Dr Gruen was a member of the Cutler Review and has assisted the Commonwealth, Victorian, South Australian, NSW and Western Australian governments and the World Bank on innovation and regulation reform.
In 2009 he chaired the Government 2.0 Taskforce which garnered high praise from leading international figures. Its recommendations were accepted. Dr Gruen is a prominent public advocate for economic reform, innovation and open government in the context of grasping the opportunities which burgeon online.

Presentation Overview

Web 2.0 offers extraordinary and indeed revolutionary possibilities for government. However to realise them it is important for us to have some principled understanding of both the strengths and weaknesses of web 2.0.  It offers different opportunities, and some pitfalls depending on the purposes to which it is being put.  It can be of great assistance for discovery, due diligence, and deliberation. Beyond this, it’s scope to assist us with decision is much more constrained.  Web 2.0 can empower those who wish to participate, but decisions must nevertheless be legitimated by democratic decision which must continue to be mediated through traditional structures of representative democracy. And the dilemmas for public administration will be most successfully managed not in the embrace of the latest fad, but through the difficult cultural labours with which we are familiar from the time honoured and hard won traditions of modern democratic government.