Absolutely, it was very important to be there. I was invited to go and share what we were doing too. They had questions for me along the lines of what we were encountering. It was the same thing they were encountering, which was really cultural issues within the middle management of the civil service.
I had an opportunity to talk to Nicholas Gruen, the chair of their task force. Nicholas was just a business leader in Australia, but in being there and talking to them about how they did what they did, I realized that although Australia was similar to us in terms of being a Commonwealth country, their culture was very different. Moreover, what they do at a state and a local level is very different. From that opportunity to talk and really compare notes, the thing that I found was that they were as much interested in what we were doing at a local level, because it doesn't exist there yet, as I was in finding out what was happening at a national level there.
In comparison with what we are doing, they are absolutely further ahead. They are running into some challenges with the things they want to do next, as the public in Australia want better access to the Internet first, as there are some regulatory issues. People are saying “Don't give me open data; I want more Internet.”
We're in a slightly different position. You talk about the Obama administration and the time it takes to do things, but if the City of Edmonton can pull together 12 data sets in three weeks and put up an open data catalogue, I think, given a little more time, we can do that at both the provincial and federal levels.
As I said earlier, I really believe that the people—the staff, the public servants—are ready to move. We just need that clear direction from the leadership.