CTG Director, Sharon Dawes, was introduced to Yu Shiyang at the first U.S.-China International Workshop on Digital Government Research and Practice (IntDG 2006), held in Beijing, China this past October. Dawes served as one of the honorary co-chairs of the workshop and chaired the government practitioner panel. The objective of IntDG 2006, sponsored jointly by the Chinese Academy of Science, the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation, and the U.S. National Science Foundation, was to create an intellectual forum to bring together key digital government researchers in the U.S. and China to exchange research ideas, foster research collaboration, and explore collaborative opportunities.
"There is a critical need for digital government researchers and practitioners from different countries to share their approaches, findings and lessons learned. Ultimately we hope to form a global professional community to promote further understanding and advances in both research and practice." said Dawes. "Yu Shiyang's visit will help to establish opportunities for future research collaboration."
The main focus of the State Information Center (SIC), an agency of the Chinese national government, is on e-government projects for ministries and commissions, the development of government information resources, and decision-making consulting for the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Council on ICT application strategy and economic forecasting.
The Informatization Institute is a policy-support organization of SIC that conducts research on e-government. As division chief, Yu Shiyang has participated in the drafting of China's 11th five-year plan of informatization, e-commerce, and e-government; organized China's annual e-government report; and participated in or led both research and development projects associated with e-government.
This visit complements CTG's current project, Building and Sustaining an International Digital Government Research (DG) Community of Practice, which is a four-year program operating under a grant from the National Science Foundation to encourage advances in DG research topics that cross national boundaries. Major activities include a reconnaissance study describing the current status of international DG research, an annual research institute for doctoral students, and a framework for supporting the formation of several international working groups.
