Government 2.0

August 17, 2009 | By Marc Porcelli | No Comments »

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Forbes.com recently ran an article, Gov 2.0: The Promise Of Innovation by Tim O’Reily, which discussed how there is a proliferation of issues and how there are not enough resources to address them all. One way some of these issues are being tackled is by the creative and highly collaborative generation of web users who want to make a difference.

One significant item that had me thinking was how the O’Reily stated that the Obama administration’s technology team is taking steps towards thinking of the government as a platform provider. The government provides raw data through web services, allowing third parities to build out intuitive interfaces to government programs.

Rather than licensing government data to a few select “value added” providers, who then license the data downstream, the federal government (and many state and local governments) are beginning to provide an open platform that enables anyone with a good idea to build innovative services that connect government to citizens, give citizens visibility into the actions of government and even allow citizens to participate directly in policy-making.

Collaboration has proven to be an increasingly powerful tool towards greater innovation. If the government is going to become more open and intuitive, perhaps more citizens will become involved!

A great example of this collaboration can be found via Neighbors for Neighbors, a non-profit run by my brother, Joseph Porcelli.