What is holding up Philippines' e-government?

If you lament the slow-moving traffic in the Philippines, you shouldn’t feel impatient with other things that may move even slower in this country when it has something to do with public administration and governance.

Next to the snail’s pace in the delivery of justice in this country, we nominate the formation of an overseer for information and communications technology (ICT) as the next worst.

Now over a decade in the making, the establishment of a government body that would be in charge of developing, planning, and promoting the government’s ICT agenda is still in limbo despite being tagged as a priority measure. How difficult can this task be?

On closer scrutiny, this is a case where the horses are running full speed ahead, except someone forgot to hitch them to the chariot. We have individual ICT programs for most government agencies that thinks it needs one.

Transparansi Internasional : Indeks Korupsi Sektor Pertahanan Indonesia Mencemaskan

Transparansi  Internasional  Inggris belum lama ini telah merilis hasil survei global  terkait indeks korupsi. Dalam survei  tersebut,  Indonesia  diberi nilai E, satu tingkat diatas nilai terendah, dalam GovernmentDefense Anti Corruption Index. Skor ini berarti bahwa Indonesia dikategorikan korupsi dengan “resiko sangat tinggi.”  Hal ini  dipertanyakan oleh Wakil Ketua Komisi I DPR, Ramadhan Pohan terkait validitasnya.

Menurut Ramadhan hasil survei tersebut tak berdasar. “Siapa yang terlibat, dimanakah buktinya? Jika seseorang menuding tanpa menyajikan bukti, itu adalah tindakan tirani,” ujar Ramadhan, seorang legislator dari Partai berkusa, Demokrat.

Brunei climbs 14 places to 54 on UN e-Gov't ranking

BRUNEI's e-Government structure has climbed up 14 notches to 54 out of 193 countries this year, according to the "United Nations E-Government Survey 2012 - E-Government for the People". Commenting on Brunei's previous ranking at 68th place two years ago, the Minister of Energy at the Prime Minister's Office Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Rtd) Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Hj Mohd Yasmin Hj Umar, said this is "good news" for the country. He added that among ASEAN countries, the Sultanate is third behind Singapore and Malaysia.


"This is because of the way the e-Government project has been implemented and this is good news. Moving up 14 steps is quite a good sign and improvement," he told The Brunei Times in a telephone interview yesterday evening.

The minister also commended the team at the E-Government National Centre (EGNC) for the hard work they have been putting in, noting their efforts are appreciated. Brunei's current e-Government ranking, however, did not take into account EGNC's eDarussalam, a single online portal integrating all e-government services, he said. "Next year if we look at eDarussalam and the completion of the Fibre-to-the-Home (FTH) project, that will definitely improve our standing a lot," Pehin Dato Hj Mohd Yasmin said. Pehin Dato Hj Mohd Yasmin said the EGNC will continue to work hard, and aims for Brunei to be ranked top 40, if not 30, in the next survey.

In the United Nations survey assessment of progress, it is stated that eGovernment is increasingly being viewed among countries in the vanguard as going beyond service delivery towards a framework for a smart, inclusive and sustainable growth for future generations.

Its website added the overall conclusion that emerges from the 2012 Survey in today's recessionary world climate is that while it is important to continue with service delivery, governments must increasingly begin to rethink in terms of e-Government and e-Governance.

By placing greater emphasis on institutional linkages between and among the tiered government structures, synergy can be created for inclusive sustainable development. In a foreward message, Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development said, "The increasing role of e-Government in promoting inclusive and participatory development has gone hand-in-hand with the growing demands for transparency and accountability in all regions of the world."

"This report shows that with the right institutional framework, policies and capacity-building efforts, progress in enhancing the contributions of e-government to sustainable development is within reach," he added.

The Brunei Times

Public sector ICT in ASEAN: a tale of five cities

The FutureGov team has spent much of the last few months on the road. My colleagues have been busy travelling to Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and mainland China - and I’ve had the good fortune to catch up with over 120 government officials in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, The Philippines and most recently Thailand.

Part of this time was invested in recruiting journalists and researchers, to beef up FutureGov’s Country Intelligence Reports. This is an emerging area of focus for FutureGov as we look to distil the hundreds of conversations we have with senior officials in Asia Pacific in to monthly market assessments.

We now have specialists covering Indonesia, The Philippines, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China - and are about to put the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle in place with the recruitment of an analyst covering Malaysia.

This has helped us really increase our bandwidth to cooperate with governments in the region - an example of which is the work we’re now doing with the Department of Communications and Informatics, the State Ministry of Research & Technology, and the National ICT Council in Indonesia, as part of our fourth annual FutureGov event in Indonesia, as well as on their data centre consolidation plans in a number of agencies.

The work of Ministry of Finance, as well as the Immigration Department is particularly noteworthy - and underlines that the country’s highly decentralised bureaucracy is still capable of delivering major transformation programmes.

Despite progress on the recruitment front, the primary reason for my travels was simply to sit down and directly discuss the plans of senior officials. I’m lucky enough, after eight years with FutureGov, to have ended up with a role that satisfies my twin passions: coffee & curiosity. And as always, if you ask enough questions, patterns emerge.

I’ll be sharing more detailed assessments of individual agencies in the coming months in FutureGov’s country-by-country reports, but here’s a few observations from six weeks living out of a suitcase:

Politics is local, but… One of the reasons I’ve stayed in the region for the last 14 years is that I fell in love with the cultural diversity of Asia in general, and ASEAN in particular. So it follows that searching for commonalities between differing bureaucratic cultures would be a fool’s errand. And yet if you scratch the surface - the key countries of ASEAN are looking to create greater value from their interactions, through a mixture of information leverage and automation, with the emphasis on the former. The language of implementation reflects domestic political priorities - but what’s being done is essentially the same. Thailand may be focused on applying technology to education, flood prevention, and disaster management - whereas Indonesia is pushing ahead with consolidating government data centres and providing a common accounting platform for government. But look closer - Indonesia’s data centre consolidation is partially driven by a requirement to have disaster recovery centres established for all key agencies. Meanwhile Indonesia’s US$250 million move to a common accounting platform is intended to improve the productivity of central government spending in rural areas - which is the same driver as Thailand’s ambitious plans to overhaul education.

Central government is centralised, but… From the outside government looks so big, but it never feels that way when you’re inside the corridors of power looking out. It is hard to underestimate the tension between departments when they are called to collaborate - which explains why collaboration remains so infrequent. I asked a Director-General of one Finance department whether he’d compared notes with his counterparts from other agencies in government, as I knew that they were approaching the same issue from a different angle. His response was that he didn’t care what other departments were doing, didn’t care what the central IT agency had recommended, and was happy to build his own team to oversee the project with minimal inputs from elsewhere. The same approach can be seen, sadly, with the growing turf war between India’s Planning Commission and the Ministry of Home Affairs over the status of the Unique ID Authority’s Aadhar card.

