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Subject: E-Government Bulletin - 15 November, 2004
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+++E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN
- ISSUE 174, 15 November 2004.
http://www.headstar.com/egb .
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NEW: E-Government Jobs: after the News.
++ISSUE 174 CONTENTS.
01: First European mobile technology portal launches
-
02: Weaknesses remain in major IT project management
- but Treasury safeguards taking effect.
03:
- community groups benefit from e-Pay project.
04: European network of excellence in funding bid
- partnership for news providers, researchers and academics.
05: Global survey -
report; 07: Welsh charter - delivery recommendations; 08: Speak easy -
e-democracy launch; 09: Address change - inclusion story correction.
Section two - Focus: Geographical information systems.
10: Speaking the common language of location: Roy Newell looks at
how digital map- and location-based systems can help organisations
such as police and fire authorities share information.
Section three - Conference report:
11: Lateral thinking on the move: French public bodies are at the
forefront of innovation in the use of mobile devices for service
payment and ticketing. Dan Jellinek reports on the state of the art.
[Contents ends].
++SPECIAL NOTICE: E-Government Bulletin November Seminar:
- Affordable Steps to Accessibility and Usability.
E-Government Bulletin's one-day seminars continue with 'Affordable
Steps to Accessibility and Usability', on 24 November at the British
Library. With the Disability Discrimination Act now in full force,
there
has never been a greater need for e-government services to be
accessible to all. This can seem tricky, but there are many simple
steps
that would greatly help.
Places cost 295 pounds plus VAT for public sector and 395 for private
sector. Additional delegates booking at the same time receive a 100
pound discount. See:
http://www.electronic-government.com/accessibility .
NOTE: Attendance at this event will earn Socitm members 3
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points. For more on this
scheme see:
http://www.socitm.gov.uk/Private/CPD+scheme.htm .
[Special Notice ends].
++SECTION ONE: NEWS.
+01: First European
The first e-government web portal in
services which use mobile technology has been launched by the City of
The Mobile City Portal (http://www.mobilecity.org) aims to be the
focus for the development of mobile applications for small and
medium-sized businesses; mobile healthcare applications; and mobile
service for citizens.
"The aims are to examine business models for mobile applications
and
to offer third-party software vendors a set of basic applications and
tools to develop their own business models," said Harald Krause of
the
development of mobile payment methods and location-based services,
he said.
The initiative is the result of a public-private partnership between
the
city of
smallest city-state, with just over half a million residents, but has
encouraged the development of a network of more than 1,000 high-
tech companies clustered around its university.
Krause said the city had set out to act as a test-bed for mobile public
services, offering itself as a proving ground for private firms with
ideas
to develop. After the ideas had been tested, it would pick the best
ones
to fund, he said.
National networks of such test-beds should be created to help countries
across
testbeds should be supported by national governments or the EU,"
he
said.
Mobile solutions are also useful for internal administrative purposes
in
public sector bodies, for example being an efficient way for staff to
access shared office calendars, he said.
+02: Weaknesses Remain in Management of Major IT Projects.
Efforts by the
http://www.ogc.gov.uk) to prevent public sector IT project failures are
starting to bear fruit, but its recommendations need to become more
ingrained in public sector organisational thinking, according to a
report
from the National Audit Office (NAO - http://www.nao.org.uk).
The report, 'Improving IT procurement', says appropriate structures
have been put in place by the OGC to minimise the risk of IT failure
and that "department and supplier behaviour is positively
changing."
However, it says the OGC and public sector departments need to
ensure that momentum is maintained for improvements in IT
procurement to be fully realised.
The NAO commends OGC measures such as the Gateway Reviews,
which have been widely adopted by departments to evaluate IT
projects at key stages of the procurement cycle, and concludes that
they "increase the likelihood of early identification of threats
to
successful delivery." However, many departments are either
entering
into the process too late, after the business case has already been
prepared, or exiting too early, before a value for money assessment has
been carried out, the report says.
