New information technology (IT) systems are serious, and potentially risky, investments for government agencies and nonprofit organizations. This guide is designed to help public sector managers better understand how a return on investment (ROI) analysis can take some of that risk out of their next IT investment.

IT innovation is risky business in every organization. In the complex public sector environment, these risks are even greater. This handbook is designed to help any government manager evaluate IT innovations before deciding (with greater confidence) to make a significant investment.

The Web offers people and organizations a new way to interact and communicate. This report provides a framework for helping local governments achieve the benefits of the Web without being overcome by its complexity.

Local and county governments are exploring the best ways to implement e-government. This report details the strategies, funding, barriers, and benefits brought to bear by several New York State local e-government pioneering initiatives, with insight and advice for their colleagues.

Efforts to improve public safety in the United States are pointing to an increasing need for justice agencies to share information. This guidebook offers a series of lessons and tools justice officials can use to build business cases to win support and funding for integrated justice information systems.

The Internet offers an overwhelming amount of information about e-government. This new Web resource provides the top quality material by providing a carefully selected collection of e-government resources including executive-level briefings, research and best practice reports, case studies, and Web sites. Please note that e-Gov FirstStop was developed as a prototype resource and was operational from April through September of 2002. It has not been updated since September of 2002 and will not be updated in the future. It is temporarily unavailable.

Creating interoperability in the governmental context requires government leaders to take responsibility for improving the capabilities of government agencies to effectively partner with other agencies and governments as well as the private sector, non-profit groups, and research institutions. Governance is a foundational capability for creating and improving government interoperability. Recent research conducted by the CTG draws on a comparative case study of IT governance to illustrate that while effective governance structures include a consistent set of elements or capabilities, there are also a wide range of context specific issues that must be responded to in the governance design, development, and implementation processes.

This report summarizes the results of a national survey of cross-boundary information sharing in the public sector conducted by the Center for Technology in Government (CTG). This national study, conducted by CTG and supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, was designed to understand how effective information integration and sharing occurs within and across boundaries of organizations. The purpose of the survey was to test the generalizability of a preliminary theoretical model of how policy, organizational, social, and technical factors interact to create criminal justice and public health information sharing capabilities. CTG developed this model based on the data collected and analyzed during earlier phases of the research project.

Today, digital government (DG) research is being conducted all over the world. Most of this work is focused within the geographic and political contexts of individual countries. However, given the growing influence of global economic, social, technical, and political forces, the questions embedded in digital government research are now expanding to international dimensions. A reconnaissance study such as this one focuses on the defining characteristics of a topic rather an in-depth analysis. In this report, we describe the size, scope, variety, and trajectory of the field illustrated with selected studies and organizational profiles. This study is part of a multi-year effort funded by the United States (US) National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a framework for a sustainable global community of digital government researchers and research sponsors.

While public officials at all levels of government play important roles in interoperability efforts, government leaders alone have the power to alleviate the institutional constraints that impede these potentially transformative, but highly complex enterprise initiatives. Unfortunately, while leaders have the unique power to make these changes, experience shows that the policy environments they have created, or in many cases inherited, often limit the capability of governments to share authority, to collaborate, and to jointly and strategically manage enterprise initiatives. To change this, leaders must understand the link between their policy decisions and the capability of governments to create the systems necessary to share information and other resources across boundaries. This paper is for government leaders and presents a unique focus on creation of the policy and management capability, rather than technical capability, necessary to create interoperable government. It presents a set of recommendations to guide these leaders in the development of policies and principles for action.

This paper presents a framework for governments as they begin to move beyond the vision of a more effective government to the reality. Governments are finding that a typical hierarchical bureaucracy is not necessarily the best form of organization to meet citizen and other demands. Rather, governments are finding that a network form of organization where new groupings of persons and organizations must learn to work together and share information, exchange knowledge, and respond to demands in new ways is more appropriate. Interoperability is key to the success of these government networks. The framework focuses first on understanding the capabilities needed to develop and manage (i.e., plan, select, control, and evaluate) initiatives to improve interoperability among government agencies and their network partners, and second on determining the right mix of capabilities needed to share information across a network of organizations. The complete framework is provided for immediate use by government managers to assess existing and needed capabilities for improving government interoperability.

