Final Blog: What I Learned

As a whole, the class presented a new dynamic of government and public administration, which is the role of the internet and technology affecting the public and nonprofit sectors.  Understanding the government’s presence on the internet and the potential benefits of further utilization of technology to streamline government activities is a necessary component of a policy maker in the 21^st century.  This class went a long way in providing me with this necessary knowledge. 

There were a number of issues that were addressed in the course that presented new information.   Several of these will serve as valuable knowledge moving forward into my career than other, but all were worthwhile.  Three that come to mind in particular are the lesions on how the internet works, the growth of e-government and e-democracy, and the issue of information validity on the internet.

How It Works
Perhaps the most foreign concept heading into the class was the lesson describing how the internet actually works.  There were two real revelations during this section.  First was the fact that I knew as little as I did about how the internet works, and second was the fact that I had never given it any thought before.  It is something that gets taken for granted.  People turn on their computers and the internet is just there for their use.  Having this understanding may not be the most valuable piece of information I take from the class in terms of usefulness in my future career as I am not pursuing a career in IT, but it will serve as useful knowledge that is not possessed by that many people.

Another bit of usefully knowledge gained in the class that will be beneficial going forward, were the portions on how the internet and technology is transforming the way governments and democracy work.  There have are a number of final thoughts that I will take away from the class in regards to these issues.  This includes how the internet has already changed government operations and democracy, and the potential the internet has to produce further change.

E-Government/E-Democracy
One of the most important developments the internet has produced is an increased amount of transparency in government.  Information is being shared at speeds and in quantities previously unheard of.  The smallest moves and decisions by governments are broadcasted and available to just about everyone.  Transparency leads to a more responsible and responsive government.  It also allows for any wrong doings to be brought to light and dealt with. 

In addition to transparency, the internet has helped make the government more responsive to citizens. Providing services and responding to constituent needs is much faster and streamlined then before.  People can now pay fines, file forms, and request services from their own home, and no longer have to go to a government building.  This makes the process faster not only to citizens, but for the government who can handle several things at once.  It helps with efficiency and costs.  These features will only be expanded upon in the future as more and more services are transferred to the internet.  The potential for increased efficiency in the future is one of the best selling points of IT in government.  As the government’s operating costs have gone up and demand for more efficient government has risen amongst the citizenry, further development of service delivery online will be an attractive option for governments.

The effect on the democratic process has been extensive as well. The internet has provided a whole new medium for the government and politicians to interact with citizens.  It’s also a mostly free way to communicate and get a message out.  It has allowed for citizens to be even more informed on the issues and make better decisions when trying to decide who to vote for.  It also allows citizens to understand what sorts of decisions governments are making with the increased flow of information.


Information Validity
Generally, one would argue that greater access and exposure to information is better.  However, the quality and accuracy of the information people are exposed to needs to be accounted for.  For all the benefits the internet has provided, one of its most damaging attributes is the prevalence of inaccurate or misleading information.  This is seen in great deal with government and commentary on its activities.

When getting their messages out, politicians and governments can pick and choose which information to release and then release it in a way that is most appealing to their own interests.  They can place greater emphasis on information that is beneficial to them and gloss over that which is damaging.  The presence of a well designed website can lend credibility to a person or cause that may not be credible.  Opinion can be presented as fact.  Telling the difference is difficult and determining where the slant is coming from can be tough for the otherwise uniformed reader. 

One of the more fascinating sources of this is whitehouse.gov.  It’s a website run by the administration in power at the time and as a result, is favorable to the administration.  Why this fascinates me is because the president also has his own webpage.  One might think whitehouse.gov would be non partial presentation of information and news from the white house, and the president’s personal webpage would be acting as the political arm. This is not the case however, as both sites basically accomplish the same thing which is to promote the president’s agenda. 

This is a lesson that is valuable to anyone who may be doing policy research in the future.  Identification of reliable, nonpartisan sources of information is crucial for policy makers if they are to be able to support their arguments and present their case.  The value of this lesson to me moving forward is less about personally finding valid information, but understanding that many people are exposed to bad information which they take as fact. This is something to be cautious moving forward in a career in the public sector, and it’s also something that needs to be addressed to lessen its impact.

The material covered in this course will only become more relevant over time as governments become more dependent on the internet for service distribution.  As this process plays out, and understanding of the internet and its impacts on government and democracy will become even more necessary to policy makers than it is now.  As more public and non-profit sector employees emerge from graduate school with an understanding of technology’s capacity to improve efficiency, both industries will be better off.  This is important because these two industries are often among the most strapped for resources.  The knowledge I gained in this course has prepared me to be part of that new class of public sector workers, and I value that greatly.

E-Government is Improving, Still Needs to Get Better **GRADE**

In his study titled State and Federal Electronic Government in the United States, 2008 Darrell M. West of The Brookings Institute conducted a survey of over 1,500 state and federal government websites to find out how the current status of e-government across the country at all levels.  The goal was to determine how technology has changed the practices of government.  The findings provided detailed information on what is available online, how sites differ from one another, and how the use of online services has advanced and changed in the last decade.

