UK agrees IT outsourcing deal with IBM: The UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has agreed a seven-year IT outsourcing contract with IBM. Under the terms of the agreement, IBM will provide IT and "business change services" to Defra, as part of the department's modernisation programme. The new arrangements, which will come into effect in October 2004, will see IBM manage, support and improve Defra's desktop IT infrastructure and business systems, develop a range of new business systems, and provide the infrastructure to support an increasingly mobile workforce. Under the agreement, around 330 Defra IT staff will transfer to IBM when the contract begins. In a statement, IBM said that a consultation process is taking place with the relevant trade unions. According to a report by Government Computing News, a representative from the Enabling Defra Programme said that talks are still ongoing with the unions, but most concerns have been resolved.
E-government goes unnoticed by most UK citizens: Nearly three-quarters of UK citizens have not noticed the government's investment in e-government initiatives, according to a survey conducted by software firm Transversal. The company, which describes itself as an e-service software provider, says that 73 percent of respondents in a 200-person study had not noticed the impact of the investment in e-government. Furthermore, 58 percent said they still prefer to use the phone when contacting local authorities or government departments, while only 32 percent said they used e-mail or the Internet for such contact. In addition, half of the survey participants said they were unhappy with the current level of customer service provided by e-services. When asked for ways to improve public sector Web sites, 32 percent said the ability to answer questions from the public would be beneficial. Last month, Transversal conducted a study that claimed that STG1.5 billion was being wasted on CRM (customer relationship management) systems by the UK government.
Australia to publish OSS procurement guide: The federal government of Australia is to produce a guide to procuring open source software (OSS), to help government agencies evaluate open source products alongside proprietary ones. According to a report by ZDNet Australia, the guide will take the form of a supplement to the existing "Guide to ICT Sourcing" for departments and agencies, and officials said it would reinforce the government's position of "informed neutrality in ICT sourcing." The government said the impetus for producing the guide was the growing use of open source solutions in government, citing recent high-profile OSS initiatives by the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the Bureau of Meteorology, among others. The guide is expected to provide information and practical advice on how best to proceed in order to ensure the success of OSS deployments. It is also thought that the guide will offer useful information for suppliers of OSS who wish to target the government sector.
Finnish universities plan e-government encyclopedia: The University of Tampere in Finland and the Policy College of Finland are planning to publish an "Encyclopedia of Digital Government." According to the book's publishers, it will document "current trends and developments, challenges, and future prospects" for e-government around the world. The book aims to provide researchers, students and professionals with a broad basis for understanding the issues, technologies, theories and applications involved in e-government. Submissions are currently being invited for short articles written by e-government experts on topics ranging from digital democracy and the ethics of e-government to electronic service delivery and open source software. It is anticipated that the encyclopedia will be made available in late 2005. More information is available here.
Global law needed to fight cyber-terrorism: expert. A US expert on government issues has called for the establishment of an international law to counteract cyber-terrorism. In an interview with the Korea Times newspaper, Donald Menzel, president-elect of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), advised the enactment of a "global law on electronic ethics, to cope with new challenges such as cyber-terrorism and the invasion of privacy." Menzel was in South Korea as a participant in an international conference on e-government. Korea suffered a spate of cyber-attacks recently when hackers broke into the computer networks of a number of government agencies. The government has since announced plans to create an "anti-hacking team" involving more than 200 private computer security firms.
Autor: Sylvia Leatham
Quelle: ElectricNews.Net, 21.07.2004
