwatch, calls to the MDC flood phone during rainfall events have reduced, releasing hydrology staff to provide a higher value contribution (analysis, etc.)
with minimal cost and effort, the Floodwatch data capture mechanism employed can be used to deliver other data (ie, water quality) captured at the source gauging stations, resulting in information dissemination cost savings for other units within MDC
using the GeoRSS feed underpinning Floodwatch, users can access river and rainfall data from nearly any mobile device, supporting farmers, contractors and staff in the field
web-enabled access to the data means that users are no longer as vulnerable to the loss of hard infrastructure systems (eg, telephone lines) during flood events.

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Open Government Case Study: ASB Property Guide

Paul Stone — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 01:45:15 +0000

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

User sees basic details of a property overlaid on the screen image

Retrieves Quotable Value Ltd's capital value and land area information plus information on other properties in the area

Use of this product could lead to new property sales and mortgages

ASB is providing access to QV data

The ASB Property Guide is an iPhone application that has been developed by the ASB Bank to assist property buyers.

The application re-uses, and adds value to, property information from the state owned enterprise Quotable Value Limited (QV). It is available free of charge to anyone, not just ASB customers.

Application features

Using “augmented reality” technology, the application allows a user to point the iPhone’s camera at a property and see basicdetails overlaid on the image on the screen. The application can then retrieve from QV’s database:

capital value
land area
photos.

If the property is listed on TradeMe, the application will show details of that listing.

Properties in the area that are listed, and can be filtered or sorted based on location, number of bedrooms or price.

An ASB home loan calculator is also included in the application.

Economic and social impacts

ASB have added value to QV data and made the application available to allusers
The application will potentially draw customers to ASB.

Efficiency impacts

Some generally charged QV information is made available for free to users of theapplication.

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Open Government Case Study: Tongariro Pocket Ranger

Paul Stone — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:48:44 +0000

Developed through a DOC and Project Tongariro partnership

Offers just about all users need to know about the Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Local Police and Search and Rescue like the good safety information and advice

Application funded by local businesses paying to have their services included

Free to users

Over 2000 downloads so far

Full promotional campaign planned for spring 2012

A local community has developed a viable new community service

Travellers are better informed and prepared

Publishing costs have been reduced; others can re-use the template

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

Pocket Ranger is a smart phone application (available for iPhones or Android phones) that has been developed by a partnership between the Department of Conservation (DOC) and Project Tongariro, a Turangi based community group and registered charity.The application is based primarily on open data made available by DOC. Project Tongariro managed the development of the application, engaging an Auckland based software developer.

Application Features

The application gives users just about all they need to know about the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, including:

Descriptions of the tracks and their surroundings
Points of interest
Stories
Photos
Maps
Safety information
Local services available

Pocket Ranger also has a Quick Response (QR) Code reader included. Installed along the trails are posts with a QR code on it, when read by a smart phone with Pocket Ranger installed, relevant information comes up based on the user’s location.

The next release of the application will make use of GPS functionality in smart phones to provide a “you are here” feature.

Impacts

Local Police and Search and Rescue are pleased that good safety information is included in the application, and advice about what gear walkers should take with them. Making this information available to walkers before they reach the park should keep them safer.

Project Tongariro has been able to make the application available for free by including information about local services such as accommodation, transport, food outlets, and other activities in the area. The local businesses pay to have their services included, thereby funding the application, and increasing their exposure to travellers using it.

A key breakthrough is being able to provide, through the use of QR codes, location based information to walkers actually in the park, without having to place large information signs (that have a detrimental impact on the landscape). This also reduces the need to produce books and displays which can be costly.

Project Tongariro own the intellectual property for the application template, which can be purchased at a fraction of the price of development, and applied to any other walks, national parks and cycle tracks.

Uptake

The application has been downloaded by over 2000 people so far. The second release, made in December 2011, incorporated feedback from early users and new features including the QR code reader. Now that there is confidence in the application, a full campaign to promote it is planned for Spring 2012, when the new walking season begins.

Economic and social impacts

a community group has developed the application benefiting the public (national and international travellers)
revenue earnings are gained through sales of the application template
revenue earnings are gained through advertising local services
the application provides an innovative new advertising channel for local businesses
improved public safety through travellers being better informed about local conditions and equipment required
there is less impact on landscape through use of QR codes on posts instead of big information signs

Efficiency impacts

the costs of publishing information about the Tongariro Alpine Crossing are reduced
search and rescue costs are potentially reduced
the template can be applied to other walkways and cycle routes

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Applying the 5 Star Open Data model to your high value public data

Paul Stone — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 23:23:29 +0000

Introduction

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has developed a five star model to describe different characteristics of open data, and its usefulness for people wishing to reuse it. It is being used globally as a model for assessing data readiness for re-use.

Applying this five star data model along with metadata standards will result in well understood and “mashable” datasets (datasets easily joined together to create a new dataset).

The three star level is considered the minimum standard for release of government’s public data for re-use: non-proprietary, machine –readable, and accessible via the web, and licensed for reuse in accordance with NZGOAL.

5 Star Open Data model

The five levels are:

Data is visible, licensed for reuse, but requires considerable effort to reuse.
Data is visible, licensed, and easy to reuse, but not necessarily by all.
Data is visible and easy to reuse by all (not restricted to using specific software).
Data is visible, easy to use and described in a standard fashion.
Data is visible, easy to use, described in a standard fashion and meaning is clarified by being linked to a common definition.

Detailed descriptions

Below are more technical descriptions of each star:

1 Star - On the web with an open license

Making data available on the web with an appropriate license to re-use is the first step. However if it is only presented in PDF then it is very difficult and labour intensive to actually re-use.

Data in tables on a webpage are also difficult to re-use. It takes a lot of effort to strip away the HTML code surrounding the actual data. Data in PDF documents is even harder to reuse. It is difficult for a software programmer to identify where the data starts and ends within such documents, so that they can extract it.

2 Star - Machine-readable data

Machine-readable data are structured and predictable, with well established and known ways to query and consume it using software code. They are in a standard format, where standard rules apply to the structure in which the data is presented. This means they can be readily consumed by a software program accessing it from across the web and developers can consume the data from within their program/application. Note that being machine-readable does not equate to being easily read by humans.

A very basic machine-readable format is a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file. Each row in a CSV file has the same number of columns (attributes or characteristics) separated by a comma. The first row is usually the column headings (the name of each attribute). This format is simple and predictable when it comes to coding a program to read it and use it.

For example, a CSV file of motor vehicle data could look like this:

Make,Model,Colour,Engine	(headings
Toyota,Corolla,Fuschia,1600	(data following the same pattern as the headings)
Toyota,Camry,Blue,2200
Mitsubishi,Galant,Green,3000

Other standard machine-readable formats allow for more sophisticated used re-use of the data, for example XML. Two common versions of XML called ATOM and JSON are most commonly used to deliver the data when establishing an Application Programming Interface (API). Geospatial data have a number of specialised formats.

3 Star - Non-proprietary formats

Non-proprietary formats can be accessed by any software. The data is in a format that does not require specific software or systems to access it. For example, a CSV file can be opened in any spreadsheet software, whether it is Microsoft Excel, Open Office, an iPad app etc. It can also be readily imported into any database software, or any newly developed software. By contrast, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is only accessible using Microsoft Excel software, or a few others applications that have been written to be compatible.

4 Star - RDF Standards

RDF stands for Resource Description Framework which is a framework for describing resources on the web. RDF breaks down data into a series of facts. A fact is expressed as a “triple” of the form: Subject, Predicate, Object.

For example, take the first record in the CSV file above: Toyota,Corolla,Fuschia,1600.

In RDF this could be expressed as:

(Subject)	(Predicate)	(Object)
:Car	:isMake	:Toyota
:Car	:isModel	:Corolla
:Car	:isColour	:Fuschia
:Car	:hasEngine	:1600

5 Star - Linked RDF

Linked RDF goes a step further and describes meaning by making reference to “a source of meaning” on the web. The result is linked data that is comparable.

It does this by providing a link to a source on the internet that defines what, for example, ‘fuchsia’ means. An example may be a colour palette at Resene. Any other RDF data anywhere on the internet that makes the same reference to the same source of meaning can then be used? with confidence that the different data sets are describing the same colour (because is fuchsia red or pink? Or reddish-pink? Or pinky-red?).

So if someone combined RDF data about car production and about car accidents, if both datasets referenced the Resene colour palette (on the web) for fuchsia, then we can be certain they are talking about the same colour car.

The link in Linked RDF is via a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), a form of hyperlink. Sometimes it’s an address to a static webpage location that contains the information, or sometimes it’s actually an address plus a query to the database at that location.

Common Operating Environment Reference Architecture

Matthew Ross — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 01:16:05 +0000

GEA-NZ Viewpoint: COE Reference Architecture has been approved by the Government Enterprise Architecture Group (GEAG) and can be downloaded from here.

The Department thanks everyone who contributed to the development of, and provided feedback on, candidate release 1.

If you have comments or questions or would like solution architecture designs, email 414@dia.govt.nz

Agencies and vendors are encouraged to use the reference architecture

The COE Reference Architecture introduces a common language, frame of reference and set of standards for agencies’ desktop migration and upgrade strategies. It is expected that government agencies and vendors will utilise the reference architecture.

Agencies that are yet to migrate from Microsoft Windows XP should use the reference architecture to inform the design and build phases of their deployment, ensuring consistency across the desktop platform. Agencies that have already migrated are encouraged to use the reference architecture as a checklist to make sure their solutions are comprehensive.

Agencies should expect that any vendor or systems integrator delivering a common operating environment or desktop as a service offering will comply with the reference architecture.

Agencies can create solution architectures based on the reference architecture or use sample architectures to quick-start their efforts. requirements common to desktops across the public sector will be provided in modules, so agencies can focus their energies on additional agency-specific requirements and solutions.

Alignment with All-of-Government ICT initiatives

GEAG is an advisory group of senior enterprise architects from across government. GEAG is part of the All-of-Government ICT governance system coordinated by the Department of Internal Affairs. GEAG is leading the development of a single, unifying framework: Government Enterprise Architecture for New Zealand (GEA-NZ).

The Common Operating Environment Programme, in conjunction with GEAG and in consultation with various agencies and vendors, has produced the COE Reference Architecture as the first viewpoint in GEA-NZ.

Executive Summary

GEA-NZ Viewpoint: COE Reference Architecture describes the architectural building blocks to help agencies enable their future end user computing environment. In particular, an environment that meets the needs of their staff and assists them to deliver services to citizens and other stakeholders while investing taxpayers’ money wisely. It describes a superset of capabilities for hardware devices and software environments intended to be operated by business users in government agencies.

Agencies can leverage the Common Operating Environment (COE) Reference Architecture as a common language to describe their existing or future end user computing environments. This common language, underpinned by the Government Enterprise Architecture for New Zealand (GEA-NZ), will enable agencies to more easily re-use common capabilities and share artefacts and collateral.

For agencies beginning their efforts to migrate off Microsoft Windows XP and Office 2003, this reference architecture gives them a head-start by providing a significant amount of initial architecture work as well as access to cross-agency advice on how best to approach this problem. For agencies that have already started or even completed such a migration, this reference architecture provides a check-list of capabilities and standards to ensure their solutions are comprehensive. Common capabilities in the end user device zone will use the language of the COE Reference Architecture to classify their solutions, allowing those who have used this reference architecture to more easily consume them.

Transitioning from Windows XP is regarded worldwide as a significant problem. The success of Windows XP as a platform has led to its almost universal adoption across government. However, the way most organisations have deployed and managed Windows XP means that migrating off XP requires significant (in terms of cost and effort) replacement or remediation of applications and management infrastructure.

It is critical to address the issue of migrating government agencies off Windows XP before the end of extended support in April 2014. However, this migration should not be done in a way that re-creates the problem of XP on a different operating system or that locks agencies into a high-cost solution or a solution that is not fit for purpose. To avoid these risks, this reference architecture is targeted at ensuring future device and platform independence that takes advantage of the rapid pace of technological innovation in the consumer space. As a means to sever the link between the applications and data that users need to deliver agency outcomes and the operating systems that constrain agencies today, the COE Reference Architecture recommends that agencies:

deliver applications using application virtualisation
deliver web-enabled business applications
explore desktop virtualisation.

This reference architecture gives agencies a framework and method for creating an end user computing environment that enables public servants to become empowered ICT workers and helps deliver smart government . At the same time, the reference architecture assists them in approaching the migration off Windows XP. Agencies can create solution architectures based on this reference architecture, or use the sample architectures supplied to quick-start their efforts. Requirements are provided in a modular fashion to give agencies most of their requirements – those that are common to desktops across the public sector – and allow them to focus their energies on agency-specific requirements and solutions.

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Government ICT Update - September 2012

Peter Bisley — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 21:10:04 +0000

From the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer

IN THIS ISSUE:

Common Web Services resources panel announced
Government Cloud Programme update
Common Operating Environment Programme update
Desktop as a Service
SEEMail service transition to v3.0
Strong uptake for Government Infrastructure as a Service
Microsoft G2012 uptake advice available
NZ Government Web Toolkit launched
Proposed Government Online Engagement Service - have your say
Upcoming Events

‘Realising the benefits from ICT-enabled business change’ seminar
Using Social Media for Effective Public Engagement

More Information

Common Web Services resources panel announced

On the 13th of September 2012, Internal Affairs Minister Chris Tremain announced the Common Web Services initiative, led by the Department of Internal Affairs. This initiative will allow government agencies to easily engage online expertise from an approved list of 42 providers. Agencies requiring web related resources can now select from this panel of providers, complete minimal paperwork, and get on with the job of providing government information and services online.

Common Web Services is an ‘opt in’ initiative, and is not mandatory.

The syndicated common web services panel is now available for eligible agencies to use. The panel consists of seven service categories including:

Information architecture
Usability advice
Website testing
Front-end web developing
Graphical/visual design
Website technical writing, and
Accessibility consultation

The panel of providers is comprehensive and includes New Zealand owned and operated small-to medium sized enterprises with specific expertise as well as larger companies offering a wider range of services.

The Department of Internal Affairs is also in the process of procuring a single web platform for agencies to use.

This new initiative will be of particular interest to agencies’ Communications and Web Teams, so please share this information with them.

Visit the Common Web Services page on www.ict.govt.nz or email online@dia.govt.nz for more information.

Government Cloud Programme update

On 30 August 2012, Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon Chris Tremain announced an all-of-government approach to the adoption of cloud computing. A tender will soon be issued for onshore cloud office productivity, which is expected to be generally available in June 2013.

