E-GOVERNMENT
E-Government Can Help Meet Globalization Challenges
WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
Plan for UN to Manage Internet 'Will Be Shelved'
INTERNET
Middle East Dissidents Use the Internet to Take Action
21ST CENTURY SKILLS
NEPAD Unveils Computer Literacy Plan for Africa
E-GOVERMENT FOR ALL CONFERENCE, DAY 5
Connecting Research with Policy and Practice
Federal E-Government Initiatives in the U.S.
International Perspectives on Achieving E-Government for All
"Open Space" Discussion Forums
Note: During the 10 days of the E-Government for All conference (November
3-14), the Headlines team will include highlights from the ongoing
conference sessions, along with our usual headlines. We hope you find the
additional summaries useful. For more information on the conference, please
visit http://www.egov4all.org.
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E-GOVERNMENT
E-GOVERNMENT CAN HELP MEET GLOBALIZATION CHALLENGES
The UN-backed Fifth Global Forum on Re-inventing Government declared last
Thursday that "improved governance and public administration" are necessary
preconditions for sustainable development. The forum of more than 100
delegations, which convened in Mexico City last week, recommended the
rapidly evolving tool of e-government to contend with the expectations of
citizens in the new century. The Forum said that e-government would enhance
participatory democracy, while e-administration and back-office components
would aid in the transition to the electronic delivery of services.
E-learning was emphasized as a strategy to build talent, using performance
measurements, monitoring, evaluation and core public service values.
Conference participants had the opportunity to learn from the Mexican
government's experience with doing more for less. "The public sector must
challenge itself continuously to improve the way it does business," UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a message read by
Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Jose Antonio Ocampo
at the opening.
SOURCE: UN News Centre
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=8812&Cr=internet&Cr1=govern...
#
WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
PLAN FOR U.N. TO MANAGE INTERNET 'WILL BE SHELVED'
Management of the Internet will be one of the main points of contention at
the final round of WSIS preparatory talks, going on this week in Geneva.
However, UN officials say they see no compromise emerging. Poorer nations,
such as Brazil and India, and some richer ones like China, are growing
dissatisfied with the workings of California-based ICANN (Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the semi-private Internet
address regulator. Critics argue that the Internet is a public resource and
should be managed by national governments at an international level, by a
body such as the International Telecommunications Union. Defenders of the
status quo, namely the United States and the European Commission, claim that
government control could stifle the free flow of information and ideas.
These arguments seem to be losing ground to new challenges, such as spam,
privacy and security issues, hate speech and child pornography, which may
require international regulation and enforcement.
SOURCE: Financial Times: AUTHOR: Francis Williams
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullSto...
=StoryFT&cid=1066565751923&p=1012571727172
INTERNET
MIDDLE EAST DISSIDENTS USE THE INTERNET TO TAKE ACTION
W. Sean McLaughlin examines how dissidents in the Middle East use the
Internet as a tool to take action in the face of state-imposed constraints
on Internet access. "Non-state actors have revisionist goals and the
Internet offers advantages for accomplishing these political objectives,"
says McLaughlin. State officials seek to oppose Internet-based dissidence by
limiting Internet infrastructure or imposing censorship constraints.
McLaughlin develops a model for Internet-based dissidence and then applies
it to different case studies: The Muslim Brotherhood in both Jordan and
Egypt, and the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia. These groups have been
highly effective in using the Internet to conduct their dissidence, despite
state-imposed constraints on their activities. McLaughlin argues that
successful use of dissent in the Middle East could have important
implications for the political landscape of the region.
SOURCE: First Monday; AUTHOR: W. Sean McLaughlin
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_11/mclaughlin/index.html
21ST CENTURY SKILLS
NEPAD UNVEILS COMPUTER LITERACY PLAN FOR AFRICA
In Kenya, computer literacy will be required for all students completing
secondary school by 2008. The NEPAD initiative, which eventually will serve
the entire African continent, would require sufficiently trained teachers in
information and communication technology (ICT) in all African schools.
George Saitoti, Kenya's Education Minister, says the government plans to
conduct an ICT in-service training for 43,000 teachers over the course of
the initiative. The program will make schools ICT proficient, starting at
the secondary level by 2008, then the primary school level by 2012. The goal
is to make 2,500 primary and secondary schools "ICT-ready" annually.
