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On The Effects Of E-Government On Political Institutions, Jane E. Fountain
On The Effects Of E-Government On Political Institutions, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
Research on e-government typically focuses on disruptive technologies and their presumed transformational effects on government. Yet the Internet and associated technologies are more than two decades old, and even cursory observation demonstrates that institutional change in government is often painstakingly slow. To theorize longer term developments in e-government, an institutional perspective on e-government is sketched and illustrated in this chapter. An institutional approach invites one to examine interactions among people, technologies and structures over time and in political environments characterized in part by conflict over ideas, rights and resources to uncover mechanisms that contribute to stability and change.
To extend …
Gpra Modernization Act Of 2010: Examining Constraints To, And Providing Tools For, Cross-Agency Collaboration, Jane E. Fountain
Gpra Modernization Act Of 2010: Examining Constraints To, And Providing Tools For, Cross-Agency Collaboration, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
Cross-agency collaboration is widely viewed as a powerful means for government reform and performance improvement. Greater coordination across agencies offers the potential for the Federal government to address complex policy challenges that lie inherently across agency boundaries and jurisdictions. Further, cross-agency initiatives promise a means to increase efficiency, effectiveness and accountability by reducing overlap, redundancy and fragmentation. To further these ends, the Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act of 2010 requires the Executive branch and federal agencies to develop cross-agency performance goals and specifies directives toward their advancement, use, review and measurement.
Several lines of research examine governance across …
Enhancing Information Services Through Public-Private Partnerships: Information Technology Knowledge Transfer Underlying Structures To Develop Shared Services In The U.S. And Korea, Jane E. Fountain, Seok-Jin Eom
Enhancing Information Services Through Public-Private Partnerships: Information Technology Knowledge Transfer Underlying Structures To Develop Shared Services In The U.S. And Korea, Jane E. Fountain, Seok-Jin Eom
Jane E. Fountain
What are e-government success factors for using public-private partnerships to enhance learning and capacity development? To examine this question, the authors developed a comparative case analysis of the development of the Business Reference Model (BRM), a national-level e-government initiative to promote shared information services, in the U.S. federal government and the Korean central government. The results indicate institutional arrangements deeply affect the outcomes of knowledge transfer. The study shows that private sector partners in both countries played various roles as “brokers” of information technology (IT) knowledge between government and the private sector by: raising awareness of the necessity of the …
Nanotechnology And Society: Emerging Organizations, Oversight And Public Policy Systems, Sarah Keister, Goncalves Michelle, Jane E. Fountain
Nanotechnology And Society: Emerging Organizations, Oversight And Public Policy Systems, Sarah Keister, Goncalves Michelle, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
This report summarizes key points of a National Science Foundation supported national workshop, “Nanotechnology & Society: Emerging Organizations, Oversight, and Public Policy Systems,” that was held on September 23-24, 2010 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA). The central lessons drawn from three panels form the body of the report. The first panel focused on constructing policy frameworks for policymaking with presentations by Terry Medley, Global Director of Corporate Regulatory Affairs, DuPont; Timothy Malloy, Professor of Law, University of California Los Angeles; and Jordan Paradise, Associate Professor of Law, Seton Hall University. The second panel, International and Federal Policy Emergence, …
The Future Of Government: Lessons Learned From Around The World, Jane E. Fountain, Guido Bertucci, Gregory G. Curtin, Yuri E. Hohlov, Katju Holkeri, Yasar Jarrar, James Kang, Bruno Lanvin, Beth Simone Noveck, Toshio Obi, Haiyan Qian, Ohood Roumi, Larry Stone, Aleem Walji
The Future Of Government: Lessons Learned From Around The World, Jane E. Fountain, Guido Bertucci, Gregory G. Curtin, Yuri E. Hohlov, Katju Holkeri, Yasar Jarrar, James Kang, Bruno Lanvin, Beth Simone Noveck, Toshio Obi, Haiyan Qian, Ohood Roumi, Larry Stone, Aleem Walji
Jane E. Fountain
Governments around the world are faced with new demands, new expectations and a fast-growing array of new technologies and tools. A current example is the Middle East, where a youth revolution built on the global technology revolution is demanding immediate reform. The challenges faced by governments increasingly span national borders and require resources and expertise to be mobilized on a scale that far exceeds those of governments.