CIOs have been appointed, but… There’s a big difference between someone who is nominally, as opposed to functionally, the CIO of the organisation. This has a huge impact on an agency’s ability to digest and contextualise its technology options. Those countries with a pan-government CIO have a more mature approach to ICT deployment. For now nominal CIOs with other ‘primary’ job responsibilities remain in the majority. It can be a challenge to keep these nominal CIOs engaged with longterm, technically demanding projects.

These observations will have to do for now, but if you’re looking for a bit more meat, then look out for the first of the Country Intelligence Reports I mentioned earlier - the countries we’ll be covering each month are: Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, and The Philippines. Watch this space (as well as the weekly newsletter) for further details.

futuregov.asia

How e-government can shape competitiveness

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves talks to T Magazine about two key elements of his country’s competitiveness: the use of IT to create effective e-government infrastructure and the institution of a flat income tax. Interview by Dr. Paul Kielstra

T Magazine: In your experience, how does e-government affect the way that government functions?

President Ilves: The most fundamental benefit is transparency. We have been living with that for 15 years, but you forget how rare it is. I was at an UN General Assembly meeting, listening to various heads of state saying that they had put expenditure [data] online. But that is only the very beginning of e-government.

How does it affect the work of government officials?

It has basically freed up a lot of civil servants. You don’t have people doing rote things that can be done by machines, which is important because our fundamental problem is our size. In my work, I’m not a passive recipient of e-government. Outside of Northern Europe and the United States, people don’t necessarily understand at the level of head of state that e-government is about the way people operate, not the technology. People who do understand this are those currently in their 30s.

I’ve been using an Apple Computer since 1983. The government was paperless by 1999. It’s not a big deal. I have a Facebook page, but that is trite. Anyone can do that. E-government has nothing to do with people in government having computers. It means you do things completely differently. For example, our health records are all on line. You are defrocking the priesthood of the medical profession.

The patient owns his own data in the marketplace. It’s not just government, though, it’s more a matter of the attitude of society. For example, I’m shocked when I have to pay to use Wi-Fi. In Estonia, it’s just there. My daughter sees what her homework is on e-school. It is all very normal when you are living there. For it to work, you must have a completely reliable ID system so that you can sign legal documents.

The other thing you need is a decentralized data system, not just one big computer. You have access to everything as the citizen; police can access your police records; doctors can access your health records; but the tax authorities, say, cannot access your health records. You are the owner of the data. Another reason it works is that, basically people think it’s cool.

After nearly two decades of experience with the flat tax, what do you see as the benefits and drawbacks of such a system in practice?

The flat tax has been adopted by many countries. Some places it has worked, some it hasn’t. The real benefit is in compliance, which comes from having a very simple computer-based tax return. This is where we differ from all kinds of countries.

Where there are complicated tax schemes, people don’t pay taxes. There are not any major down sides. If you have a complex tax system and 37 million loopholes, so that you can make billions and still pay low taxes but the average guy pays whatever percent, then maybe the flat tax is more equitable than a progressive tax. An empirical study should be done. The problem is that many people like the idea of progressive taxes and soaking the rich, but it doesn’t really happen.

Estonia has a reputation for being one of the least corrupt countries in Eastern and Central Europe. How has your country been able to get a handle on this issue?
This is intimately related to e-government. It is the result of transparency. If you have e-tenders, for example, it is much harder to be corrupt. The only place where we have a corruption problem is at the level of local governance, where the national parliament can’t legislate transparency. How much transparency you have there is a local decision. Preconceptions also need to change. The image has existed for 70 years about Eastern Europe, that its countries are poor, backward and corrupt. It’s time to get over it. Look at Estonia and look at some other European countries [and compare] the corruption levels, debt, and deficit spending.

Estonia adopted the Euro at the start of this year. Was this a case of bad timing or do the long-term benefits still outweigh the risks?

We’ll see what happens with the Euro zone, but for the short-term the benefit for us has been that it meant the re-establishment of investor confidence in Estonia. It is kind of like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. [In particular,] it has eliminated the threat of devaluation, which was the biggest threat of all, a forced devaluation which would have wiped out people’s [savings].

What lessons does your country’s recent experience of adopting austerity measures hold for other states?
Do what you think is doable. One of the things we did have, which others might not, was the equivalent of 10% of GDP in our reserves. This is a big buffer and we didn’t have to go to the IMF. I don’t know how to tell people to save, other than to say “save”. Also, the experience of life under the Soviet Union does make it easier. It is still in historical memory. Anyone over 25 in Estonia remembers the Soviet Union and how awful it was. Compared to that, [austerity] isn’t so bad.

Estonia recently dropped to 24th position from the 18th in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report. Was this fair?

They forgot to convert the currency. We have an open economy and are very dependent on exports. When reputable sources give stupid news, we suffer. You are about the 17th person who has asked me about that. The World Bank was completely irresponsible. Can you imagine if you did this in a company or a government?

This article was first published in Issue 06 of Ernst & Young´s T Magazine publication which will be available January 25 2012 on this website.

http://tmagazine.ey.com

Forthcoming Soon: United Nations e-Government Survey 2012

The 2012 version of the United Nations (UN) eGovernment Survey series is about to go out in the coming few days. Over the past few years, this report has gained a growing reputation as the most comprehensive reference for the state of eGovernment programs around the globe.For the UN, the report is a an important tool to promote eGovernment as an enabler for public sector advancement and to the global move towards achieving (or getting closer to) the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). In addition to its assessment of the current status of the eGovernment in each of the covered countries (192 UN member states in 2010), the report offers a review of the rising eGovernment trends and features some of the most important issues and success stories from around the world. The key theme of the 2010 edition was “ Leveraging e-government at a time of financial and economic crisis”.  

One important component of the survey report is the eGovernment Development Index which tries to quantify the state of eGovernment development in each member state covered by the report and put them ranked in one table for comparison purposes. 

The index is compromised of sub indexes cover areas of government online service index, telecommunication infrastructure index and human capital index. In addition, eParticipation was added as a supplementary index in the 2010 edition. In 2010 edition, the Arab states showed a great variance in their performance between the 13th rank (Bahrain) and the 184th position (Somalia). 

