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+++E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN
- ISSUE 155, 20 FEBRUARY 2004.
http://www.headstar.com/egb .
Please forward this free service to colleagues
so they can subscribe - full details at the end.
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++SPECIAL NOTICE: UK-NEW ZEALAND VIDEOSEMINAR
- E-GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITY REGENERATION.
On 3 March E-Government Bulletin, in association with Solace, IDeA,
Tandberg and public sector associations in New Zealand, is hosting an
international event at the Tandberg videoconferencing suite at Staines,
near West London to help councils share e-government best practice
using live videoconferencing.
There are places for up to 30 civil servants, council officers and
members to join a live two-hour discussion with their counterparts in
New Zealand on the use of e-government to regenerate communities,
followed by a morning seminar programme. Attendance costs #195.
For more details and to register for this unique event see:
http://www.electronic-government.com/uk-nz.htm .
[Special notice ends].
++ISSUE 155 CONTENTS.
01: Commission consults on 'e-government academy'
- independent body mooted to extend work of national projects.
+02: UN to support global e-democracy
- web portal to assist national parliaments.
+03: France unveils ambitious action plan
- government aims to save 5 billion euros a year by 2007.
+04: Renewed controversy over local priorities
- 220 million fund for councils comes with strings attached.
News in Brief: 05: Mobile memos - Irish councils use text; 06:
Spending rise - authorities raise estimates; 07: Smart licence - driver
consultation; 08: Unhappy returns -
Section Two: Conference report - e-democracy in Europe.
09: Filling a democratic vacuum: delegates at a landmark European
Commission conference on e-democracy heard that technology can
change the landscape of power, but fast action is needed to ensure
these changes turn out to be in the public interest. Derek Parkinson
reports from Brussels.
Section Three: Consultation - e-government academy.
10: Back to school? Nigel de Noronha of the Audit Commission
outlines a plan to create an independent 'academy' to help carry out e-
government research and disseminate best practice in the UK.
Section Four: Focus - service take-up.
11: Information in the public interest: is technology designed for its
users - or its designers? Kevin Carey advances an innovative idea for
making online information accessible to all.
[Contents ends].
++SPONSORED NOTICE: INDEPENDENT ADVICE ON
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[Sponsored notice ends].
++SECTION ONE: NEWS.
+01: COMMISSION CONSULTS ON 'E-GOVERNMENT
ACADEMY'.
An independent 'e-government academy' could be set up next year to
continue large parts of the work of the current UK national projects for
local e-government, E-Government Bulletin has learned.
The 23 national projects (http://fastlink.headstar.com/egov2), funded
by the government to develop tools and advice for councils on topics
from web services to e-democracy, are due to draw to a close this year.
One of the projects - the customer relationship management (CRM)
national programme (http://www.crmnp.org) - always intended to
establish a centre of excellence known as the CRM Academy to act as
a knowledge repository and provide impartial advice and training to
public sector bodies wishing to exploit CRM.
This work is now going ahead, facilitated by the Audit Commission
and building on a partnership struck between Salford Council, one of
the CRM project partners, and Manchester Business School.
However Audit Commission performance specialist Nigel de Noronha,
writing exclusively in this week's E-Government Bulletin, says the
commission has broadened the scope of its review after talks with local
government associations and other stakeholders.
The proposal could eventually extend beyond CRM to play a best
practice exchange and dissemination role across the whole e-
government agenda. The academy's services could include training and
capacity-building events, and published materials such as toolkits and
case studies.
The Audit Commission is partnering with E-Government Bulletin to
consult with potential users of the academy on options for the way
forward, and possible funding mechanisms for the academy, including
part-funding through subscription charges. For more information see
section three, this issue and to take part in the consultation visit:
http://www2.salford.gov.uk/audit2004 .
+02: UN TO SUPPORT GLOBAL E-DEMOCRACY.
A project to promote e-democracy across the world is to be launched
by the United Nations this summer, beginning with a web portal aimed
at strengthening IT practice in national parliaments of the developing
world. The portal will launch with best practice guidelines supplied by
Angola, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania,
and Uganda.
