From: Dan Jellinek [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 19 March 2004 13:28
To: egb-html
Subject: E-Government Bulletin - 19 March 2004
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+++E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN
- ISSUE 157, 19 MARCH 2004.
http://www.headstar.com/egb .
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++ISSUE 157 CONTENTS.
01: Councils face instant test on FoI
- lobby group warns the press will be primed.
02: Bid to bridge gap between policy and reality
- new guidebook published and online tools planned.
03: Libraries to test free wireless internet
- 10 rural areas to become first broadband hotspots.
04: Procurement agency delivers on targets
- but auditors call for greater use of e-procurement.
News in brief: 05: Executive audit - Scottish web landmark; 06: TV
clusters - digital 'microsites'; 07: Innovation allocation - six million
pounds; 08: High society - e-democracy boost; 09: Open question -
software consultation.
Section two: EGB seminar report - Freedom of information.
10: Awaiting judgement day: 'The biggest change ever in the way the
public sector has operated' is the way one seminar speaker described
Freedom of Information compliance. Is the public sector ready?
Section three: International - South Korea.
11: E-government made easy: Korea was recently ranked second in the
world by one international comparative study of e-government. Mel
Poluck reports on a country where early planning and widespread
connectivity has laid the foundations for success.
[Contents ends].
SPONSORED NOTICE: FREE ONLINE DEBATE
Broadband horizons: releasing the public service potential
- 29 March to 2 April
The Public Policy Forum, a BT-sponsored think-tank on the
modernisation of public services, is hosting an editorially independent
online debate during the week beginning 29 March 2004 on the role of
broadband networks in improving central and local government
services to citizens and boosting local and regional economies across
the UK.
The discussion will cover how small businesses are using broadband;
the new system of 'aggregation' of public sector bodies to buy network
capacity; and the next generation of public services. To pre-register for
this free event, plus background features and resources to stimulate
discussion written in partnership with E-Government Bulletin, see:
http://www.publicpolicyforum.org.uk .
[Sponsored notice ends].
++SECTION ONE: NEWS.
+01: COUNCILS FACE INSTANT TEST ON FOI.
A campaign to test all local authorities on compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 as soon as it comes into force on 1
January 2005 is to be launched later this year by an independent lobby
group.
The Campaign for Freedom of Information (http://www.cfoi.org.uk) is
to write to every newspaper editor asking them to test out their local
councils, according to the campaign's director Maurice Frankel.
"We are going to write to every newspaper in the country, explaining
the act, offering training on the act and explaining what they can do to
put the act to test," Frankel told an E-Government Bulletin seminar last
month. "You are going to be tested on this legislation the moment it
comes into force by your local newspapers, by national newspapers, by
local groups of various kinds. It's going to be on the front page if you
don't do it properly." He declined to offer precise details of the form
the test for councils would take, to preserve an element of surprise.
"There'll be very little sympathy from the public or press if you say
'we've only had a little time to prepare'. Nobody's going to believe
you," said Frankel. "Bear in mind this act was passed in November
2000. By the time it comes into force in January 2005 you will have
had five years and two months. You have been given longer to prepare
for this legislation than any other country."
Frankel underlined the importance of developing a policy for handling
the media. "Ask your chief executive how he or she wants to handle
the press when asked to explain why you have not prepared for FoI;
withheld [data] from your local newspaper, people, organisations -
information that neighbouring authorities up and down the countries
are handing out willingly."
NOTE: Presentations from the seminar 'Freedom of information
compliance - the key to e-government?' are available on the web
(http://www.electronic-government.com/foi.htm). For a full report on
the seminar see section two, this issue.
+02: BID TO BRIDGE GAP BETWEEN POLICY AND REALITY.
An ambitious attempt to bridge the gap between e-government policy
and project implementation, in the form of a comprehensive guidebook
and online project tools, has been launched by the national 'Customer
relationship management' (CRM) project.
The CRM project is one of 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. Its new 'e-WOW (Electronic Ways of Working)'
guidebook offers advice on appropriate standards, legislation, best
practice and national activities related to key e-government policy
areas such as electronic document and record management, knowledge
management and content management. It can be downloaded free from
the CRM project web site (http://www.crmnp.org).
