Very few government services are provided or important public issues addressed by a single organization acting alone. Investigating child abuse, for example, may require information from schools, sex offender registries, welfare agencies, criminal history repositories, health care providers, and even Web site hosts. Many similar issues in our complex society demand that information and other resources be shared across many organizational and jurisdictional boundaries. Information technology is an essential enabler of this sharing, but it must be applied with a solid understanding of the context of use; in particular the political, organizational, and economic realities likely to influence the information sharing effort.

This National Science Foundation funded project began with a study of eight information integration initiatives in criminal justice and public health across five states: New York, Colorado, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Oregon. Based on data collected from these eight cases, researchers at CTG created a new model of the complex socio-technical relationships that underlie and influence efforts to respond to public problems through the sharing of information across the boundaries of organizations.

CTG is currently testing this model of cross-boundary information sharing captured in these case studies with data collected through a national survey of public health and public safety professionals. The results of this analysis will provide the foundation for future research and material for academic and practitioner publications.