Author(s)
with The Silicon Flatirons Center
Source
The Silicon Flatirons Roundtable Series on Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Public Policy, Report No. 8
Summary
This paper looks at how to use technology to improve government, “Government 3.0.”
Policy Relevance
Government use of advanced communication technologies can be helpful; strong leadership can help overcome the lag in public sector adoption.
Main Points
- On June 5, 2009, the Silicon Flatirons Center at the University of Colorado held a meeting of academics, investors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs to talk about how to encourage government to use Internet-based technologies (Web 2.0).
- The groups discussed how barriers to government use of technology, such as privacy concerns and government culture, could be overcome to improve transparency and efficiency.
- Government release of raw data can facilitate sophisticated analysis by the private sector, benefitting the public at low cost.
- Anonymizing data can help protect privacy.
- Some laws, such as the Paperwork Reduction Act and the Rehabilitation Act, can limit information released by the government over the Internet.
- Increasing citizen involvement through technology can be problematic, as government employees can become overwhelmed by comments.
- Strong leadership in using new technology will speed the removal of legacy processes.
- Communication between government agencies can help overcome problems.
