June 8, 2009 By Tod Newcombe, Editor
Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful
By Beth Simone Noveck
Published by Brookings Institution Press, 2009
224 pages; $28.95
Review by Tod Newcombe
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is a government bureaucracy awash in paperwork and slowly strangling on limited resources. With a backlog of nearly 1 million patent applications awaiting review for approval, one of the very cornerstones of American democracy and capitalism has been in danger of collapsing.
Part of the problem was the lack of experts who could evaluate the flood of incoming applications. To help USPTO solve its problem, law professor Beth Simone Noveck turned to the rapidly emerging world of Internet-based social networking to transform the process and let anyone with Internet access collaborate with the agency in reviewing applications. The result was the Peer-to-Patent program, which, in 2007, put together a far-flung team of technologists, lawyers and policy-makers who opened a tradition-bound agency's doors using technology that distilled online collaboration into useful expertise that has sped up the review process.
Noveck has taken that experience as a launching pad for leading President Barack Obama's Open Government Directive. As the president's deputy chief technology officer for Open Government, Noveck has the formidable task of leading the drive for more transparency, participation and collaboration within the federal government. Her new book, Wiki Government, is Noveck's vision for turning that mandate into action.
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Based off of discussions of the Digital Communities Large Jurisdiction Chief Information Officer (CIO) Working Group, this white paper aims to answer the question, "In today's economic, political and business environment, what constitutes a successful relationship between government and industry?" Cause for Optimism identifies and clarifies the issues that separate government and industry, and begins to find an answer to the question necessary for both to enjoy a successful and prosperous future.
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