THE PRACTITIONER

On President Obama’s first day in office he signed a memorandum for the heads of executive departments and agencies with the subject: Transparency and Open Government. He wrote, “My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.  We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration.” Since then, government agencies have been buzzing about the role Web 2.0 will play in increasing openness in the public sector.

Recently, Beth Simone Noveck, US Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Open Government and Andrew Rasiej, the co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, were featured in a discussion on Gov 2.0: The Collaborative Opportunities of Open Government.

The discussion delved into how new technologies change the way citizens interact with the government, and vice versa. “What we’ve seen in the last year or two are citizens using the speed of technology and the new platforms…to cobble together different kinds of services that are actually providing governmental information to the public faster than government can and also providing information to government from citizens in new ways,” said Rasiej.

Advancements in public sector software have enabled governments to foster collaboration among constituents in unprecedented ways, including increasing cross-departmental communication and transparency, and citizen satisfaction. Community development software has the ability to empower citizens and businesses with transparent access to many government processes, such as filing for permits and licensing. Gone are the days when citizens and contractors are forced to wait in long lines to file necessary forms and pay for permits. Instead, the internet has taken over, allowing 24/7 access to online resources that improve citizen service.

My agency works with a provider of software to the public sector and, through conversations with our client and their customers, it is quite apparent many municipalities are leaving their conservative IT approaches behind and moving forward with technologies that drive a new level of citizen relationship. These technologies help improve citizen satisfaction as well as impact the bottom line and right now, saving precious tax dollars through efficiency sounds pretty good.

As I discussed in a previous post, Government agencies have also begun to embrace social media. New municipal Facebook pages, Twitter handles for public officials, and government blogs pop up every day. With all of the advancements in technology available to the public sector, where do government organizations position themselves? The public sector is known for deploying mature technologies. But how does this gel with the increasing citizen demand for elevated customer service and increased transparency new technologies provide? How far outside of their comfort zone are they willing to go? As far was working with Beta technologies a la Google?

“Very rarely does government launch a project and announce to the public ‘This is beta,’” said Rasiej. “You know, kick the tires. Give us your comments. We’ll fix it, we’ll adjust it. We’re looking to make it a better product. Contrast that with Google, for example, which doesn’t release anything in final form. The company just took Gmail out of beta in July even though it’s been around since 2004.”

Will government ever be willing to take this leap and be more Google-like? Perhaps not. But it is clear that citizens are engaged and committed to demanding a more open and collaborative government. Thankfully, there are many new public sector technologies and social media outlets available to meet these needs. And if you can’t beat them, join them.

Steve is President of Wunderkind Public Relations. He regularly comments on public relations strategy, social media and trends impacting the communications industry. You can follow him on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn.