Information sharing in government: conceptual model for policy formulation

Information sharing is a key capability required for one-stop and networked government. The capability enables sharing service-related information between government agencies involved in the delivery of one-stop seamless services, sharing resource-related information to facilitate whole-of-government response to emergencies, etc. As this capability is not common in traditional public administration and management, information sharing initiatives must overcome a range of technical, organizational, cultural and other barriers, which are generally difficult to overcome by individual agencies. Instead, information sharing is best addressed through the whole-of-government approach, driven by explicit information sharing policies and strategies in government. However, defining such policies is challenging. While information sharing theories identify multiple dimensions of the problem -technical, intra-and inter-organizational and political, the practice of information sharing focuses on principles, barriers, enablers, information lifecycles, organizational roles and other elements of information sharing agreements between agencies, most of which cut across different dimensions of the problem. This paper proposes a conceptual model to describe government information sharing initiatives. By integrating theoretical frameworks (e.g. multiple dimensions) and the information sharing practice (e.g. cross-agency agreements), the model provides a holistic view on the problem and highlights the main areas for policy intervention