The Challenge
We have taken on the challenge of using process technology to help create Government Online Dispute Resolution (GODR) systems. The creation of even straightforward digital government applications has lagged parallel developments in e-commerce, due in part to the stringent requirements we place on digital government and to the requirements for collaboration among all stakeholders our system of government imposes. Our premise is that to meet these requirements and overcome resistance to change we must focus on establishing and maintaining trust in all stakeholders. We envision that the development of digital government systems will be viewed as the design, analysis, implementation, execution, and modification of efficient, effective processes with stringent fairness requirements. We are merging powerful process definition and analysis approaches into participatory design methods to overcome resistance to change in order to create digital government systems that are efficient and effective and also convey a strong sense of fairness leading to a high level of trustworthiness.
We are demonstrating our approach through the domain of dispute resolution. Efficient, effective and fair dispute resolution can do much to restore trust in government, even after other transactions may have been problematic. Poorly done dispute resolution can, on the other hand, destroy trust in government.