 How's it going everybody? You guys have some fun last night Yes, I saw people a little slower walking in today than they were yesterday is a typical Drupal con style. It's a beautiful thing Anybody go out for a beach cricket? Few folks I was a star apparently Owen told me I was really good for an American Well, right that's a hard habit to break Oh So thanks for coming in this morning. It's great to see you all. I hope yesterday was a fantastic day for you It certainly was for for us on the organizing team. It was a lot of fun to be here One thing I do have to say is I moved from California To Atlanta, Georgia about six years ago, and I haven't seen a beach in six years The treat that Coogee Beach offers every single morning is just miraculous This is an absolutely gorgeous gorgeous venue and it set the bar so high for future Drupal cons that you know I'm director of events. I don't know what I'm supposed to do next. Where do we go? so Thanks to everybody here Owen and all the organizers and the local folks for just being wonderful and making this gorgeous event happen I do have a few notes for you guys before we start our program first off. We have a schedule change The 215 session and our MA insurance team site has been canceled. It was going to be holding the Coogee Room Instead our infamous Morton DK who will be doing his angry theme or session If you haven't seen it, that's definitely a standing room only type of presentation. So you may want to catch that one Also want to quickly give a heads up that the team for the group photograph that we take every Drupal con We're going to do immediately following this presentation It would be a pathetic and sad site for us to be in a location like this and do the photo in here So we're all going to walk across the street to the lawn immediately following Owen's got some friends and orange t-shirts. They're going to help hurt us over and we're going to do that immediately following the Presentation so please be prepared to join us and don't worry. We'll get you back in time for the coffee break Um, let's see additionally our Q&A session with today's keynote speaker Please use the hashtag DC Lendi has in Drupal con Lendi to get your questions in and I'll be taking care of those towards the end of the presentation One other note that's come up is I understand that some people were Not quite pleased with their t-shirt size selection and there's been some requests to do a t-shirt swap so We've organized at 1045 in the Scarborough room upstairs Exactly that if you'd like a different size t-shirt chances are there's somebody who would like your t-shirt So go on up and meet each other and make that work out All right, we have a new friend I'd like to introduce to you I met this lady about six years ago when I was an independent contractor I was working on Drupal con as well as this other event this end 10 conference This lady was the executive director of of and 10 and That was a community of about 60,000 people that were working to use technology to create change and the thing that I kind of recognized Immediately one of the things that was really apparent was her relationship with her community How fun they were of her how open she was with them And the ability to foster communications between them to further what their purpose and their goals were so When I had spoken with some of the board members and they said gee do you know anybody who might be a great executive director for us? I said, you know, I There's this one lady that kind of comes to mind and so I'd like to introduce you to her If you would please a warm round of applause for our new ed miss Holly Ross Hi Thanks, Neil. He made me blush. I Don't know if my cheeks look like my hair yet, but Yeah, so I'm the new executive director of the Drupal Association And I'm very very honored and excited to take that leap from working at the nonprofit technology network to this community And it's definitely a big change. I'm learning that stacks are not just for laundry Here I heard a lot of foreign language yesterday Rather than worrying about the really broadscape of technology from telephony to content management systems to databases We're gonna go really deep into Drupal and it's gonna be fun and I'm really glad to be here This is my sixth day on the job Although, thank you as an American. I guess technically it's still my fifth. I'm in the future I'm pretty excited about and it's a really really wonderful way to start not just because the location is so wonderful But I think all the folks that I've got here particularly have been very welcoming and warm So thanks for making it such a fun transition for me So we have some thank yous to do for sure I want to thank first of all all the speakers who come and pour their heart and souls into their sessions And and give us all so much great content. I got to attend a lot of great stuff yesterday Of course our sponsors all of our sponsors, but in particular cross-functional and technocrat for for making this happen I also did a thank you at business day on Tuesday And I thank Zina, but forgot to thank her company for sponsoring that event and making it happen in the house of Loudonym, and I should also thank Zina for renaming her company. She just renamed it Holly, which I'm really honored Tell company name after me So that was nice So I also really have to thank our local lead Owen who owned landsbury has been I like I don't know He's been like paper cut he cut all your badges your badges own cut them So you should thank them for that Your children cut them even yeah, so we broke some labor laws We broke some labor laws and making this happen and also the da team here on site Neil and Stephanie who've done such a wonderful job of Keeping everything going and all the da folks back at home who've helped make this happen. So and that's really Why I'm here and what the da is all about all the staff have been working really hard to make sure that you guys Have a great experience here, and that's what we're here for right we exist to help the community And we want to do that for you whether you eat Drupal code for breakfast if you can do such a thing You can okay. Thanks