I was recently asked by Tony Lockett about good books on Government 2.0, as a follow up to our State of the eUnion book.
The first consideration is that books are not the best source for such a recent and evolving trend.
There are some good and famous books, such as: Wiki Government by Beth Noveck; O’Reilly’s book which is open to feedback here.
But in reality, the best books I can think of are only loosely related to government 2.0: they address some of its foundations and theoretical underpinning.
In this sense, I would rather recommend some old classics:
Toqueville’s Democracy in America
Titmuss, Richard, The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy (1970).
Salamon, L.M. & Anheier, H.K., 1996. The Emerging Nonprofit Sector: An Overview (Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Sector Series, 1), Manchester Univ Pr.
Finally, the most illuminating report on government 2.0 for me remains The Power of Information.
Thanks for taking the time to write this thoughtful reply to my question, David. I will definitely take a look at your suggested reading!
Thanks tony. I also forgot another classic: Engerlbart’s Augmenting Human Intellect http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/EngelbartPapers/B5_F18_ConceptFrameworkInd.html
More easily readable is the wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart
Thanks for the shortlist. If you’re interested in the more fundamental underpinnings, I strongly suggest Manuel Castell’s works (The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, and The Internet Galaxy and Communication Power).