Open Government

We are open government advocates and raise awareness about it because we want to see fairness, openness, transparency, integrity, participation and inclusion - across all levels of government.

We also design for openness, producing Australia’s first open government web service Common Ground in 2012. We have been embedding open government principles in our work and helping others do the same since then.

Some open government themes we work across are; access to information, public participation in government decision making and service design and delivery, open contracting and inclusive procurement, beneficial ownership, natural resource governance, extractive industry and renewable energy transparency, open data, and open process.

Making Open Government

Nook has been self funding content and engagement efforts for open government since Australia joined the Open Government Partnership in 2015.

Aside from the advocacy content below, over the years we have created decks to explain different initiatives for meetings, presentations and workshops with government departments, business leaders, civil society and community organisations.

We do this to help public servants and others understand open government so they feel confident to advocate for change, and raise awareness for the inspiring work people are doing locally and globally.

This was the foundation for the Making Open Content and Design Kit.

Making Open is a channel we are creating to promote openness and help changemakers advocate and make positive changes.

Our vision is Making Open will be a home for practical how-to stories, original and curated content from around the world, interviews with champions, and a platform to show what can be done.

You can support Making Open by making a tax deductible donation via the Australian Cultural Fund or get in touch about a content partnership.

Nook has worked with the OGP International Secretariat on:

• developing the Independent Research Mechanism new process explainers and pathway

• research and design of the OGP data dashboard

Open Gov | 2022

Engagement | Design

Advocates all over the world struggle to explain open government.

What does open government really mean? How can it be achieved? And who can help?

For Open Gov week Mel was invited by Open Heroines to talk about the Making Open content kit designed to answer these questions and connect people with stories and new ways of working.

Open gov | 2019

Engagement | Advocacy and Content Design

Most Australians inside and outside of government don’t know about open government. They don’t understand what ‘open’ means. And importantly, why it’s a good thing, how they can get involved or what to do.

To promote Open Gov Week 2019 and spread the word about open government with public servants and civil society, we launched Making Open with a video explainer from NSW’s Information Commissioner and Open Data Advocate, Elizabeth Tydd.

We ran a survey and designed gifs for social channels. To assist with engagement we created a commitment tracker poster.

OPEN GOV | 2018

Awareness | Advocacy and Content Design

There was no major announcement by the Australian Government at the time and very little funding for communications and engagement efforts.

We are committed to making open government successful, and this can only be done with a diverse range of people being involved.

In 2018 we contributed over 400 pro bono hours to open government advocacy and work. We supported the OGP Civil Society Network, wrote submissions, contributed ideas for commitments, and helped support the Australian OGP efforts by reaching our to potential participants to encourage them to get involved and attend events.

Digital Campaign | Open Gov Week 2018

For Open Gov week in May 2018, we created a series of gifs for social, a poster explaining the commitments, organised a webinar, and hosted an open government gathering bringing 40 public servants and active citizens together.

open gov | 2016

To help raise awareness for Australia's 1st National Action Plan released 7 December 2016, we made a process pathway to tell the story of how the Australian Government, citizens, civil society, the private sector, and small businesses worked together. 

It was widely used by civil society organisations, the OGP Independent Reporting Mechanism, and the Australian OGP Secretariat team at Prime Minister and Cabinet for internal advocacy with agencies.

The process pathway was updated to reflect the latest updates for Open Government Week in May of 2018. You can download the latest version here.

Open gov | participation

2016

Mel participated in the initial Open Government Partnership Australia workshop help in Canberra.

Mel traveled to the International Open Data Conference in Madrid, Spain to present Nook’s work and Common Ground at the OGP Natural Resources Working Group workshop.

2017

Mel attended the Open Contracting Partnership Conference in Amsterdam, a gathering of 200 people from all over the world working in open contracting, anti-corruption, and procurement reform. 

2018

Mel was invited to present a lightening talk about Nook’s work for the OGP Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia.

During 2018, the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) provided some funding towards Mel and May Miller-Dawkin’s advocacy work, to develop a strategy, and project pipeline to help introduce open contracting to Australia.

September that year Mel attended the International Open Data Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2019

The year started with Mel attending the Publish What You Pay Global Assembly in Senegal, Africa with 200 other natural resource governance advocates from around the world.

During 2019 we collaborated with Open Ownership in creating their Guide to Implementing Beneficial Ownership Transparency.

Mel attended the Open Government Summit in Ottawa, Canada and spoke at the Culture Hacking session about how to use art, film and culture to progress open government.

open government partnership | National action plans

Contributions and Submissions

Suggestions we have made to the commitments for the Open Government Partnership National Action Plan reflect what we have experienced, observed, and learnt through collaborating with government agencies.

Some address root issues hindering openness and innovation, others are opportunities (or potential solutions) we have identified the government could implement to improve participation and deliver its promise of ambitious open government initiatives, modernising the civil service, and being responsive to citizens. 

OGP 2020 National Action Plan:

We were invited to work on a number of concepts and working groups related to access to information, improving engagement and other capability building of the public sector.

OGP 2018 National Action Plan suggestions:

March 2018: Open Research Hub

March 2018: Open Collaboration & Innovation Fund

OGP 2016 National Action Plan initial submissions:

March 2016: Open Natural Resources

March 2016: Open Procurement

March 2016: Open Data and Content Innovation

March 2016: Intellectual Property and Crown Copyright

Suggestions to strengthen the 2016 draft National Action Plan 

November 2016: Overview, Natural Resources and Transparency in Business

November 2016: Public Participation and Engagement