While there are an array of great things going on currently in e-government in the U.S. government, including a shift to cloud computing, more efforts at using mobile platforms and social media, and efforts to streamline and conslidate the hundreds if not thousands of legacy systems, at the end of the day the way the public still mostly interacts with government digitally is through government agency web sites.  And yet, too many of them remain user-unfriendly and poorly maintained. A case in...

Regulatory reform promises to be a major agenda item in the new Congress. Support for improving the regulatory process appears to be bipartisan. In late December, President Obama called on government to be a “good partner” to the private sector and eliminate regulations that restrict innovation. Similarly, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor recently called on Congress to “stop the job-killing regulations.” Policymakers constantly struggle with finding the right balance for regulations that improve...