Enhanced telecommunications connectivity, data insights, digital planning practices and innovation districts are among the issues addressed in a new standard of practice released today by the Smart Cities Council and Green Building Council of Australia.
Released as part of Smart Cities Week Australia in Sydney, the Code for Smart Communities is a new benchmark for urban development practices across greenfield communities, urban regeneration precincts and diverse institutional campuses.
Read more: AU: Smart Cities Standard released for industry adoption
RADAR helps users document damage and qualify for government assistance.
Responding to a natural disaster is chaotic enough without having to catalog thousands of forms and photos of property damage by hand.
That was the premise for Igor Stjepanovic, founder and CEO of Australian software company Gruntify, in trying to simplify the process of qualifying for government aid with a new damage-assessment app called RADAR, which stands for Recording Asset Damage and Restoration.
Read more: Australian Developer Bringing Disaster Response App to the States
A range of ‘behavioural interventions’ can increase the use of online government services as well as customer satisfaction, new research shows.
Making online the default, providing technical support and emphasising the benefits of digital services are among the ways governments can achieve higher usage of their online services.
Read more: AU: Study shows supports can boost e-government use
After spending $700 000 Australian dollars investigating the industrial potential of blockchain, Australia’s Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has determined that current versions of the tech are “interesting” but in no way better than other systems, ZDNet reports.
DTA Chief Digital Officer Peter Alexander reportedly told Senate Estimates on Tuesday: “Blockchain is an interesting technology that would well worth being observed but without standardisation and a lot of work to come — for every use of blockchain you would consider today, there is a better technology — alternate databases, secure connections, standardised API engagement.”
Unless you’re an avid reader of federal budget statements, you probably missed the $92.4 million allocation in the 2018–19 Budget to build a digital identity scheme known as GovPass—the second one that taxpayers will now be funding. (Australia Post already has an operational scheme called Digital iD that cost $30–50 million to build; GovPass is being set up by the Digital Transformation Agency.) You probably also missed the establishment of the biometric template of your face that has been created to enable the new scheme.