TYPICAL AGILE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
MODIFIED DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Design

• Prototypes

No

Policy issues?

Yes

• Developing a government Web 2.0 site requires a modified design process that not only includes the stakeholders, customers, and developers, but legal and policy teams as well.

Evaluation

• Legal analysis

• Policy changes

Yes

No

Approval or
Policy Changes?

September + October 2009

more transparent? Change will have to happen on several different fronts. At the higher levels, government leadership has a lot of work ahead changing laws, updating policies, and promoting best practices. At the lowest levels of actual deployment, anyone who undertakes a government Web 2.0 project will need to find creative solutions to meeting government’s unique constraints. To devise effective solutions, it helps to understand more about what makes building IT systems for the government different from building them anywhere else.

interactions

Opportunities and Imperatives for Web 2.0 If the Internet in general, and sites such as USA.gov in particular, have made government more accessible to its citizens, then

open technologies and practices can make government more interactive. President Obama’s now famous website, Change. gov, for instance, gave citizens access to the President’s transition team and timely information on the their progress. Tools that allow citizens to better reach their government could have benefits ranging from a more informed legislative process (tweets from your senator?) to new scientific discoveries (academic and citizen scientists collaborating with government researchers). Government can benefit from open innovation networks, leveraging knowledge from outside experts or the massed wisdom of constituents.

Although open government is popularly associated with gaining access to White House documents or keeping an eye

on congressional influence, science and technology also stand to benefit. Government research scientists monitor climate change, track emerging health dangers, develop air traffic control systems, and lead the way in space exploration. Currently they work with private-sector scientists through grants and formal contracts. With open collaborative systems, outside experts without formal government partnerships can help keep government on the cutting edge of scientific knowledge and technical innovation.

Even on internal networks, Web 2.0 tools can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government operations. After receiving criticism for not sharing surveillance findings across organizations, the U.S. government’s intelligence community