IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Have you ever renewed your driver’s license at 2 a.m.? Filed your income tax statement with the click of a button? Have you had a chance to visit the official Web sites of the United States (www.firstgov.gov), the State of Texas (www.state.tx.us), the City of College Station (www.ci.college-station.tx.us) or the City of Bryan (www.bryantx.org)? Following the surge of e-business and expansion of Information Technology (IT) applications, electronic government (“e-government”) has become one of the prevailing initiatives that many governments have taken. Defined as the electronic provision of information and services by governments 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, e-government leads public agencies to cyberspace, where they hope to upgrade their reputation for efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness. Many governments have developed official Web portals from which they provide public information and online public services. They also promote participative democracy through open policy interactions with citizens in the cyberspace.

According to a recent survey conducted by the International City/County Management Association, about 90 percent of American municipal governments in cities of over 10,000 residents have developed their official Web sites, so-called virtual city halls. However, many governments are still crawling like a tortoise in offering specific e-government services such as online financial and service transactions.

In reality, technological development always outpaces government initiatives, and governments do their best to catch up. Many local governments are facing technical, financial, legal and political barriers that delay their advance toward e-government. Growing security concerns after September 11 further challenge e-government initiatives. The digital divide — the unequal distribution of IT resources across economic groups — and privacy issues are also barriers to be overcome.

The game between the “hare” of technological development and the ”tortoise” of governmental action often looks frustrating and even depressing. With the explosive diffusion of mobile devices, for instance, governments are under growing pressure to shift their gears to take advantage of mobile communication systems for the provision of public information and services.

Facing these technological challenges in the public sector, this society demands more dedicated, competent, and IT-savvy public servants. The Bush School has taken several small but timely and innovative steps to envision the new era of e-government. The school has established a great partnership with the Texas Department of Information Resources (TDIR) for the development of IT-related capstone projects. The capstone projects are designed to offer Bush school students a practical public policy laboratory. Working with Carolyn Purcell, Texas Chief Information Officer and her competent staff members, a group of Bush School students collected valuable information from various state governments through email survey and presented a thorough study on enterprise architecture and mobile technologies in state emergency management.

In this coming fall semester, the school and the TDIR have also agreed to work on another capstone project on mobile technology applications among Texas state agencies. In addition, the Bush school class of 2005 will be required to use laptop computers in the wireless environment.

Quelle: theeagle.com