Press Release
Copenhagen, 9 November, 2009
The future of eGovernment is up for discussion when ministers of IT and Technology from all over Europe gather in Malmö, Sweden on November 18, 2009.
But what is the status of eGovernment? In a new book, published on the same day as the minister meeting, 34 global thought-leaders in the field, including Don Tapscott, Tim O’Reilly and Lawrence Lessig, have contributed their views and ideas about the current state of eGovernment and what has come to be known as Government 2.0.
The book’s themes include:
- How the “web 2.0″ revolution affects eGovernment activities
- How the digital grassroots, entrepreneurs and ‘goverati’ are working to change government
- How new tools, used over the internet, are going to change the way government interacts with citizens
The book, “State of the eUnion: Government 2.0 and Onwards“, is assembled and published by one of Denmark’s leading enterprise architects, eGovernment veteran John Gøtze, PhD.
“In many ways, eGovernment has come of age. The use of IT and digital media is today part of everything government does, so the ‘e’ is becoming obsolete. ‘eGovernment is just Government,’ as the saying goes, but it is important to realise that the ‘e’ has changed government forever, and will keep doing so, and hence we now talk about Government 2.0, “ John Gøtze explains.
Edited by John Gøtze together with eGovernment consultant Christian Bering Pedersen, the book gives an overview of recent developments in Europe, North America, and Australia. The contributions to the book have all been collected over the last couple of months.
Don Tapscott, one of the world’s top 50 business thinkers, writes in the book’s foreword: “Every government leader, every elected official and every government employee should read this book and get involved in one of the most exciting challenges of our times – transforming government for effectiveness, relevance and success, enabled by a new medium of communications and required for the emerging citizens of the 21st century. The stakes are very high.” Don Tapscott is keynoting at the ministers’ conference.
The book’s contributors touch on a number of different subjects, all related to making government work better. Some deal with getting government data out into the open, breaking down data silos. Others focus on how to interact with the public through interactive websites. Still others discuss how to facilitate organizational change that will open up government.
The book will be published both in print (sold via Amazon, B&N, etc) and online (free). The content is licensed under a Creative Commons license, and the complete book will be available for free online here at 21gov.net. Follow @gov20book on Twitter for updates about the book.
Edited by John Gøtze and Christian Bering Pedersen, and foreworded by Don Tapscott, the book includes contributions from Richard Allan, Kim Normann Andersen, Tony Bovaird, Lee Bryant, Joanne Caddy, Stephen Collins, Dan Doney, James Downe, Mark Drapeau, Bengt Feil, Dave Fletcher, Michael Friis, Matt Leighninger, Lawrence Lessig, Rolf Lührs, Elke Löffler, Rony Medaglia, Philipp S. Müller, David Osimo, Tim O’Reilly, Tommy Dejbjerg Pedersen, Chris Potts, Steve Radick, Harald Rathmann, Steve Ressler, Alexandra Samuel, W. David Stephenson, Hanne Sørum, Ariel Waldman, David Weinberger and Olov Östberg.