Other OGC initiatives are having less impact, says the report.
Inexperienced users find it difficult to make the best use of the
Successful Delivery Toolkit, while take-up of the Successful Delivery
Skills Programme to promote better project management skills has
been low. Indeed, the report identifies the lack of project management
skills in public sector organisations as a "major risk to the
delivery of
IT-enabled projects."
However Nick Kalisperas, director of public sector at IT industry body
Intellect (http://www.intellectuk.org), told E-Government Bulletin:
"It
is not just a lack of project managers in the public sector that is a
problem; it is the lack of experienced project managers who are
capable of working with the pressures of political and media
scrutiny."
The NAO report praises the close working relationship between OGC
and Intellect for helping to build trust between suppliers and public
sector clients. However, it says that while awareness of joint codes of
practice and frameworks is good at the corporate level, these
initiatives
have yet to filter down to project teams responsible for delivering IT
programmes.
"We recognise that it is how best practice guidance is interpreted
on
the ground that really counts," said Kalisperas. "It is now
the
responsibility of industry and its counterparts in the public sector to
embed these new ways of working and to create real and lasting
cultural change."
There was now an argument for extending the OGC's enforcement
powers, Kalisperas said. "As the report notes, the OGC has no
authority to direct departments; it can only recommend best
practice,"
he says. "We would like to see a review of whether OGC guidance
should become mandatory for public bodies."
+03:
The Royal Borough of
(http://www.kingston.gov.uk) has launched a new online ticket sales
web site for local events as part of
(http://www.e-payments.org.uk).
Community groups in the borough can advertise events and sell tickets
through the web site, allowing them access to technology they would
not otherwise be able to afford. And the public can buy tickets online
from their home computers, the local Tourist Information Centre or
public internet terminals in borough libraries.
There are currently six community event promoters registered on the e-
ticketing service, four of which are theatre groups, and the council
plans to extend it to museums and libraries to help them promote their
events. It also plans to use the system for its own events, such as
firework displays.
"Local residents and visitors to our borough already go to the
Tourist
Information Centre to buy tickets for local events," says Romilly
Rogers, e-ticketing project manager at Kingston Council. "Now
staff
will be able to book tickets online for them and there are plans to
introduce self-service internet terminals. The service could be a
valuable tool for tourism in the borough."
The software was developed for
(http://www.ciber-uk.com), a systems integrator and IT services
company, and is integrated with MyKingston, the borough's existing e-
payments system.
Other solutions being supported by the e-Pay National Project include
guidance and tools to help local authorities introduce electronic
payments for council tax, rent, fines, leisure facilities and other
services. Part of
used by other councils to launch a similar system. The e-ticketing
solution and the toolkit will be marketed to other councils at a series
of
demonstration days, the first of which will be on 30 November at the
Guildhall,
Full details of the outcomes of the e-Pay National Project are due to
be
launched tomorrow.
+04: European Network of Excellence in Funding Bid.
A European network aiming to help technology companies and public
bodies exchange best practice ideas for e-government and e-democracy
is among projects vying for European Commission cash in next
month's Information Society Technologies (IST) research funding
round (http://fastlink.headstar.com/frame6).
Plans for the European Network of Excellence in Political
Technologies will be unveiled at IST2004
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/ist1), an event organised by the Dutch EU
presidency this week.
Partners include the Forum for European e-Public Service
(http://www.eu-forum.org), which analyses European e-government
needs; the Worldwide Forum on e-Democracy, based in
(http://www.issy.com/statiques/e-democratie/); and Global Cities
Dialogue (http://www.globalcitiesdialogue.org). Among the
technology partners are France Telecom; SUN Microsystems and IBM.
The network is comprised of clusters focusing on e-government news
providers, researchers and academics. Among its planned activities
will be the publication of a regular online review of political
technologies, containing academic papers, case studies and news,
which will be free to members. The first of these is to be published at
the end of the month.
