E-GOVERNMENT
Most Countries' Websites are Ignored
DIGITAL DIVIDE
The Simputer Moves Upmarket
EDTECH
Beaumont Foundation Announces Grants for Schools
E-GOVERMENT FOR ALL CONFERENCE, DAY 3
Online Chat with US Public Printer Bruce James
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 two weeks 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
MOST COUNTRIES' WEB SITES ARE IGNORED
Most nations have their own official websites, but only 20 percent of people
with Internet access ever use them, according to a United Nations report
released Tuesday. In 2003, 173 of the UN's 191 member states had websites,
while 18 countries, many in Africa, do not, the report added. "Only a very
few governments have opted to use e-government applications for
transactional services or networking, and even fewer use it to support
genuine participation of citizens in politics," the report states. In
another ranking, Great Britain beat the US in terms of "e-participation" --
government willingness to interact and dialogue with citizens over the
Internet. Report author Mark Stevenson highlights a particular initiative in
the former Soviet Union: "Estonia, for example, has a site called 'Today I
Decide' at which people can propose, amend and vote on policy issues," he
said. "Officials then are required to consider those proposals." The report
also says women and the poor have less access to the Internet, while
security and privacy issues discourage use. "Some governments use Internet
services to cut red tape, but we see the Internet as advancing and
consolidating transparency and democracy," says Jose Antonio Ocampo, the UN
undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs.
SOURCE: Associated Press; AUTHOR: Mark Stevenson
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UN_E_GOVERNMENT
DIGITAL DIVIDE
THE SIMPUTER MOVES UPMARKET
India's Simputer is gaining cool points as a possible link to bridge the
digital divide. After intense publicity, Encore Technologies launched the
Simputer in October 2002. The firm continues to shake the device's rustic
image and move it upmarket by promoting the handheld as multi-purposed and
able to transform into any type of portable computer. "The Simputer is very
different from a PDA," says Ravi Desiraju, CEO of Encore Technologies. "Such
handhelds are just accessories to the PC, whereas a fully configured
Simputer can replace a desktop." Desiraju adds that for the cost of one
computer, one can buy five Simputers. Presently, 2,000 Simputers have been
shipped to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Europe and the US. Desiraju expects
another 2,000 to ship before the end of the year.
SOURCE: CNET Asia; AUTHOR: John Lui
http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/personaltech/0,39001147,39156876,00.htm
EDTECH
BEAUMONT FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES GRANTS FOR SCHOOLS
The Beaumont Foundation of America recently announced its 2004 grant process
for schools. The Foundation will award state-of-the-art Toshiba-branded
technology equipment to educational institutions serving low-income
populations in grades K-12. This year, 29 states are eligible to participate
in the competitive grant process. Education grants will be available for
schools that meet all eligibility criteria, including having a minimum of 50
percent of students qualifying for the National School Lunch Program. "We
believe, given access to technology and digital information, children -- as
well as their parents -- will have a better opportunity to advance socially,
economically and intellectually," said Beaumont President and CEO Frank
Newton. "Our program addresses the great need for digital equity for
underserved populations in the United States." Letters of interest from
qualifying schools will be accepted online beginning this month. Details
about the grant application process can be found at
http://www.bmtfoundation.com.
SOURCE: Beaumont Foundation; CONTACT: Daryl Ann Borel
http://www.bmtfoundation.com/bfa/us/public/en/media/releases/10232003.html
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E-Government for All:
Our free virtual conference is now open!
Over 1000 participants from 73 countries
Information and registration: http://www.egov4all.org/
CONFERENCE SUMMARY, DAY 3
LIVE CHAT WITH U.S. PUBLIC PRINTER BRUCE JAMES
Bruce James spent the hour responding to questions from conference
participants. Connie Acton, who teaches computers to senior citizens at West
Contra Costa Adult Education, asked Mr. James about the use of proprietary
document formats: "My personal concern is that government agencies are
requiring Adobe Acrobat for reading and downloading documents. This is a
cumbersome method and I would like to see it abolished. I realize that this
may not be in your domain but it is my immediate concern." James replied,
"In the sweep of history, this is transitional but it currently allows us to
present information electronically as you see it on paper. We also provide a
text equivalent on www.gpoaccess.gov."
