The Australian Bureau of Statistics is planning to put the 2006 National Census on-line, in what it says could turn out to be one of the largest Internet-based questionnaires ever undertaken. According to tech news Web site Australian IT, citizens will be able to fill in Australia's next census after entering a special PIN number on a Web site. The ABS said that if just 10 percent of households respond electronically, the project will break even, and if 25 percent do so, it will make overall savings. Australian IT noted that Singapore has already offered its citizens an electronic census, Canada has piloted the option, while New Zealand is also planning on-line options.
The Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Administration (DNRD) in the United Arab Emirates has announced the opening of a new e-gate registration centre in the city. The e-gate system was launched in August this year with the installation of four e-gates at Dubai airport that enable passengers to bypass manual Immigration checks. The electronic passenger clearance system requires users to register their details and undergo procedures involving finger printing and photography before a smart card containing the users' information is issued. The DNRD says the e-gate system has been very successful so far, with over 3,500 residents obtaining the smart card in the first month of operations.
The UK government is being urged to suspend its STG5 billion e-government programme amid claims that hundreds of official Web sites have "serious problems." An independent study commissioned by Web design company Interactive Bureau and conducted by Porter Research said that three-quarters of the government's 20 "flagship" Web sites needed "immediate attention." The report deemed the prime minister's own site one of the worst offenders, describing it as "a mess -- in need of a thorough overhaul from top to bottom." The research company warned that the UK's target of having government fully on-line by 2005 was "not realistically achievable" and recommended that the Internet aspects of the e-government programme be suspended while faults are rectified.
A pilot scheme for virtual court hearings has been launched in the UK. Manchester Crown Court at Minshull Street has introduced an on-line system for plea and directions hearings -- preliminary hearings at which the defendant pleads guilty or not guilty before a case goes to trial. The system allows prosecution and defence barristers to submit information to the court via a secure Web site. The scheme aims to tackle delays and lower costs by reducing the need for people to travel to court for such hearings, which take up the equivalent of three full court days at Minshull Street and cost between STG10,000 and STG12,000 per day for the use of a courtroom. An evaluation of the project will take place in March 2003.
Scotland's finance minister has released the details of new funding for its e-government programme. Speaking at the GC Scotland 2002 conference in Edinburgh, Andy Kerr, Minister for Finance and Public Services for the Scottish Executive, said Scotland will receive a further STG30 million of central government funds for the support of e-government initiatives. Kerr said the money would be provided in the third round of the modernising government fund for Scotland and would be available for 2004/2005 and 2005/2006. He added that the money would be allocated under a similar process to the first two rounds of the fund, which involved local authorities bidding for money to support projects.
The European Commission has awarded UK-based consultancy Netproject a EUR250,000 contract to study the issues surrounding the migration of government computers in member states to a Linux/open source environment. Netproject is to draw up guidelines for a move to open source technologies and to help define EU strategy on desktop computing. The company is planning to put forward an architecture for secure computing based on Linux in its report, which is due to be delivered next spring.
Quelle: Electric News
