Debate 2

Date: Class 5. March 6, 2007

Students presenting: (4-6 people)

• Scott Lesowitz
• Chris Conley
• Atsushi Okada
• Cynthia Robertson
• Andrew O'Connor

The Question

"Resolved: E-Government is a lot like Al Gore’s ‘reinventing government’ initiative when he was Vice-President: sounds like something that governments should obviously do, but no one much cares and the impact on society, after lots of effort, is negligible. There’s no special magic to governing in a digital age."

Topic: Citizenship and Governance in a Wired World.

Dan Gillmor and Yochai Benkler have each written compelling books that bear on what it means to be a citizen in a digital age. Consider this puzzle from another vantage point. What does is mean to govern in a digital age? Are there any examples that make a compelling case for the imperative that those in power ought to use Internet as a key tool in how they govern (consider what new governor Deval Patrick or new attorney general Martha Coakley are up to locally, in Massachusetts)? Or examples where citizens are using the Internet to improve how those in power govern (like the work of the Sunlight Foundation and those it supports)?

Arguments in Support of the Resolution

Arguments Opposed to the Resolution

What is E-Government?

The term "e-government" refers to the government's use of information and communications technologies (most notably the internet, but also technologies such as cellphones, PDAs, wireless networks, and others) to disseminate and/or receive information from citizens, businesses, or other governmental actors.[1] E-government in its ideal form would enable government to better inform its citizens, enable citizens to better monitor governmental actions (transparency), and allow a means for citizens to express their views to governmental actors and even engage in ongoing deliberation with these governmental actors and other citizens.

The most common methods of e-government are:[2]

• E-mail (both to receive comments from the public or other governmental actors, or to disseminate information through e-mail lists)
• Online polls (a proposition is presented and users indicate whether they are for/against/undecided; a running tally of responses is kept and usually displayed for the user)
• Surveys
• Blogs (often with the ability of readers to post comments; usually moderated)
• Forums (also known as message boards: someone posts a message and then other people can respond to the message; the message board is usually open to the public and anyone can post a message, but a the message board can be restricted; usually moderated)
• Webchats (scheduled events where a member of government answers user questions in real time; if turnout is high it is unlikely that all questions will be answered; usually moderated)

The Hansard Society: Digital Dialogues -- Examples of E-Government

The Hansard Society conducted a series of six case studies of examples of e-government in Britain and issued a report called "Digital Dialogues."[3] The six case studies were:

• The Department for Education and Skills runs a number of surveys every year.[www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations]
• Minister of Parliament and Secretary for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs David Miliband runs a blog where he makes posts roughly every other day about political issues (mainly those pertaining to his department)[www.davidmiliband.defra.gov.uk]. Users could post comments in response to MP Miliband's posts. Ideally MP Milliband could engage in an ongoing dialogue with his constituents through the comments section.
• The Department for Work and Pensions created an online forum to enable the agency to engage in a dialogue with citizens about welfare reform in preparation for an upcoming policy paper on welfare reform. Ideally, feedback and ideas from users would affect the content of the policy paper.[www.welfarereformforum.net]
• The Department for Communities and Local Government created an online forum to solicit comments on local government issues that were likely to be addressed in an upcoming policy paper.[[4]]
• The Department for Communities and Local Government conducted a webchat with local government officials.[5] This was part of a campaign of summits where employees of the department discussed local government issues with local leaders. The web chat was used as a substitute means of communicating with local leaders in remote towns in order to save time and money.
• The Food Standards Agency setup an online forum to create a dialogue with small caterers to help the agency in improving the pack designed to help small catering businesses comply with sanitary regulations.[www.food.gov.uk/sfbbforum]

Discussion

Just as a very rough starting point, there are a number of ways in which technology and governance might be approached:

• Technology in government
  • Transparency
    • Does the Internet help to prevent corruption?
  • Efficiency
  • Democracy & Accountability
    • Does the Internet improve the ability for direct democracy?

• Technology and citizenship
  • Collaborative policymaking
    • Examples
      • OpenCongress
  • Informed Citizenry
    • Effects
      • Increased civic involvement
      • Increased accountability for government actions
    • Examples
      • Congresspedia

• Challenges to the development of e-government
  • Digital divide
    • The adoption of online services should not reduce choice for individuals who cannot access them.
  • Privacy
    • E-government should not be delivered at the expense of individual privacy protection.
      • Examples
        • E-surveillance
  • Country context gap
    • E-government might not succeed in a different social context (e.g., developing countries).
      • Low-tech solutions might fit in with the existing infrastracture (poor IT infrastracture and high telecommunications costs).
      • E-government is not an end itself.