In 2002 the US Senate approved the eGovernment Act. A special Committee was assigned to work out the most feasible and efficient solutions to improve citizen, intergovernmental and business access to information and services by supporting interoperability between federal, state and local government agencies. The objective is to make public information accessible by everyone – at all times. An official federal portal has been set up at USA.gov
President Obama has taken a number of new initiatives under the slogan Open Government. The simple idea is to use technology to increase transparency and openness as well as participation.These new ambitions first manifested through the launch of Change.gov launched by the Obama-Biden transition project and has continued with the launching of Recovery.gov, where the public can track the stimulus funds from the Recovery Act; and Transparency.gov, where total government spending can be monitored. Other federal portals recently launched include Data.gov where the public can access high value datasets generated by the Federal Government and also participate in developing the site by suggesting new data series to collect etc; and Regulation.gov where the public can search among federal rules and comment upon them.
The original eGovernment Act of 2002 calls for the adoption of standards which are “open to the maximum extent feasible”.
What seems most important is implementing standards which ensure the interoperability across agencies. NIST is responsible for testing eGovernment standards making sure that only mature technologies are implemented.
The Obama administration also recognizes the need to protect Intellectual Protery. In a manifest prior to the election Obama expresses that “IP is to the digital age what physical goods were to the industrial age”. Therefore, copyright and patent systems need to be updated or reformed to ensure that IPR holders are treated fairly and innovation is promoted.
On the individual state level a 2008 report highlights Delaware, Georgia, Florida, California, Massachusetts, Maine, Kentucky, Alabama, Indiana and Tennessee as the highest ranking states is eGovernment progress. The ranking is based on examining certain criteria in websites, such as accessibility, databases, privacy-security policy, audio-video clips etc, where Delaware scored a top 83.7 percent. What has improved the most in state eGovernment is first and foremost the range of provided electronic services including the acceptance of credit card payments and digital signatures.
In summary, the US have come a long way towards the goal of making information accessible and transparent.
Further reading:
E-Government Act of 2002 http://www.archives.gov/about/laws/egov-act-section-207.html
eStrategy Information Center http://www.estrategy.gov/drilldown.cfm?action=it_policy_documents
“Obama’s e-government off to a good start” http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-technology/obamas-egovernment-off-to-good-start-20090427-ak9j.html
State and Federal Electronic Government in the United States, 2008 by Darrel M West (Brookings) http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2008/0826_egovernment_west/0826_egovernment_west.pdf
Obama ’08: Barack Obama on Technology and Innovation http://lessig.org/blog/Fact%20Sheet%20Innovation%20and%20Technology%20Plan%20FINAL.pdf