In the next 12 months, the cloud programme will complete a risk and assurance framework for the uptake of cloud services, including offshore cloud services, and will establish a marketplace that will facilitate consumption of cloud services, both government cloud and public cloud based, under an on-demand ‘as a service’ model.

We will be communicating with agencies regularly on the progress of the cloud programme over the next months. For more information about the programme, please see the Cloud Programme page on ict.govt.nz.

Common Operating Environment Programme update

The All-of-Government Common Operating Environment (COE) Programme is providing guidance and support to state sector and local government organisations to help them migrate their desktop computing environments from Windows XP and Office 2003 to supported operating systems and office productivity suites before the de-support deadline of April 2014.

It is estimated that government agencies (98 agencies & 149,000 devices) will spend $98.6m in transitioning from Windows XP. The COE Programme has developed a draft reference architecture which is currently with agencies for feedback, and is facilitating the exchange of transition and implementation design and documentation through a shared workspace.

The programme would like to extend thanks to the large number of agencies that have shared valuable information, and encourages agencies to share documentation and experiences to help others with their migration planning and implementation. A list of agencies and their contributions are available on the shared workspace, which can be accessed here.

To share information, all you need to do is upload it directly to the relevant folder in the shared workspace. Agencies are particularly interested in detailed designs, example business cases, application packaging documentation, requirements documents, and training materials.

If you need a login to the workspace or have any questions of comments, email the COE Programme at 414@dia.govt.nz.

Desktop as a Service proposal

The Department of Internal Affairs wants to hear from agencies interested in Desktop as a Service solutions to help inform a business case currently under development.

Agencies need to move off Microsoft Windows XP to a supported operating system before April 2014, so it is timely to consider alternatives to the traditional desktop. The Department of Internal Affairs is investigating the viability of all-of-government Desktop as a Service solutions.

The project envisages a fully managed, ‘ready to use’ desktop and applications service offering. The proposed service would be capable of providing both virtualised and traditional desktops. Agencies would no longer have to manage and maintain their own desktops and desktop applications.

To express interest in the initiative or to provide feedback, email Murray.Davey@dia.govt.nz

SEEMail service transition to v3.0

The SEEMail service is moving to version 3.0, updating the service to latest security technology.

DIA has worked with Dimension Data and the Government Communications Security Bureau to upgrade the SEEMail service to the version 3.0 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). DIA will continue to run the version 2.0 PKI until the certificate expires on the 5th of December 2012, allowing agencies time to migrate to version 3.0. The ongoing management of the version 3.0 PKI has been outsourced to Dimension Data.

Agencies are strongly encouraged to engage with your gateway provider to ensure there is sufficient time to complete the upgrade, prior to the 5th of December. A number of vendors have accredited SEEMail version 3.0 gateways available, and others are close to accreditation. Please refer to the SEEMail page on ict.govt.nz for the most up to date information on gateway accreditation.

DIA is aware that some agencies do not intend to upgrade to version 3.0 SEEMail. It is intended that SEEMail membership will be removed from these agencies before the 5th of December deadline to ensure that agency email flows are not impacted by the expiry of the certificate. DIA will contact the agencies impacted, and will advise agencies transitioning to version 3.0 as to who will no longer be using SEEMail.

Please email Graeme.hearfield@dia.govt.nz for further information.

Strong uptake for Government Infrastructure as a Service

Government Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is exceeding uptake targets, with 15 government agencies now actively using the service. Another five agencies have signed up and are planning their transition, and a further group of agencies are in the process of joining the service.

IaaS is provisioned by Datacom CSG, Revera and IBM New Zealand. The service provides access to up to date technologies and enhanced security, aggregates demand to drive down costs, and rationalises datacentres to lower risk locations. Agencies can easily provision services through a standard service catalogue, and on demand means agencies only pay for what we need.

Robust cross-Government governance provides assurance of service quality and competitive pricing. A number of new services have been added to the service catalogue, and further additions are under development and review.

Please email Sophary.Dim@dia.govt.nz for more information

Microsoft G2012 Framework Agreement uptake advice available

The Office of the GCIO ran several workshops during August and September on the what the Microsoft G2012 Framework Agreement means for agencies. The workshops were well attended, and a several agencies have taken up our offer of one-on-one meetings to go through the most effective licensing arrangements to meet their specific requirements.

The Office of the GCIO is aware that several agencies were unable to make it to these workshops, but we encourage agencies which have not already taken the opportunity to get in touch and arrange a one-on-one discussion.

For more information, email GCIO@dia.govt.nz

NZ Government Web Toolkit launched

There is a new resource to help agencies manage their online channels. The Department of Internal Affairs has replaced the old NZ Government Web Standards website with the new Web Toolkit. The new site (using WordPress) provides guidance, tips, and strategic advice on how to effectively use the online channel for government communications.

The Web Toolkit also has a blog which will provide information on topics relevant to government communications and web teams, including information on all-of-government projects. There will be occasional guest bloggers from across New Zealand government

For more on the Web Toolkit, see the blog post, "Why the Web Toolkit?".

Proposed Government Online Engagement Service - have your say

The Department of Internal Affairs is leading a cross-agency working group to develop a business case for a shared Government Online Engagement Service (GOES). It is expected the service would consist of a range of configurable online engagement tools (e.g. surveys, forms, polls, discussion forums, etc) that local and central government agencies could select from depending on the requirements of their engagement project and their stakeholders. It is proposed such a service would increase efficiencies for both government and stakeholders through better use of available technologies and best practice for online engagement.

The GOES Working Group invites communications, engagement, policy and web staff from local and central government agencies (State Sector wide) to participate in this survey to help us better understand the likely demand for GOES, the high-level requirements and any potential barriers to success. The information gathered from this survey and any subsequent conversations with interested agencies is vital for informing the GOES business case.

Find out more about the Government Online Engagement Service (GOES) project.

Complete our survey to let us know what your agency might need in an online engagement service by 1 October 2012.

Upcoming Events

3 September ‘Realising the benefits from ICT-enabled business change’

In June 2012, the Auditor-General Lyn Provost published the paper ‘Realising benefits from six public sector technology projects’. The paper looked at six public sector ICT-enabled projects that ranged in cost from a few hundred thousand to tens of millions of dollars. It highlighted some of the features of the projects' management that have led them to realise benefits successfully.

The Office of the Auditor-General is running a half-day workshop to discuss the report’s findings. The workshop participants will hear from Auditor-General Lyn Provost, the Government Chief Information Officer Colin MacDonald, and speakers involved in managing the six projects featured in the Auditor-General’s report. The speakers will focus on practical factors that should be carefully considered when managing the realisation of benefits from an ICT-enabled project

The purpose of the seminar is to share what was learned from the six projects and encourage discussion in an area that is critical to the Government’s Better Public Services agenda, which encourages public entities to use ICT to provide the public with better access to services. ICT managers and those involved in business change projects should find this workshop particularly useful.

This event will be held from 9.00am-1pm, October 31 at Te Raukura “Wharewaka”, Odlins Square, Taranaki St Wharf, Wellington Waterfront.

To register for this free seminar, please contact Rebecca Lampe at Rebecca.lampe@oag.govt.nz before 20 October. Spaces are limited.

November 29-30 Using Social Media for Effective Public Engagement

Miriam Lips, Professor of e-Government, Victoria University, Laura Sommer, Manager Digital Engagement, DIA, and Simon Wright, Senior Advisor, Consultation and Engagement, Wellington City Council will deliver the executive short course ‘Using Social Media for Effective Public Engagement’ (dates below). The course will explore the opportunities, challenges and conditions under which social media can be used by public sector agencies to achieve effective public engagement. It provides an overview of the latest international experience and works with practical examples from New Zealand.

Course Dates:

29 - 30 November – Wellington

The course is designed for:

Public sector staff with responsibility for and/or involvement in public engagement initiatives.
Representatives from NGOs and community organisations with responsibility for and/or involvement in public engagement initiatives.
Political representatives

Participants can register here. For more information, contact profdev@vuw.ac.nz.

More information

This newsletter is intended to update you on progress with the government ICT programme. We invite your feedback to help us ensure it meets your needs.

Please keep an eye out for future updates, and contact the Office of the GCIO to share your views or offer assistance.

Stuart Wakefield

Director, Office of the Government Chief Information Officer

If you have any questions regarding this GCIO Update, please contact:

Matt Ross,

Manager Agency Engagement,

gcio@dia.govt.nz

phone (04) 494 5775

Your comments, questions, and feedback are invited.

Open Government Case Study: ANZ Truckometer

Keitha Booth — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 03:25:49 +0000

NZTA never expected it to be used the way ANZ has!

Innovative re-use of this data leads to confidence in ANZ’s advice

Business is using NZTA's public data innovatively

NZTA has also benefited

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

When the New Zealand Transport Agency began releasing their traffic volume data, it would be a sure bet to say they never expected it to be used the way ANZ has!

After carefully analysing the data ANZ selected key routes and applied statistical techniques to smooth out anomalies and gaps. The result is a strong correlation between traffic flows and predicting economic growth or decline as measured by GDPdata from Statistics New Zealand.

ANZ has found that, in general, light traffic flows give a 6 month heads-up on the direction the economy will take and heavy traffic flows give an even more accurate picture 6 months later. They produce a light traffic index, a heavy traffic index, and an overall “Truckometer” that uses the full range of data to produce the best indicator 6 months ahead.

http://anz.co.nz/commercial-institutional/economic-markets-research/truckometer/

Economic and social impacts

Knowledge of whether the New Zealand economy is strengthening or in decline has a significant impact on business confidence, which in turn can drive decisions that lead to further growth, or whether the time might not be right.

It is an example of an innovative way to add value to data and contribute to decisions on increasing retail space or taking on additional staff. The general public are also influenced as to whether they can spend with confidence or perhaps they should save instead. For ANZ, the innovative re-use of this data leads to confidence in their advice, and in turn, trust and confidence of customers doing business with them.

A more comprehensive suite of lead indicators of GDP should make GDP forecasts more accurate and help avoid surprises for businesses and policy makers.The NZTA has also benefited two-fold. The process has helped identify and fix errors in the data, and a potentially major benefit is that the ANZ has shown that carefully selected light traffic flows can be used to forecast the NZTA’s road user charges revenue 6 to 7 months ahead. This reduces the likelihood of large balance sheet surprises for the NZTA.

It also has the potential to influence governance over interest rates, enabling earlier mitigation of weaknesses.

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Open Government Case Study: Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) Data Service

Paul Stone — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 21:04:50 +0000

LINZ has released location data for re-use using open standards

Releasing data was in response to customer demand and market research

Anticipated risks have been addressed

LINZ expects savings of between $680k and $1.3m across government agencies

Stopping obsolete services is estimated to save LINZ about $90,000 annually

Businesses are incorporating the data in their core business activities

Communities and people are adding value to the core LINZ data

It helps with planning for sustainability and risk

Government agencies are incorporating LINZ data in their service delivery

Local government uses LINZ data in many ways

Enabling future participation in government decision making

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

Purpose of agency

To manage the Government’s property rights, location information, and Crown land

What has been released for re-use?

The LINZ Data Service (LDS), launched on 1 July 2011, delivers property & ownership, topographic, hydrographic, geodetic & electoral address data.

Data is available in commonly used location information formats and via a web-service using global open standards. Most is licensed for the widest re-use possible under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand licence (CC-BY) licence. Exceptions are layers of data containing property ownership which needs a special licence to cover protection under Domestic Violence legislation.

Future plans include capability to access data changes (to avoid having to refresh the whole dataset), and adding place name data from the NZ Gazetteer.

Reasons for release

the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy requires open access to location information
the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government requires high value public data to be licensed and actively released for re-use
responding to customer demand & market research
improving efficiency in the use of LINZ data across local & central government
data access arrangements were antiquated and did not enable easy re-use
stimulating growth & innovation based on using LINZ data
the cost of release was no longer prohibitive. Even so, the benefits from releasing data accrue beyond LINZ and the cost of releasing data outweighed the savings to LINZ.

Risk Mitigation

Misunderstanding or misuse of data

Providing metadata containing caveats and appropriate licensing, including mandatory terms of acceptance, minimised this risk.

Customer expectations

Potential risks included addressing increased demand for support services or improvements to the data, and market confusion about the aims of the LDS. Mitigation measures included engaging an industry user group, a strong communications plan, and active environment scanning for emerging issues

Breaking new ground

As an innovative project, there is the risk of under-use, or an inability to deliver to the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy standards, and resistance from industry, particularly those whose work may be displaced. The main focus to mitigate these risks was continued consultation throughout the project.

Costs and timeframe

approximately $525,000 capital spending over 3 years
$300,000 establishment operating expenses
estimated annual operating costs estimated of $457,000
approximately 18 months to complete the project
estimated savings over the long term across government agencies are likely to be between $680,000 and $1.3 million annually
LINZ will save an estimated $90,000 each year from discontinuing obsolete services

Economic and social impacts

The beforeUdig service uses LDS near real-time data to more efficiently provide accurate data to contractors about the location of LINZ assets. This reduces costs, saves enquiry time & work delays, reduces risk of damage, and avoids expensive repair work.

Landscape architect, Nigel Cowburn, delivers real cost savings to his clients by using LDS data to conduct much of the initial planning for landscape projects remotely.

Wellington Cycling Atlas uses a live web feed to draw on LINZ topographic data to show local cycling routes.

http://www.topomap.co.nz/ and http://nztopomaps.com/ have developed web-based and mobile versions of LINZ’s topographic maps, using LDS topographic data.

Solid Energy uses the property boundaries and ownership data to review their own land as well as surrounding properties for mining acquisition planning.

BRANZ has integrated boundary, property & topographic data with their data to give the public information on earthquake & corrosion risk zones.

Efficiency impacts

Ministry for Primary Industries has integrated LINZ data into their online portal for calculating forestry carbon credits. This led to cost & time savings for government & foresters from avoiding errors in data matching.

Ministry for the Environment uses the LDS to discover & download a number of LINZ datasets, including marine maps. Staff can see some of these in MfE’s internal mapping system, YouMap.

Ministry for Primary Industries uses LDS data in their FarmsOnLine and Climate Change applications, complementing other data sources.

LINZ’s Pastoral Team has mashed up LDS data with other sources, making it easier & faster to respond to requests. The Team has plans to share the mash-up with the wider pastoral community.

Greater Wellington Regional Council has integrated LDS data into their new regional map viewer, providing residents with greater insights into services & utilities in their locality.

Auckland Council is planning to use the LDS as it develops its Unitary Plan, which contributes to the Auckland Plan.