In 2012 edition, the survey will focus on “the role of e-government in sustainable development, including the promotion of social equity, economic growth and environmental protection”. On this blog, I’ll offer a comprehensive coverage and analysis of the forthcoming report in a series of articles and interviews with special focus on the profiles of the Arab states. 

http://govinthelab.com

Broadband operators are at risk of becoming dumb–pipe providers

LTE is rapidly gaining momentum in the Middle Eastern region. With new LTE deployments and commercial network launches that took place in Saudi Arabia from Zain Saudi, STC, Mobily, and the UAE from Etisalat, LTE subscriptions will grow at an average annual growth rate of 200 per cent. Global LTE subscriptions are racing ahead of initial expectations. They have already passed 3.7 million in the third quarter of 2011, spanning over 36 worldwide networks. The deployment of FTTH services has been steadily growing and boasting speeds of up to 1Gbps, as in the case of the incumbent operator STC in Saudi Arabia. Also, the take-up of IPTV services is noticeable, with the focus of operators such as the Saudi incumbent on international expansion.

Faster speeds and increasingly affordable broadband access has fostered development of a digital economy, encompassing government services (e-government), e-health, e-education and e-commerce. In Qatar, for instance, strategies and specific initiatives have been launched in the areas of e-commerce, e-government, e-health and e-education.

The regulator has also unveiled plans to develop Qatar as a digital media hub, recognising the current underrepresentation of Arabic content on the Internet and hence the potential for growth. Kuwait has also taken steps to develop a digital economy; national level policies for e-health and e-government have been developed, with a number of services available online. For countries that have been lagging behind in the rollout of broadband services like Lebanon, the market is set to enter a new growth phase centred on mobile data services after the two mobile network operators launched the overdue 3G services in 2011, deploying HSPA+ network infrastructure. DSL speeds have also been increased to a minimum of 1Mbps.

Are broadband networks finally catching up with the technological aspirations of consumers, businesses and public bodies?

Reliable and fast broadband networks are paving the road for a new breed of technological solutions based on the so-called Cloud Computing offers demanded by consumers, businesses and public bodies. Cloud Computing technology is being widely adopted worldwide due to its low cost, scalability, security, etc.

Cloud Computing solutions rely on fast broadband access between the end-user and the cloud in order to provide full functionality and features, in addition to remote management. It is noted that in developed countries, cloud computing is growing fast due to the availability of high-speed and robust broadband connections.

In developing countries, cloud computing is a great tool for development in multiple sectors such as education, industrial, financial and telecommunication; however, these goals cannot be achieved where broadband is not fast, reliable and secure. Yet, we note the landing of several broadband submarine fibre-optic cables in MEA and Africa (e.g. IMEWE, WACS, ACE, etc) promises to bring increased connectivity to the region

Will consumers ever fill their super-fast broadband pipes?

Consumers tend to demand more capacity for cheaper prices. Trends show that they are willing to accept offers for new and innovative services. On the operators’ side, as owners of the super-fast broadband pipes, the challenge is to find those services and market them to the “right” customers.

Network providers and operators have an abundance of customer data that enables them to collect a variety of information on user behaviour. Such information could be utilised in building commercial offers, leading to the marketing of the right products to the right customers and eventually raising the demand for and the consumption of broadband pipes.

Service providers are beginning, rightfully, to shift their focus from being mere voice and Internet-pipe providers to working on the right partnerships with application/content providers, in an attempt to tap the potential revenue associated with new, Internet-based services. This is becoming a necessity for them in order to compete in the market and continue to afford the CAPEX and OPEX expenditures required to keep up with increased demand for network upgrades and faster broadband pipes.

What do you think will prove to be the killer application that creates demand for super-fast broadband?

The definition of ‘super-fast broadband’ varies from one country to the other. In some countries such as the UK, super-fast broadband services should be able to deliver more than is currently possible over existing copper telephone lines (i.e. faster than ADSL2+, which tops out at 24Mbps), whereas in other countries, such as South Korea, the speed is 100Mbps. I am not sure as to what will be considered the killer application.

To some, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is gaining momentum as an important application for the next-generation Internet and will provide exciting new revenue opportunities for service providers. Internet Protocol television (IPTV) provides digital television services over Internet Protocol (IP) for residential and business users at a lower cost. These IPTV services include commercial grade multicasting TV, video on demand (VoD), triple play, voice over IP (VoIP), and Web/email access, well beyond traditional cable television services.

IPTV is a convergence of communication, computing, and content, as well as an integration of broadcasting and telecommunication. To others, over-the-top (OTT) video services such as YouTube and Facebook are more popular.

These services refer to video, television and other services provided over the Internet rather than via a service provider’s own dedicated, managed IPTV network. OTT is delivered directly from provider to viewer using an open internet/broadband connection, independently of the viewer’s ISP, without the need for carriage negotiations and without any infrastructure investment on the part of the provider.

What technical challenges lie ahead for the broadband industry?

In developing countries including Lebanon, the main technical challenge for the broadband industry is to cater for advanced backbone and access infrastructures in order to cope with the increasing demand for higher broadband capacities.

Building a robust national and access infrastructure including FTTx requires significant public and private investments. Often public funding and/or subsidies are needed to maintain acceptable Return On Investment (ROI) for the private sector. Moreover, serving rural areas continues to be a challenge.

New solutions are being adopted such as public access femtocells, which are cost effective and easy to integrate, especially for remote areas where the backhaul connection could be provided via DMW or satellite. As mentioned earlier, service providers and operators should tap the application/content business through partnerships and/or acquisitions of existing application/content providers. while benefiting from the operators’ visibility on customer behaviour to create innovative products and services.

How big a challenge does over-the-top video pose to broadband operators and networks?
Broadband service providers and operators are at risk of becoming dumb–pipe providers utilised by so-called over-the-top (OTT) application/content providers such as YouTube, Google, Facebook, etc.

Even though revenues from OTT are small in comparison to those from new IPTV service offerings, they still represent a missed opportunity for service providers. Some suggest that the best approach for operators is to negotiate partnerships with OTT providers.

One way to do that would be to charge for content delivery and guarantee quality of service for certain types of OTT traffic. This could be paid for by either the content provider or by the end-user. However, it remains questionable whether giant OTT providers are willing to enter into such agreements with much smaller service providers.

How can network operator’s best monetise their investments in super-fast broadband networks?
Again, with the rise of application/content providers, network operators may become mere data “pipe” providers, selling only the broadband capacity with no significant ROI. Network operators have many options to avoid such a situation.

