E-government traditionally refers to the delivery of government information and services online. The web presents governments with cost effective ways to reach out to the public and governments at all levels have placed a wide range of materials on the web from publications to databases. But e-government offers governments the opportunity to listen as well as to speak. I would argue that the full potential of e-government will only truly be realized when the ‘e’ in e-Government stands for ‘engagement’ rather than ‘electronic’.
Email allows citizens to interact with government officials or request information or services. While email is certainly the easiest method of contact, there are other methods that government websites can employ to listen to the public. These include areas to post comments, the use of message boards, and chat rooms. Websites using these features would allow citizens and department members alike to read and respond to others’ comments regarding issues. Survey tools, polls and petitions could be used as could blogs and Wikis.
Citizens bring diverse perspectives and experiences to e-government, and government would benefit from citizen suggestions, complaints, and feedback. Even a simple feature such as a comment form empowers citizens and gives them a voice.
Business has learned to leverage electronic services to create new paradigms with its customers. Self-Service, online order entry and online support are all examples of business shedding expenses in exchange for putting consumer’s in control. Experience from e-businesses shows that the identification of customer needs is an iterative process involving interactions of various forms. Government must learn to do the same and the next wave of e-government must move towards building engagement with the public so that the public use services through new channels, not because they save the government money but because they are more efficient and effective.
The debate over web personalization vs privacy will continue for the foreseeable future. Technology, and the ability to target and respond to an individual’s needs clashes with the individuals right to forbid others from getting too much information about their behavior. Privacy advocates will continue to raise concerns about the use of technologies but once we solve the problem let’s hope that technology will be used to encourage participatiion by citizens rather than simply make existing processes faster or worse spread existing poor ones.
