In the early days of public internet use of the 1980's and 1990's, electronic government held great promise to empower people with all sorts of access to public servants and their services. Building on decades of public access laws, database availablity on the internet, and open government regulations, “Government 2.0” continues to deliver a multitude of services with promises of more to come.

From Emergency Service departments that use Twitter and Text Messages to alert students to a shooting situation on college campuses, to online building and planning permits, to food inspection and safety reports, Government 2.0 has offered valuable services to the public. It's recent push to expand into social network spaces promises new and better ways to offer traditional services with the improved speed and efficiency that the online world has to offer.

In the interests of clarity and accessibility, this author will purposefully use terms like "information superhighway", "world wide web" and "ethersphere", which are known archaic terms in internet parlance, but wholly accessible and understandable as literary substitutes which obviate the redundancy and dry stark terminology of repeating “internet” incessantly throughout this article.  In other words, if your an internet snob that is easily offended by old terms like this, then stop reading, as your not my target audience.

Resuming our review, we can see that, at federal, state or local levels, public agencies are putting records online in...well, “record” numbers. The new found ability of the public to reach out virtually and locate information about themselves, their homes, their neighbors and the world is prescedented by and similar to the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in 1440 and the manner in which it established a critical element for the advent of a European Age of Enlightenment in the 18^th Century. While the march of social progress was slow, with the technology leading to cultural changes, it is important to note that the currently accelerating pace of technological development creates a feedback loop with regard to the distribution of knowledge and this has lead to a 50 year span since the first vacuum tube computers altered the place of the individual in society. This is true not only of Western Civilization, but for all six established and the one emergent civilization on the face of our planet. Empowerment of the individual is compounded upon by the availability of records from other, nongovernmental resourses. Whether quasi-governmental bodies like Chambers of Commerce and the Better Business Bureau, commercial sites like Ancestry.com and Footnote.com, nonprofit groups like local historical societies and Wikipedia.org, and independent websites, the power of the Common Man to act with foresight and forethought has never been greater.

Yet, with all of this power at our fingertips, many who are on the internet still fail to avail themselves of such resources. Those who wonder when a public office opens for business have but to log onto a website to get a list of hours and holidays, plus easy links to driving directions, but still fail to do so. Those who desire a filing form for starting a business fail to download the form from their local library or public agency. Those seeking property value data drive to the county offices instead of looking at assessed values and comparatives online at free government and free private websites.

Most people have access the internet, and before you scream “not so”, I will remind you that most public libraries in America povide such acess for free to residents and free internet hotspots abound in coffee shops and downtown areas throughout the United States.

The potential for Government 2.0 to serve populations around the globe is also becoming quite evident. The advantages that third world regions often have is many fold:

1. Lack of records means fewer records to digitize, input or otherwise scan into a database, making the process of going “online” with records a simpler, quicker process.

2. The lower level of regulated economic activity typical of third world nations, relative to First World nations, tends to means that even fewer things are regulated by Third World governments to track and that those things which are tracked will not be traded, amended, altered or changed in the high frequency seen in Western nations. This too means fewer records to catalogue.

3. The lack of digitial baggage means that these jurisdictions will start their computerized databases without the need to integrate old, outdated computer systems into the newer, more efficient ones. See the San Francisco City and County computer systems for a study in antiquated technologies that are incompatible from one to the next and fail repeatedly due to their tremendous age.

The above analysis is supported through a simple look at rural counties in California which have gone online in the past few years as compared to urban counties (like San Francisco) which have fast-paced economies bearing many transfers and a long history of internet access. Counties like Tehema County at the north end of the San Fernando Valley have recently gone online with Grantor-Grantee databases, Court records and property taxes. Their databases stretch further back in time, display in more useful formats, have different and often more informational fields, and offer more useful options than those of San Francisco County and its ilk.

Yet another aspect to Government 2.0 is the power of individuals to create private government. The use of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions to create Homeowners Assocations for like-minded land owners has become a study in ongoing successes and spectacular failure (Westlake in Daly City, California was the worlds largest and first HOA, and collapsed in a grand manner with repercussions being felt to this day). Private corporations like Exxon-Mobile have armies of armed security forces that outnumber national armies of some small nations. In other areas, Citizens are using open-carry laws to bear firearms while others establish private security patrols to deter crime in neighborhoods where the police are ineffectual. Still, in other places, charities step in to provide a social net when welfare and other government programs are insufficient in meeting the needs of the people. Moreso, in other places, the Better Business Burea, the various Chambers of Commerce and sites like Yelp, assist people by keeping them informed of failures in the business community to serve properly.

All of these efforts are examples of private government. Organizations doing this work are increasingly online as part and parcel to Government 2.0.

In the final analysis, Government 2.0 is an extension of We the People. Just as our American system of Republican governance, guaranteed by a written Constitution derives from and is and extension of the Rights of the People, so too is Government 2.0. The “Constitution” of Government 2.0 is the Natual Rights and Natural Law governing the People, forming the essence of pure democracy. The free market meets and becomes the agent of the People, obviating the need for the state in many instances.

Government 2.0 is a dynamic, slightly amorphous, but wholly grand thing to observe. It is participation, it is access, it is experiment, and it is power of the One.