This report is based on the lessons learned from CTG’s XML Testbed. The success of the Testbed rested on the enthusiastic participation of five New York State (NYS) agencies who committed to extensive hours of workshops, training, and prototype development. CTG extends its thanks to the NYS Department of Civil Service, NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal, NYS Higher Education Services Corporation, NYS Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, and the NYS Office of Cultural Education, State Education Department. The Testbed was undertaken in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations (GOER), the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), and the Office for Technology (OFT).

Many of the new directions and developments on the Web have a basis in XML, which is becoming a critical technology for all types of information services. The features of XML emphasized in this Executive Briefing—open standard, reusability, technologically neutral—make it an ideal strategy for preparing for the future, while achieving efficiencies today.

This report describes the technical development of the New York State-Local Internet Gateway Prototype. Each phase is highlighted including prototype design, development, testing, and support. It concludes with lessons learned and considerations for future development.

This project administered an online survey exploring the opinions and preferences of the digital government (DG) research community with respect to the need for, feasibility, and sustainability of a dedicated digital government journal.

In the fall of 2002, the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University at Albany conducted current practice research to identify and examine existing government to government (G2G) portal projects.

This project report details the Gateway Prototype project from conceptualization and development to findings and recommendations. The Prototype was developed to create a single point of contact among state and local governments to test and evaluate mechanisms for government-to-government (G2G) business relationships.

This online demonstration shows the features and functions of the New York State-Local Internet Gateway Prototype. The Prototype was built to identify, demonstrate, and evaluate key factors associated with the design, development, and deployment of a single point of contact for G2G work among state and local governments in New York State.

E-Government is changing the way government conducts business and captures records created during that business. This paper provides a framework for developing new e-government systems that foster electronic records management.

As Web sites have grown in size, complexity, and prominence, site management has become a growing concern for Webmasters, system administrators, and organizations as a whole. This paper discusses how XML technology simplifies the entire site management process.

The research enterprise has grown into a $112-billion endeavor involving thousands of organizations representing every scientific discipline and field of knowledge. This report discusses the challenges facing that research enterprise, offers a vision of the ideal research enterprise, and lays out a supporting research and action agenda to help achieve it.

This paper is based on testimony presented to the New York City Council on a sustainable definition and model of electronic government.

Policies about online government information were a focus of attention following September 11th. This document provides a thought-provoking examination of how information policy issues were reassessed in response to those events.

Governments in the US are using a variety of methods to find out what citizens want from electronic government services. This report presents those methods, and weighs the pros and cons of each of them.

Collaborative partnerships in the public sector are helping to pave the way for new innovations in information and service delivery. This white paper summarizes the findings of a preliminary review of collaborative public sector service delivery methods.

This study provides a complex but optimistic picture for improving the integration of justice information. It provides an analysis of the current integration realities and discusses enablers and barriers to criminal justice information integration.

Information technology plays a crucial role in the public sector, and has the potential to transform the way government works. This report provides a set of recommendations for the National Science Foundation to design its Digital Government Research Program to help support that transformation.

With the assistance of an expert panel representing both practitioners and consumers of mental health services, a computer-assisted decision model was developed to support psychiatric assessments in emergency rooms.

Field testing a prototype is critical to gauge its value for users. This report describes the results of the field test of a prototype decision support tool developed to help emergency physicians conduct psychiatric assessments.

Based on findings from CTG's Advancing Return on Investment Analysis for Government IT project this paper discusses the similarities and differences of approaches, models, and methodologies developed and utilized for measuring ROI in IT investment, particularly in the public sector. The paper also provides a descriptive data analysis of trends in IT investments in United States.

