e-Government actions in Europe Best European e

Transcription

e-Government actions in Europe
Best European e-practices
e-Governance Academy
Tallinn, Estonia
December 2006
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive summary ................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 5
About INTERREG IIIC......................................................................................................... 5
About this report.................................................................................................................... 5
Topic 1: e-management systems for city administrators (including infrastructure) .................. 7
Trends and observations ...................................................................................................... 11
Best practices overview....................................................................................................... 12
1. EU IDABC e-Identity and e-Security web:............................................................ 12
2. Estonian ID-card..................................................................................................... 13
3. The Vaasa City Card (Finland)............................................................................... 16
4. Indjija (Serbia) – system48..................................................................................... 19
5. Simplification of the process application from disabled people, for benefits and
medical (Belgium)........................................................................................................... 20
6. Localegov - The National Strategy for Local e-Government in England .............. 22
7. eTampere 2001-2005 (Finland).............................................................................. 24
8. LEPIDA: the broadband private network of Emilia-Romagna Public
Administration (Italy) ..................................................................................................... 27
9. Digital document management system GoPro in Tartu City Government (Estonia)
29
Topic 2: Online public services for citizens ............................................................................ 32
1. South Yorkshire e-services (United Kingdom) ...................................................... 34
2. Eastserve Getting the local community on-line in East Manchester (United
Kingdom) ........................................................................................................................ 35
3. Benefit Express in Halton Borough Council (United Kingdom) .......................... 37
4. E-procurement in Piemonte (Italy)......................................................................... 39
5. Public e-Procurement (Norway)............................................................................ 41
Topic 3: e-Participation ........................................................................................................... 43
1. Today I decide: TOM portal (Estonia) .................................................................. 45
2. Local e-Democracy Project (United Kingdom) ..................................................... 47
3. e-Voting Pilots (United Kingdom) ......................................................................... 49
4. Smart|connect - Sheffield (United Kingdom)......................................................... 53
Topic 4: Awareness raising on e-government and e-participation in a local setting ............... 55
1. Manchester advice – online adviser – www.advicekit.info (United Kingdom) ..... 57
2. Konekta Zaitez Ciudadan@ - Basque Country (Spain).......................................... 59
3. The Geneva internet voting application (Switzerland)........................................... 60
4. HamburgGateway - The digital gate to the city (Germany) ................................... 61
5. e@SY Connects Digital Interactive Television Service (United Kingdom) .......... 62
6. VisionAIR: Bari (Italy), Amaroussion (Greece), Bremen (Germany) and
Eindhoven (The Netherlands). ........................................................................................ 64
7. NettiNysse internet bus in Tampere (Finland) ....................................................... 65
8. Cultural events portal – Tartu (Estonia) ................................................................. 68
9. Latvia@World (Latvia) .......................................................................................... 69
10.
The Business Web Portal of Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine) ................................... 70
11.
Networks for the exchange of experiences ........................................................ 72
Interreg IIIC – eCitizen project
eGovernment Actions in Europe
Executive summary
The present study on eGovernment actions in Europe, made under the EU
INTERREG III C programme as part of the project 4N00841 "Challenge of eCitizen Promoting eGovernment Actions in European Cities”, reports on the 4 basic focus
areas of the eCitizen project:
-
eManagement systems for city administrators (including infrastructure);
online public services for citizens with web-based and mobile applications;
new eParticipation services with interactive consultation applications;
awareness raising on eGovernment and eParticipation activities carried out by
cities and municipalities, or carried out on the national level when closely
related to and supporting regional level eGovernment actions.
The best practice examples included in this study were gathered from very different
sources – web pages of best practices, conference reports, discussions during field
visits and research publications. The list is by no means exhaustive, as the topic is
very popular and many similar best practice reports are available.
Development in this field is very fast and the situation is changing rapidly. In spite of
this, some general trends and developments are identified.
Firstly, it is clear that the misunderstanding that eGovernment (be it on a local or
other level) mainly revolves around technological issues, still prevails. In reality, the
development of the Information Society (which includes both eGovernment and
eDemocracy) is mainly a story of political will, organizational reforms, legal
framework adaptation, work processes reengineering, etc. Questions about technology
that come up when discussing this issue are at best instrumental, and by no means
critical. Likewise, from the financing side, the main expenses are related not to
technology but to organization, reforms of processes, and the implementation of tools.
Secondly, and closely related to the previous issue, it is observed from many
examples that the development of best practices is very closely depending on the
driving power of top management of the organizations, both political and
administrative. The same best practice technical and organizational solutions that
work for one local entity ends up in failure for another. Even neighbouring
municipalities working within a similar political and legislative reality are not able to
show similar results in using the same technical environment. Eliminating all other
factors, this can only be explained by a difference in “sponsorship” and political
action.
These conclusions are complemented by the results of another recent survey made by
the e-Governance Academy. This survey assessed the development of Estonian local
governments on the technical level, the organizational capacity and the willingness to
use and offer different e-services. It showed that, in most cases, the relevant
infrastructure and also quite often the necessary communication tools are already
available. In many cases, however, top managers do not yet realise that this
infrastructure needed for communication and for building eServices is present (and
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widely in use by the younger generation). Success on a political level is more and
more related to the communication ability of managers in e-world., a conclusion
which is true not only in an Estonian setting.
The lesson learned from this is that it is almost impossible to copy one technical
solution from one public sector organization to another. This is true not only on an
international level but also in the national context. Therefore, the best practice
solutions in this study cannot be copied, but should be used as inspiration to develop
own ideas, concepts and models, keeping in mind that the development of relevant
technical solutions to implement these ideas is, in most cases, only a minor issue.
Several development trends are described in this report. Many of the issues discussed
form part of the “priority list” of the EU i2010 agenda. One example of an issue
where many national governments have clear strategies and plans is the development
of electronic identification. In making strategic decisions, local governments are
advised to take these developments into account.
Notwithstanding the limited scope of this study (both in time and in content), many
important issues are identified. The reader is advised to keep in mind that the main
aim of the report is to give a short and “snapshot style” overview of some of the topics
relevant to the information society and to eGovernment development of the local
governments, and that the most valuable part of this study lies in the ideas and
development trends put forward, and not in the technical solutions that are used to
implement these ideas.
Page 4 of 4
Introduction
The present Study of eGovernment actions in Europe is made under the EU
INTERREG III C programme as part of the project 4N00841 "Challenge of eCitizen Promoting eGovernment Actions in European Cities”.
The leading partner in this project was The Baltic Institute of Finland. The partners
were Cites of Tampere, Turku and Vaasa (Finland), Tartu (Estonia), IS Fyn (County
of Fyn, City of Odense - Denmark), Bologna and Trento (Italy), Sheffield (United
Kingdom), Kaunas and Vilnius (Lithuania) and St. Petersburg (Russia).
About INTERREG IIIC
INTERREG IIIC is an EU-funded programme that helps Europe’s regions form
partnerships to work together on common projects. It is one of the three strands of the
European Community Initiative INTERREG III, which is designed to strengthen
economic and social cohesion in the European Union (EU) by promoting cross-border
(strand A), trans-national (strand B) and interregional (strand C) co-operation.
With INTERREG IIIC, interregional co-operation between regional and other public
authorities across the entire EU territory and neighbouring countries is promoted. It
allows regions without joint borders to work together in common projects and develop
networks of co-operation.
The co-operations under INTERREG IIIC give access to experience of other actors
involved in regional development policy and create synergies between "best practice"
projects and the Structural Fund’s mainstream programmes. The overall aim is to
improve the effectiveness of regional development policies and instruments through
large-scale information exchange and sharing of experience (networks) in a structured
way.
The INTERREG IIIC programme is financed by the European Regional Development
Fund (ERDF), as part of the Structural Funds, and co-financed by national project
partners.
About this report
The scope of this study is to describe best European practices and experiences in each
of the 4 focus areas of the eCitizen project:
-
eManagement systems for city administrators (including infrastructure);
online public services for citizens with web-based and mobile applications;
new eParticipation services with interactive consultation applications;
Page 5 of 5
-
awareness raising on eGovernment and eParticipation activities carried out by
cities and municipalities, or carried out on the national level when closely
related to and supporting regional level eGovernment actions.
To gather information about best practices, the e-Governance Academy performed a
study of available, relevant and recent sources, gathered through its network of
experts and through the involvement of partner organisations.
The leading partner from eCitizen project in this study was IS Fyn. Also all other
partners in the project contributed to the report and shared their best available
knowledge.
The e-Governance Academy team preparing this report includes Arvo Ott, Hannes
Astok and Steven Segaert.
Examples of good practices have further been selected on the basis of accessibility
(both concerning language and content), representative value, availability of
additional information and relevance to identified developments and trends. Rather
than an encyclopaedic overview, the sample of good practices is to be used as a
collection of examples and ideas.
The selection of examples is not exhaustive, nor does it provide a full overview of
developments. It is, by nature, a snapshot made in the autumn of 2006 of projects and
services that are in place and documented. Projects that are in the phase of
development are not included.
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Topic 1: e-management systems for city
administrators (including infrastructure)
A technological model for municipalities consists of two basic parts:
•
•
IT- infrastructure;
Information systems;
Concerning both subjects, there are some differences depending on size and
organisation of a local entity – a city-type municipality is for example different than a
small rural municipalities. These differences are however relatively minor and will be
dealt with within the text.
STRATEGY: E-LOCAL AGENDAS
In establishing an IT framework for local governments, the emphasis lies on four
important tasks:
•
•
•
•
To increase efficiency in administration, benefiting both the business sector
and the citizens of the local government in everyday life – activity, directed to
the external dimension;
To increase efficiency and transparency (questions about anticorruption, etc.)
of the business of the local government itself – this activity is focused to the
internal dimension, to improve back-office processes;
To support democratic processes through the tools of eDemocracy - focused
to the external processes;
To increase access to Internet and public information. Questions about
eInclusion, broadband strategy.
Typically the best e-agendas have a similar structure:
Digital Local Agenda
1.
2.
3.
4.
Main objective
Strategic objectives
Action plan
Projects
The action plan may consist (based on the sample of Digital Local Agenda
Bilbao 2012):
Public Services
ICT use for providing services in more efficient way and therefore get a more
participative Administration, transparent and accessible for all the citizens.
Public Space & Public Access
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Implementation of the Information and Communication Technologies in the public
space.
Infrastructure & Regulation
City Council actions, from an infrastructure and regulation point of view, to
support actions within the Plan of Action:
o Infrastructure and service map
o Policies for the e-accessibility.
o E-Rights.
o Regulation of the city portal.
Training
Basic computer training and minimum knowledge needs that facilitate the correct
use of systems and services (people’s attitude and ability).
ICT Dissemination
Facilitate the development in the municipality of enterprises and industries
related to ICTs (possible development of ICT cluster)
o Cooperation with business parks and business incubators
o Cooperation with universities research institutions
Dissemination
Programme development, dissemination and communication actions in the
municipality.
o eAgenda communication plan
o Marketing plan for local portal
o Actions to promote the Plan projects.
o Information Society benchmarking and observatory.
