A recent survey on the use of e-government by the British public found that government Web sites are largely failing to attract visitors. A study carried out by ICM for IT consulting firm Hedra claims that less than 3 percent of Britons regularly access government information on-line and only 33 percent have ever done so. Not one person over the age of 65 who responded to the survey said they regularly accessed government Web sites. In addition, half of the respondents who receive social security benefit said they would make more use of government Web sites if they were more user-friendly.
Meanwhile, a survey by KPMG Consulting found that two-thirds of Britons would like to see at least one local service made available on-line. In a survey of 2,028 adults that questioned attitudes towards a future wired local government, 19 percent said they would be prepared to interact with the government via the Internet, while 30 percent would prefer to deal with government services via a call centre. When asked about the types of activities they would be prepared to carry out on-line, 38 percent said they would vote in a local council or general election, 37 percent said they would apply for or renew a passport, while 36 percent would be prepared to renew their car tax. However, around one-third of those surveyed said they would not expect to interact electronically with government at all.
In the US, a recent study claims that e-government outperformed off-line government and the private sector in terms of customer satisfaction. According to the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), e-government scored an average of 73.5 points out of 100 for customer satisfaction, ahead of overall off-line government (70.2 points) and the private sector (73.1 points). Government Web sites outperformed all of the ACSI e-business indices, including news and information sites (73 points), search engines (68), portals (68), and the overall e-business sector (68.7). E-government sites that were measured in the index include the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Women's Health, the State Department, NASA, and the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Public Health and Science.
The US federal government could spend over USD5 billion on e-government initiatives by fiscal 2007, according to a report by market research firm Input. The research company estimates that overall e-government spending will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 12 percent between 2002 and 2007. The Office of the Secretary of Defense is expected to lead the way with a projected spend of USD778 million on e-government in 2007, compared to USD453 million spent in 2002. The Treasury Department tops the list of civilian agencies due to spend money on e-government, with an estimated USD400 million to be spent in 2007, compared to USD212 million spent last year. Other top e-government spenders are NASA and the departments of Health and Human Services, Transportation, Justice and Commerce.
Meanwhile, a report on the GovExec.com Web site says that measures aimed at stimulating the economy, accelerating the deployment of broadband, preventing digital piracy and protecting on-line privacy are some of the key policy items for the high-tech sector in the 108th US Congress, according to industry lobbyists. Other issues likely to feature on the high-tech agenda for Congress include cybersecurity, education policy, federal procurement, visas for foreign workers, the disposal of high-tech equipment, Internet taxation and employee stock options. High-tech lobby group the Information Technology Industry Council ranks its most important policy objectives as economic stimulus, the deployment of high-speed Internet access and anti-piracy measures.
New Zealand's project for on-line land conveyancing has entered its second phase, reports KableNET.com. The Landonline project, which will begin to be rolled out nationwide in late January, will make it possible for registered users, expected to be mainly land professionals, to lodge survey plans and retain title dealings on-line. The chief executive of Land Information New Zealand (Linz), Russ Ballard, claims the project is a world-first. "There are other countries with electronic records, and some that have implemented electronic lodgement, but none has combined the two services with survey-accurate digital data via the Internet," said Ballard.
Quelle: electric news