Twenty-two strategic institutions have been linked to a network through the
Kenya Education Network (KENET), a partnership between the governments of
Kenya and the United States. Kenya is one of the 18 countries that have
already signed up for the first phase of this ICT literacy initiative.
SOURCE: The Nation (Nairobi)
http://allafrica.com/stories/200311050066.html
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E-Government for All:
November 3-14, 2003
Over 1100 participants from 78 countries
Information and registration: http://www.egov4all.org/
CONFERENCE SUMMARY, DAY 5
CONNECTING RESEARCH WITH POLICY AND PRACTICE
"While accessibility is a big consideration for me as well, I worry that a
disproportionate amount of attention gets devoted to the form/shape of
e-government activity (namely website design, appropriateness of technology,
etc.) rather than the substance," noted Ryan Turner of OMB Watch. "On one
level, this includes what information is available, what *more* information
will be available than is currently, and what information has the potential
for being lost or taken away). On another level, however, it also includes
exploring the tension between how technological considerations shape, frame,
hamper/hinder, or foster the activities of government, whether it be data
collection, analysis by government workers or the public, and
dissemination."
"But the one additional level I still don't hear is how well e-government
activity factors in the need to educate citizens/the public about the basic
functions and processes which underly whatever level of technology
dressing," he continued. "Just because you can have e-rulemaking facilities
doesn't mean everyone understands how a rule is made, how to submit
comments, how to follow up with agency heads, where to look for background
citations, etc."
Educator Dave Bloch offered a teacher's perspective on the issue. "To me,
every Website is just a new version of those slide shows and flimstrips we
used to see in elementary school," he said. "Every screen on your Website is
a slide, and it has to TEACH something! What's different is that, besides
the content, the screeen also has to teach HOW TO NAVIGATE ITSELF. This has
been our best argument for simple and unified layout and navigation, as we
pulled all our disparate department Websites into one County site. The
hardest part of doing this Webmaster job is to keep thinking like a citizen,
and NOT like someone who works inside the County building walls. Seems to me
that, the more we can keep our view looking from the Outside In rather than
Inside Out, the better a job we do."
"It is important to keep the website clientele in mind," Darrell West said,
continuing with this point. "Average citizens struggle with more things on a
website than is the case with webmasters or other people with specialized
knowledge about technology or government. Since there is no uniform look to
government websites, every time someone goes onto to a new government site,
he or she must take a few moments to figure out how this particular site is
organized and how to find the material that is needed. Keeping that citizen
perspective in mind when you design government websites is an important
perspective."
Karl Hebenstreit, Jr. of the U.S. General Services Administration noted a
conversation at a recent usability workshop in which speakers suggested that
the government develop a collection of case study "personas" that would help
government website developers think more about the needs and abilities of
particular audiences. "The idea is that we should be able to build some
composite 'personas' (probably about a dozen) which could then be shared
across government agencies, and that these 'personas' could help guide user
interface design," Karl explained.
Meanwhile, Don Straus returned to the issue of multilingual content, raised
earlier in the week. "But my interest here is not to persuade anyone in this
distinguished group, but rather to understand why the distinction between
multilingual 'information' and 'participation' hasn't been more generally
recognized," he said.
"[F]or me, one reason for participation is the possibility of more
realistic, effective decisions," Rosemary Gunn replied. "Then the important
question in thinking about whose participation should be encouraged is not
language or citizenship - it is who will be affected by a decision and who
needs to be involved to get it implemented - and therefore who decision
makers need to hear from before deciding. Say that some level of government
is talking about aspects of education where many of the affected parents are
non-native speakers (whose children may be citizens, whether the parents are
or not). If the decision doesn't take the affected families into account, it
may be hard to implement, and people may wonder 'now why didn't that work?'"
"What is badly needed is collaborative discussions involving people with
your concerns and mine, with the goal for both side to find solutions rather
than to just WIN from their different concerns and points of view," Don
replied.
FEDERAL E-GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES IN THE U.S.
The closing days of the Federal E-government panel discussion tied up loose
ends as FCC webmaster David Kitzmiller gave his final responses to questions
previously posed by Belinda Spinosi, Erik Baekkeskov and Shani Smothers.
On Wednesday, good government advocate Belinda Spinosi asked Kitzmiller how
Section 508 accessibility requirements should be enforced on US government
websites, including addressing the issue of website readability.
