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Some Assembly Required: Building a Digital Government for the 21st Century

Abstract

Organizing committee

Acknowledgements

Executive summary

1. Background - the dimensions of American government

2. The new web - technology, policies, people, and organizations

3. Government needs for the 21st century

4. Designing a multidisciplinary research enterprise for Digital Government

5. Digital Government Program recommendations

Selected references

Appendix A. Workshop summary

Appendix B. Workshop participants

Appendix C. Background papers
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5. Digital Government Program recommendations

4. Seek innovative funding models that build a larger resource base for Digital Government initiatives.

At present, the NSF funds allocated to the Digital Government Program are quite modest and are insufficient to support sustained research into the complex questions posed at the workshop. NSF should consider innovative funding models to increase the amount of resources available to support the program. The following mechanisms should be explored:

  • Encourage cash or in-kind matching by grantee institutions. This option should not become a barrier to participation by smaller institutions or jurisdictions. In-kind matches could include such items as access to internal data, sponsorship of advisory committees, dissemination of project results, and similar activities that further the purposes of the research.
  • Use Digital Government grants to add a formal research component to applications projects that are or will be sponsored by government agencies.In this way, Digital Government grants will encourage formal evaluation and documentation of empirical results, leading eventually to more formal models of organizational and system performance.
  • Engage other federal research agencies and private foundations in jointly funded research. The questions likely to be posed by Digital Government research projects are of deep interest to a variety of funding organizations. NSF should pilot test a few grants that combine funding from several sources to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of a mixed funding model.
  • Explore partnerships and incentives for the private sector to participate in the program through use of private research and development assets, and by including private sector strategic requirements for Digital Government services in the program design.