A Brief History of the Emergence of Digital Government in the United States

Abstract

Digital government may be regarded as the most recent development in the evolving application of electronic information technology to the performance of governmental functions. In the United States, that evolutionary progression is rooted in the Federal, state, and local government use of such information technologies as the telegraph and the telephone. This history, however, considers more than the mere introduction and adaptation of such technologies by governmental entities. Other important aspects include the development and migration of the technologies, as well as imaginative applications of information technology in support of government operations. Also, new policies have been fashioned to ensure the proper management of these technologies and the systems they serve, their protection from physical harm, and the security and privacy of their information. These matters are concisely explored in this overview.