AC+erm ‘Expert Adviser’ appointed to Australia’s Government 2.0 Taskforce

We were alerted recently, through a posting to the Aus-Archivists listserv, that Adrian Cunningham of the National Archives of Australia has been included in a new Government 2.0 Taskforce. Adrian is, along with John McDonald of Canada, one of the two international members of the AC+erm Project Expert Panel. We are naturally delighted to be able to congratulate Adrian on this appointment, which undoubtedly reflects the role that he and the NAA have played in raising the profile of recordkeeping within official circles. Adrian has given us an idea of the background and remit of the Taskforce, from which we quote below.

“I am very excited by the opportunity and very glad that, out of 15 experts from private, public, NGO and higher education sectors, they have chosen to include a records professional. The impetus for it comes from our (relatively) new Government’s commitment to open government, citizen engagement/participatory democracy, and to encouraging the use/reuse of public sector information for a more informed/socially included citizenry and as an enabler of economic growth, etc – all things that are very close to my heart.

The model for it is the UK Power of Information Taskforce report, which I am sure you are familiar with. A related development is the recent announcement by our Government of its intention to create an Office of the Information Commissioner – both to drive strengthened FOI laws and also to ensure whole of government coherence and coordination of information management and access policies and practices. One of the things I have often bemoaned is the absence of any real whole-of-government approach to IM in the Australian Government – unlike Canada for instance and all of John’s great work there.

The NAA has done its best on the records front (without any clear legislative mandate to get engaged in front-end recordkeeping), but we have been hampered by the fact that records have to be managed as part of a holistic approach to IM – and there has been an IM policy vacuum in the Australian Government for as long as I can remember. How the NAA will relate to the new Office of the Information Commissioner is yet to be clarified – but clearly it will be a very important relationship for us. The Taskforce will
hopefully lay some of the foundations for that – the OIC is not due to commence until January at the earliest.

Although IM, much less recordkeeping, is not an explicit part of the terms of reference for the Taskforce – it is implicit, as none of the Taskforce’s objectives can be achieved without first having good IM in place – so I think that will be my unique contribution to the Taskforce, even though I will of course be very interested in all its other issues.

Consistent with the aims of the Taskforce, our aim is that most of our deliberations will be conducted in the open via Web2.0 technology – so watch those spaces.”

We will certainly be watching those spaces with interest here, as no doubt will many others in the recordkeeping professions around the world.

http://gov2.net.au/