Open Source Government – Speak, Search, Create

If you haven’t been over to ZDnet’s Government web log, take a look. I recently enjoyed "Mired in Methodology," http://government.zdnet.com/?p=1633 a posting on the triumph of process in government.

Mired in Methodology is dead on. Making bad processes work better won’t make good outcomes more likely. It’s the same gripe I have when it comes to IT project management http://guvit.typepad.com/a_nation_of_the_people_an/2005/07/managing_the_me.html .

Unfortunately in state government, "process" is a one-way street. It punishes civil servants that make mistakes, and as a consequence, few mistakes are made. Survival becomes the name of the game. Innovators and problem solvers learn to keep their heads down and their hopes low when even innovation has to be signed off. Or they move on.

So I was gratified to read the Center for Digital Government’s "The Sawyer Principles" (free, registration required)http://www.centerdigitalgov.com/center/fileReg.php?file=Sawyer.Principles.pdf%20&name=The%20Sawyer%20Principles , which attempts to re-imagine a government that works better for you and me.

In the process it makes an important connection between the nature of information technology and state government.

By Wayne Hall

Full Story: http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=96549