Project to study government in the digital world

A new research project will study how the Internet and other technologies will change the way government works.

The Alliance for Converging Technologies, a Toronto-based for-profit research company, and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government announced the 18-month "Governance in the Digital Economy" project last week in Washington.

Technologist Don Tapscott, who is leading the project, said it will examine how technology can improve the delivery of government services and how it will affect governance-the nature of democratic institutions, the relationship between citizens and governments and the role of nations in a global networked economy.

Tapscott said efforts to reinvent government through business process reengineering have stalled because no one has yet examined how the Internet can affect the broader issue of governance.

"You cannot effectively attack the issue of transforming government without tackling the issue of transforming governance," Tapscott said.

The $3 million project is being funded by several corporate sponsors, including IBM, Hewlett Packard, and EDS, as well as government agencies from Canada and the Netherlands. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is also a sponsor.

The project team plans to study 15 national governments and ten state and local agencies that are using technology to change the way they operate and the way they interact with citizens.