The book is aimed at programme sponsors, project managers and
technical architects. The guide also seeks to join up information from
all of the national projects.
"Councils and government departments are inundated with
programmes, standards and policies designed to nudge them along the
road to electronic working," said Paul Phillips, standards manager for
the CRM project and author of the new guide. "But it is difficult to
make sense of everything and to make e-government tangible and real.
The book consolidates the learning so far and proposes a preferred
sequence for implementing information management systems."
The project now aims to develop the book into an interactive online
tool, Phillips said. This would not only guide e-government
professionals through policy, standards and legislation, but offer
diagnostic help and support for individual projects. "If a local authority
was planning to implement enterprise workflow, it could use the e-
WOW 'expert system' to enter data about its plans and undertake gap
analysis," said Phillips. "People want practical advice, such as check-
lists on legal compliance, and an online version of e-WOW could offer
this kind of tailored information and process support."
+03: LIBRARIES TO TEST FREE WIRELESS INTERNET.
A pilot project to introduce free wireless internet into rural libraries -
so anyone can bring in a laptop or portable computer and connect at
high speed - could pave the way for all libraries in England to offer the
service, according to the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
(MLA - http://www.resource.gov.uk).
The first phase of the project will see 60,000 pounds spent on installing
fixed wireless ('WiFi') equipment in 10 rural libraries, and will test
public demand for connectivity, record usage patterns and examine the
impact on library staff of providing the services, the MLA said this
week. Some sites will also lend users equipment such as laptops.
"The trial is focused on rural areas because availability of broadband is
lower, and because these libraries tend to be smaller and open for
fewer hours. This is a way for them to increase the contribution they
make to the community," project co-ordinator David Potts told E-
Government Bulletin. The WiFi pilot builds on the People's Network
project, which saw 100 million pounds of lottery money from the New
Opportunities Fund spent on broadband connections for public libraries
(see E-Government Bulletin, Issue 114, 17 May 2002).
According to Potts, five of the pilot sites will offer connectivity during
library opening hours while the remaining five will test demand for 24-
hour services. "It's becoming quite common for places like coffee
houses and fast food outlets to offer wireless connectivity, and libraries
must be able to do the same," he said.
The 10 pilot sites are Ayton, North Yorkshire; Barnard Castle, County
Durham; Belper, Derbyshire; Brewood, Staffordshire; Chatburn,
Lancashire; Launceston, Cornwall; Lyndhurst, Hampshire; Potton,
Bedfordshire; Princetown, Devon; and Sandwich, Kent.
+04: PROCUREMENT AGENCY DELIVERS ON TARGETS.
The Office of Government Commerce (OGC -
http://www.ogc.gov.uk), the UK government's central procurement
agency, has exceeded its target for procurement cost savings among
government departments by more than half a billion pounds, according
to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO -
http://www.nao.org.uk).
The report found that by 31 March 2003, departments had saved some
1.6 billion pounds, exceeding the OGC's target of 1 billion pounds.
However, it said that considerable improvements still need to be made
if the OGC is to meet its more ambitious target of 3 billion pounds'
worth of savings by 31 March 2006.
'Improving procurement: progress by the OGC in improving
departments' capability to procure cost-effectively'
(http://www.nao.org.uk/pn/03-04/0304361.htm), examined
procurement practices across 86 departments, agencies and non-
departmental public bodies and assessed the impact of the OGC's best
practice initiatives.
While the audit office praised the OGC for raising awareness of
procurement issues, negotiating framework agreements for buying
goods and services and introducing 'Gateway reviews' to manage large
and complex procurements such as IT purchases, it found that
adherence to the OGC's best practice guidelines varied among public
sector organisations. For example, 85 per cent of the 1.6 billion pounds
of savings came from just nine departments. "While there is evidence
that departments are adopting the advice and good practice promoted
by the OGC, there is less take-up by agencies and non-departmental
public bodies," the report said.
The NAO identified a number of areas where public sector
organisations could make further savings if they acted on OGC
initiatives. These included the more widespread use of framework
agreements; bringing maverick spending under control; and reducing
internal processing costs. On the latter point, it said that only 20 per
cent of procurement spend is currently carried out electronically, and
says e-procurement has significant potential to further reduce
processing and administration costs.
