© Craig McDonald 2005 UC E-Government: transformation or business-as-usual ? Craig McDonald School of Information Sciences and Engineering University of Canberra

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC ‘ Transformation’ Transformation is foremost a continuing process that does not have an end point. It is meant to create or anticipate the future. Transformation is meant to deal with the co-evolution of concepts, processes, organizations and technology. Change in any one of these areas necessitates change in all. Transformation is meant to create new competitive areas and new competencies. It is meant to identify, leverage and even create new underlying principles for the way things are done. Transformation is meant to identify and leverage new sources of power. The overall objective of these changes is simply – sustained American competitive advantage in warfare.

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC This seminar takes an ICT / Informatics View ‘Informatics’ - The study of Nature of information (incl. data and represented knowledge) The creation of information artefacts and systems The disciplined and responsible intervention in organisations Based in Theory (Information, Systems, Knowledge) Research (Applied) Technological Innovation, organisational change Core Practice Systems conception, construction, implementation and management Scope includes Information Systems (TP& MIS, DSS & KBS); Information Management (document management & IR); Workflow; specialist systems (eg. GIS, simulations) Strategic, project & operational management …

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC Government Informatics ICT / Informatics & Disciplines Health Education Business Research ICT

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC Government ICT/Informatics "ICT is merely an instrument in our important work" “Government is merely an application of our important work" ICT & Government : Two Cultures

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC Surface Intermediate Deep Levels of e-Government Transformation

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC Aims at improved efficiency and effectiveness of agencies in carrying out their programs Raises questions about methods and processes. From last week’s discussion: 1.Information provision (web pages 2.Download / upload communication (e-Tax) 3.Transactions (Archives purchase) 4.Identity required systems (GAMS) Drivers: Technology Push Career advancement of decision makers ? Transformation 1: Surface

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC Architectures for Surface Transformation

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC Surface Transformation Impacts Job - loss or gain Changes to skills requirements Responsibility - for things that the person can no longer control Techno-Stress & impacts on health & relationships Autonomy in the workplace Social interaction Political role & status Efficiency, effectiveness & productivity evaluation Alignment Organisational structure & work transfer eg. user-pays (ATM, students) Lifetime costing - support & maintenance (shelfware) Benefits Niche demographic Organisation Level Personal (Actor) Level Social Level

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC Intermediate Transformation questions institutional structures. Questions a seamless, homogenous, whole-of-government, inter-operating, administratively neat APS. Different agencies interact in different ways with the same set of stakeholders (be it a person, an organisation or a group of organisations, or state or local governments). Acts of parliament and the regulations made under them define the conceptualisations and organisational structures that make up the APS knowledge base, institutions & technology, rather than stakeholders Transformation 2: Intermediate

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC Stakeholder-oriented Architecture: Each entity such as a citizen or firm has an ‘avatar’ which participates as a surrogate for the entity in dealing with requests from other agents (for example, the tax agent asking for information about income and deductions) and initiating requests for information or action (eg. customs agents, disability service providers, etc) ‘Agent-oriented’ Architecture Transformation 2: Architecture

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC Deep transformation questions the agency of stakeholders in the role and scope of government itself. Systems can be constructed which would allow genuine transparency of government activity and actual collaborative stakeholder policy development, implementation and evaluation. The technology exists to support a high degree of transparency in government activity, but that capability will only be utilised in a 'freedom of information' context, not under a 'need to know' regime. Transformation 3: Deep

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC Underlying each new Act there is a set of views that the government of the day holds. These views include its perception of the nature of our nation, the philosophical role government plays, the kinds of policies it wants to pursue and the specific changes the government wants to see come about. Facets of the dialogue are addressed differently by multiple laws leading to systems that are deeply incompatible. As the concept of Knowledge Management Systems develops, ways of representing political conceptualisations can be brought together with societal data and information to produce a firmer, public foundation for policy development and implementation. Transformation 3: Deep

© Craig McDonald 2005 UC Conclusion e-Government is at a superficial level of transformation, largely doing business-as-usual. Whether there can be intermediate transformation – structural change or deep transformation – nature of government remains to be seen. But technology and systems are emerging that can make these transformations possible.