Turns out that you don’t have enough to worry about. A recent British report is reminding public sector tech types of challenges beyond privacy and security and such detritus as coding,

Like – managing expectations.

Researchers with the Hansard Society, a research forum which promotes public involvement in politics, wants government to ensure that expectations of online government aren’t set too high.

“Online deliberations offer a promise of transparency; unclear communication from engagement teams is often read by participants as obfuscation,” the Hansard study warns.

“Web sites that combine careful planning and appropriate marketing with the development of reflexive engagement strategies have a greater chance of success. In such cases, policy leads have benefited from user input with government departments seeing enhanced public trust and receiving positive feedback from stakeholders. In turn, end users report more faith in the political process and better understanding of government.”

The report, part of the society’s Digital Dialogues review, says people visit the Digital Dialogues web site for any number of reasons – “from general interest in online engagement to a strong interest in the policy matters being discussed,” according to a summary in CIO magazine.

“Many had previously not engaged in political processes; even when they had, most were initially critical of government,” the report says. “Such distrust was overcome when moderators facilitated open discussion and provided information to Web site users.

“When government departments were reticent, they courted controversy and disengagement became inevitable. Some Web sites failed to gain traction (measured through few repeat visits) because users did not believe that anyone was listening or responding to their perspectives; in such cases, departments were paralyzed by a sense of ‘risk’ and failed to harness the range of engagement opportunities at their disposal — responding only on topics deemed ‘safe’.”

In one sense, there’s nothing new in any of that. It amounts, however, to a reminder for CIOs and their nearest and dearest: Don’t get so caught up in tweaking the latest back-end wiki that you overlook the front end of the operation as a whole. The digital democracy side of Government 2.0 may indeed be lagging as service delivery is ever more automated. But be warned: It hasn’t been written off entirely.

GTEC 2008, today announced that the Honourable Jim Prentice will deliver opening comments at GTEC 2008 on Tuesday, October 28^th at 8:00am at the Ottawa Westin Hotel.   The Minister’s comments will be followed by a Keynote delivered by Ken Cochrane, Chief Information Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board of Canada, Secretariat. 

Other notable speakers at GTEC 2008 include: Ann Steward, Chief Information Officer, Australian Government; Allan Gregg, Leading Pollster, Political Analyst and Social Commentator;  and Dr. Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law, University of Ottawa, to name a few.  For a full list of topics and speakers, visit http://www.gtec.ca/conference/conference-at-a-glance.php#

“GTEC is all about getting results out of technology, so that we can provide better services to Canadians,” said Kevin d’Entremont, Executive Director of GTEC 2008.  “As an event, GTEC is a crossroad where private sector insight meets with service delivery executives at all levels of government.  It’s in the sharing of ideas that we find a source for innovation.” 

The GTEC 2008 focus is discussions about ‘Making the Shift to Government 2’.0. This theme continues the event’s exploration of innovation, collaboration and transformation in the delivery of “citizen-centered” services. GTEC 2008 will explore the “people challenge” (human resources) of equipping IT managers and service delivery channels “back office” solutions for “front office” service delivery. It will also involve exploring how to align the program side of government with the traditionally innovation-focused IT/IM community.

Interesting developments south of the border…

On July 30, 2008, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted “unanimously” to start looking at web sites – specifically emerging interactive technology – as new ways to open up channels of communication and disclosure between corporations and the investor and shareholder community. According to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in the July 30 statement,  “Ongoing developments in technology have increased both the markets’ and investors’ demand for more timely company disclosure on the Web, and in turn, raised new securities law issues for public companies to consider”.  

While on the surface this new guidance might not have direct applicability to Canadian public sector, this statement represents a critical turning point in the journey to Government 2.0.  Increasingly regulatory and legislative bodies are being compelled by emerging technology and changing information worker habits to look at new content forms and channels.  This SEC development recognizes that corporate disclosures can now legitimately be made through new communication channels – including blogs and investor communities or forums. Companies who want to pursue cost effective and interactive shareholder communication can now explore these Web 2.0 inspired tools that have proved so valuable in other areas of customer engagement.

Open Text will be watching this interesting collision between 2.0 culture and content and the legal compliance obligations we see in both private and public sector.  As new forms of content and online communication become more widely accepted in the eyes of courts, regulatory bodies and public sector agencies, those of us who are concerned about records retention, preservation, corporate memory retention and appropriate disposal policies need to think hard about how new 2.0 content types are handled.  Ensuring that information governance strategies and retention best practices extend to the next generation of electronic content is what we do best.

Click here if you’ve thought about these issues. We want to know: Are You Ready?

Welcome to our first ever blog related to GTEC.  For an event that is centered on a theme of “Government 2.0”, we thought a blog was a must have item for our web site and for the community as we look once again at how social computing is changing the way that citizens interact with governments.

Government 2.0 is a difficult matter for the public sector.  It is not simply an initiative or a concept – Government 2.0 is an international phenomenon that has swept across business and will “happen” to governments if they are not proactive in adjusting service delivery models to meet the demands of an increasingly connected marketplace.

This year’s GTEC will not only be informative, and hopefully challenging.  If we are to deal with the questions of social computing and citizen centered services, there are many issues to deal with, from internal cultural shifts, to positioning the importance of government’s back office to politicians and deputy ministers, to “opening up” government to be more collaborative, and to new models for service delivery.

What’s exciting about all of this is that we are part of building the future of service delivery, as YOU set the models that citizens will rely on in the future.  Call it the influence of Wikinomics, Web 2.0, social computing – pick a buzzword – we are in the midst of a powerful transition where the benefits of various technologies and concepts can be leveraged for the betterment of organizations and the public.  That’s very cool.

So, this is personal.  It’s about YOU and your role in changing the face of service delivery. It’s about how you are going to affect the change in your organization.

This year’s conference and showcase will look beyond the technologies to the policies and personalities shaping service delivery.  You might notice that our keynote line-up is a stellar group of leaders who not only understand the concepts of Government 2.0, but are leading the charge, or adding sober commentary on our successes and failings in transforming government operations.  Take a look at the program and I am sure you will see GTEC as a “platform” for these leaders to state a positive case for transformation, to lead by example and to inspire YOU as a public servant or technology executive.

Government 2.0 is still a murky subject, misunderstood and feared by some.  It’s not a subject that is going to go away anytime soon, however.  I look forward to following this blog, as it adds some clarity and demystifies the technologies and processes behind collaboration and government 2.0.  Hopefully, it will become a worthy tool for your work and, maybe, just a little bit fun to check out from time to time.

See you in October!