Mark Drapeau has a great post asking Is Open Government Dangerously Digital? This is an important question to consider, as excitement and attention builds around the new technological components of open government, are we losing the human connection?

But collaboration and participation are human endeavors, not robotic ones. Building websites, inventing contests, and inviting input are necessary but not sufficient for collaboration and participation, whether inside the enterprise or with the public. Only when combined with government participation in and knowledge and understanding of communities that rely and care about their missions do these things work well over the long term, repeatedly.