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CS5038 The Electronic Society

• Lecture 8 e-Government
• Lecture Outline
• Terminology - G2C, G2B, G2E
• Major areas of G2C activities
• Six stages to implementation
• Implementation Problems
• Current state in UK
• E-Government - Increasing Inequality?
• Addressing the Democratic Deficit
• eParticipation
• eGovernment in the Developing World Sri Lanka
• eGovernment in Singapore

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E-Government

• The use of electronic technology by a government
  to
• Deliver its services better
• Improve its efficiency and effectiveness (just
  like eCommerce)
• Less staff needed to serve people quicker/cheaper
• Make governments more transparent to citizens and
  businesses
• Access to more of the information generated by
  government
• Government to citizens (G2C)
• Delivery of public services etc. (next slide)
• Government-to-employees (G2E)
• Activities and services between government units
  and their employees
• Government to Government (G2G)
• Intragovernmental activities
• Within a Government department and between
  Government bodies

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E-Government

• Government to business (G2B)
• E-Procurement reverse auctions for MROs
• Group purchasing
• eFAST service (gsa.gov) conducts reverse auctions
  for aggregated orders
• E-Auctions
• government surpluses
• real estate
• seized goods
• Tax collection and management
• electronic filing of taxes is now available in
  over 100 countries

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E-Government

• Major areas of G2C activities http//www.direct.g
  ov.uk/Homepage/fs/en
• tourism and recreation
• research and education
• downloadable forms
• discovery of government services
• information about public policy
• advice about health and safety issues
• Pay tax bills, receive documents and payments
• Nationwide Electronic benefit transfer (EBT)
  system in U.S. to deliver government benefits
  electronically
• deliver benefits to recipients bank accounts
• smart card system for those without bank accounts
• Makes government more transparent to citizens -
  access to information
• Greater opportunities to participate in
  democratic institutions
• Future voting
• Useful in solving constituents problems
• Track problems using CRM-type software

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E-Government Stages

• Six stages to implementation (most governments
  are at stage 1)
• Information publishing/dissemination services
  available, contact details
• Two-way transactions - Submit personal
  information, monetary transactions
• Multipurpose portals in Australia
  www.sa.gov.au
• Portal personalisation must allow interfaces
  to be manipulated by user
• Clustering of common services people see
  clusters of services rather than agencies
  reorganisation of government structure
• Full integration and enterprise transformation
  full service centre personalised to customer

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E-Government

• Implementation issues
• Transformation speed - usually slow
• Resistance by employees
• Limited budget
• Legal environment
• G2B implementation
• Easier than G2C
• Can be outsourced (Hong Kong)
• Security and privacy issues
• Citizens data
• Especially healthcare
• Wireless applications
• E.g. wireless tourist service (Bergen)

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E-Government in UK

• Implementation issues
• Has reached the stage of two-way transactions
  with many sites
• Fast uptake of broadband in UK, but sparse use of
  online eGovernment services by citizens
• Few government employees have completed their
  first ECDL module
• 800 Government bodies spawned 3000 sites (2003)
• Need for sites offering related services in one
  place
• Each distinct site needs to be clear and focused
• E.g. housing, transport, education, immigration
• Public will learn to associate that site with its
  particular services
• Fragmented view of a citizen
• Many different departments hold records
• Often Different formats
• Implementation of cross agency infrastructure
  lacking

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E-Government - Increasing Inequality?

• Digital divide within UK
• The haves Broadband access from the home
• The have-nots no Internet access
• Except in Public libraries perhaps
• May lack skills/education to use it effectively
• The elderly may lack skills, and may not trust
  faceless interaction
• Those on the wrong side of the digital divide may
  be even more excluded from participation in
  democracy
• Important information on candidates at election
  time
• Submission to ePetitions for lobbying
  parliament
• Solutions?
• Brazil offering half a million computers to
  citizens at low prices
• Credit schemes to assist citizens to buy

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Addressing the Democratic Deficit

• Voter turnout has dropped

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Addressing the Democratic Deficit(Many facts
from essay by Robert Glasgow)

• Voter turnout has dropped
• in the United States
• 70 of eligible population register to vote
• 50 vote in presidential elections
• Western Europe average 77 turnout
• UK 60
• Especially low among young, unemployed, ethnic
  minorities
• Latin America 54
• Decline almost wholly concentrated among young
  people
• Membership in political parties
• 1950s 3.5M
• 2000s 0.5M
• Public Trust in
• Politicians 18
• Doctors 91

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Addressing the Democratic Deficit

• Participation in new social movements has
  increased
• Campaign groups
• 1M demonstrated against Iraq war
• NGOs (e.g. Amnesty International)
• Increasingly on the Internet
• People disillusioned with traditional political
  system?

