Government and Politics
Articles and resources about egovernment initiatives related to government and politics.
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Elections and Politics
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Articles and resources about egovernment initiatives related to elections and politics.
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Government Information and Data
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Articles and resources about e-Government initiatives related to the provision of open government information and data including publications and freedom of information.
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Local Government
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Articles and resources about the broader technology aspects of local government issues and service provision.
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We Must Run Government IT Like A Startup
- by Jonathan Feldman. Information Week - Government, January 22, 2013. "Government 2.0 is about more than social media. It requires throwing out outdated processes and adopting new models of success...
Governments -- slow, lumbering and unresponsive -- must adopt a startup culture. Old way: command and control. New way: decentralized collaboration on shared goals. Political factors and life in a fish bowl discourage government staffers from engaging in experiments with any risk. After all, if their experiments don't work out, they'll be derided for spending taxpayer money on a boondoggle, a potential career limiter..."
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Overcoming Hindrances to Public-Sector Collaboration
- By Colin Wood. Government Technology, April 5, 2013. "While most people agree that collaboration and innovation are good things in government, Rob White, chief innovation officer of Davis, Calif., says the public sector has additional forces at work that routinely prevent successful collaboration from happening – fear, threat and lack of rewards for taking risks.
And Phil Bertolini, CIO of Oakland County, Mich., agrees with White’s identification of these three negative forces..."
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Don't pick on public sector middle managers, Dr Coleman
- The New Zealand minister's suggestion that middle managers in the public sector should be axed is misguided, by Richard Baum. Guardian Professional, Wednesday 6 March 2013. "The prescription for public sector reform is depressingly familiar – a bonfire of managers in response to financial challenges. New Zealand's state services minister, Dr Jonathan Coleman had his hand forced by the tragedy of the Christchurch earthquake.
It's the same policy that's been practised here in the UK, where 32% more people than two years ago think government policy will have a negative long term effect on public services. UK ministers are reforming in a time of economic strife. But solutions in a crisis shouldn't necessarily stay solutions forever, and that's a lesson for both countries..."
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It's time for interactive government
- by Gavin Newsom. philly.com, February 10, 2013. "Gavin Newsom is lieutenant governor of California and author of the book "Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government"
I never feel so needed and loved as during the months leading up to an election: the constant e-mails, phone calls, and an overflowing mailbox. That's when politicians discover social media and engaging with citizens - for donations and help with campaigns.
The minute the election is over, all that disappears, and we're back to government as usual..."
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How to build a smart and innovative government agency - abandon 19th century organisational principles
- eGov AU - Craig Thomler's professional blog - eGovernment and Gov 2.0 thoughts and speculations from an Australian perspective, Monday, February 11, 2013. "NetFlix has released its 'manifesto' detailing how they operate and why, a document that Facebook's COO has described as "the most important document to ever come out of Silicon Valley" and that has attracted well over three million views on Slideshare.
It is the best document I've ever seen on building a smart and innovative organisation and has many lessons for government agencies, as well as for businesses, on how to set organisational goals, develop policy and select and manage staff - which I hope senior government leaders take on-board..."
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The Secret to Restoring Trust in Government
- By Gadi Ben-Yehuda - IBM Center for the Business of Government. Govexec.com, February 7, 2013. "... The American people right now have an historically low level of trust right now in their government. Numerous polls have shown very low levels of popularity with Congress, in particular, but individual representatives are fairly popular in their own districts. What makes the difference is that people feel that they have access to and influence over their individual representative, but little access to and no influence over Congress as a whole. And what gives them that access? Social media.
Through social media, citizens can earn the attention of their mayor or governor (for better or worse), and government is expanding the tool-set through which it can engage citizens..."
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2013 Edelman Trust Barometer Finds a Crisis in Leadership
- Less Than One in Five Trust Leaders to Tell the Truth. Edelman, Press Release, Published January 9, 2013. "Less than one in five respondents in the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer believes a business or governmental leader will actually tell the truth when confronted with a difficult issue. This lack of confidence in traditional authority figures was continually reinforced in 2012 against the backdrop of high-profile scandals involving CEO and government officials, including former McKinsey managing partner Rajat Gupta, former Chinese government official Bo Xilai and Lance Armstrong, former chairman of the Livestrong Foundation.
"We're clearly experiencing a crisis in leadership," said Richard Edelman, president and CEO, Edelman. "Business and governmental leaders must change their management approach and become more inclusive by seeking the input of employees, consumers, activists and experts such as academics, and adapting to their feedback. They must also pass the test of radical transparency."..."
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Is social media blurring the non-partisan status of appointed public servants?
- eGov AU - Craig Thomler's professional blog - eGovernment and Gov 2.0 thoughts and speculations from an Australian perspective, Tuesday, December 4, 2012. "A separation that is widely understood within governments, but often less well understood in the rest of the community, is the separation between politics and public service.
