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+++E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN
- ISSUE 203, 23 January 2006.

IN THIS ISSUE - E-government in China and Estonia; Audio webcasting; School management systems.

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++Special Notice: GIS In the Public Sector
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[Special Notice ends].

++Contents - E-Government Bulletin Issue 203.

Section One: News.

01: China Receives EU Support for E-Government Trials
- Best European practice translated to five Asian pilots.

02: Joint Electronic Procurement System Launches in Yorkshire
- Some 22 councils could sign up by end of year.

03: First Phase of Non-Emergency Number to Go Live
- Five regions to test '101' hotline for local problems.

04: Testbeds Sought for Affordable Audio Webcasting
- Low-cost sound broadcasts receive government subsidy.

News in Brief: 05: Becta Chair - Andrew Pinder appointed; 06:
Familiar Faces - Police trials; 07: Community Hit - Essex web software; 08: Top Priority - Austrian Presidency of the EU.

Section Two: Conference Report - BETT 2006: Technology in Education.
09: Management Puzzle for Modern Schools: New technologies are not only used for learning but also for running schools. But, finds Derek Parkinson, choosing an effective management system is no easy task.

Section Three: International - Estonia.
10: Creating Excellence From Limited Resources: Mel Poluck reports on the small Baltic state that punches above its weight in the e- government sphere.

Section Four: The E-Government Bulletin Vaults - From Our Archive, January 2000.
11: Joined-Up Government Was Never Going to be Easy: This time six years ago, we reported on a reader survey that found collaboration across the public sector was riven with problems. Some things never change.

[Contents ends].

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- 31 January 2006, Central London
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Flexible working is a vital topic for the public sector. A recent Office of Government Commerce report found that: "Flexibility has become the byword. The need for efficiency gains [has] led to new approaches . . . people, information and communication technology and workspace need to complement each other so overall flexibility can be achieved."

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[Special notice ends].

++Section One: News.

+01: China Receives EU Support for E-Government Trials.

China is to gain assistance from the European Union in developing e- government services as part of a 15 million euro, four-year EU-China Information Society project ( http://www.eu-china-infso.org/ ), it was announced last week.

EU member states will set up five demonstrator projects across the world's most populous country, making use of best practice in Europe.

The projects will focus on integrating service delivery in a large city, in Yantai, Shandong Province; joining up police and health services as part of a unified emergency response in Chengdu, Sichuan Province; using smartcards to access welfare services in Handan, Hebei Province; reaching citizens in rural areas, in Yangquan, Shanxi Province; and reforming the way pensions are administered, in Baotou, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The e-government initiative is one part of a three-pronged approach to boosting China's progress with information and communication technologies. The other two involve setting up the legal framework needed to support electronic transactions, and training civil servants, in an overall project worth 15 million euros of EU money and 700,000 euros of Chinese government money.

China has made rapid progress with e-government in recent years. A UN report published in 2005 found it had jumped 10 places in the global rankings, the fastest mover in South East Asia:

( http://fastlink.headstar.com/china1 ).

Although China's bureaucracy has different political and cultural roots to those in Europe, some difficulties faced by the country's modernisers are familiar to western eyes, according to Chris Parker of Gov3, a consultancy involved in the project. "There seem to be some universals. Changing the way people work can be painful. And it means a change to business processes alongside changes in technology," Parker told E-Government Bulletin.

+02: Joint Electronic Procurement System Launches in Yorkshire.

The first steps towards a single electronic procurement system for all
22 councils in the Yorkshire and Humber region - one of the largest systems of its kind - have been taken by Leeds City Council with the Regional Centre of Excellence for the Yorkshire and The Humber region (http://www.yhcoe.rcoe.gov.uk/ ).

The Supplier and Contract Management System (SCMS) aims to improve the supplier selection process and encourage collaborative working between councils. "The whole selection process will be automated," said Leeds's policy and strategy officer Steve Kelvin.