While the report does not cover IT procurement specifically -this will
be the subject of a separate NAO report to be published in the spring -
it did praise the OGC for negotiating strategic agreements with IT
suppliers. However, a recent report by the Public Accounts Select
Committee
(http://www.parliament.uk/commons/selcom/pachome.htm),
'Purchasing and managing software licences', found that take-up of
centrally negotiated software licences - the so-called "Memoranda"
with the likes of Microsoft, Sun, Lotus/IBM, Corel and Oracle - has
been less than the OGC anticipated, with many departments lacking
awareness of the deals that are in place.
While the agreements had exceeded the OGC's original cost savings
expectations (it envisaged 36 million pounds of savings over three
years from March 2002; 49 million pounds of savings had already been
achieved by September 2003), more needed to be done to publicise the
benefits of using the memoranda, the committee's report found.
NEWS IN BRIEF:
+05: EXECUTIVE AUDIT: The Scottish Executive web site,
'Executive online,' has become the first government web site to have
its visitor rate independently audited by ABC Electronic, part of the
non-profit, media industry-owned Audit Bureau of Circulation. The
site registered an average of 15,935 visits requesting 82,430 pages of
information every day during its audit period of November 2003:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/scot9 .
+06: TV CLUSTERS: Seven clusters of English councils are due to go
live shortly with interactive digital television services on the Sky
satellite and Telewest cable platforms. Three clusters are already live
with the 'microsites': Kent, Merseyside and South Yorkshire. They
will be joined by Plymouth, Somerset, Suffolk and Tyne and Wear,
with a group of councils in West Yorkshire due to join the South
Yorkshire cluster to create a combined service. The work is being led
by the national DigiTV project for councils:
http://www.digitv.org.uk .
+07: INNOVATION ALLOCATION: First-round funds worth just
over six million pounds from the Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister's new 'e-innovations' programme has been distributed to 34
councils. The authorities each submitted ideas for cutting edge e-
government projects in need of support:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/innovation2 .
+08: HIGH SOCIETY: Downingstreetsays
(http://www.downingstreetsays.com), a web site giving an insider's
view of briefings from Tony Blair's official spokesperson has been
backed by the e-democracy seed-fund mySociety. The fund has also
teamed up with West Sussex council to create a successful bid for 'e-
innovation' funding (see previous story) worth 250,000 pounds to
develop online tools to engage citizens:
http://www.mysociety.org .
+09: OPEN QUESTION: A consultation on draft guidelines for
implementing open source software in the public sector has been
launched by the Office of the e-Envoy. The consultation, which runs
until 11 June, seeks feedback on open source as a default option for
government-funded projects; open standards; security; and best
practice in the field: http://fastlink.headstar.com/open3 .
[Section one ends]
++SPONSORED NOTICE:
- WILL YOUR E-PROCUREMENT SYSTEM BE READY?
The clock is ticking: will your e-procurement system implementation
be ready in time?
With the e-government deadline fast approaching, there has never been
a more important time to attend Britain's premier event for public
sector procurement professionals.
To learn more and see how Capita Consulting and Elcom worked with
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council to achieve online status in
just 14 weeks, visit:
http://www.nepp.capita-elcom.co.uk .
[Sponsored notice ends].
++SPECIAL NOTICE: Planning for Accessibility
- E-government for All: EGB March Seminar.
- 30 March, Globe Theatre, London.
On 30 March, E-Government Bulletin presents a one-day
seminar on strategies for ensuring e-services are accessible to all
regardless of ability. Government guidance for public sector web
sites is clear that accessibility needs to be radically improved,
and the passing of the Disability Discrimination Act means this
is now a legal as well as a moral imperative for all e-service
channels.
'E-government for all: planning for accessibility' takes place at
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, central London. Speakers include
Helen Petrie, Professor of Human Computer Interaction Design
at City University; Guido Gybels, Head of Technology, Royal
National Institute for Deaf People; and Kevin Carey, vice
chairman of the RNIB.
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/access.htm .
[Special notice ends].
SECTION TWO: EGB Seminar report
- Freedom of information.