Transparency and democratic impacts

The University of Canterbury uses LDS data to teach students how to analyse & solve problems in forest management. This will lead to more participation in policy development in the future.

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Open Government Case Study: Charities Register

Keitha Booth — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 04:28:59 +0000

Data about NZ registered charities now available online for open re-use

Perceived risks about opening up the data outweighed by the positive wider benefits

Project completed in under 1 year for just over $100,000

New applications and services use charities data

Core resource for sustainability and risk assessment

Charities register is an authoritative evidence base

Government agencies use charities data in their core service delivery

Charities data supports cross-sector service delivery

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)

The Charities Commission has responsibility under the Charities Act 2005 for registering entities seeking charitable status; monitoring their activities; receiving annual returns; providing good governance and management education and support to the sector; advising the government on charity-related issues; and promoting public trust and confidence in the charity sector. The online Charities Register, providing information about over 25,000 registered charities, now offers its data for re-use under a Creative Commons BY licence. Previously it offered single search results, and the Commission regularly received requests for more extensive results. Now it is updated daily and gives details about areas of operation, sector categories, activities, beneficiaries, annual financial position and performance, officers and charities they are associated with.

The public can query and download results online in a CSV text file. Applications can access, query and retrieve machine readable results in XML formats or CSV text files. Neither mode of access requires authentication or subscription (intentionally minimising barriers).

Release rationale

Charities Register information is key to public trust and confidence in the charity sector
the Register information provides a picture of the sector that has never been seen before access to the data will enable researchers and others to help the small Commission to support the large sector
through access to the data, others can help the Commission build a strong and effective charitable sector
the Register provides an evidence base for government and non-government policy formulation

Spam - opening up the data would make (already) publicly available email addresses accessible in bulk. The Commission was concerned about the potentially negative impact this could have on charities and on its own relationship with the sector. It concluded that the positive benefits of opening up the data far outweighed this concern. The Commission mitigated this risk by preparing the charity sector for the possibility of spam. It reminded the sector of its rights under the law, and publicised its options if it received spam email.

Data Integrity - the data is provided to the Commission by the charities themselves. The Commission has limited control over its quality, and cannot systematically verify its accuracy. Inaccuracies in the data could affect the reputation of the Commission and the Register, leading to reduced public trust and confidence. The Commission concluded that having the data available in a useful and re-usable format was far more valuable than not making it available at all. It is expected that the quality of data provided by charities will improve as they see benefits flow from its use, and become more aware of the public visibility of their data.

Costs

The open data API cost $55,000 (to design and implement). The Advanced Search web interface cost $47,000. The project began with an initial workshop in August 2010, and went live with both the web service and advanced search website on 2 June 2011.

Economic and social impacts

Student Job Search – volunteer portal (under construction). When charities sign up with SJS to receive volunteers, the SJS web application will verify the charity is a registered charity
KulaCauses.com – US based portal enabling the donation of loyalty rewards as cash to charitable causes, opening NZ charities to a global pool of potential donors (currently in beta).
The Southern Trust - connection to the Register API from their internal application.
Perpetual Trust Ltd (financial advisors and mentors) can perform a needs analysis of the charity sector to improve its financial resilience
funders and charities can see overlaps and gaps in resources being spent on beneficiaries in any geographical region, or compare regional equity
A Dunedin social services advocate used data to analyse and publicise the impact of government funding cuts on the sector.

Transparency and democratic impacts

Families Commission and Ministry of Social Development – information about charities providing care and support for families and children and young people in different regions
universities and post-graduate students carrying out research on the charitable sector
news media use data from the Register to verify and add to stories involving registered charities.

Efficiency impacts

Inland Revenue and NZ Police can risk profile across the charitable sector
additional intelligence for Police cases
funders can see which charities are operating for which causes, and which has received private or government grants
Manawatu District Council changed community support staff based on evidence in this data
Corrections - Community Service group use data to identify charities to approach.
the New Zealand Third Sector Educational Trust is using the data to understand the charitable sector’s need for financial education
Pareto Fundraising use the data to inform fundraising strategy development

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Toolkit for Agencies

Keitha Booth — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 04:37:10 +0000

This toolkit provides guidance for Agency Data Champions leading the adoption of the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government [CAB Min (11) 29/12 refers] in their agencies. It also provides practical guidance for agency staff and data coordinators assisting with the adoption.

The Declaration directs all Public Service departments to commit to actively releasing high value public data for reuse in accordance with the Declaration, the New Zealand Data and Information Management Principles (NZDIMP), and with the New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing (NZGOAL) Review and Release process. It also encourages other state services and state sector agencies to adopt the Declaration and invites local government to also do so.

The role of an Agency Data Champion is to ensure that the Declaration is put into action by their agency, and to report back to their Minister annually. Download a summary and checklist of key responsibilities and tasks.

Specific Guidance for Agency Data Champions

Definitions of high value public data
How to get started: Guidance on adoption of the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government
Checklist for implementing the Declaration
Declaration on Open and Transparent Government
NZ Data and Information Management Principles, the framework for managing all government held data and information
NZGOAL Guidance Note on file formats to use when releasing public information and data for re-use

Practical Guidance for Data Champions and Data Coordinators

Link to the NZGOAL framework: (the NZ Government Open Access and Licensing framework) for licensing your data for re-use
NZGOAL guidance note 1: website copyright statements, for placing a NZGOAL compliant statement on your website
Link to data.govt.nz for publicising your data
Document: Data prioritisation and release process used by the Department of Internal Affairs
Document: Prioritisation and planning worksheet template used by the Department of Internal Affairs
Using the 5 Star open data model to classify public data released for re-use
Introduction from Statistics New Zealand
Addressing confidentiality: advice from Statistics New Zealand
Preparing metadata: advice from Statistics New Zealand
Release practices: advice from Statistics New Zealand

Definitions

Public data is non-personal, unclassified and non-confidential data:

collected, commissioned or created by the agency in carrying out its functions or statutory responsibilities;
publicly funded; and for which there is no restriction:

(a) in the case of copyright works, to its release and re-use, in accordance with NZGOAL , under any of the Creative Common NZ law licences, or

(b) in the case of non-copyright material, to its open release and re-use.

High Value public data is data which when re-used contributes to economic, social, cultural or environmental growth, illustrates government's performance, and contributes to greater government efficiencies through improved information sharing. See the case studies (below) for examples.

Adoption Guidance for Agency Data Champions, September 2012

(A printable PDF version link is at the end of this page)Introduction

1 This guidance is designed to help Data Champions set up a structure for overseeing adoption of the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government within their agencies. Every agency is different in size, structure and culture, so you may choose to adapt this guidance to fit your agency.

2 This guidance includes:

• a potential governance structure;• descriptions of suggested roles and responsibilities;• suggestions for reaching a “new business as usual” state where high value public data is released for reuse as a matter of course; and• a high level process to discover and/or release data for reuse.

Governance

3 Depending on the size and complexity of your organisation, you may need to identify data champions within business units to assist you, or an “Open Data Coordinator” to assist you. Below is a structure being used within Internal Affairs which has many disparate functions and potential sources of data. For your agency, you may not need anything below the dotted line. You will be the best judge of what is right for your agency. The roles are described further on.

Role	Characteristics	Responsibilities
Senior Data Champion	• Member of the Executive Leadership Team (Tier 2) who can champion high value public data release, and: o are well positioned to understand customer and stakeholder demand for open datao have influence over DIA's information management strategy; ando have an active interest in or their role has a natural fit with applying openness and transparency principles.	• Process oversight.• Signs-off on Ministerial briefing papers seeking approval for data candidate release.• Manages any associated risks of high value public data release.
Open Data Coordinator	• Thoroughly understands the prioritisation and release process.• Able and available to provide advice to Branch Data Champions.	• Process Owner.• Manages the process.• Coordination of Branch Data Champions.• Sets process timelines for Branch Data Champions.• Consolidates approved data candidates into briefing papers seeking approval to release from relevant portfolio Ministers.• Completes the annual report back up to the State Sector Reform Ministerial group in March.
Tier 3 Manager	• Work programme oversight and financial delegation	• Approve release of Group’s data candidates.
Legal Advisor	• Understands Copyright law and NZGOAL	• Provide legal advice for the assessment of data candidates.• Signs-off on legal suitability of candidate data release.
Branch Data Champions	• Appropriate level of authority.• Well respected in their Branch.	• Lead and champion the data prioritisation and release programme for their Branch.• Seek legal and technical advice and legal sign-off for suitability to release• Seek approval to release from Tier 3 managers.• Provide the High Level Implementation plans for approved data candidates to the Open Data Coordinator.
Data Stewards	• Have technical / detailed knowledge of data.	• Undertake Branch data prioritisation and release process (complete worksheets).• Responsible for the source of data and metadata, including content, quality, and conformance with standards and the Public Records Act, 2005.
Technical Support	• Have technical knowledge of databases and machine readable publication methods.	• Enable and/or implement data release.
Website Manager/Administrator	• Have operational knowledge of online publication.	• Publish data for reuse on appropriate DIA websites, along with associated metadata and reuse license statement(s).

The New Business as Usual

4 There are many ways you can move to the release of high value public data for reuse becoming a regular agency activity. These could include:

(a) Identify an existing goal or outcome in your business plans which open data release will help achieve;(b) Establish an explicit outcome in your business plans where open data will be released as part of improving service delivery;(c) Identify opportunities in your business planning where third parties could add value to services if your data was available for re-use;(d) Review publication processes that could be modified to release machine-readable data for re-use as well as documents or web pages (including tables in regular items like Annual Reports, SOIs, Chief Executive Expenses etc.);(e) Have an open data outcome considered as part of any new IT system project.

5 Publishing processes have changed since publishing straight to websites became the norm. Publications needed to be written and presented differently for the web. In the same way, publication processes need to change for publishing data to the web. If data release for re-use is considered at the start of the process, then releasing that will become more straightforward.Discovery and/or release

6 What follows is a high level summary of the process of identifying and releasing high value public data that your agency already holds. Each part is described below. Each agency may have to adapt the process to fit with its own internal processes. This process is focussed on looking back at historical data, but your agency could choose to focus first on releasing new data as it is created going forward. The process could easily be adapted to start with “Create” instead of “Discover”.

Discover

7 Start by creating an inventory of what data your agency has, creates and collects. Depending on the size of your agency, you could cover the whole agency or begin with one branch or business unit.

Assess/Prioritise

8 Next, assess whether or not each dataset is “high value public data” (refer to the Definitions of High Value Public Data sent to Chief Executives on 16 December 2011). Base this on an assessment of the impact release of the data could have. The outcomes are economic and social, transparent and democratic, and improved efficiency.

9 Give highest priority to the data is likely to contribute most to the high value data outcomes. Note that addressing constraints on releasing some data may lead to it being scheduled later than lesser priority data. Identify “low hanging fruit” vs high value data that could be released now with relatively little effort.

10 Low hanging fruit could be information that you have already published, but not in a machine readable format, such as tables in your Statement of Intent or Chief Executive expenses in spreadsheet rather than PDF formats.

11 Then assess how to release this high value public data. Consider:

(a) user demand, including the data request register on data.govt.nz;(b) risks;(c) any legal constraints, noting that government’s default position is that public data is open unless there are sound reasons for restricting it;(d) time required to prepare the data for release; and(e) strategic fit

then prioritise the release of these datasets.

Approve

12 Take your prioritised list of high value public data to your senior management colleagues to approve the prioritisation of data release and agree to proceed with implementation.

Programme

13 Next, develop a high level programme to schedule the release of the data for reuse. Depending on your agency’s practice, this programme may need further approval, and regular internal reporting.

Plan to release

14 Up until now work has focussed on creating an organisation-wide or branch view of your data. Now focus on releasing one dataset at a time, noting that more than one can be worked on in parallel, depending on available resources or synergy of the datasets.

15 Iron out implementation details. Ask:

(a) What format(s) to release the data in?(b) Does it need to be static or dynamic (keeping it current)?(c) What IT infrastructure changes are required to release?(d) What are the costs and benefits of release?(e) What do we need to tell the stakeholders and when? (communication and promotion plans)

16 Think about what maintenance is required.

Data maintenance

17 Once the data is released and in the public domain for re-use, keep it accurate and up to date. The process for this could vary greatly. Some data may be maintained as a matter of normal business process, and the way it is released may maintain its currency automatically. For other sets of data, it may be necessary to manually run a report annually and then release.

18 Schedule and implement the maintenance process.

References

Declaration on Open and Transparent Government, August 2011.http://ict.govt.nz/programme/opening-government-data-and-information/declaration-open-and-transparent-government

New Zealand Data and Information Management Principles (NZDIMP), August 2011.http://ict.govt.nz/programme/opening-government-data-and-information/new-zealand-data-and-information-management-princi.

New Zealand Open Access and Licensing framework (NZGOAL), August 2010.http://ict.govt.nz/guidance-and-resources/information-and-data/nzgoal

Checklist for Data Champions on implementing the Declaration

How are you as Data Champion going to be supported to carry out the work?

Consider appointing a Data Coordinator or other resource to coordinate your agency’s Declaration implementation programme– perhaps 0.2 of an FTE.

Is the Declaration included in your agency’s Statement of Intent?

This is likely to be an external measure used by the Secretariat.

How is the Declaration being integrated across the business?

Are cross-agency fora being used (such as Senior Leadership Teams, Leadership Teams, Middle Managers)?
is the work being included in business group deliverables?
is it included in the agency’s Business Planning process?

How is your agency prioritising its high value public data?

Drawing up a list of the public data you create or collect?
Working with stakeholders to identify what is of high value?
Prioritising the release of high value public data based on user demand?
Developing a process to also include new materials being produced by the agency?

What is your agency doing to understand the external demand for high value public data, and user or customer needs?

Have you added this work to your stakeholder engagement strategy & planning?

Is NZGOAL being applied to all published and released material (website and all new communications)?

The NZGOAL guidance note #1 sets out a sample licensing statement

Is your agency’s data being promoted on data.govt.nz?
How will your agency’s progress be monitored internally?

Preview	Attachment	Size
	3191296DA-Open-Data-Identification-Prioritisation-and-Planning-Template-Worksheet.xls	251.5 KB
	3191296DA - Process for Prioritisation and Release of High Value Public Data for Reuse.pdf	422.89 KB
	Adoption Guidance for Agency Data Champions September 2012.doc	171 KB
	5 Star open data - for Toolkit.pdf	92.07 KB
	Visio-Agency Data Champions handout.pdf	53.39 KB

All-of-government cloud computing approach

Matthew Ross — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:16:37 +0000

On 30 August 2012 Hon Chris Tremain, Minister of Internal Affairs announced an all-of-government approach to cloud computing. The Government Chief Information Officer is leading this work, in keeping with Government's agreed ICT priorities and the Better Public Services reform programme.

