Comments on: e-Government is government

By: Filling the glass to half empty | Public Strategist

Filling the glass to half empty | Public Strategist — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:32:01 +0000

[...] e-government ministers of the EU had a meeting and, as is their wont, issued a declaration. As I have made clear before, I am not a fan of the term ‘e-government’, which I think tends to distract rather than [...]

By: Tope Allen

Tope Allen — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:44:54 +0000

This is a nice one, but then, what we need most in our country is transparency in the public sectors organisations. we need people who are commited and people of integrity.people who are ready to take responsibilties for what they do.it is a nice write up but then i want everyone of us to see ourselves as people the world is waiting for to manifest our potentials.As for me, i will bring out the best in my country.Therefore see yourself as the genius of the world.

By: e –Government ten years on | Public Strategist

e –Government ten years on | Public Strategist — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:03:29 +0000

[...] what has happened as a failure of e-government is to come at it from the wrong end (and is why e-government is now such an unhelpful concept). The problems with online service delivery which remain all too evidently present are symptoms [...]

By: Paul Johnston

Paul Johnston — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:33:58 +0000

A great post with which I have much sympathy (likewise the comments above). My defence of the draft declaration I wrote (and I suppose of the initiative more generally) is that the aim is to have an impact on the Commission and on ministers, so we need to focus on something clear and distinctive. It is absolutely true that we need “excellence in service delivery”, but won’t ministers just agree that that is what they are in the process of delivering? What sort of things could one say here that would push in the right direction and help speed up change? If you had the opportunity to make three or four simple points to ministers that really captured what they should do differently to improve government as a service provider what would they be?

By: Public Strategist

Public Strategist — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:11:16 +0000

I am not a great fan of 2.0 either. Slick front ends need something to bite on - some earlier thoughts on that here

By: Sphereless

Sphereless — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:55:07 +0000

Good post. I’ve always (generally unsuccessfully tried to avoid using the “2.0″ term, as I think a lot of this comes down to linguistics at the expense of anything else. Agree totally that “e-government” doesn’t exist, but I’d also apply the same to anything “2.0″ – these are both, IMHO, rhetoric to imply that things should be changed drastically – revolutionised, if you like – *and* from a technical perspective, to top it all off.

But change doesn’t work that way – there needs to be a need and a want for change – in other words, change is an *output*, rather than a driver. What’s driving change in government now is technology that’s been developed for *other* purposes. New forms of communication and, therefore, new forms of politics.

Trying to shoehorn technology for one purpose into a government that has different purposes is kind of weird, like drinking tea you don’t like, because you like the shape of the kettle. We need to take a step back, and work out what it is we want, before we know what technology we want. It’s not surprising that the 5 principles are all about “engagement” as pushing things outwards *from* government.

There is a “government”, but there’s also “governance”, which is a very different thing right now.

By: Alex butler

Alex butler — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:55:08 +0000

Very good. Couldn’t have put it better myself. I will own up to the fact that I never liked the term, but in fairness couldn’t come up with anything more appropriate.
That term ‘citizen input’ doesn’t do it for me either. We don’t generally input, but we do contribute, or share, or give feedback, or participate.
My problem with the term egovernment is that it frequently boils things done to widget, platform, computer, system, portal level.
How about Me-government?