+10: Awaiting Judgement Day
by Mel Poluck.
"We are 10 months away from something that's potentially the biggest
change ever in the way the public sector has operated." This was the
assessment of Fred Perkins, chief executive of the new digital public
information channel Information TV (http://www.information.tv),
delivered to delegates at E-Government Bulletin's recent seminar,
'Freedom of Information Compliance - the key to e-government?'
(http://www.electronic-government.com/foi.htm), sponsored by BT
Open Access.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI -
http://fastlink.headstar.com/act1), due to come into force in January
2005, will allow the public access to almost any public authority-held
records they request, with a series of exemptions such as national
security (http://fastlink.headstar.com/act3). With much data in central
and local government repositories held in electronic form, and only 10
months until the act comes into force, how is the public sector coping?
"FoI is a balance of rights, not a shopping list of exemptions", said
Katherine Fox, policy advisor at the Department of Constitutional
Affairs, which published a model action plan for preparation for the
Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act
(http://www.dca.gov.uk/foi/map/modactplan.htm) at the end of last
year. She said once FoI implementation was in full swing, obtaining
information from the Ministry of Defence should be no different to
obtaining it from your GP.
Among practical tips she offered was public authorities should
categorise and classify information, to help local authority employees
decide what to release, rendering the process of retrieval easier.
"If we're to deliver FoI, we need good records management," Perkins
said. But in terms of data stored and retrieved electronically, there is
bad news: "Email doesn't lend itself at all well to management." In
terms of FoI he said he had not, as yet, seen anyone offer a good
solution for email.
One of the compulsory requirements for implementing FoI is to
produce a publication scheme, the description of the information
authorities will make publicly available. However, while a survey
conducted last month by the Information Commissioner found all UK
local authorities now had publication schemes on their web sites
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/foi5), not everybody is convinced by their
content. "Some publication schemes are quite good. But some are
tantalising for what they don't say," said Perkins. "We need more
central guidance. Someone's got to lay down the policy."
Katherine Fox of the Department of Constitutional Affairs attempted to
introduce a note of calm into the proceedings by suggesting that public
bodies could be in danger of making "a massive overestimation of
volume of requests."
Fox said: "A lot of the information will be quite dull and the public
hasn't realised that. Most people will judge the success of FoI when
they pick up the phone and ask a local authority for information."
However, FoI would be a struggle without a significant attitude shift in
the public services towards an assumption of the public 'right to
know,' Fox said.
According to Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom
of Information (http://www.cfoi.org.uk), the new act will deter
malpractice and create more informed dialogue between the public and
the government.
Frankel encouraged delegates to think about the fundamental question
of why FoI was necessary at all. His said the law would "deter, and if
necessary detect, things going wrong in the public sector. [It is] a
symbol that government will be held to the truth."
The key to successful FoI implementation, Frankel said, may boil
down to an element of self-fulfilling prophecy: "If we know someone
is sitting over our shoulder, watching what we do, what we do
magically becomes more rigorous".
[Section two ends].
++SPONSORED NOTICE: VOUCHER AND SMART CARD
CONFERENCE FOM THE SOCIAL MARKET FOUNDATION
- 5 AND 6 APRIL, LONDON.
Symposium Events, in collaboration with the think tank The Social
Market Foundation, announces a major conference on vouchers and
smart cards.
Government ministers, their advisors and analysts from the UK, the US
and mainland Europe will address the often-misunderstood questions
surrounding voucher and smart card policies, such as: 'Can smart
cards, vouchers and e-government deliver choice and voice in public
services?'
Speakers include the Rt. Hon Dr John Reid MP, Secretary of State for
Health; Eric M. Bost, Under Secretary, US Department of Agriculture;
and David Willetts MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and
Pensions. For more information see:
http://www.symposium-events.co.uk .
[Sponsored notice ends].
SECTION THREE - International
- South Korea.
+11: E-Government Made Easy
by Mel Poluck.
The November 2003 United Nations report 'E-government at the
crossroads' (http://www.unpan.org/dpepa_worldpareport.asp) ranked
South Korea second in Asia and thirteenth in the world in the use of
information technology to provide public services. In the previous
year, a report from Brown University
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/brown1) had ranked the country even
higher: second, in a study of e-government performance in almost 200
countries.