Strategic Alliances
Search and development alliances and relations with public and/or private
entities, in order to assure the attainment of the objectives of the plan.
Cooperation
Local – National – International cooperation projects development, in order to
develop the Information Society.
eInclusion and eDemocracy
Development and promotion of the tools of eDemocracy and eInclusion.
EQUIPMENT
The IT infrastructure of the local government is the material part of its e-model. The
equipment and the connectivity, whether wired or wireless, are the backbone of
information exchange both within and between local governments, also with other
institutions.
IT infrastructure consists of personal computers, local area network(s) and basic
software. To ensure the uninterrupted flow of data, which is a precondition of data
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exchange between administrations, one needs to have a broadband Internet connection
in every local authority. Since the need for such a connection this is often shared by
the central government, creating it is often subject to a centrally launched and
financed project. Such a layout sets the basis for sustainable functioning and
development of municipal IT systems.
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Information systems for local governments are determined by the functions they have
to fulfil, both to streamline their own work and to provide data for the state registries.
Typically, they include the following components:
•
A Document Management System (DMS). Document management
processes are deeply connected to the core duties of the municipality. In big
city-type municipalities document management with approval/digital signature
mechanism is the core information system. Document management systems
should follow the basics of state IT-architecture and document semantics, and
need to be able to communicate with state IT basic infrastructure;
•
E-mail systems. There is a wide variety of commercially available e-mail
systems, including open-source solutions. In several good-practice cases, the
e-mail system is integrated to the document management and resource
planning system;
•
Finance and personnel management systems. Basic finance and personnel
management information systems are often seen functioning together, with
unified interfaces that simplify data transfer to the central institutions, the
creation of statistics, etc;
•
Web pages of municipalities, eDemocracy and eParticipation tools. There
are several good practices available on the level of state IT-architecture, which
are setting standards for web development. Several open source tools are
available to manage local information on the web. In several countries, a
Public Information Act regulates the list of information that all municipalities
should make available on their own websites.
Basic tools for eDemocracy and eParticipation are most reasonably developed
by several local entities together under the “umbrella” of a local government
association or a similar institution;
•
State registers. Most functions related to the registration of population, real
estate, businesses and cars are centralized at the level of state registers. At the
same time, different local authorities have different information needs. It is
often discussed to what extent the enlargement of existing state register data
sets should prompt local governments to enlarge their registers. There are
possible IT-mechanisms that allow integrating datasets of state registers and
local registers, with added value and re-using the same data. Best practice
examples demonstrate that a clear understanding about ownership of data and
the cross-use of data by central and local government (use of data for analysis,
privacy concerns, financial issues, etc.) are key factors for success.
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SYSTEMS FOR AUTHENTICATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF CITIZENS
User identification and authorization systems form other crucial parts of IT
infrastructure1. On an international level, electronic identification (eID) of citizens is
becoming one of the most important and strategically crucial issues. A key question is
whether we, on the national level, one single identification mechanism or rather
multiple electronic mechanisms for accessing public e-services will emerge.
Where a national eID is in most cases based on national identity numbers, a local
level eID might be based on other grounds. Different countries and entities use
different means of storing Electronic Identity, without any clear trends. For example:
data it is stored in tokens such as smart cards (Belgium, Estonia and Taiwan), in host
computers (Singapore), in client computers (Malta), in a combination of both host
computers and tokens (Austria and Finland), etc.
When tokens are used, they typically are smart cards. More simple mechanisms for
authentication and authorization of citizens are however also used. In some cases,
local entities issue special user names and access codes for every citizen of the region,
and use post and bank offices as distribution channels of these access codes. In other
examples, a re-use of the electronic authentication services from banks is observed,
using authentication mechanisms that are created for Internet banking (PIN
calculators, code tables, etc.).
The question as to the mechanism for authentication that is needed is closely
dependant on the security needs of the applications offered. In this regard, e-services
offered by municipality should be analysed taking into account the needs for data
security and basics of personal data protection.
A recent ICA survey found that in most countries, the electronic ID system is based
on national ID numbers. The use of national ID numbers however requires acceptance
and co-operation. Key motivating factors for having such an identification number
are:
•
•
•
an enhanced security and integrity in the delivery of services;
accurate means to uniquely identify individuals, leading to more efficient and
effective inter-administrative exchange of data;
facilitation of public service delivery, leading to easier access and greater
convenience to individuals.
Most of the EU Member States already have some form of citizens’ electronic
authentication system, several are planning to implement such a system in the near
future and only small minority has no concrete plans.
1
For the following description, unpublished recent World Bank and ICA (International Council for IT
in Government Administration) surveys were used.
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Trends and observations
As the opportunity to use eID’s emanating from a national level (instead of using
local systems) is on the increase, more and more local e-services will make use of
national eID mechanisms. Although this offers unified mechanism for authentication
and authorization, the use of municipality level and thematic instruments (students
cards, library users cards etc.) remains popular.
Examples of other types of eIDs issued include: an eID card for children (Belgium),
Public PIN-codes and a unique code from banks (Denmark), Internet banking ID and
Mobile-ID (Estonia), civil servants’ ID cards (Finland), student identity cards and
profession-based cards (Hungary).
Another possible direction to be taken is to see the eID as a component of wider
interoperability architecture. In most case this is a competency of the central national
government, but again some municipality and regional level examples exist (Bremenon-line). As in the 4 level e-services model there are clear needs for a system for
digital signatures, eID is often handled together with and as the part of a Public Key
Infrastructure.
The most commonly cited key issues and challenges encountered in the course of
planning and implementing a National Electronic Identification Systems are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
eID Applications - such as the need for sufficient and or “magic” killer
applications, and user-friendliness of the system;
Value Proposition/Cost - such as justifying the business case, designing a
cost-effective solution;
Legislation and Data Protection - such as the creation of a legal
framework to support such services, overcoming the barriers of data
protection;
Integration/Interoperability Issues - such as integration of different
existing systems, integration of the eID solution with other
processes/systems, international interoperability issues;
Promotion and Adoption of eID Solution - such as country-wide
communication and training the public to use a new system, increasing the
take-up rate of the eIDs; and
Technical Issues - such as system security, scalability of the system,
building a large system from scratch;
Other Implementation Issues - such as commitment from participating
agencies, daily management for identification and authentication of
organizations.
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Best practices overview
1.
EU IDABC e-Identity and e-Security web:
ABSTRACT
IDABC stands for Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to
public Administrations, Business and Citizens. It takes advantage of the opportunities
offered by information and communication technologies:
-to encourage and support the delivery of cross-border public sector services
to citizens and enterprises in Europe,
-to improve efficiency and collaboration between European public
administrations and,
-to contribute to making Europe an attractive place to live, work and invest.
To achieve its objectives, IDABC issues recommendations, develops solutions and
provides services that enable national and European administrations to communicate
electronically while offering modern public services to businesses and citizens in
Europe. The programme also provides financing to projects addressing European
policy requirements, thus improving cooperation between administrations across
Europe. National public sector policy-makers are represented in the IDABC
programme's management committee and in many expert groups. This makes of the
programme a unique forum for the coordination of national e-government policies.
By using state-of-the-art information and communication technologies, developing
common solutions and services and by finally, providing a platform for the exchange
of good practice between public administrations, IDABC contributes to the eEurope
objective of modernising the European public sector. IDABC is a Community
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programme managed by the European Commission's Enterprise and Industry
Directorate General.
One of the initiatives under the IDABC Programme is the eGovernment Observatory.
It provides valuable insight into eGovernment strategies, initiatives and projects in
Europe and beyond.
Next to factsheets, case studies and information on events, the Observatory also
publishes news by topic. The news listings under the topic eIdentity and eSecurity is a
valuable resource and offers a concise overview of the developments in this field.
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/chapter/355
2.
Estonian ID-card
ABSTRACT
The purpose of Estonian ID-card project was to use a nation-wide electronic identity
system and develop a new personal identification card that would be a generally
accepted identification document and would contain both visually and electronically
accessible information. On December 18, 2001 the parliament established ID-card as
a compulsory identity document, leaving the Estonian passport needed only as an
international travel document. On January 28, 2002 the first ID-cards were issued to
Estonian citizens.
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There have been different opinions and political debates over the ID-card, partly
brought forward by the fact that the ID-card is not obviously seen as a component of
the public key infrastructure. It is primarily an application of the Digital Signatures
Act and a common infrastructure established for this act. While many similar projects
exist in other countries (Belgium, Finland, Italy, etc.), the widespread use of ID-card
services is rather unique to Estonia. To date, more then 1.000.000 ID cards are
issued2.
The Estonian ID-card project focused on the digital signature, which is made legally
equivalent to the hand-written signature. At the same time the technologies and
standards for creating digital signature are made uniform in the whole country. The
signature identifies a person directly, which eases the verification of signatures
without additional contacts. To achieve this aim, the Identity Documents Act as well
as the Digital Signatures Act was adjusted, which resulted in the following:
-
The certificate inserted in the ID-card includes the personal identification
code, which enables to identify the individual at once.
A certificate, which enables to sign documents according to the Digital
Signatures Act, is inserted in the ID-card chip.
Certificates inserted in the ID-card lack field of use restrictions and can
therefore be applied in the public as well as private sector, and also in the
context of mutual relations between individuals.
The primary purpose of information on the ID-card chip is to allow the unambiguous
digital identification of the individual and the creation of the digital signature. The
certificate includes only minimum information about the individual - names and the
personal identification code. A firm decision was made from the start not to add
additional information to the ID-card, not to mention information that requires
updating.
The ID-card is used in a general context wherever a person needs to be authenticated
or when documents have to be signed. This means that the ID-card has not been
created only for a certain service or application.
The authentication with an ID-card is secure, and is convenient to use wherever user
names, passwords, code cards etc. have so far been used: the card can be used
wherever identification is necessary, be it for Internet banking services, internal
applications of a company, intranets or public portals. Its convenience is apparent
because, on the one hand, the system administrators need not bother themselves about
the administration of user names and passwords and, on the other hand, a person
needs not to deal with the multiple passwords and password cards.
It is secure because a person can check whether his/her passwords (secret keys) are
under control - whether the ID-card is still in his/her possession. In case the card is
lost its usability can be blocked with one single phone call.
The application of the authentication function is quite easy; the user account based
access to information systems has to be transferred to a personal identification code
2
Situation on December 11th, 2006.
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based application (i.e. the personal identification code included in the certificate has
to be connected to the user account). An application allowing ID-card based
authentication in Windows computer workplaces has been completed as well.
The ID-card can be used also for signing and encrypting e-mails. Every authentication
certificate
includes
the
person’s
standard
e-mail
address
forename.surname_XXXX@eesti.ee (XXXX is a random four-digit number assigned
to the person). The person can register his/her daily e-mail address in the mail server
and respective mails will be forwarded to that address. This service is elaborated
together with a portal that facilitates sending and receiving digitally signed
documents.
http://www.id.ee/pages.php/0303
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3.