Without greater international collaboration on new technologies, the
global influence of democracy could be seriously weakened, a UN
representative told an international conference hosted by the European
Commission last week in Brussels
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/edem3). "In some underdeveloped
countries there is an imbalance of power between government and
parliament," said Gherardo Casini, of the UN department of economic
and social affairs. "If parliaments are to retain their role, they must use
new technologies."
Casini identified poor information storage and retrieval, lack of
connectivity, and inadequate training as key barriers to be overcome if
e-democracy is to keep pace with e-government. Although the portal
will launch with case studies from countries of the newly formed Pan
African Parliament (http://fastlink.headstar.com/africa1), a body of the
African Union (http://www.africa-union.org), the service hopes to
address the needs of all nations. Talking afterwards to E-Government
Bulletin, he said: "This is just the start. Parliaments have not always
been very good at sharing knowledge with each other, and that is true
of the developed world too."
The project follows a UN resolution, adopted in October 2003, which
called on parliaments worldwide to use IT for greater public
transparency and accountability, and to build closer links between
nations (http://www.ipu.org/conf-e/109-3.htm).
NOTE: For full reporting on the Brussels conference, see section two,
this issue.
+03: FRANCE UNVEILS AMBITIOUS ACTION PLAN.
The French government has unveiled ambitious plans to enable the
public to conduct all its business with government over the phone or
online by 2006. The e-government strategy, known as "ADELE" or
"Administration ELEctronique", was announced by French prime
minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin (http://www.premier-ministre.gouv.fr),
on 9 February.
Announcing the programme at a family benefits office in Lyon,
Raffarin said that e-government was a "major tool for state reform"
and set an ambitious target of 5 billion euros of annual savings for the
French government by 2007. "Complex bureaucracy distances citizens
from their government, creating an impenetrable wall between them,"
he said. "We want to use e-government to bridge that divide."
The 1.8 billion euro ADELE programme has three strategic objectives:
to simplify administrative procedures for French citizens, businesses
and local authorities; to guarantee data security and confidentiality
through the use of secure user identification systems; and to modernise
public services.
The 50-page action plan outlines some 140 initiatives. These include
the national roll-out throughout 2004 of a single telephone number (39
39) through which citizens can access information on public services
and administrative procedures; the launch of a one-stop web site to
notify public bodies of change of address by the end of 2004; and an
electronic ID card for launch in 2006.
French people will also be offered financial incentives to conduct their
business with government online. For example, next year they will be
offered a credit of 10 euros if they complete their 2004 income tax
return online.
This latest announcement is France's most concrete statement on e-
government to date. In November 2002, it outlined its broad strategic
direction in the RESO 2007 Action Plan for the Information Society,
and in February 2003, it created the Agency for the Development of
Electronic Administration (http://www.adae.gouv.fr). In a recent study
by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (http://www.cgey.com) for the
European Commission, France was ranked number eight out of 18
European countries for fully transactional e-government services.
+04: RENEWED CONTROVERSY OVER LOCAL PRIORITIES.
Local councils in England are set to receive a final injection of funding
worth 220 million pounds to help them meet 2005 e-government
targets, but only if they show progress towards so-called "priority
services," the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM -
http://www.odpm.gov.uk) announced last week.
The latest tranche of funding will see councils receive 500,000 pounds
over the next two years - 350,000 pounds in 2004-05 and 150,000
pounds in 2005-06 - subject to a 'priority service' assessment of the
latest annual round of council 'implementing electronic government'
(IEG) statements.
The funding announcement comes at a time when the ODPM and the
Society of IT Management (Socitm - http://www.socitm.gov.uk) are at
loggerheads over the definition of priority services. Last month, Socitm
criticised an ODPM consultation paper on priorities for local e-
government for being too prescriptive and ignoring local needs (see E-
Government Bulletin, issue 153, 26 January 2004). After a period of
consultation which ended on 27 January, the definition of priority
outcomes remains uncertain, although the ODPM is expected to make
a further announcement shortly.
"It is unhelpful that the ODPM has chosen to make a statement on
funding linked to priority services before it has reached a decision on
what those priorities should be," said Glyn Evans, chair of the Socitm
Information Age Government group. "It would have been less
confusing had they put out the two statements at the same time."
