The University at Albany’s Center for Technology in Government (CTG) selected three groups of international researchers to receive funding to advance digital government (DG) research on issues that cross national boundaries. The groups were chosen through a peer review of proposed research programs that would benefit from close collaboration of U.S. and international partners. U.S. participation in the groups was supported by nearly $200,000 over three years, made possible through a $1 million grant to CTG from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Digital Research Program (DG). The overall goal of that larger grant was to build and sustain an international digital government research community. The international participants in the working groups received similar financial support from their home institutions or research programs.

The three groups addressed transnational and comparative issues in the following areas:

• Online Consultation and Public Policy Making
  TThis group focused on (a) how to evaluate the policy and other social impacts of online citizen consultation initiatives aimed at influencing actual government decision making, and (b) how the optimal design of such initiatives is affected by cultural, social, legal and institutional context. A final product of this international working group is the book Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Flow of Political Communication.


• Digital Governance and Hotspot Geoinformatics for Monitoring, Etiology, Early Warning, and Management
  This group focused on developing a prototype geoinformatic hotspot surveillance system that relies on advanced statistical techniques for detecting hotspots of critical importance to governments around the world in such areas as public health, watershed management, persistent poverty, and networked infrastructure security.


• A Comparative and Transnational Research Agenda in North America
  This group focused on how to advance electronic government research across geographic and political boundaries in the region. The working group members developed a comparative and transnational research agenda targeted at questions about intergovernmental digital government initiatives in North America. For more information about NADGWG's continued activities, visit their Web pages.