Web 2.0 - Modernization of Government

Now as a scholar of Public Administration, when it comes to issues of management, transparency, and service delivery, we in the public field have to work in an even more crucial way compared to our private counterparts. This being that unlike the field of private services, we in the public sector must be transparent and foster cooperation to provide administrative ethical treatment. If we do not work hand in hand with our citizens, issues such as NIMBY (Not in my backyard) may form. This is our worst fear. If NIMBY were to arise due to lack of belief towards our respective constituents, vice versa once they realize their voices aren't truly being heard, pure chaos, dissatisfaction, and failure to implement or execute towards the goal can falter.

This is Marlins Ballpark in Miami...which I am putting here for totally no apparent reason whatsoever..

Web 2.0 in fact can help us towards this continuing push for modernization of government through becoming more hospitable and transparent with our constituents be it local, state, or federal. Dr. Ai-Mei Chang and Dr. P.K. Kannan wrote a great report for the IBM center for The Business of Government further focusing on the needs of web 2.0 in government, and what exactly is happening for the fruition of it to even appear! These being (Chang, Mei; Kannan, P.K., 2008):

• Government needs to meet citizens where they are online.
• Citizens are willing to interact with government agencies online.
• The role of intermediaries (3rd party businesses, contractors) will increase
• Government will need to rethink content and service design
• Government will have to find ways to embed authority in its web-based services
• Some citizens are concerned about equal access
• Citizens trust the government with personal data but not for service efficiency
• Government will need to measure the effectiveness of its web 2.0 initiatives

The journal goes on to recommend several ways that the government can properly address these issues, and I highly recommend a read or skim of it if you really want to learn a lot more about web 2.0 penetration in government and the possible issues it faces (which I may talk about at a later time, such as the "Second-Class Citizen" problem). 

So, are we moving towards it? yes and no. State and Local governments have been embracing web 2.0 services as far back as simple 411 FAQ sites, allowing for user input on problems or comments. Though some cities such as Miami Dade, Denver, and counties and states such as New York, Fairfax, VA, and Texas have truly been engaged in pushing web 2.0 technologies, even winning awards from the Public Technology Institute(PTI) for their services (Heaton, Brian, 2011). They reached out in civic engagement, accountability, transparency, mobile applications, economic development and much more to receive these recognitions, yet there are many places that can be improved upon. A case study in the UK found that while web 2.0 was used for citizen engagement, it was not used for other internal purposes such as intra-organizational business-related activities, and that the usage for employees was rather limited, as social media may be blocked (Sivarajah, Uthayasankar, 2015). This is a dilemma when observing  web 2.0 in government. How much discretion do we truly have in implementing it as administrators, and ethically running it due to its broad reaches and easy to obtain information?

Each day, more precedent is being made and some countries are in fact beacons when it comes to services, shockingly one of them being the South American country of Brazil, which I will get into in a future blog. The US compared to the EU and South American countries such as Brazil have a far way to go in general (of course some states and cities are bearing the flag of web 2.0 administrative modernization).


Sources:

Chang, A.-M., & Kannan, P. (2008). Leveraging Web 2.0 in Government. IBM Center for The Business of Government.

Heaton, B. (2011, May 24). 17 States and Local Governments Honored for Web 2.0 and Social Media. Retrieved from Government Technology: http://www.govtech.com/e-government/Governments-Honored-Web-20-and-Social-Media-.html

Sivarajah, U., Irani, Z., & Weerakkody, V. (2015). Evaluating the use and impact of Web 2.0 technologies in local government. Government Information Quarterly, 473-487.