E-Government Capabilities for 21st Century Security and Defense

E-Government Overview

E- is also known as e-gov, digital government, and online government. E-government deals mostly with Internet applications to assist in government functionality. Although not a focus of this article, the term has also been applied to some non-Internet applications such as citizen tracking systems that deal with omnipresent surveillance and biometric identification (What is e-government, 2007).

The overall objective of e-government may be characterized as streamlining government operations in some form. This can take a number of forms, including those listed in a 2002 e-government implementation strategy (United States Office of Management and Business [OMB], 2002, p. 4) as:

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  Eliminating layers of government management;

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  Making it possible for citizens, businesses, other levels of government and federal employees to easily find information and get service from the federal government;

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  Simplifying agencies’ business processes and reducing costs through integrating and eliminating redundant systems;

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  Enabling achievement of the other elements of the President’s Management Agenda; and

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  Streamlining government operations to guarantee rapid response to citizen needs.

In the course of achieving e-government, delivery of services may follow a number of models similar to those found in e-commerce, namely, government-to-citizen, government-to-business, government-to-government and intra-governmental: Internal efficiency and effectiveness (IEE) (OMB, 2002).