Strengthening the Organizational and Network Foundations of Digital Government Research

Panelists:
€ Moderator: Jane Fountain, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, jane_fountain@harvard.edu
€ Noshir S. Contractor, Departments of Speech Communication and Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
€ Dave Kirk, Dean, Digital Academy, Department of Information Services, Washington State
€ David Lazer, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
€ Juliet Musso, School of Policy, Planning, and Development, University of Southern California
€ Nicole Steckler, Department of Management in Science and Technology, Oregon Health and Science University

The central goal of this panel was advancement of deeper, broader social and applied social science research capacity in the domain of digital government. Our focus was on the relationship between information technologies and government organizations, institutions, and networks, that is, the structure, processes and operations of government. The session drew from the social and applied science disciplines and fields that focus on organizations, institutions, networks, public management and administration.

The panelists focused on the following types of questions:
€ What are the most important impacts of information technologies on the structure and processes of government organizations? Which impacts are already discernible? Which are likely to emerge during the next decade?
€ Reversing the causal arrow, how are public managers and policymakers using information technologies to craft new organizational forms or to make important modifications to present forms? What decision making and problem-solving processes are emerging as the principal means of mutual adjustment?
€ What is the impact of increasing use of information-based, networked forms of organization on the institutional structures‹for example, oversight, budgeting, accountability systems‹that regulate governance?
€ What perspectives, theories, conceptual frameworks, and methods seem particularly useful for the study of the developmental processes and organization of digital government?
€ What forms and processes of collaboration between social, policy, and information scientists might further a research agenda for digital government? How might an organization like the National Science Foundation Digital Government Program provide incentives for the advancement of high-quality multidisciplinary