Abstract
How can open source development concepts be integrated into Electronic Government? E-Government encourages the adoption of modern IT business practices that exploit the Web and Electronic Commerce to improve government operations and public services. In contrast, "open government" seeks to open for public sharing, discussion, review, ongoing development and refinement, and unrestricted reproduction the "source code" of the processes and practices of government. Open government represents a concept that goes beyond the adoption and use of open source software systems by government agencies. Open government is about empowering and engaging an interested public in better understanding how government processes and services can be made better, cheaper, and faster through the development of open source processes, practices, and communities of practice for government operations. Would open government systems provide new modes of access and participation in an open democracy through the development, use, and collaborative evolution by interested government system developers, industry, and citizens? Would open government enable more complete assessment of the costs/benefits of new legislation? Developing answers to such questions is a subject that needs consideration and public discussion as we move to discover the ways and means for bringing in open source software techniques, and concepts into E-Government. |