Cloud computing allows organisations to use a service (or range of services) from providers on a pay-per-use, or subscription basis, without needing to invest in the underlying hardware and software that delivers those services.

Government's move to a 'cloud first' policy means that agencies will adopt cloud services either when faced with new procurements or an upcoming contract extension decision. The adoption of an all-of-government approach to cloud means that as service offerings become available the core public service will be expected to transition from the way they are currently operating.

Cloud-based office productivity services will be based onshore, in New Zealand, for the time being, until the risks and mitigations of off-shore hosting are better understood and able to be appropriately managed.

There are significant financial benefits associated with a move to cloud-based services, largely from the change in business model – from owning and operating hardware and software to consuming these services, as required.

However, the non-financial benefits will be significant as well. For example, immediate access to the latest software versions, updates, the ability to better collaborate across agencies, and the efficiency of a single procurement initiative for all agencies.

Procurement processes for the first two cloud-based services, Office Productivity as a Service (OPaaS) and Desktop as a Service (DaaS) are currently underway. Desktop as a Service is the delivery of desktops and applications to end user devices as a service. The service will include desktop and application virtualisation plus the management of traditional desktops and laptops, all on a subscription basis.

It is anticipated DaaS will enable government employees to access their desktop and applications from almost any device and location; reduce the need for agencies to invest in and run desktop infrastructure and enable agencies to scale costs up and down according to need.

Office productivity services are software packages like email and calendar functions. Traditionally they have been delivered through applications installed on individual desktops. OPaaS will deliver these through the cloud and they will be accessed through a browser. Like Desktop as a Service, providing office productivity from the cloud enables quicker, lower cost ICT changes and upgrades.

Minister's media releases:

Government moves ahead with cloud computing strategy (30 August 2012)

Government seeks proposals for cloud computing service (13 March 2013)

Government Cloud Computing papers:

Cabinet Paper - Managing Government's Adoption of Cloud Computing

Cabinet Minute - Managing Government's Adoption of Cloud Computing CAB Min (12) 29/8A

Information has been withheld from the Cabinet paper and Cabinet Minute consistent with section 9(2)(i) of the Official Information Act 1982 (to enable a Minister of the Crown or any department or any organisation to carry on, without prejudice or disadvantage, negotiations including commercial and industrial negotiations).

http://beehive.govt.nz/release/government-seeks-proposals-cloud-computin...

Government ICT Update - August 2012

Peter Bisley — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 04:37:18 +0000

From the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer

IN THIS ISSUE:

Welcome
Microsoft Framework Agreement Update
Common Operating Environment Programme update
Common Web Services update
Cloud Programme update
2012-13 ICT Development Pipeline Candidates
New social media resources issued
Upcoming Events

Digital Continuity Training Course
Using Social Media for Effective Public Engagement

More Information

Welcome

The government ICT programme, overseen by the Office of the GCIO in conjunction with the ICT Council, is working to improve asset management, unlock value in the information we hold, optimise investment in service delivery and channels, and encourage innovation.

In June, the Government CIO, Colin MacDonald, spoke to the GOVIS conference. The key themes of his speech highlighted progress in opening government data, outlining the vision for collaboration in agency clusters for government ICT, and emphasising the need to be ‘risk aware’, not ‘risk averse’. These themes were elaborated on in a morning conference session led by the Office of the GCIO, which covered the progress made with existing common capabilities, and outlined the direction for some of the key initiatives currently being developed. Colin MacDonald’s speech can be found here.

Microsoft Framework Agreement Update

In June, the Department of Internal Affairs signed a three-year framework agreement with Microsoft. This agreement treats government as a single customer, and includes public service departments, local government, and most of the wider state sector.

The agreement is expected to provide substantial financial benefits to agencies. The Department of Internal Affairs is providing advice to agencies on implementing the agreement to best realise the benefits it offers. Agencies are invited to contact the Office of the GCIO for further individual guidance on implementing the agreement.

Common Operating Environment Programme update

Microsoft has signalled that security updates for Windows XP will cease in April 2014. The all-of-government Common Operating Environment (COE) Programme will provide guidance and support to state sector and local government organisations to help them transition their desktop computing environments to supported operating systems and office productivity suites.

The COE programme recently surveyed state sector agencies and confirmed that across government, the majority of desktops are still running on Windows XP, with a large number of desktops also using Office 2003. The programme is very grateful to the 115 agencies that completed the survey.

The COE Programme is focused on putting practical capabilities in place to support agencies as they transition.

A shared workspace has been established to provide information agencies can use to expedite their transition planning and implementation. A COE reference architecture, and supporting solution architectures for Microsoft Windows, VMWare, and Citrix will be available to agencies on 15 August, and agencies will receive further communication at this time.

If you have any queries about the programme, please contact Programme Manager Ron Peake at ron.peake@dia.govt.nz

Common Web Services update

The Common Web Services Professional Services RFP was released in May and 52 responses were received. Evaluation of these responses is underway and the contract negotiations are underway.

The Common web Services platform RFP was released at the end of June and responses are expected in by the 14th of August.

Cloud Programme update

The New Zealand Government Cloud Programme has completed its work to assess and qualify the opportunity of a cloud services provisioning and delivery model for ICT in government.

Cabinet will soon consider papers outlining a coordinated approach to managing the Government’s adoption of cloud computing, and a proposal to implement office productivity services as the first suite of cloud-based services across government agencies. The papers bring together a robust and in-depth assessment of the opportunities, benefits and key issues.

A wide range of information and advice has been sought locally and internationally. Engagement with the New Zealand marketplace has helped the programme in forming its conclusions about the opportunity of the cloud.

It is clear that the cloud model provides a significant opportunity for productivity gains and innovation across the public sector, and to contribute to service delivery improvements while reducing agency technology costs. One of the intended outcomes is to create a government application store that provides 'as a service' offerings to government agencies.

The programme expects to provide agencies with an update on the future direction of the Government Cloud Programme following Cabinet consideration in August.

2012-2013 ICT Development Pipeline Candidates

The ICT Development Pipeline is working to implement opportunities identified in the six business cases delivered in the 2011-12 year, and planning is also well advanced on the work programme for 2012-13.

There are a number of new candidates for the Pipeline, and there are also those that build on the capabilities already developed. The focus remains on delivering common capabilities with applicability across the whole, or a substantial part, of the government and wider state sector.

The investment opportunities include: Public Sector Identity & Access Management; transition of unsupported desktop environments and optimising ongoing desktop operations; the potential for Platform as a Service and Desktop as a Service; the potential benefits that could be delivered from a Documents and Records Management solution; secure connectivity and management for mobile devices such as tablets and mobile phones; authoritative data sources and interoperability and intrusion detection.

For any queries about the ICT Development Pipeline, contact the Office of the GCIO: gcio@dia.govt.nz

New social media resources issued

Advice on how to manage social media mishaps and a case study of a social media initiative in a government agency have been added to the existing ‘Social Media in Government Guidance’ published by DIA. This additional material is in response to keen interest in up-to-date advice as more agencies make use of social media.

The guide to managing social media mishaps sets out practical steps your agency can take when social media “goes horribly wrong.” It recognises that these mishaps can cause damage to an agency’s reputation and need to be managed carefully. Consideration of specific government needs such as legislative requirements and code of conduct for public servants’ behaviour has been included.

In response to requests for best practice case studies, DIA selected the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) use of Facebook to support breastfeeding mothers. This channel is part of MoH’s broader communications programme to help women feel comfortable breastfeeding for longer.

The ‘Social Media in Government’ guidance is to encourage best practice in social media use. The guidance provide useful templates and tools for planning use of these important and rapidly proliferating services, giving an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, benefits and risks. The guidance, including these new resources, is available at: http://ict.govt.nz/programme/rethink-online/implementing-rethink-online/....

If you have any feedback, or further case studies to share with colleagues across government, please get in touch with the Digital Engagement Team at DIA: DigitalEngagementTeam@dia.govt.nz

Upcoming Events

3 September Digital Continuity Training Course 9.00am-4.00pm, Wellington

Archives New Zealand is running a one-day course designed to raise awareness of and explore the subject of digital continuity. The course will provide attendees with a framework for understanding and communicating the challenges faced in maintaining digital information. Attendees will learn the language of digital continuity and assist them in developing a planned approach to managing digital continuity risks, as well as identifying opportunities for data reuse.

The course will also give attendees the opportunity to carry out a Digital Continuity Health Check on their own organisation using indicators developed and explained during the day, which they can then later draw on to develop or contribute to a targeted action plan.

The course is substantially based on case studies inspired by real-life examples of the challenges faced by organisations in maintaining digital continuity. More information is available on the Archives New Zealand website, or by contacting polly.martin@dia.govt.nz. To book a place on the course, register here.

September & November Using Social Media for Effective Public Engagement

Course Dates:

4 September – Wellington
29 - 30 November – Wellington
20 - 21 September – Auckland

The course is designed for:

Public sector staff with responsibility for and/or involvement in public engagement initiatives.
Representatives from NGOs and community organisations with responsibility for and/or involvement in public engagement initiatives.
Political representatives

Participants can register here. For more information, contact profdev@vuw.ac.nz.

More information

This newsletter is intended to update you on progress with the government ICT programme. We invite your feedback to help us ensure it meets your needs.

Please keep an eye out for future updates, and contact the Office of the GCIO to share your views or offer assistance.

Stuart Wakefield

Director, Office of the Government Chief Information Officer

If you have any questions regarding this GCIO Update, please contact:

Matt Ross,

Manager Agency Engagement,

gcio@dia.govt.nz

phone (04) 494 5775

Your comments, questions, and feedback are invited.

Meet the Office of the GCIO Agency Engagement team

Peter Bisley — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 01:04:55 +0000

The Agency Engagement team provides a contact point for all agency queries about the Government ICT programme. The Agency Engagement team invite approaches from government agencies to meet individually and to address sector forums.

Colin MacDonald Keynote Speech — GOVIS Conference, 18 June 2012

Peter Bisley — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 23:39:00 +0000

"Active collaboration — the road to better public services"

Colin MacDonald, Government Chief Information Officer

Thank you, Brenda, for that introduction. This is definitely a conference that government ICT people look forward to each year. I think a real strength of it is that GOVIS involves government people talking to government people.

The last time I spoke to GOVIS was two years ago when I was a member of the Government ICT Strategy Group, and was part of panel with Brendan Boyle and David Smol talking about the collective focus on government ICT. The message hasn't changed a lot, even through the direction we are heading in and the Government's expectations are somewhat different.

And last year we were very influenced by the Christchurch earthquakes and the lessons we had learned from them. There was a strong theme of 'working together' in those sessions, as well.

It's really encouraging and inspiring looking through the programme. I see a list of different people doing a lot of really innovative and exciting things. They might have originally developed these solutions for their own situations, but we can learn something from all of them. It's good to see the prominence given to open data and its reuse — a subject dear to my heart, and I’ll talk a little about that soon. And it’s also good to see the emphasis on the all-of-government ICT work led by the Office of the GCIO and how that will affect all agencies and give them some common capability.

So, there's been a theme over the years of cooperation. That's going to be part of my focus this morning, but I’ll also talk about how the environment for government ICT has changed and some of the things we need to do in response.

However, first I have an announcement to make.

As Brenda said, I am the chair of the Data and Information Re-use Chief Executives Steering Group. Today I am very pleased to release our first report on the Adoption of the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government.

Cabinet approved the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government in August last year — only 10 months ago — but we are seeing a genuine increase in the amount of data agencies are releasing for re-use. All government departments are starting to incorporate the Declaration into their core business. They have all assigned senior managers as data champions to lead this work. And something that is very encouraging for the ongoing success of this is that none of the departments have reported any insurmountable barriers to adopting the Declaration.

We are also finding that more businesses are working with departments to find new ways to share and re-use data. They are creating new smartphone apps and mashing up open government data from multiple departments and the private sector. A lot of this data is available through web services.

At this stage we are finding that most agencies are generally publishing or disseminating their data, rather than licensing and releasing high value data for re-use. However, this is a very encouraging start and the re-use of government data will only grow.

The report and the spreadsheets, which of course adhere to open data standards, are available on the ict.govt.nz website now. And I understand that the session on open data this afternoon is booked out. If you are going to it, you’ll hear more about the results of the survey and initiatives agencies are taking.

Looking wider than how we share our data, it’s obvious that the public service is facing some big changes. These are going to seriously challenge how we provide our services and how we work together to plan and implement our ICT programmes. One thing that is also going to change significantly is the leadership of government ICT.

The Directions and Priorities for Government ICT and Better Public Services provide the policy framework government ICT must deliver in.

The Government is looking for more coherent investment and management of ICT across service delivery, information, business processes and technical infrastructure. We’ve made some progress on utilising common capabilities, but we can and must do more. We know there are structural barriers to inter-agency collaboration, but the government has signalled it is prepared to shift some of these.

Much of the change is driven by the Government's priorities. It has certain expectations for how businesses and citizens interact with government and these are the driving force behind many of the initiatives we are currently advancing.

However, the Government is expecting more from us, and is expecting it to happen faster. Ministers have made their expectations clear at a policy level and they expect leadership from the public sector to deliver.

Changes are coming in the leadership of government ICT to make this happen. One of the biggest will be a requirement for agencies and officials to work together much more than we have been used to. Agencies will be part of this new approach by default. It is possible to opt out, but Ministers expect that the test for opting out will set the bar high. If too many of them can opt out, we won't get the progress we need.

I expect we will see more centralisation of the development of the strategic direction of government ICT, faster uptake of common capabilities, and agencies with common business objectives operating more of their ICT capability collectively in clusters.

A lot of this will centre around my role as Government Chief Information Officer. The changes in government ICT will be delivered collaboratively, but they will be centrally led — more so than they are now.

The current fiscal constraint we are all operating under is a significant factor in our approach. In the past year or so we have entered into a number of procurement contracts that are saving the government millions of dollars a year.

You’ll have heard about the infrastructure as a service contract that means agencies only pay for the infrastructure they use. That deal is expected to save up to $250 million over 10 years. And the all-of-government mobile voice and data contract will save up to $60 million over the next five years.

But these do more than save money — they introduce innovations and are a different way of planning and operating our ICT services. They, and other procurement contracts we are going to enter into, introduce common capabilities to the government. At a technology level, they are moving the public service into operating more as an integrated system, rather than a collection of individual agencies.