The Vaasa City Card (Finland)3
The City of Vaasa (Finland) has developed and used a city card system for ten years.
The functions of this system can be divided in six groups.
(1) Transport for disabled persons and city officials
The Vaasa City Card has been used as a “smart ID card” for disabled persons who are
entitled to a certain number of taxi journeys per month, on the basis of the legislation
relating to social services in Finland. These journeys are registered in the ID smart
card by a taxi transport application in the social centre of the city. A disabled person
can use this card to pay for the journey.
City officials use the same application for taxi journeys that are paid by the city. In
the near future, other means of transport will be connected to the application.
Additionally, an electronic form is being planned for citizens from different
communes. The applications will be stored in a common database used by the city’s
social workers.
(2) Electronic purse
The city card is used as a pre-charged payment card for payments of small services
such as parking fees, museum fees, and small payments in the library. A new
generation of applications is planned for e.g. contact-less smart card payments.
3
The authors thank the component 3 group of e-Citizen in Vaasa for this description.
Page 16 of 16
(3) Electronic form for ordering train tickets
This application is based on several databases in different phases. A certification
centre verifies the ticket applications ordered by the city officials. The tickets are
printed and handed out, and the transaction is stored. This system will be used also in
other services for citizens.
(4) Meals
City personnel use the Vaasa City Card as an ID card for credit payments that are
deducted from their salary. This is already a second-generation application and smart
card for this function. The meals invoiced by the city are also registered.
A new kind of prepaid series tickets will come into use, first by the city staff, later
also by citizens in any service point maintained by the city. This so-called “prepaid
smart card” payment application of series tickets will be used in other services as
well.
(5) Swimming hall
A contact-less payment system for swimming hall customers has been in use for a
year. It consists of a bracelet with a contact-less zip. This bracelet can also be used to
open the cabins in the swimming hall.
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(6) Applications for city officials
City officials use the Vaasa City Card
-
as an ID card with the name, the department and the picture printed on it.
as a card for opening and undoing doors and alarm systems
as a card for registering working hours
as a card for meals, charged by different means of paying
as a card for taxi journeys
as a card for parking
as an electronic form used for booking railway tickets
as an electronic form used for the application of the personnel city cards
The Vaasa City Card is also used as a single sign on solution for the city’s IT
infrastructure. It can be used to authenticate users when they sign in to the city´s
different administrational applications. The first stage in this development is a
certificate for signing on to the Microsoft Active Directory. Further in the process,
other applications that demand authentication services will be taken into
consideration, and other tokens for the certificates will be investigated.
Page 18 of 18
4.
Indjija (Serbia) – system48
System48
Garbage collection,
public lighting, traffic
lights, parking, water
supply, dumps, wild
dogs, streets cleaning,
maintenance of
cemeteries, etc
CITIZENS
Requests, Appeals
Questions, etc
Answer
within
48 h
PHONE NUMBER
FOR ALL REQUESTS
555-588
DIRECTION FOR
MUNICIPALITY
DEVELOPMENT
COMMUNAL
ENTERPRISE
WATER SUPPLY AND
SEVRAGE ENT
BEFORE SYSTEM48
WALKING FROM SIDE
TO SIDE ONLY FOR
ONE PROBLEM
INSPECTIONS
ABSTRACT
The city of Indjija (Serbia) has developed accessible and convenient administrative
services for citizens and businesses alike. The Citizens’ Assistance Centre is an
integrated part of Indjija’s municipal administration designed to provide easy access
to the most important municipal services, and is the first in it’s kind in Serbia.
Indjija is the only municipality in Serbia offering comprehensive eGovernment
services accessible through its website, ranging from issuing basic registry documents
to providing licenses and permits.
The system is a good example of an e-Management system for the city administration,
as the provided services are made possible via a thorough connection of all municipal
services and decision-levels. As such, it supports the management and political
leadership of the Mayor of the City.
http://www.indjija.net/
Page 19 of 19
5.
Simplification of the process application from disabled people,
for benefits and medical (Belgium)
ABSTRACT
An example of a service from the central government to the local government in its
role of intermediary can be found in Belgium, where a the process through which
disabled persons could apply for benefits and medical recognition was simplified
through a streamlined back-office procedure.
One of the roles of the Disabled Persons Directorate-General of the Federal Public
Service (Service Public Fédéral - S.P.F.) of Social Security is to accurately and
promptly process applications from disabled people for benefits for disabled persons
or medical recognition. The regulations require applications for benefits to be made
through the municipality council where the disabled person has his main residence.
The objective of the project is to give municipalities access to the computerized
applications used by the federal service that needs to process the applications. In that
way, the application process is rationalised and the application data is immediately
electronically available, for further processing.
Municipal case-workers can:
-
enter benefit applications directly into the computer system of the S.P.F.
Social Security, by no longer having to send social data of a personal nature
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that are already in the social security network, as they are automatically made
available via the Crossroad Bank for Social Security;
-
receive, in return, an acknowledgement of receipt of the application and the
administrative and medical forms (pre-completed with identification data),
which can be given immediately to the person concerned;
The application uses the new electronic identity card to identify users and the civil
servant LDAP (managed by the independent Crossroad Bank for Social Security) to
provide access to users.
https: //professional.socialsecurity.be
http://www.socialsecurity.be,
http://www.ksz.fgov.be/En/CBSS.htm
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6.
Localegov - The National Strategy for Local e-Government in
England
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Contact: Mr. Julian Bowrey
Address: Eland House, Zone 3/C6, Bressenden Place, SW1E 5DU London, UK
Phone: +(44)-((0)20)-(79444218)
Fax: +(44)-((0)20)-(79444994)
e-Mail: julian.bowrey@odpm.gsi.gov.uk
ABSTRACT
'Localegov' the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's (ODPM) National Strategy for
Local e-Government was published on 27 November 2002 following consultation
with stakeholders. It sets out a vision, implementation framework and model for local
e-government designed to transform the quality of services and the organizations that
deliver them.
A bottom-up approach to delivery of the program was adopted from the outset in
order to build the capacity of councils to help themselves. To date, this has
transformed the e-enablement of council services, from 26% in March 2002 to 79%
by March 2005, whilst 98% of councils expect to achieve the 100% target by 2005.
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The program has also overseen the successful delivery of 22 National Projects, run by
councils for councils and based on a 'build once share many times' philosophy. The
outputs from the National Projects offer councils in England (and beyond) proven,
cost effective, standard products, services and implementation roadmaps with which
to build effective e-services tailored to their citizens and each council's own unique
needs. In over 100 councils in England, citizens can already go online to submit
planning applications, check their council tax balance and calculate their benefits
entitlement, whilst councils themselves expect to deliver? 8 billion in efficiency gains
by 2007/08 directly as a result of e-Government investment. Such progress has been
made possible through a strong and effective partnership between local and central
government to bring about the improvements aimed at by the end of 2005.
www.localegov.gov.uk
www.localegovnp.org
www.govconnect.gov.uk
www.direct.gov.uk/Topics/HomeAndCommunity/fs/en
Page 23 of 23
7.
eTampere 2001-2005 (Finland)
ABSTRACT
eTampere 2001-2005 was an innovative cooperation programme that combined the
expertise and developmental input of the region’s educational and research
establishments, business life, administrative bodies, organizations, communities and
citizens. The activities were coordinated by the eTampere Office.
Objective
The objective was to make Tampere a spearhead city of information society
development by strengthening the knowledge base, creating new business and
developing new services for citizens.
The aims included:
• forwarding the growth of the ICT and communication clusters so that they
multiply 2.5- and 1.8-fold respectively;
• making Tampere an internationally recognized and esteemed centre of
research and study related to information society and eEconomy;
• transforming Tampere into the world’s most notable city-scale information
society piloting environment;
• developing Tampere’s public administration online services into a
comprehensive and advanced entity which is in widespread use;
Page 24 of 24
•
•
•
enabling online access for all citizens and strengthening their competence as
users of public online services;
using data networks to forward citizens’ opportunities to influence decisions
concerning them and participate in the development of their hometown;
to secure balanced and equal information society development activity.
The eTampere programme targeted a simultaneous development of the information
society’s three dimensions – technological, economic and social – through widereaching cooperation. Due to this approach and the diversity of the parties involved,
the nature of eTampere and the structure of its activities were unique in Finland and
beyond.
The programme’s focal area was need-oriented services based on technological
innovation, whose objective was to achieve an active, participating and influential
citizenship, develop companies’ business and deepen international cooperation.
Activities
The programme’s activity was arranged through six sub-programmes:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Infocity
Technology Engine programmes
eBusiness Research Center, eBRC
Information Society Institute, ISI
Research and Evaluation Laboratory, RELab
eAccelerator
Results
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
employment in the ICT sector increased, unlike in other growth centres in
Finland;
the most followed information society programme both nationally and
internationally;
tools were created for programme-based development;
the first stimulus for cooperation between the city, business life and
universities;
a total of 420 projects, 62 of which international;
total project volume 131 million euros, exceeding the target;
more than 400 researchers and developers and over 300 companies
participated in the projects, 60% were research projects;
80 national networks and seminars.
Project funding
•
•
•
•
The City of Tampere, the University of Tampere and Tampere University of
Technology 18%;
other public domestic funding 28%;
public international funding 13%;
business life 39%;
Page 25 of 25
•
other 2%.
In Tampere, programme-based development policy based on cooperation between
various parties has proven a cost-efficient and effective way of forwarding business
growth and renewal in addition to developing education, research and their respective
operating environments.
Continuity
The eTampere information society programme completed its term at the end of 2005,
the BioneXt Tampere biotechnology programme will continue until 2010, and an
economic development policy programme set to run until 2011. Creative Tampere, is
about to begin.
Links to evaluations of the eTampere programme can be found at
http://www.etampere.fi /English - Research, Analyses.
http://www.etampere.fi/english
Page 26 of 26
8.
LEPIDA: the broadband private network of Emilia-Romagna
Public Administration (Italy)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: Regione Emilia-Romagna
Contact: Gaudenzio Garavini
Address: Viale Aldo Moro 18, 40127 Bologna Italy
Tel.: +(39)-(051)-(639)-(7617)
Fax: +(39)-(051)-(639)-(7810)
e-Mail: ggaravini@regione.emilia-romagna.it
ABSTRACT :
Lepida is a broadband infrastructure, for its most part exploiting fibre optics
technology to interconnect over 400 public administrations throughout the Region of
Emilia-Romagna. Lepida is also the “highway” through which to distribute eGovernment applications to businesses and citizens.
The investment needed to develop Lepida is shared by public administration and
private companies, which make use of part of the infrastructure to provide broadband
connectivity services to the private market. The public investment has two main
targets:
Page 27 of 27
•
•
to interconnect all public administration; and
to bring broadband investment to areas where it would not have been
considered profitable by the incumbent or other telecom operators based on a
pure market-driven perspective, contrasting the geographical digital divide;
To date, Lepida has been in operation for over a year and has reached about 50% of
targeted public administrations, that use it to distribute e-Government applications for
agriculture, health care, labour, geographical information systems, e-Procurement,
urban safety, research and Voice over IP.
