NEWSLETTER - Breaking Barriers to eGovernment - Overcoming obstacles to improving European public services

Issue No 14. October 2007

Welcome to the fourteenth edition of the newsletter of the Breaking Barriers to eGovernment project, funded by the European Commission's eEurope 2005 Modinis programme. In addition to the findings from the project's good-practice case studies and other activities, the newsletter contains news, information and resources. Our overall aim is to offer expert insights and practical advice on ways of overcoming obstacles to the growth of high-quality and innovative uses of eGovernment capabilities in Europe.

Project highlights

Conference on Solutions for eGovernment, 31 October, Florence, Italy
We are looking forward to the Solutions for eGovernment conference on Wednesday 31 October at the European University Institute (EUI), Florence, Italy. Our final project workshop, co-branded with ePractice.eu, will focus on specific legal and organisational solutions to overcome obstacles to eGovernment progression. The event will be a combination of presentations from academia and practice and small working group sessions that focus on particular solutions for eGovernment. The agenda has been finalised, and speakers include:

• Dr Trond-Arne Undheim, eGovernment Unit, European Commission
• Professor Helen Margetts, OII, University of Oxford, UK
• Dr Julián Valero, University of Murcia, Spain
• Professor Cécile de Terwangne CRID, University of Namur, Belgium
• Dr Sjaak Nouwt TILT, University of Tilburg, Netherlands
• Professor Giovanni Sartor, Law Department, European University Institute, Italy
• Dr Christine Leitner, Danube University Krems, Austria
• Emilio Aced-Félez, Head of the Inspection Unit, Data Protection Agency of Madrid, Spain
• Elizabeth Muller, Gov3, London, UK

For more details please see the Breaking Barriers to eGovernment project website: http://www.egovbarriers.org/?view=events

Workshop on preserving and archiving government information
The Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, in collaboration with CEGER, the Management Centre for an eGovernment Network, Portugal held a workshop on preserving and archiving government information. The event was organised with the support and involvement of the Breaking Barriers Project and the James Martin 21st Century School, eHorizons Project. The workshop took place in Oxford on Tuesday 16th October. For more details please see: http://www.egovbarriers.org/downloads/news/Agenda_CEGER_Oxford16thOct2007.pdf

Solutions for eGovernment Project Draft Deliverable 3 published
The third draft deliverable for the project was published on 13 September, and is now available online. The report proposes key legal and organisational solutions to barriers to eGovernment. The recommendations aim to further the objectives of the European Commission's i2010 eGovernment Action Plan: leaving no citizen behind; making efficiency and effectiveness a reality; implementing high-impact key services for citizens and businesses; putting key enablers in place; and strengthening participation and democratic decision-making.

The document has two main parts. In the first, organizational solutions to barriers to eGovernment are presented and in the second the project team's main proposals for actions at European, national, regional and local levels to adapt legal frameworks to facilitate smoother eGovernment progress are summarised.

The full report is available at: http://www.egovbarriers.org/downloads/deliverables/Draft_deliverable_3_Sep07.pdf

eGovernment news

Online discussion on solutions to eGovernment on ePractice
An online discussion about solutions to eGovernment is currently taking place on ePractice.eu. Join in the debate, and add your comments at: http://www.epractice.eu/blog/23

The Fourth Ministerial Conference on eGovernment took place on 19-21 September
The Lisbon Ministerial Conference on Reaping the Benefits of eGovernment took place on 19-21 September. Speaker presentations are now available at: http://www.megovconf-lisbon.gov.pt/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=37. For general information about the Conference, please see the Conference website at: http://www.megovconf-lisbon.gov.pt/

Ministerial declaration on eGovernment
A ministerial declaration was unanimously approved on 19 Septemeber at the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Lisbon. It is available at: http://www.megovconf-lisbon.gov.pt/images/stories/ministerial_declaration_final_version_180907.pdf

Winners announced for the European eGovernment Awards
Winners of the European eGovernment Awards were announced at the Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Lisbon. The City of Amsterdam from The Netherlands, the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform of Norway, the City of Besançon from France and the Portal of the Federal Government of Germany each picked up one of the prestigious awards celebrating Europe's most innovative public services. The prize for the Most Inspiring Good Practice went to the State Police of Italy as a result of a public vote. The winners were each presented with the European Award Trophy by Vice President Siim Kallas of the European Commission and Minister Silva Pereira of the Portuguese Presidency. More information is available at: http://www.megovconf-lisbon.gov.pt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=120&Itemid=13

