How e-Government Works

E-government is essentially the use of technology in order to bring efficient communication between branches of government and citizens. New electronic systems are put in place in order to decrease paperwork, increase productivity and efficiency, and save money. Not only does this attempt to make government function effectively, but President Barack Obama has pledged to use electronic resources to make our government mare accessible and transparent to it citizens. This would allow real time participation by citizens regarding government spending, earmarks, and current legislation. The purpose of making government policies and actions more accessible to the public is to make government officials more accountable for their actions. President Obama has made it a priority to utilize internet and technology throughout his campaign. He sees it as a platform to bring change to the White House. He ran a campaign funded by the people and because of their funds, he gave back directly by communicating to them through the internet.

In order to find information on this issue I used the Yahoo! search engine. I decided on this search engine because it searches based on relevance rather than popularity. Since I knew e-government and policy isn’t exactly a widely popular topic, and I needed credible sources, Yahoo! seemed like the way to go. My terms used were: “e-government,” “e-government definition.” electronic government Obama,” and “Obama campaign strategies.”

I found many definitions of e-government and Obama’s policies; but the two most helpful were:

http://transitioningovernance.org/enter/category/electronic-government/

and…

http://www.cio.com/article/470589/Web_Experts_Obama_S_Vision_for_E_Government_Will_Take_Work?source=home_ln

Transition in Governance is a reliable site sponsored by an organization that strives to analyze the election and issues surrounding the current and upcoming administrations. The specific article I read was titled, “Obama’s Open Government Agenda: Is I Enough?” It was written in December 2007 and discusses Obama’s e-government policies and the likeliness of their effectiveness. The main issue not discussed here that would have been helpful is Obama’s use of technology in his campaign for president and how it helped him win the election. This analysis and discussion could paint a picture of Obama’s experience in utilizing technology and how this experience will help him bring it to the White House. I am sure that magazine websites have plenty on Obama’s campaigning techniques and will provide me with more information than necessary.

CIO is a business magazine that works to inform technology and business leaders of current technological trends and how they affect the business world. This article, “Web Experts: Obama's Vision for E-Government Will Take Work” questions the ease of Obama’s e-government plan; stating that it will provide more obstacles than initially anticipated. This site appears to be quite credible but is certainly tailored to a specific audience. Because of this, the article did not spend any time discussing the definition of e-government because it assumes its audience already knows.