E-governance :: Technology, GIS

A very hot topic in public administration research today is e-government. Due to continued technology growth, organizations now have new avenues to approach their missions through fresh and multifaceted methods. E-government may just be the cure for many of today’s ailing cities. E-government as defined by Denhardt and Denhardt (2009) is the â€Å"use of IT to provide information, deliver services, support organizational management systems, ad/or to offer opportunities for dialogue and citizen input† (p. 378). In order to truly understand e-government one must look at the benefits and opportunities as well as specific applications in which it can be used. According to Denhardt and Denhardt (2009) e-government can have many benefits: these include but are not limited to; facilitating communication, aiding in information sharing between public officials and with the general public, increasing efficiency, making elections and voting more accurate, and in turn assisting public administrators to better serve citizens (p. 378-379). E-government also has opportunities, the two main gaps presented by Denhardt and Denhardt (2009) are novelty and cooperation (p. 379). Novelty causes obstacles because it can sometimes be difficult to choose between the many different choices public administrators have access to. Another issue with novelty is that these innovative and varied options often require substantial change which can be very costly and complicated to maneuver through. Cooperation is also a key opportunity; e-government calls for interaction and sharing between all levels of government and government agencies. (Denhardt and Denhardt, 20 09) If cooperation is lacking, e-government initiatives cannot be successful. In a particular case study of â€Å"Sun County†, the real location name was changed for confidentiality purposes; the implementation of a new GIS (Geographic Information System) was followed for several years in order to focus on the process of e-government rather than the outcome or outputs that other research has focused on (Tsai, Choi, & Perry, 2009). The goal of the new GIS database was for the Department's staff to have the ability to enter data into the GIS database, run reports, and generate maps in a real time manner from their own workstations; this would allow them to provide a high level of service without having to allocate a lot of resources. Another goal of the project was to ease the decision making process of management by giving them the ability to perform analyses to better understand County resources and circumstances (Tsai, Choi, & Perry, 2009).