Change is everywhere. Technology has accelerated the change. Government needs to adapt its thinking and strategy to these new realities. This document is primer to decision makers to trigger their thinking in that direction. The future of Government is Open, Collaborative and Social.

1. A PARTICIPATORY PHILOSOPHY TO IMAGINE AND BUILD NEW WAYS TO
COLLABORATE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Government 2.0 Initiatives addresses the need for renewed relationships among citizens and
government. It will seek to create connections, knowledge, tools and policies to drive
transparency, civic engagement, harness crowd value and democratic empowerment. It will
help the Government to tackle emerging challenges pro-actively. It is an effort to respond than
react.
Under the aegis of Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat
• Learn: Get grounded in skills needed to make change, get practical advice and benefit
from the experience of those in the community who are trying to innovate.
• Share: Let everyone else in on your social change successes! Share your stories, your
projects and your change.
• Connect: Forum for a unique constellation of change agents, business people, non-
profits, activists, government folks and most importantly, people with lived
experience in the issues we all care about.
New Challenges of Governance:
The Rules of the Governance Game is changing.
Collaboration within the organization and outside the organization is no longer a choice but an
imperative. Proactive Good Governance has been redefined as part of Governance.
Information asymmetry between citizens and government is leading to citizens being more
aware and up-to date. Government doesn’t have the data. Increased expectations by Citizens
and the consequent disappointment leads to widespread dissatisfaction against the
Government leaders don’t have the tools to tackle such situations and to manage them. There
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2. are more avenues to voice protests. Regulation is not a viable option even in a controlled state
like China.
It’s a new paradigm
There is a need for a new paradigm in Governance which we have not even started thinking.
Social media has given a platform to create and maintain a new level of engagement by forming
direct relationship with the stakeholders (citizens).
The Government 2.0 requires a new thinking. It requires a culture of shared values, shared
vision, shared tools and shared future. Which is clearly anti-thetical to the present approach to
Governance. It requires a change from the departmental mindset.
Clearly the present approaches to Governance management have failed. Top down approach of
planning and implementation needs to be replaced by a collaborative process of goal setting
and implementations. For example despite the amount of investment in hardware and software
for egovernance projects only a very few have delivered. In today’s world all levels of
employees require email access. Since it’s not provided by the system usage of private services
like gmail/yahoo is highly prevalent.
Data driven decisions and analysis
Tackling Governance challenges is being transformed by data based decision making. Data from
various sources when combined into one framework of analysis yields newer insights to tackle
challenges like disaster, epidemics, poverty alleviation etc. The availability of data and the
processing power has led to data mining and big data becoming the next frontier to explore in
business and governance.
The movement towards opening up government data is gaining hold with the launch of the
portal www.Data.Gov.in . Open Data initiatives are now a defining feature of transparent
government. Proactive thought and action can help in opening up government data and hence
bring about a positive image in the minds of citizens.
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3. Foster Organizational Knowledge Creation and Management
Institutional memory needs to be built. Organization wide systems need to be created to collate
the intellectual capital of the organization and make it accessible to anyone in the system.
There is very little sharing of knowledge and content discovery is difficult. Heavy use of emails
leads to redundancy and mismanagement of information.
Building for the future requires us to think beyond programmatic lines. To keep up with the
pace of change in technology, we need to securely architect our systems for interoperability
and openness from conception. We need to have common standards and more rapidly share
the lessons learned by early adopters. We need to produce better content and data, and
present it through multiple channels in a program and device-agnostic way. We need to adopt a
coordinated approach to ensure privacy and security in a digital age.
What is Government 2.0
Gartner definition of Government 2.0 as the use of IT to socialize and commoditize
government services, processes and data.1
The socialization of information has multiple facets (government to citizens, citizens to
government and government to government) and the boundaries between these facets are
increasingly blurred. The next step will be the socialization of services and processes by
engaging individuals and communities to perform part of existing government processes or
transform them by leveraging external data and applications.
Commoditization – which has already started with consolidation and shared services to reduce
the diversity of infrastructure and horizontal application – will gradually move toward services
and business processes.
Government 2.0 has seven main characteristics:
• It is citizen-driven.
• It is employee-centric.
• It keeps evolving.
• It is transformational.
• It requires a blend of planning and nurturing.
1
http://blogs.gartner.com/andrea_dimaio/2009/11/13/government-2-0-a-gartner-definition/
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4. • It needs Pattern-Based Strategy capabilities.
• It calls for a new management style.
Government as a platform
“Citizens are connected like never before and have the skill sets and passion to solve problems
affecting them locally as well as nationally. Government information and services can be
provided to citizens where and when they need it. Citizens are empowered to spark the
innovation that will result in an improved approach to governance.
