dg.o 2007

Classifying Interagency Information Sharing Initiatives for Research about Practice

Sunday, May 20, 2007, 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Overview

Digital Government includes a wide range of systems, technologies, and programs. Because it covers such a broad range of activities, many researchers have tried to partition the Digital Government space into subsets that are more readily comparable and that lead to more generalizeable conclusions. For example, distinctions are made to categorize Digital Government activity by type of user, such as government-to-citizen (G2C), government-to-government (G2G) and government-to-business (G2B). While these types of categories are easy to apply, they are not distinctive enough to detect differences in the environmental setting, organizational constraints or technical design decisions that will directly impact the success or failure of an initiative.

This workshop will seek to develop one or more frameworks for classifying Digital Government activity. The frameworks could be adopted by researchers for use in their field work or by government agencies as guidance to the design of digital government systems, technologies and programs. The focus of the workshop will be interagency information sharing systems. Researchers in many relevant digital government areas (including but not limited to public safety networks, emergency management, social services, criminal justice, electronic payments, or health care) are encouraged to contribute to the discussion. Particular attention will be given to environmental, technical and organizational issues that would constrain or contribute to the success of an initiative.

The workshop will encompass the following activities:

1. Survey digital government classification schemes or frameworks used or proposed by workshop participants and other researchers, with particular focus on interagency information sharing and integration;
2. Discuss and evaluate the merits of these alternatives;
3. Propose one (or more) frameworks that can be used:

• By researchers to select, describe and compare field sites
• By researchers to measure success, performance or outcomes in field work
• By government agencies to identify models for new programs
• By government agencies to measure success, performance or outcomes of new programs

Preparation for Workshop Participants

Requirements: Submission of a 2-3 page discussion paper

Deadline: May 10, 2007

Selection: Selection will be by the workshop organizers based on the relevance of the discussion paper to the workshop goals and the maximum size of the workshop.

Discussion paper – To attend the workshop, each participant must prepare a short discussion paper (2-3 page maximum) addressing the following points. Focus your remarks at the interagency initiative level of analysis.

1. What are the most important categories of interagency information sharing/integration problems shared by government agencies?

2. What conceptual frameworks or models for classifying interagency initiatives offer promise as a foundation for collaboration among researchers working on these problems?

3. Bring examples of possible frameworks or models for discussion. Examples can be in the form of schematics, text, charts or figures, etc., along with short reference lists of related research (EndNote files preferred for sharing).

Workshop participants must submit their prepared materials to the organizers by May 10; papers will be shared among the participants at the workshop.

Workshop Organizers

Dr. Anthony Cresswell, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany/SUNY

Professor Jane Fedorowicz, Bentley College