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Best of eGov from Brookings Institution
On 26Aug2008, the Brookings Insitutution published its ratings of eGov sites employed by federal and state entities. Another recent report analyzes the currency of worlwide government use of the internet. Among many Brookings observations, I'd highlight the following:
Despite the great promise of technological advancement, public sector innovation has tended to be small-scale and gradual. Factors such as institutional arrangements, budget scarcity, group conflict, cultural norms and prevailing patterns of social and political behavior have restricted government actions. Because governments are divided into competing agencies and jurisdictions, policymakers struggle to get bureaucrats to work together in promoting technological innovation. Budget considerations prevent government offices from placing services online and using technology for democratic outreach. Cultural norms and patterns of individual behavior affect the manner in which technology is used by citizens and policymakers. In addition, the political process is characterized by intense group conflict over resources. With open and permeable systems, groups organize easily and make demands on the political system.
The emphasis is mine. Both reports are worth reading.
Despite the great promise of technological advancement, public sector innovation has tended to be small-scale and gradual. Factors such as institutional arrangements, budget scarcity, group conflict, cultural norms and prevailing patterns of social and political behavior have restricted government actions. Because governments are divided into competing agencies and jurisdictions, policymakers struggle to get bureaucrats to work together in promoting technological innovation. Budget considerations prevent government offices from placing services online and using technology for democratic outreach. Cultural norms and patterns of individual behavior affect the manner in which technology is used by citizens and policymakers. In addition, the political process is characterized by intense group conflict over resources. With open and permeable systems, groups organize easily and make demands on the political system.
The emphasis is mine. Both reports are worth reading.
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Comment
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Comment by Clymer/JR on September 16, 2008 at 2:08pm
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Government insiders thrive in "sheltered" environments, and don't even blush at the rampant parochialism addressed in the Brookings report. While granting obvious legitimate security concerns, I agree with the analysis that 'open & permeable systems' add by orders of magnitude to the efficiency of information exhange both within the government space, and between representative government and its citizenry. I'd also assert that these 'systems' are the prohibitive favorite among all alternative vehicles to create the government transparency we all seem to covet. The desired end-state, to borrow from Don Tapscott, is to add government to the "knowledge commons"!
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Comment by CC-Conrad Clyburn-MedForeSight on September 16, 2008 at 10:58am
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Interesting emphasis on "open and permeable", what are you trying to imply?
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