Information technology research firm Gartner has predicted by 2011, 70 per cent of government-initiated social computing programs would achieve business benefits, with their activities rarely under the government control.

The predictions were outlined in its latest report on the present and future impact of social computing on more than 20  areas, including government.

Gartner vice president Andrea Di Maio said the gap between government interest in social computing and actual deployment would dramatically narrow, with the global financial crisis and resultant technology-budget cuts making tapping into societal resources critical to complement weaker government action.

Mr Di Maio said the key to successful online networks was a clear and magnetic purpose, such as Diplopedia, a wiki set up by the US State Department to facilitate collaboration across intelligence and foreign affairs agencies.

“However, the most promising, and yet, most disruptive, communities are those created outside government. Examples in the UK include Netmums, a community of parents dealing with child care issues and PledgeBank, which allows users to set up pledges and then encourages other people to sign up to them,” he said.

The adoption of social computing would continue to blur boundaries in government, the report said, with horizontal business processes such as financial management and procurement requiring increased information sharing across agencies and jurisdictions.

Mr Di Maio said government organisations should not seek to ‘engineer’ the purpose of a network or impose restrictive participation policies as they could diminish the magnetism of the online platform.

“Instead, they should recognise that spontaneity is needed for success,” he said.

According to the report, many government processes in human services, tax, health and education will see increased participation of non-government individuals. Examples include replacement of human services such as online collection of charitable donations to be directed to people in need combined with online ‘time banks' through which citizens provide time to help others.

“The future of government is a very different government and, in some cases, no government at all,” said Mr Di Maio.