The initiative aims to provide a homogeneous development and introduced and passed
a law regulating the infrastructure, its ownership, the role of the various partners and
the governance model. The public-private partnership organization model outsources
network deployment and operations to the local public utilities, which provide and
maintain network node equipment and deliver network services according to service
level agreement defined and monitored by the public administration. The overall
investment for the implementation of the network is over 120 million Euros, 50 of
which will come from the public administration. It has been estimated by a
cost/benefit analysis that the break-even point can be reached within 9 years4.
http://www.regionedigitale.net/wcm/erdigitale/infrastrutture/banda_larga.htm
4
This case has been submitted for the e-Europe award theme “The Right Environment”.
Page 28 of 28
9.
Digital document management system GoPro in Tartu City
Government (Estonia)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: City of Tartu
Contact: Aune Visnapuu
Address: Raekoda, 50089 Tartu, Estonia
Tel.: +372 7361150
Fax: +372 7361106
e-Mail: aune.visnapuu@raad.tartu.ee
ABSTRACT:
Until the year 2001 document management in Tartu City Government was handled by
traditional methods. Documents were in registers, even in paper databases, or in
separate database in computer. Documents moving from one department to another
were re-entered in multiple registers.
According to the Public Information Act (2002), issued by the national government of
Estonia, all public institutions should publish on their web pages a registry of
incoming and out coming mail, all legislation (approved documents and drafts, except
protected personal data), results of researches, etc. Next to that the “Common
Page 29 of 29
regulations for procedures”, into force since March 1st 2001, requires that registers of
the documents must be handled digitally.
Already in May 2001, a working group in the Tartu city office formulated the
objective that “The Tartu City Government needs to implement new digital document
management system to have faster, secure and easily accessible governance”.
After an analysis of the existing situation, the following requirements were set to the
solution:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
ease of creating new documents and cases
ease of creating new legislative acts
fast flow of documents
accessible from city government computer network, but as well through the
Internet
an automatic publication of documents in city web page
digital archiving tool
unique registry
possibilities to create different views: by client, by case, by office worker, by
institution, etc
automatic reminders and other control tools over the workflow
pre-design of workflow
city government and city council meeting tools
permanent commissions and ad-hoc workgroups working tools
scalable (possibility to add to the same system city institutions)
in Estonian language
time frame and scope: total implementation in 12 months with 250 persons
The software, IBM Lotus GoPro, is a complex and secure document, case and contact
management program. It can be used either through Lotus Notes client or via a web
browser.
It offers the following basic functions:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Contact management
Case management
Mail management
Archiving
Group letters
Document approving system
Reminders
Document follow-up
Scanning of the documents
Out of office function
Log and history of actions
Since the implementation of this system, Tartu City Government and Tartu City
Council have a digital document, cases and contact management system, which fully
Page 30 of 30
responds to the needs of the organisation and the requirements of legislation,
increases performance of the organisation and makes the decision-making process
faster, secure and transparent.
The performance of city officials was increased greatly. Officials can use online
document and cases database; have different views - by client, by case, by office
worker, by institution, etc. The speed of the workflow has dramatically increased.
Earlier an approval took approximately one day, now it is common that 5 to 6
approvals are given in 1-2 days. It is easy to monitor the status of the document or
case. Use of the system with full functionality from a distance is possible at any time
and from any location using an Internet connection.
http://www.tartu.ee/?lang_id=1&menu_id=2&page_id=1208
Page 31 of 31
Topic 2: Online public services for citizens
The European Commission has defined a list of twenty basic public services, for
which progress is measured. Twelve of these services are aimed at citizens, while the
other eight have businesses in mind5.
In order to measure the availability of these public services online, a four-stage
framework has been defined and is widely adopted. Next to being a tool for
measuring, the framework provides basic guidelines on how to proceed with the
development of various services. The four stages are:
•
Stage 1 - Information
The information necessary to start the procedure to obtain this public
service is available on-line;
•
Stage 2 - One-way Interaction
The publicly accessible website offers the possibility to obtain in a
non-electronic way (by downloading forms) the paper form to start the
procedure to obtain this service. An electronic form to order a nonelectronic form is also considered as stage 2;
•
Stage 3 - Two-way Interaction
The publicly accessible website offers the possibility of an electronic
intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to obtain
this service. This implies that there must be a form of authentication of
the person (physical or juridical) requesting the services in order to
reach stage 3;
•
Stage 4 - Full electronic case handling
The publicly accessible website offers the possibility to completely
treat the public service via the website, including decision and
delivery. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via
"paperwork".
In the EU Information Society Strategy, special attention was given to the wider
development of ICT enabled public services.
It is no secret that the bulk of the available e-services for citizens are offered by
municipalities and local governments. As local entities are closer to the citizens they
5
The twelve services aimed at citizens are income taxes, job search, social security benefits, personal
documents, car registration, application for building permission, declaration to the police, public
libraries, birth and marriage certificates, enrolment in higher education, announcement of moving and
health-related services.
The eight services aimed at businesses are social contribution to employees, corporate tax, VAT,
registration of a new company, submission of data to the statistical office, customs declarations,
environment-related permits and public procurement.
Page 32 of 32
serve, they are better placed to be aware of needs and to benefit both economically
and politically.
The general picture of state of public on-line services, defined by EU Commission is
relatively positive. A good overview of EU level projects and implemented services
was made in the process of e-Gov awards which results were announced in
Manchester in 20056. Moreover, there is wide range of e-services in existence which
are not mentioned in this list, and new ones appear every day.
It is important to note that the most important and most used service for citizens and
businesses alike is simple information provision. By using its own website a local
entity can and should provide information both on its own organisation, setup and
activities, as well as on various other relevant information that concerns the locality.
In deciding how this information will be presented, attention should be given to the
fact that websites are rapidly becoming the front windows or gateways for not only
the local population and businesses, but also for people and businesses from other
localities and tourists seeking information.
It is often the case that the twenty services identified are developed and implemented
on the level of central government, rather then by municipalities or local
governments. This however does not exclude the local level from playing an
important role, as municipalities in many cases use and support these services.
When offered on the local level, a precondition for the development of e-services is,
in most cases, the existence of well-functioning back-office systems on that level as
well as the existence of operational central state registers.
6
See http://www.egov2005conference.gov.uk/e_awards/index.asp. Similar Award processes are going
on in many countries (e.g. in Ireland and the UK - http://www.irishegovernmentawards.ie/winnersshortlist2006.htm, http://www.e-governmentawards.co.uk/index.php)
A good overview of on-line services, offered in public administrations in the EU is available via
http://www.capgemini.com/resources/thought_leadership/2006_online_availability_of_public_ser
vices.
Page 33 of 33
1.
South Yorkshire e-services (United Kingdom)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: e@SY Connects
Contact: Gary Simpson - e@SY Programme Manager
Address: Mexborough Business Centre, College Road, Mexborough, South
Yorkshire, S64 9JP United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (01709)-591214
e-Mail: garysimpson@barnsley.gov.uk
ABSTRACT
e@SY Connects Online has evolved from the original award-winning SYCOP (South
Yorkshire Communities Online Project) system. A system designed to give the citizen
and business access to qualified information and interactive services by a myriad of
electronic devices and channels.
The aim of the program is to ensure that innovative means of access to specific public
information and services is made as easy as possible for all, but particularly for those
in the greatest need. Initially for South Yorkshire (Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham
and Sheffield) but now e@SY’s experience and developed services are being used
nationally and internationally. This has allowed agencies, both public and private, to
Page 34 of 34
identify and meet more effectively the needs of the people and businesses they serve
across existing boundaries.
Today following services are online:
•
•
•
Doctor appointment. As result, the rate of not used visits to the doctors has
decreased from 13% to 0.5%;
Job hotline on TV and internet;
Local air quality checks.
www.easyconnects.org.uk
2.
Eastserve Getting the local community on-line in East
Manchester (United Kingdom)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: Eastserve
Contact: Andy McBeath
Address: 1 Stilton Drive, M11 3SB Manchester United Kingdom
Tel.: +(44)-(161)-(231)-(9580)
Fax: +(44)-(161)-(231)-(3632)
e-Mail: a.mcbeath@eastserve.com
Page 35 of 35
ABSTRACT
Getting the local community on-line has been a major success story in East
Manchester. The Eastserve project was set up in 2000, funded through the Beacons
for a Brighter Future Initiative - the program that is managing the New Deal for
Communities and Single Regeneration Budget regeneration funds for the Beswick,
Openshaw and Clayton neighbourhoods of East Manchester – and the Department for
Education and Skills Wired up Communities program. Since then it has extended
across the wider New East Manchester area and provided a model of best practice for
the development of the City’s e government agenda.
The project has provided PCs, basic ICT training, community help and support,
access to online services and local information and low cost wireless broadband
Internet access where previously this did not exist.
PCs were heavily subsidized - a new computer with all the peripheral equipment cost
just £200 against the full cost of £1,000, and attending a 3 hour training course in a
local venue was part of the deal. Customer Services are provided from a local shop
Unit by paid staff and technical and non-technical volunteers.
A community portal (www.eastserve.com) has also been developed, designed
specifically for the local community through intensive consultation and providing
access to local services and news about the area. The Eastserve site provides
information and interactive services from City Council Departments particularly
housing and street based services, employment agencies, the Police and community
networks. It aims to be fast and convenient and is organized to reflect the needs of the
residents rather than the structure of agencies or organizations.
Eastserve Broadband has been established to address the issue of a quarter of
residents being unable to access the Internet at home and to provide high speed,
affordable links to the Internet from homes, community locations, schools and
businesses.
The third phase of the project has now received funding from the North West
Development Agency to further develop the project and lead it to becoming a selfsustaining viable enterprise by 2007.
http://www.eastserve.com
Page 36 of 36
3.
Benefit Express in Halton Borough Council (United Kingdom)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: Halton Borough Council
Contact: Mr Peter McCann
Address: Catalyst House, Catalyst Trade Park, Sankey Street, WA8 0GH
Widnes, Cheshire United Kingdom
Phone: +(44)-(151)-(4717430)
Fax: +(44)-(151)-(4717308)
e-Mail: peter.mccann@halton.gov.uk
ABSTRACT
Halton residents are currently reaping the benefits of a truly groundbreaking initiative,
which is using the readily available technology to deliver services in real time to its
customers. Working within the local community the service provides a direct link
from the customers’ home to the Benefit Office alleviating many of the problems that
the community had highlighted as problems when claiming benefit.
The award-winning initiative has led to a 75% drop in correspondence, a reduction in
turnaround times for Benefit Express customers from 6 weeks to an average of 2 days,
a massive increase in customer satisfaction and a significant rise in benefits take up.
