Australian Government and Open Data: They just don’t get it

Australian Government and Open Data: They just don’t get it

Having a look through the AusGOAL site – you know, “AusGOAL, the Australian Governments Open Access and Licensing Framework’–  to see what Australian Government is doing in the area.  Did you know that they have a video explaining open data and why it’s so important?

The video is here:

Guess what?

It doesn’t comply with their own guidelines.  When I go to that page I get a black box where the video should be, along with a message:

This video can’t be played with your current setup.

Please switch to a browser that provides native H.264 support or install Adobe Flash Player

Errr… here’s a video telling you how great open formats are but the video is in a closed format?? It’s not at all comforting to know that the very people charged with enabling open formats are using a closed format for their videos. There’s no reason H.264 video can’t be transcoded into an open format and offered (even offered as an alternative).

Knock me down with a feather!