--- Subject: Could Technology have caught Gov. Davis? Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 09:40:26 -0700 From: "Sonia Arrison" <SArrisonat_private> To: <declanat_private> Declan, Your Politech list might be interested in this piece on the California Governor's messy Oracle scandal and how technology might help to catch these types of improper actions by politicians in the future. Best, Sonia http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/techwrapper.jsp?PID=1051-250&CID=1051-053002A Making Gray Davis Accountable By Sonia Arrison California's Governor Gray Davis is in hot water over his acceptance of $25,000 from Oracle Corporation following the state's no-bid $95 million dollar e-government deal with the company. And while the governor probably wishes he had never heard of e-government, Americans want more of it in the form of e-accountability. E-government -- using technology to make government more efficient -- has received a lot of lip service over the past couple of years. Homeland security director Tom Ridge says he's "convinced e-government will change society" and Senator Joseph Lieberman is known to wax poetic about e-government's "transformative potential." Given these comments, one might be excused for thinking that the "dot-gov revolution" -- the next American Revolution as some <http://www.netcaucus.org/books/egov2001/pdf/Bluecove.pdf> have called it -- will be some sort of magic event that will usher in a new era of responsible government. But as the California government's Oracle debacle clearly shows, giving a bunch of overpriced computer systems to uninterested government bureaucrats does not guarantee increased efficiency or responsibility. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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