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Centred on a Benefits Bus and backed up by a team of visiting officers this pioneering
mobile outreach service uses technology to make a real difference to the Council’s
benefit customers because it is truly mobile and instant. The visiting team, armed with
laptops, linked directly to the Council’s benefit system via GPRS technology, have
real time on-line access, allowing claims to be updated from clients’ homes. The
Benefits Express hit the headlines after it was highly acclaimed by Government
Ministers and was used by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to highlight an
outstanding example of using Neighbourhood Renewal Funding.
www.halton.gov.uk
http://www2.halton.gov.uk/content/socialcareandhealth/socialbenefits/benefitsexpress
Page 38 of 38
4.
E-procurement in Piemonte (Italy)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: Regione Piemonte- Direzione Organizzazione, Pianificazione, Sviluppo e
Gestione delle
Contact: Sergio Crescimanno
Address: Corso Regina Margherita 174, 10152 Torino Italy
Tel.: +(39)-(011)-(432)-(1358)
Fax: +(39)-(011)-(432)-(3836)
e-Mail: Direzione07@regione.piemonte.it
ABSTRACT
In 2003, the Piedmont Region undertook a project to create a platform of eprocurement for the management of IT calls for tender, electronic marketplaces and
agreements between bodies, and to place it at the disposal of all the regional offices of
the Public Administration. The project, managed in collaboration with CSI-Piemonte,
led to the creation of a website: https://eproc.sistemapiemonte.it/home.jsp, a single
access point via Internet to functions of e-procurement.
Page 39 of 39
The e-procurement project is geared to the following goals:
•
•
•
•
to optimize expenditure by reducing costs and using simpler, more rapid and
transparent procedures;
to improve communications between Public Administration and the business
world (in particular SMEs);
to generate a fair market for SMEs in which they can compete on an equal
footing;
to expand supplier markets and to make them more efficient, enhancing the
value of the industrial structure of the Piedmont System through the promotion
of technological innovation.
E-procurement thus enhances the potential of a continuously evolving market, and the
use of the network makes electronic procedures and computer applications available
in support of procurement processes. The portal offers web applications with specific
functions, permitting the offices to purchase by means of Internet bidding, the
electronic marketplace and agreements, that is, contracts between bodies. In addition
to the service of e-procurement with the aforementioned functions, the portal offers
other complementary services such as:
-
-
-
consultation services (need analysis, cost analysis, analysis of different
categories of goods, analysis of the purchasing process in the sphere of
computerized procedures, analysis of integration with the legacy systems of
the office, physical and virtual protection of the activity);
information services and interactive services accessible from the portal
(reference regulations, community services, best practices, forums, events,
newsletters, etc.);
assistance and help desk services (at the disposal of the organizations and
suppliers, consisting of a toll-free telephone number for assistance);
training services also via e-learning tools.
www.acquisti.sistemapiemonte.it, https://eproc.sistemapiemonte.it/home.jsp
Page 40 of 40
5.
Public e-Procurement (Norway)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: Ministry of Modernisation, e-Procurement Secretariat
Contact: André Hoddevik
Address: P.O.Box 8129 Dep. N-0032 Oslo Norway
Tel.: +(47)-(22)-(249667)
Fax: +(47)-(22)-(249595)
e-Mail: andre.hoddevik@ehandel.no
ABSTRACT
The Norwegian Government has established a fully operational tool for electronic
public procurement. The electronic Marketplace “ehandel.no” is operated by a private
e-procurement service provider (IBX AS). The main goal of the initiative has been to
lower the threshold for taking e-procurement in use, both for public sector entities and
their suppliers. The most important instrument to achieve this has been the
establishment of an operational electronic tool for public procurement - the
Marketplace “ehandel.no”. As a total policy for a more modern and effective public
sector this is a major step in the right direction which receives strong political support
from the Minister of Modernisation.
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A second important goal was to achieve cost reduction in the area of procurement,
both on prices from suppliers and on more effective procurement processes. The need
for more knowledge and competence on new ICT-based procurement tools was
overwhelming, both in the private and the public sector.
Approved by the cabinet in 1999, the Marketplace “ehandel.no“ has been operational
since June 2002 and is available for all public sector entities at local, regional and
national level. The program for Electronic Commerce in the Norwegian Public Sector
was established for the period 1999 to 2003 and prolonged to the end of 2004. From
2005, the initiative is organized as an e-procurement Secretariat under the Ministry of
Modernisation.
From 2002 to this date there are 32 public entities operational and actually using the
tool for parts of their procurement activities. There are over 230 suppliers with
electronic catalogues serving their customers through the Marketplace. In 2005 both
the number of buying and selling entities is increasing and so are the volumes in total.
The 32 public entities represent approximately 20% of the public procurement volume
in Norway.
The European Commission, Internal Market Directorate-General made a Impact
Assessment on Action Plan on e-Public Procurement, Baseline Analysis published in
December 2004 where an appendix was made on the situation for Iceland and Norway
produced by Rambøll Management. The analysis shows that the initiative in Norway
is among the most successful in Europe and that the focus on the value chain in
procurement is the key to secure implementation of the most powerful e-procurement
tools and the possibility to ensure cost cutting and more efficient processes.
www.ehandel.no
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Topic 3: e-Participation
This chapter takes a closer look at new e-participation services that use interactive
consultation applications.
Information and Communication Technologies can play an important role in helping
to address new challenges in the involvement of citizens in decision-making, to cope
with the increasing complexity of the legislative processes and to improve legislation.
Today, more than 50% of EU citizens are Internet users, while all 25 National
Parliaments of the EU Member States and the European Parliament have parts of their
work accessible on the web. In a recent online e-government consultation, 65% of the
respondents expect that e-participation and e-democracy can help to reduce
democratic deficits.
The European Commission’s Communication “i2010 eGovernment Action Plan:
Accelerating eGovernment in Europe for the Benefit of All” incorporates an action on
“Strengthening citizen participation and democratic decision-making in Europe”.
The eGovernment Action Plan i2010 aims at harnessing the benefits of the use of
ICTs for a better legislative process and for better legislation at all levels of
governmental decision making, and for an enhanced public participation in such
processes. It also aims at enhancing the participation of the public (citizens,
businesses, socio-economic and political groups, etc) in the decision-making process,
amongst others through improved interaction with decision-makers. Both legislation
and public participation are relevant at a EU, Member State and local level, at all four
of the stages that can be identified in the legislative process:
• the legislation proposal formation stage (e.g. by Ministries and relevant
institutions);
• the debate on draft legislation (e.g. in Parliaments and with citizens,
businesses, NGOs and other socio-economic groups);
• the implementation stage;
• the follow-up/monitoring of the legislation life cycle (e.g. amendments,
impacts, etc).
As policy problems grow more complex and interdependent, governments recognize
that they can no longer find adequate solutions by themselves, and are turning for
assistance to outside organizations. Increasingly, governments seek the help of civil
society organizations to obtain broader perspectives, identify alternative approaches,
tap wider sources of information, and work out more imaginative solutions in order to
maximize policy effectiveness and resource efficiency.
e-Democracy, and e-participation in particular, is clearly becoming an increasingly
important topic in national political agendas. The use of ICT to support democratic
Page 43 of 43
decision-making processes can be seen to be divided into two distinct areas, one
addressing e-participation and the other addressing e-voting.
Various forms of e-voting have been developed in many countries. At the top of this
development is Estonia, which in October 2005 gave its citizens countrywide the
opportunity to cast a vote over the Internet during the local elections at that time. The
experiment is widely seen as a success, and e-voting in Estonia is on the way to
become common practice with a repeat of the procedure in the parliamentary elections
in March 20077.
A number of countries have launched a variety of e-democracy initiatives such as edeliberation, e-consultation, etc. At present, websites of public institutions are the
main platforms for online public participation. In this context, websites provide not
only information but allow citizens to get involved and give feedback on policy issues
and other areas of interest.
The dissemination of best practice and support to experience sharing can be important
catalysts in the development of e-participation. In this context, actions launched by
national and local/regional authorities in the field of e-participation can be found as
follows:
7
More information on e-voting in Estonia and an analysis of the results can be found on the websites of
the Estonian Electoral Committee (http://www.vvk.ee/engindex.html) and the e-Governance Academy.
Page 44 of 44
1.
Today I decide: TOM portal (Estonia)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: State Chancellery, Estonia
Contact: Eleka Rugam-Rebane
Address: Stenbocki maja, Rahukohtu 3, 15161 Tallinn, Estonia
Tel.: +372 693 5744
Fax: +372 693 5707
e-Mail: tom@riigikantselei.ee; eleka.rugam-rebane@riigikantselei.ee
ABSTRACT
In June 2001, the Estonian government launched a direct democracy portal named
“Today I decide” (known under the Estonian acronym “TOM”), in response to the
request of then Prime Minister Mart Laar to create a tool that would allow people to
have an impact on the government’s work and to provide them with a possibility to
speak up in all spheres of political life.
The portal was introduced by the State Chancellery as part of a larger e-government
project under the www.riik.ee, domain as the administration was keen to solve the
overall problem of political disengagement in Estonia. TOM was devised with a view
to bring citizens closer to the government and to make the operation of the
government more transparent to citizens. Rather than a one-way, broadcasting model
Page 45 of 45
of information flow about the operation of the government, TOM was designed to
serve interaction between citizens and the government, as well as citizen-to-citizen
communication.
TOM effectively provided two opportunities for citizens to become involved in
policy-making and legislation.
Firstly, draft laws from ministries were published on the portal. Citizens then could
comment of these draft documents, which served the purpose of consultation. This
function was available only for a short period of time after the portal was launched.
Secondly, the tool provides for a citizen-initiated process in which any Estonian
citizen (or other user of TOM) can submit their own proposals for laws or policies,
and is guaranteed a motivated answer from the government.
TOM is an example of an official online mechanism to turn citizens’ ideas into
legislative proposals. It facilitates forms of participation that strengthen citizens’
capacity for collective action and political influence. The tool mediates between
established governmental power and the public, and provides opportunities for
citizens to initiate policy ideas as well as serious deliberation and debate on proposed
initiatives among themselves.
The portal counts some 10 to 14.000 visits per month and the number of registered
users grew steadily from around 3.500 in 2002 to 6.646 in June 2006. 20 to 25% of all
proposals submitted via TOM have qualified to be sent to ministries, of which
approximately three percent have been either developed into legislation or
acknowledged with a response that a similar proposal is already being considered by
the relevant ministry. In January 2003, 371 proposals that had been submitted through
TOM were processed by different government agencies, five bills based on ideas
submitted through TOM were at the ratification stage (the last phase before entering
into force) and 10 pieces of draft legislation were in progress in the relevant
ministries.
https://www.eesti.ee/tom/ideas.py/avaleht
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2.
Local e-Democracy Project (United Kingdom)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy, Lichfield District
Council
Contact: Fraser Henderson – Operations Director
Address: Frog Lane, Lichfield, Staffordshire WS12 6YY
Tel.: +44 (01543) 308781
e-Mail: fraser.henderson@icele.org
ABSTRACT:
The UK local e-Democracy National Project was launched in 2005, to explore how
new technologies can change the way in which local Councils engage and work with
their Citizens. The aim of the project is to deliver improved service and efficiency
savings as well as helping local governments to meet their more strategic egovernment targets.
