FOI, Accessibility, Data Access and Metadata for the Government Web

The Web Standards Group is meeting to look at recent developments with requirements for FOI, Accessibility, data access, and metadata for government web sites, in Canberra, 19 October, 2010.

October 2010 Canberra WSG meeting

Date: Tuesday 19 October, 2010

Event Details

Time: 2.00pm - 4.30pm ...

Cost: Free

First presentation: Neil Philips

Topic 1: FOI Legislative Requirements to Publish Information On the Web

The Australian Government announced as part of its 2007 election policies that it would reform the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) with the principal objectives of promoting a pro-disclosure culture across the Government and building a stronger foundation for more openness in government. There are substantial changes to the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act commencing on 1 November 2010. Neil will explain what the legislation requires Government agencies to consider when publishing information.

Second presentation: Raven Calais

Topic 2: WCAG 2.0 and the Website Accessibility National Transition Strategy

Raven from the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), Department of Finance and Deregulation will discuss the endorsement and subsequent implementation of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0 (WCAG 2.0), providing an update on their work since releasing the National Transition Strategy. Federal Government web managers are encouraged to participate to learn more about their new accessibility compliance requirements.

Break for afternoon tea

Third presentation: Gordon Grace

Topic 3: Making Better Use of On-line Data

The USA and UK govern­ments have made signif­icant progress with linked, open data in recent months. Several funda­mental datasets from the Australian Government are on the cusp of being exposed as mean­ingful, reusable, machine-readable assets, further driving the adoption of linked data within and around government.

Making better use of online data offerings using a combi­nation of top-down policy and guidance, together with bottom-up devel­opment efforts from agency web teams, would seem to describe a sustainable, organic growth in linked government data.

Learn about the path to the first release of data.gov.au; a draft roadmap to future releases; the barriers to linked data and open public sector infor­mation (PSI); and the real-world ques­tions this tech­nology aims to solve.

Fourth presentation: Eileen Tannachion

Topic 4: Changes to the Australian Government Locator Service Metadata Standard

In July 2010 the AGLS Metadata Standard Version 2.0 was released. This revised version takes into account changes introduced by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) in January 2008. It also makes technical changes to support linked data and Semantic Web projects, recognising that the internet is no longer just a medium for publishing human-readable documents. Eileen represents the National Archives of Australia and will discuss these recent changes.

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