In this model, government is a convener and an enabler–ultimately, it is a vehicle for
coordinating the collective action of citizens.
This is the right way to frame the question of “Government 2.0.” How does government itself
become an open platform that allows people inside and outside government to innovate? How
do you design a system in which all of the outcomes aren’t specified beforehand, but instead
evolve through interactions between the technology provider and its user community?2
Cross Country Experience:
• USA
o Digital Government Strategy -
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/egov/digital-
government/digital-government.html
o Digital Services Innovation Center http://gsablogs.gsa.gov/dsic/
o Code for America http://codeforamerica.org
o Apps4Va - This program challenges the public to review K-12 data and use it to
design innovative new tools to aid in better data-driven decisions and
intervention strategies. http://www.apps4va.org/about.html
• UK
o Government Digital Strategy -
http://publications.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/digital/strategy/#executive-summary
2
http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/10/government-internet-software-technology-breakthroughs-oreilly.html
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5. o Open Data Visualization Competitions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2013/feb/12/government-data-free-our data
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2013/feb/12/government-data free our
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2013/feb/12/government data-free-our-
our-data
• Open Government – Compendium of Experiences and best practices
Open Government – Ideas and experiences are found in this eBook now made available for free.
experiences
• https://github.com/oreillymedia/open_government/archive/master.zip
https://github.com/oreillymedia/open_government/archive/master.zip
Activities that can be done:
1 Establish a Center for Technology in Government
1. Technology in
The mission can be to foster public sector innovation, enhance capability, generate
foster public sector
public value, and support good governance.
For example http://www.ctg.albany.edu/about/about?sub=mission
http://www.ctg.albany.edu/about/about?sub=mission
2 Gov2.0 Meetups
2.
a. Platform for ideas exchange and
a Platform for ideas exchange and brainstorming. Implement and test new ideas.
ideas.
Create an ecosystem of innovation with collaborators.
Create
b. Bring together Companies,
b Bring together Companies, NGOs, Colleges, Civil Agencies and Government w ork
work
w
towards a common goals by harnessing each other’s strength.
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6. c. Just coming together and talking is the beginning.
d. Particularly to promote Civil Innovation a CivicMeet can be organized regularly.
CivicMeet is an international monthly meetup that brings together public and
private sector innovators working to create a more open, engaged civil society.
More at www.CivicMeet.Govfresh.com
e. Organize Ignite Talks - Ignite is a geek event in over 100 cities worldwide. At the
events Ignite presenters share their personal and professional passions, using 20
slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minutes. More
at http://igniteshow.com/howto
3. Knowledge Meetups
a. A knowledge café or World Café is a type of business meeting or
organizational workshop which aims to provide an open and creative
conversation on a topic of mutual interest to surface their collective knowledge,
share ideas and insights, and gain a deeper understanding of the subject and the
issues involved.
4. Organizing TEDxGov
a. What is TEDx?
i. TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading."
The program is designed to give communities, organizations and
individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like
experiences at the local level.
ii. At TEDx events, a screening of TEDTalks videos -- or a combination of live
presenters and TEDTalks videos -- sparks deep conversation and
connections. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated
independently, on a community-by-community basis.
iii. More at http://www.ted.com/pages/about_tedx
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7. 5. Incubate Innovative projects
a. Innovative ideas need handholding and testing to prove and validate the value
they offer. Where is testing lab in Government? Let’s create it.
b. Create and recommend policies that promote a culture of innovation
organization wide. Small tweak in policies can create an explosion of innovative
ideas and projects. Tremendous value will accrue to the Government.
c. Create an incubation centre – evaluate and fund innovative projects. Similar to
UGC.
6. Create a Innovations fund or connect funders
Creating a wide scope flexible funding mechanism to encourage grassroots innovation will help
in formalizing a relationship with real innovation. Innovation happens with or without funding.
Having a UGC project funding type avenue creates a multiplier effect in terms of project
outcomes and further adoptability in the organization. It helps in harvesting the knowledge
capital within the organization.
Alternatively a platform can be created where the innovators and the funders are able
collaborate to create value for everyone. Corporates, NGOs can fund projects in their areas of
interest. Ultimately it will all benefit the Government.
7. Conduct hackathons and app competitions
Encourage individuals and organizations to create solutions to governance
problems by conducting hackathons and app competitions. Encouraging creation of apps
leads to innovative ideas and solutions which can then be adopted by Government. The cost
benefit ratio is highly positive in such an approach. Participation and transparency are greatly
enhanced.
An example can be found at http://transformurbanindia.com/hackathon/
Further Reading:
• http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/3772/Reimagining_governance.html
• http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57565009-285/how-to-participate-in-the-open-
government-movement/
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