When the Prime Minister announced the Government’s Better Public Services programme in February, with the release of 10 priority areas the public service is expected to focus on, he started the wider public service along a path we have been moving along in government ICT. The priorities are: reducing long-term welfare dependency, supporting vulnerable children, boosting skills and employment, reducing crime and improving interaction with government. Agencies are expected to work together in these priority areas, each of which has a set of targets we are expected to meet.

Essentially, the Government expects us to be more responsive to the needs and expectations of people and communities, and be more willing to do things differently.

And the public’s expectations of us have changed. In many parts of their lives, they are making greater use of technology and on-line channels to access services they need. They are also less tied to their homes to do this. How many of you have a smart phone or tablet device? I bet a lot of you have both. People are more and more expecting to access our services when it suits them, not when it suits us.

They also expect that they won’t have to spend too much time trying to work out who provides the services they want. They expect a seamless and integrated experience as customers, and we often don’t give it to them.

This will bring some non-technical challenges — one of the biggest of which will be in the area of personal information.

There is a definite tension between using personal information to enable better public services and the protection of individual privacy.

There are changes coming to the Privacy Act that will make it easier for agencies to share information in situations where people's health and safety are at risk. However, these changes relate to extreme situations. What about the more routine situations, which are likely to be an important part of the more seamless experience we are trying to create for individuals dealing with government agencies?

This is going to be a significant challenge for us as we move to more seamless government services, and I've been encouraging a debate on society's approach to sharing information. It's something we need to discuss and be clear on as we introduce the changes we will make to public services.

To create this integrated, seamless experience for people dealing with the government we need to accelerate the government ICT programme. This programme aims to improve services to business and citizens, unlock value in the information we hold, optimise investment in service delivery and channels, and improve asset management. And in keeping with the collaboration approach, it is expected that we — the wider public service — will work as a single entity to achieve this.

At the moment, our current arrangements mean we have a plethora of systems, processes and service delivery channels that are largely in silos within individual agencies. This separation between agencies exposes citizens and businesses to the internal complexities of government. Currently, citizens and businesses have to act as the integration point across agencies and channels.

I'm sure we can all think of services where people have to deal with more than one agency to get an entitlement. Two I can think of from my time at Inland Revenue are student loans and Working for Families. If you want to apply for an accommodation supplement or childcare assistance under Working for Families you have to go through MSD. But if you want to apply for a family tax credit you have to apply to Inland Revenue. I know there are sound reasons why we have set that sort of system up, but it doesn't make it easy for the customer.

We are making some progress with integration initiatives. Services like one.govt, igovt and infrastructure as a service are starting to consolidate technology platforms. The business.govt.nz web portal and the Service Transformation programme are consolidating channels. However, they don't address the underlying complexities of the agency-centric systems.

The future is going to look very different. In the future, we need an approach where government deals with the complexity and presents an integrated face to citizens and businesses.

That means we need to look at how we can align our agencies' business processes and share technology platforms and data as much as possible. There are gains to be made from having standard approaches and common capability.

We already have some of the means to get there — igovt and the work on citizen-centric services will be part of the innovation at the service delivery level. Innovations in how agencies operate will lead to common business processes.

Standardisation, whether it’s of backend processes or technologies, will be the norm, rather than the exception.

The Service Transformation Programme is developing a new approach to delivering citizen-centric services that are designed around the needs of New Zealanders rather than the needs of agencies. There are now more than 20 agencies involved, which cover approximately 90 per cent of citizens’ transactions with government.

The programme envisages a significant shift of transactional services to the digital environment, which includes web sites, mobile phones and kiosks. The proposed digital environment will need to deliver a number of important outcomes. It needs to deliver digital services that are widely accessible to New Zealanders, and information that is easy to find and access. It needs to create simplified and connected services that operate across agency boundaries. It needs to increase transparency, participation and engagement, and to continuously reduce costs.

By the end of this month, the programme will have completed its investigation into what services are delivered though digital and non-digital channels and will understand agencies’ plans for migration of services. It will also build a more comprehensive view of New Zealanders’ preferences and requirements.

This is all crucial information for the action we will take to achieve the Government's results set out in the Better Public Services programme.

All the agencies responsible for the different priority areas in the Better Public Services programme have recently signed off their action plans for meeting the expected results and submitted them to Cabinet. I can tell you that it’s going to be pretty challenging work for us all. As part of the process the Service Transformation Programme went through to develop its action plan we developed a set of targets that particular agencies are expected to achieve. We have been working with these 20-odd agencies and have had very good engagement. There is a strong commitment to working together.

The targets that have been set are hard targets. However, we are building on what agencies are already doing or planning to do. It will be a stretch to reach some of these targets, but everyone is willing to work hard to achieve them and have given their commitment to do so.

You'll see the details of these action plans for the whole of the public service when they are released later this month. I'm sure many of you will be involved in this at a number of levels — developing policy, looking at service delivery, and the technological challenges to integrating service delivery channels — regardless of where you work.

Agencies are going to have to act differently in response to better public services. We are going to have to be less risk averse, while always remaining aware of the risks in any situation.

We are going to have to be 'fast followers' — certainly much faster than we are now. For some agencies, there is a yawning chasm between the off-the-shelf systems most of our staff work with every day, and what is available to them in their private lives. The current arrangements we have with some vendors have resulted in legacy systems that no longer suit our needs and which will cost a fortune to change. Being a fast follower is a matter of technology, attitude and the arrangements we have to make it possible to adapt quickly. Obviously, the changes we are making to procurement have an important role to play here.

This is also going to change your jobs. With the strong focus the Government has on better results and improved services, we are all expected to focus on the things that will make the real difference that Government and the public expect. The Better Public Services action plans will include the targets the Government expects us to reach. These are all measurable things that can make a real difference for people and businesses.

We are all going to have to work more across departmental boundaries. With government working as a more integrated system, organisational borders will matter less and become more porous. This presents many exciting opportunities for people in ICT and service delivery and design.

We also have to learn how to influence the business by posing the big questions that challenge assumptions we have — either personal or organisational assumptions that we will keep doing our own thing in the way we have been used to.

When did your organisation last have a serious discussion about why it has its own call centre? Or why you have your own financial management system? The information you are dealing with and the knowledge of the staff might be unique to your organisation, but the technology you use in these services is often not unique. As the people responsible for some of the biggest assets and investments your organisation makes, you need to be asking these questions.

In summary, we are heading into some very interesting times. The Government expects the public service to provide more seamless services to businesses, individuals and communities and deliver better results and improved services for New Zealanders.

Over the next two days you are going to be seeing and hearing about some wonderful initiatives your colleagues are working on in their agencies. I know how stimulating conferences like this can be and what a boost they can give you. When this session finishes, you'll hear about one such initiative that tackles a real and serious problem all government agencies and residents faced after the Christchurch earthquakes.

However, I'd encourage you to always keep in mind the bigger context of the changes we are making at a government-wide level, whether that is the Better Public Services Programme or the approach to government ICT. We are expected to work together more to achieve what the Government expects of us.

Good luck for the GOVIS conference. I'm sure it will be great success.

NZGOAL Guidance Notes

Keitha Booth — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 05:13:57 +0000

Appendix 2: Declaration Adoption Survey Questions

Keitha Booth — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 04:40:18 +0000

1. In which ways have you incorporated the Declaration in your core business activities

A senior manager has been appointed as Data Champion
In current Statement of Intent already
In strategic business plans already
In other business plans already
Will be included in 2012 core business planning
Other: please describe

2. Have you released high value public data for re-use in accordance with the 2011 Declaration?

No (Go to Qu 3.)
Yes

If yes, please use Table 1 below to list what has been released for re-use, and which outcomes it contributes to. (Please refer over to the definition of High Value Data for assessing outcomes. Please add rows as required.

Table 1: Data Description; Date first published; Format(s) published; Listed on data.govt.nz; Uses NZGOAL licensing; Outcomes (Economic & Social; Transparency & Democratic; Efficiency)

3. Have you identified potential high value public data for re-use?

No (Go to Qu 4.)
Yes

If yes, please use Table 2 below to list what you plan to release for re-use, and which outcomes it will contribute to. (Please refer over to the definition of High Value Data for assessing outcomes. Please add rows as required.)

Table 2 : Data Description; Planned Release Date; Format(s) published; Listed on data.govt.nz; NZGOAL BY licence;Outcomes (Economic & Social;Transparency & Democratic; Efficiency)

4 Please provide details of any case studies of successful re-use of your agency’s data.

5. Please comment on any significant or insurmountable barriers to the release of your high value public data for re-use to date.

6. Please add any other comments about your release of high value public data in accordance with the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government.

DEFINITIONS OF HIGH VALUE PUBLIC DATA

Data is factual information (as measurements or statistics) used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation or information in numerical form that can be digitally transmitted or processed (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/data).

Agencies publish data in a variety of re-usable and less re-usable formats, for example, databases, datasets, spreadsheets, tables in reports.

Note that any published data with totals, averages and other aggregates is likely to meet the statutory definition of official statistics and would thus be managed under the provisions of the Statistics Act 1975.

Public data is non-personal, unclassified and non-confidential data:

collected, commissioned or created by the agency in carrying out its functions or statutory responsibilities;
publicly funded; and for which there is no restriction:

(a) in the case of copyright works, to its release and re-use, in accordance with NZGOAL , under any of the Creative Common NZ law licences, or(b) in the case of non-copyright material, to its open release and re-use.

High value public data released for re-use may have at least 1 of these outcomes:

Economic & social outcomes

Business can use it to add value, innovate & create new products to spur economic growth.
Communities and people can use it to:
– develop useful applications/new services
– make informed decisions about the government services they use
– make personal decisions that improve their quality of life.
It provides information about sustainability and risk.

Transparency & democratic outcomes

It reports on the performance of an agency or service.
It provides details of government funding and/or expenditure.
It provides an evidence base informing & encouraging external participation in policy development.

Efficiency outcomes

It supports cross-sector service delivery, e.g. other agencies & NGOs can use it to improve their services.
Releasing it for re-use could:– make it easier for government agencies to work together– reduce the cost of providing an existing government service– reduce the cost of accessing and processing this information for existing users.
It helps align central & local government initiatives through a more coordinated national view of government data.

Appendix 1: examples of the re-use of departmental data

Keitha Booth — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 04:32:29 +0000

project IKA: www.mogeo.co.nz

The Ministry of Fisheries has partnered with a private web developer Mogeo.co.nz to develop multiple applications to make recreational fishing easier for the general public.

beforeUdig: http://www.beforeudig.co.nzThe Before-u-Dig asset protection service directly sources LINZ base topographic map layer and survey marks. This reduces cost and processing time and provides a faster turnaround time for advising customers.

Next Steps

Keitha Booth — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 04:27:27 +0000

32. The following next steps will be overseen by the Data and Information Re-use Chief Executives’ Steering Group:

a) continue to work with departmental Data Champions to ensure adoption of the Declaration is incorporated in departments’ core business activities;

b) Continue to work with industry and communities, particularly, OpenNZ , to meet their requirements for re-using high value public data for economic and social gain;

c) Focus on practical assistance for departments, including:

regular NZGOAL training;
guidance on how to release data for re-use, covering process, open formats, technical methods, and including georeferencing where appropriate;
involving Data Champions in the data.govt.nz data request register response process; and
providing regular assistance with exposing data on data.govt.nz.

d) Support the development of a business case that would test the feasibility of the concept of a Shared Data Service and explore the costs and benefits of such a service;

e) Accelerate the preparation of case studies describing:

how high value public data has been re-used and the impact of that re-use on the economy and society; and
the efficiencies gained from government departments’ re-use of high value public data; and
Implement the programme across the wider public sector.

Analysis of survey results

Keitha Booth — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 03:55:50 +0000

12. The following results aggregate and analyse survey responses from 31 (86%) of New Zealand’s public service departments . (See survey questions in Appendix 2).

13. All 36 public sector departments, including all security agencies, have appointed a senior management Data Champion to lead adoption of the Declaration in their departments.

14. With only five departments (14%) having plans in their current Statement of Intent to release high value public data for re-use, it is encouraging to see that almost three quarters (72%) of the departments are intending to incorporate release of data in their core business planning in 2012.

15. The four departments (14%) not intending to incorporate the Declaration in their 2012 core business planning report that they either do not hold high value public data or that their information is protected.

16. “Other” initiatives (see question six of the survey) reported include:

developing a business group data steward model;
reviewing OIA requests to identify data to proactively release;
preparing a data inventory;
incorporating NZGOAL licensing in operational research contracts;
applying NZGOAL licensing to websites;
developing a draft data release prioritisation process; and
incorporating licensing and release for re-use into their publishing processes.

17. Six departments (16%) have licensed and released high value public data for re-use in accordance with the Declaration, compared with 25 departments (69%) that have focused on publishing or disseminating their data. The Declaration and the New Zealand Data and Information Management Principles both state that all high value public data be routinely licensed and released in re-usable, machine readable formats that are open and non-proprietary.

18. Two departments (Land Information New Zealand and Statistics New Zealand) provide most of the public data currently licensed, released for re-use, and exposed on data.govt.nz. The Treasury provides regular updates to data.govt.nz, using an automated feed process.

19. Two departments (the Serious Fraud Office and Statistics New Zealand) have updated their website copyright statements to reflect NZGOAL.

20. Statistics New Zealand, New Zealand's main producer of official statistics, releases vast amounts of high value public data. The data complies with the New Zealand Government Open Access Licensing framework and the majority of it is accessible through data.govt.nz and available for public re-use in fully open formats. Statistics New Zealand is working towards a standardised data dissemination system, which will also improve their capability to provide data in fully open formats and expose it on data.govt.nz. Note here that Statistics New Zealand also releases other agencies’ data, such as Customs data.

21. Statistics New Zealand’s official yearbooks from 1893 have also been digitised and placed online. The tables in these yearbooks can be copied and pasted for re-use.

22. Departments planning future data releases indicate that they are less likely to use NZGOAL and expose their future data on data.govt.nz. This could indicate:

a lack of awareness and understanding of NZGOAL and the role of data.govt.nz; or
an interpretation that they can only report on using NZGOAL at the time of actual release.

23. No departments reported insurmountable barriers to releasing high value public data. The issues they raised include:

restrictive licensing terms imposed by third parties;
issues with data quality and inconsistent data;
a lack of data standards, which causes confusion with data formats;
a lack of resources to address the above barriers;
a shift in culture is required;
considerable time is required to analyse the risks of releasing data for re-use;
a perceived lack of data to release; and
a lack of analysis of what information is of interest to consumers.