Network founder Daniel van Lerberghe, executive director of the
Belgium-based POLITECH Institute (http://www.politech-
institute.org), is currently talking with
and Sheffield city council in the
Network members will pay differing subscription fees according to the
nature of their involvement.
NEWS IN BRIEF:
+05: GLOBAL SURVEY: The German government has come first in a
global survey of public service web sites conducted by the University
of Applied Sciences in
eighteenth place with the
government web sites from 180 countries. For a German language
media report see:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/move1 .
+06: REAL MCCOY: Some UK authorities have been reluctant to
engage with the issue of authentication - the verification of the
identity
of users of government IT systems - according to a report published
last week by the Society of IT Management. 'Knock, Knock: who's
there?' also offers a review of authentication methods. It costs 125
pounds for non-members:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/socitm6 .
+07: WELSH CHARTER: Meanwhile a separate Socitm report sets
out an eight-statement charter to help Welsh councils overcome
challenges to e-government delivery. 'An e-charter for the people of
http://fastlink.headstar.com/socitm5 .
+08: SPEAK EASY: Local authorities are being invited to express
interest in joining a pilot scheme allowing users to take part in
online
political debate by E-Democracy.Org, a US-based non-profit
organisation. The 'UK Local Issues Forum Pilots' is due to complete a
first phase of work in March 2005 and is funded by the UK Local E-
democracy National Project:
http://e-democracy.org/uk .
+09: ADDRESS CHANGE: In the 18 October issue of E-Government
Bulletin, we published an incorrect web address for the
Digital Inclusion. We would like to apologise for this error. The link
should have read:
http://www.alliancefordigitalinclusion.org.uk .
[Section One ends]
++SPECIAL NOTICE: E-GOVERNMENT JOBS
- New Section: Full Job Details on the Web
http://fastlink.headstar.com/egovjobs .
- All Public and Private Sector E-Government Jobs Welcome
- To advertise please email [log in to unmask] .
Hertsmere Borough Council (closing date 16 November)
- E-Government Project Manager: c.36k-40k, 18-month fixed term
contract.
- Web Services Manager: c40k, Initial 1-year secondment of fixed
contract
Manchester City Council (closing 22 November)
- Head of Strategic Information & Technology: 75k
- Customer Relationship Manager, Corporate Technology: c.38k-41k
For details of all positions see:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/egovjobs .
[Special Notice ends].
++SECTION TWO: FOCUS
- GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS.
+10: Speaking the Common Language of Location
by Roy Newell.
Geography is a common language: almost all data and information is
linked to a location.
It follows that geographical information systems - digital systems
based on maps and other location data - are a natural mechanism
whereby different organisations can share data for partnership
projects.
Policing is one area where GIS is already indispensable in the public
sector. "A central tenet of the
to promote community cohesion," Spencer Chainey of the Jill Dando
month's Association for Geographic Information (AGI) annual
conference in
A rise in incidents of community tension "has led the police to
re-
assess their responses to criminal activity, particularly in terms of
how
their role can better prevent crime and pre-empt community
problems,"
Chainey said. This work is greatly assisted by geographical datasets
being readily accessible.
Government reviews of effective community policing were carried out
following riots in Bradford, Burnley, Wrexham and
summer of 2001. The National Centre for Policing Excellence (NCPE)
defined the police role in community cohesion as being "to identify
and address issues of disproportionate criminality, victimisation and
tension". The factors contributing to community breakdown are well
understood, Chainey said, but the NCPE found that what was needed
was an effective system of collecting and analysing the "tension
indicators". Too often the methods currently used produce long
lists of
unconnected data leading to wasteful 'data fishing trips', he said.
Eight pilot projects are now underway in
practice in selecting and using geographic information to ease
community tensions.
The projects aim to achieve consistency, local accuracy, easy access,
practicality and ease of use without the need for extensive officer
training. By mapping a standard police 'Basic Command Unit' area
and applying measures of community problems, information on the
most vulnerable communities can be combined with information on the
resources available locally. Appropriate police or multi-agency
responses can then be planned and implemented and the outcomes
monitored to gain experience and make improvements.
