That's one of the large and substantial issues, the cost-benefit analysis, and in particular the economic and social utility of information that is published online--does it, as it's often said, stimulate innovation?
One of the recommendations of the Government 2.0 taskforce is that a project be initiated to develop a methodology for measuring the social and economic utility of government information that is released to the public. The taskforce recommended that my office develop the methodology, and we're currently in that process.
Again, you can pick some individual examples. One interesting one is a government website initiative called My School, which has collected all of the information held by government on school funding, student performance, curriculum development, and the like. When you look at the figures on the number of downloads that occur within the 48 hours after there's an update to the site, it's quite staggering. You see the national debate it initiates at school level, parent level, teacher level, and at national planning level on school performance in Australia.
It's a great case study in the extraordinary value and interest that government information has to all aspects of national life when innovative steps are taken to assemble it and make it available to the public.