Report provides strategic framework for government innovators to leverage Web 2.0

Early public-sector adopters of Web 2.0 are using it to improve services to citizens and to foster collaboration internally and with their stakeholders, according to a new report from Accenture (NYSE: ACN).

The report, titled “Web 2.0 and the Next Generation of Public Service,” lays out a strategic framework to help governments approach and make use of Web 2.0, which Accenture defines as a broad category of social-networking and collaborative-communication technologies such as blogs, wikis, crowd-sourcing, websites such as Facebook and MySpace, so-called Rich Internet applications, “virtual worlds,” and RSS publish-and-subscribe services.

Accenture’s research looks at national, state and city government agencies’ use of Web 2.0 technologies and highlights examples of public sector benefits of the new technology applications. It points to Web 2.0’s public sector value in the following areas:

• Improving the scope and timeliness of services to citizens;
• Improving collaboration between agency executives/managers and agency workforces;
• Engaging citizens to participate directly in governance;
• Delivering cost efficiencies by enabling and encouraging self-service; and
• Driving innovation by engaging internal and external constituents to find and pursue new solutions to public challenges.

“Web 2.0 technologies resonate with governments because these technologies support a deeper engagement of people in their own governance,” said Greg Parston, director of Accenture’s Institute for Public Service Value. “The era of ‘e-government’ is now moving to ‘e-governance’ and is the subject of an upcoming Accenture report. The shift is really being driven by citizens, and public-sector leaders are responding by figuring out how to use Web 2.0 technologies to improve services to, and more deeply engage with, their citizens.”

Accenture’s Web 2.0 report is based on the company’s experience working with governments around the world to implement Web 2.0, supplementary desk research and input from Accenture industry and policy experts.