Footnote:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments August 2006 erstellt
Description:
Government occupies a central role in our world of inter-connected human systems of work, transportation, utilities, commerce, healthcare, and public education. Focusing on the U.S. federal government, this essay advances the lens of our government as an information processing system that monitors, regulates, funds, and provides certain services. Government, as an information processing system, organizes and influences other human systems at local, state, and national levels. However, what if one of the subcomponents comprising our system of government fails? How fragile is our system of government? What insights into the organization of information systems can better reform our system of government to be more effective and flexible? This essay encourages the reader to explore ways that inter-agency government efforts are analogous to information processing among distributed components. With this lens, new research opportunities emerge to re-organize our system of government to better share information across departments, to protect citizens from harm, and to prevent future disasters similar to Katrina and 9/11