The more I’ve thought about Citizen Experience — with its goal of reconsidering and improving the experience citizens have when they interact with government — the more I find myself coming back to the same thought: we really need a list of all those points of interaction.
This would include everywhere that public institutions and public citizens connect, both on the web and off. Voting, getting a passport, renewing a license, paying taxes…it’s potentially a huge list, and maybe impossible to compile in full. But even trying, jotting down as many points of interaction as we can think of, seems like it would be valuable — a solid jumping off point for thinking about tangible improvements we can make to real processes.
That’s why I’m asking for the Gov 2.0 community’s help in getting started compiling this list. I set up a Google Doc where you can enter your ideas (embedded below). Please consider weighing in. It should only take a minute! As you think about what to add, here are a few preliminary guidelines to help steer the process:
- Let’s look for examples from all levels of U.S. government — local, state, and federal.
- We want to focus on interactions. So, “federal highways” may not be an ideal example of an interaction point; “paying tolls” probably is.
- Outsourced government services (public functions handled by contractors) are on the table; government funding of private operations (grants, etc.) is outside the scope at this point.
I may well be opening a Pandora’s Box here. There will undoubtedly be a lot of grey areas, and plenty of tough questions we can try to answer as we go (please feel free to leave them in the comments section here). I just figure we have to start somewhere.
Thanks in advance for your help!