Does The Government Get A Second Life?
Governments can survive in the online community of so-called Web 2.0 if they adapt written policies and technical infrastructures first -- before experimenting with the online alternate universe, Gartner Research analysts said on Wednesday.
Thriving in the new virtual landscape requires governments to change their mindset about serving the public, said Andrea Di Maio, a vice president at Gartner Research.
At present, the government wants to establish its Web site as the portal of choice for all citizen services and inquiries -- and is struggling to do so. A one-stop shop for services is not the right approach, Di Maio said.
When people move into a new home, they eventually need the government to change their postal address, but, in the midst of the big life change, that is the last item on their checklist.
"The first thought is: I need electricity and gas and water," Di Maio said. Agencies should link their Web services to other popular Web sites, like those belonging to utility companies, to better accommodate citizens. In this manner, private sector Web sites act as an intermediary in delivering government services.
Di Maio described Web 2.0 as both a blessing and a curse at the G-Con Gartner Government Conference on Wednesday.
He said governments should be picky about the Web 2.0 tools they try. For instance, news feeds are a low-risk online interactive tool with a big return on investment, whereas blogs can be perilous. "Internal blogs tend to be far more important," DiMaio said, explaining that intra-government community Web sites may be quite advantageous.
Rather than having one agency draft a policy for internal discussion, he said, build the policy as a wiki, so that different departments that have different interests can contribute.
Some government Web 2.0 tools that already exist may have more cool factor than utility, he said. "I'm not sure citizens' really care about" podcasts and webcasts of council meetings, Di Maio said.
Still, Web 2.0 outreach can serve a purpose in policy-making, if officials are able to get constructive feedback from constituents on proposals via the Internet.
A state senator can tap the Web to find out, for example, why his school voucher bill was defeated; generate new support for his bill with a blog and then get the bill passed, said Jeff Vining, a research vice president at Gartner who also spoke at the event. -- Aliya Sternstein
Read more on the Gartner conference in Technology Daily's PM edition.
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