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Copyright by Angela Marie Newell 2011 The Dissertation Committee for Angela Marie Newell Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: THE PEOPLE’S WEB: GOVERNMENT AS NEXUS Committee: Peter M. Ward, Supervisor Gary Chapman (Deceased) William Aspray Victoria Rodriguez Michael D. Smith Chandler Stolp THE PEOPLE’S WEB: GOVERNMENT AS NEXUS by Angela Marie Newell; B.A., M.S. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2011 Dedication To the woman who stood over my shoulder and the sister with whom I swore Mom and Kate my heart, my inspiration, my joy And, to the incredible women who blazed the trail Chris, Susan, Jeanette, Maureen, Roni, Sarah, Victoria And my wonderful grandmothers, who passed along the way Acknowledgements A dissertation starts with a seed. That seed was planted when I was an undergraduate in Dr. William Zanardi's Worlds, Minds, and World-making class. Dr. Zanardi taught me to see past the intended veneer and question the constructs of the world. He also taught me that we are empowered within that construct to build a better world--with all the perils, pitfalls, and greatness that entails. Through my service with AmeriCorps and as a National Service Fellow, I learned how the construct of democracy works and the kind of empowerment it takes for citizens to make a difference for our fellow world residents. I am incredibly grateful to Dr. Zanardi and to my country for opening the door to the ideas and responsibilities of world-making and for the opportunity to serve. The seed for my dissertation sprouted at Carnegie Mellon University where I learned the necessary tools of analysis and strategic thinking when tackling complex issues of innovation and development. My work took its nascent form from the concepts explored when working with Michael Smith, Silvia Borzutsky, Denise Rousseau, David Krackhardt, and Peter Shane. Insights from these great thinkers shaped how I understood and approached the organizational and information design constructs. That seed took root and formed at the University of Texas at Austin where I was expected to work hard, be brilliant, and given the opportunity to accesses invaluable resources and move freely across disciplines to meet the challenges of research. Thank you to the excellent faculty and staff of the University and particularly to the LBJ School v of Public Affairs for housing me, feeding me, and giving me the intellectual nourishment to execute a massive research project. In particular, thank you to Ken Flamm, Ken Matwiczak, Bob Wilson, Jacqueline Angel, and Lucy Neighbors for putting food on my table and opportunity in my path. I would especially like to thank the staff of the Graduate School for their quick and fantastic support of students. Special thanks to Cathy White, John Dalton, Lynn Margason, and Bob Penman for incredible events and technical support. To my incredible cohort: Fred Beach, César Martínez Espinosa, Tanvi Madan, Stephen Palmer, and Wenjie Zhang. Thank you for great debates, for thoughts uncommon, and for pushing me beyond expectation. Thank you to Andrew Krzmarzick at GovLoop and Beth Noveck in the White House for giving early light to my research and believing that it had the potential to make a difference for our country. I would like to thank the Committee O' Mine--Peter Ward, Victoria Rodriguez, Bill Aspray, Sherri Greenberg, Michael Smith, Chandler Stolp, and the late but phenomenal Gary Chapman. These unbelievably intelligent, questioning, kind, giving, amazing human beings have made an indelible mark in my life and given me the branches with which I will take shape in the world. In particular I would like to extend my deepest gratitude and affection to Peter Ward who knew when to push me, when to hold me back, and when to let me go. And who taught me to trust in ways I never imagined I could. To Jim for being the beast of burden and keeping down the home front. I am so, so grateful to you and glad that you entered our lives. vi And to the man who, every day, every hour, every minute stood behind me and told me I could do it, was doing it, and finally did it. I would not be here without you being there every step of the way. Thank you Mr. (soon to be Doctor) Martinez. Finally, thank you to my friends and my family. You are the earth that provides me nourishment, the water that provides me movement, and the light that gives me life. Without you, there would be no seed. Thank you. vii The People’s Web: Government as Nexus Angela Marie Newell, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2011 Supervisor: Peter M. Ward With the advent of new interactive Internet technologies in government, a move from the transactional loop of electronic government to a more web-like structure of interaction is anticipated for government information systems. It has been argued that that web-like structure of information systems will dictate a new organizational form for government organization. Explored within the dissertation are two primary research questions. The first research question relates to understanding the nature of adoption of new interactive Internet tools in government agencies and whether that adoption differs from the adoption process for transactional systems. To understand the nature of interactive technology adoption, presidential directives, legislation, and laws implementing transactional and interactive information systems are evaluated. Discovered in evaluation are the motivating factors in technology adoption and related technology adoption and organizational outcomes. Accompanying that evaluation is an exploration of the new technologies being used by government agencies as a part of the technology adoption process. To understand the nature of the differences in infrastructure of information systems associated with transactional information technologies and interactive information technologies, a series of case studies were developed. For each case, an exploration of the technology implemented and a map of the Internet architecture for the viii technology were constructed. Findings suggest that the adoption process and the information system architecture of transactional and interactive technologies are different. Though it is too early in the adoption and implementation process to discern any impacts to the government organization, the technology adoption and implementation is couched in larger organizational theory. Extrapolations are made to address the future form of the government organization and policy outcomes for continued implementation of interactive systems and the organizational impacts are discussed. The second research question relates to the value associated with the implementation of new interactive Internet technologies. To understand any value associated with implementation of technologies, a qualitative assessment of the value conversations within government agencies was conducted, an assessment of citizen value ranking of data was undertaken, and a quantitative analysis of differences in customer service scores given the use of interactive information technologies is conducted. This analysis is triangulated against a historical evaluation of increasing and decreasing scores and an exploration of specific evaluations conducted for interactive technology projects. Findings suggest that that there is value in implementing interactive Internet technologies. However, that signal is weak. A suggestion of research is that evaluation metrics be developed to understand the value of implementing of interactive technologies. Policy suggestions are outlined for technology value evaluation. The concluding outcome of the dissertation is a suggestion of a path forward for interactive Internet technology development in government and an argument for the construct of the emerging organizational structure associated with information organizations. ix Table of Contents List of Tables ....................................................................................................... xiv List of Figures ........................................................................................................xv Chapter 1: Democratic Innovation ...........................................................................1 Technology Adoption .....................................................................................2 E-Government to I-Government .....................................................................6 Research Questions .......................................................................................11 Overview .......................................................................................................14 Conclusion ....................................................................................................16 Chapter 2: Transaction Meets Interaction ..............................................................18 Introduction ...................................................................................................18 Bureaucracy and Technology Enactment .....................................................21 Technology Enactment .................................................................................24 Phasing in e-Government, iteration into i-Government ................................30 The Value Construct .....................................................................................34