September 25, 2008
So, Adobe and geospatial? Is Adobe really thinking of jumping into the geospatial market to compete with the likes of ESRI and Intergraph? Well, of course not. However, when thinking about Adobe’s focus on engagement and our mission to revolutionize the way people interact with information, it really makes sense that our technologies become interesting and useful to those needing to share and use this kind of information. For today’s entry, I’m going to begin setting context for you by outlining the various types of users in this community. I am going to generalize the users into three categories; geospatial experts, intermediate geospatial users and casual users and then provide a high level overview of who these people are and what they do, geospatially speaking of course.
September 19, 2008
One of the greatest perks of my role at Adobe is I get to work with and gain insight into some truly innovative things that governments are doing worldwide.
Just a couple of days ago, I was able to catch up with Anthony Steve from the Australian federal government to discuss his upcoming trip to the Adobe Max 2008 conference in San Francisco. He is presenting and sharing the success his agency has had with their electronic forms initiative.
We started working with his team several years ago to transform how services were delivered via their business services portal using Adobe LiveCycle ES.
September 8, 2008
Previously, Rob Pinkerton wrote our first installment on engagement for government. Rob mentioned how the topic is somewhat abstract so I’m opting to share the story of how we came to the conclusion that engagement is important to government. Winding back the clock almost two years, there was a small group of people at Adobe investigating the concept of “engagement applications”. I recall many meetings, each starting in the same way, with the need to define the idea because there was someone new in the room. The idea was very fresh and came at many of the challenges in government from a very different perspective, primarily from the perspective of the citizen experience. At first, it seemed like an uphill battle, most people would eventually “get” the idea, but, not without a considerable amount of discussion.
September 3, 2008
I just came back from the annual APHSA/ISM conference held in San Francisco this year where I had been asked to moderate a session entitled “Technologies for Service Delivery”.
Amidst all the passionate debate about the best ways to provide high quality services to citizens, one thing was clear and everyone agreed – with budgets tightening, head count decreasing and case loads increasing, the challenges to deliver essential social services are immense.
It’s simply overwhelming to try to manage the workload. Many government folks I spoke with were looking for ways to make their jobs easier.
In an equation with little wiggle room, technology can transform challenges into opportunities.
And so, as my session came to a close and the room full of attendees started clamoring to the front, I wondered what I would have said had I been a speaker instead of a moderator.
Government leaders who want to implement change and improve public service should consider technology as a tool for ‘engaging’ their constituencies. Citizen centricity is not a new concept for eGovernment initiatives, but the application of technology to improve engagement for the entire ecosystem is new. An individual ‘engages’ with government the moment they require an agencies services, attempt to transact business with an agency or simply seek to understand its mission. That individual may be a citizen, they may also be an employee, a businessman or business entity, a non-profit, a serviceman, a contractor, etc. Engagement manifests itself with a phone call, browsing a web site or mobile device, visiting a physical office or personal contact with a government professional at work or home. When the experience of engagement is meaningful and effective, an agency will more successfully deliver on its mission.
