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Digital Government: From Information to Integration

Digital Government: From Information to Integration. Robert Atkinson Vice President and Director, Technology & New Economy Project Progressive Policy Institute www.ppionline . Presentation to the 2001 E-Gov Conference, Washington, DC. The Progressive Policy Institute.

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Digital Government: From Information to Integration

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  1. Digital Government: From Information to Integration Robert Atkinson Vice President and Director, Technology & New Economy Project Progressive Policy Institute www.ppionline. Presentation to the 2001 E-Gov Conference, Washington, DC

  2. The Progressive Policy Institute • Founded in 1989 by the Democratic Leadership Council • 501 (c) (3) • Mission is to define and promote a “Third Way” progressive politics for the Information Age • An alternative to the liberal impulse to defend the bureaucratic status quo and the conservative bid to dismantle government

  3. Related PPI Reports • Breaking Down Bureaucratic Barriers: The Next Phase of Digital Government • Digital Government: The Next Step to Reengineering the Federal Government • The Best States For E-Commerce • The Revenge of the Disintermediated: How the Middleman is Fighting E-Commerce and Hurting American Consumers • The Failure of Cyber-Libertarianism: The Case for a National E-Commerce Strategy

  4. Benefits of Digital Government • Reduces Costs to Government and Citizens • Improves Quality and Accessibility (on-line, not in line) • Helps Create A Digital Economy

  5. Reduces Cost 5

  6. Improves Quality - “Online, Not In Line” • Consumers expect anytime, anywhere, “on-my-schedule” service. • Citizens will expect the same performance from government. • One study of on-line professional licenses found that the vast majority of participants preferred this channel. 6

  7. Spur Ubiquitous Adoption of Digital Technologies • Unless telephone-like ubiquity can be reached, large scale societal transformation will prove impossible. (David Moschella, Waves of Power) • We’re not there yet. 7

  8. Three Phases of Digital Government • Phase 1: Information: 1993-1998 Passive sites providing “brochure-ware” (Whitehouse.gov goes live in 1993) • Phase 2: Transactions: 1998-200? Started as downloading forms; moving to completing forms on-line. • Phase 3: Integration: 200? Web sites designed around citizen needs, not government agencies, programs and acronyms.

  9. E-gov is not about building web sites. Its about using the web to transform government.

  10. Customer Focused, Integrated Government: We’re not there yet • Too often agencies provide what they are interested in, not what the user is interested in. Do people really want to see press releases? • Too often agencies view their mission as promoting their services, rather than solving problems. People want to access all solutions. • Too often web site portals are unfriendly.

  11. What about EDA, DOI, and other agency programs?

  12. Why is a new HHS grant program important to me?

  13. How about other business development programs?

  14. What Should Integrated Digital Government (IDG) Look Like? • “Joined-up problems need joined-up solutions.” Tony Blair • We need to conceive of e-gov as “pure-play” e-gov. • If we created government in the digital age, it wouldn’t look like the government we have now. We have migrated old-economy government onto the Internet, instead of using the power of the Web to create a new kind of government. •

  15. Principles For Creating IDG Smart e-government should be focused on one goal: helping citizens solve problems, not merely delivering same old services through a new medium. Most people are not interested in which government agency, or even which tier of government, is responsible. •

  16. Principles (cont.) 1. Design websites based on consumer needs A) Topics: (e.g., Australia is designing site for parents whose children are starting school, contains information on term dates, immunization requirements, after-school care and statistics to help choose the right school, as well as to enroll and pay school levies online.) B) User Groups: (e.g. workers.gov; seniors.gov)

  17. Customer Focused, Integrated Government: We’re Not There Yet We Remain in an Agency-Centric World To date, “customer-focused” has mostly meant putting a myriad of links on one web page. It’s as if government is saying “we’re customer focused, we’ve published an easy- to-use directory of all our individual agency-centric programs.” Web links don’t constitute integration.

  18. Principles (cont.) 2. Create inter-governmental-sites.

  19. Principles (cont.) 3. Don’t think web directories constitute joined-up government.

  20. Principles (cont.) 4) Allow users to personalize pages.

  21. 12 Key Principles for Implementation of Digital Government • Think Customer, Not Government • Reinvent Government, Don’t Simply Automate It • Set an Ambitious Goal • Invest Now to Save Tomorrow 23

  22. 12 Key Principles for Implementation of Digital Government (cont.) 5) Focus on Digital Transactions Between Citizens and Government 6) Make Government Application Interoperable with Commercial Ones 7) Pass on a Portion of the Savings From Electronic Transactions Back to the Citizens 8) Promote Access to Information on the Internet, Do Not Restrict It 24

  23. 12 Key Principles for Implementation of Digital Government (cont.) 9) Respect the Rights of Americans for Information Privacy 10) Online Access to Government Should Not Eclipse Traditional Means 11) Federal Efforts Should Complement, Not Duplicate Private Sector Efforts 12) Take Action Now, and Learn From Mistakes 25

  24. What Are the Barriers? • Technology is not the barrier. Nor are issues of authentication, privacy and security issues. • Cultural, institutional, and political factors are the major barriers to faster progress toward digital government. 26

  25. Impediments to Faster Progress Toward Digital Government • Lack of Political Support – No Top-Level Agency and Government-wide Leadership • Lack of Funding and Flexibility • “Agency Centric” vs. “Customer Centric” • Lack of Competitive Pressures Forcing Change 27

  26. Barriers II 1) DG requires shift from bureaucratic government to customer-oriented government. 2) DG requires shift from “stove-pipe” organized government to “cross-cutting” government. 3) DG requires the leadership for it to shift from IT staff to elected officials and agency heads. 28

  27. Barriers III 4) DG requires that it not be viewed as a technical issue, but as a strategic, reinventing government issue. (English, not acronyms: GITS; FACNET; EBT; ACES; EFT; GWAC; FARA) 5) DG requires investments now, in in order to save money in the future. 6) DG requires bipartisan support. 29

  28. It’s Hard to Give Up Control • Customer-centered e-government requires a fundamental change in outlook on the part of government, with the focus being placed on the needs of citizens/customers. • Customer-centered e-government requires moving from separate departmental websites to a seamless Internet presence, organized around the citizen’s needs. To make this work, integration must occur not only between agencies at the same level of government, but also between different tiers of government, and with the private sector.

  29. WWW.PPIONLINE.ORG Rob Atkinson Ratkinson@dlcppi.org (202) 608-1239 31

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