"I think that your approach to looking at 508 enforcement language provides
a welcome perspective that I think will be helpful in broadening our
efforts, not just fulfilling the law," responded Kitzmiller. "Our starting
point must come from what IS in the standards, even though the regs
[regulators] don't say that filing a complaint is the ONLY way of enforcing
508."
Within the language of Section 508, there are three enforcement tools
mentioned, said Kitzmiller. First, individuals may file complaints and suits
against an agency. Second, federal documents must contain Section 508
compliance requirements. Finally, the U.S. Attorney General must prepare a
biennial report and make recommendations regarding the state of Federal
department and agency compliance with the requirements of section 508.
"It's been my experience, and I firmly believe that the FCC and many other
Federal agencies, have indeed taken it upon themselves to fully implement
the spirit and intent of Section 508," said Kitzmiller. He said the large
number of attendees at the Interagency Disability Educational Awareness
Showcase evidences the federal government's commitment to complying with
Section 508.
On Wednesday, Erik Baekkeskov, a PhD student in political science at
University of California Berkeley, asked, "To what extent are alternatives
(paper/phone) to online access a part of accessibility in the Federal
strategy? How do you manage your infrastructure -- is all work done by
federal employees and computers, or are functions contracted out to vendors
(e.g., EDS)? If the latter, what functions?"
"All of our official documents are available on paper for public inspection
at our headquarters," Kitzmiller responded. "All public releases come with
instructions for obtaining materials in alternative, accessible formats, and
there's also a publicized method of accepting public submissions in
alternative formats." The FCC also has a specialist focused on providing
transcription and FCC information in Braille, large print,
screen-reader-ready electronic text, audio and video formats available upon
request, he added. Complaints can be files on the web, by email, by postal
mail, or over the phone, TTY, or by fax. "We offer Agency and division-level
TTY and toll-free numbers backed-up by fully staffed state-of-the-art local
and national call centers with 508-compliant voicemail systems," continued
Kitzmiller. As for managing FCC infrastructure, two of the seventeen bureaus
and offices use outside contractors to some extent on basic HTML pages, he
said. However, most of the FCC's e-filing systems are created and maintained
by outside programmers under the guidance of the IT department and
Bureau/Office program staff.
On Thursday, Shani Smothers, graduate student and Benton Foundation intern,
asked, "Is there any particular reason that e-government initiatives, only
think of accessibility in terms of disability access? Why are low-level
readability and foreign language access not priorities as well and included
in the amendments and compliance standards?"
"[The FCC's] own definition of accessibility does address more than just
accessibility in terms of people who are blind or deaf or hard of hearing,"
Kitzmiller responded. He said their accessibility handbook addresses other
accessibility practices like people with mobility impairments, people with
low-vision, people with speech disabilities and people who may have a
combination of these types of impairments. "Our improved design standards
indirectly address accessibility for people with cognitive difficulties,
low-level readers and older adults, but we plan to add this in writing to
our policies and handbook in the near future," he added. Currently, foreign
language accessibility is not written into FCC official website policy, he
said, but it is increasing.
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACHIEVING E-GOVERNMENT FOR ALL
Panelist Pablo Bermudez expanded on the idea of user friendliness,
describing two classical approaches to graphic design and "friendliness."
Most administrations dealing with e-government assume it's an IT problem,
while others see e-government as a more integral problem. "From my point of
view, the second must be the right one!," writes Pablo. "It's not just a
matter of assigning the project to the tech guys and pretending that they
will come up with the perfect solution." It involves much more than that, he
says: "Communication skills (using the right language(s)), anthropological
approaches (especially in ethnically diverse countries), a will to publish
-- not to retain -- information for the public (Freedom of Information Acts
that consider the use of web portals), a will to preserve physical and
electronic information (not just as accountability but to preserve an
institutional and historical memory), and a will to build a real democracy
where people's opinion can be considered, especially for those who never had
a voice (unconnected, geographically dispersed or culturally alienated or
forgotten buy the state)..."
Next, Krishnan clarified his comments about e-administration as the key to
e-governance. "It is not technology (ICT or CTI) which can bring about
e-Governance. It is the acceptability and mindset of people," he said. "As
long as the government does not come as a stumbling block, the progress can
happen anywhere." Educating users would be required, and citizen voluntary
groups and NGOs can help in taking e-Governance forward. Krishnan cited
infrastructure as a crucial element to be addressed.
In response, Andrei Marusov began by offering a definition for e-governance.