The systems combine key statistics of deprivation and burglaries based
on the Home Office guidance with local authority deprivation statistics
and Home Office crime statistics and education and demographic
statistics from the 2001 Census (see
http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk). The resulting data are
normalised, summed and averaged and can then be charted and
mapped for the locality. This, combined with local intelligence,
enables more targeted and effective police response. If the pilots are
successful, a national rollout is planned for next year.
Approaches like this will become more common with the emergence of
'Maps on Tap' (http://www.iggi.gov.uk/resources/#mot), a central and
local government partnership project led by the Office of the Deputy
Prime Minister (ODPM) with the Intra-governmental Group on
Geographic Information (IGGI - http://www.iggi.gov.uk). The project
is also linked to the Pan Government Agreement for the supply of
Ordnance Survey (OS) digitised map reference information.
Maps on Tap will provide public officials users and the general public
with access to high quality information about places drawn together
from a wide range of interactive, web-based information sources. Users
will be able to browse, view, analyse and download a range of
geographic data in multimedia formats, overlaid on up-to-date map
data or usable in a variety of other formats.
Jonathan Rhind, senior GIS official at the ODPM, told AGI delegates
that the project's remit includes tackling local concerns about social
exclusion and neighbourhood regeneration.
From a simple web browser application for OS and ODPM data, the
Maps on Tap concept has moved on to the development of "a fully
managed open environment for hosting spatially-referenced
knowledge". The plan is for online publishing and sharing of
geographic information within a technically and commercially open
framework, reflecting international standards developed by the
based Open GIS Consortium (http://www.opengeospatial.org).
The intention is to have large numbers of users from local government
and the public sector within a year, creating a national geographic
information infrastructure. Interoperability may prove a stumbling
block, because cheaper, proprietary solutions may be more attractive to
cash-strapped public bodies in the short term. However, a review of the
benefits of an interoperable approach is currently underway. Watch
this space!
[Section Two 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
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. In partnership with specialist consultancy
Bunbury IS, 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:
[Special notice ends].
SECTION THREE: CONFERENCE REPORT
- MOBILE COMPUTING.
+11: Lateral Thinking on the Move
by Dan Jellinek.
Have you ever been in a meeting in a building a long way from your
car, on the 10th floor of an office block perhaps, and realised that
your
parking meter was about to run out and there was nothing you could do
about it? In one
simply send a text message to the parking people and everything is
sorted out.
The future of public services over a mobile phone was discussed at the
fifth world e-democracy forum in
(http://www.issy.com/statiques/e-democratie/).
The
been offering mobile payment for car parking since May 2004.
Under the system, a car driver simply texts details of where she is and
is sent back the cost of parking there: payment can then be confirmed
over the phone, and money debited immediately from a special bank
account which has already been set up. There are user profiles, and
Issy residents and businesses receive preferential parking rates.
Finally,
a text message is sent out which acts as the driver's authorisation to
park.
What is really innovative about the system is that drivers can increase
the parking time at any point, for example if a meeting over-runs. Or
if
they pay for too much time and return early, they can obtain an instant
refund for the remaining time. And 10 minutes before the parking time
is up, drivers receive a warning message by text.
Cars using the system display a blue 'Issy mobile' sticker on their
windscreen, and parking control wardens use handheld computers to
check if parking has been authorised in each case.
The system can also give the council live information about the
number of cars parked across the area or by zone, and real-time
financial statistics.
Rafik Hanibeche, president and co-founder of Movilor
(http://www.movilor.net), the company behind the mobile parking
system, says the transformation of parking payment from queueing up
for meters and machines to a completely mobile service was as
revolutionary as the shift between the telephone box and the mobile
phone was for telecommunications.
He says the system is the first of its kind in
after its introduction it was taking 1 per cent of parking payments.