A group of librarians at the University of California/San Diego asked James
about the future of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). [W]hat
are your thoughts about using the existing infrastructure of FDLP libraries
and the new technologies to restore the responsibility for collection
building, public access, service, and long term preservation to a
distributed, diverse group of libraries that are already dedicated to doing
this?" "We are spending a great deal of time considering the technological
possibilities and constantly looking for partners to handle key aspects of
the growing FDLP Electronic Collection not already covered under the
permanent public access commitment for GPO Access," he replied. "There are a
number of pilot projects underway with publishing agencies and our
depository library partners to safeguard portions of the collections at risk
and to ensure just the type of distributed permanence you suggest."
Jennifer Hill of the Benton Foundation questioned James about how the push
for e-government would create inequitable access to certain populations. "In
the old days there were only two choices between visiting a depository
library and purchasing your own personal copy from the GPO. Today, many more
Americans can access information over the Internet than was ever possible
before as evidenced by the more than one million consumer accesses to GPO
Access everyday." Andy Carvin responded with a follow-up question. "But as
you note in your keynote, within five years about 95% of govt documents will
be published digitally... Yet it remains to be seen if all Americans will
have Internet access by then - especially those with limited literacy
skills, etc."
"We have 1,280 Federal Depository Libraries across the country in almost
every congressional district, each equipped with public access work stations
and trained government information specialists available to assist in their
use," James replied. "In addition, there are thousands of other public
libraries with similar public access terminals."
Changing the topic, Erik Baekkeskov asked whether the GPO used outside
contractors for its online initiatives. "All of the materials in GPO Access
are maintained on GPO servers," James replied. "Other materials in the FDLP
electronic collection are maintained on partner sites or other agency
websites. For security purposes we don't comment further."
Bob Walter of Pittsburg State University asked James whether he felt that
government information was a public good versus an economic good, to which
James replied briefly, "These policies are set by Congress and it's our job
to implement their will through the public laws of the United States."
Greg Benson, Executive Director of the NYS Forum, posed the final question.
"I'd be interested in your long term vision of GPO within the larger context
of e-gov," he asked. "In short -- and with full understanding of the
unpredictability of technological developments -- where do you see all of
this ending up 15-20 years from now?"
"I think about this all of the time and have the good fortune because of my
position to be able to discuss these issues with those who will be the
digital architects of the future," James answered. "It's likely that within
the next 20 years that the nature of the information that we are saving for
posterity will be in completely different form than it is today. I expect
that historians 100 or 200 years from now looking back at the early part of
the 21st century will find it much more useful to be able to view the
proceedings of Congress as they actually took place, to be able to switch to
the Washington Post, and see how CNN was reporting those events. Our
challenge over the next few years is to build the platform that will allow
this to take place."
CONNECTING RESEARCH WITH POLICY AND PRACTICE
Darrell West continued the conversation about multilingual content on
government websites. "Having multiple languages on government websites is a
way for a community to reach a larger audience," he said. "If the goal in
various nations is to boost tourism or encourage foreign investment or serve
various populations within the country, translating webpages into several
languages is a way to boost the odds of achieving those goals."
"I think we could get closer to a consensus if we distinguish between
citizens participating in decisions making (such as a referendum) which
should involve 'problem solving' and an individual's 'desire for
information,'" Don Straus replied. "I believe most of us would agree with
providing multi-lingual requests for information. I suspect there might be
many fewer who would opt for multi-lingual problem solving. I believe that a
democratic government can best be 'democratic' in practice if the
participants in decision making interact in the same language."
Martin Levenson of Mexico then decribed the state of e-government and the
digital divide in his country, citing the challenges they face there. "I
think that the problem of information access here must point to the people's
possibility of access[ing] the technology they need to interact
electronically with the government much more than readability or disability
problems," he explained. "If you think that, in the best case, about 4% of
the mexicans (the same is in other countries in Latinamerica) have access to
the Internet, then is easy to understand that this is one of the most
important of our problems. Local and Federal government agencies are trying
to do somethings about that, but we have a loooong road to go in this way.
If you think in direct democracy with 4% of the people who can vote it don't
sound very democratic."
