icegov2012 proceedings

of the new strategy will be the concentration of government
computing power into a series of about a dozen highly secure data
centers, each costing up to £250m to build. These are replacing
more than 500 presently used by central government, police forces
and local authorities which are frequently run at far below their
capacity because they are dedicated to one department.[13]
The cloud is not only about data storage, however, but
increasingly about the ubiquitous availability of services, content,
and platforms for any type of ICT-based activity. The European
Commission is already sponsoring research [14] into the benefits
of public cloud services based, for example, on service component
building block modules which can be shared across silos
(ministries and other government agencies), so that each module
only needs to be developed once. In turn, this opens the possibility
for non-public sector actors to also develop and contribute their
own modules. In future, therefore, users are likely to be able to
ask specific and personal questions of the government cloud
resources, as well as put together their own unique combination of
public services and content.
3.3 The Mobile Miracle
A particularly exciting development in e-government is the rise of
mobile devices, which are increasing access rates. The ITU
estimates that 5.3 billion people around the world have a mobile
phone subscription, with 3.8 billion in the developing world. [15]
The combination of 3G networks and smart phones also means a
growing portion of them will have Internet access through their
mobile devices.
Mobile government, or m-government, has consequently
increased in importance as an alternative form of access to public
sector information and services globally. In the developing world
it provides an avenue through which countries can leapfrog
traditional infrastructure development and their constituents can
get online quickly. In the developed world, it has also proven
useful in enhancing convenience, flexibility, and productivity and
governments are offering mobile specific services to constituents.
Globally, m-government is not simply changing the scale of egovernment
but is also set to fundamentally change its nature:
o Mobiles are highly convenient, carried around everywhere,
always on and relatively cheap;
o Mobiles provide service personalization and precision with a
huge and growing user base;
o Mobiles add ‘where, when and who I am’ to services:
precisely targeted, location and context based whenever you
want them.
o Mobile apps based on open public data and citizen-generated
data and knowledge are democratizing service design and
delivery ─ all can participate as both suppliers and users.
The Singaporean m-government portal 4 offers more than 100
services specifically designed for mobile phones.
3.4 Social Media and Web 2.0
Social media as the main set of tools riding on the Web 2.0
revolution, allow users to do more than just retrieve information
but also contribute data as well as exercise some control over
4
http://www.ida.gov.sg/Programmes/20060419144029.aspx?getP
agetype=34
433
these data. Web 2.0 sites typically have an ‘architecture of
participation’ that encourages users to add value to the application
as they use it. A Web 2.0 site, like Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube, gives its users the choice to interact or collaborate with
other users as well as service providers in a social media dialogue
around user-generated content in a virtual community. This is in
contrast to Web 1.0 websites where users are limited to the active
viewing of content created and controlled by others.
In the context of e-government, this means that citizens and
businesses are able to change from passive consumers of services
and content to active (co-) producers. On the one hand,
governments can set up a personal two-way dialogue with
individuals or groups of citizens, and potentially use the ‘wisdom
of the user crowd’ to ‘crowdsource’ content and service inputs.
On the other hand and independently of government, citizens are
also starting to dialogue and share more with each other than the
public authorities, increasingly relying on this ‘social signal’ to
get what they need, potentially by-passing and usurping the role
of government. For example, ‘patients know best’ 5 is the world's
first patient-controlled medical records system, based in the UK
and also integrated into its National Health Service secure
network. It allows patients to dialogue with each other, as well as
work closely with clinicians and managers to better manage their
own health. This is co-production and partnership in action.
Very few governments are currently exploiting the benefits of
social media. They are often seen as a risky and costly alternative
to existing channels. However, one such is the Office of Children
and Family Services in New York State (OCFS) 6 , which at the
end of 2009 adopted several social media tools, namely Twitter
and Facebook, to communicate directly with the public, external
media and between regional offices within the agency about all
issues related to OCFS’ policies, services and activities. In 2010,
the Public Information Officer stated that he was able to show
“direct significant cost savings” because the social media are
essentially free and easy to use compared to other less effective
channels which were then closed.
There are, however, emerging concerns regarding the impact on
privacy from using some of these free services. The French
national data privacy authority (CNIL) has recently sent 69
questions to clarify the consequences of a new privacy policy for
Google’s users: whether they have a Google Account, are non
authenticated users, or are passive users of Google’s services on
other websites (advertising, analytics, etc.). These questions were
sent on behalf of and in cooperation with the Article 29 Working
Party that gathers EU data protection authorities. 7 Some
governments have also started to prepare guidelines for the use of
social media in government, such as Difi in Norway. 8
4. THE E-GOVERNMENT E-EVOLUTION
An increasing amount of public sector information and services is
finding its way online. In the EU15, which has long tracked the
5 http://www.patientsknowbest.com/
6 http://www.ocfs.state.ny.us
7 http://www.cnil.fr/english/news-andevents/news/article/googles-new-privacy-policy-cnil-sends-adetailed-questionnaire-to-google/
(Accessed 15. April 2012)
8 http://www.difi.no/filearchive/veileder-i-sosiale-medier-forforvaltningen-pdf-.pdf
(Norwegian only, Accessed 15. April
2012)