Sep 2nd, 2008 |
The folks at Gartner aren’t happy with the state of play on the e-government file around the world – specifically on web 2.0.
The tech research heavyweight talked to 80 government clients on five continents and checked in with what it described as “a gloomy picture of current adoption and plans for Web 2.0 in government.”
“Attention is still primarily focused on technologies and applications that aim at improving engagement and collaboration,” Gartner reported. “There is little evidence that government IT professionals appreciate (and indeed plan to pursue or at least pilot) the most disruptive, but also potentially rewarding aspects of Web 2.0, such as its impact on lighter, middle-out architectures that promote reusability and composability, and the shift from constituent-centric to constituent-driven initiatives.”
Rather scoldingly, Gartner added:
“Governments have always been — and will always be — conservative adopters of technology, as they are concerned with inclusion and accountability more than with the bottom line and market share. However, they should have learned a few lessons from their e-government ventures, where their attempts at modernizing their face and processes have had mixed results — even in the best cases, citizen engagement and uptake remain lower than expected.”
“There is a concrete risk of widening the disconnect between citizens who embrace technology and change their personal and professional behavior as a consequence, and governments that keep defending their turf, playing with technology at the edges.”
And, for the high-minded, Garter concluded with a reminder of the potential of web 2.0:
“Web 2.0 is not just a bunch of promising technologies. It is an opportunity for government agencies to step back, reflect on what their core mission is, and determine on how they should structure information and services that closely relate to that mission. This will allow the ecosystem of other agencies, intermediaries and communities to access those services and information in the most convenient, effective and efficient way.”
Nothing if not plain. . . .