Kenan Jarboe of the Athena Alliance returned to John Horrigan's example of
the Baltimore online vote on the color of a local bridge. (The mayor's
choice of color lost by a narrow margin, with around 5,000 votes cast.) "A
decision was made by public referendum where the only means of voting was
via the Internet," he said. "Did any of the news stories even point this
out? Or was this viewed by Baltimore as a successful model? ... If this was
seen by the Baltimore powers-that-be as a success without any even glimmer
of recognition that it was an extremely limited vote, then it simply
illustrates how big of a problem we have and how far we have to go."
Wrapping up the day's discussion, William DuBay of Impact Information
criticized the U.S. government's inability to offer content at a reading
level accessible to most Americans. "I doubt if there are five people in the
federal government who know how to write at the level required by law," he
said. "The average adult reader in the U.S. reads at the 7th-grade level.
Addressing that audience does not come automatically, but only with training
and method. As Jacques Barzun said, 'Simple English is no person's native
tongue.' Jonathan Kozol used to say that we have two literacies in the
country, two nations. Most of our technical, regulatory, health, and news
information is all delivered at the 10th-grade level and up. What is
government doing to address this literacy and numeracy gap? We cannot blame
the problem on the schools, immigration, or non-Native speakers of English.
Most of the literacy problems are of native English speakers."
"I can't see how we can address the issue of speakers of other languages
without addressing this issue first," DuBay concluded.
FEDERAL E-GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES IN THE U.S.
Mark A. Foreman, former U.S. e-government czar, chimed into the discussion
with a response to David Kitzmiller and Jennifer Hill's previous dialogue
about mainstreaming accessibility into US legislation. "[George W. Bush] is
the first President who directly was involved in stating that government
must be made accessible and he made sure that Sec 508, E-gov, etc. were
directly included in his New Freedom Initiative," Forman said. He also noted
that the 24 presidential e-government initiatives had to comply with Section
508 before being launched. "I co-chaired the internal Section 508 Committee
with the Administrator of the Office of Procurement Policy, and the Federal
CIO Council had a designated lead for Section 508 compliance," he continued.
"Members of Congress and the Administration viewed E-gov as providing
accessibility to all, and that included the use of many other tools than
websites (e.g., voiceXML, USA Services call center operations)."
Good Government advocate Belinda Spinosi broke down how Section 508 will be
enforced. "Because the Section 508 standards will be incorporated into the
Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), agencies' procurement of accessible
technology will be subject to the same stringent compliance and enforcement
mechanisms as other parts of the FAR," she said. Six months after the board
issues its final standards, individuals with disabilities can file
complaints alleging that a Federal department or agency has not complied
with the accessible technology standards, she said. Individuals may also
file civil actions against the violating agency.
Spinosi pointed out that Department of Justice rulings state that there is
nothing to prevent an agency from going above and beyond what is called for
as the bare minimum of accessibility for the disabled. "Waiting for citizens
with disabilities to file the 2 year long process of complaints in the
Department of Justice is more than an unfair burden and abusive," she said.
Spinosi suggested that a dialogue begin about technology alternative
solutions to accessibility, like web pages opening without a mouse.
The last word of the day came from Erik Baekkeskov, who posed questions
about alternatives to online access and infrastructure. "To what extent are
alternatives (paper/phone) to online access a part of accessibility in the
Federal strategy?" he asked. "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?"
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACHIEVING E-GOVERNMENT FOR ALL
Martin Levenson noted that Mexico's Michoacan state, among others, is
focusing on creating a "multi-channel" relationship with citizens. About 95
percent of the population has access to the telephone, so the Michoacan
state government decided to open a call center that would be "the navigation
hands and eyes of the people that don't have Internet," he said. "This is
now our vision and we are trying to put this call center to work," he
continued. "The next problem we have, of course, is about the funding, and
this can be another theme we can talk about, and I'm sure our experience in
Latin America will be very different than first world governments'
agencies..."
Andy Carvin reiterated Martin's point regarding multi-channel relations with
citizens. "Many countries continue to use multiple means -- phone, fax,
community radio, etc. -- for disseminating government-related materials," he
stated. Sharon R. Swain of the University of Texas - El Paso Library agreed
with Martin that the issue of access to information (or lack of it) can make
a great difference to the development of a country. "Where there is a wide
gap (larger digital divide) you will find a populace that is distanced from
its government," she said.
Panelist Vikas Nath joined the conversation from Azerbaijan, where he is
attending a conference. Based on his e-governance work, Vikas shared one
conclusion that is firmly embedded in his mind: "E-governance models that
are successful or workable in the Developed Countries need not be applicable
in the Developing Countries," he said. "In fact, there are a lot of
fundamental things which the North can learn from the simple yet
locally-relevant e-governance models in the South."
