KAP gets recognized by Mayor & CIO, then by FastCompany

Knowledge As Power (KAP) was recognized this past week for its usability study of the Seattle.gov website (which was just relaunched!). I had the privilege to work with KAP and Sarah Schacht, it’s Director, this past Spring on legislative projects as well as the inaugural Open Gov West Conference.

It also looks like Sarah is garnering some more attention in our region and beyond as she was just featured in a Fast Company column on e-government.

There are great opportunities for governments to collaborate internally, externally with citizens (e.g. usability studies, community forums), and between one another. I realize that this isn’t necessarily a new line of thought, but we are at a point in time when most governments – especially those in the US – face budget and performance gaps. Through different types of efforts, such as Open311, open data initiatives, and GovLoop, there is great potential to increase efficiencies, build collaborative relationships, and cut costs in the long-run.

This is an interesting time, especially for local governance. Just how far can IT infrastructure take us? How do we create portals for civic participation without burdening staff and resources? Can we effectively measure and encourage increased civic roles? And, if governments begin this change, can they be sure it won’t disenfranchise citizens and other partners?