34 global thought-leaders share views and ideas about the current state of eGovernment and what has come to be known as Government 2.0.The book's themes include: How the "web 2.0" revolution affects eGovernment activities How the digital grassroots, entrepreneurs and 'goverati' are working to change government How new tools, used over the internet, are going to change the way government interacts with citizens Don Tapscott writes in the book's foreword: "Every government leader, every elected official andevery government employee should read this book and get involved in oneof the most exciting challenges of our times - transforming government for effectiveness, relevance and success, enabled by a new medium of communications and required for the emerging citizens of the 21stcentury. The stakes are very high". The book's contributors touch on a number of different subjects, all related to making government work better. Some deal with getting government data out into the open, breaking down data silos. Others focus on how to interact with the public through interactive websites. Still others discuss how to facilitate organizational change that will open up government.
State of the eUnion
Government 2.0 and OnwardsAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2009 John Gxtze & Christian Bering Pedersen
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4490-4729-0Contents
Foreword: Government 2.0: Rethinking Government and Democracy for the Digital Age Don Tapscott......................................................17Section I: Government 2.0............................................................................................................................29Gov 2.0: A Promise of Innovation Tim O'Reilly.......................................................................................................33Government 2.0: From the Goverati Adhocracy to Government with the People Mark D. Drapeau...........................................................43The Emergence of Gov 2.0: From GovLoop to the White House Steve Ressler.............................................................................49Structured Crowdsourcing: Harnessing External Expertise in Government Dan Doney.....................................................................63Government in the 21st Century: A State's Perspective David G. Fletcher.............................................................................71Looking to the Future by Learning from the Past Steve Radick........................................................................................81Government 2.0, e-Government and Culture Stephen Collins............................................................................................99A Short History of Government 2.0: From Cool Projects to Policy Impact David Osimo..................................................................111Waiting for Government 2.0: Why Do Public Agencies Take so Long to Embrace Social Media? Alexandra Samuel...........................................125Section II: Opening Government.......................................................................................................................131Data Triggers Transformation W. David Stephenson....................................................................................................147The Power of Government Information Richard Allan...................................................................................................165The Emperor's New Nakedness or How True Transparency will Save Governmental Projects from Utter Failure Tommy Dejbjerg Pedersen.....................173Against Transparency: The Perils of Openness in Government Lawrence Lessig..........................................................................193Section III: Democratizing Government................................................................................................................203Democracy 2.0 Michael Friis.........................................................................................................................213Focusing on Citizens Joanne Caddy...................................................................................................................223e-Participatory Planning: Necessity and Advantage Rolf L|hrs, Bengt Feil & Harald Rathmann...........................................................239Washington Goes to Mr. Smith: Glimpses of the Future of American Democracy? Matt Leighninger........................................................247Section IV: Co-Creation, Innovation & Values.........................................................................................................257Public Administration: Let There Be E-Unification, Again and Again Olov Vstberg.....................................................................263Co-Production of Public Services and Policies: The Role of Emerging Technologies Tony Bovaird, Elke Lvffler & James Downe...........................281Open Value Creation as a Strategic Management Approach Philipp S. M|ller............................................................................289Reaping the Benefits of Government-led Change: Engaging the Public in Creating Value from Investments Chris Potts...................................297Closing Section......................................................................................................................................311Government 2.0 and Onwards John Gxtze & Christian Bering Pedersen...................................................................................319
Chapter One
Introduction John Gxtze Lecturer, Copenhagen Business School
Christian Bering Pedersen Consultant, Devoteam Consulting
In his famous Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln stated that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".
In the same November days, but 146 years later, the 5th European Ministerial e-Government Conference will be held in the city of Malmv in southern Sweden. EU Member State ministers responsible for e-Government will meet on the eve of the Conference, November 18, 2009, to agree on a Ministerial Declaration that will set out the path for the field of e-Government up until 2015. The Swedish EU Presidency and the European Commission will then present the signed Ministerial Declaration jointly on the first day of the conference under the heading Teaming up for the eUnion.
Perhaps it would be fitting for the European ministers to review the Gettysburg Address statement, and for them to consider whether this is still the quintessential statement about government - of, by and for the people - or whether the time has come for some rethinking? There are many other prepositions one could use, in addition to these three fine ones, but we suggest one in particular, and that is with: government with the people.
This idea does not come out of the blue. We are actually more describing the zeitgeist of 2009. The book's title, State of the eUnion, is of course a play on words and contexts. First and foremost, there is a reference to 'The State of the Union', the annual address presented by the President of the United States to Congress. This address not only reports on the condition of the nation, but also allows the President to outline his legislative agenda and national priorities to the Congress. In a similar way, this book is both about the current state of government and about ways to deal with the future state of government. The eUnion part of the title is a reference to the minister conference, Teaming Up for the eUnion. The book's reference to the eUnion, however, is not limited to any particular geographical 'union'. With contributions from Europe, North America and Australia, the book's perspective is international.