"I share the view that e-Governance is about 'facilitation of interactions
between citizens, government organizations and elected officials, including
governing and policy-making process,' whereas e-Administration is the
'internal and public sector management component,'" he said. If ICT use in
the governmental sphere is restricted merely to the delivery of services,
Andrei said he would agree with Krishnan that e-administration is the key to
e-governance. "Then, Singapore should be a blueprint for the world and China
- its best pupil," he said, citing several articles as examples. "But ICTs
promise more - involving citizenry in policy-making, public deliberations,
bridging not the digital but the 'alienation or disengagement divide'
between those who govern and the governed.... For example, the Western
preoccupation with ICTs 'bridging the disengagement divide' is clearly
understandable - there is something wrong with the very legitimacy of the
democratic state if voter turnout falls, disengagement and public apathy
grow and consumerist approach towards the state and civic duties is on the
rise."
In his next posting, Andrei drew participants' attention to the importance
of international evaluation and benchmarking studies. He is concerned that
reliance on such studies may lead to pitfalls for practitioners in
developing / transition countries. In particular, he critiqued the Taubman
Center's third annual update on global e-government. Andrei suggested that
the Center's e-government country rankings are not a reliable source for
comparison. "Because its methodology is 1) biased towards agenda of ICT
developed countries (not adequate, given study purposes); 2) the evaluated
websites for some countries are wrongfully selected; and 3) there is
suspicion evaluators did not fulfill diligently their duties. The latter two
shortcomings are about professional accuracy, not just about
Euro-American-centrism..." Andrei reached this conclusion when he found that
Tajikistan (known for civil war and corruption) occupies 19th place ahead of
other former Soviet republics, as well as Poland, Spain, and Estonia.
"The mystery about Tajikistan is uncovered very quickly," he wrote. Only TWO
Tajik sites were evaluated. They are both ONLY in English, not updated for
2-3 years, created due to foreign assistance. "So, these are sites not for
Tajiks but for English speakers," he concludes. He also questions the
evaluators' accuracy. "It is pretty strange that ranking for many sites fell
down, in comparison with 2002. I keep an eye on Ukrainian / Russian sites
for 2 years and did not observe much downwards development on them. Is it
because the team of Taubman's evaluators was replaced?" He continued, "Given
these considerations, overall e-government ranking crumbles..." Andrei then
invited all conference participants to look into their own countries'
profiles and sources.
Balasubramaniam Kavassary from Mumbai, India recently concluded a project
for the evaluation of a project for replication of e-governance-related
applications for municipal corporations and local bodies. The evaluation was
based on functional assessment, technological assessment and others,
including cost-implications, security, platform, etc. "I am of the opinion
that the applications that need to be developed for e-governance should be
built up in such a way that while the citizens / tax-payers requirements are
met on the one hand, appropriate decision support capabilities should be
present and made available to apex level," wrote Balasubramaniam. "The
applications for Municipal Corporations / Local Bodies needs to be viewed
and designed NOT in isolated fashion but in an Integrated approach."
"OPEN SPACE" DISCUSSION FORUMS
Continuing the discussion of e-democracy, Kathy Goldschmidt said that
separation of powers is one of the problems facing the U.S. when it comes to
involving citizens in online policy. "Right now ... e-government resources
and initiatives are focused on Executive Branch information and services,"
she explained. "Because of separation of powers, those resources, and the
laws that mandate them, do not apply to most legislatures (including
Congress). Some government agencies are experimenting with e-deliberation
and e-rulemaking, but there's very little happening in legislatures." In her
work with Congress and with state legislators, Kathy has found a wide range
of obstacles to enabling legislative e-government, including legislative
culture, politics, funding, industrial age rules and procedures, technical
proficiency, awareness of the possibilities, etc. "Pressure from citizens is
mounting, but pressure isn't enough to overcome all of the obstacles," she
said. "It's going to take research, resources, and a cultural shift in how
legislatures operate."
Next, Ben Peacey described New Zealand's three tiers of government -- all of
which are getting involved in e-government. At the national government
level, e-government is seen as a way to provide governmental services
cheaper, faster and better, and efficiency is the main drive. At the
regional level, "they are less inclined to look at e-government because they
are charged with maintaining the surrounding environment and providing other
services such as public transport and so forth, but their main concern is
the environment and therefore they are looking at having online submissions
and the submission process being available through their websites," he said.