Owen You know if you're running a Drupal shop, you're just getting started with Drupal whatever it is We want to help you find the space to connect with your peers who can help you get to that next step with Drupal And and make what you want to have happen happen So we bring people together around the Drupal projects But we also have a really fundamental job at the da and that is to just keep Drupal running And that means that we buy the servers and pay for the hosting And the staff that can help support the community in keeping d.o up and running all the time Making sure that you can make your d.o profiles and have testing environments and all that great stuff So that's really our function keep d.o up and running for the community and to provide spaces for you to learn from and connect with each other And there's lots of ways for you to get involved in the Drupal association And the Drupal project so beyond writing coder modules There's lots of ways to contribute and one of the best ways of course is to become a member of the Drupal Association So if you see anyone with their name badge, they have the cool little Member sticker on it. They are members. Thank them for helping to support the project and keep that all going We also have a lot of different ways Different programs that we're starting to put on so global training days will happen the first one on March 15th, I think 13th or 15th Where we'll actually get out there and help grow the Drupal Empire, right? You heard Dries talking about needing to get more people to do Drupal. This is one of the ways We're gonna do it. So we'll host global training days around the world Local camps happen everywhere get involved with those and then of course the next Drupal Con is happening in our hometown of Portland, Oregon So if you really love fog and clouds If you're tired of this brightness Come on over. We will help you put a bird on it Look up Portlandia online We'll help you put a bird on it and Someone with a very fine handlebar mustache will make you a handcrafted cup of coffee. It'll be delicious So come on over to Portland. It'll be a really great event. We're expecting over 3,000 folks So it's a great way to connect with a really large community and that's coming up in May And then the just the last thing is as a new person to the DA I just I want you all to know that I am still on a steep learning curve But one thing that's really valuable to me is just hearing all the different voices and what it is that you need from the community And what you need from the DA to support that And I just want to point out that you know as Dree said yesterday I've already experienced that this is an extremely diverse community You guys have a lot of opinions They're loud sometimes I Walked by the bar last night So and a lot of opinions is really good, right? That's what pushes us all to make the best Drupal that we can make because we challenge each other and inspire each other to do more It's a little bit messy, but it makes us stronger in the end And I hope the DA can be you know the home for that kind of work for us to share those opinions with one another And that means not just about the code of course, but what you want that community be so that's what I'm here for come Talk to me about it. I'm happy to have lots and lots of conversations So that's the end of the DA talk and we'll get to move on to the really fun stuff. I want to Well, it's my great pleasure to introduce today's keynote speaker Senator Kate Lundy is the senator who has spearheaded a multitude of government to government 2.0 initiatives Here in Australia and in 2010 was awarded the most influential person changing the world of internet and politics Which she received at the world e-democracy forum so senator Lundy You'll be happy to know that yesterday we determined that Drupal saved the universe So we're already well engaged in Politics and and technology here. So thank you so much. Please welcome senator Kate Lundy Thank you so much Holly I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we're Gathered today and pay my respects to their elders past and present to Dries Berthardt Congratulations for your creation in Drupal and for ensuring its continued evolution Holly Congratulations on your new role with the Drupal Association I'm sure you will make incredibly important Contributions and even though you are momentarily in the future All I can do all I can say is make the most of it And I particularly I would particularly like to acknowledge the work of our lands free who I've got to know as I as I've arrived This morning and Donna Benjamin for their ongoing commitment to putting conferences like this together and Allowing us to Participate and share our knowledge. I'd also like to welcome people from overseas And across Australia developers and users of Drupal. I've attended a couple of Drupal events In previous years and it's great to see how much it's grown both in terms of functionality and more importantly as a community and I know this is the first Drupal con to be held in the southern and the eastern hemisphere. Is that right? Southern hemisphere and it's a sign. I think of the extent of The reach of the community across the world with Drupal cons been held in more locations. So good luck with your Challenge to find other excellent places in the southern hemisphere. I think you'll be hard to beat. Could you beat? Ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure for me to be here I've been in politics quite a long time now coming up close to 17 years and it's always an honor to address conferences like this I'm going to go way back out so big picture and In doing so I want to start by explaining my role within the federal government I have an incredibly diverse set of ministerial portfolios But they share some common themes in terms of what open source content management can achieve Just I'll try and paint the picture my responsibilities cover the public sector the private sector the community sectors So I'll be making references to all of these throughout I'm minister assisting for industry and innovation and this has a particular focus with respect to ICT sector and public sector innovation. I'm also the minister for sport. You may have noticed that in the last day or so and I'm minister for multicultural affairs, which is an extraordinary Area of social and economic policy And a lot of the key issues in each of these portfolios come down to How organizations are managed how they manage themselves and how they interface with the communities they serve Private sector firms in Australia are facing very tough competitive global environment And we are an economy in the midst of a transition As a government we have legislated for a low-carbon future By putting a price on carbon and we're also in the midst of helping our private sector transform into that environment we've also placed a very sharp focus on Innovation I'll talk a little bit more about that shortly But to break through or even survive our firms need to be more connected to their customers supplies competitors partners and researchers Collaboration we know is the key to their capacity to effectively innovate and not just at home International collaboration is critical to those who who want or need to access large of specialised markets I'm just a little snapshot into Australian businesses Compared to innovative businesses that don't collaborate. We know that innovative businesses that do collaborate are I think in a telling set of statistics 23% are likely more likely to increase productivity 24% are more likely to report increased profitability They're more than three times likely to increase the number of export markets that they're able to target 48% more likely to increase the range of goods or services offered 24% more likely to increase employment and 34% more likely to increase training for employees. It's a pretty compelling set of statistics about the power of collaboration in the environment of a of a business But despite all these Measurable benefits of collaboration Australian businesses of all sizes have a long way to go to match their peers in comparative countries In talking to firms across so many sectors It's clear that it's necessary to think and act along along and across supply chains domestically and globally if they're going to make real improvements in their productivity We know that collaborating firms get their innovative ideas from suppliers most of them 48% Customers a bit less Competitors and other firms down to 30% and related businesses such as parent companies and subsidiaries A mere 21% But they're all relationships that can be enriched through a well-conceived online presence The Australian government's innovation framework so our big policy that pulls together our support For helping businesses become more innovative. It's called powering ideas It has collaboration as you'd expect as a major theme The specific initiatives within that include The need to foster collaboration between researchers businesses and governments and while that's easy to say It's actually really difficult to achieve. We are a country is tertiary education system is Primarily a public one and the culture that exists within Our tertiary education sector and research sector is very much focused on fantastic research But bridging that research and allowing it to be used in an applied way to drive Business expansion and and economic growth is proven to be a substantial challenge in our economy So collaboration between researchers business and government The dissemination of new ideas across the economy, especially to small and medium businesses International collaboration. I've already mentioned and public and community sector interaction to improve policy development and service delivery more recently The government's Asian century white paper Outlines the government's vision for our future in our region It places an emphasis on skills creativity and closer relationships across across sectors and national boundaries We see the same types of collaborative opportunities and challenges facing non-government organizations for instance Sporting clubs needing to connect with players administrators volunteers parents players I've already said players fans potential potential fans So reaching out into their market and their sponsors and their peak sporting bodies They are under pressure all the time and not least lately to lift their governance and management standards To be more outwardly focused more inclusive and accountable all on a shoestring budget They need to do it in a cash-strapped environment Where the skill set that they can reach is limited by the experience of their volunteers Having a look at community organizations in our multicultural sector Arguably even more challenges challenging reaching out to people across language boundaries Quite extraordinary geographies in Australia and not to mention at least the diverse cultures So it doesn't matter what what the nature of the challenge is we need to Share our business models and work with other organizations And I think I'd like to use a particular case study to illustrate this point Dari war elders group is an indigenous Group and the elders group supports the aboriginal community in Walgert in Northwest New South Wales Now I agree I grew up spent the early years of my life up that way not in Walgert But in a town nearby and so I could really relate To this particular to this particular project the group uses Drupal to operate a cultural values register They use geographic information Geographic information system to interface and log sites of high cultural value that are linked to audio video and text The register helps the elders protect the sites and fulfill their responsibilities as custodians of that land It's also the basis for a range of educational projects that they are supporting and promoting within their community Ultimately the register plays an important role in preserving the knowledge the contextual information about each site the artifacts themselves and Contributes therefore to the holistic well-being of that community and that community's understanding of itself The elders group has developed the register on a shoestring They don't have a lot of funds and with a minimum of modifications The thing they like most about Drupal is that