Departments’ suggestions on overcoming barriers for release for re-use

24. Suggestions included a shared application programming interface (API) service and a data repository for releasing data, which may be more efficient than everyone building their own. Web-enabled tools that support data releases were also suggested. This feedback suggests that the availability of shared services could remove technology as a barrier to releasing data and information and could avoid agencies investing in point-to-point solutions that are unhelpful for end users and that duplicate investment across government as a whole.

25. Consistency in the data model used to manage the relationship between address, land parcel, building and rating unit data would make sharing of data across departments easier. CERA and LINZ have initiated work in this area.

26. Departments also requested guidance on formats, data quality standards, and a more detailed definition of personal data.

Feedback from direct engagement with departments

27. In addition to receiving responses from departments, the Open Government Information and Data Programme Secretariat has provided written guidance and engaged in one-on-one consultations to support departmental Data Champions. These discussions have revealed that departments are largely willing to comply, but there is:

a) low awareness of:

NZGOAL and what it means;how to actually release data;
what “open” and “machine readable” mean;
the difference between data dissemination and making data available for re-use;
the value of making data machine readable; and
how their data could be utilised.

b) an underestimation of the value of their data to others; andc) a lack of clarity on the difference between information and data.

Achievement of outcomes

28. The outcomes anticipated by the Declaration will be achieved when there is evidence of the marketplace, communities and people creating new products, business and services based on the re-use of government’s high value public data. There will be instances of new knowledge collaboratively built and applied, and central, regional and local government programmes and business initiatives will be regularly aligned.

29. Planned data releases reported by agencies indicate a move to prioritising high value public data with potential economic, social, transparency and efficiency outcomes. Examples are data on the value of water network assets, local government development contribution levels, pesticides summaries map data, and reconviction and re-imprisonment rate data.

30. At this stage it appears that departments are still developing mechanisms for identifying how the high value public data they have released for re-use has been re-used and what impact this may have had. An obvious exception is the wide use of official statistics.

31. There is some encouraging evidence of re-use by third parties (see also Appendix 1):

smartphone applications add value to public data released by the Department of Conservation, LINZ and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; for example, regulations for recreational fishing and tide prediction data;
businesses are mashing up government data from multiple departments, adding value to it and selling it; for example, reports for people wishing to purchase property in specific education zones;
industry is partnering with government to host government’s geospatial data, creating successful new business models;
industry is using open government data to support their core business, for example national forest health assessment, and soil strength data to calculate the cost of laying broadband cable in trenches;
industry is using open data web services to reduce cost and processing time and provide a faster turnaround time to advise customers, for example the Before-U-Dig asset protection service (survey marks); and
land zone and technical category data released publicly by CERA is being used by a range of central and local government departments to assist with the Canterbury earthquakes recovery.

Context

Keitha Booth — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 03:50:36 +0000

7. The Declaration on Open and Transparent Government , (the Declaration) approved by Cabinet in August 2011 [Cab Min (11) 29/12 refers], anticipated that the private and community sectors could use high value public data “to grow the economy, strengthen our social and cultural fabric, and sustain our environment”. Cabinet also wished to “encourage business and community involvement in government decision-making”. It anticipated “a more efficient and accountable public sector, more services tailored to citizen needs, and a greater level of participation in shaping government decisions”.

8. Public service departments were directed to adopt the Declaration, and other agencies across the public sector encouraged or invited to do so. Cabinet noted that an aggregated progress report would be presented to the Ministerial Committee on Government Information and Communications Technology annually.

9. The Data and Information Re-use Chief Executives’ Steering Group has overseen an active programme to support adoption of the Declaration, application of the New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing framework (NZGOAL) and the release of high value public data for re-use. They have provided guidance to public service departments and ensured that each department has selected a Data Champion from their senior management to lead and drive releasing their public data for re-use. The Minister of Local Government has also written to Mayors, alerting them to the Declaration and encouraging them to adopt it. Statistics New Zealand has provided advice outlining the support they can provide on key aspects around confidentiality, metadata standards and data dissemination standards. The Department of Internal Affairs has piloted a draft data release prioritisation process and shared this approach with other government departments.

10. This report is based on responses from public service departments that were directed to report on their adoption of the Declaration. It summarises the progress made between August 2011 and March 2012, forms a benchmark from which to measure future adoption, and sets out the next steps for supporting departments in their adoption of the Declaration.

11. Public service departments were selected as the first stage, as their data is generally fully taxpayer funded.

Executive summary

Keitha Booth — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 03:28:50 +0000

1. This progress report provides the first picture of government agencies’ adoption of the 2011 Declaration on Open and Transparent Government by reporting on adoption by public service departments. This presents a benchmark for annual measurement of the adoption and impact of re-use of high value public data.

2. The adoption of the Declaration has begun well. All public service departments have appointed a Data Champion at senior management level, 27 departments (75%) have already released data for re-use, and 20 (56%) have plans for future releases.

3. Two departments (6%) regularly license and release their high value public data for re-use in accordance with the Declaration. Twenty five departments (69%) still focus on publication or dissemination. Many report that they are now releasing some of their data for re-use in accordance with the Declaration.

4. Departments’ planned releases of new high value public data indicate they are moving to prioritising for release high value public data with potential economic, social, transparency and efficiency outcomes.

5. There is encouraging evidence of the re-use of government data by third parties. Smartphone applications are being developed, businesses are using government data to support and grow their core business, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) data is being re-used widely by local government and industry and there has been strong interest in the Chief Executives’ expense data.

6. Over 2012 the Open Government Data and Information programme will focus on working closely with the Data Champions, providing further guidance and practical assistance for departments, finding and publishing more case studies, gaining industry and community feedback and implementing the programme across the wider public sector. It will also support the development of a business case to test the feasibility of the concept of a Shared Data Service and explore the costs and benefits of such a service.

2012 Report On Agency Adoption of the New Zealand Declaration on Open and Transparent Government

Keitha Booth — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 03:24:29 +0000

Wellington: New Zealand Open Government Data and Information Programme Secretariat, June 2012ISSN 2253-4369 (online)

Government ICT Update - June 2012

Peter Bisley — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 03:32:20 +0000

From the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer

IN THIS ISSUE:

Welcome
IBM joins the Government ‘Infrastructure as a Service’ panel
Mobile Voice & Data agreements signed
Common Web Services update
Ministry for Primary Industries announces vendors for provision of IT Managed Services
SEEMail service update to v3.0
Upcoming Events

GOVIS Conference

More Information

Welcome

Colin MacDonald took up the role of Chief Executive of the Department of Internal Affairs and Government Chief Information Officer on April 16th. He recently spoke to the 2012 Identity Conference Managing Digital Identity in a Networked World. The conference addressed some of the core issues in government’s interaction with citizens, and implications of technology for government’s management of personal information. You can read his keynote speech here.

IBM joins the Government ‘Infrastructure as a Service’ panel

The Department of Internal Affairs has confirmed IBM (NZ) as the third supplier of the Government ‘Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)’. They join Datacom (CSG) and Revera Ltd who were awarded the contract in October 2011.The addition of IBM completes the Infrastructure as a Service panel make-up to ensure sufficient capacity is available to meet Agency demand.

Government Infrastructure as a Service enables agencies to buy datacentre housing and utility computing infrastructure 'on demand.’ This reduces the need for agencies to purchase and maintain their own infrastructure (IT hardware used to run their applications, file storage and other standard ICT functions.)

This procurement syndicate, led by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) and the Ministry for Economic Development (MED) will save an estimated $50-250 million over the ten-year contract period, and is part of government-wide procurement reforms.

Mobile Voice & Data agreements signed

The All of Government (AoG) Mobile Voice and Data agreements were signed by the Secretary of Internal Affairs on Monday 23 April 2012. Three suppliers have been awarded a panel contract: Gen-i NZ Ltd, Vodafone NZ Ltd, 2 Degrees.

The new AoG contracts will provide an average of 33% savings compared to the current syndicated mobile agreements which were signed in 2007.

Eligible agencies that have signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement can obtain contract collateral that gives an overview of the panel suppliers’ offers.

Common Web Services update

On 10 May DIA released a Notice of Intent for a syndicated panel of web professional service providers. The panel is intended to give DIA and Eligible Agencies a mechanism to quickly identify and engage with preferred suppliers of web professional services where there is a need for expertise that is not available in-house. Resource types sought for the panel are: Information architects; Usability advisors; Website testers; Front-end web developers; Graphical / visual designers; Website technical writers; Accessibility consultants.

The Request for Proposals was released on GETS on 18 May and a vendor briefing has been held. This is the first of two syndicated procurements to come from the Common Web Services Programme, as previously notified in the April GCIO Update.

Ministry for Primary Industries announces vendors for provision of IT Managed Services

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI - formerly the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry) has announced the outcome of a project to develop a syndicated procurement agreement for the provision of IT managed services.

Three service providers, Datacom Systems (Wellington) Limited, Fujitsu New Zealand Limited and Gen-i, have been appointed as the vendors for the agreement.

The agreement covers the provision of service aggregation, service desk support, user device support, server support, procurement services, database management and other IT services.

Under the new agreement, MPI will engage Fujitsu New Zealand Limited to deliver IT managed services to the Ministry from 1 November 2012.

MPI was the lead agency in developing the agreement, with support from several other public sector agencies. It is possible that other public sector agencies may join the syndicated agreement later.

The syndicated agreement is intended for agencies that already use service aggregation (multi-sourced integration) as their ICT operating model, or those that intend to progress towards this model.

The syndicated agreement was signed on 4 May 2012. The value and other commercial details of the agreement are confidential but are expected to result in cost savings.

SEEMail service update to v3.0

The SEEMail (Secure Electronic Environment Mail) service provides encryption to protect emails as they are transmitted between member gateways across the Internet.

During 2009, the Government Communication Security Bureau (GCSB) identified that the SEEMail version 2.0 specification should be reviewed to address potential vulnerabilities. The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) engaged with various SEEMail providers on this review and during 2010, issued a version 3.0 specification for SEEMail.

As part of DIA’s remit as lead agency to reduce cost and improve the overall SEEMail service, it was identified that the best way to achieve this was to outsource management of the Public Key Information (PKI). As this was contemplated under the terms of the one.govt contract, Dimension Data was selected as DIA’s outsource partner.

DIA is currently in the process of refreshing the SEEMail PKI to enable Dimension Data to provide the version 3.0 PKI. To enable agencies a period of time to migrate to version 3.0, DIA will continue to run the version 2.0 PKI until 5 December 2012, when the core version 2.0 certificate will expire.

GCSB has recommended that all agencies migrate to SEEMail version 3.0 by 5 December 2012, when the version 2.0 certificate will expire. It should be noted that extending the version 2.0 certificate beyond 5 December 2012 would involve considerable expense, which would need to be passed on to the participating agencies.

The vendors who supply SEEMail services to agencies are in the process of upgrading their service to comply with the version 3.0 specification.

Upcoming Events

18/19 June GOVIS conference

The GOVIS 2012 Conference will be held on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 June 2012, at the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, in Wellington.

The programme will be packed with a large number of shorter presentations which you can follow up on later, as well as offering in-depth discussions on the core conference topics.

The core topics covered will be: ‘Better Public Services and Customer-centred services’, ‘Open Data' and ‘Information Sharing’, (Monday). ‘Government ICT Roadmap’, and ‘Innovation’ (Tuesday). A two-hour Ideas Fair will run each day from 11 to 1pm, featuring demonstrations, examples, tools and ‘how-tos’.

On Monday morning Colin MacDonald, the new Government CIO and Chief Executive of the Department of Internal Affairs, will give the opening keynote. He will be followed by the cross-agency Service Transformation team talking about recent customer insight work for simpler government services. Monday afternoon will be part formal conference and part barcamp bringing you a showcase of new developments since the roaring success of last year’s Open Government Data Day, ‘You’re only as good as your last release’.

On Tuesday morning, the Office of the GCIO and others will present updates on the ICT Roadmap and a preview of the ICT programme pipeline for 2012/13. Tuesday afternoon features smartphone apps, joint programmes and developments from across the country including projects that feature new ways of working from Christchurch.

Registrations are flowing in – be sure to take advantage of the early bird fees that are available until 21 May, and the concessions for GOVIS members. Shared tickets are available (3 people using one registration) in keeping with the theme of <Share>. Info and registration is on the GOVIS website.

Any queries please contact ros.coote@ssc.govt.nz

More information

This newsletter is intended to update you on progress with the government ICT programme. We invite your feedback to help us ensure it meets your needs.

Please keep an eye out for future updates, and contact the Office of the GCIO to share your views or offer assistance.

Stuart Wakefield

Director, Office of the Government Cheif Information Officer

If you have any questions regarding this GCIO Update, please contact:

Matt Ross,

Manager Agency Engagement,

gcio@dia.govt.nz

phone (04) 494 5775

Your comments, questions, and feedback are invited.

Colin MacDonald Keynote Speech — Identity Conference, 30 April 2012

Peter Bisley — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 01:05:32 +0000

"The Balancing Act: Identity and Innovation in the Public Service"

Colin MacDonald, Chief Executive Department of Internal Affairs & Government Chief Information Officer

Over the next two days we are talking about ‘identity’, which is a term that covers such a range of concepts it can be hard to know where to start. It covers cultural identity, national identity, social identity, personal identity, gender identity, and so on. Each of us carries all of these identities with us all the time.

In my case, I am Scottish-born (my cultural identity), and both a New Zealand and UK citizen (my national identities). I am also a husband, a son, a father, a brother and an uncle. I am a musician and member of a group with other musicians.

Each of us would be able to compile a similar list of biographical facts, relationships or affiliations that contribute to our sense of identity. Within our sense of personal identity, there is a tension between our sense of what makes us unique — how we are an individual — and what makes us similar to others so that we can be a member of a group.

We are all highly complex, but have to define ourselves within particular parameters in order to participate in society. We also create ways of defining other people in order to decide how to relate to them. This could be their job, education, ethnicity, beliefs or hobbies. We do it in our personal lives and we do it as the government, particularly when it comes to entitlements.

So, when we talk about identity in the area of government entitlements, business transactions or the networked world, we are talking about the process of reducing complex individual lives down to a few key pieces of data and then managing those appropriately.

Almost everything we do in society — shopping, socializing, reading, social media — involves us sharing personal information. As more of us have taken to the online life, there has been a massive proliferation of personal information online. It’s resulting in an explosion of people connecting and innovating around identity.

When we talk about identity in that context, we inevitably end up talking about privacy.