The
target now is to achieve 10 per cent of payments in the first year.
In a question and answer session, one conference delegate complained
that the use of mobile technology to help drivers park their private
cars
was simply encouraging transport patterns that damaged the
environment, and creating an 'e-aristocracy'.
In response, Hanibeche said that councils could use the SMS system to
suggest that people used public transport on days where heavy
congestion was detected.
Other experiments with mobile phone ticketing are being conducted in
Vincent Boutroux, an engineer with France Telecom's research and
development department, illustrated his talk by pulling a handful of
paper tickets and receipts out of his pocket and throwing them onto the
floor, before holding up his mobile phone: in future, he said, this is
all
he would need.
Boutroux has been working on a project which takes a lateral approach
to mobile payment, which he termed 'm-ticketing' or 'm-couponing'.
In any situation where you might purchase a ticket for something, like
a bus ride or a sporting event, the user can go onto the web or use a
cell-phone to buy a ticket, which is then sent out as a bar-code to the
mobile phone, to be displayed on the phone screen and presented for
scanning.
The advantage of this approach is that all mobile users could
potentially use the system, as it would be independent of technology
type or service provider. Possible uses might include buying tickets
for
a ski-bus when you were out on a mountain, where seats were limited;
or for supermarket discount coupons. France Telecom has already
conducted a successful trial sending out tickets for
internationals to selected employees, which appeared as bar-codes
which encoded the recipient's name.
Jacques-Francois Marchandise, development director of
Generation Internet Foundation (http://www.fing.org/english.html),
summed up the potential of such systems for public services. For the
citizen, there is added convenience: they don't need to be at home,
connected to the internet with a PC, to access e-government services,
he said. And for the service provider, it is often more efficient to
provide the service when both the recipient and the public service
official are in the right place at the right time. "It gives you
flexibility."
[Section Three ends].
++SPECIAL NOTICE: Clarke Mulder Purdie
- Helping Drive E-government Uptake.
Most central and local government bodies now offer services online,
but take-up of these services and levels of awareness among citizens
remain low.
Clarke Mulder Purdie is a public relations company which specialises
in communicating the benefits of technology to the mass consumer
market. Our extensive experience includes raising national awareness
of broadband technology for BT, and of new mobile services for
range of issues.
If you want to raise awareness of your investment in e-government
services and increase take-up of initiatives which are transforming
government's relationship with citizens, contact Amanda Purdie on
020 7627 8132 or email [log in to unmask] .
[Special Notice ends].
++SPONSORED NOTICE: New Specialist
Media Monitoring and Press Cutting Service.
Special Cuts provides media monitoring for the academic, government,
library and e-learning sectors, a first in the press cuttings market.
Over 75 per cent of councillors and senior officers view
communications as a major strategic factor in building a successful
local authority, according to a Mori report for the Local Government
Association. But monitoring and evaluation is often skated over in
marketing programmes, or missed out altogether. Public and private
sector organisations can use coverage tracking to demonstrate
effectiveness and cost efficiency of their communications programme,
or to identify competitor activity.
For more information, visit:
http://www.specialcuts.co.uk
or email [log in to unmask] .
Quote 'e-government bulletin' for a 10 per cent discount.
[Sponsored notice ends].
++END NOTES.
+HOW TO RECEIVE E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN.
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+TEN STANDARD: This newsletter conforms to the accessible Text
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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
forbidden. Properly accredited articles (always including source
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ISSN 1476-6310
+PERSONNEL
- EDITORIAL.
Editor - Dan Jellinek [log in to unmask]
Deputy editor - Derek Parkinson [log in to unmask]
Senior Reporter - Mel Poluck [log in to unmask]
News Reporter - Julie Hill [log in to unmask]
Technician - Nick Apostolidis [log in to unmask]
Correspondent - Phil Cain [log in to unmask] .
- ADVERTISING.
A searchable archive of our back-issues can be found on our web site:
http://www.headstar.com/egb .
[Issue ends].