e-Government
As state and federal governments work to infuse intelligence into their transport, energy, water, telecommunications and other systems in order to stimulate economies and benefit citizens, it begs the question: can the operations of government itself become smarter?
"Citizen-centric"—the evolution continues
"Just as private enterprises have rediscovered their mission and business model by returning to a focus on customers, governments around the world are finding success in reorienting their structures, information technology and policies around the citizens they serve, to create a smart government."
This can range from "one-stop shopping" for previously discrete sets of services to information sharing and collaboration across regions and borders for the benefit of both citizens and government.
At a country level, for example in the United Kingdom and Singapore, governments are educating citizens about multiple ways to obtain services and encouraging them to use the most convenient and efficient channels. At the other end of the spectrum, across an entire continent, Europe has many examples of information shared across departments and programs to deliver service and benefits to citizens. To undergird this partnership, all European Union member states are required to have national legislation in line with the EU's directive on data protection.
Smarter Work for a Smarter Government – Openness, Collaboration and Cooperation On 9 September 2009, IBM brought together a select group of senior government leaders, generation Y future government leaders, and workforce industry professionals to consider the challenges facing Australia’s public sector workforce – and the potential to harness Web 2.0 technology to change the way Government collaborates, innovates and serves its constituencies.
During the event, attendees considered and debated the characteristics of what a
smarter workforce, servicing a smarter government, might look like in the future, and
how we might get there. This executive summary provides an overview of the issues
discussed at the Forum, with a view to continuing this important conversation throughout Australia’s public sector.
Download the report
Government 2020
This new awareness and collaboration doesn't occur merely by chance or even always by choice. Just as often, it's mandated by necessity.
In its report "Government 2020," the IBM Institute for Business Value identified six worldwide forces that were at work, driving such changes for government at every level. Together, these six forces represent a mix of opportunities and threats. Yet as universal as they are, they require unique responses suited to each nation, region or locality.
Learn more about the “Government 2020” report
An inside look at military coalitions in Iraq, Afghanistan and other
regions: What makes them work?
Few formal studies have focused on how we can make our coalitions work more effectively, so IBM Global Business Services set out to collect a strong dataset. This year, we conducted more than 100 interviews with individuals who were in combat, stabilisation and disaster relief operations from 1994 to 2009 in Iraq, Afghanistan and other regions. We wanted their opinions about how effective their coalitions were and any practical suggestions they might have for improvement.
- Coalitions function better over short, high intensity missions
- The real leaders in collaboration are Canada and Great Britain—not the United States
- Afghanistan is seen as a more successful example of coalition than Iraq
Government 2020
This new awareness and collaboration doesn't occur merely by chance or even always by choice. Just as often, it's mandated by necessity.
In its report "Government 2020," the IBM Institute for Business Value identified six worldwide forces that were at work, driving such changes for government at every level. Together, these six forces represent a mix of opportunities and threats. Yet as universal as they are, they require unique responses suited to each nation, region or locality.
World peace through world trade and collaboration
Just as data has begun to move more fluidly between the parts of government, and between a government and its citizens, smarter governments are participating in new kinds of collaboration and partnership up and down the different strata of government, and even across borders and around the world.
Unique solutions from collaborative platforms
In the past, unique technology would often be budgeted and created anew to replicate what might be a common service for many different departments of government, or even offices within departments. Today, common platforms and open standards are the basis for many of the unique iterations of smarter government already in evidence. Sometimes that's as simple as using social computing applications like Twitter to report the daily cash flow for the state of Rhode Island. Or it could be as complex as creating a virtual world for the training of a nation's intelligence agents.