people with limited computing skills can collect store and update the multimedia content the oldest group is hoping to migrate to a specialized Drupal platform, and I hope I've got this It's it's at Mukha to is that how you say it or is it? Yeah Got a pronunciation here, but I couldn't even work that out a Mobile platform for managing and sharing digital culture heritage And that was in fact developed in the US for indigenous communities archives libraries and museums So this is a great example of how this particular indigenous elders group Gets access to a platform That has cost a huge amount of money and expertise to develop The current register project and the planning Have already led to links with other indigenous and collecting organizations in Australia and overseas And I think this particular project is an example about how open an open source CMS can engage people through a small Organization that is has not got traditional or normal means to access this kind of technology To capture and share their information and in this way help democratize knowledge about their ancient culture It also demonstrates how open source tools help build Relationships and connections between related organizations in that sense of community One of the great challenges for all types of organizations is how to engage the skills Experience and passion of their employees I know this in politics. I know it through my sports clubs And I know it through business and openness is a challenge for individuals as well as organizations our traditional ways of working I I suppose make make each of us isolated islands of information of knowledge and You know traditional formations of power within organizations information was power So the more you had the more powerful you were well Open source is certainly to not only that on its head But ultimately the doctrine about information being power People who collect too much information and don't share it Are not able to contribute in the way that those who can function effectively and confidently in an open environment can People need to be able to be effective people need to be able to work in shared workspaces It's not only more efficient creative and rewarding, but for many it is a big leap Now I know I'm talking to the converted here, but for many Organizations and workplaces these fundamentals are still real barriers to change For most organizations open source CMS's are the most practical tool for sharing information and even small organizations Can start with something simple a relatively small investment in the technology in a focus on processes Can be the start of what are quite profound transformations The challenge is changing work practices and reaching out to and designing for people who are not Particularly it literate so that they can work in an online environment just as we saw with the Dury war Elders group. It's empowering and it's changing the way they think about themselves and project Themselves into the broader community But now like to turn to the contribution of open source content and tools That that they can make to open government it's an area that I'm particularly interested in and It's it quite easy to see that secrecy and closed structures and Processes are the enemy of collaboration and therefore where we need to go as a nation across all of our organizations community public private The more open we are the more innovative we are the more innovative we are the more we will achieve our social and economic aspirations as a nation To fulfill the spirit of open government public sector bodies effectively need to turn themselves inside out It isn't easy for institution that Institutions that have thrived on a closed culture for the last well Depending on when they're established a hundred or even two hundred years. We're talking about institutionalized processes that have resisted openness as part of who they are and how they were established The Australian government has implemented an open government regime and supports open source tools but ultimately their success depends on individuals and Organizations breaking out of old habits and overcoming traditional fears Sadly some of my fellow parliamentarians still question the use of social media by public servants shock horror Nothing is more guaranteed to send people back in their cocoons than a blanket condemnation of open technologies And I think it's a shame Where a lack of knowledge and understanding about the power of both open source and open methodologies are used to Suppress innovation in the public sector in this way The government spearhead strategy for greater transparency and collaboration Lies in its 2010 declaration of open government a commitment to open government based on a culture of engagement and Built on better access to and use of government held information. I know there's many people in this room Interested and motivated by this idea And we need to harness ultimately we need to harness what sits within every citizen I think here in Australia, and I think in in the vast majority of countries around the world There is a innate desire to contribute to the public good. I Often hear young people. I give a lot of talks to young people Try to hang out with young people as often as I can And what they say to me is they want to make a difference and It sounds a little bit trite But within those words is a desire to contribute to the public good and I find it's almost universal When I speak to people in our civil society, there is a motivation there that in large part for many is untapped Now your participation here today shows your level of motivation So you're already there, but there are so many people out there who can't find the channel The avenue that matches their motivation to make that contribution Well, I think through the declaration of open government and other elements of gov 2.0 We can build those trusted open relationship with the citizens of this country that allows them that empowers them That encourages them and facilitates them in participating actively in sustaining the health of our democracy And it's the digital tools that facilitate that that I think It's where the future of