The first option is to avoid competition with those providers by delivering an extra layer of value that only they can provide. This layer is based on using data analysis, such as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), which leads to “customer experience visibility”, resulting in huge opportunities in the advertising world such as targeted ads.

The second option is to leverage the network policy capabilities the network operators have, to deliver an enhanced video streaming service for partners that want to guarantee a certain QoS for their customers.

A revenue sharing model might be used in this case. The last option is to benefit from the synergy created by the partnership with (or the acquisition of) existing application/service providers, allowing the creation of dynamic providers that possess customer visibility and application/content exposure.

How can telecoms regulators further support the MEA region’s burgeoning broadband business?
Governments and telecom operators should promote policies that encourage partnerships, especially in the rollout of services like FTTH. Also, because of the huge cost in the rollout of fibre infrastructure, some governments subsidise investments in fibre infrastructure in the same way they do for other utilities like roads and highways, as is the case in Australia and USA.

In addition, regulators and policy makers may consider transforming existing universal service programs into programs for digital inclusion that support broadband services for all citizens. Policy makers and regulators have several options to provide incentives for the private sector to invest in broadband, such as by adopting enabling policies, simplifying licensing regimes (licensing regulation can be simplified and a unified licensing framework can be introduced with all services unified under a single license or concession), making available more spectrum, reducing regulatory obligations and barriers to broadband build-out and access to broadband networks (e.g. by adopting rules or promoting policies and incentives that encourage infrastructure sharing, particularly involving passive sharing of towers, ducts and other support facilities), and offering tax incentives (reduce taxes on services, devices and equipment which will in turn increase penetration levels and pave the way for increased demand of broadband services).

Policy makers and regulators should also stimulate innovation and the development of applications and services by nurturing the creation and adoption of applications, services and digital content (for instance, the wide diffusion of e-government and e-finance applications and services will considerably raise consumer demand for broadband). Moreover, private investment in research and development (R&D) should be encouraged by all possible means.

It is also essential to protect intellectual property, as this empowers researchers and inventors to lead the way to a smart and innovative digital economy. Innovation can be encouraged through intellectual property regimes that balance monopoly use of inventions with building a rich public domain of intellectual materials.

Regulators and policy makers have a role to play in promoting a first-class training system in all countries to provide creative human resources. It is crucial to facilitate investment in all forms of education, notably in the area of R&D, ICT knowledge transfer and the development of digital applications and content (in particular those related to the local culture).

Sufficient and sustainable funding should be provided to universities, computer labs and other public research institutions, leveraging international partnerships when possible and advantageous.

Dr. Hoballah will be speaking at the Broadband World Forum MEA 2012 event, taking place in Dubai in March 2012.

.telecoms.com

Seoul Proves Value of Advanced e-Government

“Seoul City is pushing for ‘Smart Seoul 2015’ for the qualitative happiness of its citizens from 2011 to 2015,” says Dr. Hwang Jong-sung, Assistant Mayor for Information Technology (CIO) of Seoul Metropolitan government. “Seoul’s budget for informatization in 2011 stood at 129,501 million won, accounting for 0.63% of Seoul’s total budget. The Seoul e-government consists of a front office, a back office and additional infrastructure. The e-Seoul Net is an exclusive high-speed information and telecommunication network which links the Main Building of Seoul City Hall, its branch offices, affiliated organizations and Gu (district) offices with an aim toward realizing an e-government. u-Seoul Net is a telecommunication network that offers audio-visual and Internet (data) services such as traffic and CCTV information. The core of Seoul’s informatization project in the future is to carry out the Smart Seoul 2015 project.

The Smart Seoul 2015 project is a pre-emptive and active informatization plan as 80% of Seoul citizens are expected to use smartphones or smart devices and 30% are expected to purchase smart TVs in 2015. “We are planning to make Seoul the “best smart technology city” in the world in 2015,” Dr. Hwang continues.

The Smart Seoul 2015 project will expand Seoul’s smart infrastructure, help more people enjoy advanced IT services, provide Seoul City services through smart devices, create jobs, enhance the level of information security and realizing the finest e-government in the world.

“So, we expect that advanced IT technologies will be applied to all sectors in citizens’ life and even senior citizens will make use of smart devices and applications after receiving education in 2015,” Dr. Hwang adds. The city is also planning to reduce its crime rate by expanding CCTV monitoring.

“We are also planning to promote a Seoul-friendly application business industry and establish an incubator center in the Sangam-dong IT complex,” Dr. Hwang reveals. The Seoul Metropolitan government is providing various information and online services through the Internet and smartphones and is steadily upgrading services by collecting opinions of citizens.

The e-government service of Seoul City is divided into three major parts – strong communication with citizens, convenient services for citizens and addressing negative impacts of informatization. A main communication channel between Seoul and citizens is the official web site of Seoul City. The web site offers comprehensive services for citizens including electronic civil petitions, news of the Seoul government and the participation of citizens.

The web site is also connected to web sites of the central government and relevant organizations. Of late, the site has been renewed for three kinds of visitors (general citizens, business people, and tourists). In addition to the regular web site of Seoul City, the city is offering mobile portal services in eight sectors.

Furthermore, advanced smartphone applications of Seoul City provides citizens with information on restaurants, TBS broadcasting, travel, location of public rest rooms and taxi-call service. Moreover, the city is distributing PCs for marginalized people who do not have PCs so that they can use information services at home. For visually challenged people and the disabled, the city distributes magnifying devices and Braille terminals.

Other activities include repairing PCs, implementing projects to prevent people from Internet addiction, Internet counseling and free ubiquitous study programs. The excellence of Seoul e-government was duly recognized in the evaluation of e-governments by reliable organizations. For example, Seoul e-government came in first for four years running in the evaluation of the Evaluation of the World’s 100 Cities.”

“The Seoul e-government became a benchmarking object for countries and cities around the world,” Dr. Hwang adds. “Foreign public officials, businessmen and scholars have visited Seoul City to observe its e-government system and facilities.”

“We are planning to publicize the excellence of Seoul's e-government system and contribute to the development of other e-governments by exchanging and cooperating with cities around the world,” Dr. Hwang explains. “At the same, the plan is aimed at addressing a digital divide problem among people and helping Korean ICT companies make a foray into overseas markets.”

Seoul becomes chair of World e-Government Organization (WeGo)

Accordingly, the Seoul government has laid the foundation by holding its World e-Government Market Forum in 2008. Finally in September 2010, the World e-Government Organization (WeGO) was established with Seoul as chair city. Since then, the Seoul government is playing the role of the leader for e-governments in the world.

