CTG was founded on partnerships with people in government, academic, and corporate organizations. Individuals from each of these sectors make unique and critical contributions to our work, and each gains distinct benefits.

This issue of Innovations spotlights two academic partners working on the "New Models of Collaboration for Government Services to Citizens and Businesses" research project. The project is exploring how public sector partnerships form and become operational. Jon Gant is studying the collaboration that was built around the state portal Access Indiana. Patricia Diamond Fletcher is exploring the partnerships developed to create IRS e-File and FirstGov.gov. Both researchers are writing chapters in a soon-to-be-released e-government book edited by David Garson called Digital Government: Principles and Practices.

Jon Gant, an assistant professor of Public Administration at Syracuse University's Maxwell School, is studying the State of Indiana's Web portal. The portal is the result of a collaboration between the state and a private company, Indiana Interactive. It started as a partnership project to bring the state's Bureau of Motor Vehicle records online, and it has grown to a large portal with more than 175 custom-designed on-line applications and 190,000 pages of government information from more than 75 state entities.

Gant first became involved with CTG in 1999, when he and Indiana University colleague Craig Johnson were exploring how other universities were teaching information technology in public administration programs. The two visited Rockefeller College and participated in a knowledge-sharing session at the Center.

"That trip opened the door for this partnership," Gant said. "Later on, my work with Access Indiana was an ideal case for the New Models project."

Prior to his research with the Access Indiana partnership, Gant studied the attributes of State Government Web Portals with a grant from PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He also conducted research on the use of an advanced GIS application system to improve decision-making for a Meals on Wheels program in the City of Pittsburgh.

"Putting services online involves developing new work systems—figuring out how to integrate current business processes with information and communication technologies. In order to provide on-line services, your work systems and information systems must work congruently. Managers and organizations struggle with understanding that."

Fountain, Jane. (2001). Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change. Washington, D.C., Brookings Institution Press.

Ross, J. and C. Beath. (1996). "Develop long-term competitiveness through IT assets." Sloan Management Review. 38(1) 31-43.

Sambamurthy, V. and R. Zmud. (2000). "Research commentary: The organizing logic for an enterprise's IT Activities in the digital era—A prognosis of practice and a call for research." Information Systems Research, 11(2) 105.

The ability to access software and applications from the Internet takes the client server architecture to new levels. It enables people to share files and software over the network that would have been difficult or impossible to share before. This technology enhances the ability to share information in a more cost effective manner. In this atmosphere, the owner of the information can update the information, and it would be updated on the user's machine in real time.

Patricia Diamond Fletcher is an associate professor in the Policy Sciences Graduate Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). She is studying IRS e-File and FirstGov.gov as part of CTG's New Models of Collaboration project.

One of the most interesting aspects of these studies, according to Fletcher, is how FirstGov was up and running in 90 days. "Anyone in government knows that that's no small feat. Everyone involved worked hard to get it going. and it took a lot of out of the box procedures to get it up and running that fast," Fletcher said.

Fletcher first became involved with the Center in 1997 when she participated in "A Step Beyond Research: Fostering IT Innovations in Government," a workshop that explored the issues and opportunities for applied research to support IT innovation in government. The workshop focused on the sharing of ideas to improve the value of information technology (IT) research to government practitioners. It also sought to establish and strengthen communication and collaboration among government IT researchers.

In 1989, Fletcher conducted the first nationwide study of information resource management in the states. Three years later she followed up that research with a similar study of county governments, which was co-sponsored by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and the National Association of Counties (NACO). Since then she also conducted a number of information management studies for the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).

"One of the most important things for people to know is what technology can and can't do. It can help a lot, particularly if you thoroughly prepare the way and have an abundance of resources. But that's often not the case, and that's when technology falls short of the promises."

www.gao.gov - The US General Accounting Office (GAO) has thousands of reports on public sector information management.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/infopoltech.html - The US Office of Management and Budget Web site has a section on Information Policy, IT & E-Gov. They provide documents and reports on information technology issues across government.