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Professor Jane Fountain addresses EU ministerial delegates on e-government

Jane Fountain, professor of Political Science and Public Policy and director of the National Center for Digital Government, spoke at the 4th Ministerial e-Government Conference held Sept. 19-21 in Lisbon, Portugal.

She was invited to address the delegates on the relationship of e-government to growth and employment in the European Union as part of a live debate that included the deputy secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and European ministers.

Fountain recommended that officials examine best practices in cross-jurisdictional initiatives and work to strengthen ‘communities of practice’ among civil servants and those studying to enter the public sector. She also noted that “e-government has reached a level of maturity that moves it beyond simple service provision, and e-government forward-looking emphasis should shift more in the direction of the best avenues for institutional redesign.”

While in Europe, Fountain was also the featured speaker at the Conference on e-Business in Alicante, Spain, held at the European Union’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market, the EU’s trademark and design agency. Fountain’s presentation, “Building a Virtual State? Cross-Agency Initiatives in Government,” discussed how government actors and agencies redesign information and decision making flows to create new processes capable of functioning across traditional bureaucratic boundaries.

Both lectures are part of the outreach and dissemination efforts of the National Center for Digital Government, a National Science Foundation-supported center based at the Center for Public Policy and Administration in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

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National Center for Digital Government

 

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