The people’s web : government as nexus

Abstract

With the advent of new interactive Internet technologies in government, a move from the transactional loop of electronic government to a more web-like structure of interaction is anticipated for government information systems. It has been argued that that web-like structure of information systems will dictate a new organizational form for government organization. Explored within the dissertation are two primary research questions. The first research question relates to understanding the nature of adoption of new interactive Internet tools in government agencies and whether that adoption differs from the adoption process for transactional systems. To understand the nature of interactive technology adoption, presidential directives, legislation, and laws implementing transactional and interactive information systems are evaluated. Discovered in evaluation are the motivating factors in technology adoption and related technology adoption and organizational outcomes. Accompanying that evaluation is an exploration of the new technologies being used by government agencies as a part of the technology adoption process. To understand the nature of the differences in infrastructure of information systems associated with transactional information technologies and interactive information technologies, a series of case studies were developed. For each case, an exploration of the technology implemented and a map of the Internet architecture for the technology were constructed. Findings suggest that the adoption process and the information system architecture of transactional and interactive technologies are different. Though it is too early in the adoption and implementation process to discern any impacts to the government organization, the technology adoption and implementation is couched in larger organizational theory. Extrapolations are made to address the future form of the government organization and policy outcomes for continued implementation of interactive systems and the organizational impacts are discussed. The second research question relates to the value associated with the implementation of new interactive Internet technologies. To understand any value associated with implementation of technologies, a qualitative assessment of the value conversations within government agencies was conducted, an assessment of citizen value ranking of data was undertaken, and a quantitative analysis of differences in customer service scores given the use of interactive information technologies is conducted. This analysis is triangulated against a historical evaluation of increasing and decreasing scores and an exploration of specific evaluations conducted for interactive technology projects. Findings suggest that that there is value in implementing interactive Internet technologies. However, that signal is weak. A suggestion of research is that evaluation metrics be developed to understand the value of implementing of interactive technologies. Policy suggestions are outlined for technology value evaluation. The concluding outcome of the dissertation is a suggestion of a path forward for interactive Internet technology development in government and an argument for the construct of the emerging organizational structure associated with information organizations.