Will small governments rise to become important customers in the next wave of IT-based reforms? It's happening in the private sector, where small customers can now find technology to be a comparative advantage for them.

Small firms could always innovate faster than big firms, and the most interesting applications of technology now require serious institutional innovation -- and thus create one advantage. Also, the small firms used to be constrained by their lack of access to networks and information, but the Internet, ASP services, and Google marketing make it almost as easy for them to find a dispersed set of customers as it is for the big firms. See the Salesforce.com and Bella pictures in this story: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/business/businessspecial2/21growth.html?th&emc=th

Given these private sector trends, is it possible that the next wave of IT-based government service reform will roll from the bottom up? Small governments would not need to swallow the hassle of investing directly in technology or software development, but could take fee-for-service options over the net.

Yes, governments are notoriously slow to accept new or externally-controlled ways of doing things. But is it possible that small governments are ripe to move? Perhaps especially for open source offerings?

Last chance for the March 8-9 workshop on Financing Cross-Boundary Initiatives. Check the agenda at: www.3ecompass.net/finance