Microsoft promotes e-government in Latin America: The Organization of American States (OAS) has announced a partnership with software giant Microsoft that aims to promote e-government efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean. Microsoft is contributing USD6 million worth of software, tech support, IT services and training to the initiative. The OAS, acting through the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development (IACD), will provide personnel and administration services, which, along with contributions from various governments, represents an investment of around USD3 million. The program plans to sponsor 94 e-government projects throughout the region, focusing on the following areas: Web portals for government agencies and municipalities, e-procurement, software to support citizens' access to public services, community Internet kiosk systems, and public schools administration systems. More information is available at the IACD's Web site, www.iacd.oas.org.
Oracle and HP launch e-government centre in India: Oracle Corp has launched an e-Governance Center of Excellence in India, in association with Hewlett-Packard. The two companies will jointly operate the centre, which will focus on the development of model e-government applications. Oracle is providing the software for the centre, while HP is contributing the computers, which will mainly run the Linux operating system. "Linux will play a critical role at the centre, as it will help bring down the cost per transaction for e-governance applications," said Balu Doraisamy, president of HP India. The services offered by the centre will include technical consultation and proof-of-concept services. Another objective of the centre is to help decision makers at the central and state government levels to define and implement e-government processes. Shekhar Dasgupta, managing director of Oracle India Private Limited, an Oracle subsidiary, said the centre, located in Gurgaon near Delhi, would also showcase e-government applications that are running in India and other parts of the world.
Philippines boosts local government on-line: More than half of municipalities in the Philippines have an on-line presence, according to statistics released by the country's National Computer Center (NCC). Sixty-four percent of local government units (LGUs), or 966 out of 1,496, now have an Internet presence, a huge increase from last year's figure of 3 percent, thanks to the NCC's recently launched e-government project, "Jumpstarting Electronic Governance in the Local Government Units," also referred to as the eLGU Project. The aim of the project is to have all municipalities on the Web by 15 September 2003. So far, the vast majority of the LGUs that have an Internet presence are only at Stage 1 (also known as Emerging Web Presence) of the UN-ASPA (United Nations and American Society of Public Administration) Five Stages of E-Government, which means that the sites contain only static information about the local government unit. Only 17 LGUs have reached Stage 2 (Enhanced Web Presence), and just 13 have achieved Stage 3 (Interactive Web Presence). None of the LGU sites has reached Stage 4 (Transactional Web Presence) or 5 (Fully Integrated Web Presence).
Spain launches new information society plan: The Spanish government has unveiled a new plan of action for the development of an information society. In a recent survey by the country's La Fundacion AUNA, Spain ranked 14th out of the 15 EU Member States in terms of development as an information society. The new initiative, known an Espana.es, replaces a 2000 program that failed to live up to expectations. The new plan has three main objectives: stimulating demand for information society services and meeting that demand; enhancing the availability and accessibility of such services for all citizens; and encouraging the adoption of e-business by SMEs. The program reaffirms the administration's previously stated goals for e-government. Specifically, these include the implementation of electronic ID cards for citizens, the deployment of interactive services, and the enabling of information exchange between public sector bodies. The new action plan is expected to cost in excess of EUR1 billion, with EUR180 million expected to be spent on e-government initiatives.
US revises procurement strategy for CIOs: The US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has advised all federal government agencies that it wants to purchase authentication technologies for use government-wide. The OMB has asked federal Chief Information Officers (CIOs) not to buy authentication or identity management technologies without first getting approval from the E-Authentication team or the Federal Identify and Credentialing Committee. "The federal government is spending in excess of USD160 million in fiscal 2003 and 2004 on potentially inconsistent or agency-unique authentication and identity management infrastructures," said Mark Forman, OMB's administrator for e-government and IT. He also noted that agencies tended to have inconsistent approaches to security, in terms of both physical and computer security. By the end of the year, the OMB plans to have selected vendors to provide credentials and public key infrastructure (PKI) services. Once the providers have been chosen, federal agencies will be expected to develop migration strategies for moving to the central government options.
Quelle: electricnews.net
