Abstract
In this paper, we propose to view the concept of open government from the perspective of an ecosystem, a metaphor often used by policy makers, scholars, and technology gurus to convey a sense of the interdependent social systems of actors, organizations, material infrastructures, and symbolic resources that can be created in technology-enabled, information-intensive social systems. We use the concept of an ecosystem to provide a framework for considering the outcomes of a workshop organized to generate a research and development agenda for open government. The agenda was produced in discussions among participants from the government (at the federal, state, and local levels), academic and civil sector communities at the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University at Albany, SUNY in April 2011. The paper begins by discussing concepts central to understanding what is meant by an ecosystem and some principles that characterize its functioning. We then apply this metaphor more directly to government, proposing that policymakers engage in strategic ecosystems thinking, which means being guided by the goal of explicitly and purposefully constructing open government ecosystems. From there, we present the research agenda questions essential to the development of this new view of government's interaction with users and organizations. Our goal is to call attention to some of the fundamental ways in which government must change in order to evolve from outdated industrial bureaucratic forms to information age networked and interdependent systems.
Highlights
The frequently used label of “Government 2.0” was originally inspired by demands for government organizations to transition, as William Eggers put it some years ago, “from Industrial Age”into the “Information Age” [1] (p. 8)
We report on the outcomes of one of these workshops, describing a research agenda for open government produced in discussions among workshop participants from the government, academic, and civil sector communities at the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University at Albany, SUNY in April 2011
In proposing to view the concept of open government from the perspective of the ecosystems metaphor, our goal has been to call attention to some of the fundamental ways in which government must change in order to evolve from outdated industrial bureaucratic forms to information age networked and interdependent systems
Summary
The frequently used label of “Government 2.0” was originally inspired by demands for government organizations to transition, as William Eggers put it some years ago, “from Industrial Age”into the “Information Age” [1] (p. 8). The more recent advances characterized as Web 2.0 invite a view of Government 2.0 well beyond what might be conceived as “information age”. Profound interdependencies are commonplace in Web 2.0 environments; users function as both producers and consumers of information and form complex networks of interaction with each other and the organizations and communities they are part of [2,3,4]. These interdependencies point to the need for even more radical views of Government 2.0. At the same time that we appreciate more fully these independencies, the path forward remains substantially undefined since we have few models for a state in which government contributes proactively to a culture of innovation, transformation, and accountability within a network of interrelationships comprised of citizens and commercial, academic, civil society, and other government organizations
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