Assumptions
The goal of e-government is to make access to public services easier for local citizens. This ranges from having official forms and phone numbers available online, to publishing real-time status for mass transit, public parking and government spending. As Castro et. al. (2008) note, while there is no one-size-fits-all solution for every community, each local government does not need to build its own system from the ground up. But instead the authors recommend that organizations should cooperate in setting common data standards, sharing best practices, engaging with the private and nonprofit sectors. In this way, state and local leaders can drive investment in IT infrastructure to produce economic growth and improve quality of life in their communities (Castro et. al., 2008).
Position Strategy
The CCSF carries the advantage of having resources that are tightly linked and cannot be easily imitated. Interdependent resources create complexity, and so copying them and their linkages is challenging and time- consuming” (Bingham et. al., 2011).
Technology is a great way to communicate and problem solve. I jokingly say I should be chief marketing officer. I have to be a cheerleader for technology and show how it can be useful and relevant to the community.
Mission
The mission of the City and County of San Francisco is to provide its citizens better access to government services both on-line and via mobile devices without compromising information privacy.
Core Competencies
The City and County of San Francisco’s core competencies lie in providing government services. However, Amit et. al. (2012) believe that how companies do business will often be as, or more, important than what they do. The business model defines a system of interconnected and interdependent activities that determines the way the company does business with its customers, partners and vendors. Thus, “a business model is a bundle of specific activities — an activity system — conducted to satisfy the perceived needs of the market, along with the specification of which parties (a company or its partners) conduct which activities, and how these activities are linked to each other” (Amit et. al., 2012).
The Theory of the Business & Porter’s Five Forces
Environment
The CCSF operates in a highly regulatory environment, and must ensure the privacy of individual citizens’ information, while, at the same time, balance the goal of easy access to public information. The CCSF has no competitors, per se, but individuals will look to it to be on the leading edge given that the state of California is also leading the other states in the United States with online access to government services. An example of this is in on line voter registration. (ACLU, 2012). Reeves et. al. (2011) speak about the need for organizations to become really good at learning how to do new things because it is the firms that are quick to read and act that will thrive. Advanced data-mining technologies to recognize relevant patterns are valuable for The CCSF (Reeves et. al., 2011).
“Whether a small town uses its municipal website to provide 24×7 access to online services or a state develops a system to allow residents and businesses to pay fees online, IT can help make government more responsive” (Castro et. al., 2008).
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
The City and County of San Francisco excels in providing government services. Its strength will be in continuing to provide excellent services as it goes on- line and to provide those services in a way that does not compromise information security as CCSF will also provide mobile access (Glaeser et. al., 2000).
Weaknesses
“All of the existing and potential e-government applications are dependent on localities actually having high speed broadband connections. Even the most innovative technology solutions to government problems are moot if the backbone isn’t there. The potentials that Atkinson and Castro point out add to the case for high speed Internet access for all of America” (Speedmaster, 2009).
Opportunities
The City and County of San Francisco has an opportunity to provide government services both on- line and via mobile devices that it must take advantage of to stay competitive for businesses (Glaeser et. al., 2000). “Now we’re reaching a tipping point. The confluence of faster processors, better storage, greater bandwidth and advanced software — coupled with new technologies such as geographic information systems, global positioning systems and distributed sensor networks — makes it possible for state and local governments to harness IT to solve pressing societal challenges in the areas of education, health care, energy and transportation.
The communities that are most successful in addressing those challenges will be those that use IT to vastly improve the availability and use of information” (Castro et. al., 2008). “If data is accessible and reusable, then citizens and nongovernmental organizations will be able to bring their creativity to bear. For example, volunteers working around the world established the Katrina Help Wiki as a clearinghouse for information on multiple disaster recovery efforts.
One major initiative — the Katrina PeopleFinder project — aggregated data on survivors from multiple sources into a single repository using an interoperable XML standard called the People Finder Interchange Format….Digital images are used to update the online maps in real time, which makes them far more accurate and efficient than the paper maps of the past. In the near future, as local governments and utility companies amass more GIS data on underground pipes and cabling, workers will be able to use GPS-enabled equipment to avoid potential hazards.” (Castro et. al., 2008).
Threats
Online interactions with the government pose a threat to the privacy of citizen data and records. Third-party apps accessing public records and/or open data can draw users away from the more official government records. While more usable, they may not be accurate, which can lead to public dissatisfaction. However, municipalities that are first to embrace open data can gain advantage when wooing businesses to their jurisdiction.
While this can be great for business leaders, less tech savvy municipalities could see businesses relocate away. “As interest in open data continues to grow around the world, cities have become laboratories for participatory democracy. They’re also ground zero for new experiments in spawning civic startups that deliver city services or enable new relationships between the people and city government. San Francisco was one of the first municipalities in the United States to embrace the city as a platform paradigm in 2009, with the launch of an open data platform. Years later, the city government is pushing to use its open data to accelerate economic development” (Howard, 2012).
“Even more than on-demand government, Dakin Sloss, the Executive Director of California Common Sense and a Stanford senior, said that 10 years from now we’ll have real-time government, with cities and counties tracking spending online and making it available to citizens…People have said there’s no value in being involved in state or local government, but technology provides a great opportunity for changing the power structure” (Reset San Francisco, 2011).
