Benchmark for Obama's Web 2.0 Vision

Barack Obama said he will use Web 2.0 technology to reach out to Americans to ask for input on policies and to make government operations more transparent. The Obama administration might just have a benchmark on how using technology to engage the public may or may not change Americans' feelings about their government.

The government consulting firm Accenture released on Monday a report, " Leadership in Customer Service: Creating Shared Responsibility for Better Outcomes ," which surveyed 8,600 citizens in 21 countries on a variety of opinions they held about their governments.

Here are two relevant graphs from the report. The first shows how citizens feel about how well their government seeks their opinions. In only one country -- Singapore -- did at least half the country's citizens believe their government did a good job asking them what they thought about public policies. Accenture concluded that most countries are "highly critical of the extent to which their government seeks their opinions."

Then there's this graph, in which Accenture plots how well citizens think their governments are accountable and transparent versus how much trust they have in their government improving the quality of their life. "When customers feel better informed about services and performance and believe that their government is accountable for what it achieves, they trust their government more," Accenture concluded.

Singapore, which scored well in both areas, is considered one of the more technologically advanced governments in the world. Can the United States improve its scores by using technology to engage the public and make government more transparent and accountable?