''Technology is coming. There will be e-government,'' said Elliott Masie, the president of The Masie Center, who led the conference. ''The question is will it be good e-government or stupid e-government or bad e-government?''
Whether that means paying a parking ticket online, finding out who's in jail or getting property information, attendees saw examples of e-government in work from Blacksburg, Va. and Tampa, Fla., among other places.
Mayor Ken Klotz, who had discussed putting on the conference with Masie for more than a year, said online building permit applications and broadcasts of council meetings on the Internet were among the e-government uses that most interested him.
The real challenge, Klotz said, will be figuring out how to implement all the ideas that are out there.
''My question is how do we get from here to there?'' Klotz said.
Masie and Klotz said they'd both look to other municipalities in the region who have created e-government services to see how they've put them together. Klotz said he'd already e-mailed officials in Blacksburg to learn more about their site.
Deputy Accounts Commissioner Debbie Harper, whose office processes the various licenses that people go to City Hall for, said the city's Web site was updated to include information on how to get the various permits. Also, she said, the department is looking to make forms available online.
The conference looked at how e-government can increase the productivity and efficiency of government, provide access to information, increase citizens' knowledge and agency cooperation, extend democracy and create readiness.
But participants also touched on the problems that can arise from e-government: privacy concerns and opposition from workers who fear job losses. Masie also worries about what happens to people without computers and how not to lose the personal touch in the digital world.
''A lot of e-government sites don't have a sense of humor,'' Masie said
Quelle: Saratogian
