UK considers blog monitoring: The UK government is trying to come up with a method for monitoring public opinion aired in blogs or discussion forums, according to a report in the Financial Times. The Central Office of Information's Media Monitoring Unit is considering how to include what people say about public policy on the web in the regular media briefings it sends to ministers. The briefings are often used as an early warning service on issues rising up the public agenda. Clarence Mitchell, director of the MMU, said that while there was debate about the objectivity of some bloggers, several were taken increasingly seriously within government. "There's a whole level of debate taking place online which simply didn't exist before and departments feel they need to be fully engaged in that," said Mitchell. Any blog monitoring service would need a sufficient number of government departments to agree to cover the extra costs involved; if this happens, a service could launch by the end of the year, the MMU said.
EU launches health warning system: The European Commission has developed a system that alerts public health officials to potential threats by sorting information from news websites. The MediSys system provides European health authorities with real-time information on developing health hazards such as disease outbreaks or industrial accidents. The system collects and sorts data from more than 1,000 news websites and 120 public health sites in 32 languages -- and uses e-mail and SMS to automatically alert health officials, giving them timely warnings of possible hazards. The European Commission says while other systems can monitor certain data -- such as death rates or hospital admissions -- they can miss public health threats reported in the press or other sources that MediSys will pick up. Read more on this story on ENN.
South Korea still tops for e-government: Asian nations are continuing to perform well in international e-government assessments, taking the top three spots in a study by researchers at Brown University in the US. South Korea maintained its top ranking in the annual study since last year, with Singapore and Taiwan in second and third place. The US was next in fourth place, ahead of Great Britain. Ireland came in at eleventh position, down from seventh last year. The researchers evaluated government sites based on criteria including disability access, the existence of publications and databases, the presence of privacy policies and security policies, contact information, and the number of online services. The study found that 28 percent of government agencies around the world are offering online services, about the same as in 2006. Ninety-six percent of sites have online publications and 80 percent have links to databases. Only 23 percent of sites provide disability access, however, the same as last year. The full report can be downloaded from InsidePolitics.org.
South Africa slow to make e-gov progress: Municipalities in the South African province of Gauteng are still in the very early stages of e-government development, according to a new study by the Wits LINK centre, reports tech newswire ITWeb. Of 14 municipalities surveyed, 12 had a website, but only one -- the city of Johannesburg -- was deemed to have made significant progress in terms of e-government delivery. "Websites are not explicit about what the various municipal functions are, how they are shared between local and district authorities and what social development and local economic development information is available," said Luci Abrahams of the Wits LINK centre. Other criticisms of municipal websites included poor responsiveness to e-mail queries, outdated content, too much information available only in English, poor search facilities and slow-loading webpages. The report recommended that "there must be explicit objectives for social development and local economic development. Also, provinces must have their e-government strategies aligned with those objectives and their own priorities."
NZ offers citizens advice on the web: New Zealand's Citizens Advice Bureau has been awarded NZD1.3 million in government funding to bring its services online, reports the Dominion Post. The CAB intends to use the grant, along with another NZD340,000 provided by the Consumer Affairs Ministry, to develop a website offering information and advice. The organisation offers advice on a range of areas, from employment and consumer problems to budgeting and tenancy issues. Citizens will be able to get free advice from volunteers through a real-time online chat facility on the site. The CAB will also install internet kiosks at its drop-in centres, where people can access its database and e-government services.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Sylvia Leatham
Quelle/Source: ElectricNews, 16.08.2007
