Over at the OASIS “Transformational Government Framework” TC, we are looking at aligning key terminology in our deliverables with the SOA-RM and RAF. We are already comfortable with Ecosystem, Stakeholder, Actor, Service Provider but we
are a bit stuck with Service Consumer.
Consumer would seem to imply a service market in which consumers can pick and choose their providers from competing or complementary offers. In the context of government/public service delivered services, can we really talk about “consumers”,
given that they do not have alternative providers of, for example, tax filing, driver license or ID, social security, etc.? Also, the term ‘consumer’ comes over as very ‘passive’ and doesn’t reflect the reality that – at least in terms of many newer-generation
government services, the ‘consumer’ is actually promoted as an active stakeholder in the design and delivery of the service.
We are currently using the term “Customer” to embrace all citizen and business interactions with government services because of those reservations about ‘consumer’.
Any thoughts from the SOA community?
Cheers,
Peter
Peter F Brown
Independent Consultant
Using Information Technologies to Empower and Transform
P.O. Box 49719, Los Angeles, CA 90049, USA
Tel: +1.310.694.2278
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