Last week, I wrote about a nonprofit group’s recommendations for a successful electronic government. This week, the Chief Information Officers Council is weighing it with its recommendations in a newly released report the council has shared with the Obama transition team.
Here are the some of the key recommendations from the CIO Council on how to make e-government successful:
- Government must tap the power of collaboration both within its own ranks and with citizens. By letting citizens and employees “take what they need†and “share what they know†government can improve effectiveness and efficiency by creating an environment where the most up-to-date and relevant information is available.
- Leaders must ensure the government is adequately staffed to handle the challenge. Embracing collaborative technologies, such as wikis, blogs and social networking, internally can help agencies do that by attracting the “net generation,†who are accustomed to creating their own content and sharing it instantaneously with such tools.
- Appropriate information sharing between agencies, trusted partners, industry and the public is important for eliminating redundancies, adopting best practices and engaging the public. Although the challenge of sharing sensitive information securely remains, the benefits of sharing sensitive information among government agencies is clear- shared information creates more informed decision makers and fosters innovation.
The report notes that agencies are already taking steps in all these areas, but says the next administration needs to make sure agencies continue on their current path.
A couple of other reports on e-government were also released today. They can be found here and here.
