An interview with Karen White, Manager ICT and Knowledge Management, City of Marion, SA
With the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) imminent across the country, Karen White said that this initiative will benefit Local Government and enable it to tap into hotspots in its communities that need to be targeted.
“It means customers who couldn’t previously connect will have access to improved data, including council information, when they need it,” she said. “Business communities and economic development in Local Government Australia wide will also benefit, with the ability to continue business as usual through online opportunities.”
While social networking is currently used by some councils in their public relations and event promotions, Karen White said that its application in the future will become a core part of knowledge management as councils become more engaged.
“There is so much information within organisations, but people either don’t know it exists or don’t have access to it,” she said. “There is a lot of information held in council systems that may or may not be related. If this data was bought together as a comprehensive source, it could be extremely good for decision making and customer service.
“Using social networking as part of our council intranets could open up this strong knowledge bank and link databases so that all information is accessed from one place, creating a more comprehensive data network.”
Karen White said that social media’s use in Local Government will also evolve from a one way tool to a two way forum.
“Currently, there is some concern about two way forums over what could be presented,” she said. “But if people have something to say, either positive or negative, they will find a way to say it, and plenty of other online opportunities exists for them to do so. If the comments are made within our own forums, we at least have the opportunity to know and respond.”
Karen White said that Local Government’s ICT infrastructure and equipment will also become much more mobile to meet the needs of staff.
“More and more information is being requested for access in the field, via mobile devices,” she said. “In addition, the next generation of workers are used to being connected. Research and other indicators show that we need to keep them connected or they will lose interest.
“In doing so, we also need to capture the knowledge of our older population – particularly staff that are heading into retirement. The challenge will be how we retain that information, and make it accessible to new employees.”
With one of the next big trends in computing being access to information and services from the cloud, Karen White said that council workers will increasingly be using virtual environments to find and tag their own information.
“This will further blur the line between what constitutes personal and work related information and how this is accessed, and ICT departments will need to evolve to move with this,” she said.
“The cloud will also bring issues associated with security and where information is actually stored as it becomes a global experience – for example, information created in Australia could be stored anywhere across the globe, from China to Russia.”
She said that information stored in the cloud could also become an issue when it is no longer viable.
“When people apply for jobs, for example, they need to be aware that information accessed through social media is readily available to potential employers,” Karen White said.
“There could be information on any site that people no longer want out there, but getting rid of it may pose an issue when they are not the owner of the information.”
On the positive side, Karen White said the cloud will reduce reliance on inhouse systems and risks associated with server crashes. It may also change the nature of risks associated with data loss, being a service level agreement issue rather than data housed on internal infrastructure.
It could also lead to increased flexibility of access.
