This study looks at four areas that will be important to the future success of ASEAN:

1. How to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to achieve better policy coordination, particularly horizontal and vertical policy coordination;

2. How to use ICT to incorporate non-state actors in regional policy-making, thereby creating a more inclusive regional organization;

3. How to use ICT to develop a regional identity and community; and

4. How to use ICT for ASEAN “network management”, which involves determining the purpose of the network, as well as establishing all the activities and operations to achieve that purpose.

At present, ICT use in the ASEAN organization is largely limited to a web browser and office productivity tools, including email, word processing, and spreadsheets. This study presents several recommendations for ASEAN to take full advantage of the benefits that ICT use offers.

It is argued in this study that ASEAN should examine new software-based conferencing solutions to complement existing face-to-face ASEAN meetings. Moreover, ASEAN can use collaborative software to respond to the challenges of horizontal and vertical policy coordination within the organization.

ICT can also help ASEAN achieve its goal of becoming an inclusive institution of regional governance. eParticipation — the use of ICT for enabling appropriate stakeholder participation in decision making — can enhance stakeholder participation in creating and strengthening ASEAN processes and policies. For instance, the Senior Official Meeting (SOM)'s engagement with ASEAN Institutes of Strategic International Studies network (ASEAN-ISIS) can be bolstered using ICT.

ASEAN should also consider online engagement with “Entities Associated with ASEAN” — approximately seventy-two organizations that support the purposes and principles of the ASEAN Charter.

In terms of promoting inclusive regional governance, it is suggested that ASEAN consider the use of wikis — web pages that anyone with permission can create or edit — as well as blogs — shared online journals also called web logs. Wikis and blogs may be used to widen participation in ASEAN policy development and strengthen people-to-people exchange.