Government offline: Why business succeeds on the web and government mostly fails

In a "special report on technology and government" The Economist asks in his issue of Feb 14th 2008:

"Why is government unable to reap the same benefits as business, which uses technology to lower costs, please customers and raise profits? The three main reasons are lack of competitive pressure, a tendency to reinvent the wheel and a focus on technology rather than organisation."

From the persepctive of Wolf's old book on "Markets or Governments", the failure of governments to make intelligent use of the internet is quite predictable.

RAEM