Using the internet to make local government better

For quite a while now it has seemed to me that the internet has a huge potential to help local government become better and more efficient.
Local governments are not in direct competition, and I think there is almost certainly a lot of duplication of effort that could be eliminated if council employees thought of themselves as being part of one huge organisation and shared information and ideas with their counterparts at other Councils more freely.

What do you think? Can sharing information via the web, make Councils more efficient?

LGAM Knowledge Base

Local Government Knowledge Sharing