IBM Center for The Business of Government

Public trust in government institutions continues to decline, and the experiences people have with public services often impact that trend. Every form, portal, and eligibility check creates a burden for people: the time needed to learn how a program works, the effort required to comply with its requirements, or the stress of waiting through an opaque process. This works like a “time tax” that can fall hardest on those with the least margin to absorb additional costs.

Federal workers implement nearly every policy priority. Placing the right people in the right roles is therefore essential to responsible, effective government.

A consequential question in national security involves how government intelligence should adapt to a world of ubiquitous information. As Mr. Treverton’s report makes clear, the intelligence enterprise built for a world of scarce and secret information now has access to an overwhelming amount of open information. Moreover, the public-private divide that once separated official intelligence from other information has become far more porous.

Few challenges in government technology persist more than the following: how can agencies move faster to adopt new tools, while also reducing the duplication and sprawl that make technology costly to maintain and difficult to change? This report shows that agencies can address both mandates in tandem, rather than treat them as competing priorities.