Governance as a Framework to Support Informatics

Abstract

The effective management of information is an increasingly critical task at all levels of government. Traditional institutional mechanisms for managing and distributing government resources are not appropriate to managing our systems of public information. Adopting a platform orientation to the management of public information may allow for more effective information management and facilitate meaningful civic participation in the co-creation of solutions to complex social problems. This article begins by introducing information management as a government problem and depicting how platforms function and respond to problems of information management. The impact of adopting a platform orientation to public governance is addressed, and several applications of platforms in the public sector are described.