Previous page:2008 technology trends for Canada's government organizations
Government 2.0
This social networking phenomenon is evolving into Government 2.0.
"From a technological perspective service delivery in a Web 2.0 environment is not new to business but it's a relatively a new challenge for government," said Kevin D'Entremont, executive director with CMP Technology.
Governments are talking less about online tools for service delivery and more about social marketing, social trends and demographics and how the loosely knit collaborative environment of Web 2.0 is going to affect government.
At the federal level, many departments are starting to explore the concept of collaborative systems and approaches, discussing what information and processes can be open to collaboration.
Some departments have experience in launching wikis and initiating Web 2.0 collaborative tools at a departmental level. Library and Archives Canada, for example, is working on the development of a Google-like cataloguing system.
In the municipal level, the City of Ottawa is doing collaborative work through different service centres to collect information from the public and proactively display services.
But these types of initiatives are just getting out of the gate, and platforms related to collaboration are still new for many of these departments.
People are so used to engaging with products or vendors that they use without thinking about social marketing or how that vendor is tailoring its approach to their needs, said D'Entremont.
Now when we go to government, we have the same level of expectation. "This is the challenge for government," he said.
Shared services
Government is going to be increasingly involved in projects that require data sharing across a variety of special interest groups, and this involves middleware and service-oriented architecture.
Ontario, for example, is attempting to create integrated medical records for citizens. From a technology point of view, this requires a different approach to the development process. At this particular point, SOA is the technology that holds out the most promise for this, said Woyzbun.
A key issue in the health-care sector in 2008 will be the integration of systems, and being able to move information seamlessly from one system to another, said Gary Folker, managing director of business development with xwave, a division of Bell Aliant.
"In 2008, one of the key components will be addressing how we can appropriately utilize technologies to affect positive patient outcomes, specifically in the area of chronic disease," he said. But we're still faced with a significant hurdle in that a tremendous amount of information still resides on paper, and physicians are still struggling to adopt technology that would allow the information to be dealt with in electronic format.
This, however, is becoming a necessity. The Canadian Institute for Health Information recently reported that health-care spending is now hitting $160 billion a year, which is an increase year-over-year of about 6.6 per cent.
In an age of trying to create savings, a shared services model allows multiple departments to work together, said John Reid, president of CATAAlliance.
The CIOs' role is to understand how technology evolution in government can address shared needs among departments. If they can accomplish that, they can significantly reduce the cost of delivering services to citizens.
(Vawn Himmelsbach is aB freelance writer based in Toronto. Contact her atvawn_h@yahoo.ca)
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