Open Government: Theoretische Bezüge und konzeptionelle Grundlagen einer neuen Entwicklung in Staat und ?ffentlichen Verwaltungen

New models of innovation have suggested that the innovation process of product and service development is becoming more open, emphasizing the importance of external knowledge and systematically involving external actors and sources in innovation endeavours. The growing success of open innovation practices in many firms raises the question whether these principles can be transferred for reinventing public sector organisations. Beyond technocratic eGovernment and digitalization effort, but with support of web 2.0 technology, we present first examples of how external collaboration and innovation with citizens for public administrations can offer new ways of citizen integration, enhancing public value creation and the political decision making process. In the following, theoretical references and conceptual foundations of this development are identified. By intensive use of internet technologies the aim of Open Government is to achieve more transparency, more participation and a closer collaboration with the various stakeholders in the public sector.