Month: May 2011

May 31, 2011

Accessing Australia: The Challenges of Digitisation

Senator Lundy gave a speech at the “HASS on the Hill” conference as part of a session on Accessing Australia: the challenges of digitisation. HASS on the Hill is an event coordinated by the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) for the humanities, arts and social sciences sector to communicate with government and policy makers.

Senator Lundy spoke at the event on behalf of Minister for the Arts, Simon Crean, and the speech below was a collaborative effort between our offices.

Speech Notes

It was not so long ago, in December 2008, that the newest national cultural institution – the National Portrait Gallery – opened its doors.
From the very start it was a resounding success, with visitor numbers far exceeding initial projections.

The eagerness with which Australians embraced this cultural institution says a great deal about the importance we place on our cultural collections and our access to them.

The new National Portrait Gallery sits within Canberra’s cultural precinct. As much as I would like to encourage as many visitors to Canberra as possible, realistically, not everyone is going to have that opportunity.

That opportunity lies elsewhere. That opportunity lies in the digitisation of our national treasures.

May 18, 2011

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May 6, 2011

“Open government” – Public discussion of bills of the Government of Russian Federation

The trend of public online panel discussions is continuing its development. The relevantPresident’s decree has been released in February. Now media reports that on 1st of June the discussion system of legislative initiatives is going to be launched on the government.ru website – the program name is “Open Government”. Every citizen can be involved in legislative system via electronic voting.

The first bill under discussion will be “The bill on the basics of healthcare of Russian citizens”. The discussions are going to be coordinated by the Public Opinion Foundation. The biggest problem with national discussions is when they are not moderated the main thread will be buried under unnecessary noise.

All of the bills that could have social response are going to be submitted on online discussion.

Earlier, the Presidental Police Act was discussed at the similar special platform.

The “Open government program” could be useful in the elections season, so the opposition could not use unpopular initiatives for counter-agitation.