Elected public servants, politicians, ascribe to specific political ideologies and policy positions which form the basis of how people select which politicians and parties to support and cast their votes for.
Unelected public servants, the appointed public service, strive to remain politically unaligned and non-partisan, neutral advisors and implementers of the ideological and political wishes of elected politicians..."
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Focus on Governance
- OECD, November 2012. "Good governance is the cornerstone of good government, and therefore all the more important as our economies and societies look for ways to build more sustainable and inclusive growth in the wake of the economic and financial crisis.
People need to be sure they can trust their governments, whether local, regional or national to put in place the right rules to help chart a path out of crisis and instil more sustainable patterns for the future.
Many such rules and guidelines have been developed by the OECD both before the crisis and since to help governments deliver good governance and combat corruption in the public sector, covering areas from managing conflict of interest to being open and transparent about how public money was being spent..."
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Sky Pilot: Ministering to public service renewal
- Canadian Government Executive, November 20, 2012. "Henry Mintzberg observed in a 2007 CGE interview that management and leadership are two sides of the same coin. 'Nobody wants a manager who is not a leader, but nobody should want a leader who is not a manager. This idea that you can sit up on high and do the big stuff and everybody runs around doing the grunt work is very destructive. Instead, we need to build communities.'
Effective public leaders offer a kind of non-partisan pastoral care for those who champion reform against the odds. They help create a sense of community among public servants on the front lines, at the centre of government, and in the middle of the system. They are "sky pilots" who network government to develop capacity, institutionalize change, and account for results..."
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The Call for Innovative and Open Government: An Overview of Country Initiatives
- OECD, 28 March 2011. "This report presents an overview of country initiatives concerning efficient, effective public services and open and innovative government.
It focuses on four core issues:
1. delivery of public services in times of fiscal consolidation;
2. a more effective and performance-oriented public service;
3. promotion of open and transparent government; and
4. strategies for implementation of a reform agenda..."
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Together for Better Public Services: Partnering with Citizens and Civil Society
- OECD, 31 August 2011. "This report analyses the partnerships that governments form with citizens, users and CSOs in order to innovate and deliver improved public service outcomes.
These approaches can offer creative policy responses that enable governments to provide better public services in times of fiscal constraints.
Although co-production and citizens' involvement are still in the developmental stage in many countries, early efforts appear to lead to cost reductions, better service quality and improved user satisfaction.
This report identifies the risks of citizen and user involvement in service delivery, and the barriers that must be overcome to make these models work. Top-level political commitment, adequate public sector capacity, and aligned financial incentives are the key factors for success..."
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Government Analytics: What Governments Stand to Gain (or Lose)
- Accenture Survey Reveals Those Agencies that Don't Understand Government Analytics Could Be Missing Out. Accenture, September 11, 2012. "Accenture surveyed government decision makers across six countries to assess the government analytics environment. According to Accenture's survey, more than half (52 percent) of government leaders interviewed cited lack of understanding of analytics and how it can help as a major barrier to using government analytics. Four out of 10 people surveyed were not as familiar with, or had never heard of, the term 'analytic techniques.'..."
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Delivering Public Service for the Future: Navigating the Shifts - Global Study
- Accenture, October 2012. "Amid a tumultuous global political and economic landscape, governments across the world know one thing for certain: seismic economic and demographic shifts are reshaping public services. Yet Accenture sees another thing for certain as well: despite these external pressures, the future of public services is far from predetermined.
For we believe that governments now have the opportunity to make significant shifts of their own. Caught in an unsustainable position between the desire to deliver better public services outcomes and the unaffordability—and often, the ineffectiveness—of doing so using today's ways of working, forward-looking government leaders will shift: shift their thinking about what really matters to deliver for citizens and businesses; shift their approaches for delivery; and, crucially, shift the balance between what they can accomplish in public services and the costs of doing so by increasing public service productivity. It's time to think radically, deploying a new generation of processes and tools to build the public services of the future and using those we already have in new and better ways.
However, this simple concept of shifting represents a quandary in practice, because of the radical nature of the change it implies. A positive future for public services will only come from public services turning old ideas and ways of working on their head—making structural shifts in how they shape and deliver outcomes, both through wholly new service models and in massive reductions to their cost bases..."
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The Internet and the Legitimacy of Governments
- By Wout de Natris. CircleID, October 9, 2012. "In two recent debate events I participated in, on iFreedom and privacy in the online world, mistrust of government and government's intentions and motivations on and towards the Internet were abundantly present with more than just a few people in the audiences. The emotions were not new to me, no, it was the rationality that surprised and sometimes almost shocked me. Why? Well, should these sentiments get the support of the majority of people, it would undermine all legitimacy of a government to govern. Let's try and take a closer look. More to start a debate, than to explain. True to this blog, I limit myself, mostly, to cyber security and crime, but to set the stage I start with the role of government in security in general and work towards the question whether the "contract" between government and citizens needs a renewal for the digital age..."
This category last updated: 24 April 2013