Irish firm shortlisted for UK e-gov awards: The shortlist for the UK's first e-Government National Awards has been announced. The awards, which aim to be a yardstick for excellence in e-government, are organised by PublicTechnology.net and supported by the Cabinet Office's e-Government Unit and by Socitm, an organisation of local government IT managers, and sponsored by Intel and Jobsgopublic. "These awards are being launched to highlight good practice which the whole public sector can identify with and learn from, thereby adding value to their own e-government projects and strategies," said Christopher Histed, founder of the e-Government National Awards and of PublicTechnology.net. One of the shortlisted nominees is Irish company Saadian Technologies, which developed a mobile messaging solution for the London Metropolitan Police Service. The application, the Prisoner Intelligence Notification System (PINS), securely transmits information about prisoner releases to police intelligence agencies. The awards ceremony is due to take place on 19 January.
US e-government satisfaction on the rise: Satisfaction with US federal government e-services is growing, according to the latest figures from the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The quarterly E-government Satisfaction Index, co-sponsored by ForeSee Results, reveals that the overall rating for federal websites increased 1.3 percent from last quarter to 72.1 percent. Interestingly, the index shows that e-government satisfaction levels are roughly equivalent to citizens' evaluations of government agency performance in general. "If people get the same level of service whether they do business online or off, they will choose the channel that best suits their need and not avoid one or the other because they don't trust the quality," said Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Results. The report says that one of the main drags on overall satisfaction is the inadequacy of search functionality on e-government sites. In addition, the proportion of first-time users of federal websites increased 14 percent in the past year, a fact that dampened the satisfaction ratings somewhat, as this category of site visitor tends to register satisfaction ratings that are 5 percent to 10 percent lower than that of repeat visitors.
Philippines opens dedicated e-gov centre: The government of the Philippines has launched an e-Governance Centre of Excellence, in partnership with a number of IT giants. The Philippines' National Computer Centre (NCC) collaborated on the project with Oracle, Hewlett-Packard and Red Hat, through its local distributor Touch Solutions. The centre, located at the NCC facility in Quezon City, aims to empower state and local government units by providing access to IT and showcasing global best practices for e-government. The centre is expected to attract keen interest among public sector decision-makers who are embarking on e-government projects such as the development of citizen services and e-procurement. The facility will also showcase e-government architecture, with particular emphasis on open technology systems and standards. "The e-Governance Centre of Excellence is a very timely and apt endeavour, which will help the government acquire industry-leading information and communications technology (ICT) skills and solutions at a lower cost," said Timoteo Diaz de Rivera, director general of the NCC. "This will allow governments to provide faster and more efficient public services."
New Zealand approves single logon system: The government of New Zealand has approved the Shared Logon Initial Implementation project, an initiative aimed at making interaction with the government easier for citizens and businesses. The project clears the way for the use of single logons -- one username and password -- when accessing multiple government services online. The use of shared logons will lower the overall cost to government because the service will be used by multiple agencies. In addition, participating government agencies will be able to avoid the costs and risks associated with major authentication upgrades. With regard to the user, the use of a single logon will remain optional, and the system will be set up to ensure that government agencies are not able to match or swap any personal information involved with the authentication process. Furthermore, the project team involved in the implementation is consulting with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, and a Privacy Impact Assessment will be undertaken once the Shared Logon design has been finalised. A preferred vendor to supply the software and infrastructure for the project is expected to be announced early in 2005.
Chinese province to use digital TV for e-gov: The government of China's Hainan Province is to invest in a digital TV platform, with an eye to rolling out interactive e-government services. The government, together with China Broadcast Network and China Electronics, will jointly invest CNY1.5 billion (EUR135 million) in the establishment of a provincial cable TV network for digital broadcasting, reports IT newswire Interfax.com. "The first target for this new project is to sign up one million subscribers for digital cable TV service by 2008 in Hainan Province," said an official with Hainan Broadcasting Cable Network, the company in charge of the province's integrated cable TV network. Once the new digital TV platform is in place, interactive services will be made available to users, including e-government services, e-commerce facilities, pay TV and remote education services. Hainan Province will be the first Chinese province to adopt a province-wide digital cable TV platform. The central Chinese government plans to cease analogue TV broadcasts by 2015.
Autor: Sylvia Leatham
Quelle: ElectricNews.Net, 15.12.2004