To be efficient and effective in today’s complex, interlinked and fast-changing environment, governments need to redesign their structures and processes to capitalize on a new set of actors and tools. In this context, …
Disjointed Innovation: The Political Economy Of Digitally Mediated Institutional Reform, Jane E. Fountain
Disjointed Innovation: The Political Economy Of Digitally Mediated Institutional Reform, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
Current attention to social media and governance has focused on the enactment of networked communication and information use by and for governance with particular attention to the role of civil society. This paper argues that such a focus, while illuminating a possibly utopian perspective on political participation, often obscures even recent government reforms, existing institutional arrangements, and the myriad processes by which knowledge is translated to action in political settings. Drawing from and extending core perspectives within historical institutionalism, the paper examines three streams of theory and research: temporal models, coordination models, and the political effects of public policies where …
Ethics In Science And Engineering: Redefining Tools And Resources, Goncalves Michelle, Jane E. Fountain, Adamick Jessica, Billings Marilyn
Ethics In Science And Engineering: Redefining Tools And Resources, Goncalves Michelle, Jane E. Fountain, Adamick Jessica, Billings Marilyn
Jane E. Fountain
The leaders of the ESENCe beta site project organized
a national workshop, “Ethics in Science and Engineering:
Redefining Tools and Resources,” that was held on
October 22-23, 2009 at UMass Amherst. The workshop
objectives, broadly speaking, were twofold: first, to
explore the potential for leveraging the university’s role
as a locus of education and mentoring for ethics and
RCR in science and engineering and, second, to explore
the potential and limitations of digital tools, including
social media, for supporting such growth. The workshop
initiated a dialogue between university faculty involved in
ethics research and education and library and information
scientists. …
Bureaucratic Reform And E-Government In The United States: An Institutional Perspective, Jane E. Fountain
Bureaucratic Reform And E-Government In The United States: An Institutional Perspective, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
Technology enactment, an analytical framework that focuses on the processes by which new information and communication technologies come to be used by organizational actors, is distinctly institutional in orientation. An institutional perspective provides a challenge to researchers to integrate attention to structure, politics, and policy into studies of e-government. It also invites attention to the roles and relationships of formal and informal institutions. Formal institutions—laws, reg- ulations, budget processes, and other governmental procedures—are central to legitimation and shaping incentives for the use of ICT as an integral and inseparable set of elements in the administrative state. Informal institutions—networks, norms, and …
The Network Society From Knowledge To Policy
Notes On The Impact Of Research On The Development Of Egovernment, Jane E. Fountain
Notes On The Impact Of Research On The Development Of Egovernment, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
In this article, the author sketches three dimensions of a research program that would have significant impact on European politics, economy and society. First, the design and political development of institutions is central to a mature research program, given the role played by these structures and systems in the capacity and behaviour of governments. Second, civil servants are the human actors within institutions who are the agents of change, the designers of the particularised elements of policy design and implementation, and the “nodes” of networked governance. Third, inequality reduction is one of the central tasks of a democratic society.
These …
Towards A Common Egovernment Research Agenda In Europe - European Review Of Political Technologies
Towards A Common Egovernment Research Agenda In Europe - European Review Of Political Technologies
Jane E. Fountain
No abstract provided.
Challenges To Organizational Change: Facilitating And Inhibiting Information-Based Redesign Of Public Organizations, Jane E. Fountain
Challenges To Organizational Change: Facilitating And Inhibiting Information-Based Redesign Of Public Organizations, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
No abstract provided.
