A Web strategy for better state government
NOW THAT Governor-elect Deval Patrick must deliver on his promises, there's a crucial tool at his disposal to which his predecessors have given only cursory attention: the Web.
We lag badly (as measured by the Center for Digital Democracy's annual awards) behind major states we must compete against for economic development (perhaps most prominently, Michigan), as well as states such as Arkansas or Maine, in terms of streamlining internal governmental processes and making it easier for the public and companies to interact with the state.
Perhaps no immediate challenge facing Patrick that's amenable to an innovative " e-gov " approach is more critical than implementation of the universal health insurance law (at present, there's no mention of it on the mass.gov homepage. You must drill down well inside the Commonwealth's site to find any information, provided only by the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries).
To avoid the confusion marking last year's Medicare prescription program launch, the state must provide interactive tools to help people select coverage based on their personal situations. Equally important, the process must be designed with built-in feedback loops so that, when the inevitable questions arise that planners didn't anticipate, answers can be added to the FAQs on a real-time basis.
Longer term, Patrick's emphasis on attracting economic development and growing home-based firms requires streamlining of permitting and compliance processes. Fortunately, there's a lot to be done simply by adopting existing best practices. For example, Michigan has a one-stop, personalized business portal that cuts up to 10 weeks off the length of time it takes to begin operating a business.
After playing catch-up (why can't we have a "My Massachusetts" personalized portal like the ones residents of other states enjoy?) there's incredible opportunity for the Commonwealth to leverage the Web creatively, to achieved the magic combination of cutting operating costs and simultaneously improving the delivery of services.
One way doesn't even require the state to do anything itself -- just empower citizens. The District of Columbia has a brilliant new program letting residents create innovative
Longer term, creative Web-based strategies could also address the special problems that inflate the cost of state and local government here because of the home-rule tradition. While most states deliver services primarily through counties, which are few in number, we have 351 police forces, fire departments, etc., inevitably increasing overhead costs and reducing efficiency. We can eliminate much of that waste. For example, a unified criminal justice document-creation process similar to Pennsylvania's would improve public safety and reduce costs by having a single unified record follow an individual from arrest through parole.
Most creative would be what I call "virtual regionalism ": not statutory regional bodies, but ad hoc, voluntary ones helping communities with similar interests and problems to collaborate on shared solutions. If the Office of Commonwealth Development or Administration and Finance hosted a variety of collaboration tools such as " wikis, " officials in a given community could form ad hoc alliances to discuss and manage services with, for example, other communities served by the same state highways, with similar concentrations of immigrant residents, similar economic bases, etc. These shared tools would allow municipalities to lower costs with joint bidding on equipment, evaluate the impact of large proposed development projects, work out sharing of specialized DPW or fire equipment, etc. Because virtual regionalism wouldn't be statutory, communities could instantly form working arrangements -- and dissolve them if they are no longer were relevant.
The Commonwealth is home to many leading Web services firms, and we want to attract more. Yet, like the shoemaker's children, we muddle through with a second-rate Web strategy. The Patrick administration could deliver on its promises while reducing the cost of state and local government services by a Web strategy as creative as the state must be to compete in the 21st century.
W. David Stephenson is a principal at Stephenson Strategies . He consults on homeland security and e-government transformation strategies . 