democratic participation lies Now we in the government we recognize the role of ICT and its contribution Not only to the continual improvement of government service delivery, but fostering transparency In pursuit of those opportunities and why why because it's about building trust It's about building confidence and the role in the function of government and Helping bring citizens and government closer together In a way that government responds to citizens needs now This all sounds a little bit esoteric But it is about reconfiguring that relationship. You know, I mentioned I've been around for a long time and in the past It was a you know service model What do you need? We'll try to do it In the past there are some service models that have been so bureaucratic They are impenetrable and one of my roles as the local senator in my community Was to help people penetrate impenetrable bureaucracies in trying to get things done and That service model was that tension between well, how good can that service be? How accessible is it for citizens and Just a bit of call my local member to help me resolve my problem because I can't work it out Well, we've come a long way since those days, but there is a whole new Approach that can be embraced here with openness and transparency and that is about a Service model that puts the citizen first. I call it citizen centric services It's a well established concept in the conversation about gov 2.0 And how governments not only interact with citizens that how they engage with them in the process of being a government and governing and administering Our complex society And so I just want to talk about a few elements of that Part of it is about the engagement the conversation that occurs The interactivity between myself as a politician and my constituents, but also ensuring that agencies service agencies Have that opportunity for a conversation Explaining and ensuring their services are having the effect that they want them to have Imagine for a minute you're a policymaker like me. This is my job. We make policies We pass legislation and we hope like hell the system works Well, one of the ways that we can ensure the system works is to have that full feedback loop In how citizens are receiving the service and the digital platforms facilitate all of that in a really direct fundamental way The power of social networks the use of twitter A great example of that you get a direct feedback loop. All right Something goes wrong. You know all about it really smartly at this we can use this Agencies and service providers can use this to tweak and tailor their services and it's like quite often I In observing how public services have evolved It's been through doing introducing a new dynamic or a new technique Another one. It's a little bit historical now, but it's probably worth Reflecting on was um some years ago. There was a company that Was using a set of rules to inform the production of Questions and forms about a given service and what they found in using a technological platform To construct that form. They're effectively reverse engineering The query process that allowed someone to become for an out to become eligible for a service But because of the the platform they were using they were able to reverse engineer the flaws out of the legislation itself This is really important stuff and for me it was like the penny dropped straight away when I understood um, they're they're That they're technical methodology in doing it We're able to draw those insights back into the policy office back into the minister's office And use that to inform our policy thinking about it. So it's not just in you know the um Outward facing but the methodologies themselves using new platforms can inform our thinking about the best way to express policy in our formal statutes and laws One of the most exciting big changes has of course been social media Um cloud-based services where the citizens have chosen to be Any exercise that a government embarks upon now in wanting to Get closer to the citizen um in many respects in many respects Is not about a new build It's about a conversation in the place where people are gathered And that is already in the cloud within a whole range of of social networks And I'm certainly of the view that if we are serious Or any government is serious about a level of engagement. You need to go to where the citizens are Um Australia is quite remarkable in the growth of social media I'm sure with respect to many of your roles you are more familiar with these statistics the most so I won't go through them But it's a democratization of participation in society like we've never seen before For government the challenge is not so much harnessing that or leveraging it any way or Sliding social media in and another on a list in the PR department of public agencies um, but indeed allowing it to Permiate their whole organization And empower their employees the public servants To be able to have those conversations and participate fully With the people they're trying to serve Um These things sound simple, you know, we had a whole gov 2.0 task force which talked about these things and recommendations We had a blueprint for the future of the Australian public sector that talked about these things Government's actually a really big ship to try and turn around It's the cultural change Is is enormous and depending on the attitudes of Well all levels the leadership very important middle management far more important than any leader would like to think And for the the workers The people actually delivering the service quite often in my experience They're the most earnest and energetic and skilled up than any of That the groups within the given organization. So incredibly important source of innovative ideas But in a resource constrained environment like the Australian public service There's a great risk that the implementation of gov 2.0 will be seen yet As another task another cost center on a growing list of things that need to be done If we accept that technologies are a catalyst for changing culture We must also accept that traditional technologies and traditional cultures Are deeply intertwined