Interview of the month – Miroslav Kovačić, the State Secretary for the Central State Administrative Office for eCroatia

eGovernment in Croatia – a Catalyst for Change
Miroslav Kovačić became the State Secretary for eCroatia in 2004, following a successful career in foreign affairs. As one of the young and prominent members of the ruling party he accepted this challenging position on the invitation of Croatia's PM Ivo Sanader. The eCroatia office often finds itself at the centre of media attention due to a large number of projects initiated whose goal is to use information technology to increase the speed and efficiency of the work done by state administration, help citizens and entrepreneurs in communication with the governmental departments, accelerate the justice system reforms and prepare Croatia for immersion in the global knowledge society. In only four years a small team of fifteen people led by Kovačić were able to put in motion reforms which in a few years brought Croatia to the level of regional IT leader, in addition to it advancing on the global competitiveness scale. Kovačić often emphasises the key elements of success for eCroatia: Our ideas would not be successful if there was no political support and will favouring changes.

Background of the eGovernment projects in Croatia
Created in 2004, eCroatia transformed Croatian society into a regional IT leader in only a couple of years. However, it is important to note that in all of our aspirations we continue to follow the goals of i2010 agenda, and even though we are not a member of European Union at this moment we measure the results of our projects according to the EU criteria.

One stop shops for business registration
Through the projects of eCroatia, we wish to create a truly Open Door type of administration by making it more user friendly, hoping for citizen's contentment and continuous use of our services such is Croatian One Stop Shop: HITRO.HR, www.hitro.hr (Hitro means swiftly in English). We created this service in 2005 on the idea that state administration enables citizens and entrepreneurs to access services and information in a fast, efficient and inexpensive way. HITRO.HR offices (sixty-one now available throughout the country) became a place of initial contact with administration regarding the registration of a business. This project has shortened the average time needed for at the counter registration of one's business to no more than five days, compared to what used to be a few months, and registration of one's business electronically now takes no longer than one day. Thus far, our experience has shown an immense public approval manifested in the rapidly growing number of HITRO.HR users.

Administrative burden reduction
While one of our initiatives focused on creating a safe and effective ground for business creation and its success, as well as polite and understanding operatives behind the counters, the other program, HITROREZ, www.hitrorez.hr (Hitrorez literally means swiftly cut), centred on a detailed internal reform and the reorganisation and simplification of laws and regulations in order to minimise administrative burdens of the businesses. The innovative aspect of this project was that every step we took,or change in regulations we made, has been completely transparent to the public through its website.

Consumer-centric portal of the entire government
With completely positive experience and vast public acceptance in our eGovernment projects we decided to start a project which soon resulted in the portal Moja uprava (www.mojauprava.hr), literally meaning my government. Our goal is for the portal Moja uprava to become a single port of entry into the administration, bringing closer these two spheres of our society. This is yet another innovative project of this government, based on the successful Great Britain, Singapore and Hong Kong portal examples completed in only five months. What we are most proud of is that citizens are directly involved in the development of the portal, either through market research or through providing feedback and comments via the suggestion link on the portal. In the next two to three years we wish to make all of the governmental information available through this portal, as well as to take a step further by offering its content through a number of other communication channels such as telephone and digital television. All of the administrative information is available in one place 24/7 and is organised by age and interest groups. It ensures a unique way of communication between all the levels of the society (G2C, G2B, and G2G) and requires continuous market research and analyses to enrich the portal and bring the citizen satisfaction levels to a maximum.

Solutions
In short, our goal in eCroatia program is to assist, lead and most importantly provide our citizens with the information they need. We tend to be practical, see what may be applicable in Croatia, and learn from other countries' examples. By creating accessible administration and a favourable playing field for the businesses, as well as their growth, we hope to give a push to our economic development and open the door to creativity, competition and cooperation. Less red tape is our main goal, which we are certain would lead to improvement of our economic development. In order to do so the Government is committed to improving the situation and has shown a will to implement needed changes. This we believe is a great step forward for a small country such as ours towards becoming an equal partner in today's competitive global market.

