A National Center
for Digital Government:
Integrating Information
and Institutions
Jane E. Fountain, Director
David Lazer, Associate Director
Copyright Harvard University 2002
What is an NSF national center?
• A national center is established
by NSF to build national research
capacity in an emerging research
area of national importance.
• Approximately 15 NSF national
centers established since 1997
Copyright Harvard University 2002
Mission
The National Center for Digital Government exists to
examine, articulate, and communicate the
relationships between information technologies and
government and to influence their development
through research, dialogue, and policy guidance.
The Center builds national research capacity for the
advancement of knowledge and practice at the
intersection of governance, institutions and
information technologies.
Copyright Harvard University 2002
Background
• PITAC chartered by Congress under the HighPerformance Computing Act of 1991 (P. L. 102-194)
and the Next Generation Internet Act of 1998 (P. L.
105-305)
• Findings and Recommendations of the PITAC report
of 1991:
– Federal information technology R&D investment is
inadequate.
– Federal information technology R&D is too heavily focused
on near-term problems.
– Recommendation: Create a strategic initiative in long-term
information technology R&D.
Copyright Harvard University 2002
NSF
Information Technology Research
“Increasing our understanding by acquiring new
knowledge about the manner in which social,
behavioral, economic, and political processes shape
the use of IT by people, organizations, and cultural
groups, as well as the ways IT can affect economic
growth, democracy and political processes, health care,
and other aspects of contemporary life.”
Copyright Harvard University 2002
ITR Program: Directorates
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Biological Sciences
Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Education and Human Resources
Engineering
Geosciences
Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Office of Polar Programs
International programs
• $147 million (est.) in FY03
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Digital Government Program:
Institutional Context
• Information Technology Research
– Directorate for Computer and Information
Science and Engineering
• Division of Experimental and Integrative
Activities
–Digital Government Program
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Digital Government Program 1998
“[F]und research at the intersection of the
computer and information sciences research
communities and the mid- to long-term
research, development, and experimental
deployment needs of the Federal information
service communities.”
-- 1998 Program Solicitation
Copyright Harvard University 2002
The Evolution of the Program
1998-2002
• Technical tools and applications, 1998-99
• Inclusion of “public management” without a
theoretical or social science base; reinventing
government, 2000
• Internet Policy Institute, February 2000
• National Workshop on Internet Voting, 2001
• Building the Virtual State, 2001
• Developing a Basic Social Science Research
Program for Digital Government workshop, 2002
• National Center for Digital Government:
Integrating Information and Institutions, 2002
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Enacting Technology
Shadow theories
Technology
Structure
Enacting technology
Enactment: “The ways that organizational,
political, and social mechanisms…influence
the adoption, design and use the Internet”
Building the Virtual State, 2001
.
Copyright Harvard University 2002
Technology Enactment: An Analytical
Framework
(J. E. Fountain, Building the Virtual State, p. 91)
Objective
Information
Technologies
Internet
Other digital
telecommunications
Hardware
Software
Organizational Forms
Outcomes
Bureaucracy
Hierarchy
Jurisdiction
Standardization
Rules, files
Stability
Enacted
Technology
Perception
Design
Implementation
Use
Networks
Trust v. exchange
Social capital
Interoperability
Pooled resources
Access to knowledge
Institutional Arrangements
Cognitive – mental models
Cultural – dominant values and behaviors
Socio-structural – relationships, networks
University 2002
LegalCopyright
and formalHarvard
– rules, laws
Indeterminate
Multiple
Unanticipated
Influenced by
rational, social and
political logics
Digital Government Program 2002
Multi-disciplinary and multi-sector partnerships of
researchers in information technologies and
government agencies
Research on the relationships between the design and
use of information technologies on: i) forms,
processes, and outcomes of democracy, ii)
government organizational forms, learning, and
adaptation, iii) new forms of government-government
collaboration, iv) citizen/government interaction, and v)
other social/political science research related to IT and
government.
