The Federal Government invite you to Blog on Australia's Digital Economy

It's good to see the Federal Government adopting Web 2.0 tools such as blogging in order to democratise the conversation on the future of Australia's digital economy.

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy and Minister for Finance, Lindsay Tanner have launched a trial blog to get the opinions and thoughts of the public on the topic.

This blog will help with the development of the 'Future directions paper for the digital economy' that is being created by the Australian Government. This paper has been described on the joint blog as "a roadmap for Australian businesses, households and government to maximise participation in the digital economy."

The blog will explore themes from what the digital economy includes, how the digital economy can respond to environmental concerns, how can the success of Australia's digital economy be measured and how to maintain a 'civil society' that experience offline in the real world in an online world. This last topic is particularly interesting as it is likely that it will raise the issue of filtering content and moderation on the blog. What public comments will be uploaded to the blog? Which ones will be dismissed? Moderated content lessens the democracy of a blog.

This is one of the first times that the Australian Government has adopted Web 2.0 tools to engage with the public. I encourage this and hope we see more of this across the board.

If you have a point of view, jump on and get blogging.