A Citizen-driven Civic Network as Stimulating Context for Designing On-line Public Services

Abstract

One of the major needs of Western countries and economies is to improve the perfonnance and effectiveness public administration. Networking applications are often conceived of as powerful tools toward that end, but to design them to achieve that goal is by no means an easy job. The thesis of this paper is that a citizen-driven civic network represents a stimulating context for designing the on-line services of local government in such a way that they actually encourage the cultural, organizational, and technological innovation that is so needed and so difficult to implement. The paper discusses this claim and argues in favor of it based on the experience gained 'in the context of the Milan Civic Network, namely, cooperation with the Milan city government and the authorities of the Region of Lombardy.