Four keys to the Global Village

1
Four keys to the Global Village

• My Garðabær
• A Milestone in E-service and Local Democracy

Ásdís Halla Bragadóttir Mayor of Garðabær
2
Garðabær

• The sixth largest town in Iceland.
• Population 8.900.
• Population will more than double in the next 15
  years.
• Our challenge is to try to change our small
  community into a well connected Global Village
  where informed and responsible inhabitants have
  an active role.

3
What has been done to reach the Global Village?
4
Four keys to different doors
Schools
Service
Cooperation
Consultation
5
1. Schools

• IT policy from 1999-2003
• IT integrated into every subject
• wireless network connections in classrooms
• every teacher gets a laptop
• Strong support for teachers executive education
• 2 employees in every school focusing on IT
• IT classrooms and laptop wagons
• Active communication with parents 99 have
  emails
• Now the Preschools are also working with IT

6
2. Service 24x7

• 95 of homes with Internet connections
• Transformed our e-government
• From one way information flow to the inhabitants
• Towards access to traditional government services
  (anytime, anywhere access) 24X7 at
  www.gardabaer.is. Around 4000 visits per week.
• No complaints about opening hours?

7
3. Consultation and democracy

• Important to avoid knowledge gap and ensure
  accessibility within the community.
• Turned the library into an information center
• everyone can get access to the net with a minimum
  cost and guidance from trained staff
• Special training and education for people over 60
  and computer with internet connection at their
  center.
• Politicians, officials and most of our employees
  have email addresses published on our web.
• 1/3 of the homes get weekly news with email.
• All kind of traditional consultation through
  meetings, open forums etc.

8
4. Cooperation with IT companies

• Important to invest in RD.
• The key in rapid development is to work with
  companies and talented people you can trust.
• Garðabæs close cooperation with IT companies has
  been vital for our improvement. 
• Total cost of this development is in the past 4
  years estimated more than 2 million Euros.
  Expensive for a small community.
•  

9
Not satisfied

• Although we have made a huge progress in the last
  4 years we are still not satisfied.
• The biggest challenge is to take one step further
  towards more highly integrated services with a
  focus on individual needs and local democracy.
• During the year 2003 our most frequent question
  was How can we make all our information systems
  and infrastructure more accessible and useful to
  the inhabitants?

10
With four keys you need a keyring!
11
Solution My Garðabær

• Together with GoPro, an Icelandic software
  company, we came to the conclusion that to use
  our keys efficiently we needed a simple
  connection between them.
• The solution was a database connected portal we
  call ,,My Garðabær.
• Every inhabitant can go to our web and they log
  on to their own personal webspace.

12
Our web
13
How does GoPro e-community work?

• After you log on with your personal password the
  software GoPro e-community
• identifies the user
• brings out personal information from our
  information systems
• reveals the information on the inhabitants
  personal webspace

14
(No Transcript)
15
Whats in it for me?
16
1. Get personalized information

• When inhabitants log on for the first time they
  check the categories they are interested in and
  fill out information about their mobile and
  e-mail.
• Afterwards they get the news or announcements
  they are specially interested in
• urban development,
• environment
• education
• etc.

17
(No Transcript)
18
... personalized information

• Everyone can see the financial status related to
  municipality, e.g. unpaid playschool fees or
  property tax.
• Parents get information about their own
  childrens work at playschool and elementary
  school, e.g.
• daily schedule,
• homework,
• attendance,
• today's menu,
• announcements from their teachers,
• classmates names, telephone numbers and addresses

19
Did my teenager come late to school?
20
2. Create and follow your case

• Every user can fill in forms and apply for
  services on-line.
• Send a formal signed letter to Garðabær.
• Monitor the status of errands sent to the city
• Who is now working on the case?
• For how long has the case been with this
  committee or official?
• Has the case been sent to the city council?
• Receive the conclusion.
• The user always has access to his files at My
  Garðabær.

21
Who is working on my case now?
22
A question with an attachment
23
...and the attachment
24
...and its fed directly into GoPro at the
administration offices
25
3. Participate in local democracy

• With identified users the municipality can
  involve the inhabitant more in the
  decision-making process, e.g. with
• Surveys
• Discussion
• Consultation

26
A. Surveys

• The municipality can use My Garðabær to do all
  kind of surveys, e.g. regarding the services of
  the municipality, in an efficient way.
• In surveys it is ensured that each inhabitant
  only replies once.
• Surveys can be sent to all registered users or to
  selected groups e.g.
• Those who have marked special interests,
• Live in certain neighborhoods
• Parents
• Elderly people

27
Example of a survey sent to 65
28
B. Discussion

• Every month there are open discussions on
  different selected issues, e.g. a new school
  policy.
• Participants have to obey certain rules, it is
  f.eks. forbidden to discuss personal matters and
  all kind of prejudice is also forbidden.
• Discussions are always named and traceable.

29
Named participation in discussion forums
30
C. Consultation

• My Garðabær will be used in all kinds of
  consultation f.eks. regarding planning proposals.
• Inhabitants get planning proposal announcements,
  regarding their neighborhood or other areas,
  through email or mobile phone.
• The inhabitants use the consultation form on My
  Garðabær to send their position.
• They can add or change their own message until
  announced deadline.

31
Consultation on plan proposals
32
When will My Garðabær be ready?

• Almost ready and you are welcome to try the
  portal here in the lobby with GoPro staff.
• The plan is to have My Garðabær completely
  developed and running in October 2004.
• We already have ideas on how to improve the
  portal in the near future
• We would like to develop close cooperation with
  state run services within the municipality. Our
  vision is to create access to all public services
  through one portal.
• We would also like to increase cooperation with
  independent clubs who offer services to the
  inhabitants, like our sports club.

33
Valuable resources we must utilize

• Icelandic small communities have been developing
  from the ,,Fishing Village to the ,,Global
  Village but still wanting to keep our
  strengths and specialties as a nation with a
  strong culture proud of our history.
• To do that successfully we must utilize our
  inhabitants as valuable resources we can't afford
  to ignore.
• We do believe in our inhabitants and hope that
  they will accept this opportunity to become
  active participants in our small ,,Global
  Village.

34
Thank you!