Government departments and agencies are invited to enter the 2011 Government ICT Awards, recognising outstanding ICT and eGovernment initiatives across the all spheres of Government.

Special Minister for State Gary Gray said the Awards include the Excellence in eGovernment Awards, the ICT Professional of the Year Award and the Government 2.0 Innovator Award.

“This year two new awards have been introduced for Government 2.0 (Gov 2.0) innovation, which recognise the use of Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs, Twitter and social networking, to improve agency service delivery,” Mr Gray said.

He said the first new award, the Gov 2.0 Category in the Excellence in eGovernment Awards, recognised projects using Web 2.0 tools. The second new award, the Gov 2.0 Innovator Award, recognised individual champions of Web 2.0.

Members of the community are invited to nominate agencies and individuals for the Gov 2.0 Awards.

“We want to know who is using social media to better engage with the public, to open up government communications and provide government information in the most effective way,” Mr Gray said.

The Awards are managed by the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) in the Department of Finance and Deregulation. Nominations close March 29, 2011. For more information visit www.finance.gov.au/e-government/awards/index.html.