"In developing countries, one often finds less developed or virtually absent
communication channels to transmit information on governance issues to the
common person," he continued. "Or, where such communication channels exist,
they may be highly censored or may not be objective." The introduction of
e-governance models in this case not only stimulates the flow of information
from source to destination, but more importantly, changes the architecture
of information flow, especially who the information flowing to. In short,
the potential of information staying restricted to a small group and being
exploited for private gains is reduced, he explained. Improved communication
channels and information flow could help in checking corruption, promoting
fairness in recruitment process for government jobs or simply reducing
agricultural land conflicts. More than 50 examples, classified into five
generic models applicable for the South, can be found on Vikas' website,
http://www.digitalgovernance.org. Vikas then invited participants to discuss
the relevance of implementing such models.
Kenan Jarboe of the Athena Alliance followed Vikas with a question: "In
cases of a culture and a government ethos of control of information, is it
possible that e-government will simply become another restricted form of
communications -- especially if the systems are designed to enhance the
transactions and communications among the chosen few?" Jason Kitcat, based
at the University of Sussex in the UK, responded. "E-government can only be
a 'force multiplier' for governments committed to openness," he said. "ICTs
should not be regarded as an inherent force for openness or democracy.
Technology has incredible power to control and track citizens, in the same
way can ICTs be incredibly empowering to those who want to open up all their
documents and processes... The culture of the government using the
technology will be the key factor."
Paul Maguire in New York state commented on Vikas' statement about
e-governance stimulating and widening the flow of information. "This seems
to me to make the GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage out) truism more important," he
said. "There are both advantages and the obviously disadvantages to the
changes that Vikas talks about. In an environment where someone wants to
present 'their' version of the truth, this is a very strong tool. How do we
deal with this?"
Andrei Marusov shared some thoughts about the Ukrainian experience. He said
that although the Ukrainian government does not have yet official policies
"to beat digital divide," there is a visible lobby on the part of the
All-Ukrainian Association of Internet Cafes to make private Internet cafes
the backbone of public Internet access infrastructure. "Its head (former
official of the Ukrainian presidential administration) goes further,
claiming they could become the basis for creating nationwide e-government
offices," Andrei explained. He believes that choices in public Internet
infrastructure should look at feasibility considerations, then examine
whether the chosen infrastructure will contribute to building the knowledge
society or knowledge economy.
Andrei then disagreed with Gopalakrishnan Devanathan's previous assertion
that e-administration is the key to e-governance. "E-Administration is only
one component of e-Governance," he said. "Its desirable or ideal use is
conditioned by so many societal factors.... Applying ICTs to state
administration in a totalitarian state will only result in more
effective/efficient administration, and that's all." It is more important
who is holding the power and how they decide to use it.
On the topic of what languages should be "allowed" on e-government
resources, Andrei gave examples from the newly independent states of Ukraine
and Estonia. Although Russian is a common language in both countries, there
is discrimination against the language in governmental policy. For example,
in Ukraine, the governmental policy mandates that state websites "must be in
Ukrainian, English or any other language."
"No hint about Russian," he continued. "The reason for such 'irrational'
behavior is simple: the logic of nation-building still overrides any other
considerations."
"OPEN SPACE" DISCUSSION FORUMS
Continuing the discussion about accessibility, Taran Rampersad of Trinidad
and Tobago asked for clarification about why PDF files are difficult to read
for the visually impaired. "From my understanding, it's often an issue of
document layout," Andy Carvin replied. "For example, if you create a highly
designed document for paper printing and them make a PDF version, it's
impossible to identify the purpose of images in the document (like tables or
other descriptive images). Also, if the document breaks up the text in
multiple columns or other stylized displays, voice-generating reading
software won't be able to read it back to people with visual disabilities."
Elizabeth Gorgue then shared Adobe's website on this issue
(http://access.adobe.com). The County of Santa Clara, California, where
Elizabeth works, posts PDF attachments with an HTML version as well. Andy
Carvin asked if there any incentives (other than good corporate citizenship)
for Adobe to make accessibility a real priority. "Are there any other sticks
or carrots that can be used to push forward the process? Or do we have a
situation where PDF, by its very nature, will never be truly accessible?"