And these entrenched technologies and practices are not well understood. We actually know the new way Better than we know the old way They've been adopted through a process of indoctrination of doing things the way they've always been done Habits learned over many years Power structures that are sustained by that way of doing things I don't think these challenges are insurmountable But it puts in perspective a high level policy Without the leadership at all levels through the organization the high level policy in itself doesn't change things And we've seen evidence of that. We've had our policy in place for a while now. It's a very slow ship in many respects But I expect the government's forthcoming digital economy white paper Will complement the efforts of the gov 2.0 initiatives But by focusing our broader national digital capabilities In part this is about Access and digital inclusion Closing the digital divide I think most of you know how proud I am to be part of a government that's investing In a universal high bandwidth network for Australia And what what the nbn means is of course for the first time And you may have heard me say this before That here in Australia we can invest In online services in all things digital in the knowledge That we are not going to exacerbate the digital divide We are not going to create a bigger chasm between the haves and the have nots Because at its very heart The strength of the nbn. Yes, it's about high bandwidth But in my mind it's most of all about the universality It's about everyone having that opportunity It will take a little bit of time to build the nbn But I can tell you I had an excellent experience the other day in my own community Is anyone here from Canberra? Gangalan Lots of people from Canberra So the nbn switch on in Gangalan happened just last Friday The way nbn set it up is quite marvellous We had a wonderful school group and school wasn't back yet So they did work their magic to have a school group But the school group sang a Japanese song and were connected to A Japanese class in Nara who sang Walsing Matilda This delightful exchange occurred in an awesome resolution over the high bandwidth network But one of the little girls from the class I think her name was Paige came down to help us switch on the nbn I just want to run through it with you because I loved it. It's a giant red button On a stand with screens in the background and we all gathered round and sort of pressed the red button which turned bright red And that was switching on the nbn I spoke to minister Conroy who's been pressing the big red button all around the country But there wasn't arguably not a proud of moment in my career I started lobbying for a high bandwidth network particularly for the Gangalan region Two years before I was elected to parliament So we're talking back in back in 1994 when we were talking about a Gangalan broadband project It's probably before you guys from Canberra were born So it's been a long time coming But I just tell you that story to underscore that You know, national broadband networks don't get built very often It is the largest infrastructure investment that we are likely to see in our generation It's certainly the largest since the snowy mountains A hydroelectric scheme was built in the post-war environment But we're doing it because we understand what it means What it will do to create opportunity in Australia And ultimately the digital empowerment of an entire nation While the nbn is being rolled out Australians are still taking up broadband in record numbers With some 73% now having access at home We've got a great reputation as early adopters Of not only the latest smartphone or tablet But of social media as well and of engagement That's partly it's worthwhile looking inside that It's partly because of our relative socio-economic status It's partly because we have great access to new technology From around the world and technology that we develop ourselves And we have a very sophisticated market That can, as I said, from a socio-economic point of view can access it And we have a well-educated population So all of these things combine to empower us and make us desire these new tools And participate with them We need broadband to do a lot of things We need it to do all the things we like doing now We need it to provide enhanced services that are yet to be developed But most of all, most of all We need it as a platform for the kind of innovation That businesses will need right from start-ups Through to our largest businesses to develop and sustain Their model and their business I think that going back to my theme that I started with in collaboration Collaboration doesn't occur just if you live next door to someone or you know someone It occurs because it's organised and someone makes an effort To connect you or you make an effort to connect with somebody That you would like to have a conversation with And the digital platforms will facilitate that at unprecedented levels Another important area is the development of skills It's one thing to have the platform, the NBN, it's another to have a population capable of using it And with all due respect to the passive consumers of technology out there Who will use the excellent services that are presented to them We need to be better than that Australia needs to capture the spirit of what it is to be a nation of not just users But of innovators, of creators Of people with confidence and capability to take the technology to its limit In this way we will only realise I think the true value and potential of the national broadband network How we build this in to our education system is currently under consideration As part of our national curriculum endeavours A carer, the body with whom those decisions about a national curriculum are vested Beavering away on how best to express the need for technical skills And digital capability to be embedded in our national curriculum That comes on the back of our digital education revolution A superbly branded initiative by the federal government On promoting the installation and provision of hardware to our schools Making sure every student has the basics to be confident