The number of the member cities of the WeGO is 50, including big cities of the U.S., Canada, France and developing countries in Africa. The members cooperate with one another via the WeGO. Of late, the WeGO has surged in popularity internationally.

For example, three cities have recently applied for membership. The Seoul Metropolitan Government suggests distributing its e-government standard framework to member cities of the WeGO in a meeting of the Managing Committee of the WeGO held in Barcelona of Spain in last October. The suggestion was adopted.

The Seoul e-government has become an excellent e-government benchmarking target for countries around the world. Over the past three years, 893 people from 155 countries came to Seoul to observe and learn about the Seoul e-government. The Seoul government signed MOUs on exchange and cooperation on e-government with 11 overseas cities with the purpose of promoting friendship and enhancing the value of its global brand through communication marketing for the Seoul e-government and laying the foundation for Korean IT companies’ making a foray into overseas markets on the foundation of its world-class information infrastructure and experiences in various informatization projects.

“In particular, we carried out feasibility studies on e-government with leading Korean IT companies in Hanoi of Vietnam, Nairobi of Kenya and Katmandu of Nepal, which helped the cities map out informatization master plans,” Dr. Hwang adds.

“These efforts have paid off. The Tanzanian government is building its own system by applying the e-government model of Seoul to it. We have also contributed to the informatization of developing countries and helped Korean IT companies make inroads into overseas markets. This means Seoul’s position is rising as an advanced IT city.” “We will steadily publicize the excellence of the Seoul e-government internationally and contribute to the development of e-governments around the world through MOUs and to addressing the digital divide problem.

At the same time, we will help Korean companies tap into overseas markets,” Dr. Hwang detailed. Of late, the inauguration ceremony for the new Seoul mayor Park Won-soon attracted eyes of people and mass media as it was done online.

The online ceremony was broadcast live through the Internet from 11:00 to 11:40 am on November 16 of 2011. During the broadcast, Mayor Park opened his office room, pledge allegiance to the nation, delivered his inauguration speech and took questions from citizens through SNS. About 75,000 people watched the Internet broadcasting live and 5,000 questions or opinions were sent to the mayor through SMS.

In addition, about 8,000 people watched the ceremony on their mobile devices. “The online inauguration ceremony was successfully held with a smaller budget compared to previous authoritarian and formal ceremonies, suggesting a new model of inauguration ceremonies for government organizations, companies and groups,” Dr. Hwang says.

koreaittimes.com

SINGAPORE INTRODUCES E-SERVICE FOR CONVEYANCING

Singapore has introduced a new electronic service to enhance the conveyancing workflow, according to its Ministry of Law.Singapore Land Authority’s ‘Electronic Payment Instruction’ or ‘ePI’ service will enable lawyers to notify banks of the details of conveyancing money paid through electronic means instead of hard copy forms.

 

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, the state’s tax office, will also accept electronic stamp duty payments through ePI, streamlining the conveyancing transaction workflow and reducing processing time. In August last year (2011), the country introduced measures to regulate how lawyer can receive and hold conveyancing money, in an attempt to protect such funds. 

The measures required lawyers to hold conveyancing money in conveyancing accounts with one of the seven specially appointed banks. 

futuregov.asia

Pemerintah Korea Integrasikan Data Center, Tetapkan Patok Ukur Baru Pada IT E-Government ( Bagian 2 - selesai)

Negara-Negara Berkembang Meniru NCIA

TheWhir : Korea's data center consolidation efforts have resulted in nearly $60 million in cost savings

Dengan pengakuan beskala dunia yang disematkan pada model GIDC disain NCIA, GIDC produksi Korea bangkit menjadi sebuah tolak ukur bagi negara-negara berkembang yang dalam proses pengenalan atau penyebaran sistem-sistem e-Government. Lebih dari 1000 pejabat pemerintah  yang berasal  lebih dari seratus negara telah melakukan kunjungan ke NCIA sejak 2007. Mereka ingin mempelajari lebih mendalam berbagai layanan inovatif e-Government Korea dan pengetahuan operasioanlya yang sangat maju. 

Sebelumnya : Bagian 1

Hampir semua pejabat negara tamu yang datang mengunjungi adalah pejabat dengan posisi-posisi yang tinggi di suatu kementerian yang bertanggungjawab untuk mengembangkan berbagai kebijakan e-Government atau eksekusi kebijakan-kebijakan tersebut di semua badan pemerintah. Beberapada dari pejabat tersebut termasuk Menteri Energi Brunei, Menteri Informasi dan komunikasi Mongolia dan Sekjen Kabinet UAE. 

Mereka sedang mempertimbangkan pembangunan sistem e-Government di negaranya dengan menjadikan GIDC Korea sebagai modelnya dan mempelajari pengetahuan pelaksanaan NCIA dalam manajemen data center. Mereka ingin mengetahui bagaimana NCIA meningkatkan stabilitas dan efisiensi sistem dan membawa berbagai manfaat ekonomi melaui integrasi. Sejumlah perusahan IT Korea telah menyebut NCIA (GIDC) sebagai salah satu komoditas ekspor solusi-solusi e-Government Korea yang menjanjikan sebagaimana yang diperlihatkan sebuah survei oleh sebuah badan pemerintah baru-baru ini. 

Mengekspor Model GIDC

Meningkatnya minat dari negara-negara lain terhadap sistem e-Government adalah sebuah tanda yang positif bagi perusahaan-perusahan IT Korea yang ingin memasuki pasar-pasar luar negeri. NCIA berupaya untuk membagi pengalaman-pengalamannya dengan negara-negara lain yang ingin membangun sebuah sistem e-Government yang matang dengan mengikutsertakan perusahaan -perusahaan lokal. 

Pemerintah Korea telah sukses mengekspor berbagai solusi e-Government senilai USD235 juta untuk area perpajakan, pengadaan barang dan jasa sektor pemerintah dan sistem-sistem Bea Cukai selama tahun 2011. 

Pemerintah Vietnam telah mengajukan pijaman ke EDCF (Economic Development Cooperation Forum) pemerintah Korea untuk membangun GIDC di Hanoi. Indonesia, Filipina dan Kenya juga sedang mempertimbangkan untuk memperkenalkan GIDC berbasiskan moedel Korea di negaranya masing-masing. 

GIDC model Korea diharapkan dapat membangkitkan minat yang luas pada negara-negara lainnya. NCIA berencana untuk menawarkan berbagai konsultasi aspek-aspek pengoperasian dan keamanan yang dilakukan dalam pengembangan GIDC Korea. 