Socitm remains firm in its view that local e-government outcomes
should be determined by local needs, rather than central government
direction. "Take a local authority that serves large ethnic minority
populations," said Evans. "It will place emphasis on providing
multilingual support on its web site. But how can it cater for this need
when it is being told by central government where it should allocate its
funds?"
In addition to the 220 million pounds announced for local e-
government, 28 million will be allocated to support the roll-out of
National Projects; new regional e-government partnerships will receive
4 million; those classed as "e-innovators" will receive part of a 20
million allocation; and e-voting pilots will get 13 million.
++NEWS IN BRIEF:
+05: MOBILE MEMOS: Local authorities in Ireland will use SMS text
messages sent from their computers to citizens' mobile phones to send
updates on the processing of planning applications and driving licence
renewals. The service has been designed for the Local Government
Computer Services Board (LGCSB), by software firm Saadian
Technologies and mobile network provider Vodafone Ireland. LGCSB
will also use the application to inform politicians of meetings and
events:
http://www.saadian.com/news/news_lgcsb.htm .
+06: SPENDING RISE: Councils in England are set to spend 66 per
cent more on e-government projects than they had previously
predicted. Research by analysts Kable into spending levels predicted in
the 2002 round of official council 'implementing e-government' (IEG)
statements found spending estimated at 3.5 billion pounds, compared
with the 2.1 billion pound spend predicted in 2001:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/kable3 .
+07: SMART LICENCE: A driving licence containing a 'smart chip'
is one possible alternative licence format offered for consultation by
the Driver and Vehicle Licence Agency. Views must be submitted by
31 May:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/dvla1 .
+08: UNHAPPY RETURNS: E-government is an important area for
savings in future, but it has not delivered significant returns on the
eight billion pounds so far invested in it, according to a government
efficiency review leaked to the Financial Times (FT) on 16 February.
The report, by Office of Government Commerce head Peter Gershon,
also recommended making some e-government services compulsory.
FT stories are available to subscribers on its web site:
http://www.ft.com .
[Section one ends]
++SPECIAL NOTICE: EGB SEMINAR
- FoI COMPLIANCE - THE KEY TO E-GOVERNMENT?
- 25 FEB, GLOBE THEATRE, LONDON.
In February, E-Government Bulletin presents a one-day seminar on
one of the hottest issues of the moment: Freedom of Information (FoI).
With the law on information disclosure due to come into full force in
2005, time is running out to organise information systems for
compliance.
'FoI compliance - the key to e-government?' takes place on 25
February at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, central London. Speakers
include advisers from the Office of the Information Commissioner; the
Public Records Office and the Department of Constitutional Affairs, as
well as public sector agencies in the front-line.
Places cost 295 pounds plus VAT for public sector and 395 for private
sector delegates. Additional delegates booking at the same time receive
a 100 pound discount. For more information and to register see:
http://www.electronic-government.com/foi.htm or email Mel Poluck
on [log in to unmask] .
[Special notice ends].
++SECTION TWO: CONFERENCE REPORT
- E-DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE.
+09: FILLING A DEMOCRATIC VACUUM.
by Derek Parkinson reporting from Brussels [log in to unmask] .
The venue for a landmark European Commission two-day seminar on
e-democracy last week (http://fastlink.headstar.com/edem3) gave few
reasons to be hopeful about their outcome. In trying to find some lunch
on the first day, a few delegates lost in twisting corridors, and
eventually guided by uniformed guards to long queues for awful food,
began to talk about the Terry Gilliam film 'Brazil'. It all brought to
mind a world where simple human needs get lost in a vast bureaucracy.
Luckily, inside the main conference room there was renewed hope for
a better world. Erkki Liikanen, the much-admired European
commissioner with responsibility for the information society, launched
the event by looking forward to a more open, equitable relationship
between governments and citizens. "The Internet can be used by
citizens to watch their governments, rather than by governments to
watch their citizens," he said.
As well as giving the public sharper eyes, technology also offers a new
voice, he said. "E-government can make governments more relevant to
citizens by increasing participation and involvement in decision-
making. It can help restore ownership - the government is of the
people."
On the other hand, there can be dangers of increased interaction
between citizens and politicians, and Liikanen also offered a glimpse
of how more contact with the people has affected him personally - and
not always positively. "The internet is a great tool for mobilisation.
