The electronic government landscape is increasingly pointing towards a diffusion of power, and an increased role and voice for citizens in public decision-making.

Tomasz Janowski from the UNU-IIST Center for Electronic Governance discusses some of the global trends that he is observing: participatory democracy, the increased regulation of new service delivery channels and the need for leadership in ICT services, challenging the notion of what “whole of government” really means in practice.

With positions of CTO, Chief Knowledge Officer, Chief Innovation Officer emerging, we also see the Government CIO as a consolidating role speaking on behalf of government information technology to other functions of government, and also to the public.

Tomasz also shares some of the recent discussions and shared experiences emerging from the W3C e-Government interest group around the use of social media in Government.

About Dr Tomasz Janowski

Tomasz Janowski is a Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology in Macao, where he founded and heads the Center for Electronic Governance. Previously, he was a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, UK, where he obtained PhD in Computer Science and Assistant Professor at the University of Gdansk, Poland, where he obtained MSc in Applied Mathematics. He also worked for software companies in Poland and the U.S.

Tomasz’s research focuses on Electronic Governance (EGOV) policy and practice including foundations, education, development frameworks, models and design, measurement, etc. He directs EGOV research, transfers research results into practical instruments, and applies such instruments in government policy and practice. Under his leadership, the EGOV center developed a capacity-based EGOV development framework EGOV.*; built instruments to support the use of this framework; applied the framework in Afghanistan (EGOV.AF), Cameroon (EGOV.CM) and Macao SAR (e-Macao); and contributed to EGOV awareness- and capacity-building in Argentina, Bahrain, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ghana, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Nigeria, Palestine, Philippines, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam and other countries.

Tomasz is the co-founder and an international speaker at the  ICEGOV 2012 conference – hear his sneak preview (5 mins) of the conference here.

Feature image courtesy UNU

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Episode links and resources

• United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology and the Center for Electronic Governance
• The Cluetrain Manifesto
• W3C eGov interest group
• W3C eGov LinkedIn group

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John Wells chats to David about his reflections inspired by the meeting, and his perspectives on the value of these intergovernmental gatherings to people working in the trenches. This opens up a wider discussion about the ways that governments create and leverage roles such as CIO and CTO, and what this communicates about a Government’s attitude towards technology.

I think we’re at a really interesting place around the role of ICT in government…I always like to look to see where the CIO sits in the org chart – it’s a very ‘old school’ thing to do, but it tells you a lot about how that government understands technology.

About David Eaves

David is a public policy entrepreneur, open government activist and negotiation expert and frequent speaker on these topics. He is retained by several governments to advise on open government and open data, works with two spin-offs of the Harvard Negotiation Project, and advises businesses on open source strategies and community management. Three years ago David advised the Mayor of Vancouver on Open Government and Open Data and helped draft the Open Motion. He has also launched a number of open data projects including Recollect.net and emitter.ca.

David blogs regularly at eaves.ca where you can read more about his projects and upcoming speaking engagements.

CC feature image courtesy http://owni.fr/

About the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate (GOV)

The Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate (GOV) assists countries in adapting their public sector governance arrangements to the changing needs of society.

Through the sharing of country experiences, the OECD work on Public Sector Innovation seeks to develop a better understanding of innovative approaches and tools, and their impact on government performance and public service delivery.

OECD work on e-Government explores how governments can best exploit information and communication technologies (ICTs) to embed good governance principles and achieve public policy goals.

How you can use this episode

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Episode links and resources

• OECD Public Sector Innovation and e-Government
• OECD E-Leaders: Strengthening the strategic agility of the public sector
• OECD National e-Leaders meeting: E-Government: New ICT Solutions for Public Sector Agility
• OECD and the Internet Economy
• David Eaves’s blog

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  @OECD_ICT
• Tags: #opendata #egov #opengov #OECD