The findings were supportive of the idea that governments are interested in, and developing greater ability to distribute services online.  In fact, close to 90% of state and federal websites have services that are fully executable online.  This number is only slowly advancing, however, as it are only up a few percentage points from the previous year.  Also, there is the point that if a state agency or other government body has still not developed a website, there’s a good chance they never will.  This number sounds good, but the fact that there are still over 10% of state and federal agencies without websites is pretty surprising. 

There are many improvements that need to be made in order for government websites to be full effective, and the study illustrated this point effectively.  For instance, only 3% of government web sites can be accessed through mobile devices such as cell phones.  This is a feature that is becoming more and more of a necessity to meet the needs of citizens in an ever increasingly mobile world.  The use of notebooks and cell phones with incredible internet capacity is growing at a greater rate than e-government has kept up with.

                There’s a serious issue with access as well.  The first finding that was rather startling in this regard is that only a quarter of federal websites and less than one in five state websites are accessible to the disabled, less than half of websites have foreign language translation, and 64% are written at a reading level that is above that of the average citizen.  These sorts of accessibility issues need to be addressed considering the wide range of customers that will require the use of the website.

                West makes a point to suggest that all government websites have a foreign language translation or some other means to make the information accessible to non English speakers.  This is especially true now as more Spanish speakers enter the country and need the services provided on government websites.  The data is trending in the right direction in this regard, as then number of states with foreign language translations has doubled since 2007.

                The policy recommendations made by West are pretty well thought out.  Many of the suggestions revolve around making the websites user friendly and easily navigable. Especially effective is the recommendation that agency websites have similar layouts to one another so that users realize they are using a government website.  Furthermore, having an effective site map and search engine is especially necessary.  Nearly all internet activity is instigated through a search rather than a unique visit.  This should be incorporated into state websites.  Knowing to go to Delaware.gov is simple, finding out where to go to do what the use needs to do within the states website is another thing.

                The demand for e-government services is only going to go up in the future.  Adopting the changes suggested by West and addressing the deficiencies this study points out would go a long way in getting e-government to the level of effectiveness that it will have to be in the future. However, it must be pointed out that needed changes will continually come up as technology adapts.  This is an ongoing development process and not something with a definitive end point.

Sources: 

West, Darrell. "State and Federal Electronic Government in the United States, 2008." 26 August 2008. The Brookings Institution. 6 May 2011 <http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2008/0826_egovernment_west/0826_egovernment_west.pdf>.

Legislative Information Systems **GRADE**

As the internet has further infiltrated their citizen’s lives and access to digital information has increased, governments have begun to provide greater transparency as to their activities through the web. The most common method of doing this for legislatures is through legislative information systems and legislative websites.

These sites have many functions, but they mostly serve as a way for the legislature to share information with constituents on their day to day activities.  Typically, these sites are completely non-partisan and only serve as a way to provide transparency and give people information.  For a partisan view of the legislature’s activities, most of the party caucuses will have a separate webpage that espouses their views on the legislation that has passed or is being considered. 

The type of information mostly shown on these sites includes bill tracking, legislative history, and legislative agendas.  They also have information on the composition of committees, meeting agendas, and meeting schedules.  Most states also feature audio and video webcasts of floor proceedings.  Many also archive floor proceedings from previous days.  There are also typically live and archived webcasts of committee hearings.

One area where the state is ahead of the game is with its feature of email subscriptions for bill tracking.  This allows people to follow the legislature’s activities in a very passive manner.  There is no need to go to the state’s website to become informed on the issues facing the state, and how the legislature is responding to them.

Generally, the development of these sites has greatly increased the amount of transparency in government which is typically seen as a positive.  With the multimedia options on the sites, constituents have an unprecedented amount of information on the daily activities of their legislature, as most of the necessary information on pending legislation is easily displayed on these sites.  The effectiveness of legislation information services has led to widespread adoption across the states.

Delaware’s legislative website is easy to navigate, but it lacks many of the enhanced features of other states.  Like 48 other states, Delaware has live webcasts of floor proceedings for the House of Representatives, but not the Senate.  The state does is one of only 17 states to not have archived webcasts of floor proceedings, one of only 15 states to not have live broadcasts of committee meetings, and one of 27 states to not have archived webcasts of committee hearings.  Furthermore, 30 states have television broadcasts, Delaware does not.

While there is a lot of information available on the site, adding many of these features would greatly enhance the website’s quality.  Hopefully they will look into adopting many of these features, but there is little hope for it in the near future.  Many of these things would have significant costs associated with them.  The technology needed would come at a pretty steep price, and with state finances as tight as they are, it is difficult to pass legislation that costs the state extra money.

Sources:

National Conference of State Legislatures. (2011, February 21). Bill Tracking and Subscription Services on Legislative Websites. Retrieved May 4, 2011, from NCSL: http://www.ncsl.org/Default.aspx?TabId=13474

National Conference of State Legislatures. (2011, March 2). Webcasts of Live Floor Proceedings and Committees. Retrieved May 4, 2011, from NCSL: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://funnymail.com/sites/funnymail.com/files/imagecache/blogroll-image/230737_2019864581448_1388912077_32333882_2759560_n.jpg&imgrefurl=http://funnymail.com/category/tags/osama&usg=__aYdpbfsv5APohTHue3DWIy5wctc=&h=286