But there are even newer forms of digital access, collaboration and participation that are gaining momentum and might have the potential to make e-government a bit more personal. In a Feb. 2005 story, writer Blake Harris chronicled the impact of Web logs -- "blogs" for short -- on politics, news reporting and government. Shortly after becoming Utah's CIO in 2001, Phillip Windley began blogging personally, and encouraged IT staff throughout the state to blog. His personal blog continues.
Blogs are a form of "social software" defined by Wikipedia -- which is itself a form of social software -- as software that: "... enables people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication and to form online communities." The term, Wikipedia goes on to say, could encompass older media such as mailing lists and Usenet, but most often refers to newer forms such as blogs and wikis.
Wikipedia is free to use, and is now much larger than the more traditional encyclopedias that cost hundreds of dollars, sit on a bookshelf, and are typically updated with yearbooks. In fact, said Christopher Allen last week at the CIO Academy in Sacramento, Calif., not only is Wikipedia more comprehensive than a popular hard-bound encyclopedia, a recent test of accuracy found comparable mistakes in both. However, while the mistakes in Wikipedia were immediately corrected, they still stand in the hard-copy encyclopedia.
Social software is not alien to government, in fact one of the first examples, called EMISARI (Emergency Management Information Systems And Reference Index) was developed by government. EMISARI provided a sort of chat capability via teletypewriters connected over telephone lines to a computer.
Social software categories are of two types, said Allen: synchronous and asynchronous. CompuServe's chat room in the 1980s is an early example of synchronous, he said, that followed a CB radio model with different channels for different purposes. A more recent example is instant messaging.
Asynchronous applications include e-mail which Allen said became social software with the invention of blind carbon copy or bcc. Discussion lists are a form of asynchronous social software that have persistence, and enable a review of past discussions by date and time, by subject etc.
Subetha for the Macintosh, and Moon Edit for Windows allow collaborative document work and editing, and can be used during teleconferences, for example.
Too Much Communication?
Most wikis keep track of changes and who made them, because not everyone is careful of facts and some deliberately add false, or slanderous material. If that happens, the entries can be deleted and the perpetrator blocked from further participation. Social software also gets spammed, said Allen, and is vulnerable to ads, flame wars and other nuisances.
Other Examples
Flickr, said Allen, is a photo sharing site. Del.icio.us allows sharing of bookmarks with others.
Another type of social software is a mashup. A mashup uses RSS and XML open standards. Chicagocrime.org is a mashup of Google maps and police crime information, said Allen, so that residents can check up on crime in their neighborhoods.
