Leela Damodaran -- All About Citizen Participation

She cites Mumford! She studies local e-government! She is Professor Leela Damodaran, and she is the heat when it comes to participatory e-government. Check out this abstract:

Enid Mumford championed an ethical, socio-technical, and participatory approach to the design of ICT systems. In this paper, we focus on the development of e-government as an example of such a system. First, we present an extension of Mumford's ideas about the benefits and process of participation, based on an analysis of recent citizen engagement initiatives. We then examine the extent to which e-government reflects the principles she espoused. The evidence collated indicates that e-government development is currently characterised by a technocentric approach with minimal engagement of citizens. We discuss the implications arising from this analysis, and explore the benefits that governments could achieve from adoption of a socio-technical, participatory approach to e-government development. The crucial enabling role of capacity building is highlighted. Providing citizens with the necessary skills and capabilities to engage effectively offers the key to the successful development of systems such as e-government which impact our lives in the 21st century Information Society.

[Damodaran, Leela and Olphert, Wendy (2008) "Citizen Participation and engagement in the Design of e-Government Services: The Missing Link in Effective ICT Design and Delivery," Journal of the Association for Information Systems: Vol. 8: Iss. 9, Article 5.
Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol8/iss9/5]

Victorian Public Sector Continuous Improvement Network

Chadwick (2008) pointed me toward this one: every public employee in the state of Victoria, Australia, can join VPSCIN.org and blog away. Over 3000 members working to "promote continuous improvement (CI) through leadership and practice." Directed more internally than externally, though we can all read what's going on there.

And they use Wordpress.

Blog That Matters: UK Foreign Secretary Miliband Online

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband blogs. Boy, does he blog! The secretary talks about visiting with the new president of Pakistan. He talks about an important dam project in Afghanistan. He cites Fareed Zakaria on Russia's adventure in Georgia to call the invasion "Not a clever day's work." Is that cool or what?

Here's Your Speeding Ticket -- How's That for Customer Service?

Larry Grant, "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Regulatory Policy Comes Home," Government Reinventors, 2008.06.17:

• "customer" doesn't make sense in regulatory situation
• suppose cops gives you a speeding ticket; you aren't exactly a customer
• note that Grant still looks for a "customer" in the relationship; he suggests in regulatory situations, the regulated are "compliers," while the general public is the "customer" receiving the benefit of government protection

California State Government Best Practices Wiki

State of California Best Practices Wiki:

• in-house: only state employees can add content, though public can read
  
• created this year
• focused right now on five areas: correctional healthcare, customer service, Green California, HR, and IT
• "powered by crowd-sourcing"
• monitored by Calif. State Library staff, "who will edit material for defamatory, illegal or otherwise inappropriate content"
• code of conduct: "respect your fellow State employees"
• supervisor approval for submissions not required, but wiki encourages letting supervisors know what you post in order to spread the word about the site

Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau "Tap the Power" Bibliography

Heck of an idea: the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau ("a non-partisan agency serving the Wisconsin Legislature since 1901") publishes Tap the Power, an online bibliography on major issues. Each issue bibliography is compiled and posted by an LRB staffer. Tap the Power also includes an apparently annual "Favorite Books" feature, listing books recommended by legislators and staff.

JMDiMicco: Embedding Values in Tech

IBM's Joan Morris DiMicco talks about a talk by Warren Sack on evaluating software. He speaks of needing "criteria of democracy and the public good." She interprets and agrees that "we embed our values into the technology we design," cites object-oriented programming as a manifestation of our embrace of "modern top-down, distributed corporations."