For your diary

24 - 26 October 2007, eChallenges e2007, The Hague, Netherlands. This is the seventeenth in a series of Annual Conferences supported by the European Commission, with delegates coming from commercial, government and research organisations around the world to share knowledge and experience, lessons learnt and good practice. This years core thematic areas include ICT for Networked Enterprise, eGovernment and eDemocracy, Collaborative Working Environments, eHealth, Knowledge and Content Technologies, Security and Identity Management and Technology Enhanced Learning and ICT Skills. For more information see: http://www.echallenges.org/e2007/default.asp?page=exhibinfo

29 October 2007, Workshop on Ethical Aspects of Inclusion in the Information Society, Brussels, Belgium. The European Commission is organising a one-day workshop on the main ethical issues in the field of eInclusion. Key issues such as informed consent, right to privacy and protection of personal data, respect for dignity and integrity of the person, non-invasion of the private sphere, equity, intrusiveness (of information technologies), risk and responsibilities for critical technologies will be discussed. The key question for the workshop: what will be the ethical issues in a five years perspective, for citizens, the industry, and society at large? For more information see: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/einclusion/events/workshop_ethics/index_en.htm

7 November 2007, Economic Participation in the Age of Networking Digital Ecosystems of Knowledge, Business and Services, Brussels, Belgium. The Digital Ecosystem (DE) aims to provide SMEs with ICT infrastructure and technology to improve their efficiency and integration into global value chains. It is a systemic approach to firms global collaboration based on open-source, distributed environment of networked services. The DE offers and transports services (applications) and information (knowledge), through adaptive technologies and evolutionary business models that empower the business network and support local and regional development. During this event, achievements of the first three years and future perspectives of the Collaborative EU research and deployment of Digital Business Ecosystems will be presented and discussed. For more information see: http://de-2007.eu/

12 November 2007, ISWC Workshop on Semantic Web on Ubiquitous Healthcare, Busan, South Korea. This Workshop takes place on 12 November 2007, as part of the 6th International Semantic Web Conference (11-15 November 2007, Busan, South Korea). For more information see: http://fountain.ecs.soton.ac.uk/semUbiCare/

14 - 15 November 2007, ICT Networking event, Cairo, Egypt. The ICT National Contact Point in Egypt, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, is organising an International Networking event for RTD cooperation with Europe. The events focus is on ICT Call 3, with a special emphasis on the Challenge 4: "Digital libraries and Content" which is included in that call. It will also promote Natural Language Processing (NLP) as a local priority in the Arab Mediterranean region and its relation with Challenge 4 of the ICT thematic priority. The event will bring together EU researchers in areas relevant to ICT Call 3 with potential ICT research partners from Egypt and the EUROMED countries. The event will disseminate information about the call and promote networking and consortium creation, and it is the first of its kind to be held in Egypt. For more information see: http://www.mcit.gov.eg/EventDetails.aspx?id=apsNxE6vMnU

22 November 2007, ETNO 5th Annual Conference, Brussels, Belgium. Coinciding with the publication of the Commission's proposals for the review of the EU regulatory framework, this year's conference of the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association will be devoted to ‘Finding the right balance – Developing a regulatory framework for tomorrow's markets'. The event will provide an opportunity for debate between experts from EU institutions, telecoms operators and member states, on technology developments and the most appropriate regulatory environment for today's competitive markets. For more information see: http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=d015350d-37fe-4096-836a-db84bddcddff

17 - 18 December 2007, Digital libraries and technology-enhanced learning, Luxembourg. This information day, organised by the European Commission, addresses researchers interested in submitting project proposals to the third ICT call under FP7, objective "Digital libraries and technology-enhanced learning". It aims to help participants to better understand the work programme and criteria for the evaluation of proposals, to facilitate sharing of ideas and experiences, and to find partners for project consortia. Participation is free of charge, but subject to registration before 3 December 2007. For more information see: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/telearn-digicult/call3-infodays_en.html

Get involved!

If you would like to get involved here are a few ways how:

Contribute to this newsletter!
The project is looking for information to include in this newsletter, as well as senior eGovernment leaders to interview for upcoming newsletters. If you would like to express your views regarding the barriers to eGovernment (or you know someone who would), please contact Elizabeth Muller at: elizabeth.muller@gov3.net

EC Project knowledge keeps improving
This project keeps improving and evolving. If you would like to contribute articles or web directory items to our continuously updated breaking barriers website and newsletter, please contact: rebecca.eynon@oii.ox.ac.uk

Join the debate
Discuss your experiences of barriers to eGovernment; share ideas, good practice and case studies on our forum at: http://forum.egovbarriers.org/forum11.html

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This newsletter is published under contract with the European Commission, eGovernment Unit, DG Information Society and Media. It may be copied, distributed and used for educational purposes. The views expressed may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on its behalf is responsible for the use that might be made of the information provided.