Disclaimer: This paper represents the author's personal views and not necessarily that of the Tasmanian Government.
The paper begins with the Tasmanian Government's view of information, its delivery and possible access mechanisms. These factors can greatly affect the resources and approach that is taken to utilise these emerging technologies. The author outlines the fundamental approach that the Tasmanian Government takes and explores some of the issues relating to this approach. A questionnaire was sent to all Tasmanian Web sites, asking them questions relating to the policy, funding and reasons for the site's creation. The results from this questionnaire are analysed and commented on. This is followed by further exploration of some of the issues that arise from the questionnaire and the contexts that these results come from. The last section shows some of the initiatives that the Department of Premier and Cabinet are creating and using to implement government information providing through the Web.
A government has to research and realise the best methods and mediums to inform society. There is also a need to be constantly aware of the threat that Burkert (1985, p.116) points out, where it is seen that the administration has the power to select the information, thus reducing the alternatives in a decision making process. The Tasmanian Government treats information providing on a medium like the Web in a similar way to the Freedom of Information process (Haines pers comm, 1995). It is an extra-parliamentary mechanism (Tasmanian Government, 1995, p.5) which supports the development of an informed society. Information providing through these mechanisms has to be viewed as supplementary. The Parliament still remains the key forum where policy directions are gathered, analysed and scrutinised, thus giving it constitutional legitimacy. These supplementary mechanisms should not weaken or undermine control of the Parliament (Tasmanian Government, 1995, p. 6) but, supplement and enhance the operation of a representative democracy. As technology increases, the government's information gathering and providing ability will follow and it is the government's concern to best utilise the emerging tools.
Questionnaire Hypothesis:
The research hypothesis behind the questionnaire can be summarised with the following goals:
Some of the major relationships between the questions used in the questionnaire and the hypotheses can be seen in figure 1:
FIGURE 1: Questionnaire relationships. Numbers outside the boxes represent hypotheses numbers. Numbers within the boxes represent question numbers.
After considering the results the author decided to show them as simple descriptive charts due to the apparent elementary relationships. Each chart has two sets of data displayed: i). An abstract model of a policy-centred environment principally for hypothesis testing (Hogwood & Gunn, 1992, p.207) and ii). The findings in Tasmania. The model of the policy driven environment is a prescriptive rather than descriptive model, it is the way it 'ought' to be, so comparisons can be made and analysed (Hogwood & Gunn, 1992, p.43).
Hypothesis 1: Are Web sites in Tasmania suffering from 'Bottom-Up' Syndrome ?
The 'bottom-up' syndrome can be shown decisively from figure 2. The initiative for 75% of Web sites in Tasmania came from Systems People. These people have the technical knowledge and skills and can see some of the potential that a Web site can offer. This is supported by figure 3 that shows that 52% of the reasons for creating the Web site were experimentation and the technical challenge. This is understandable due to the chance to experiment with new technology and 92% of sites utilised existing resources to create the site.
The model demonstrates an environment where 'top-down' policy (Hogwood & Gunn, 1992, p.206) is the driving force behind the site's creation. Management should have a larger view of the jigsaw and realise where this type of information providing tool can be best utilised. Management have the contacts and a resource allocation perspective, which allows initial and on-going policy issues to be addressed. Thus, the model environment trend line in figure 3 shows the main reasons as Information Providing and Departmental policy called for its creation to support the Government Department's development of an informed community (Haines pers comm, 1995).
FIGURE 2: Chart showing where initiative came from for the Tasmanian Web sites against the model environment.
FIGURE 3: Chart showing the reasons for the creation of a Web sites in Tasmania against the model environment.
Tasmanian Web sites have in their initial creation, suffered from 'Bottom-Up' syndrome but, reasons for their creation have been balanced by an Information Providing and Policy fulfilment goal that is an integral part of the 'Proof of Concept' process.
Hypothesis 2:. If this is the case, is it being rectified with policy development and funding ?
Figure 4 paints a picture of most Tasmanian Web sites 'Bottom-Up' nature. Figure 5 shows most sites realise that policy needs to be put in place to cope with the issues that arise from information providing on a medium like the Web. The funding results were influenced by 92% of Tasmanian sites utilising existing hardware and software resources. The question was ambiguous and any indication of improvement in this area would need on-going surveying over a longer period. The funding allocated was in the $1000 - $10,000 range, indicating minimal resourcing and the questionnaire did not address whether this funding was recurrent!
From these results most Tasmanian Web sites realise the need for on-going policy development.
FIGURE 4: A chart considering if any initial policy was in place before Web site creation. The Tasmanian experience against the Model environment.
FIGURE 5: A chart showing if any on-going policy development takes place as information providing issues arise. The Tasmanian experience against the Model environment.
FIGURE 6: Chart showing the funding allocated to Tasmanian Web sites although the result is skewed (see text).
Hypothesis 3: Have any sites matured past the 'Proof of Concept' stage?