The subtitle, Government 2.0 and Onwards, indicates that the focus is more towards the future than the past. Government 2.0 is without doubt a concept that has made a breakthrough in government offices, vendor circles, media and, albeit slowly, in academia. In late September 2009, Gartner analyst Andrea DiMaio argued that Government 2.0 is rapidly reaching what Gartner calls the "peak of inflated expectations", with maximum hype around it. This is the highest point in their classic hype cycle, which means the dreaded "trough of disillusionment" is coming up, and that there is still a long way to the "plateau of productivity", where measurable value is delivered.
Government 2.0 is oftentimes understood as social media and web 2.0 in government, or "how government is malting use of web 2.0 technologies to interact with citizens and provide government services," but in our view it is more than that. As Don Tapscott et al write:
The transition to 'Government a. 2.0' and governance webs begins with opening up formerly closed processes, embracing transparency and renovating tired rules that inhibit innovation. But that is merely the beginning.... a new breed of public sector organization is emerging in response to these challenges: One that opens its doors to the world; co-innovates with everyone, especially citizens; shares resources that were previously closely guarded; harnesses the power of mass collaboration; and behaves not as an isolated department or jurisdiction, but as something new - a truly integrated organization.
Government 2.0 therefore fundamentally challenges the way government works, and perhaps in particular, how government is managed. Being complex enterprises, governments - whether federal, national, regional or local governments - are generally characterized exactly as Gary Hamel describes modern enterprises: they have asst Century, Internet-enabled business processes, mid-20th-century management processes, all built atop 19th-century management principles. Hamel calls for Management 2.0, and argues that it is all about management innovation - new ways of mobilizing talent, allocating resources, and formulating strategies. Although his focus is on private companies, his message is clearly also relevant in a government context.
Many would argue that the US saw management innovation in practice when, as one of his first actions in office, President Obama on January 21, 2009, issued a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government', in which he instructed that government should be more transparent, participatory and collaborative. The Obama Administration has since launched the Open Government Initiative led by the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, and hired law professor Beth Simone Noveck as Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Open Government. Just as Obama set a new standard for using the internet in the election process (e-campaigning), his administration's recent initiatives such as the IT Dashboard and data.gov are setting new standards for internet-supported open government.
The open government agenda at large, internationally, has of course been around for quite a number of years, probably as long as democracy has been around. Sweden's Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 counts for the early legislation in the field, and all around the world, many 'Sunshine laws' (Freedom of Information legislation) have followed since then.
For years, open government has been a key hallmark of democratic practice, and is by many considered the perhaps most important pillar in a well-functioning democracy. Open and transparent government is certainly an important area of concern for developing democracies, with corruption and coercion, but indeed also, always, of concern for so-called developed democracies. As such, open government has also seen its share of skepticism and controversy. In Yes, Minister, the wonderful satirical British sitcom from 1980, Sir Arnold Robinson, Cabinet Secretary, explains about open government: "My dear boy, it is a contradiction in terms: you can be open or you can have government."
Transparency is indeed a somewhat ambivalent concept. It has, so to speak, an obvious light side, but also a sometimes very visible dark side. Transparency is related not only to enlightenment and freedom, but also to surveillance and control. The best example of the latter is perhaps the socio-optical architecture of illumination that Jeremy Bentham used in 1785, when he designed Panopticon, a prison that allows an observer to observe all prisoners without them being able to tell whether they are being observed. He invented, so to speak, CCTV (surveillance cameras) long before the video camera was invented.
In philosophic terms, the public sphere is the place where light comes from, namely the light thrown on things when they take place in public. In a 1958 lecture called Man in Dark Times, political philosopher Hannah Arendt talked about her times as a darkening or obscuring of the light from the public sphere, and the withdrawal of the general public from the public world based on the "well-founded anger that makes you hoarse", anger towards a 'system' that does not listen; a system with freedom from politics, rather than freedom to take part and make praxis (action). The same argument, but now from a social and cultural perspective, was in 1961 put forward by English culture critic Raymond Williams:
"If man is essentially a learning, creating and communicating being, the only social organisation adequate to his nature is a participatory democracy, in which all of us, as unique individuals, learn, communicate and control."
Carole Pateman, 2009-2010 President-Elect of the American Political Science Association, in her early career (1970) formulated a theory of participatory democracy based on the argument that participation fosters human development, enhances a sense of political efficacy, reduces a sense of estrangement from power centers, nurtures a concern for collective problems and, not least, that it contributes to the formation of an active and knowledgeable citizenry capable of taking an active interest in governmental and managerial affairs. These are all good arguments for climbing Arnstein's ladder of participation - from non-participation over tokenism (e.g., consultation) to citizen power. Over the past 40 years, both theory and practice of democracy have continued to climb up - but sometimes also down - that ladder.
Tim O'Reilly coined the concept architecture of participation to describe the nature of systems that are designed for user contribution, noting that the Internet and the World Wide Web have this participatory architecture in spades, for example in big open source projects. As he explains in this book, time has come for government to embrace the architecture of participation.
