Information Awareness Month 2018
Information Awareness Month (IAM) is an annual event promoting the important role information plays in all aspects of our day-to-day lives. It is celebrated around Australia during the month of May.
This theme for IAM this year is “Trust in the Digital World”.
According to NSW Information Commissioner, Ms Elizabeth Tydd, Information Awareness Month is a timely reminder of the importance of embedding good governance and sound information management practices into an organisation’s operations. The IPC is promoting good governance through the release of a new, freely available Open Data e-learning resource.
‘Transparency of government actions – sound practices for information access and information sharing are central to building trust and achieving an effective democratic system,’ Ms Tydd said.
‘Our challenge as custodians of government information, is to embrace the ‘digital world’ and apply its benefits to promote accountability, deliver better services, engage with the community and at the same time, ensure that our systems protect information privacy and security.
‘Building trust and confidence in our ability to ethically and effectively manage information in the digital age is essential to advancing Open Government and our new e-learning module, which will be launched later this month, is designed to elevate our knowledge of sound information governance ,’ Ms Tydd said.
In today’s world technology is constantly evolving, more information is being released, people have access to an ever increasing amount of information and are demanding more timely, accurate, seamless services.
Government departments are the custodians of an enormous amount of data, and this information is an incredibly valuable asset at the local, state and national levels.
‘To unlock the strategic value of information, to gain real insights and to inform the development and delivery of better, more efficient services, we must take a holistic approach to data and information. This means we must also ensure that our custodianship of information - our practices, policies, service delivery and – importantly – our culture collectively build trust,’ Ms Tydd said.
To promote better processes and practices, the IPC is excited to be releasing the new Open Data e-learning resource in May. This module has been developed in collaboration with the NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation and in line with the NSW Open Data Policy.
This e-learning resource is one of the ways we are delivering our commitment to provide education and training across NSW information access and privacy legislation. An additional e-learning module to support open government information will be released later in the year.
To keep up-to-date on IPC news, including new resources such as our Open Data e-learning, please sign up for our e-alerts here.
For more information, please go to https://informationawarenessmonth.org/