There is a new federal government agency in town called the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). The OAIC was established as part of major changes to Australia's freedom of information law, and brings together, for the first time, functions relating to freedom of information (FOI), privacy, and information policy. The OAIC's tag line "protecting information rights – advancing information policy" encapsulates those three functions, which is also represented symbolically in the three intertwined swirls in the OAIC's logo (shown above).
I have the privilege of being one of 10 members of the newly-formed OAIC Industry Advisory Committee (IAC), which met for the first time last week in Canberra. The purpose of the IAC is to advise, Prof John McMillan AO, the Australian Information Commissioner, in the area information policy.
I'm very excited about this opportunity. I see it as a natural outgrowth of my work on public sector information (PSI), which started with my involvement with the Government 2.0 taskforce two years ago. As we concluded in the Engage Report (2MB PDF), government-held information is a national asset. Like any other valuable resource, especially one that taxpayers have funded, we need to optimize its economic and social value. This is where good information policy matters.
I'm looking forward to working with the OAIC on shaping policies that unleash the value in our national information assets.