SCMS, which is being purchased from the Wales-based supplier Alito (http://www.alito.co.uk), will allow councils to "use a shared core database of approved suppliers," Kelvin said.

"The objectives of the project are to give authorities in the region immediate access to quality procurement information, pre-qualified suppliers, and professionally procured contractual arrangements [and] to provide a catalyst for standardisation, aggregation and collaboration across the region," Kelvin said.

Suppliers will be able to download tender documents and lodge submissions electronically via a web site. They will also be able to access and maintain their own data online and apply to appear on approved lists; cutting out the need to submit application forms for each council.

In addition, SCMS will provide suppliers with access to local authority procurement information and details of contracting opportunities.

A total of 10 councils will begin using the system in June 2006, followed by up to 12 more councils by December. Kelvin said the project team also aims to encourage other public sector organisations to join such as police forces, fire authorities, national parks and NHS bodies.

+03: First Phase of Non-Emergency Number to Go Live.

Up to 80 per cent of calls to a planned new single national phone number for non-emergency calls could be resolved at the first point of contact, the scheme's architects told E-Government Bulletin this month.

Trials of the number are due to go live this Summer in five areas in England and Wales, ahead of a national launch in 2008. Callers will dial '101' to report or make enquiries on non-emergency policing, crime and anti-social behaviour issues including vandalism, graffiti, noisy neighbours and drug dealing. Calls will be charged at local rates.

The 'Single non-emergency number' (SNEN) initiative, funded by the Home Office with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to the tune of 140 million pounds over five years, aims to speed up resolution and avoid repeat calling about local problems as well as reduce pressure on the national emergency number 999. Currently, some 10 million 999 calls are made to the police each year, according to Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabularies annual report for 2004 of which around 70 per cent do not relate to emergencies.

The five first wave trials will be operated by regional partnerships.
They are Northumbria Police, with 12 local authorities; Hampshire Police, with 16 local authorities; South Yorkshire Police with Sheffield City Council; Leicestershire Police with three local authorities; and South Wales Police with Cardiff City Council. London and Liverpool were also due to take part in the first wave, but their participation has been postponed, partly due to technical issues.

Newly-employed staff from police forces and local authorities will work side-by-side to answer calls from the public, before directing reports and queries to appropriate departments.

"This is not an IT project, it is a business change project. It's about improving access to non-emergency services and building confidence with the police and local authorities," SNEN programme support officer Dominic Wilson told E-Government Bulletin. In future, the public may be able to log an enquiry or report criminal activity via a web portal or SMS text, Wilson said.

NOTE: For details of a similar scheme in New York, as reported by E- Government Bulletin editor Dan Jellinek from last year's Socitm conference, see:

http://fastlink.headstar.com/knafo1 .

+04: Testbeds Sought for Affordable Audio Webcasting.

Small local authorities, parish councils, and community groups will be able to webcast audio records of their events and meetings by signing up to Democaster, a new initiative set up with 10,000 pounds from the Local E-democracy National Project ( http://dowire.org/wiki/Be_a_Democaster ).

The aim is to enable councils and community groups to reach people with live and on-demand audio content such as archived records of meetings or coverage of events. The technology - developed by the US-based group Democracies Online - can also store and deliver still shots extracted from webcam footage, although it does not handle full video feeds. The service offers a web site to host content and a free download for installing on a laptop or PC. Users connect their computer to a microphone or PA system and hit a button to begin a webcast.

The software, which is based on open source components and designed to work over a narrowband connection, automatically creates a web page and an archive in open source and MP3 formats. Supporting documents and links can also be uploaded.

According to Fraser Henderson of the Local E-democracy National Project, fees for the service will amount to no more than 250 pounds per year for most users. It is possible that free use or lower charges will be made available to low-volume users, Henderson said.

Not everyone is convinced that audio webcasting will prove as effective as a full video service, however. "I wonder if people will be prepared to listen rather than watch. I'm not sure that end-users will find it attractive," said Andy Wilkinson of Lancashire County Council, a local authority that uses video webcasting. "It could be like releasing music on LPs when everyone has moved on to CDs."