One reason for its comparative success in this field may be that Korea
began to lay the foundations for e-government in the 1980s with
grandly-named programmes such as the 'Comprehensive plan for
Korean information infrastructure establishment', and the 'National
basic information system,' which established a national high-speed
communications network. The latest high-level plan, the familiar-
sounding 'Building Korea information infrastructure,' runs from 1995
to 2015.
The 'Korea e-government' initiative
(https://www.egov.go.kr/main?a=AH010MainApp) is currently
overseen by the country's National Computerisation Agency (NCA -
http://www.nca.or.kr/eindex.htm) within the Ministry of Government
Administration and Home Affairs. The initiative is arranged in three
main clusters: 'G2B', G2G' and 'G4C'.
G2B (government to business) covers e-procurement - all procurement
by government now takes place entirely online. G2G (government to
government) covers database-sharing between agencies and
videoconferencing for decision-making within government.
The core of the programme, however, is the G4C strand (Government
for citizens - http://fastlink.headstar.com/g4c). G4C includes the
maintenance of an online gateway that allows online applications for
permits and certificates; and almost 400 other electronic services in
five fields: residents, vehicles, real estate, taxation and business. One
development being planned is for G4C to establish a call centre to field
all service contacts.
One G4C project that caused a furore when it went live in Korea last
year was the 'National education information system', a massive
database accessible to students, teachers and parents. "Many non-
governmental organisations and parents think it invades privacy even
though records were restricted to certain users," says Yoon Jeong-
Won, director of the international IT business team at the National
Computerisation Agency. A public consultation was consequently held
to smooth out the dispute. "Some of the information originally
supposed to be in the database was disallowed because of the debate,"
Yoon says.
Ensuring e-services are accessible to everybody has been a major
concern in Korea, as in most other parts of the world. "In Korea we
had a big gap," says Kim Saeng-Tae, Professor of e-government and e-
policy at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. The Korean government
decided to close that gap by allowing people with low incomes and
people with disabilities to buy personal computers cheaply, says Kim.
Public internet access centres were also created and discounts offered
on home internet connection rates, he said.
The Korean government is also using SMS text messaging to deliver
public service messages. The tax office, for example, automatically
sends either an email or a text message to people who have not filed
their tax returns, and then issues a receipt using email or SMS once the
tax is paid. "Mobile phone utilisation is very wide in Korea; even
children have mobile phones," says Kim. In his own university, text
messages are sent to students to keep them informed of timetables.
Digital television is also being tested as a delivery channel for e-
government, with a pilot service running in collaboration with
Samsung and Audi. The aim is to use the medium to produce opinion
polls; disseminate location-specific news such as the announcement of
missing children; and develop its potential as a public information
system in case of emergencies or disasters.
Yoon says: "Korea's e-government services should be based on
integration. People should have one single site and be able to do
whatever they want. To do that, we think consultation with the public
is very important. The public are still not confident that e-government
services are really there to give convenience to their lives."
Yoon says that public consultation has found that some Koreans think
more money should be spent on social welfare. "Some services are not
used by the public as much as expected, such as web portal services;
they think they get better information from media or private portals."
However, Yoon says that some e-government services such as online
land and property registration and tax services are among the most
popular online services used by Koreans. And while it is not
mandatory, Koreans are being incentivised to use online pensions and
insurance payments schemes.
According to the 'Third master plan',
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/korea2), another of the country's e-
government policy statements covering the years 2002 to 2006 and
also known as 'e-Korea vision 2006,' next year's general election will
see electronic voting used nationwide. With over 70 per cent of the
country's population of 48 million surfing the web daily; the highest
broadband usage rate in the world (11 out of 16 million Korean
households use broadband) and mobile phones in 90 per cent of
households, lack of connectivity is certainly not an issue.
And with further plans to create a broadband network with a speed 10
or 20 times faster than that which is currently available, the Koreans
are set to continue to make e-government delivery look easy.
NOTE: Additional research by Bae Sun-Young.
[Section three 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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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 - Pete Hall [log in to unmask]
Correspondent - Phil Cain [log in to unmask] .
- ADVERTISING.
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[Issue ends].
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