Some Ethical Considerations for Gov 2.0 Using Web 2.0

The Australian Government has decided to use web 2.0 tools to engage, consult, share, and inform citizens through a program called Gov 2.0. The nature of the resulting collaborations shows that the government´s aim is to become more open, participatory and accessible. This will change how those charged with carrying out the policies of the government, public servants carry out its business activities. While there are legal, procedural, social, technical, privacy, IP, policy, and cultural issues our aim here is to highlight some ethical concerns. Though early, it is envisaged that this new conjunction will give rise to additional ethical dimensions (especially role confusion ad conflict) due to the new forms of interactions and collaborations. This paper will examine some of the ethical issues for online participation and engagement using web 2.0 technologies and examine some hypothetical cases and how they might be understood.