Web 2.0 in government: whyand how

(18 months later...)

iGov session ADMINISTRAÇÃO 2.0Lisbon, 25 March 2009

David OsimoTech4i2 ltd.

What I will try to answer today

• what is web 2.0?

• does it matter?

• why?

• what should government do?

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So far ICT has not fundamentallychanged government

• 1990s: ICT expected to make governmentmore transparent,efficient and user oriented

• 2005+: disillusion as burocracy not muchdifferent from Max Weber’s description

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Supply Demand

Many projects of web2.0 in public services,but not by government

Source: own elaboration of IPTS PS20 project

Relevant for key governmentactivities

Back office Front office

RegulationCross-agency collaboration

Knowledge managementInteroperability

Human resources mgmtPublic procurement

Service deliveryeParticipation

Law enforcementPublic sector information

Public communicationTransparency and accountability

source: “Web 2.0 in Government: Why and How? www.jrc.es5

Regulation : Peer-to-patent

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Peer-to-patent: an inside lookUsage and impact

• Self-regulated: need critical mass to control“bad apples”

• 2000 users• 9/23 applications used

by USPTO• 73% of USPTO

examiners endorse theproject

• pilot being extended and adopted in Japan

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“We’re very pleased with this initial outcome. Patents of questionable merit are of little value toanyone. We much prefer that the best prior art be identified so that the resulting patent is trulybulletproof. This is precisely why we eagerly agreed to sponsor this project and other patentquality initiatives. We are proud of this result, which validates the concept of Peer-to-Patent,and can only improve the quality of patents produced by the patent system.”

—Manny Schecter, Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property, IBM

Service delivery: Patient Opinion

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Citizens monitoring government:farmsubsidy.org

Spinea, Italy: citizens monitoring as management tool

Why?

• Citizens and CIVIL SERVANTS already use web 2.0: no action � no risks

• Likely to stay as it is linked to underlyingsocietal trends

- Today’s teenagers = future users and employees

- Empowered customers

- Creative knowledge workers

- From hierarchy to network-based organizations

- Non linear-innovation models

- Consumerization of ICT11

Why?/2

Because it does not impose change (e-gov 1.0) but acts on leverages, drivers and incentives:

• building on unique and specific knowledge of users: the “cognitive surplus”

• the power of visualization

• reducing information and power asymmetries

• peer recognition rather than hierarchy

• reducing the cost of collective action

• changing the expectations of citizens

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“A problem sharedis a problem halved

...and a pressure group created”

Dr. Paul Hodgkindirector PatientOpinion.org

“it’s about pressure points, chinksin the armour where

improvements might be possible,whether with the consent of

government or not”

Tom Steinbergdirector mySociety

Before

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Government

citizen

After

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Government

citizen

friends

friends of friends

public

information,trust, attention

A new vision starting to takeshape

176 What is new?

Web-oriented government architecture

UK Cabinet,“Power of information task force report”Robinson et al.:“Government Data and the Invisible Hand “Gartner: “The Real Future of E-Government: From Joined-Up to Mashed-Up”

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!"# $%&

What should government do?

1 - DO NO HARM

• don’t hyper-protect public data from re-use

• don’t launch large scale “facade” web2.0project

• don’t forbid web 2.0 in the workplace

• let bottom-up initiatives flourish as barriers to entry are very low

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2. ENABLE OTHERS TO DO

• publish reusable and machine readable data(XML, RSS, RDFa) > see W3C work

• adopt web-oriented architecture

• create a public data catalogue > see Washington DC

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3.ACTIVELY PROMOTE

• ensure pervasive broadband

• create e-skills in and outside government: digital literacy, media literacy, web2.0 literacy,programming skills

• fund bottom-up initiatives through public procurement, awards

• reach out trough key intermediaries trusted bythe community

• listen, experiment and learn-by-doing22

Thank you

david.osimo@tech4i2.com

Further information:Osimo, 2008. Web2.0 in government: why and how? www.jrc.es

Osimo, 2008. Benchmarking e-government in the web 2.0 era: what to measure, and how. European Journal of ePractice,August 2008.

http://egov20.wordpress.com

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Back-up slides

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A new innovation model forpublic services

• A new WAY to innovate public services• Continuous and incremental,• open and non hyerarchical• not only by government: civil society, citizens, civil

servants

• A new effective DRIVER to address the challenges of innovating public services

• citizens’ ratings and reviews: democratization of voice where there is no exit possibility

• more openness and transparency expected• wider availability of IT tools for innovation by

citizens, civil servants, civil society 25

Common mistakes

• “Build it and they will come”: beta testing, trial and error necessary

• Launching “your own” large scale web 2.0 flagship project

• Opening up without soft governance of keychallenges:

- privacy

- individual vs institutional role

- destructive participation

• Adopting only the technology with traditional top-down attitude

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Web 2.0 is about values, not technology:and it’s the hacker’s values

ValuesUser as producer, Collective intelligence,

Long tail, Perpetual beta, Extreme ease of use

ApplicationsBlog,Wiki, Podcast, RSS,Tagging, Social networks, Search engine, MPOGames

TechnologiesAjax, XML, Open API, Microformats, REST,

Flash/Flex, Peer-to-Peer

Source: Author’s elaboration based on Forrester

Are these services used?

• in the back-office, yes

• in the front-office, not too much: fewthousand users as an average

• still: this is much more than before!

• some (petty) specific causes have viral take-up (mobile phones fees, road tax charge schemes)

• very low costs of experimentation

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Why? /2

• Citizens (and employees) already use web 2.0:no action � no risks

• Likely to stay as it is linked to underlyingsocietal trends

- Today’s teenagers = future users and employees

- Empowered customers

- Creative knowledge workers

- From hierarchy to network-based organizations

- Non linear-innovation models

- Consumerization of ICT29

Is there a visible impact?

Yes, more than the usage:

• in the back office: evidence used by US Patent Office, used to detect Iraqi insurgents

• in the front office, making government reallyaccountable and helping other citizens

• but there is risk of negative impact as well

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Web 2.0 is a set of values morethan a set of technologies

ValuesUser as producer, collective intelligence,

openness “by default”, perpetual beta, ease of use

TechnologyBlogs, Podcast,Wiki, Social Networking, Peer-

to-peer, MPOGames, Mash-up Ajax, Microformats, RSS/XML

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Reminder: citizens and employees do it anyway

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