The project has piloted a selection of the tools, approaches and methods available for
engaging communities, citizens, councils and councillors with each other. It has
looked at webcasts, blogs, text alerts, e-panels, e-consultation, committee information
systems, online surgeries and many other approaches to see what works, what the
benefits are and whether they should be replicated. It has developed best practice
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guides, exemplar materials, case studies and software specifications to help an
authority select the approaches that would work for them.
The Project also has developed strategy guides, route maps and business case
templates to help authorities develop their own strategies, whilst drawing on the
Project's experiences. It has created an easily manageable format within which to sit
all this knowledge and consolidated its findings on this website.
The local e-Democracy National Project has provided authorities with the products
and tools they need to develop effective local e-democracy strategies of their own.
The project was awarded the World’s best e-Democracy Project in 2005.
http://www.e-democracy.gov.uk/projects
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3.
e-Voting Pilots (United Kingdom)
ABSTRACT
The Sheffield City Council worked with the UK Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
to develop and deliver an innovative, high-impact and scaleable election
modernization pilot. Sheffield aimed to provide 21st Century Voters with greater
choice and convenience and to instil widespread voter confidence in new technology.
Toward this end, Sheffield deployed a multi-channel voting application and ultimately
generated an across the board increase in turnout.
Architecture
The Web-based voting application used is built on a .Net platform and runs on the
Windows 2000 Datacenter Server operating system. Microsoft Transaction Server
capabilities of COM+ provides the middleware technology. The SQL server 2000
Database guarantees solution scalability and flexibility.
The multi-channel voting application has front-end Access Gateways (Internet, Kiosk,
Telephone, SMS, and Polling Station) that are linked to a secure central voting
engine. The Secure Voting Platform communicates with each of the Access Gateways
using a secure protocol and simple XML/EML calls that are based on the
Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards’ newly
developed election standards.
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Project Background
In May 2003 over 2 million citizens in Ipswich, Norwich, Sheffield, South Somerset
and St Albans were offered the choice to cast their vote in local elections using the
widest range of new voting technologies ever deployed: Internet via PC or public
access kiosk, telephone, phone text messaging, and pencil and paper at a polling
station. The project was funded by the UK Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and
was designed to modernise the election process in a manner that facilitated the UK
Government’s aggressive agenda to place all public services online by 2005.
At the same time, an additional key objective was to make voting more relevant to
people’s daily lives and to help reverse a steep reduction in voter participation. (In
2000, turnout in local elections fell to a mere 29.6%. In 2001 turnout in the General
Election dropped to the lowest level since the First World War).
The 2003 e-voting pilots were part of a three-year programme to establish a migration
path towards the Government’s ultimate aim of delivering an e-enabled general
election in the UK after 2006. For this reason, Voter Engagement activities had to
demonstrate an ability to encourage more people to vote in a cost-effective and
scaleable manner.
The project entailed close cooperation between Central and Local Government to
ensure that the broader citizen benefits extended beyond Election Day itself.
Ultimately, the pilots helped to familiarise voters with new technology and to serve as
a catalyst for wider e-Democracy initiatives, including the city-wide deployment of
multi-purpose Smart Cards in Sheffield and mock student elections.
Voter Engagement Objectives
The most robust technological product is only as good as the people and processes
that implement it. Technology can be programmed, monitored and controlled.
Educating, training and managing people are often more challenging. For this reason,
successfully addressing the ‘people’ and ‘procedural’ issues to ensure public
acceptance of a completely new and innovative voting system represented a core
objective.
Ultimate Voter Engagement objectives included:
•
•
•
•
•
Instil voter confidence in the new technology
Increase voter turnout
Seed long-term citizen engagement activities
Deploy a cost-efficient and scalable model
Ensure stakeholders’ inclusion in and ownership of the campaign
Approach and Methodology
Throughout the Voter Engagement campaign, Sheffield deployed a voter-centric
strategy that focused on the high impact delivery of universal and bespoke messages.
The strategy combined a unique blend of conventional public relations/advertising
activities and ‘hands on’ community outreach.
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The Voter Engagement Efficiency (VEE) model employed statistical analyses of voter
turnout and characteristics to produce a strategy for maximising voter turnout. This
model served as the basis of the campaign and was used to determine the timing and
content of key campaign elements, including public relations events, media releases,
radio and print advertising and reminder notices. At all time emphasis was placed on
efficient and cost-effective delivery.
Before and during the voting period, an exhaustive voter engagement campaign was
conducted using designated events to familiarise citizens with the new voting options.
Creative media campaigns using local radio and newspapers resulted in a number of
positive stories explaining the new options available to voters.
To raise overall awareness about the e-Voting pilots, each of the Local Authorities
adopted a branding tag for the campaign. Sheffield chose ‘21st Century Voting for a
21st Century City’. The ‘21st Century’ theme was featured heavily in a city-wide
advertising campaign, and was printed on all literature, and promotional material,
including posters, balloons, pens, t-shirts, baseball caps, stickers and fluffy bags,
relating to the pilot. All promotional material carried a free-phone help line number
that citizens could call regarding any questions they might have about the new voting
methods.
In addition to the call centres, voter education websites were launched that were
tailored for each Local Authority and designed to act as a portal to the Internet voting
site. The education websites offered information about the new voting methods and
the reasons why they were being introduced. In addition, the sites provided samples of
poll cards, extensive Frequently Asked Questions, and a comprehensive
demonstration of each new voting method.
In addition to the official voting portal, Sheffield launched a smart youth website to
engage the city’s large student population. The website contained a voting related
‘game’ and a heavy ‘viral’ marketing component. To reinforce the youth message and
drive traffic to the site, specially designed beer mats were distributed in student
unions and pubs throughout the city.
The Voter Engagement Campaign was also taken into the streets by designated street
teams who distributed leaflets with instructions on how to vote. The team also
encouraged local businesses to distribute leaflets and display posters, and launched
innovative Road shows at heavily trafficked areas such as rail stations, supermarkets
and market stalls.
Beyond merely informing voters about the new voting technologies at hand, the Voter
Engagement campaign also strove to instil public confidence and trust in new ways of
interacting with government. For this reason, those less familiar with the new
technologies, such as the elderly, were specifically targeted. For example, elderly
voters in numerous Local Authorities were invited to education sessions at libraries to
familiarise them with the internet in general and new voting methods in particular. In
Sheffield, the street teams held a special outreach event at a local MenCap Centre to
provide disabled adults with the opportunity to test eVoting.
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Younger children below voting age were also encouraged to explore new and
innovative ways of voting. As part of the voter education campaign, Sheffield and St
Albans conducted mock e-Voting elections at local schools to encourage young
people to become interested in civics and to demonstrate that voting is becoming as
modern as other elements in young people’s lives.
Stakeholders
To ensure broad stakeholder support for e-Voting, key influencers were invited to
attend special discussion and demonstration sessions. These sessions were held at the
outset of the campaign and were specially designed to ensure that key concerns over
the implementation of the new voting systems were addressed.
Value Delivered
Across all Authorities, surveys highlighted a high level of satisfaction with the eVoting pilots and top ratings for the voter engagement campaign. A leading majority
of stakeholders were completely confident in the effectiveness of the solution and
eager to run the pilot again.
The campaign demonstrated cost-efficiency and scalability by targeting over a million
voters with a small team of 7 at a cost of just .25 per voter.
The historic e-Voting pilots ran smoothly in May 2003, and key stakeholders
expressed broad satisfaction with the initiative. Surveys revealed that 95 to 98% of
voters would vote via the new e-Voting methods. Turnout rose universally in all the
local authorities in the areas covered by the pilot schemes: nearly 40% of voters in
Sheffield and 42% in St Albans chose to use the new voting channels – breaking all
records for adoption of new technologies. Voters chose e-Voting over postal voting
by a margin of 3-1 in Sheffield and 2-1 in St Albans
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4.
Smart|connect - Sheffield (United Kingdom)
SUMMARY
Smart|connect is an e-consultation process designed to promote informed and
deliberative consultation on local social/political issues. As part of the government's
National Smart Card Project, Sheffield City Council (SCC) and Connexions Card
worked together in February and March 2004 to run a pilot project in 4 Sheffield, UK
schools. The scheme was part of an eLearning strategy that aims to connect young
people aged 14-19 with the democratic process.
Smart|connect is an online consultation that runs alongside classroom-based
citizenship lessons. Students from Year 10 upwards in the participating schools were
issued both a "smart card" including their unique cardholder number and a separate
letter indicating a unique password. Both these numbers enabled students to log on to
the smart|connect website to take part in the online debate. Students were invited to
access this website through any PC (at home, school, public library, or any of
Sheffield's free Public Access Kiosks located around the city).
Smart|connect included 2 stages during which the students could visit this website to
post their views. The first phase, which took place for a 2-week period, invited
students to log on to express their opinions and have a say on the issues that affect
young people. These issues were divided into several categories; on the left-hand side
of the screen, participants could read information about the particular issue. On the
right-hand side, students were presented with a number of questions about their own
experience with that issue and their perspective on the role their leaders might play in
addressing it. As part of the e-consultation, participants were asked to click on their
response to each question for submission to project organisers.
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The specific issues focused on in this project included:
•
•
•
•
•
Smoking - arguments for and against a ban on smoking in public places in
Britain. Questions here focused on the right to smoke freely, as opposed to the
right to a smoke-free environment. In addition to clicking to select among set
responses, participants were asked to write freely in response to the question:
"Why should Sheffield City Council ban or not ban smoking in public
places?"
Being Heard - how young people should be represented in Sheffield through
the use of new technologies to enable people to connect with their
council/government (e-voting, e-consultations, etc.). Questions here focused
on how much participants felt they know about local issues, and how well they
feel they are being represented.
Your Area - information about activities and services (amenities) to help youth
enjoy life outside school (parks, sports centres, etc.). Questions here focused
on learning what young people really need, and how (or whether) the SCC
could improve amenities. Participants were asked to articulate what kind of
leisure facility they would most want the Council to provide, and why.
Feedback - assessing each individual's e-consultation experience (e.g., "Do
you feel more in touch with the Sheffield City Council and do you feel
listened to?"). This section indicates that "This website is the first step for
young people to have their say about local issues that affect them. The results
of this consultation will be fed back to the Council and will help shape further
discussion on these topics".
A "Links" section offered direction for participants seeking to find out more
about local issues and opportunities to become more formally involved in the
democratic process by attending Area Forums and Council Committee
meetings.
Students were then asked to revisit the smart|connect website to vote on specific
issues raised during the first stage. By taking part in smart|connect, students earned
reward points for each issue they have participated in. At the end of March, the school
with the highest number of points averaged out per student won a community prize.
