Information Technology Research, Innovation, and E-Government (2002) / Chapter Skim
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Summary and Recommendations
Summary and Recommendations
Pages 1-20
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research can improve existing government services, operations, and interactions with citizens as well as create new ones. The first phase of the committee's study featured workshops examining two illustrative application areascrisis management and federal statistics and concluded with the publication of two summary reports in 1999 and 2000.1 The second phase of the project synthesized the results of the two workshops, information gleaned from other published work on IT research and e-government, and material obtained in the course of two data-gathering meetings and supplemental individual interviews.
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This report identifies research challenges related to e-government and looks at these challenges in the wider context of government IT practice and the transition of innovative information technologies from the laboratory to operational systems. The conceptualization, design, development, testing, delivery, and support of operational government IT systems for agency end users involve an extensive "supply chain" that includes system integrators, vertical suppliers, major vendors, smaller technology companies, consultants, architects, and researchers.
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E-government which has diverse constituencies that include citizens and other individuals; businesses; nonprofit organizations; and the many federal, state, and local agencies is envisioned as providing some of the following key benefits: More accessible government information; · Faster, smoother transactions with government agencies; · Enhanced ubiquity of access to information and transactions; · Greater effectiveness in meeting the needs of specific groups of users; · Increased participation in government by all people, fostering a more informed and engaged citizenry; · Greater ability to meet expectations for advances in governmentunique areas, including challenges in the newly emerging homeland security mission; and · More efficient internal government operations.
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In addition, administrative burdens associated with initiating and managing small and start-up businesses are being reduced through online resources. Much work remains if government is to fully realize the ambition of broadening e-government services from information access to transaction support services that enable citizens, businesses, and other government entities to submit information to, engage in financial transactions with, or otherwise interact with government organizations.
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, which significantly lags information access today. Correspondingly, modalities will expand beyond people's interacting with Web browsers to include routine online access to government information and services through common programming interfaces and access through devices other than desktop computers.
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Legal constraints can significantly inhibit rapid, wholesale structural changes in government structures (at both inter- and intraagency levels)
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GOVERNMENT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PRACTICE The delivery of new digital government services depends on access to advanced information technology, the right management strategies and processes within organizations adopting the new technology, and effective, ongoing evaluation of new service concepts and goals. Technologies and Practices Finding 2.1.
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, government is a "demand leader." Targeted research in computer science, coupled with effective technology transition strategies, can contribute significantly to the development of such capabilities. Although it can generally build on the technologies and services emerging in the e-business marketplace, government leads demand in several areas.
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(Credit card fraud is an example.) Government agencies, however, are expected to adhere to a higher standard no improper disclosure of personal information contained in statistical data, tax filings, social security records, and the like even though government is also charged with releasing certain kinds of information, which may be derived from sensitive personal or corporate information that it collects, and making it uniformly available to all.
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More generally, appropriate interfaces would also enable citizens and businesses to use software that directly connects with government services. A number of technical challenges exist, though, including protocol design, development of information representations and metadata standards, security and authentication, and development of digital library systems.
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Finding 2.3. In building e-government systems and the supporting digital infrastructure, government faces significant nontechnical challenges in the way it acquires IT capabilities.
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By leveraging its dual roles as a user of IT and a longterm investor in IT research, government can increase its awareness of the opportunities afforded by IT advances and influence the development of IT that can help to meet its own needs. This synergy can be stimulated by government through investment throughout the technology supply chain and through the development of relationships with all appropriate segments of the IT research, development, and vendor communities.
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For government agencies, benefits stemming from research can extend well beyond the research results themselves. While there is no substitute for in-house IT talent, interactions with researchers are a useful way to tap additional technical expertise, especially top-caliber research talent that is unlikely to be obtainable in-house or through the usual advisory mechanisms.
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information technology industries have seen tremendous growth. Even with this growth and success, government investment both from research and mission agencies in IT research and education continues to enhance the overall competitive position of the U.S.
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These include, for example: · Information infrastructure and e-commerce technologies, which provide the foundation for e-business outside and inside government; · Information management technologies, which permit search and retrieval from the very large volumes of information held by governments and allow integration of diverse sets of heterogeneous information systems; · Middleware, which provides common services and capabilities that "glue" software components together into larger systems; · Human-system interfaces, which provide "every-citizen" usability; · Modeling and simulation, which are important tools underlying government planning and decision making (such as in crisis management) ; and · Software technologies, which permit construction of more robust, larger-scale, interdependent software systems.
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Government also has a number of mission areas, such as federal statistics and crisis management, that are supported by multiple entities and for which explicit coordination mechanisms have been devised (such as the cooperation between federal statistical agencies and the Office of Management and Budget [OMB] , the lead role played by the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA]
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Recommendation 4.1. Consideration should be given to providing specific mechanisms, such as a centrally managed cross-agency IT innovation fund, as incentives to enable government organizations to undertake innovative and risky IT projects.
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In particular, managing this set of transitional stages can mean working across the entire supply chain of IT innovation, recognizing that each of the participants government system integrators, vertical application developers, vendors of major components such as databases and operating systems, technology-focused start-up companies, and university and laboratory researchers, among others has its own unique set of incentives and interests. One of the greatest challenges is how to escape from the "specification-first" acquisition model, which one sees even in some prototyping programs that were meant to be exploratory and to undertake risks.
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The recent emphasis in government on homeland security, including the development of new science and technology in support of the counterterrorism mission, has fostered new attention to cross-agency activities related to information technology. The appointment during the Bush administration of a federal chief technology officer and development of an associate director for information technology and e-government within OMB reinforces both the need and the potential for crosscutting activity.
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20 IT RESEARCH, INNOVATION, AND E-GOVERNMENT By facilitating collaboration among mission agencies and government research organizations, it may be possible to address areas of shared concern, such as security, more effectively. Cross-agency attention is evident in OMB, the federal Chief Information Officers Council, and in congressional activity, but it has only infrequently translated into long-lived relationships being established to do research or to undertake prototyping studies.
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