News in Brief:

+05: Becta Chair: The British Educational Communications and
Technology Agency (Becta), responsible for shaping the government strategy for IT in education, has appointed the UK government's former 'e-Envoy' Andrew Pinder as its chairman. Pinder was also previously chairman of the Shropshire Learning and Skills Council:

http://fastlink.headstar.com/pinder1 .

+06: Familiar Faces: Police forces in the north of England are to test
face recognition technology in preparation for a full deployment across England, Scotland and Wales, beginning this year. The pilot project is to evaluate different approaches to using face recognition in detecting or tracking criminals, as well as products from different suppliers:

http://fastlink.headstar.com/face3 .

+07: Community Hit: Essex County Council has exceeded its targets
for take-up of a software system allowing parish and town councils, community and voluntary organisations in the county to set up their own web sites for free. Some 90 sites have now been established, three times the target amount. The council is also developing the service to allow councillors to create personal web sites using the software, 'Local e-Publish':

http://www.essexinfo.net .

+08: Top Priority: The Austrian government has announced it is to
make electronic services a top priority during its Presidency of the EU, which began this month. The country is to host four high-level seminars focusing on various aspects of e-government in February and

March:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/austria1 .

[Section One ends.]

++Special Notice: Email Management '06
Best Practice and Compliance in the Public Sector
12 April 2006, CBI Conference Centre, London.
http://www.headstar-events.com/email/

With concerns about information law compliance and an urgent need to maximise efficiency and productivity, public sector organisations need to develop better strategies to manage their ever-growing email mountains.

Email Management '06 will provide a focus for sharing best practice.
Compare email retention and retrieval policies with your peers; formulate policies for good HR practice and to improve productive time; minimise the risks of virus infiltration, email abuse and security breaches; plan infrastructure and storage solutions; realise the knowledge management benefits from handling email effectively; and much more. Attendance costs 295 pounds + VAT for public sector and

495 for private sector. See:
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And for information on how to sponsor this event, email Laura O'Neil on [log in to unmask] .

[Special Notice ends].

++Special Notice: E-Government Bulletin Online Archives
- Purchase Your Password Today.

Your trusty E-Government Bulletin - the largest circulation independent e-government news source - is archived each month into a database searchable by any keyword or phrase, as well as by issue number or date. You can also access the complete contents of back issues in html, word and text format.

The archives extend back to February 1999, representing over six years' worth of news and feature coverage of UK e-government issues.

To access this fabulous research resource, you will need to pay an annual subscription fee of just 50 pounds for an individual user in the public, charitable or voluntary sector, and 100 pounds per user in the private sector, with discounted group licences available for multiple users and organisations. To find out more please email:

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[Special Notice ends].

++Section Two: Conference Report
- BETT 2006: Technology in Education.

+09: Management Puzzle for Modern Schools
by Derek Parkinson.

Technology is set to play a central role in shaping the schools and colleges of the future, and not just in providing new ways of teaching and learning: increasingly, schools are deploying Management Information Systems (MIS) to help them run more effectively.

In most schools, the MIS holds the data needed for the day-to-day running of the school, including accounting information; student records such as attendance and grades; performance against government guidelines; and availability of resources such as rooms and staff, for example.

Potentially, MIS technology has an important role to play in improving the way our schools function by helping managers improve efficiency, removing some of the administrative burden from teaching staff, and targeting resources more effectively. In addition, MIS could also help to build links with parents, keeping them up to date with the progress their children are making.

The total cost of MIS technology represents a considerable investment for the government, with around 180 million pounds spent annually on the systems in England alone, British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) researchers estimated in a report published last June ( http://fastlink.headstar.com/becta1 ).

"There are considerable impediments to maximising the potential value for money flowing from expenditure [on MIS]," the report found.

