1.0 INTRODUCTION Advances in digital technologies and the transformation of traditional business models and frameworks for social engagement are having an impact on governance at every level of human interaction. As old models fail, their continued use by governments in the Caribbean is contributing to rising levels of frustration and lethargy in the public service, resulting in inefficiency and a lack of national competitiveness. This, in turn, is proving to be a prolonged drag on economic growth, social innovation and national development. In more advanced economies, however, contemporary e-Government models are minimising bureaucracy and increasing responsiveness in the delivery of government services. When correctly implemented, these models result in genuine cultural change, motivating public service providers to see people as clients and shareholders in a national mission to create lasting value. Not only are these new approaches to public service delivery improving efficiencies in government, they are also having a positive impact on the private sector, providing new opportunities to increase productivity, foster innovation, and fuel enterprise development. Indeed, a strong, creative, well-managed, empowered public service is widely seen as a stimulus to entrepreneurship, private sector growth, foreign investment, and national development. However, the processes currently used by most Caribbean governments are incapable of capitalising on these inviting possibilities. If governments fail to unlock the potential of new technologies and digital frameworks to reconfigure the way in which they do business and engage with their various constituencies, they will continue to see revenues shrink and costs balloon as they deliver substandard services to frustrated citizens, businesses and foreign investors who will eventually seek other avenues through which to realise their objectives. Even so, it remains critical for governments to understand that the acquisition of new technologies is less than half the equation to be solved in finding ways to stay ahead of and even lead the drive towards economic and social transformation using evolving digital configurations. According to respected social scientist Ithiel de Sola Pool, “technology... shapes the battle, but not every outcome (Chandler 1995).” There are, in this regard, more critical impediments to change embedded in the archaic cultural models pervasive throughout public sectors in the region. These models were built in a post-colonial post-war era where the focus was on the ability of a government to control its environment and dictate the course of economic development. These “command-and-control” approaches to governance were based on ascending hierarchies of power in which information and communications protocols were designed to grant access according to an employee’s official position or employment grade rather than the function he or she was expected to fulfil as a critical part of an efficient public service ecosystem. For the most part, these vertical management frameworks restricted the flow of information and knowledge, circumscribed individual autonomy, prohibited creative problem solving, discouraged employee collaboration, encouraged public servants to be seen and not heard, and required them to do as they were told, without room for discussion. In such a context, paper documentation and the movement of physical files from person to person drove administrative processes within the public sector. Today’s digital frameworks, driven as they are by the relentless speed of communication and the mass of information constantly moving through ever-expanding telecommunications networks, require new methodologies for intelligent and timely decision-making. Indeed, attempting to apply existing old-world models of governance to new digital technologies and frameworks is likely to result in systemic failure. 6