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Topic 4: Awareness raising on e-government and eparticipation in a local setting
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are becoming key enablers of
modern life. They are used at work, in day-to-day relationships, in dealing with public
services as well as in culture, entertainment and leisure and for community and
political participation. In this context, awareness rising and e-inclusion is basically
about using ICTs to enhance social inclusion in a knowledge society, and about
barrier-free ICTs that are usable by all. Going beyond access to ICT tools and services
and even beyond digital literacy, an e-inclusion policy should focus on people’s
empowerment and participation in the knowledge society and economy.
Easy access to (ICT) is a prerequisite for participation. Facilitating this access entails,
amongst others, removing barriers, making ICT tools easier for everyone to use, and
encouraging people to use them by raising awareness of their economic and social
benefits. Furthermore, e-inclusion also refers to the extent to which ICT helps to
equalize and promote participation in society at all levels (i.e. social relationships,
work, culture, political participation, etc.).
The Riga Ministerial Declaration, signed in June 12, 2006 by ministers from EU
Member States, accession and candidate countries, and EFTA/EEA countries, sets out
the following specific targets:
- halve the gap in internet usage by 2010 for groups at risk of exclusion, such as
older people, people with disabilities, and unemployed persons,
- increase broadband coverage (i.e. the availability of broadband infrastructure) in
Europe to at least 90% by 2010. In 2005, broadband was available to about 60%
of businesses and households in the remote and rural areas of the EU15 and to
more than 90% in the urban areas),
- ensure that all public websites are accessible by 2010,
- by 2008, put in place actions in the field of digital literacy and skills to reduce
gaps for groups at risk of exclusion by half in 2010,
- by 2007, make recommendations on accessibility standards and common
approaches, which could become mandatory in public procurement by 2010,
and
- assess the necessity for legislative measures in the field of e-Accessibility, and
take account of accessibility requirements in the review of the electronic
communications regulatory framework beginning in June 2006.
As information and communication technologies (ICT) become more pervasive in
society and the economy, so their potential impact on everyday life grows.
Lack of affordability, access, accessibility, skills and motivation are all barriers for the
estimated 30 to 40 percent of Europeans not benefiting from the information society.
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Despite broadband subscriptions in Europe growing by 60% in 2005 and overtaking the
US for the first time, broadband penetration (or “take-up” – measured as the number of
subscribers per 100 population) is still only at 13% of the EU population (or about 25%
of households), with significant differences in access between rural and urban areas.
The goal of the EU is to achieve a broadband penetration of at least 50% of households
by 2010.
In the EU, only 10% of persons over 65 use the Internet. Only around 3% of public web
sites fully comply with minimum web accessibility standards – a real problem for the
15% of the EU population with disabilities. In real terms, this means that a huge
percentage of the population in the EU cannot fully participate in and contribute to
social and economic life. This undermines potentials for Europe's labour, goods and
services markets. ICT-enabled job participation can help bring excluded groups into the
job market and thus make a contribution towards Europe’s 70% labour market
participation target.
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1.
Manchester advice – online adviser – www.advicekit.info
(United Kingdom)
CONTACT DETAILS
Contact: Manchester Advice (part of Manchester City Council)
Address: Manchester Advice, Level One, Town Hall Extension
Manchester, Greater Manchester,M60 2LA
Tel: 0161-234 5600
ABSTRACT
AdviceKit Manchester has used innovative technology to create a new and interactive
way of delivering advice services via the Internet to the residents of Manchester. By
entering the website they have access to self-help information, an email advice service
and private advice sessions with expert advisers. Users can also search for a local
advice agency if they prefer to get advice the traditional way.
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Manchester Advice runs the AdviceKit in
partnership with the Manchester Digital
Development Agency .The AdviceKit
service operates on behalf of the
Manchester Community Legal Services
Partnership.
The project aims to broaden and increase
access to advice services in Manchester.
In its pilot phase, it will assess the
strengths, weaknesses and overall
potential of delivering advice services
over the Internet.
The project has been funded by:
•
•
The Legal Services Commission using money from the Partnership Innovation
Budget.
The Invest to Save budget (ISB4) via the Manchester Digital Development
Agency.
www.advicekit.info8
8
This website is speech enabled and using Browsealoud software (http://www.browsealoud.com/).
Browsealoud will read out the information on AdviceKit Manchester. It can aid accessibility for people
with low literacy and reading skills, people who don't use English as their first language, the dyslexic
community and people with mild visual impairment. The software is free and easy to download.
Page 58 of 58
2.
Konekta Zaitez Ciudadan@ - Basque Country (Spain)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: Basque Country Goverment
Contact: Begoña Gutierrez Lizarralde
Address: C/Donostia-San Sebastian, nº 1, 01010 Vitoria-Gazteiz, Spain
Phone: +(34)-(945)-(018522)
Fax: +(34)-(945)-(018522)
e-Mail: b - gutierrez@ej-gv.es
ABSTRACT
KZC@ is a project positioned in the framework of the "Plan de Euskadi en la
Sociedad de la Información" (PESI) and included in the "Internet para todos"
programme, which aim it is to make aware and to promote the use of Information and
Communication Technologies in the Basque society.
The project consists of the creation of a network of public centres linked up to the
Internet through a broadband connection, spread around the whole Basque Country.
Each of the centres has qualified staff able to attend the needs, problems and doubts
originated from the use of new technologies as well as of specific contents. The
service is offered free of charge to housewives, retired people, unemployed and
Page 59 of 59
immigrants, to reduce in this way the digital split caused by the advance of the
Information Society, and which may end up to be source of social division.
www.kzgunea.net
3.
The Geneva internet voting application (Switzerland)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: State of Geneva
Contact: Mr Robert Hensler
Address: 2, rue de l'Hôtel-de-Ville, 1204 Geneva Switzerland
Phone: +(41)-(22)-327 22 00
Fax: +(41)-(22)-327 04 11
ABSTRACT
The State of Geneva, under guidance from the Swiss Confederation, has developed an
Internet voting application in order to provide citizens with a new development of
remote voting. Remote voting already exists in the form of postal voting. While postal
voting had a positive impact on the turnout in referendums, it didn't impact the
elections' turnout.
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It is hoped that Internet's interactivity, the exchanges it allows with candidates and
elected officials and thus the personalization of issues, will all help to increase
electoral turnout. The first e-Ballot took place in January 2003; eight e-Ballots have
been conducted over the last 2,5 years.
https://ge-vote.geneve.ch/votations.html leads to the voting web site, which is online
during ballot periods only; www.ge.ch/ge-vote leads to a demonstration web site and
a collection of user information.
4.
HamburgGateway - The digital gate to the city (Germany)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: Ministry of Finance
Contact: Dr. Ursula Dankert
Address: Gänsemarkt 36, 20354 Hamburg Germany
Phone: +(49)-(40)-(42823)-(1725)
Fax: +(49)-(40)-(427923)-(172)
e-Mail: ursula.dankert@fb.hamburg.de
ABSTRACT
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As a city and a state, Hamburg provides a wide range of services for different
customers, i.e. citizens, business and administration and its employees. For most
administrative tasks, existing IT-applications are already in place. However,
Hamburg’s goal was to offer services online to its customers while using the existing
legacy applications. With HamburgGateway, an infrastructure is created that is the
access point for all customers to all online services of the city and state of Hamburg.
With its strong two-level authentication, it ensures privacy and security for the
customer and offers at the same time the security required for the application and the
network of the Hamburg Government. As there is only one access point for the
customer, the specific section of the administration or related institution dealing with
the service need not be visible. More over, all sites have the same design and user
interface, easing the user’s experience.
www.service.hamburg.de
5.
e@SY Connects Digital Interactive Television Service (United
Kingdom)
Page 62 of 62
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: e@SY Connects
Contact: Gary Simpson - e@SY Programme Manager
Address: Mexborough Business Centre, College Road, Mexborough, South
Yorkshire, S64 9JP United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (01709)-591214
e-Mail: garysimpson@barnsley.gov.uk
ABSTRACT
Not all citizens are able to access information and services on traditional computing
platforms such as the Internet. As a EU Objective 1 area, South Yorkshire has a low
population of PC’s within households therefore necessitating the successful
exploitation of alternative channels for delivery of e-government. e@SY Connects TV
is at the forefront of digital Interactive TV exploitation for government within Europe.
It provides the citizens of South Yorkshire, particularly those in greatest need, direct
access to information and interactive services related to important events in their
lives.
The citizen in e@SY Connects is always put first by its adoption of a proactive
approach to service delivery. This citizen centric thrust can only be successful by truly
understanding and responding accordingly to citizen needs and expectations, using an
interface they can trust and immediately
understand. e@SY Connects TV is a service
aimed at ALL citizens. This service
responds to the need to address the social
issue of the digital divide, where a large
proportion of the population finds it difficult
to embrace traditional computing methods.
Also it provides for citizens for whom
mobility may be a problem with access
direct from the home where a PC may not be
available to them.
e@SY Connects provides a common entry point for the citizen to access information
and services provided by South Yorkshire community service providers. e@SY
Connects TV has innovated in terms of:
1. providing a new channel of access to e-Government services;
2. delivery of unique and socially beneficial interactive citizen services
across the sub-region at lower shared costs;
3. the modules have been designed to present an easy and simple userfriendly service that interfaces to partners back office systems to allow
most of the non-computer population access to 24/7 information and
services using Digital TV.
e@SY, winner of the UK e-Government team award 2004, is a sub-regional
partnership of public service providers dedicated to innovation in public service
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provision, in terms of citizen-centric provision, working with government at all tiers,
the private sector and the voluntary sector. e@SY’s success has not only improved
social inclusion within the sub-region, but the development of a blueprint for others to
break down barriers and deliver workable joined-up e-government.
Access instructions for Digital Interactive TV (SKY, Telewest and NTL) can be
found on http://www.easyconnects.org.uk/tv/access.htm. The project website is
www.easyconnects.org.uk (or www.sycop.gov.uk).
6.
VisionAIR: Bari (Italy), Amaroussion (Greece), Bremen
(Germany) and Eindhoven (The Netherlands).
CONTACT DETAILS
Contact: Vassilis Nellas, technical coordinator of VisionAIR
Phone: : +30-210-6837640
e-Mail: : vnellas@inaccessnetworks.com
Page 64 of 64
ABSTRACT
Experimenting with the idea of municipal provision of sophisticated Internet services,
European researchers have come up with some very promising results that were
positively received by all municipalities involved in the trials. VisionAIR targeted
homes (between 30 and 40 households) in each of four cities in different areas of
Europe: Bari (in Puglia, Italy), Amaroussion (now well-known as an Olympic
location in Greece), Bremen (Northern Germany) and Eindhoven (The Netherlands).
This wide geographic spread was deliberate, and circumstances not surprisingly
varied enormously between the areas concerned. The municipalities were offered a
variety of services, some of which were standard, others optional: they included fast
Internet access (10 Mbit/s), VoIP telephony, IPTV, Video on Demand, home
automation, live municipal events, healthcare applications, online lectures, and a car
sharing application. These were supported by a triple play platform, designed and
developed by adapting open source software, mainly by the Technical University
Eindhoven (TUE) and InAccess Networks, with contributions from the project’s
technology partners. The home gateways were designed by InAccess Networks and
manufactured by ANCO, and video phones were provided by Sagem and Alcatel.
http://www.visionair.org/summary.html
7.