Electronic government is a complex phenomenon which involves technical, organizational, institutional and environmental aspects. Researchers from different disciplines are increasingly finding that using multiple methods can help to deal with complexity and obtain more comprehensive explanations. This paper argues that multi-method approaches can be useful for egovernment research. A set of advantages and challenges to multi-method approaches are introduced and then used to frame a case analysis. Two case studies involving multi-method approaches to e-government research are presented to illustrate strategies for responding to implementation challenges in both large-scale and small-scale projects. This case analysis contributes to the discussion about multi-method research designs and their role in digital government research. Insights into management strategies specifically designed to respond to the digital government context and the adoption of relevant methodologies drawn from the experiences of the authors are provided.

This study investigates the dynamics of a knowledge sharing effort in New York State government that involved multiple organizations, divisions, and geographically separated offices in the development of the Multi-Purpose Access for Customer Relations & Operational Support System.

E-commerce, and online auctions in particular, represent important examples of how information and communication technologies have been employed by public organizations to gain benefits in both efficiency and effectiveness. In this article, we discuss the three-year experience gained by New York State in the use of online auctions for the sale of surplus inventory and property.

Land parcels are the foundation for many aspects of public and community life. This report presents the findings of a study of information about land parcels in New York State. It identifies stakeholders and their interests as well as the needs and issues associated with the uses of parcel data in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

E-government is increasingly been used for government administrative reform. In fact, spending in e-government initiatives continues to rise and, among these projects, Internet-based applications are increasingly important. Using a nested research design, this study explores the complex relationships among the relative success of state websites and certain organizational, institutional, and contextual factors.

Using structuration theory, this paper argues that the World Trade Center crisis was a catalyst for a change in the conceptualization of GIT for emergency response and, consequently, much was learned about interoperability and inter- organizational geographic information systems.

Digital government is a complex organizational and social phenomenon. It involves technical, organizational, and policy elements, as well as their complex and recursive interactions. Multi-method approaches have been shown as capable of presenting more comprehensive explanations of complex situations. This paper argues that multi-method approaches are valuable alternatives for e- government research.

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about multi-method approaches to studying social phenomena; in this contribution e-government is the social phenomenon of interest. A set of advantages and challenges to multi-method approaches are introduced and then used to frame a case analysis. Two case studies involving multi-method approaches to e-government research are presented to illustrate strategies for responding to implementation challenges in both large-scale and small-scale projects. The case discussion provides new insight into how the challenges to multi-method approaches can be managed.

Traditional governmental structures have organized the capture, use, and management of information along agency lines. These “information silos” are not very useful in a dynamic environment. Information integration is considered one of the most significant ways to change the structure and function of public organizations. It has the potential to support the transformation of organizational structures and communication channels between and among multiple agencies working in different locations. This article contributes to this knowledge-building effort by examining the factors that influenced the success of selected criminal justice integration initiatives. Useful integration strategies are also identified.

Government leaders and IT executives increasingly recognize that interorganizational information integration (III) is a critical and complex process. Due to the need for integrated information at all levels of government, interorganizational information integration can no longer be pursued through ad hoc approaches that primarily rely on intuitive understandings of the way government operates. This paper presents an effort currently underway to model the social and technical processes of interorganizational information integration to improve our understanding of information system development and of interorganizational collaboration. This research seeks to enhance both the conceptual and practical models of III by building new understanding of the interaction among the social and technical processes in interorganizational information integration.

More and more government agencies are creating collaborative relationships to improve services they provide. This article presents a summary of an international research project that is studying eleven collaborative partnerships developed to deliver government information.

Though they may be going unnoticed, e-government initiatives are changing the way that the public sector works. This article introduces a four-faceted vision of e-government and describes some of the ways that it is already changing government.

Legal and organizational issues converge when developing digital government in large urban settings. This paper contends that this convergence is a powerful determinant of how these projects develop and how likely they are to succeed.

Many of us have already experienced the potential of the Web to change our relationships with other individuals, businesses, and now government. This article discusses the transformation needed before we can realize the promises of electronic government.