After a campaign by Greenpeace about chemicals in the environment, I
received around 70,000 emails in my inbox in a few days. This can
destroy dialogue, it is spam, and we don't like spam," he said.
Over the two days, delegates heard the results of a range of e-
democracy experiments across Europe. With many of the e-voting
discussions dwelling on familiar themes such as security of the
technology and integrity of the votes cast, the e-participation stream
provided a wider range of newer issues more interesting to the
seasoned e-democracy observer.
In Finland, online consultations have become a mainstream
government service. Beginning as a trial service in 2000, the
Otakantaa.fi (http://otakantaa.fi) web forum regularly attracted large
public responses. In 2003, the site was launched as a formal official
service, and has become a useful way of dealing with a range of
problems. "Because we allow anonymous participation, we can address
sensitive issues like personal debt," said Marko Latvanen of the
ministry of finance. "We launched an online discussion in January
2004 and received around 1,000 comments in 21 days," he said.
However, the service, which launched in Finnish only, caused
controversy following complaints from the country's minority
population of Swedish speakers. "Now we have what you might call a
language war between Finnish and Swedish speakers. This is quite
unexpected, it hasn't happened for about 150 years," said Latvanen.
The two days saw plenty of free-flowing discussion both inside and
outside the halls. Some questioned whether we have correctly
identified the problems with democracy which e-democracy is
supposed to be trying to solve. "Perhaps we're dealing with the
symptoms rather than the causes when we talk about voter turnout and
political engagement," Colm Butler of the Irish Prime Minister's office
told E-Government Bulletin. "There might be nothing very wrong with
democracy. Perhaps we should be emphasising the responsibilities of
citizens as well as their rights."
According to Stephen Coleman, professor of e-democracy at the
Oxford Internet Institute (http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk), a key issue for the
improvement of modern democracy is to improve the operation of
political parties, parliaments, the media and communities. "Atomised
visions of public participation could be a distraction from sorting out
the health of these mediating bodies. They are essential to democracy
on a large scale," he said.
In the closing plenary, a disagreement arose about the link between
new technologies and the role of government. In Coleman's view,
governments have been slow to accept that e-democracy will
fundamentally change the relationship between themselves and the
public. "This is a confusion between role and tools, and confusion is
not helpful," said Jean-Marie Cadiou, a commission security expert.
"Technology always changes institutions. If you don't want to change
the role, don't use the tools," replied Coleman.
There is some urgency about grasping the opportunities, Coleman said.
"The internet could enable the public to be represented in a more
dialogical, respectful way. Vacuums don't exist in democracies, they
get filled," he said. "Individuals like Rupert Murdoch [the media
magnate] gain great personal power by claiming to speak for the
people."
Looking ahead, he said that individual states are unlikely to be the
most powerful drivers of e-democracy. "The UN and the EU are
potentially the most forward-looking institutions. They have sufficient
power and the position to have an impact on democracy that is beyond
national governments."
[Section two ends].
++SPONSORED NOTICE: FoI ACT WEBLOG.
The Freedom of Information Act weblog is your vital source of
freedom of information (FoI) resources in the run up to 2005.
Maintained by Steve Wood, lecturer in information management at
Liverpool John Moores University, the weblog contains news, views,
research and discussion on FoI law in the UK.
The service features links to information gathered from a wide range of
sources: official, news, academic and commercial. The perspective is
UK-based with overseas examples used where relevant. To visit see:
http://foia.blogspot.com .
A monthly newsletter is also available: email
[log in to unmask] to subscribe.
[Sponsored notice ends].
++SECTION THREE: CONSULTATION
- E-GOVERNMENT ACADEMY.
+10: BACK TO SCHOOL?
by Nigel de Noronha
As the 23 UK national projects for local e-government
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/egov2) draw to a close this year and begin
to deliver their promised products and services, questions are raised
about how this investment in the dissemination of best practice will be
sustained.
Ongoing support will be particularly crucial to help sustain the
knowledge-based components of projects such as tools to help councils
with change management.