Central Issues In The Political Development Of The Virtual State, Jane E. Fountain
Central Issues In The Political Development Of The Virtual State, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
The term “virtual state” is a metaphor meant to draw attention to the structures and processes of the state that are becoming more and more deeply designed with digital information and communication systems. Digitalization of information and communication allows the institutions of the state to rethink the location of data, decision mak- ing, services and processes to include not only government organiza- tions but also nonprofits and private firms. I have called states that make extensive use of information technologies virtual states to high- light what may be fundamental changes in the nature and structure of the state in the …
Information, Institutions And Governance: Advancing A Basic Social Science Research Program For Digital Government, Jane E. Fountain
Information, Institutions And Governance: Advancing A Basic Social Science Research Program For Digital Government, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
Throughout the globe, the sweep of information and communication technologies offers unprecedented opportunities for the advancement of governance and society. But information and communication technologies alone are inadequate to foster such benefits. An important, time-sensitive opportunity exists to make a major difference in the development of digital governance and society globally. An applied, rigorous research agenda would clarify for policymakers and the research community the costs and benefits of alternative future visions and paths. A solid research agenda, built through a global network of researchers, possesses the potential to forecast likely positive results and negative outcomes before government actions are …
Toward A Theory Of Federal Bureaucracy For The Twenty-First Century, Jane E. Fountain
Toward A Theory Of Federal Bureaucracy For The Twenty-First Century, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
The Internet promises vast changes in American government that range from Internet voting to interactive online services for the public to virtual diplomacy. As a vehicle for disjunctive change in communication, coordination, and control, the Internet and related information technologies make possible new and exciting developments in operations, regulation, and enforcement. In spite of its revolutionary power, the potential benefits of the Internet, and its potential perils, will be strongly influenced by the current organizations and institutions of government, for it is within the constraints posed by these structural arrangements that government actors make decisions and information networks that connect …
Public Sector: Early Stage Of A Deep Transformation, Jane E. Fountain, Carlos A. Osorio-Urzua
Public Sector: Early Stage Of A Deep Transformation, Jane E. Fountain, Carlos A. Osorio-Urzua
Jane E. Fountain
American government is in the early stages of deep transformation as a result of the Internet and a host of related developments in information and communications technologies. Rapid growth of web-based applications in the government sector promises significant cost savings through structural changes in the production and delivery of government information and services. Deeper organizational and institutional restructuring in government is likely to generate further efficiency gains. But cost savings that result from institutional and organizational transformation are more difficult to calculate because savings due to technology cannot be disaggregated from those due to structural modification. Furthermore, it is in …
Paradoxes Of Public Sector Customer Service, Jane E. Fountain
Paradoxes Of Public Sector Customer Service, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
The use of customer service ideas in government continues to be wide- spread, although the concept and its implications for public sector service production and delivery remain poorly developed. This paper presents a series of paradoxes related to customer service and its use in government. The central and most troubling paradox is that customer service techniques and tools applied to government may lead to increased political inequality even as some aspects of service are improved. The argument is structured by examination of the following: the predominant structural features of service management in the private sector, the assumption that customer satisfac- …
Constructing The Information Society: Women, Information Technology, And Design, Jane E. Fountain
Constructing The Information Society: Women, Information Technology, And Design, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
For the first time in history, women have the opportunity to play a major and visible role in a social transformation of potentially monumental proportions. The extensive reach and penetration of information technology into virtually every area of society creates enormous opportunities for women. But women’s lack of representation in IT design roles may prevent them from capitalizing on these opportunities. Most current discussion and analysis focuses on the increasing numbers of women as users of information technology with great emphasis on their use of the Internet and World Wide Web. Comparatively little attention has been given to the potential …
Social Capital: Its Relationship To Innovation In Science And Technology, Jane E. Fountain
Social Capital: Its Relationship To Innovation In Science And Technology, Jane E. Fountain
Jane E. Fountain
This paper argues that social capital is a necessary, although not sufficient, enabler of effective public-private partnerships and of a new, more collaborative style of innovation policy, although its significance for science and technology policy, has yet to be assimilated by most policy-makers. The network structure of the biotechnology industry in the United States and the regional-based industrial system in Silicon Valley, California are used to show how social capital affects innovation in science and technology. Two US national policy programs - the Advanced Technology Program and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership - make evident the growing importance of network development. …