E-Government Reconsidered: Renewal of Governance for the Knowledge Age

Alexander Craig is a freelance journalist in Lennoxville, Quebec.

We’re in the process of being governed by network, so we should find
something out about it. The Canadian Plains Research Center and the
Saskatchewan government set out, by means of a symposium, to show us
strategies for dealing with the huge challenges presented by
e-governance.

The editors of E-Government Reconsidered set the stage by offering a
useful historical analogy: “[S]ocieties are still grappling with the
social, economic and public administration implications of Ford’s
introduction of the automobile in 1903. A century later, we are still
trying to plan better transportation systems, and manage the social and
economic consequences of cars and trucks. If the introduction of the
automobile at the beginning of the 20th century is analogous to what we
are experiencing with Information Technology in the 21st, then we are
undoubtedly only at the beginning of an extended process of research,
policy development, and social change.”

Information management, transparency and privacy, Internet regulation,
and e-commerce are only a few of the basic forces in our society today.
They will require a transformation not only of the public sector, but of
the citizenry as well. As this forthright, readable, and at times
incisive book points out: “E-governance must not be equated only with
the provision of information, services or better internal management and
administration. E-governance must empower citizens in their relationship
to governments.”