There appears to be some sites that have matured past the 'Proof of Concept' / experimental stage. But, for most funding does not appear to be forth-coming. And until the 'concept' has been 'proven' little funding would be provided. The sites that have funding or have funding allocated in future budgets appear to have matured past the 'Proof of Concept' stage. These Agencies have also set-up Quality Control/Editorial groups and are focusing their activities with live data prepared for their perceived clients.
The questionnaire was filled in by 50% managers and 50% systems people thus providing a reasonable cross section of views and environments to gain reasonable insight into the Tasmanian Web sites.
Bottom-Up
It is a classic demonstration of the "bottom-up" manifestation (Hogwood & Gunn, 1992, p.207) in establishing web sites. Figure 4 unfortunately shows that in 75% of Tasmanian Web sites, the initiative come from systems people not management or policy. This is not an inherently bad thing! Most of these sites were set-up with a 'Proof of Concept' foundation. Within the Tasmanian State Service there is a informal group called the Internet User's Group (Brown, 1994 [HREF 2]). This group was formed in 1994 specifically as a group of non-policy and mainly technically minded people from many of the agencies interested in the potential of Internet technologies. This group of 'enthusiastic underlings' shared their ideas and technical knowledge to create among other things the Web sites seen today.
By the very nature of this 'coal-face' development there is little or no accompanying policy development. The lack of any policy increases the risk and uncertainty about something that is new (Valente, 1993, p.42) like the Web. Unfortunately this means there is usually inadequate time and insufficient resources allocated to the emerging technology, thus potentially handicapping the 'proof of concept' to some extent.
Management Support?
The potential was seen by system's people who did not believe they had the power to change or assist in the forming of policy. Management in any organisation including the Public sector have to balance issues, priorities and funding and in the Tasmanian case, the Web was not seen (initially) as a priority in the information providing arena. The increasing popularity and public interest in Internet Technologies have added some weight to the adoption of this type of technology but, policies still lag a significant distance behind actions in this area. This policy lag appears to occur all too often in the IT area !
One relevant example was the origin of the Australian Academic Research Network (AARNet). The current IP back-bone of the internet we see in Australia today was put in place by Geoff Huston and Peter Elford back in 1990. The necessary equipment was installed Australia-wide and academic institutions were asked to utilise and realise it's potential, then the Australian Vice Chancellor's Committee (the controlling and policy setting body of AARNet) was shown its potential and future (Linton, 1995). Possibly the AVCC was blinkered by the many other issues that were presented to them and did not see or realise the potential, but Geoff and Peter could and needed some way of giving their management a 'Proof of Concept'.
Many Agencies with Many Missions
There are many public agencies that cover the multitude of administration and policy functions making up the three tiers of government we see in Australia today. Tasmania is no exception and each agency sees their role as very different to the next. This presents many problems with intra-state, inter-state and Commonwealth-State agency relations due to the lack of any high level state-wide information management policies. This was realised back in August 1993 with the release of the Strategic Information Management Report (Tasmanian Government, 1993, Attachment 1) and the formation of the Information Strategy Unit of the Department of Premier and Cabinet. This unit is grappling with many of the issues that face Agencies and Information Management.
Communication Gap
There has always been a communications gap between the policy makers and the technical people. I believe this is due partially to the jargon and distrust of specialists that has become apparent as machines inevitably become a part of our everyday work patterns. This can be remedied to some extent by more bridges of understanding being built between both policy-makers and technical specialists. There needs to be a realisation that these are complex systems that have become a part of our lives and they cannot be fully understood by just the policy makers. Management have this control and can facilitate these bridges, thus including the policy expertise and specialists who can see the potential and problems of new technology when planning and policy formulation takes place. Some education on all sides (Management, Policy Formulators and Specialists) is needed for those people who make the decisions to gain a better realisation of potential and how it can improve performance.
Within the Department there are a number of initiatives that are being actively pursued:
This group provides guidance on issues of updating and maintaining standards, security and access levels, updating of information, editorial power, copyright and assigning status to information. They are producing detailed policy documents that cover each of these areas.
This document and editing software is supplied to each division that wishes to supply information to the site.
The focus of ISU is to maximise the returns from current and future investment in information assets. The unit will co-ordinate resources and expertise to achieve the best outcomes for agencies and the whole of government. It will seek to establish consensus in policy and standards, and enable agencies to access quality information and advice on international best practice in information resource management. (Department of Premier and Cabinet, 1995 [HREF 3])
Their current projects that potentially affect the Web in Tasmania are (ISU, 1995, p.1-2 [HREF 4]):
The Tasmanian Government treats the Web and providing information through this medium in the same way as Freedom of Information processes. It is a small component of a large and complex array of information providing channels available to the Government. The Government has to research and realise the potential of these technologies and discover the best way to utilise them.
The Tasmanian State Service needs whole-of-government policies to guide the use of tools like the Web and other emerging Internet technology, if the public is to best serve their client-base. The Government is in a prime position now, where it can use these technologies to improve communication and access to information and government. The road of true representative democracy through this type of technology is long and winding, but we are travelling along it at a reasonable pace !
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