While transparency clearly requires operational changes within government, the system does not need to be completely reinvented. I opened with the boomerang email as an example of the lack of internal transparency. Yet the fact that my question can pass through dozens of relevant people in different parts of the country and, not finding an answer, naturally make its way back to me without any top-down control is also a remarkable testament to the inherent order within government. E-government will sometimes require brand-new, web-inspired approaches, but many other times it will be a matter of transitioning existing, well-ordered “analog” processes to a new medium. These processes were engineered before the web medium introduced an entirely new notion of transparency, where information is expected to be instantaneous, granular, accurate, complete, and universally accessible. Government’s current lack of transparency by this standard is not necessarily an explicit choice. In many cases, it simply has not yet had a chance to catch up with the new definition.
Figuring out how to “catch up” an enormous, complex, legacy institution and make it transparent to 300 million citizens will be an ongoing effort. The call for a more transparent government has no final solution, only a general direction against which incremental improvements can be measured. Fortunately, the pace of these improvements should accelerate, as transparency efforts benefit from a powerful positive feedback loop. When government becomes more transparent, more people have a greater understanding of its operations and the challenges it faces, including the obstacles on the path to greater transparency. These additional, diverse minds are then primed to help clarify and overcome these challenges. Transparency is more than a vehicle of accountability. It is a platform that educates and empowers citizens and businesses to offer better solutions for government. Better solutions lead to greater transparency, which further empowers those outside government. The natural conclusion of transparency is a blurring of the line between government and the governed, when the window becomes so clear that it’s difficult to tell who is outside and who is in.