With the rise of e-government initiatives, the majority of communication with constituents and related tasks, such as tax transactions, are now performed online. While they are convenient for citizens, the infrastructure required to support online services creates a large inventory of applications and technology platforms that must be maintained and upgraded based on new needs. An enterprise architecture (EA) approach makes organizations more aware of their current landscape, maximizes the IT investments they're making and ensures an optimal return to the taxpayer.

Every day, public CIOs around the world perform a balancing act between the need for new technology versus the need to contain costs, security versus collaborative processes and accessible data versus the need for business with IT strategies.

To achieve this balance, CIOs must close the gap between business and IT by becoming a business executive first and a technologist second. They need to build a hybrid skill set that enables IT professionals to understand the business's needs.

EA addresses this balancing of business and IT strategies. When properly implemented, EA initiatives can:

• achieve stronger alignment between IT strategy and business goals;
• align various platforms and technologies that have resulted in excessive complexity and cost;
• implement IT standards and governance that enable greater technology efficiencies;
• improve performance, availability, scalability and management of existing architectures and applications;
• support new business processes with new technologies; and
• adopt reusable assets to drive greater efficiencies and faster time to market.

Web 2.0 and Enterprise Architecture

Public-sector CIOs are experiencing a newfound emphasis on collaboration and openness in their dealings with the public. President Barack Obama's memo on transparency and open government stated, "Government should be transparent. ... Government should be participatory. ... Government should be collaborative."

Web 2.0 embodies many of the principles for collaboration and openness set forth in the memo. Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of Web-based services -- social networking sites, wikis, blogs, user-generated content -- that let people work together and share information online. It is about connecting people and amplifying the power of working together. Web 2.0 emphasizes user-generated content, data- and content-sharing, and collaborative efforts. It is changing the way governments deliver services and engage with people.

E-government is a continuum: beginning with online government providing basic access to information and then online transactions, online service provision and in government collaboration. As one moves from access to integration and on-demand e-government, the infrastructure requirements to provide such services increases. Citizens are no longer content with the availability of online forms and static Web pages.

While Web 2.0 involves new technologies and new means of interaction with the public, it remains a simple evolution and extension of e-government.

As CIOs look to embrace the tenets of the Obama administration's policy on collaboration and openness, one should keep in mind certain Web 2.0 technologies are more appropriate for a given level of e-government maturity. Also keep in mind that Web 2.0 changes some basic beliefs of how the government provides services to citizens. With Web 2.0, the government's role changes from being the provider of services to being responsible for only part of a wider range of services that are collaboratively delivered as part of a much larger community.

In this paradigm, government may function as a facilitator or participant in systems and environments for which it's not directly responsible. Government might need to deliver (or make easily discoverable and useful) portions of government information for others to harvest, mash ups and reuse -- perhaps together with information gathered from nongovernment sources. Web 2.0 will also introduce interesting challenges for governing processes and accountability for information.

The Web 2.0 platform makes the online environment individual- and user-centric. From the government and business viewpoint, this means institutions will have to engage citizens