From Electronic Government to Information Government

Information is the foundation of all governing. Information guides decisions and processes large and small—from matters of war and peace to garbage collection. The last decade has witnessed unprecedented attention to the machinery of information in government—often categorized as ‘‘electronic government.’’ Information and communication technologies have been touted as the cure for everything from the rigid, silo-based architecture of government to the sagging rates of participation in our democracy. However, too often the focus of electronic government has been on technology—on the technically possible—rather than on the flows of information. This volume seeks to explore a deeper understanding of the role of information flows within government, between government and citizens, and (to a lesser extent) among citizens regarding government. Technology can only make certain types of information flows possible—it does not mean, as individual chapters in this book make clear, that they will or should occur. Given current technologies, the elasticity of human institutions and cognition is far less than that of bits. This chapter first lays out the current state of understanding of electronic government, because most of the attention to information and government in the last decade has come under this rubric. We then present our vision of an ‘‘information government’’ paradigm, which focuses on the flow of information within, to, and from government. We conclude with an overview of the contributions to this edited volume.