The first national strategy for local e-government will be published by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister later this week. The document was due to be published at last week's government 'e-summit' for business and government hosted in Westminster by the Office of the e-Envoy, until a last minute decision was taken to separate the two
events. Prime Minister Tony Blair told the e-summit the government would be spending one billion pounds to provide every school and hospital and
most criminal justice and benefits agencies with a broadband internet connection by 2006. To drive the initiative forward, a new 'broadband
taskforce' with co-ordinators based at each of the UK's regional development agencies began work last week.
Telecommunications company BT made its own promise that some 90 per cent of households would have access to broadband by 2005. However John Fisher, chief executive of charity Citizens Online, told the e-summit there was a more basic problem than pure access: "currently most people don't even understand what broadband is."
A report published at the conference by consultants Booz Allen Hamilton found that, while the UK had apparently become the second best environment in the world for e-business after the US, it came only fifth in the world rankings of 'governmental e-maturity.'
For all the news from the e-summit, plus webcasts, see here.
Quelle: Headstar
