Government increasingly faces challenges—and is expected
to achieve results—that reach across agency and program
boundaries. These challenges include issues such as climate
change, food safety, disaster response, and cyber security.
The traditional approach has been to use agencies and programs
to address the nation’s challenges. While this approach
helps ensure accountability, more frequently it tends not to
produce results.

Here are four potential catalytic mechanisms to improve the
way government works: encouraging radical transparency,
organizing around customers, encouraging co-production
with citizens, and empowering employees to collaborate and
innovate. In each case, Web 2.0 technologies can facilitate
broad changes in how government achieves outcomes that
reach across agency boundaries.