US government IT workers are beginning to close the long-standing gap in skills that has existed between them and their private-sector counterparts, according to a new study by research company Brainbench. The researchers conducted an on-line study of 4,110 government and 7,096 private-sector employees in eight areas of IT skills. Federal, state and municipal IT employees outscored private-sector IT workers in Unix and Linux skills, as well as in Microsoft technology administration and application skills. However, private-sector IT staff had higher scores in networking, database, Internet, programming language and entry-level technology skills. The results of the study can downloaded at Brainbench's Web site.
The Scottish Executive has announced that it is seeking IT companies to set up a broadband infrastructure to cover schools, councils and health services in rural communities. According to Peter Peacock, the deputy finance and public services minister, broadband technology will help different areas of the public sector to work together and will aid local government in the delivery of its services. He said that after a procurement process, a broadband supplier will be announced by the end of next summer and rollout will commence in 2004. Rural areas of Scotland will be given priority for broadband connectivity.
The Northumbria Police will be the next police force to use mmO2's Airwave, the national emergency radio network being developed by the mobile telecoms company. MmO2 has a STG2.9 billion contract with the UK government to supply secure digital communications to all 53 police forces in England, Scotland and Wales by the end of 2005. The Airwave system was procured by the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) in February 2000 in order to provide a common communications platform for all police forces. The benefits of the system include improved radio coverage and call clarity, encryption to prevent the system being monitored by outsiders, and the provision of handsets that act as radios, mobile phones and data devices.
Germany will meet its target of having 119 e-government services on-line by the end of 2002, according to Andreas Reisen of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Speaking at Government Computing's recent European e-Government 2002 conference, Reisen said BundOnline, a project aimed at bringing 370 public services on-line by 2005, would cost EUR1.65 billion between 2002 and 2005. A return on investment will start in 2006, Reisen continued, with an e-procurement system and an on-line applications system set to start saving the government EUR150 million each per annum.
The government of South Korea has launched its G4C (government for citizen) system for the provision of on-line public services. According to a report in the Korea Herald, citizens will be able to apply for a total of 393 official documents via a portal site and to obtain them by mail or at nearby offices. The WON240 billion (EUR200 million) project consists of 11 initiatives, including e-procurement, integrated social insurance and digital signatures. The Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs estimates that the G4C system will save up to WON1.8 trillion each year.
The Japanese government is considering switching from Windows to open-source operating systems, according to a report by the IDG News Service. Citing government sources, the report says that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) will next year begin testing an open-source operating system at one of its research institutes, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. The Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications (MPHPT) has also started investigating open-source operating systems and has allocated USD415,000 of its 2003 budget for security network research and development, including open-source software.
Quelle: Electric News
