03 February 2010

E-Government

 

Customers at a café in San Francisco, California, use free wireless Internet access.

Customers at a café in San Francisco, California, use free wireless Internet access.

This article is excerpted from the book American Citizenship, published by the Bureau of International Information Programs. View the entire book (PDF, 4.57MB).

U.S. citizens have access to their government 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Through government Web sites, Americans in most localities can go online to find out what their community officials are doing about garbage pickup, pothole repair, or other services. They also can transact with government agencies to renew a driver’s license or update a passport. Many government agencies also allow citizens to submit comments about proposed policy changes online.

In addition, more and more government officials are producing blogs aimed at their constituents, and some are even on Twitter. Utah State Representative Stephen Urquhart told State Legislatures magazine, “Blogging is simply another way to communicate with constituents. It’s tough to draw much of a crowd to reason with me on most issues,” he said. “People are too busy to do things on my timetable. But on my blog, I can reason with many people every day on a variety of issues.” Furthermore, research shows that people who are engaged online are likely to be more civically involved offline. “People often approach me to discuss issues they read about on my blog,” Urquhart said. “Blogging does build bridges.”