One of the key products of the national customer relationship
management (CRM) programme (http://www.crmnp.org) was always
intended to be the establishment of a centre of excellence - the CRM
Academy - that will act as a repository for the retention of knowledge
emanating from the programme; facilitate the dissemination of
information; and provide impartial advice, support and training to local
authorities and public sector bodies wishing to exploit CRM.
This work is now going ahead, building on a partnership struck
between Salford Council, one of the national project partners, and
Manchester Business School to develop change management tools and
a CRM 'maturity model' for ongoing assessment and continuous
improvement.
The benefits of this partnership between local government practitioners
and academic research are strongly appreciated by those councils
involved in the work. The key benefits received have been based on
providing appropriate tools and support for the change process at both
strategic and operational levels. The delivery of this support has
enabled councils to develop their own capacity to manage future
change programmes.
The development of links with other universities is now being
explored, and is likely to be a part of the rationale for the new
academy.
But the significance of this project could eventually extend well
beyond CRM and that particular national project. The Audit
Commission (http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk) is working with
the programme board to help define the scope, objectives and
governance arrangements for the academy, and it has been recognised
already that the body could actually play a best practice exchange and
dissemination role across the whole e-government agenda.
As part of this review, the Audit Commission is consulting with
potential users of the academy on what they would expect to see and
the level of support they would be prepared to offer. In an earlier phase
of this work, the commission canvassed the views of the programme
board and external stakeholders from the Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister (ODPM - http://www.odpm.gov.uk), Improvement and
Development Agency (IDeA - http://www.idea.gov.uk) and the Office
of the e-Envoy (http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk).
Initial findings were that grant funding may be needed for an initial
period of the academy's life. This will support a subset of the products
of the CRM national project and possibly other relevant or even all
national projects. Research funding will be sought to support related
activity consistent with the remit of the academy.
Subsequent viability will depend on support through a combination of
subscription, activity charging and research funding, and initial
charging mechanisms will be introduced in the second year of
operation.
The broad themes which will be encompassed within the academy are
transformational change; customer contact and relationship
management; and e-related research and practice. Its services will
include training and capacity-building events, and published materials
such as toolkits and case studies.
The academy will need to be respected by local government, not seen
as parochial or linked to commercial interests, and be seen to actively
help to deliver improved public services through e-government
programmes. It will be vital too to ensure that the academy does not
become a consultancy service but rather maintains its independent,
research-based ethos.
Finally, the academy will require an overall governance framework
which is representative of local government in England, including
geographical and authority type. Within this framework it will need to
establish appropriate structures to manage a research programme and
to ensure the quality of academy products.
Readers of E-Government Bulletin are invited to take part in the next
phase of the Audit Commission's review of plans for developing an e-
government academy by completing a short survey at:
http://www2.salford.gov.uk/audit2004 .
Please visit the site and help shape the support available to local e-
government in the future.
NOTE: Nigel de Noronha is Performance Specialist at the Audit
Commission.
[Section three ends].
++SPONSORED NOTICE: SPIN CONFERENCE EPI2004.
The 16th annual conference and exhibition of SPIN, the Society of
Public Information Networks, is due to take place on Friday 21 May
2004 at the NEC Birmingham.
With the 2005 e-Government deadline fast approaching, there has
never been a more important time to attend Britain's premier event for
electronic public information professionals.
Whether you're working at a strategy, policy or implementation level,
you will find something to interest you at epi2004. For more
information email: [log in to unmask] or telephone 020 8552
9600 or see:
http://www.promarta.co.uk/epi2004 .
[Sponsored notice ends].
SECTION FOUR: FOCUS
- SERVICE TAKE-UP
+11: INFORMATION IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST
by Kevin Carey [log in to unmask] .
I used to think that the failure of the technology and communications
sector to design goods that almost everybody can use without going on
a training course was simply a market failure. I thought that the
engineers were still in control of products rather than marketing
departments; and that everybody was frightened to admit to their own
technological ignorance.
But recently I have changed my mind. I have come to the conclusion
that the technology industry resembles the fashion industry; that its
designers are less interested in making money than they are in artistic
and technical self-fulfilment. There is, after all much more money to be
made out of selling suits to people like me than there is selling torn
jeans to teenagers; but no fashion designer seeking street-cred is going
to think about me.