Finally, at the local council level, New Zealand's Local Government Act 2001
states that local councils should be the collector of constituents' views,
which can be presented to national government when required. The focus for
most of the local councils is providing a potentially cheaper way of
collecting citizens' views. "So while all three tiers of government are
interested in e-government, they are all taking different approaches to how
they implement e-government and aspects of e-democracy," Ben concluded.
Ken Jarboe of Athena Alliance asked Gail Watt of Sweden to expand on what is
meant by e-deliberation. "Do you mean communications and interaction via
electronic means?," he asked. "If so, how do you include those who are not
online in the deliberation process?"
"To be most meaningful and effective, eDemocracy encompasses a concept of
deliberation - discussion and thought-trading based on complete and
comprehensible documentation/information (documentation/information being
the eGov function)," responded Watt. "So let me say that eDem must have the
eGov functions as well as deliberation/collaboration and that indeed a
multi-channel approach is needed in order to potentially include all -- even
those not on-line." In Sweden's democratic activities, the existing bias is
toward the offline channels, he added. "The goal should be to balance the
channels so that on-line people have a better chance to participate in the
democratic exercise and that those not on-line are
encouraged/trained/provided with access in order to get on-line," Watt
concluded.
Watt noted that Ben Peacey questioned how much national governments actually
want to encourage e-democracy and whether they could and would provide a
forum for a discussion about e-democracy. "Your are on to the sore point,
Ben, both when it comes to national and local govt in Sweden," Watt said.
Politicians in Sweden talk about the benefits of e-democracy, but they fear
losing control of the political agenda. Watt said this is why practitioners
are slow to implement e-democracy. "We are all trying to find the right
creative alliances to speed up the inevitable forward process toward more
and more real eDemocracy," he said, "and eDemocracy to me does not mean
direct democracy, but rather methods that 'positively tinker' with the
current definitions of representative democracy."
If e-deliberation only focuses on interaction via electronic means, then how
do you include those who are not online in the deliberation process,
questioned Tim Erickson, founder of Politalk (http://www.politalk.com). "I
think that we make a mistake when we talk about e-deliberation or
e-democracy as something separate from face-to-face and other types of
democracy," he said. E-democracy is a tool to be used in a larger context,
not a separate process, he added. Erickson challenged proprietors not to see
E-democracy as an alternative, which excludes some segments of the
population.
Gail Watt discussed cultural differences and the difference between Sweden
and the US in terms of e-deliberation and e-democracy. "Since the Swedish
population shows more trust in the neutrality of their government agencies
than they do with interest groups (which all too often have a party -or
left-right politics flavor here) the whole concept of 'community' as you
know it in the US, gets turned around a bit in Sweden - and perhaps in
Europe in general," explained Watt. "And this indeed makes our Swedish job
of implementing e-democracy tools into a change-generating force a good bit
more difficult than the 'grass-roots' approach."
"I agree that you do not want to exclude those on-line any more than you
want to leave out those not on-line, Ken Jarboe replied. "How do you merge
the two so there is not two separate and unconnected processes," he asked.
"I tend to agree that, while connected, e-gov and e-dem are different -- and
electronic voting issues are another related but separate issue," said Paul
Leighton from StopViolence.com. Leighten noted the recent controversies
surrounding Diebold, a company that makes electronic voting machines whose
top executives are ardent Bush supporters.
"What's interesting in this entire thread is that there has been no mention
of another form of eGovernment other than eDemocracy," said Taran
Rampersand, software developer, a writer and a consultant in Trinidad and
Tobago. He continued, "Please don't get me wrong, I shall never advocate
eCommunism or eAnarchy or eMonarchy. But the lack of such terminology in
eGovernment discussions certainly is indicative of the synergy between
eGovernment and eDemocracy." Rampersand then questioned whether e-democracy
could be passive and still effective.
"The fear of e-democracy is huge," said Ben Peacey. He said politicians
have considerable power, and he questioned why they would want to undermine
themselves by involving citizens often considered incompetent. He said that
in some sources, e-democracy is thought of as the equivalent to Classical
Athens democracy. Peacey said he does not agree. "I think e-government needs
to progress further and be implemented before there is any really effort by
governments to produce a platform for e-democracy."
"Governments and politicians need to dispel their fears about e-democracy
and it is possible that a successful e-government operation could help this
along with the incoming generations of politicians," Peacey concluded.
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