We know there is a lot of value for all kinds of companies in adopting co-creation, the practice of developing systems, products, or services through collaboration with customers. But we are indeed also seeing a trend in government's adoption of co-creation and participatory collaboration, for example at the US Patent Office who embraced user-generated content with their Peer-to-Patent Program.
There are many ways to interpret the famous quote from Thomas Jefferson, "information is the currency of democracy", but it certainly implies that government data is valuable. And something of value can be made into a commodity. The European Directive on the re-use of public sector information ('the PSI Directive') meant that certain government data should be regarded as a commodity that government can sell to the private sector. Not all government data, of course, the EU promised those with privacy and other concerns. But government, the public sector as such, has lots of data, and surely some of it can be exhibited and sold to those who want it, the underlying logic said. Examples are geographical information, environmental data, certain statistics and a whole lot of data residing in the many government IT systems, databases and archives. A recent Gartner survey for the Danish National Telecom and IT Agency predicted an economic potential of almost €100m for Denmark alone in letting public and private actors have access to government data, which arguably could spur a wave of innovation as private companies compete to build services on top of the valuable data.
Other research shows that public sector information and government data has a huge socioeconomic value, but also that the European PSI-approach (cost-recovery) may not be the most optimal way to maximize the value. Perhaps giving it all away for free is a better alternative? It depends on how, and for whom you measure the value. The challenge is in the reaping and sowing of value, that sometimes, some (government) must make investments in order for others (business, citizens) to benefit, get value, from. Indeed, government needs an architecture of fruition.
Introducing the Contributions
The contributions to the book come from thought-leaders on three continents. Among the contributors you'll find battle-hardened practitioners with many years of experience, writing about what works and what does not work. Many of the contributors have been working with e-Government for many years, and are not fazed by the current attention to "government 2.0". Their contributions are based on what they have experienced and done, not on buzzwords and hype.
In structuring the book's contributions, we tools inspiration in the Obama memo - that government should be transparent, participatory and collaborative - and ended up sorting the contributions in three related sections: "Opening Government," "Democratizing Government" and "Co-Creation, Innovation & Values," each with five chapters. Before we get to these, and to get into the context, we have a substantial "Government 2.0" section with ten chapters as well as the foreword by Don Tapscott.
The Government 2.0 section begins with a contribution from Mr. Web 2.0, Tim O'Reilly, who argues that Government 2.0 is a promise of innovation. Washington-based researcher and writer Mark Drapeau follows up and argues that Government 2.0 is about moving from what he calls the "goverati adhocracy," to "Government With the People."
Then follows three different examples of Government 2.0 in action. The first example is the hugely successful social networking site GovLoop, a "Facebook for feds," which is described by its founder, Steve Ressler. The second example is about crowdsourcing in a specific area, as Dan Doney from the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence introduces BRIDGE, the Intelligence Community's testbed for new community and analysis tools. The third example is about the State of Utah, which is recognized as one of the absolute leading US States when it comes to e-Government. State CTO, David Fletcher, describes how Utah deals with Government 2.0.
Having now seen a few examples of Government 2.0 in action, it is time to take a close look at the concept. "Is the concept of Government 2.0 really all that new?" asks Steve Radick from Booz Allen Hamilton. Inspired by the Cluetrain Manifesto, he presents Twenty Theses for Government 2.0.
The Government 2.0 agenda is not just on the table in the US, and the following chapters will take the reader around the world. First stop is Australia. Stephen Collins from AcidLabs introduces the Australian Government 2.0 agenda, and discusses how it relates to the traditional e-Government agenda. He also analyzes the cultural issues around Government 2.0. Next we come to Europe. David Osimo from Tech412 gives an overview of the progressive structuring of web 2.0 in government, and calls for Public Services 2.0. Returning to North America, now to Canada, Alexandra Samuel from Social Signal asks, "why do public agencies take so long to embrace social media?" and distills emergent opportunities and best practices for governments, seeking to tap the power of social media. Closing this section, from San Francisco, digital anthropologist Ariel Waldman suggests three reasons government isn't ready for 2.0 yet.
Ready or not, government is changing. The following section, Opening Government, deals with the changes induced by the transparency and openness agenda. The section opens with government strategist W. David Stephenson, who argues that time has come to make government data freely available and usable. He presents five principles to guide the process of democratizing data, and discusses the strategic shift that will be needed, since data triggers transformation.
The same logic can be found in the work of the UK Government's Power of Information Taskforce; they recently recommended sweeping reforms to how the civil service publishes, manages and engages with information. Taskforce Chair Richard Allen describes the Power of Information agenda and its impact on the way in which the UK Government works with public sector information and internet-enabled innovation.
Another dimension in opening government is in the way government projects are handled, especially when they have IT components. Tommy Dejbjerg Pedersen from Danish GeekHouse argues for a fully transparent approach to government projects, right down to the code level.
Picking up on transparency, Lawrence Lessig from Harvard Law School argues that the age of transparency is upon us, for good and for worse. He looks into the perils of openness in government, and argues that we are not thinking critically enough about where and when transparency works, and where and when it may lead to confusion, or to worse.
(Continues...)
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