08/25/08 03:37 pm ET
A report released by the Brookings Institution on electronic government shows just how the U.S. government has begun to lag other countries in the use of the Web to provide information and public services to citizens. The report, “Improving Technology Utilization in Electronic Government around the World, 2008,” ranks the federal government third out of 198 countries, up from fourth last year.
That looks pretty good, with only South Korea and Taiwan beating the United States out for the top two spots. But the author of the report, Darrell M. West, director of governance studies at Brookings, was not impressed. West wrote:
While some countries have embraced digital government broadly defined, the United States is falling behind in broadband access, public sector innovation and in implementing the latest interactive tools to government Web sites. This limits the transformational potential of the Internet and weakens the ability of technology to empower citizens and businesses. Government Web sites must make better use of available technology, and address problems of access and democratic outreach.
The United States ranked 15th among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations, down from fourth place in 2001. The United States also is barely in third place, with four countries – Singapore, Canada, Australia and Germany – within four points or less of each other.
We’ve blogged here before about the lack of imagination, money and resources to transform federal Web sites into something really useful to citizens, including making government documents easier to search and access. And federal Web sites continue to lag those operated by the private sector.
Hat tip: Federal Computer Week
COMMENTS
Cyberspace is not where we are heading, the necessity issue is dictating vital stats to endorse and feather energy solutions. How Russia could have become a vital portal for the Middle East with Chernoble had there not been a disaster and a failed nuclear program makes me wonder now about importing workers from the Middle East into Georgia and firing up a new nuclear consortium. Putin does not have a solution to NATO other than standing against NATO and bringing in Iran. With that in mind how could eGovt become successful within ten years knowing that a war lurks the horizon that has not been seen WWIII. North Korea and China really do not want a WW and this appears why China made a move to do business with Iran but this now shows a Iran Middleman issue with Russian leadership dancing in the wind. For us to grasp the Electronic Technology investment imagine a Fiber Optical system need in Russia which would be a unilateral support in transportation issue in China advancing to G4 capability in telecommunications and China is the leading nation of G3 in education and government development, Russians had ADSL long before Americans but want to endorse G3 and that is the tidal opportunity - getting Iran to move in the same direction and pattern of endorsement.
Charles Jones 09/03/08 12:31 pm ET
You can't have it both ways! Being on the leading edge means being on the bleeding edge -- being an early adopter is risky. With the entire cyber-security world going nuts over the various exploits and nation-sponsored hacker teams, the bureaucrats are scared out of their wits (something that might have been in short supply in the first place). So they are not about to go up front with every bit of new technology that pops up.
In general, to get approval and money for a project, the proponents must certify with no reservation that the package won't do something to end up on the front page of the New York Times (and blogged all over the Nextgov website, for that matter). That cert doesn't come easily or quick. Often, the certification costs more than the product. Then there's the PII cert, the enterprise architecture cert, etc, etc. In addition, the boss tends to say "Bye, bye" to anyone who tries something new and comes a cropper -- leaving behind who? That's right, "Rather be safe than sorry Sam."
So how about getting explicit about what you propose and how you expect it to work in the presence of all the other constraints before you mouth platitudes about the government being "behind." And that goes for the Brookings boys, too. It's easy to criticize -- now, how about becomming part of the solution...
Arty 09/03/08 08:41 am ET
The Brookings study appears to have some contradictory conclusions.
In the first paragraph, the article states that according to the study the US has begun to lag but then says the US climbed from 4th to 3rd place. Further down, it states that the US ranked 15th among OECD nations down from 4th place in 2001.
Bernie Lubran 08/27/08 10:24 pm ET
I'm sick and tired of hearing how the Federal government lags in cyberspace, how Federal employees are lazy, and how the Federal government is inefficient, etc. As long as we continue to put idiots in the White House who prefer to spend tax dollars on useless wars and overpriced military equipment and agencies, the rest of the government will continue to do the best that they can. Government is already hampered by the necessity of being open to the public and other controls which will inherently raise the cost of any action when compared to the private sector (and is usually ignored when comparing government costs with the private sector, thus requiring that Federal employees suffer in salary to break even). But now, with the idiot in the White House spending anything that's left on defense, I can say to the useless media pundits, you get what you paid for. If you want government to improve, dump the republican party, Bush and others, and put your money where your mouth is.
William Ward 08/26/08 09:36 am ET