The Digital Government Society or DGS is an international, nonprofit, professional society devoted to advancing democratic digital government via research, policy, and best practice, including original countries, Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and other countries around the world. History and purpose The organization was founded in 2005 as the Digital Government Society of North America, registered in the State of California, as a charitable organization. It was renamed "The Digital Government Society (DGS)" on October 11, 2013. It grew out of the US National Science Foundation's CISE-based Digital Government program. The founding members include Yigal Arens at USI/Information Sciences Institute, Eduard Hovy at Carnegie Mellon University (at USI/Information Sciences Institute formerly), Sharon Dawes at University at Albany, Larry Brandt at the National Science Foundation, and Valerie Gregg, also at the National Science foundation. The National Science Foundation formed a partnership known as "dg.o" (DigitalGovernment.Org), for the advancement of digital government. It brings together computer science researchers with federal, state and local agencies to improve the quality and scope of on-line government services. Larry Brandt, NSF program director, stated "With the dg.o, the next steps are to build a multi-sector research-based community of many universities and government agencies." NSF-funded digital government activities include: improving citizen access to government statistical data managing information and knowledge for law enforcement implementing a testbed of high-speed communications for comprehensive emergency management ensuring security for web-based statistical analysis of confidential data The dg.o consortium is expected to support participating research institutions and the digital government community by giving academic researchers insight into federal agency needs, transferring emergent information technology from academia to member agencies, acting as an information source across agencies and helping to leverage resources through collaboration. Board of directors The society's activities are conducted and overseen by the board of directors. The board consists of the executive board members that includes president, president elect, treasurer, secretary, and immediate past president, and other board members. The board of directors are elected for a two-year term through nominations and member votes every two years, starting in January of the first year ending in December of the second year. The election is usually held in late November or early December of the second year of the two-year term. The current and past president of the Digital Government Society include: Marijn Janssen (2021-2022) Luis Felipe Luna-Reyes (2019-2021) Sehl Mellouli (2018-2019) Soon Ae Chun (2016-2017) Theresa Pardo (2014-2015)