in the use of digital technologies They emerge from their education and into our workforce So garnering the ability of those digital platforms to I'm supposed to harness that collective intellect of what we have as a country I know it's profound I meet entrepreneurs and inventors, creators all of the time through my roles And I know that we are in some way yet to grow A national ego commensurate with our talents in many respects But the collaborative opportunities on the digital platform will help us Gain us an appreciation of our abilities in this area And I think promote even further work So imagine unleashing the creativity If a large number of people can modify and work with their own online tools Rather than just consume information through something prepackaged Tim Berners-Lee when he was here recently Sees the development of such flexible tools and skills As one of the greatest challenges we face in fulfilling the potential Of the online environment and indeed the NBN And I believe it's an effective mix of both online and traditional channels That provides the richest medium for engaging citizens in government decision making I said a little bit about the democratizing effects of online technology But I think it only becomes really effective With thoughtful citizen-centric design engaging people in what they want And getting a feel for how they would like those services delivered I'd just like to touch on a bit of work I've done in the past In the introduction mentioned was made of an online policy development methodology That I call public spheres And I undertook this exercise as a way of trying In all the speculation about the democratizing effect of technology Trying to find a way to actually give that form and meaning And so in the development of what we call the public sphere methodology We set about trying to find a way to use online tools To broaden that normal policy consultation process And the methodology that we used Which was ultimately recognized in the award that was mentioned Was unique in a couple of ways One of the ways that was unique was that there was no build We used existing open platforms on the internet Including the social networking environments Wordpress which is my website with a few tweaks And I think on one of the public spheres up to about 10 different Social networking channels through which people could participate It included websites as I mentioned emails, wikis, blogs, social networks, video, teleconferences And real meetings of people in rooms like this Which I think ultimately was the great strength You could even participate with no electronic device whatsoever If you came along and said your piece You could write to us with a handwritten letter And we would scan it and include the data Suffice to say the key point of this public sphere was to Attract a broad range of people who hadn't otherwise been empowered Or motivated to engage in a public conversation It allowed us to design and deliver An experience that was able to then capture Their thoughts and ideas and progress that to the next stage of policy consideration I'm not going to go into detail here because it's all on my website So you can go and see it there But I was quite inspired and gratified to see the level of enthusiasm and engagement And the methodologies as well as the outcomes were thoroughly written up By my good friend and Collaborator in the public sphere, Pia Wall And I'm indebted to her for her work And to many people in this room in fact who have participated in those public spheres Over the years with great enthusiasm It's recognized now as a methodology that because there's no build it's low cost But the reach into the community and the capacity to harness that knowledge That intellectual input is proven And so finally I'd just like to pull this together A few words about the government I represent the Gillard government's commitment to open source Our open source policy was released in 2011 Requiring all government agencies to consider open source software for all software purchases The policy recognizes the growing maturity of the open source Software market and its increasing acceptance by governments around the world Our Australian government policy works on three principles Procurement processes must actively and fairly consider all types of available software Excuse me, suppliers must consider all types of available software And Australian government agencies will actively participate In open source software communities and contribute back Where appropriate and where required Effectively this removes any bias in favour of proprietary software It doesn't put a bias in favour of open source But it does place an onus on government procurers and buyers to consider all available products There's also progress being made in promoting cross-jurisdictional communities And in September 2011 it was my pleasure to launch the Open Technology Foundation With the organisation's inaugural chairman of Dr Terry Cutler And OTF is an initiative, as I'm sure many of you are aware, To promote open standards across governments And federal and state departments are involved I think the OTF will be an incredibly useful resource Not just for governments But as an integral part of promoting GOV 2.0 and the open government agenda Over 60 federal websites use Drupal And many more are delivered by state and local governments No doubt some of you will see open source software As obviously a continued opportunity But I know many in the public service are seeing it as a Not only a viable but a really exciting substitute to proprietary tools The experience of a large federal department Makes an interesting comparison to that of the Dairy War Elders And it's DWAR, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations They use Drupal extensively I'm sure there's some people in the room for both their internal and external sites And in selecting a content management system DWAR applied the normal criteria such as cost-effectiveness, Accessibility, security, extensibility and robust support to their measures And while Drupal won out on those criteria DWAR has understood the deeper benefits In having an open