Our concepts about privacy are socially constructed and change over time. The line between our public lives and our private lives has moved, and the degree of privacy people in Western societies experience now is much greater than the common experience of several generations ago. In early days of European settlement many people lived in much closer quarters that they do today, with families often all sleeping in the same room — or bed. Telephone conversations were not necessarily private if the operator could listen in.

For the past hundred years or so, concerns about the erosion of privacy have been linked to the development of technology. When Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis published 'The Right to Privacy' in the Harvard Law Review in 1890, they were primary concerned with invasions of privacy by newspapers publishing photographs of people.

Today, the ability of organizations to share the information they have about us challenges what many of us believe is our right to privacy. The prevailing view of people who are concerned about this is that technology now enables the collection and dissemination of almost every personal fact about us, and our personal privacy is being eroded.

This view is reflected in the backlash against businesses that some people have seen as overstepping the mark on privacy — Facebook and Google are two big organizations that have attracted criticism for some of their actions. The reaction to the Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act in the US and the fears that it would result in companies sharing sensitive personal information with the government in the name of protecting cyber security reflects the depth of those concerns.This reinforces the belief that information is being shared against our will, but any parent who’s ever looked at their teenager’s Facebook wall knows that they are actively sharing personal information with a wide circle of people. Some people argue they don't realise what they are doing, although many of these young people do eventually have a revelation that what they are sharing is unwise and seek to retrieve some of it.

As individuals, each of us is constantly testing our comfort levels around sharing personal information.

So where does this leave the government?

The government is in the business of delivering social, environmental and economic outcomes. That’s about people and it involves information, so identity information management really matters on a range of levels from service delivery to policy research. We know that many people are concerned about a number of privacy issues. According to 2006 research by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, people are mainly concerned about the security of their personal information on the internet, confidentiality of medical records and government interception of telephone calls or emails.

The public's attitude to government departments sharing information has changed, according to the OPC's research. In 2006, 37 per cent of people were concerned about departments sharing personal information. By 2010 that proportion had jumped to 61 per cent.

However, we also know that attitudes to government agencies sharing personal information in some situations are becoming more accepting. The Law Commission’s review of the Privacy Act resulted in some recommendations that are now part of amending legislation before Parliament. This is intended to make it easier for agencies to enter into agreements that would allow them to share information in cases where there are serious threats to health or safety.

The general public is becoming increasingly aware that government agencies have a lot of information about individuals, which is not generally shared. A number of cases have been reported in the media where vulnerable people, particularly children, have been abused despite being under the watch of several government agencies. These various agencies were not aware of the full situation until all the information was collected and presented as a whole.

Cases like these — and the acceptance that agencies sometimes need a more comprehensive picture of citizens’ identity than they currently have — have been part of the stimulus for the proposed changes to the Privacy Act.

However, these changes relate to extreme situations. What about the more routine situations, which are likely to be an important part of the more seamless experience we are trying to create for individuals dealing with government agencies?

The Government has set challenges for the public service and is making us accountable for achieving them. The Department of Internal Affairs is responsible for meeting one of them — that New Zealanders can complete their transactions with the government easily in a digital environment.

Identity information management is central to this, and is crucial in all the results the Government has set for the public sector. Reducing long-term welfare dependency, supporting vulnerable children, boosting skills and employment, reducing crime and improving interaction with government all rely on knowing important information about individuals, and sharing it across the clusters of agencies responsible for these results.

There is a definite tension between using personal information to enable better public services and the protection of individual privacy. Our privacy legislation prohibits the creation of an easy way of identifying a citizen in a consistent way across all government services. In a world where citizens are demanding more seamless, citizen-focused services, that inevitably presents a barrier.

We have come up with some innovative ways of working within both the letter and spirit of the legislation, but we still have this barrier that will continue to get in the way.

People have a right to their privacy and they have a right to expect that the government keeps private the personal and identity information we hold about them. However, where you have a construct that is opposing the outcome you are trying to achieve — to make it easier to transact with seamless government services — then departments will work within the spirit and the letter of the law to find ways around any obstacles. Inevitably, when you do that you increase the risk and cost.

Our services are privacy protected, but they can be clunky as a result and they don’t always live up to people’s expectations. Business processes have been designed to meet privacy requirements while streamlining and simplifying services and there is a cost in both efficiency and effectiveness from these workarounds.

However, if you have a legislative framework that is appropriately permissive, with suitable controls, then I believe you are more likely to operationalise your business processes in a safe and secure way.

Better public services provide new opportunities to address these barriers. I know it’s not easy. My position is a good illustration of the difficulty. In my job, I am the Government Chief Information Officer with the responsibility to lead the transformation of government ICT to deliver lower cost, higher quality public services. As Chief Executive of the Department of Internal Affairs I am responsible for transforming services so New Zealanders can complete their transactions with government easily in a digital environment.

However, the Department is also responsible for managing personal identity information of those New Zealanders — births, deaths and marriages, passports and citizenship.

This is information that is crucial for many other departments in assessing people’s entitlements and helping them to meet their obligations. We have a few formal data sharing arrangements permitted under legislation and have developed other services to allow agencies to validate the information they are provided with. However, we are prevented from sharing data more easily for reasons that, at the time they were put in place, reflected the prevailing view of citizens.

In exploring this issue, it is extremely important to acknowledge the real and genuine concerns some citizens have about the power of the government to look into their lives.

But if you want your entitlements then you do need to tell us something. And if you want access to the entitlement to be easy, then you might have to tell us more. But if you want us to catch the person next door who you think is committing a serious offence then you can’t say it’s OK to know about him, but I’m not going to tell you about me. We need a universal contract we are all prepared to sign up to.

I want an informed debate that examines whether this is still how New Zealanders feel about the sharing of information. If the answer is ‘yes’, then so be it. But I think people should be able to give the answer in full understanding of the implications — that it will be more difficult for the government to provide the level of services they desire unless it becomes easier for us to appropriately share the basic information about you and your entitlement.

My hope is that we will have an engaged and intelligent conversation about this issue to see whether society’s views have changed significantly in the past 20 years. If they have changed, I’d like to bring that out into the open and use that to guide us.

It’s important that there are voices that are prepared to prompt and to lead that debate, and many of them are here today. The government has a role to play in leading the debate, rather than just listening and reacting to events.

We have a responsibility to do that because we currently operate on the assumption that the views that prevailed when the legislation governing privacy matters and government-held information was written still hold. If we should be doing things differently, we need to know that.

In the meantime, the government is continuing to innovate in this area. We are developing an identity information future state for government, which is how the future of identity information management should look for all New Zealand, and we are looking at information strategic policy more broadly. We are getting traction on identity information management solutions, including the adoption of technologies such as igovt, Inland Revenue’s and Ministry of Social Development's voice recognition systems, SmartGate’s facial recognition technology, and more.

There is more information about igovt services available at the trade stall at this conference. Also at this conference you can see the details of the RealMe joint venture Internal Affairs has entered into with New Zealand Post to provide access for more people to the igovt identity verification service.

These are all exciting technologies, with the potential to make it easier for people to deal with the government in a digital environment. As the Government CIO, I’m pleased to see so many people here engaging in the debate on managing digital identity and what it means for us, as New Zealanders.

In closing, I invite you to engage openly in the discussion about the issues of identity information management and privacy inherent in these changes. Let’s acknowledge the complexity without diving to extremes. Be open to the perspectives of others. Over the next two days, please keep your mind open and remember that everything comes at a cost, which is not always financial.

There is no free lunch. As Ron Heifetz wrote in his seminal work 'Leadership Without Easy Answers' the role of the leader is to help others distinguish immutable values that must stay from historical practices that must go.

I hope you have a stimulating and productive conference.

Thank you.

2012 report on adoption of the Declaration

Keitha Booth — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:35:44 +0000

The 2012 Report on Adoption of the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government was released on 18 June 2012 by Colin MacDonald, Chair, Data and Information Re-use Chief Executives Steering Group following Cabinet approval [See the Cabinet Paper and SEC Min (12) 7/7].

Key findings are that businesses are starting to re-use government public data innovatively by creating new smartphone applications, mashing up open government data from multiple departments and the private sector and using open data web services to reduce cost and processing. They are also partnering with government to host and deliver government data.

Government departments and businesses are also working in new ways to share data, for example, the land zone and technical category data released publicly by CERA to assist with the Canterbury earthquake recovery.

All government departments are moving to incorporate the Declaration into their core business. All have assigned senior staff to lead this work and none reported insurmountable barriers to adopting the Declaration.

The aggregated spreadsheets below (in csv format) provide the raw data from the departmental returns. These first reports set a benchmark for subsequent annual reports on progress.

Preview	Attachment	Size
	2012 Report on Agency Adoption of the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government June 2012.pdf	341.07 KB
	2012_Case_Studies.csv	11.3 KB
	2012_Detail_Future_Releases.csv	9.15 KB
	2012_Detail_of_Current_Releases.csv	45.45 KB
	2012_Summary_of_Incorporation_into_Business.csv	205 bytes
	2012_Summary_Releases_and_Outcomes.csv	247 bytes
	2012_Tally_of_Case_studies_and_barrier_reponses.csv	103 bytes
	Final Cabinet Paper_ 2012 report on adoption of Declaration on Open and Transparent Government.pdf	186.25 KB
	SEC Min-12-7.7.PDF	34.93 KB
	2012_Detail_Survey_Responses.csv	23.9 KB

GCIO Update - April 2012

Matthew Ross — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 23:09:04 +0000

Office of the Government Chief Information Officer

IN THIS ISSUE:

Welcome
Government Infrastructure as a Service now available
RFP in April for Common Web Services
one.govt network service reaching new discount threshold
New Zealand Government Cloud Programme update
Mobile Voice & Data negotiations nearly complete
Adoption of the 2011 Declaration on Open and Transparent Government
Agencies collaborate to drive improvements in HR and Finance
Proposed Common ICT Capability Programme for 2012-13
Upcoming Events

NZGOAL training
Identity Conference
GOVIS Conference

GCIO Circulars
More Information

Welcome

The Office of the GCIO oversees the government ICT programme, seeking to improve asset management, unlock value in the information we hold, optimise investment in service delivery and channels, and encourage innovation.

This newsletter is intended to update you on progress with the government ICT programme. We invite your feedback to help us ensure it meets your needs.

Please keep an eye out for future updates, and contact the Office of the GCIO to share your views or offer assistance.

Peter Mersi

Government Chief Information Officer

3 April 2012

Government Infrastructure as a Service now available

Government Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides data centre and housing services, utility compute services, storage as a service, and backup and restore services, and is available to all agencies in the wider state sector. IaaS is provisioned by Datacom CSG Ltd and Revera Ltd, who were awarded the IaaS syndicated contract in October 2011.

IaaS is expected to save government up to $250m on infrastructure provision during the ten-year life of the contract. The cost saving is expected to come from reduced ICT management costs, reduced capital expenditure. Expected benefits include improved resilience and security, simplified service upgrades, and the enablement of service delivery transformation.

Uptake of the service is on track and is expected to exceed original forecast by 30 June.

RFP in April for Common Web Services

A cross-agency Working Group has developed a service vision for Common Web Services in order to develop common Content Management Systems available for use by agencies to reduce procurement and support costs and to facilitate sharing of components between agencies. The Working Group includes representatives from the Department of Internal Affairs, Treasury, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture and Heritage, Ministry of Social Development, Crown Law, Treasury and Inland Revenue Department.

The ICT Council approved the approach to procurement, and the group is currently developing the requirements for the two Requests for Proposals to be released in May.

The first RFP will be for a managed web platform which provides a common Content Management System for agencies, and the infrastructure and hosting required for web sites developed on this platform. The second is for a syndicated services panel for web related resources such as information architecture, user experience design, usability testing, web development and visual design.

Services are planned to be operational by October 2012, and agencies that are planning to replace their Content Management Systems in 2012 are encouraged to become early adopters and to join the Working Group. Ministry for Primary Industries, Maritime NZ and Department of Building and Housing representatives have joined recently as potential early adopters.

one.govt network service reaching new discount threshold

one.govt (Open Network Environment) is a suite of low cost, high speed Wide Area Network (WAN) and internet services provisioned by Dimension Data. The core one.govt network service reached 750 connections (network ports) at the end of January, meeting the uptake threshold to enable a 15.5% discount for all users of the service. On projected uptake, the 17% discount threshold should be reached within the next three months. one.govt continues to provide a high quality and stable service to users.

Three new agencies joined the service during February, with another two in the process of signing the memorandum of understanding to enable them to join.

In addition to the core one.govt and internet services, Dimension Data are now offering a number of additional one.govt services, including a voice gateway, a web protection service and an email filtering service. A video gateway service and the hosted SEEMail service will be available in the near future.

New Zealand Government Cloud Programme update

This initiative is exploring the feasibility of a Cloud based business model for the government sector within New Zealand and the benefits that such a business model might deliver.

It is also exploring the way in which benefits can be actively realised and the wider economic and structural changes that might result. The initiative completed an engagement with the market in February and the feedback from that process is now being used to construct recommendations. An associated business case is being developed for Office Productivity.

These are on track to be delivered by the end of April.

Mobile Voice & Data negotiations nearly complete

Negotiations with most parties are on track to be completed by the end of March 2012.

After internal sign off processes have been completed the contract information will be available for agencies to view provided a Non Disclosure Agreement between the Voice & Data Centre of Expertise (CoE) and the agency is in place.

The CoE will provide a Buyer's Guide and a Contract Summary Guide. This document will summarise the suppliers' offers allowing agencies to gain a high level understanding of the different offers and their suitability to the agency's requirements. The CoE is encouraging agencies to wait until contract information is available before making any other commitment with regards to an agency's mobile voice and data spend.

Adoption of the 2011 Declaration on Open and Transparent Government

Since the release of the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government in August 2011, government departments have been working to release high value public data that can be used by third parties to grow the economy, strengthen our social and cultural fabric and sustain our environment. Cabinet also wished to encourage business and community involvement in government decision making and anticipated a more efficient and accountable public sector, more services tailored to citizen needs, and a greater level of participation in shaping government decisions.

In March 2012, agencies submitted their first progress reports to the Data and Information Re-use Chief Executives Steering Group. The Open Government Data and Information Secretariat, based at Land Information New Zealand, has drafted an aggregated report that the Steering Group will discuss on 3 April. They will take the final report to the next meeting of the Ministerial Committee on Government ICT. This report will set a benchmark for future measurement and will be released on the website ict.govt.nz.

