E-Government in the USA

Have come across a couple of reports on E-government in the USA.  The first is from Pew Research and is a survey that describes the relationship of citizens to public administration - according to this study, 40% of adult internet users have gone online to obtain raw data about government spending and about government activities.  And 31% of online adults have used social media to stay informed about government activities and want to be more engaged & contribute to policy development.  This last part on the desire of citizens wanting to contribute to policy development does not surprise me as I have written about the advantage of what I called "open source policy development" in past blogs.  You can access the Pew study here.

The second report is a report from the Office of Management and Budget entitled "FY 2009 Report to Congress on the Implementation of The E-Government Act of 2002".  This report describes how the US government uses e-government tools to improve its performance and delivery of services and information to the public.  The report also delves into transparency and participation initiatives.

In its first year in office, the Obama Administration leveraged the power of information technology to transform the Federal Government. Starting on his first full day in office, the President led this effort by issuing a directive to make the Government more open and transparent. The Administration engaged the American people in new ways such as virtual town hall meetings and improved the quality of the services delivered to the public. Key initiatives demonstrate the commitment to changing the way Government works:

• In May 2009, Data.gov was launched to enhance access to Federal data. Since then, the site has grown to contain over 167,000 datasets and tools for using the data. After the Environmental Protection Agency toxic release data was featured on Data.gov, the frequency of downloads of that data increased over tenfold.
• In June 2009, the IT Dashboard was implemented to provide unprecedented transparency into $78 billion in annual Federal spending on IT investments. Agency CIOs now review the IT Dashboard monthly to provide updated status information on major IT investments more frequently than ever before.
• In September 2009, Apps.gov was launched to provide Federal agencies easy access to new cloud computing and social media technologies. This enabled agencies to transform their computing services quickly and avoid months of delay and redundant effort.
• In October 2009, a new platform, CyberScope, was launched to streamline the annual security reporting workload and improved the ability to analyze and report on IT security across the Federal Government.
• In December 2009, OMB issued the Open Government Directive instructing all agencies to implement the principles of transparency, participation and collaboration set forth by the President.

 The report also includes many examples of initiatives undertaken in e-government that have application to Canada. You can access the full report here.