source CMS The other thing about DWAR is that they've been able to build their own modules And be able to share that with other federal agencies So they are an exemplar of the benefits of using Drupal in open source I just wanted to mention a couple of those things to tell you that The reputation of Drupal in the federal government is very strong It's seen as a great example of what can be done when you nurture a developer community Within an agency or department And the insights that that is giving other departments and agencies Is always interesting to see Ladies and gentlemen, what I hope I've done for you today Is to give you a bit of an idea about some of the big challenges Facing Australia from the federal government's perspective It is in essence a socio-economic challenge We have an opportunity to build both social and economic infrastructure Which we are doing We've had an opportunity to invest in the skills And creativity of our emerging workforce And we have done that too And we have an opportunity now to support and nurture New businesses and existing businesses To be able to leverage these opportunities through their workforce And through the infrastructure that we've built And that is part of my role as minister assisting on industry and innovation For all my part, with my range of portfolios I get to think about things differently too And in a way it's a collaboration And I can't help but think of the some of the open source methodologies In the work that I'm doing A mix of portfolios means that conversations that haven't had been able to be had before Are now being had because of that interesting mix And in this way I like to think that I'm contributing to a more creative approach And a more effective approach to public policy development in the work that I do So thank you for listening I know you've got a big day ahead of you But I'm looking forward to taking your questions But I think Olin's been compiling them on Twitter Thank you very much for listening Thanks, Kate It's my mic on, yep So I did want to really thank Kate for joining us here It's a big honour to have her here And especially for saying the things about Drupal that you have Obviously it's been a pretty hectic 24 hours for you And it was very generous of you to move that press conference to yesterday So that you could still join us here I did that for you But I did want to start with a hard-hitting question And it might be premature for you to comment on this But there were some allegations of match fixing in yesterday's Drupal Beach cricket game I'm pretty sure Dries threw the game so we could get to the pub early So Look, I couldn't possibly comment I'll refer that to the Australian Crime Commission I think if someone can seize Dries' passport Very serious business So we do have to wrap up quickly So unfortunately we've only got time for a couple of questions So I think one of the key questions that came up was Now that you're actually a member of the cabinet You do have ideas about open government and open source technology that Are sometimes counter to some of your colleagues And what type of influence do you feel that you've been able to have Since becoming a cabinet member Look, influence in government is a complicated thing Particularly once you are a minister My charter is very much my portfolios That is my job But as politicians you can never leave behind What you're passionate about and what you care about And it inevitably informs every conversation that you have Or that you contribute to So I guess the best way to answer it I like to think I'm making a difference in this regard The opportunities I had in the previous term On the back bench doing a lot of that work on Gov 2.0 I was working very closely with the then Minister for Finance Lindsay Tanner and his motivation So as an individual politician There is a lot you can do But when you're working with a group of people Who are so motivated to achieve the same kind of goals It becomes more effective And there is a great team of people Within the Labor government Within the Gillard government who are so motivated And that's why we're seeing I think progress On Gov 2.0 and open government It's not without its challenges And I have to say the political environment It's pretty toxic generally most of the time That creates an even more challenging environment all around But we've made legislative change too Which I didn't mention in relation to FOI Which is pushing more and more stuff out Into the public domain all of the time And in this way openness is becoming The norm as opposed to the exception And where we've got activities happening On a lot of fronts It's not just my portfolio In fact it's less my portfolio And my scope in my day-to-day work than it was before But we'll keep moving And just to wrap things up Obviously for those that aren't from Australia We're entering into a very long election cycle And what issues at a technology level Are you expecting to come up Outside of just general issues around the NBN? Yeah, look good question The Prime Minister's announced the election date So we know exactly when the formal campaign will start And this year's always going to be an election year So I think some of the technology issues That will emerge will continue to be How we as government deliver services Effectively and how we interact How we release data And how that data is used in the community So all of those websites That we're developing like Australia.gov.au That allow that Start to build that citizen centric style service Will be explored So privacy will come up inevitably The security issues There's quite a lot of activity at the moment And concern about cyber espionage And attacks on corporate digital presence By unfriendlies So I think that issue of cyber security Will continue to be a strong presence And the issue of accessibility and digital divide I think that tends to wax and wane in the public domain But I think this year as people are hungry For information accessibility And people's ability to actually be empowered And get the skills will reemerge Fantastic Well once again thank you to Senator Kate Lundy For joining us here today Thank you