NettiNysse internet bus in Tampere (Finland)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: Tampere City Library
Contact: Elina Harju
Phone: +358 405908496
e-Mail: Elina.Harju@tt.tampere.fi, nettinysse@tampere.fi
Page 65 of 65
ABSTRACT
Netti-Nysse has put the Web on wheels and took it to the people. The purpose of this
mobile service is to encourage the residents of Tampere, Finland to start using the
computer and the Internet and to give them the initial guidance to be able to do that.
Basic instruction is free of charge.
The Netti-Nysse can be booked for groups of citizens, and individuals can sign up for
open tuition groups. Clubs, societies, groups of neighbours - any group of people who
wants to learn to use the computer and the Internet can book the Netti-Nysse for their
use and have it come to their own neighbourhood. One group meets four times for 2
hours at a time. First, the group gets acquainted with the mouse. When the mouse has
been tamed, it is time to start working on search engines. Free e-mail accounts are
opened for everyone and people are helped with web banking and services.
There are always two tutors to help a group of
ten. Extra attention is paid to the clear
language of guidance and to creating a relaxed
atmosphere. The Netti-Nysse is part of the
Tampere City Library and the eTampere
project (www.etampere.fi).
The birth and history of the Internet bus NettiNysse is a story of cooperation. An old city
bus was turned into an Internet bus by local
vocational schools, the City of Tampere,
private companies and the eTampere project. The idea was born in January 2000 and
the bus started operations in June 2001.
In September 2005, the old
Netti-Nysse retired and was
replaced by a brand new
Internet bus Netti-Nysse II.
The goal of the brightly
coloured,
funnily
named,
articulated bus Netti-Nysse is
to serve the people and help
them in getting started with
computers and the Internet.
People gather together in
groups of 7-10 and call to the
City Library Interner Bus.
Normally a package of
instruction including 4 sessions of 2 hours each is offered. Normally a first group
starts at 9 am and the last one is out by 8pm.
Netti-Nysse tutors, the people who help the customers, are a very important part of the
idea. There are five people working full time for the bus. With one group there are 2
tutors available. Individual support, having someone to ask, seems essential to the
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people who are entering the world of computers and Internet. Tutors are experienced
customer service professionals and adults with a good sense of humour. Clear,
understandable language and spirit of encouragement play an important role. Tutors
must be easily approachable by anyone - there is no such thing as a silly question.
To help people to master the use of the computer mouse, a “Catch the mouse” tutorial
on the Internet has been developed. The tutorial can be downloaded for free and is
available in Finnish and in Swedish. After the mouse has been “caught”, people can
start surfing on the Internet, making use of search engines, opening free e-mail
accounts and studying web-banking systems. People get excited very quickly about
what is on the Internet and they forget about the actual computer.
During the first two years, about 200 different groups have attended the basic courses.
There has been a wide range of different groups; a lot of senior people, groups of
mothers, truck drivers, home aids, young unemployed people, people with hearing
problems or Parkinson disease, immigrants, entrepreneurs, extended families and
many different associations. It is obvious that a familiar group supports the learning
experience and creates a relaxed atmosphere, and offers opportunities for social
interaction and networking.
About 65% of the course participants is over 56 years old; two thirds are women.
More than 80% of our customers indicated that they would continue to use computers
after the course, less than 20 % might use them if support and free access were
available and only about 1 % still has doubts.
The Netti-Nysse also has been present at various events and exhibitions and has also
held open house days. Through different themes and events the threshold of the
information society is lowered, bringing it closer to everyday life.
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8.
Cultural events portal – Tartu (Estonia)
CONTACT DETAILS
Name: Tartu City Government
Contact: Rait Ress
Address: Raekoja plats 12, Tartu, Estonia
Phone: +372 7361355
e-Mail: admin@kultuuriaken.tartu.ee ; rait.ress@raad.tartu.ee
ABSTRACT
“Kultuuriaken” or “cultural window” is the main cultural events & news portal in the
City of Tartu (Estonia). The main idea of the initiative is that organizers of events
have an easy instrument to provide information. All the event organizers have access
to the portal to set up information. As the portal in promoted by the city and easily
accessible trough many portal, it is crucial for event organizers to provide free of
charge correct and attractive information about the events.
A web engine arranges the events by date, type and other parameters and makes
information easy to browse by categories, dates, locations, etc.
The same information is also used in WAP portal, accessible via mobile phone.
Registered users (everybody can register as user) can subscribe to a cultural events
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newsletter and can order reminders of events by e-mail. The portal also have RSS
feature, which makes it easy for users to track changes and e informed about new
events.
http://kultuuriaken.tartu.ee/
9.
Latvia@World (Latvia)
CONTACT DATA:
Contact: Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association LIKTA
Address: Stabu 47-1, Riga, LV-1011, Latvia
Address: +371 7311821, 7314059
Fax: +371 7315567
e-mail: litta@dtmedia.lv
ABSTRACT
The Latvia@World project aims to reduce the Digital exclusion and provide the
opportunity to acquire the basic e-skills for digitally illiterate people, allowing
everyone to become a full member of the Information Society and facilitating
business development.
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To avoid the emergence of digital exclusion and to stimulate the development of the
Information Society, the Latvian Information and Communications Technology
Association (LIKTA) has initiated this project aimed at teaching basic computer and
Internet skills for people in Latvia. It is a true PPP (Public Private Partnership) project
where state and municipalities, as well as private companies and non-governmental
organisations are participating in.
The project is supported by the ESF EQUAL programme (focusing on training of
unemployed). It aims to facilitate business development by training people and
encouraging small and medium enterprises to develop their business by using ICT.
www.latvijapasaule.lv
10.
The Business Web Portal of Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine)
CONTACT
Organisation: SBEDIF Business Center, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
Address: 26 Dnistrovska St., Ivano-Frankivsk, 76000, UKRAINE
Phone: +380 (342) 552022, 552026
Fax: +380 (342) 559156
Page 70 of 70
ABSTRACT
The project demonstrates the use of web technologies by a regional network of
organizations of support to business and community development, to innovate
consulting, information and other services provided to the target groups; as well as to
upscale their own .
In the framework of the project two major ICT-based products were launched: the
Business Web Portal of Ivano-Frankivsk and the E-Learning Center, using Saitistica
platform as a corporate content and learning management system. Services and
resources of partner programs, departments and organizations (members of the
SBEDIF Regional Network) are streamlined into two major functions within the
Business Web Portal: business development and community economic development.
These resources and services serve various groups involved in business and
community development in the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast.
The use of ICTs provides better access for clients to traditional services; diversifies
the local government portfolio; and helps to integrate with the changing environment.
The project is built on a distributed model for development and use of content and
services. All resources are broken down as follows.
1) Content, which clients use independently: databases, business directories,
analytical materials, self-study educational materials, news, compilations
of information by category, mailing lists etc.
2) Interactive services which are used with the help of the SBEDIF Regional
Network staff: e-consulting, instructor led e-learning, web-based
advertising and promotion services, marketing research, Internet
conferencing environment etc.
3) An internal ¨Project Management¨ section with structured access rights to
the back-office Content Management System, which enables partners to
manage joint projects
www.business.if.ua
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11.
Networks for the exchange of experiences
A wide range of networks for the exchange of experiences and best practices has
emerged, of which we list some examples.
a) Urbac Information Society Network (www.urbac.org/isn)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Great Brittain – Manchester and Glasgow
Spain – Gijon, Aviles and Valencia
Italy – Bari
Germany – Gera
Nederlands – Den Haag
France – Tourcoing
Finland – Helsinki
Estonia – Tallinn
Poland – Gdansk and Warssaw
b) eGovernment Good Practice Framework (http://www.egov-goodpractice.org)
Collected examples of well-defined e-Government cases, supported by the
European Commission, DG Information Society and Media.
c) eTEN projects database
(http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/eten/cf/project/index.cfm)
eTEN is a European Community programme providing funds to help make eservices available throughout the European Union.
d) Innovative Actions Network for the Information Society (IANIS) (www.ianis.net)
Networking hub for inter-regional ICT projects.
e) The Prelude Challenge (http://www.prelude-portal.org/)
The PRELUDE challenge is a two-year inter-regional collaboration exercise
building on the results and experience achieved through PRELUDE. The
follow-up initiative started in January 2005 with the participation of 20
European regions, supported by 3 European networks - Elanet, eris@ and
Eurocities. The work will focus on the 7 European Clusters for Innovation that
has been launched.
f) Hanse Passage (http://www.hanse-passage.net)
The Hanse Passage Programme is a Regional Framework Operation (RFO)
implemented under the Community Initiative Programme Interreg IIIC. It has
been designed to build up a strong, multinational partnership among regional
actors from fifteen regions in four old and two new member states.
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g) ELANET (http://sed.elanet.zonanet.it/j/v/839?s=52&v=9&c=692&na=1)
The European Local Authorities' Telematic Network, ELANET, operates
under the umbrella of the CEMR and it focuses on the deployment of
Information society at regional and local level.
h) Global Cities Dialogue (http://www.globalcitiesdialogue.org/)
The Global Cities Dialogue is a worldwide network of cities, which are
interested in creating an information society free of digital divide and based on
sustainable development.
i) eFORUM (http://www.eu-forum.org/)
The e-Forum Association is dedicated to analysing the future needs of
eGovernment in Europe, and promoting excellence in defining solutions to
those needs by bringing the private and public sectors together.
j) PPP: new e-Ten funded project (http://www.eu-ppp.org/)
k) World e-government forum
(http://www.worldegovforum.com/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=8)
l) International Center of Excellence for Local eDemocracy (www.icele.org)
Relevant database of British eDemocracy activities
m) OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(http://www.oecd.org/topic/0,2686,en_2649_37441_1_1_1_1_37441,00.html)
OECD surveys about Information and Communication Technologies
n) World summit on the Information Society
(http://www.itu.int/wsis/stocktaking/scripts/search.asp?lang=en)
An inventory of activities undertaken by governments and all stakeholders in
implementing WSIS (the Geneva and Tunis summits) decisions
o) GOV2U (http://www.gov2u.com/)
The mission of the program is to assist parliaments become efficient and
transparent institutions by harnessing the tools of Information and
Communication Technologies and offering citizens and civil society the
opportunity to participate individually and collectively in the policy-input
processes of parliamentary democracy.
p) Telecities (http://www.eurocities.org/main.php)
Eurocities knowledge society forum
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q) United Nations eGovernment readiness knowledge database
http://www.unpan.org/egovkb/
Knowledge Base enables to view, sort, and print information from the UN EReadiness Data Center, or download copies of the annual (2003, 2004, 2005)
United Nations Global E-Readiness Report and Survey, the primary source of
data for the Knowledge Base.
Page 74 of 74

e-Government actions in Europe Best European e

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