Prepress
Open Text Conference Explores Enterprise Content Management, Web 2.0 in Government
Tuesday 16. September 2008 - Governments Beginning to Pilot New Technologies to Enable More Efficient, Effective and Interactive Government
How can government agencies benefit from Web 2.0 technologies, such as blogs, Wikis, forums and social networking tools? A two-day conference for Canadian government customers hosted by Open Text Corporation (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTC) will address that question and broader ECM issues aimed at improving worker collaboration and the way information is managed in the public sector. The event, called Canadian Public Sector Days, will be held for the second year on September 16th and 17th at the Palais des Congrès in Gatineau, Quebec.
When it comes to the way information is used and shared, government agencies face daunting challenges, including preserving institutional memory in the face of a growing retirement wave and managing the acceleration of e-government initiatives. To help, Open Text unveiled a strategy in March to help organizations, including government agencies, transform their workplaces with powerful social computing tools.
In his keynote address at the Canadian Public Sector Days event, Open Text Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, Tom Jenkins, will discuss social computing, Web 2.0 and the new opportunities these technologies offer government agencies across Canada.
“The social media revolution is changing peoples expectations both in the way they work and the way they want to access information and services online,” said Jenkins. “The challenge for government is to understand how the new technologies and practices can be securely integrated into intranet, extranet, and Internet projects.”
To be successful, government officials have to take into account the many rigorous standards and policies agencies must adhere to for their online presence, including bilingualism, privacy, records management and access to information. Government 2.0 is not just about technology; it is also about the people and the culture, and finding new ways to collaborate that will support more up-to-date services that are faster, more secure and accessible to the user.
Jenkins adds, “I think Canada can continue its leadership in developing new ways to use these technologies in government. Canada was a pioneer in areas such as records management. Web 2.0 offers Canada another opportunity for new innovations and will allow Canada to push the technological boundaries to become a true leader in the digital economy.”
To help further Canadas leadership, Open Text announced a partnership with the University of Waterloo in March to create one of the worlds largest centres dedicated to research and innovation in digital media and Web 2.0 (www.opentext.com/news/pr.html?id=2031). Open Text is contributing funding, technology and services for the development of the Open Text Centre for Digital Media Research, part of the Universitys planned Stratford Institute campus.
“The challenges and opportunities of the information revolution will define and reshape public administration in the next two decades,” said Ken Coates, Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo. “Understanding and anticipating new directions in information technology will be essential for any public-sector manager hoping to stay connected to a fast-changing population. We are entering an age of digital depth, when the quality and quantity of digital information accelerates rapidly and where our capacity to use information will struggle to keep up with our capacity to store and retrieve it.”
Web 2.0 technologies can help the public sector improve and extend the collaborative work processes. For example, in the area of policy development, Internet-based tools are essential for interacting with and gathering ideas from involved interest groups. For the government worker, forums, wikis, and blogs can be used in a variety of ways to provide employees with a platform to exchange and manage information.
According to Jenkins, Government 2.0 requires a collaborative work environment and tools to access, share and control content from anywhere, anytime. Common business rules, practices and processes are required to support a 2.0 approach. “Government, as well as corporations, need to manage their knowledge resources as a valued enterprise-wide strategic business resource. Citizens and government employees require access to the content they need, when they need it, and with confidence in the quality, completeness and validity of the information. Open Text provides a common infrastructure for content to be shared for multiple purposes, making government more efficient, transparent, and responsive to its citizens.”
Canadian Public Sector Days
Canadian Public Sector Days will provide an opportunity for customers to share best practices and implementation strategies for ECM with their peers. The tailored program features eight tracks with over 40 breakout sessions where attendees will hear about the latest ECM technology trends for the public sector, Open Texts product strategy and solutions, and partner solutions.