Kebanyakan permintaan kini datang dari negara-negara yang saat ini mengoperasikan data center atau sedang merencanakan untuk membangun proyek-proyek terkait. NCIA berencana untuk mentransfer teknologi dan pengetahuan pelaksanaan dengan penandatanganan berbagai MOU dan melakukan berbagai proyek bersama seperti mengundang insinyur-insinyur asing untuk datang ke Korea dan menyediakan berbagai program Pelatihan Kerja, dan mengadakan berbagai seminar kolaboratif untuk berbagai pengetahuan. 

Berbagai Upaya yang sedang dijalankan untuk Mempromosikan Solusi-Solusi E-Government Korea

NCIA telah membuka fasilitas pamer e-Government Korea pada 30 November 2011. Fasilitas ini akan memfasilitasi pengenalan sistem e-Government Korea kepada semua tamu dari luar negeri. "Drama-drama Korea, Lagu-lagu pop Korea beserta filem-filemnya telah begitu populer di luar negeri. 

Orang menyebutnya sebagai "Gelombang Korea". Dan belakangan ini Sistem e-Government Korea jiga menjadi sebuah ekspor Gelombang Korea yang prospektif. Jumlah pengunjung luar negeri yang ingin belajar sistem e-Government Korea meningkat. 

Itu sebabnya kami memutuskan untuk membuat fasilitas pamer sistem e-Government. Pameran ini menghadirkan 10 best practice dari 1000-an lebih layanan-layanan e-Government seperti pajak, Bea Cukai dan pengadaan. Para tamu juga memiliki sebuah kesempatan untuk merasakan berbagai solusi e-Government. Fasilitas pameran ini dioperasikan melaui kemitraan dengan NCIA, berbagai badan pemerintah terkait, dan berbagai perusahaan swasta yang terlibat dalam pengembangan GDIC. 

Martin Simamora | koreaittimes.com

Russia's Government Rethought Its Plans For Internet In 2011-2012

Russia's government has released a new edition of the state run program "The Information Society" regarding the use of the Internet in years 2011-2012. As Kommersant newspaper reports, the new edition differs from its previous version by the shift of Russia's official interest in the web space. Instead of the e-government, "The Information Society" strongly stresses the need of finding solutions for problems of the Russian society which uses modern technologies. 

 

One of the priorities of the new edition of the program "The Information Society" is the low quality of Internet connectivity in Russian households. As a goal, this new edition sets "the compensation of aging of telecommunication infrastructure", wich means that there might be new requirements in 2012 for telecommunications industry and Internet providing companies. 

The often discussed and vaunted e-government supported by the President Medvedev still has its place in the program, although sharply reduced practically to "filling out forms" to receive a public service. 

Sadly enough, the "universal digital map", the "electronic voting system" and web cameras in each precinct as recently promised by Vladimir Putin are not mentioned in the program. 

publiciti.ru

Serbia - Strengthening Capacity of Public Administration through European Training Programmes

Director of the European Integration Office Milica Delevic said today that the project "Speak European – a programme of professional development for EU accession" contributed to strengthening the capacity of public administration in Serbia toward the EU. Delevic said that all countries wishing to join the EU have gone through public administration reform, adding that this project is significant because of the introduction of European standards in national legislation, modernisation of public administration and strengthening of its capacity. 

  

She noted that implementation of this project, which is worth €2.5 million, was initiated by the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, funded by the EU and implemented by the British Council. Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Vincent Degert underlined that all EU programmes are open for Serbia and its citizens. 

Degert noted that the goal of the “Speak European” project is to develop human resources in public administration and convey EU messages. During the past two years, the “Speak European” project enabled professional development and training in EU countries for over 200 civil servants and more than 50 representatives of organisations of the civil society, the media, professional associations, the academic community and primary and secondary school teachers. 

Upon their return to Serbia, all participants have an important role in conveying the acquired knowledge to their institutions and the broader public, which is an important contribution to a better understanding of how the EU functions, about the advantages of EU membership and the spread of European values. 

UNPAN Europe

Google Awards $1.5 Million To Code For America

Startup will use the money to bolster a fellowship program and launch two others to create new Web-based apps for cities. Tech giant Google has awarded a $1.5 million grant to a startup nonprofit aimed at building a community of Web developers and designers around the country to bolster civic e-government initiatives.

 

Code for America will use the grant money to expand its Fellowship program, according to a blog post by founder Jennifer Pahlka. The money from Google also will help Code for America develop two new pilot programs: the Civic Startup Seed Accelerator, and the CIA Brigade. 

Google's backing gives weight to the organization's vision for creating a new technology paradigm for city government, Pahlka said in an e-mail interview Wednesday. "Companies like Google have changed the world by leveraging the Web as a platform, she said. "

We think we can remake our relationship with government by helping government function as a platform, and having Google validate that vision is huge for Code for America." Code for America's Fellowship program is a 12-month internship of sorts for Web developers, designers and entrepreneurs to team up with city leaders to create new civic technology. 

The organization will put fellows in eight cities this year with the new funding as opposed to three last year. The cities with Code for America fellows in 2012 will be: Austin, Texas; Detroit; Chicago; Santa Cruz, Calif.; New Orleans; Honolulu; Macon, Ga.; and Philadelphia. 

Philadelphia also was a Fellowship city in 2011, along with Seattle and Boston. Code for America also is using the early days of the program to learn what works and what doesn't and "applying the lessons learned to make a better fellowship," Pahlka said in her blog post. "

We're looking forward not only to great new apps and stories of innovation, but to reuse of the 2011 apps by our new city partners and others," she said.

In addition to Google, the John S and James L Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations also funded the Fellowship program, which is taking applications online.

The Seed Accelerator program aims to "put disruptive technology in the hands of entrepreneurs that can change the world," Pahlka said in her post. The program will aim to foster sustainable businesses so they can potentially develop into vendors that serve the government market. 

The Kauffman Foundation also provided financial support for the program, she added. The CIA Brigade program will develop an online platform that can help civic-minded hackers join forces online. The goal is to allow developers who have created applications for cities to reuse them across the country, as well as share and remix code.

Code for America will go live with a beta site for the program in March. Launched just this year, Code for America appears to be taking the idea of crowdsourcing--which the federal government also is embracing--to a new level. The organization is using the Web to connect technologists with ideas for transforming government through Web-based applications and services. 

.informationweek.com

Bill Clinton praises Oman's e-Government efforts

Former US president Bill Clinton delivers a keynote address at the Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in e-Government in Oman.