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Electronic Participation

• eRevolution?
• Top down benefits Potential to make citizens
• More informed
• Streaming footage of debates
• Political information
• More engaged
• Webchats with elected representatives
• Online Voting (Estonia and Switzerland)
• More trusting
• Bottom up benefits Potential for citizens to
• Contribute to policy making
• Online Questionnaires
• Discussion Forums
• Propose policies themselves
• Hold politicians to account
• Reach to young people
• 30 of 15-24yr olds have engaged in online
  political activity (10 offline)

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Electronic Participation

• Criticisms
• Unrealistic
• Ignores existing political process
• De-legitimises existing institutions
• Power devolved from elected representatives and
  placed in hands of administrative side
• Politicians may be unable to fulfil campaign
  promises
• Ignores problems in web technologies
• Easy to set up forum
• Hard to analyse and collate results unrealistic
  software
• Too open to deception/malicious use
• Some politicians view public participation as a
  threat

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Electronic Participation

• Big Conversation - http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk
  _politics/3245620.stm
• 77-page document setting out challenges faced by
  Britain
• Website gives people a chance to air their views
  on policies
• Issues
• Ban workplace smoking?
• Should rowdy city centre pubs contribute towards
  policing?
• Funding in further education and UK
• How important is the euro to locking in
  macroeconomic stability?
• Criticisms
• Merely a publicity stunt
• Danger of pressure groups hijacking exercise

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Electronic Participation

• Big Conversation
• - Guardian Article http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk
  _politics/3245620.stm
• For the duration of its life, the Big
  Conversation website carried not a single comment
  from a single voter on
• Iraq
• Terrorism
• Blair's relationship with Bush
• Working on this newspaper's Diary column at the
  time, I was contacted almost daily by people who
  had attempted to address one of the above issues
  in either an email or text message (price 25p),
  but whose comments mysteriously never
  materialised on the site
• As for those that made it through
• "I am so proud to have voted Labour with my first
  ever vote a few years ago," read one comment.
  "Everywhere I look I see new cars, wealth,
  opportunities, investment and most favourable
  mortgage rates."

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eGovernment in the Developing World

• "About 99 of the benefits of having a PC come
  when you've provided reasonable health and
  literacy to the person who's going to sit down
  and use it".
• Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft

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eGovernment in the Developing World
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eGovernment in the Developing World
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eGovernment in the Developing World

• Case study in Sri Lanka (by Geeth de Mel)
• ICT Programme established in 2002
• Aims
• Improved delivery off social services
• Let people access information efficiently
• Improve inter organisation communication
• Reducing the vulnerabilities to natural disasters
• Example of existing problems
• Tsunami of 2004 still no accurate figures on
  affected people
• No mechanisms to support aid organisations in
  immediate aftermath
• Greater transparency
• Reduce corruption
• Increased social participation
• Empowerment off poor
• Further socio-economic development

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eGovernment in the Developing World

• Case study in Sri Lanka (by Geeth de Mel)
• Example Failure/Success
• Ministry of Education went online with exam
  results
• System poorly planned and crashed
• Took department longer than old manual system
• Success story from same department in 2004
• Introduced new ICT curriculum
• Success due to Internettelevisionradio (more
  accessible)

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eGovernment in the Developing World

• Case study in Sri Lanka (by Geeth de Mel)
• Difficulties
• Lack cash flow encourage assistance of 3rd
  parties
• Vested Interest by 3rd parties can change project
  goals
• Corruption by high ranking officials
• Schools starting to get computer labs
• But not all villages have electricity
• IT literacy
• City 35
• Rural lt10
• Computer ownership
• Urban 10
• Rural 3
• Estate 0.3

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eGovernment in Singapore

• http//www.ecitizen.gov.sg/
• eCitizen can
• do passport application
• register as resident
• find jobs in government
• pay road tax
• donate to Charities
• Governments role changes from manager to service
  provider
• Citizens become like customers
• Dangers
• Dependence on technology also brings
  vulnerability
• Hackers/terrorists
• easier than physical attacks on government
• privacy

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eGovernment Summary

• Terminology - G2C, G2B, G2E
• Major areas of G2C activities
• Six stages to implementation
• Implementation Problems
• Current state in UK
• E-Government - Increasing Inequality?
• Addressing the Democratic Deficit
• eParticipation
• eGovernment in the Developing World Sri Lanka
• eGovernment in Singapore