In the arena of 21st Century Skills, Gloria Bobbie shared her experience.
"When working as a consultant on a Star School Project, I watched millions
being spent on building towers and putting computers in classrooms (the
usual)," she noted. "What was missing was a sustainable plan for teaching
people to effectively 'use' the computers." There is not enough money for
the faculty development. Gloria believes "it is time take a more
comprehensive approach and to redefine accessibility to include not only
having access to technology, but to having access plus the professional
training to use it correctly. A large number of those computers being placed
in classrooms are never turned on...yet we say a school... has access
because the computer is in the classroom." Taran Rampersad noted that 21st
century skills build on 20th century skills, and it's important to reinforce
these traditional skills to assist in building the new ones. He gave an
example from Trinidad and Tobago, where there are people without running
water, electricity and telephone line access. "And these same people have
GSM cell phones. Is that progress?" he wondered.
Gail Watt, e-democracy specialist from Stockholm, Sweden, introduced the
topic of e-democracy. "Without a functioning e-government, there can be no
e-democracy," he stated. Ben Peacey, from the University of Canterbury in
New Zealand, took issue with Gail's comment about e-deliberation based on
solid information provided by e-government. "...Information released via an
e-government site is political and has been through a political process when
generally policy analysts have written the material and the material has
been approved for release by the government, thus creating a potential bias
on the information," Ben wrote. To engage with e-democracy and
e-deliberation, citizens need more information than just what is on the
e-government portal. Rik Panganiban summarized the "gray areas" between
e-government and e-democracy with a quote from e-democracy advocate Steven
Clift: "E-government is paying your taxes online; e-democracy is having a
say in how those taxes are spent." Leatrice Ferraioli asked to hear from
others as to what they see as the constraints imposed on government sites to
not provide policy and other substantive information that may inform citizen
decisions. Next week, a session hosted by Alan Rosenblatt of e-advocates.com
will look at e-democracy in further detail.
Michal Zalesak of the Czech Republic raised the topic of m-government
(mobile communications in government). Many countries, such as those in
central and western Europe, have demonstrated success in mobile penetration,
providing more stable cornerstones for m-government, which also has
considerable advantages: information and services that travel with citizens
wherever they move (thanks to mobile technologies such as SMS/GPRS). Lacey
Jennings asked, "What can be done to ensure that government services (e- or
m-) are device independent and support user portability?" She gave as an
example the dramatic increase in the use of handheld devices by US medical
professionals. "Part of the advance in this sector may be attributable to
Federal guidelines governing the use and exchange of patient's medical
information ... These standards helped pave the way for interoperability,"
she explained. Mark Headd responded that most governments do not design
information or applications with multiple devices in mind. A good reason for
designing to standards is that it enables the conversion of content from one
format to another. However, "a good number of government web sites do not
comply with accepted standards for page design -- by this I'm talking about
the standards developed and adopted by the World Wide Web Consortium,
specifically the XHTML 1.0 specification," Mark wrote.
Lacey followed up by asking, "If the standards already exist and the
continued evolution of multiple devices is a given, why don't more
government agencies develop for the greatest common denominator?" Mark said
he didn't think cost was necessarily the reason: "There are some good,
practical examples out there of government sites that adhere to standards
that actually reduce costs and improve efficiencies." Rather, he thinks it
has something to do with the "traditionally one-dimensional way of thinking
about the Internet.... I think the important ingredient is to change the way
that people think about the Internet from a tethered visual desktop
experience to ... so much more."
Michal Zalesak added to the discussion on reasons for not adopting
standards. "From my experience, the first reason is need for additional
investment -- governmental websites and sources of information have existed
some time and their migration to open standards, such as XML, that enable
provision of information to various devices: from web to mobile phones and
digital TV," he said. "Building m-government does not mean taking the latest
solutions and applying them, but taking solutions, that are commonly used
and citizens regularly use them - such as SMS in [the Czech Republic]." He
said that m-government is about "motivating people with interesting
applications from the governmental perspective, that would enable citizens
either to save some money or receive more interesting public services
through mobile devices in comparison with traditional ways of providing
information." Responding to a question from Andres Ibanez, Michal explained
why m-government is a challenge for developing countries and e-democracy in
general, citing issues including the price of devices, their ease of use and
the cost of operation.
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