In March 2012, the Steering Group also held a special meeting to consider oversight of the cross-government information landscape. Their discussion is feeding into the Strategic Information Management policy work being led by DIA.

Agencies collaborate to drive improvements in HR and Finance

The Human Resources Quick Start Initiative – also known as the HR QSI project – is a proactive response by agencies and the HR profession to work collaboratively to drive greater efficiency and increased effectiveness in HR services across the State Services.

This project – which is owned, led and delivered by the participating agencies – is an important first step in a cross-agency led response to the challenge to deliver better HR services to agencies for less cost. An opportunity assessment has been completed, and the project is now entering a business case phase. Once implemented, this project seeks to deliver long term operational excellence in HR services across the state services.

A similar quick start initiative for the Finance function is about to enter the opportunity assessment phase.

If your agency is interested in joining either of the initiatives, please contact the Office of the GCIO.

Proposed Common ICT Capability Programme for 2012-13

The proposed portfolio of initiatives for the 21012-13 financial year have been drafted and endorsed by the ICT Council at its February meeting in Wellington. Further evaluation of these options will continue over the next couple of months to ensure alignment with recommendations that might come from the NZ Government Cloud and COE Programmes. This review will continue up until the time that funding for the initiatives is agreed.

Current candidate initiatives are:

Cloud enabling initiatives identified by the NZ Government Cloud programme
Further development of Identity and Access Management capability to support citizen and agencies access to services
Device connectivity, mobility and security including information security
Compute platform standardisation
EDRMS/Records Management
Enterprise search
Common payment processing
Online forms
ICT Benchmarking
Contact centre processes and technology
Analytics
Data sharing and interoperability standards
Data sharing and interoperability platform
Authoritative data sources

As always, input is welcome into the process and suggestions for candidates that support the overall Common ICT Capability direction, especially those not included in the Roadmap.

Upcoming Events

26 April NZGOAL training workshop 3.30-5.00pm

Government departments adopting the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government are required to release their high value public data for re-use using the Review and Release process set out in the New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing (NZGOAL) framework.

DIA is running a training session to help departments apply NZGOAL to this data and other material (e.g. copyright works and non-copyright material) you release for re-use by others. It will be of particular interest to departmental lawyers, communications people, web people and business owners who are driving the adoption of the Declaration.

This training session will be held at DIA on 26 April from 3.30-5.00pm. If you wish to attend please contact Julia.Lindsay@dia.govt.nz by 23 April.

30 April / 1 May Identity Conference at Te Papa

18/19 June GOVIS conference

GCIO Circulars

GCIO Circulars have been sent to Chief Executives and Chief Information Officers on the transition to IPv6 and government software agreements.

GCIO Circulars are a high-level briefing to Chief Executives and Chief Information Offices on all-of-government ICT decisions related to the Directions and Priorities for Government ICT and the Government ICT Roadmap. Where distribution allows, GCIO Circulars will be published on this website.

Contact the Office of the GCIO for more information.

More information

You can read about the Government ICT Programme on the website ict.govt.nz

If you have any questions regarding this GCIO Update, please contact:

Office of the GCIO at gcio@dia.govt.nz or phone (04) 494 5775.

Stuart Wakefield, Director, stuart.wakefield@dia.govt.nz

Matt Ross, Manager Agency Engagement, matthew.ross@dia.govt.nz

Your comments, questions, and feedback are invited.

Implementing Rethink Online

Nathan Wall — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 03:11:27 +0000

The Department of Internal Affairs is working on a number of initiatives to help build online capability across government. The following Rethink Online initiatives are currently underway and agencies are invited to get involved:

Channels and Touchpoints Common Capability Planning Group
Senior Manager for Online and Online Champion Nominations
Register of Online Channels
Centres of Expertise
Common Web Services

Channels and Touchpoints Common Capability Planning Group

To support implementation of Rethink Online, a new cross-agency planning function for online delivery, the Channels and Touchpoints Common Capability Planning Group, has been established. This group reports into the ICT Council.

Senior Manager for Online and Online Champion Nominations

To ensure that the voice of the customer is taken in to account in decision making and to clarify who has oversight of an agency’s online channels and can progress joint initiatives with other agencies, agencies have been asked to identify at least two people to take the lead for their agency in all online information and service delivery.

To nominate your agency's contacts:

Look at the high level role descriptions in Rethink Online.
Discuss within your organisation who should be nominated for each role (Senior Manager for Online and Online Champion). For example, raise it with your Chief Information Officer and governance groups and/or make a recommendation to your Chief Executive.
Email both names to online@dia.govt.nz. They’ll be added to the register and will receive any future communications.

Register of Online Channels

To help the Channels and Touchpoints Common Capability Planning Group get a better understanding of online channel usage across government, the Department of Internal Affairs is developing a simple public register, where agencies can record and update information about their online channels. For more information about this project, please email online@dia.govt.nz.

Centres of Expertise

Under Rethink Online, it is expected that other agencies will play an increasing leadership role in their particular areas of expertise by providing shared capability and shared online channels. The Department of Internal Affairs is currently working on how to implement centres of expertise. If you would like to be involved in the working group for this project, have ideas on how to share expertise across agencies or would like to volunteer your expertise, we would like to hear from you. For more information about this project, please email online@dia.govt.nz.

New Zealand Government Cloud Business Case 2011 FAQs

Matthew Ross — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:23:34 +0000

What is meant by the “Cloud” in the New Zealand Government Cloud Programme?

A cloud computing business model is most often characterised by the individuals’ or organisations’ ability to use a service (or range of services) from multiple providers on a pay-per-use or subscription basis, without needing to invest in the underlying capability that delivers those services.Such a model provides government the potential to reduce capital investment in ICT and reduce associated on-going operating costs.

What are the particular timings of this RoI?

The ROI will be published on GETS on 6 December 2011 and the suppliers will be selected by 9 January 2012. The engagement with the suppliers will begin in early January 2011.

The indicative business case for the New Zealand Government Cloud Programme is due to be completed by the end of April 2012. Agencies may be engaged in the process in December 2011 and requested to provide baseline data.

What are the expected outcomes of this RoI and detailed business case?

Globally, most governments are pursuing cloud business models.

This Registration of Interest is a critical step in determining what a New Zealand Government Cloud might entail. This is a fact-finding mission; we want to engage with both vendors and agencies to discover what’s possible. There are some very real challenges in this kind of ambitious programme, and we want to make sure we’ve got robust answers to them.

What will this business case entail?

The business case will follow the New Zealand Treasury Five Case Model for a programme of this size. It will also consider the strategic, economic, commercial, financial and management ‘cases’ and the outcomes required in each case provide overall direction, scope and feasibility within which detailed delivery can be contextualised.

Solutions developed through the detailed business case for each tranche will factor in agency profile requirements including agency ICT cycles, agency contractual commitments and user segmentation profile, required transition timeframes, etc. Engaging with us in the process is the best way to ensure sector/agency value propositions are reflected.

How does this relate to Infrastructure as a Service?

The Department of Internal Affairs’ recent agreement for Datacom and Revera to launch an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) capability will continue to be a key component of any future cloud based model adopted by government.

Which Directions and Priorities does the New Zealand Government Cloud Programme address?

The Directions and Priorities for Government ICT is a medium-term strategy for central government to collectively lead the use, development and purchasing of government ICT over the next three years.

The ICT Council drives the Directions and Priorities by ensuring that the Government ICT Roadmap accurately reflects those priorities, the needs of agencies, and appropriate sequencing of initiatives to drive investment performance.On 4 October 2010 CAB Min (10) 35/5A Cabinet:

a) agreed to adopt Directions and Priorities for Government ICT, attached to the paper under EGI (10) 226 and as an annex to this minute, as government policy to direct the ICT activities of State Services agencies;

b) noted that the implementation of the policy will be led by chief executive governance groups, and will be devolved across agencies through distributed work programmes as required to achieve results;

c) invited responsible Ministers to set expectations of their portfolio chief executives on ensuring alignment between their agency’s ICT investment and management and the Directions and Priorities for Government ICT;

d) directed chief executives of Public Service departments to:

i. use cross-government ICT products and services to meet relevant business needs where they are available, unless there is a compelling business reason not to;

ii. work with the lead agencies providing such products and services to ensure that they meet business purposes;

e) invited State Services chief executives to:

i. align their ICT strategies with the Directions and Priorities for Government ICT;

ii. use cross-government ICT products and services to meet relevant business needs where they are available, unless there is a compelling business reason not to;

iii. work with the lead agencies providing such products and services to ensure that they meet business purposes;

f) directed agencies providing cross-government products and services to ensure that such products take into account the business needs of agencies and deliver real savings to the government at a system level.

Which agencies will be involved in the “Cloud?”

The intention is that all 32 core public service agencies would take advantage of the New Zealand Government Cloud Programme, and adopt as soon as is practicable The wider state services, including many Crown Agents, Crown entities, DHBs, and schools would be invited to align.

If I’m an agency coming up to the end of my software lifecycle, what should I be doing to prepare to transition?

The detailed business case will research the investment cycles within agencies, but decision makers would take an availability of capability into account when making any investment decisions.

Government CIO announces the New Zealand Government Cloud Programme

Matthew Ross — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:54:50 +0000

On 6 December the Department of Internal Affairs posted a ‘Registration of Interest’ (RoI) notice on GETS inviting suppliers to contribute their expertise to the development of a business case for the adoption of cloud computing services by government.

About ‘Cloud’

Such a model provides government the potential to reduce capital investment in ICT and reduce associated on-going operating costs.

The Department of Internal Affairs’ recent agreement with Datacom and Revera to launch an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) capability is a key component of any future cloud-based model adopted by government.

About the business case

Developing a business case that evaluates the use of cloud office productivity services, and how cloud services could be integrated with agency ICT legacy systems and services, is the next stage. This will identify how the cloud business model(s) could be leveraged on a whole of system basis for New Zealand government agencies and the services to be delivered within it. We will deliver our findings to the ICT Ministers at the end of April 2012.

The market engagement process (RoI) is a standard and important step in developing the business case. It is important to note that this RoI is part of a study to develop options for a business case by engaging with potential vendors to understand their capabilities and service options – it is not a procurement exercise.

The programme builds on the Department of Conservation’s previous work on the Smart Desktop Services (SDS) programme which confirmed the potential for a government-wide cloud-based model for desktop computing.

Parallel work streams

While the programme is considering the feasibility of moving to a ‘cloud,’ it is imperative that we maintain future upgrade options for our current technology platforms, and provide certainty to agencies ahead of key dates for license renewals.

To this end, a parallel work stream will ensure that there is focus on concluding the renegotiation of the government Microsoft licensing agreement and moving towards a common desktop operating (CoE) environment for government.

Media contact

Victoria Dew, Senior Communications Advisor, The Department of Internal Affairs

021 755 983

victoria.dew@dia.govt.nz

Social media guidance

Nathan Wall — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 02:50:29 +0000

In November 2011, the ICT Strategy Group approved the 'Social Media in Government' guidance. The aim is to encourage best practice social media use by government agencies, provide useful templates and tools for planning, and give an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, benefits and risks of this very important and rapidly growing toolset.

High Level Guidance
Guidance for managers who are trying to decide if their organisation should use social media. Covers basic principles, code of conduct issues, and benefits and risks.
Hands-on Toolbox
Guidance to help practitioners who are setting up social media profiles and using the tools on a daily basis.
How to Handle a Mishap
A guide to help government agencies when responding to a social media mishap. Covers activities to prevent problems, as well as what to do during and after an event.
Ministry of Health Case Study
How the Ministry of Health successfully used Facebook to support breastfeeding mothers.

The High-Level Guidance and the Hands-on Toolbox have been given positive reviews by Gartner Research vice president and analyst Andrea Di Maio, who calls them "the best government social media guidelines so far."

Social media is an evolving area, and this suite of guidance will adapt accordingly as the social media space develops and matures.

If you have further case studies to share with colleagues across government, please get in touch with the Digital Engagement Team at DIA (DigitalEngagementTeam@dia.govt.nz).

Government 'Infrastructure as a Service' contracts awarded

AnneMarie Curtis — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:20:22 +0000

On 25 October 2011, supplier contracts for Government Infrastructure as a Service were confirmed by the Department of Internal Affairs, with the appointment of Datacom and Revera.

Government Infrastructure as a Service enables agencies to buy their computing infrastructure 'on demand." This reduces the need for agencies to purchase and maintain their own infrastructure (IT hardware used to run their applications, file storage and other standard ICT functions.)

Government Infrastructure as a Service is the first step towards government cloud computing, in which an increasing range of services can be provided using this ‘on demand’ model.

Peter Mersi, Acting Chief Executive for the Department of Internal Affairs says this procurement syndicate, led by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) and the Ministry for Economic Development (MED) will save an estimated $50-250 million over 10 years, and is part of government-wide procurement reforms.

"Today marks a significant milestone in Government’s progress on the ICT Roadmap. Infrastructure as a Service is a huge achievement that will save the taxpayer millions while providing government with leading edge technology. This is just the beginning – we’ll be seeing more initiatives like this rolled out in the next 12 months," says Peter Mersi.

The Government Infrastructure as a Service initiative is aligned with the 2010 Directions and Priorities for Government ICT and now forms an integral part of the Government ICT Roadmap, launched in August 2011.

Media contact

Victoria Dew, Senior Communications Advisor, The Department of Internal Affairs

021 755 983

victoria.dew@dia.govt.nz

Government goes to market for mobile technology

AnneMarie Curtis — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:21:05 +0000

On 21 October 2011, the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) in conjunction with the Ministry for Economic Development (MED) posted a Request for Proposal (RFP) for all-of-government mobile telephony products and services.

Currently, the state sector and local government in New Zealand spend approximately $57million each year on mobile products and services, approximately $8 million of which is hardware, and the rest is voice and data use.

The tender’s scope includes the following mobile voice and data services:

Mobile access and plans for voice calls, data, text messaging, and international roaming.
Hardware such as handsets, smartphones, other mobile and wireless devices.
‘Value Added’ services such as mobile device management, cost tracking and other innovative solutions.

The tender seeks a wide range of hardware devices to ensure that the state sector’s current and future business requirements are met. BlackBerry devices are part of the tender’s scope as they are currently the only Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) certified smartphone for public servants sending and receiving classified information.

The Request for Proposal is currently up on the Government Electronic Tenders Service (GETS) website, and tenders are due on 18 November 2011. Recommendations are expected to be made before Christmas, and new contracts will take effect in early 2012.

Media contact

Victoria Dew, Senior Communications Advisor, The Department of Internal Affairs

021 755 983

victoria.dew@dia.govt.nz