Former US president Bill Clinton has urged Oman to make prudent use of Information Technology (IT) for a brighter future of the children. Delivering a key note address at the Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in e-Government on Monday, Clinton said: "Use IT to make government more responsible and in the process to empower the citizens of your growing nation to make more of their own life and to give their children a brighter future." 

  

A government that is excelling in information technology services is more productive, more efficient and alternately less costly leaving more money to invest in education, more technology and economic development," he pointed out. Clinton also stressed that IT was critical to the success of the efforts by the country's ruler to modernise and diversify the economy. 

"In an inter-connected world we can more rapidly than ever before share what we are good at, make trade something that benefits broad masses of people and create jobs and opportunity and give education to people," he said. "This is how I see the eGovernment efforts in Oman. You are knitting together the people of Oman in their shared opportunity - first access to government, then to improve their education, then to diversify and strengthen their economy, and then to reach the rest of the world," said Clinton. 

The patron of the awards and Personal Adviser to the Sultan, Sayyid Shihab Bin Tarek Al Saeed, said the award was a clear evidence of Sultan Qaboos' interest in promoting the government performance to push forward the wheel of development and upgrade the e-government services. He added that the award plays an important role in enhancing the efforts to promote e-Oman strategy and promote the e-government services rendered for everyone. 

The Sultan's Personal Adviser also pointed out that the public organisations which won the award had to play a role in bridging the gap, opening communication links among the different categories of society, therefore providing the high quality service aspired by the government. Ali Bin Masud Al Sunaidi, Sports Affairs Minister and Chairman of ITA, pointed out that the Sultanate had developed a national strategy for the building of digital Oman society and the e-government. 

A total of 44 e-projects, representing 23 government institutions in the Sultanate, participated in this year's edition of the award. The Ministry of Manpower's portal won the Best eContent Award and Muscat Municipality bagged the Best eReadiness award. Oman Education Portal by Ministry of Education won in the Best eProject (individual) category. 

The Award for Best eProject (collaborative) was given to the project employment collaboration project by the Ministry of Manpower. The award for the eEconomy category was granted to ‘One-Stop-Shop' by Ministry of Commerce & Industry. The award of the Best eService Government to Government was granted to Integrated Financial System of Ministry of Finance. 

The project which won the award of the Best eService (Government to Citizens) was students evaluation report of the Ministry of Education. The award of the Best eService Government to Employees went to eOffice: Ministry of Housing. The winner in the category of the Best eService for Mobile Service was iMuscat by Muscat Municipality Portal. The award of the Best eService Government to Business was withheld, as no submitted project met the award criteria. 

http://gulfnews.com

Philippine Gov’t Opens Digital Certification Center

In an attempt to give online commerce a major shot in the arm, the government finally inaugurated on Thursday the country’s first digital certification center located at the National Computer Center (NCC) in Quezon City. The high-tech facility, which is protected by a steel cage, was unveiled by top officials from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

  

Also present during the event were representatives from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (Koica), which provided the bulk of the funding worth $2.3 million. The monetary grant came with the condition that the project must use Korean PKI technology provided by South Korean IT firms Posdata and Signgate. 

According to NCC officer-in-charge Denis Villorente, the digital certification center will be an integral component of the National Public Key Infrastructure or NPKI in the Philippines. The National PKI will enable users of unsecured public network such as the Internet to securely and privately exchange data and even money through the use of a public and a private cryptographic key pair that is obtained and shared through a trusted authority. 

The proponents said the Philippines needed a national PKI since face-to-face communication has been changed to e-commerce due to the Internet. Thus, it has become necessary to verify the parties involved in an electronic transaction. 

The NPKI project started in 2006 when CICT, now the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO), started working with the Korean government, through the NCC on a feasibility study for the establishment of a National PKI. In 2009, Executive Order No. 810 entitled “Institutionalizing the Certification Scheme for Digital Signatures and Directing the Application of Digital Signatures in E-Government Services” was signed by former Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. 

EO 810 required all government agencies to use digital signatures in their online services to ensure the confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity of electronic transactions in government. The NCC worked with the Koica and DTI in the development of a National PKI that would support secure electronic commerce and electronic messaging as well as e-government programs requiring the use of public key cryptography. Under the E-Commerce Law signed by then Pres. 

Joseph Estrada, the DTI was designated as the lead agency in implementing and monitoring e-commerce in the country. The Philippines is one of the first few countries in Asia that enacted an e-commerce law that aims to promote and protect electronic transactions. 

However, security and privacy issues hindered the country’s development of e-commerce and full use of e-government services. The government said that with the establishment of the National PKI, the efficiency of e-government services will be enhanced and security of electronic transactions guaranteed. Villorente disclosed that the NCC has been designated as the certification authority (CA) for the public sector. No private entity has been picked as of yet who will serve as CA for the private sector, he added. Villorente said BIR will serve as a pilot agency for the project wherein it will use digital certificates for its Electronic Filing Payment and System (EFPS) for large tax payers. 

The NCC exec said there would a minimal fee that will be charged for applicants of digital certificates. At the launch event, representatives from Koica also demonstrated how citizens will soon be able to file their income tax returns using online transactions that are secured with National PKI. 

UNPAN Global

Are we e-fficient?

.zdnet.co.uk

Four years ago, Tony Blair set a target: he wanted 100 per cent of government services to be online by 2005. Time's running out. So how has the Civil Service fared? Four years ago, Tony Blair set a target: he wanted 100 per cent of government services to be online by 2005. Time's running out. So how has the Civil Service fared? 

 

The Cabinet Office says that 74 per cent of government services are now "e-enabled", and that to date more than one million people have filed tax-credit claims online, for example. In the financial year ending April 2004, about 1.1 million self-assessment tax returns were filed online, as well as 65 per cent of new company registrations and three-quarters of first-time vehicle registrations. 

At local government level, the latest survey of authorities by the Society of Information Technology Managers is based on data that's now nearly a year old. Then, only 22 of the UK's hundreds of local councils had websites that could handle transactions such as paying council tax or parking tickets. The number has gone up since then. 

Richmond Borough Council in Surrey is not one of those 22, but it has one of the highest rates of penetration of broadband and internet access in the UK. In 2003, it launched an online system for reviewing and commenting on planning applications. In the year since the system went live, more than 100,000 searches have been carried out. "I think there is a suppressed demand," says Lance Quantrill, the Richmond councillor responsible for e-government, who worked in IT at 3M for 20 years. 

