Strategic vrs Self-organising models

I found a couple of articles that reported on research conducted at Department of Public and International Affairs (George Mason University). The researchers suggested that two basic approaches to governance have emerged:

1. The “Strategic view” or centralised approach with tight approval process by one designated department
2. A “Self-organising” or looser approach with individuals and departments publishing “within the agency to post the material they deem fit for consumption”

A couple of interesting points

• The strategic approach was emerging as result over concerns about relevance of published materials to agencies missions. However, the downside is this can result in complex and often slow approval processes.
• While the wide use of a looser approach had been an important part of allowing the freedom to experiment and to learn what users wanted

Weakness with this approach
It is important to note the articles reports on research conducted sometime prior to 2006 (the date of the first article). Given that the research is at least a couple of years old it is probable that the models being examined are predominately orientated towards managing content publishing. I suspect that the researchers were unlikely to have found many organisations tackling the more challenging governance issues around online services delivery or social networking.

From what I can gather one of the reasons government agencies are still slow to take up tools such as forums and wikis are concerns over control. For agencies with a ‘command and control’ approach to the web these types of activities present a significant challenge.

References

• Web site governance hotly contested in many agencies, Joab Jackson, June 06
• A tangled web we weaved: Who rules the site? Public affairs, the CIO or both?, Trudy Walsh, Feb 07