Nurturing an electronic public information strategy in local government

This article discusses the means of improving access to information through the use of information technology in local government. In industry, stories of how IT has been used strategically to develop competitive advantage abound — the most famous (if dated) example is that of the SABRE booking system which enabled American Airlines to stay one jump ahead of its competitors — but examples of the use of IT to bring about strategic change in the public sector are extremely rare. This story starts with the germ of an idea for a single project then ‘sprouts’ to encompass a tangle of inter‐linked initiatives.