The eaGov blog

Recently I read the blog entry from Nick Jones on the Gartner site. I dont know him, havnt read anything that he wrote before. The titel was “UK Politicians still don’t get Technology” and the title refered to a heated debate, on free internet ..or not, based on the file-sharing discussion; should the state provide free and non-restricted internet to its citizens?

Well, I have my thoughts on this, but will revert back and look into the title “(UK) politicians still don’t get technology” (with out the UK) I find this much more interesting that a debate on free internet. Perhaps the question is, as the title of this blot headline states: – do they have to?? I think not, of course it would be convenient if the knew all aspects and all technologies – or, heck, if the were Enterprise Architects, that would be nice. But I see no specific value here. I see that there should be a layer underneath the political layer that are officer of the state and possesses  the relevant knowledge on technology etc.

It  seems that there’s a (digital divide) gap between this layer and the politicians, since the public offices have an immense job to communicate what they see as a right path to venture into. In some ways I see a similarity to the “digital divide” paradigm, since it’s all about a gap that isn’t bridged and therefor creates problems. So, in conclusion, I dont see why the politicians should concern themselves about technologies, standards etc. but if they did,by accident, it probably wouldn’t hurt. – In addition to this, the next layer, being the public (IT-)officers, probably ought to  posses communication skills, understand politics/the game, a bit of economics, efficiency  etc. .. and do they do that now? There’s the headline for a new blog entry.

The assignment about NPM is progressing and i have arrived at a place where im puzzled about my NPM theory. The thing is, that it seems that NPM derives from a notion that the public sector isn’t doing their jobs in a propper maner and that it is too big ..enter private sector style management/marketization/de-bureaucratization. The public sector is too big and lazy and too bureaucratic. Therefore IT is the tool to minimize, rationaliz and make everything transparent, for everybody to see the in-efficient work of the public sector. Really this is a mistrust in the public bureau.

EGovernment derives from another notion, differentiate it self on different points, that is growing from the idea that IT is capable of democratizing a sector, meaning giving it back to the citizens, including them in various processes. I guess this i said to be a evolution/modernization of the public sector as we knew it, now applied with modern tools, processes reflecting the new paradigme that the internet brought to the world, feeding on the will of the people to take part. 

My question to you, reader: is this a “correct” way of picture it og is it too controversial? Im aware of the parts where the two notions share common grounds. Is this to black and white? Or is it simply the case, that the two can’t live without one another? Maybe the one is alive due to the other.. could it be?

If this is somewhat the case, I see why P. Dunleavy et.al (Digital Era Governance) and others say that NPM is “a dead fish in the water”, and that we need to look further .. to get to a governance model capable of holding the emerging technologies and their benefits.

To be connected with the newest academic papers on the IT area (it governance, enterprise architecture, eGovernment, SOA, IT security etc.), I have decided to create a library this summer (and ongoing) with simple links to reelvant papers, articles, whitepapers of course of some academic hight. The library should of course be public for all to benefit from. It is my feeling that when you move away from the academic world, you loose some touch with the newest trends and I feel it important that all the good and valid research from the good universitys could give som valud to all out there, creating better products etc.So, please don’t hesitate to link me some great articles, papers that you feel should be in the library.My adress is “hvass at itu dot dk”