I don't think any of us were very surprised when Microsoft announced
last November that research carried out for it by Forrester found that
60 per cent of computer users said that they could not use Microsoft
products adequately. I suggest that the 40 per cent who thought they
could use the products adequately actually meant that they could use
those functions they had learned about or accidentally picked up;
perhaps 20 per cent would be a realistic figure for people who could
actually use all functions adequately. So in thinking about service take-
up there are two large general factors which we have to bear in mind:
first, products are not designed for people but for producers; and
second, that this results in widespread social exclusion.
Now let us look at the special case of government. Here, systems are
also designed around the structure of departmental silos. Still more
telling is the fact that government, like big business, perceives the
internet as a top-down, one-way tool for getting its message across. It
is emphatically not a tool for hearing what citizens have got to say.
Another problem with government is that its systems are designed for
people who least need them. To illustrate this with a story: not long
ago a Financial Times journalist complained to a senior Treasury
official that he could not understand a clause in the Finance Bill well
enough to interpret it for readers. The reply he received was that the
Finance Bill was not written for citizens but for lawyers. The lesson
here is that putting legal texts onto the internet may make them
available but it will not make them accessible.
The ability to customise data output lies at the core of what most
people call accessibility, which they generally relate to some kind of
disability. This is helpful to a degree because it allows us to measure
the functional gap between a system's supposed potential and what
human beings can get out of it.
The term "functional gap" is used deliberately because one should not
assume, as many public sector officials do, that the failure of
technology uptake is solely a human failure - if only the public would
nail themselves to chairs and learn some word processing, all would be
well. Much of the failure is in design and the core of that failure is a
lack of granularity in data creation which allows for unlimited
customisation.
This does not simply mean making the print larger or smaller, it also
means running voice output simultaneous with print. The simple rule
is: multimedia must be multimodal.
The other aspect of this topic of customisation is the ability to move
from configuration where a new user specified certain requirements, to
systems which adjust to the behaviour of users. This can be simple, as
in the case when a transport timetable presents data on the basis of the
user's post code, or more complex where the system develops general
rules based on user preference. This latter kind of system is becoming
ever more sophisticated as the semantic web develops and it is vital for
reluctant internet users.
Now to return to the story of the Treasury official and the FT
journalist. Granted, legislation needs to be drafted for lawyers but I
believe it is time for us to create what I term 'public domain
documents', capable of unambiguous simplification to any required
level. A person reading such a document would be able to ask for a
certain percentage length of the total text and choose the lexicographic
range, from fully professional through specialist interest to interested
lay reader; below this there would be layers of reader age analysis.
Citizens pay for all this government information: they should have
access to it.
NOTE: This feature is adapted from a paper delivered at the recent E-
Government Bulletin seminar 'Practical ways to boost take-up of e-
government services, sponsored by BEA (http://www.electronic-
government.com/takeup.htm).
[Section four ends].
++SPECIAL NOTICE: TEST YOUR SITE'S ACCESSIBILITY.
The accessibility of public sector web sites - ensuring all can access e-
government services as far as is reasonably possible - is a moral and
legal imperative for UK public bodies. But the area can seem complex
and technical.
Now Headstar, the publishers of E-Government Bulletin and its sister
publication E-Access Bulletin, is offering a range of independent,
expert assessment packages to ensure your web services comply with
best practice and the law. We can provide you with a clear, detailed
report on the current access status of your site, and a list of tasks you
will need to carry out to ensure compliance with government
requirements.
Reports also include results from general quality assurance tests such
as link-checking. Taking accessibility action benefits all users, will
make your site easier to maintain, and can improve your search-engine
rating!
For more information please email:
[log in to unmask] .
[Special notice ends].
++END NOTES.
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+TEN STANDARD: This newsletter conforms to the accessible Text
Email Newsletter (TEN) Standard, developed by our sister newsletter
E-Access Bulletin. For details see:
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+COPYRIGHT NOTICE.
- Copyright 2004 Headstar Ltd.
Regular circulation or reproduction of the bulletin by third parties is
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ISSN 1476-6310
+PERSONNEL
- EDITORIAL.
Editor - Dan Jellinek [log in to unmask]
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[Issue ends].
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