Rudd takes on Obama and Brown at their own game

I'm so proud of our PM just now. Not because of any national pride (I am cheering for England to win the ashes), or through political loyalty, but because he has ventured into the world of Government 2.0 with some style.

We've all heard the hype around Obama's online presence which has undoubtedly been ground breaking. I loved 'Open for Questions' for its simplicity, though there are a few issues to work through before it becomes a truly effective mass collaboration tool. The next step for Obama though is to get the use of this technology to an issue and local level throughout the Government otherwise this is nothing but a top down gesture. There is certainly evidence of this happening.

Some people (fewer and fewer it seems) sing the praises of Gordon Brown and his Number 10 website which is a beautiful and accessible site....... but e-petitions???? Talk about an invitation to mischief makers everywhere. Do you think they were surprised when the most popular petition was for the PM to resign? And what possible use in terms of engaging the community is an e petition? It is difficult to conceive of a more one dimensional and less expressive method of expressing views.

I think sometimes the gov2.0 fanatics need to pause for breath and think about what works and what doesn't, what is meaningful for policy making and what isn't. Just because a tool looks good doesn't make it a good idea.

And so to Kevin Rudd who has moved relatively quietly into the world of Gov 2.0. I was impressed recently by his clear delineation of his twitter posts from those of his staff by signing krudd when the man himself is talking. This adds integrity, and think of the power he has to talk directly to individual followers now that it is clear some posts are him. That presents him the opportunity to have a real and direct impact on people. I note he now has nearly a quarter of a million followers, after getting a significant increase following his recent appearance on Rove Live (a chat show for those not in Australia).

And in the last couple of weeks the PM launched a forum (well he called it a blog but who's splitting hairs?) about the issue of climate change. No glitz or glamour here just an accessible and relatively user friendly forum on the issue to which the PM contributed and which received 939 comments. And the comments were by and large constructive, on topic and articulate. Real people having a say directly to the PM's people and to the man himself.

It was also good to see that the forum was constructed so that discussion threads were created by indenting comments. This makes conversations easier to follow.

I do have a small criticism. The moderation was applied before comments were posted on the blog and moderators only worked between 9 and 5 each day so people posting in the evening didn't get to see their comments on the site before morning. I can understand this cautious approach but I hope and expect that with time the PM and his team will move to allow comments to be posted pre moderation - there is nothing too scary about this so long as moderators are keeping a close eye on things.

Overall though I think the measured way in which Mr Rudd is moving to engage the community online is deserving of applause and is looking both better thought out and (with continued application) potentially more effective than the approaches taken by his more talked about compatriots Obama and Brown.

I will be watching with interest to see the next steps.