"Those impediments span all aspects of the current arrangements including the contractual landscape, the technical environment, the support arrangements and the statutory returns process," it concluded.

The state of the market for MIS is a source of concern, Becta's Executive Director of Educational Technology Dr Stephen Lucey told delegates at this year's BETT education technology show ( http://www.bettshow.co.uk ).

The cost of MIS is rising steeply, with some suppliers increasing the prices for licences by around 300 per cent in just four years, Lucey said.

In many cases, it has fallen to local authorities to negotiate with suppliers for provision of MIS to schools in their areas, with variable results. In addition, many local authorities are also required to provide support for the systems once they have been purchased, even though some feel they have neither the expertise nor the resources to do so, Lucey said.

To tackle these difficulties, Becta is working on a national plan that will include a list of approved MIS suppliers, proposals for the technical interoperability of MIS products, consultation with schools and Local Education Authorities on the support they need, and discussions with the Department for Education and Skills about the statutory requirements on schools to provide information to central government.

To be effective, the plan will need to clear a number of hurdles, such as EU competition law, but a start has been made, Lucey said. Becta is already in negotiation with four suppliers, and an understanding on interoperability will be agreed in the next few weeks, with the aim of having the plan in place and working by April, he said.

An early priority will be to reach out to the frontline staff and involve them in the process. "Over the coming weeks Becta will seek engagement from schools and local authorities," he said.

Getting full engagement may be a tricky challenge, he acknowledged.
"We aim to preserve local choice. The emphasis will be on standards, rather than standardisation," he said. But no matter what the difficulties are, the plan must be made to work.

"Doing nothing is not an option."

[Section Two ends].

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[Special Notice ends].

++Section Three: International Focus
- Estonia.

+10: Creating Excellence From Limited Resources
by Mel Poluck.

"In wealthy European countries, [the UK] in particular, people have experimented with e-government. They think: 'there seems to be both a problem and an opportunity, there is money, lets do it,' and then you find out that it does not necessarily work. Disappointment comes quickly and then you start to debate the waste of money."

Such is the view of Ivar Tallo, director of the Estonian E-Governance Academy (EGA - ( http://www.ega.ee/ ).
Things are different in his country, he says, and this is not necessarily a bad thing. "We never had the luxury of having too much money, so we had to plan somewhat differently to see whether something works or not."

Despite the country's lack of funds, the progress made towards e- government in Estonia has been rapid, successful and well- documented, to the envy of its richer neighbours. Currently, Tallo said the EGA is working on integrating all back offices government-wide, "so we can deliver a wide array of complex e-services that make life much easier for people," he said.

Last October, the Estonian government introduced electronic voting during local elections, a system used in tandem with electronic ID cards - by last May they had been issued to over 80 per cent of citizens

- for the first time anywhere in the world.

Take up of electronic services is high, many of which are accessed with the ID card which acts as an authentication "key" to perform transactions with government agencies and access citizens' personal data . At the end of last November, the government's Informatics Centre, the Riigi Infosusteemida Arenduskeskus (RIA - http://www.ria.ee/atp/?lang=en ), developed a system that allowed any of its departments to send SMS text message alerts to the country's citizens on topics ranging from emergency alerts to notification for when vehicle licences are ready using the government data exchange infrastructure 'X-road.' Even the Estonian cabinet conducts its business wholly electronically, and all this with just one per cent of the state budget.

There are various factors behind this success. Estonia has a population of just 1.5 million, making projects manageable; it has technology pioneers Sweden and Finland for its neighbours; and the fall of Soviet occupation allowed a fresh start for government across the board. "We didn't have to worry about the people in back offices losing their job of paper-pushing. That is a considerable worry in [UK] administrations,"

Tallo said.

Earlier this month, Estonia's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Comunications (MEAC -
http://www.mkm.ee/index.php?keel=en)
produced a national information security policy to coordinate cross- agency eSecurity initiatives The policy's goals include eliminating threats to national electronic networks and raising public awareness of information security, in a move aiming to increase competitiveness of Estonia's economy. MEAC will also create a Computer Emergency Response Team.

