The interoperability of technologies, data and applications across different government agencies, tiers and jurisdictions has been a keystone of e-government and government transformation programs for almost a decade. The nirvana of any such program is to achieve seamless integration between processes and applications, to make the structure of government invisible (or irrelevant) to service delivery, [...]
Entries from November 2008
The Death of Government Interoperability
November 28th, 2008 · 4 Comments
Tags: e-government · shared services in government
Will Governments Use More or Less Open Source Software Now?
November 26th, 2008 · No Comments
Earlier today an article about the role of open source software in difficult economic times made me reflect about whether government organizations will become more or less interested in open source with the budget cuts and cost saving targets many of them are being or will soon be faced with.
I know, this is a controversial [...]
Tags: open source in government
Standards and Recession: What’s Ahead?
November 21st, 2008 · No Comments
Yesterday I was invited to give a short keynote and moderate a round table at an event in Brussels (see webcast) where representatives from the ICT industry, government, standardization bodies and various associations met to discuss about whether and how to improve standardization processes in Europe and worldwide.
As part of my keynote, where I focused [...]
Tags: scenario planning
Is Social Software Really Different From Email?
November 18th, 2008 · No Comments
Of course it is, and I am sure we all agree that it opens whole new possibilities for collaboration, cooperative problem solving, participation, crowdsourcing and so forth.
At the same time, we all hear the same concerns about its use in enterprises: loss of productivity with employees following and chatting with their online friends, and risks [...]
Tags: social networks in government
Will IT Be Strategic for Obama, or Not?
November 14th, 2008 · No Comments
An article this morning made me reflect on how predicting the role of IT with the new administration is far from being trivial. Many take Obama’s campaign as an example of how sensitive he is to the role of technology and infer that he will keep technology spending up. The counterargument is that other more [...]
Tags: e-government
Web 2.0 Apps Winners Chosen in D.C.
November 13th, 2008 · 10 Comments
I have recently written for our clients about AppsForDemocracy, an intriguing initiative that the Office of the CTO in the District of Columbia launched a month ago (see my note Web 2.0 Applications: From The People To The People). The competition was meant for developers to create mashup applications that use the district’s more than 200 [...]
Tags: web 2.0 in government
More Excitement About Social Networks in Government: Obama’s Fault?
November 12th, 2008 · 6 Comments
Yesterday I had two illuminating conversations, one professional and one personal, that show how people with government responsibilities or aspirations are falling even more in love with web 2.0 and social networks than before.
The first conversation, in the morning, was with a lady who is in charge for e-government policies and programs in a European [...]
Tags: social networks in government
Critical Infrastructure Protection and Social Networks
November 11th, 2008 · No Comments
Another interesting one-on-one at our European Symposium was with a client from a Defense agency in a Scandinavian country (yes, we have many clients from Scandinavia coming to Cannes). We were discussing about the impact of Web 2.0 to deal with crisis situations – ranging from flooding to nuclear accidents, from epidemics to terrorist attacks.
When [...]
Tags: social networks in government
Tax City or Tax Square? Better a Tax Bus
November 11th, 2008 · No Comments
As promised, here is one of the conversations I had with clients while in Cannes at our Fall Symposium.
The client was from a tax authority in one of the Scandinavian countries, and told me about an idea they are playing with. They are planning to develop a virtual tax city; where taxpayers – both corporate [...]
Tags: e-government · social networks in government
Why A Good Idea for Governments to Help People May Never Work
November 10th, 2008 · No Comments
A few days ago, commenting on a piece of research I am writing , my colleague Massimo Pretali, who works as a Director in Gartner Consulting, came up with this intriguing suggestion about how local governments could help people during these difficult times.
Given the current economic downturn and the fact that some families may struggle with [...]