-- from the Digital Government Program Description, 2002
Copyright Harvard University 2002
Two Classes of Proposals
• Class 1 - Technically based computer and information
science research (IT) on emergent technologies. . . .
• Class 2 – Social, political, and behavioral research on
the effect of information technologies on the forms,
processes, impact and outcomes of IT within
government, both from the standpoint of government
agencies and from the standpoint of the public at
large.
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digital democracy and civic interaction,
governmental organization design,
IT design/adoption and inequality of access and use,
the impact of information-based networks on government.
• Collaborative research encouraged
-- From NSF-02-156, Program Solicitation, August 2002
Copyright Harvard University 2002
Central Elements of
the National Center
• Build national research capacity for the
advancement of knowledge through applied
social science research
• Serve as a clearinghouse for research,
practice, and innovation globally
• Convene researchers and practitioners
• Build an international network of expertise in
IT, institutions, and governance
Copyright Harvard University 2002
Phase I Program Elements
• Research at KSG, Harvard, and in
partnership with other institutions
• National Center Fellowship Program
• National Center seminar series
• Workshop series
• Small grants to support research
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Research: FY2002
• The history of Internet governance and the creation of ICANN
(Cukier)
• Social networks and the use of information and
communication technologies in government agencies (Scharf)
• Diffusion and extension of IT innovations; ICTs, development,
and indigenous cultures (McKinnon)
• The political economy of policy expertise: information,
interpretation, and the “intrinsic advantage” (Esterling)
• Broadband and economic development in rural areas
(Bowman)
• Web's impact on the formation of mass opinion (Hindman)
• Intraorganizational social capital and the implementation of
strategic IT initiatives (Mergel)
• Policy networks as informational and deliberative structures
(Lazer)
• The Internet and the development of the state (Fountain)
Copyright Harvard University 2002
Projects under Discussion
• Local government responses to demand for
broadband (with MIT and Carnegie-Mellon)
• Computational politics (with MIT and Harvard
Govt. Dept.)
• Internet and economic development in
indigenous populations
• Cross-national comparative study of state
policymaking structures and digital
government
Copyright Harvard University 2002
Building Dialogue and Networks
• DNA and the Criminal Justice System (Lazer)
– The dnapolicy.net initiative
• Electronic rulemaking: New Directions for Technology
and Regulation (RPP, Coglianese)
• Building the Social Science Foundations of Digital
Government Research (Fountain)
– Digital Government workshop
• The Virtual Citizen: Identity, Autonomy and
Accountability (Camp)
Copyright Harvard University 2002
NCDG Seminar Series, Fall 2002
• Barry Wellman, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto,
Netting Together: Has There Been a Turn Towards Networked
Individualism
• David Clark, Senior Research Scientist, Laboratory for
Computer Sciences and Director, Program on Internet &
Telecoms Convergence, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Does Technology Matter to Digital Government?.
• Noshir Contractor, Professor of Speech Communication and
Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, The
Co-evolution of Knowledge Networks and the 21st Century,
• Kuno Schedler, Professor for Management Economics,
University of St Gallen, Switzerland, E-government in Europe.
• Lewis M. Branscomb, Aetna Professor of Public Policy and
Corporate Management emeritus, John F. Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard University, title TBA.
Copyright Harvard University 2002
Methods Workshops
• Workshops on research methodologies to
build theory and tools for information
technology research.
• Barry Wellman, workshop on social network
methods and issues
• Kuno Schedler, workshop on survey
research methods
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Central Intellectual Challenges
• Extension of social and policy science
theories and methods to describe and explain
the empirical reality of digital government
• Bridge hard and soft sciences to influence
– research
– institutional development
– technical design
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Central Policy Challenges
• Networked governance
• Provide sound research to government; fill a
void in research capacity at the intersection of
information, institutions, and governance
• Institutional change and development
Copyright Harvard University 2002
www.ksg.harvard.edu/digitalcenter
Jane_Fountain@Harvard.edu
David_Lazer@Harvard.edu
Copyright Harvard University 2002