I came back from Manchester. The IGov Research Institute 2008 (the i is for International, Interdisciplinary, Innovative) took place at this nice city, specifically at the University of Salford. During eight days speakers from the academic and government side lectured and carried out activities related to the government, communities in general, and technology. In this venue, the topics were broad: research methodologies, GIS in the government, urban regeneration, perspectives of private-public partnerships, communities using Internet tool to reach government (I will write later about the “community reports” later), and social perspectives of the Internet (Bowling Alone vs. Bowling Together).
The experience was academically and personally enriching. It helped me to included new perspectives to my thinking about the information technology – government problem. I recommend the event to any PhD student that is interested in the topic.
I want to thank to the Center for Technology in Government for the opportunity and to the College of Information Sciences and Technology of Penn State for the support.