It will also represent Estonia within the EU's European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA - http://www.eu.int/agencies/enisa/index_en.htm ) and oversee other cross-border initiatives.

The UK has much to learn from this small ex-Soviet state according to Arvo Ott, formerly Head of State Information Systems and member of the management board of the E-Governance Academy. "I think Estonia could serve as an excellent test site for others to find out about the dynamics of these processes," Ott said. "Of course, some administrative procedures are very different in different countries but how to overcome the traditions, we have some fresh ideas. I think we are all moving into the same direction and governments are going to harmonise some of the procedural aspects of their activities, especially in the EU," he said.

Ott's non-governmental, non-profit organisation the EGA offers, among others, consultancy to other ex-Soviet countries such as Armenia and Macedonia, and shares e-government best practice and ideas.

But according to Rain Rannu, Director of Business Development at technology company Mobi Solutions ( http://www.mobisolutions.com/en/ ), which has implemented mobile phone-based services in conjunction with local authorities such as the City of Tartu, Estonia could offer something more tangible than just a "test site" or consultation to other countries. "A lot of Estonian companies, as well as government [departments and authorities] would be willing to give away our e- government software as open source to be implemented in other countries, and assist governments in implementing them."

Meanwhile, his message to other e-government strategists is simple:
"one should not make the projects too big and technologically complex in the beginning," Rannu said. "It always pays off to start with a small- scale pilot, and if it's successful, then proceed with full-scale implementation," he said.

[Section Three ends].

++Special Notice: Test Your Site's Accessibility.

Headstar, the publishers of E-Government 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! Please note the service is tailored in particular to larger organisations with major web sites or services.

For more information please email:
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[Special notice ends].

++Section Four: The E-Government Bulletin Vaults
- From Our Archive, January 2000.

+11: Joined-Up Government Was Never Going to be Easy.

Just to prove that nothing ever changes, our January issue of six years'
ago reported on the results of our own reader survey that found that central and local government bodies were experiencing a wide range of serious difficulties in realising joined up government.

The great majority of public sector managers - some 77 per cent in central government and 90 per cent in local government - are agreed that joined-up working will be essential to the delivery of efficient online services in the years to come, according to the research.

However, around 40 per cent of central government responders and almost half of local government responders detailed serious difficulties with joint working. The largest of these were the difficulties in forging a combined strategic approach across separate bodies with their own strategies and budgets, followed by incompatibility between systems and data protection fears.

One central government responder said: "Central and local government don't work well together. Each has its own priorities, and each wants control of the purse strings". Another said: "Incompatibility of business cultures and ways of working far exceed technical incompatibilities".

And a third: "Waiting until other government departments are ready, to develop compatible systems, or to use the same system is a waste of time. Their estimates are always wrong, and meanwhile one's own project slips".

In other stories, the first ever online inquiry by a House of Commons select committee had ended on Christmas Eve, with invited experts and representatives of all parts of society joining MPs from the Public Administration Select Committee to submit and debate contributions to a private bulletin board on the web and by email. Aptly, the topic of debate was the use of the internet and other new technologies to enhance the democratic process. The process was facilitated by the Hansard Society.

It was also reported that the Chinese were cultivating extensive capacity in cyberwarfare - the use of computer hacking to cripple a nation's infrastructure - according to an article in (of all places) the online version of the US Christian Science Monitor. Apparently the threat was particularly targeted at Taiwan and the US. The US also has well-developed capabilities in this field, it was reported, apparently hacking into Serbian air defences during the Kosovo war.

NOTE: The E-Government Bulletin archives are available in full online, in a searchable database accessible to subscribers for a small annual fee. Rates begin at just 45 pounds a year for individuals and 195 pounds a year for unlimited access by staff at a single public sector body. For more information please email David Clark on:

[log in to unmask] .

[Section Four ends].

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