The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Categories
Faculty Research

Fountain Discusses IT & Information Flow at Dubai School of Government

Jane Fountain,  Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, was an invited lecturer on “Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government” at the Dubai School of Government last week. The panel coincided with an Arabic release of a book with the same name.

According to a news release, Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government ” analyzes the shift from the narrow focus of electronic government on technology and transactions to the broader perspective of information government, which includes the information flows within the public sector, between the public sector and citizens, as well as among citizens.

Fountain’s discussion focused on the flow of information in bureaucracies and the impact of information technology on public administration. According to Fountain, “information technologies offer spectacular opportunities to the public sector, bringing synergy between the government and the society. Strategic use of information tools enables governments to be more efficient and allows them to be more attentive and responsive to the needs of citizens.”

In addition to the invited panel presentation, Fountain authored a chapter in the book titled “Challenges to Organizational Change: Multi-Level Integrated Information Structures (MIIS)” which explores how information is structured at the micro-, organizational-, and institutional-levels. (See Fountain’s National Center for Digital Government working paper for an earlier version of this work)

In its first publication, the book was edited by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Director of the Information and Innovation Policy Research Centre, and David Lazer, Associate Professor of Political Science at Northeastern and Director of the Program on Networked Governance at the Harvard Kennedy School. The Arabic edition also includes editor  Fadi Salem, Fellow at the Dubai School of Government, and Dr. Yasar Jarrar, Partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Research Fellow (nonresident) at the Dubai School of Government.

More information about the book release and panel presentation is available through Al Bawaba.com. Further information about Fountain’s research is available through the National Center for Digital Government.

Leave a Reply