Using the council's system, residents can not only pay tax, but report missed garbage pick-ups, dead streetlights and abandoned cars, and get replies from the relevant staff within a day or so. Richmond, Quantrill says, aims to be a "fast follower", adopting systems as soon as they are proven elsewhere. This year, however, there has been a notable shift in national emphasis towards back-office efficiency. This is partly due to the Gershon report, which reviewed procurement in the civil service. 

Take the appointment of Ian Watmore to take over from the former e-envoy Andrew Pinder. Watmore has said that where Pinder's role was to direct a social programme to get the UK, including government, online, he sees himself as more like a chief information officer in a big company: "My focus is purely on the Government as a service provider." 

So the question is whether the headline target is the right one. Quantrill says: "The 100 per cent target is not so much a dream as a nightmare." For one thing, he says, the law of diminishing returns kicks in, making the final stages an undesirable drain on resources.

"E-government is not electronic," he says. "The 'e' should stand for enabling, because it's about what happens when that is applied. We must ask, 'What's the point, and how does it benefit the citizen?'" William Heath, the chairman of the research consultancy Kable, which specialises in the public sector, agrees that the goal is too limited.

"It's simplistic to think we're at a certain point on an inevitable journey from A, offline, to B, online, with B being inevitably good." Heath set up the Ideal Government ( www.idealgovernment.com) site for people to contribute their best ideas about what electronic government should be. One of his own key questions concerns the deep suspicion surrounding the back end of "joined-up government" - shared databases, particularly the proposed national register that is to lie behind the ID card scheme, which could allow detailed profiling of citizens. 

If we trusted our government, he says, single registers would not be such a concern. "I don't think bad e-government, like websites with endless forms or call centres, will restore our trust." Arguably, we have the right to make demands. We are talking about a huge investment at the taxpayer's expense.

According to Kable, total government expenditure on IT in 2003/04 is about £12.1bn, most of it central funding. Spending is projected to rise to £16.6bn in 2006/07. This includes projects such as modernising the IT systems of the NHS (£2.3bn) and the Department of Work and Pensions (£5bn). 

"There are volumes of expenditure being poured into this stuff," says Stefan Magdalinski, the organising force behind www.theyworkforyou.com, a site that allows anyone to see a full profile of their MP, including their statements in Parliament, how many votes they've attended, how they voted, and so on. 

"And it's so untied to anything people might want." One thing he himself wants is for the Government to get out of the business of creating portals that the public is supposed to use as a gateway - an approach that went out on the commercial web in 1995.

"They should get good at search-engine optimisation and which service-delivery points they want to optimise. If they want serious uptake, promote the places where you can actually pay your road tax above all the other areas." More than that, says Magdalinski, they need to do a lot more to make data feeds available in formats that third parties can use. 

His own website is a case in point. "The e-government framework has been going on for some years, but they still publish everything in PDF." PDF, Adobe's portable document format that preserves formatting and can be read on almost any computing device, is good for forms and material that is going to be printed. 

But why produce the recent listing of MPs' expenses in that way, which makes it impossible to search them and to sort them meaningfully? For the kinds of services Magdalinski builds, PDF is a hindrance. He wants data published in standard machine-readable formats designed to allow re-use by third parties. 

By the next general election, theyworkforyou.com should be able to provide a detailed scorecard on every MP: voting record, speeches made in Parliament, expenses claims. And why shouldn't charities like the Royal National Institute for the Blind be able to scrape all relevant government information - legislation, direct links to benefits - into a website that is designed to make life easier for its members?

 The Citizens Advice Bureau is one intermediary that has made some progress. It has been granted £23m in funding from the Treasury's capital modernisation fund to equip and interlink all its bureaux with broadband. According to John Wheatley, the e-government policy strategist for the CAB, about one-third of the organisation's inquiries involve social security benefits or tax credits, though surveys of its clients show that most don't have internet access. 

CAB advisers, therefore, are being given read-only access to benefits records so they can check the status of claims for their clients. "Central government needs to think much more creatively about how they use intermediaries," Wheatley says. 

"They need to be less protective about who delivers their services and be open to honest suggestions about what role the voluntary sector and other organisations could play. They need to recognise that we are in touch with many of the people who are also trying to get through to them, but who trust us more than someone in a pension call-centre. But we have a principle of independence to maintain - that is why clients trust us. They see that we're not part of the government machine.

" He is, however, additionally concerned that the Government does not transfer its legitimate responsibilities to the voluntary sector. Glyn Evans, the director of business solutions and IT for Birmingham, the largest council in Europe, believes that the view of e-government to date has been limited to one idea: "Put services online and we'll somehow be transformed. I wish it were that simple." Instead, he says: "We have to rebuild our relationship with citizens, and ultimately that's what e-government would allow us to do. There is a measure of control to be handed to the citizen that can't be managed in a traditional bureaucracy." 

independent.co.uk

Why IT Has A Bad Reputation in Government (and How It May Become Worse)

Yesterday I had inquiry with the service provider of a local government in an undisclosed jurisdiction. This is the sole provider to the local authority, although it is run as a separate, private concern and not formally as part of government. They wanted to discuss how they could become more relevant to their (only) client by deploying innovative technologies. In particular they were looking into providing better access to internal data, to inform decisions as well as official communication by the executive leadership. Technologies like BI, data analytics, social networking analysis all provide important building blocks, but this provider was looking for ready-made templates that would allow to show value for the investments made so far.

 

At that point I felt I had to ask the question: do you know what your client cares about, and what priority problems they need to solve? They gave a rather confused answer, which – in the mind of the cynical analyst I am – sounded like they really have no clue. 

They were genuinely trying to be more proactive than reactive, but they hadn’t focused on the single most important aspect, which is what keeps their client awake at night (or, less dramatically, what the executive leaders could lose their next election on). This is not such an unusual situation though. When a government organization has a single service provider and has no choice, the service provider has little incentive to be proactive. 

When it decides to be proactive, it may lack the culture, the skill and the attitude to do it successfully. Many internal or captive government IT organization exhibit the same symptoms. Their view of being proactive is to spend on a bunch of new technologies and then figure out whether there is a problem they can help solve. 

The irony is that, while tighter budgets and sustainability issues should drive IT organizations to become much better at listening to and understanding their customers’ problems, the current move toward centralized and shared IT service organizations may exacerbate the disconnect between the business and its IT provider. 

Of course the supporters of greater consolidation claim that what is being targeted for consolidation are uncontroversially similar services, such as managing IT infrastructure, email or payroll, for which there seems to be a rather weak case for differentiation. But who is drawing the boundary between efficiency and agility, between productivity and responsiveness, between leverage and innovation? 

http://blogs.gartner.com |Andrea Di Maio

VP Distinguished Analyst