October 2012 - Informatics

International e-Gov UpdateUSA LAUNCHES 'DIGITAL SERVICES INNOVATION CENTER'Digital Services InnovationCentre, a setup to ensureeffective delivery of servicesby agencies of the federalgovernment with the help ofweb services and mobile applications, hasbeen launched by General ServicesAdministration, an agency in the USgovernment that helps manage andsupport the basic functioning of federalagencies.The Centre comprises of staff from GSA’sOffice of Citizen Services and InnovativeTechnologies, USA's focal point for data,information and services offered by thefederal government to citizens. Inaddition, it plays a leadership role inidentifying and applying new technologiesto effective government operations andexcellence in customer service in thegovernment.The Centre, described as a ‘key piece’ ofthe White House’s new digital governmentstrategy released in late May, is headed byassociate administrator David McClure,and will include contributors from otheragencies. It will have to meet a number ofspecific digital strategy milestones over thenext months, serving as a virtual hub toengage different agencies and ‘accelerate’innovative digital services. With the workundertaken and strategies build by theCentre, the American public will expect animproved customer experience fromdigital government servicesOver the next 10 months, the Center ischarged with meeting a number of specificdigital strategy milestones to deliver digitalservices and government informationanywhere, anytime and on any device.The Center will engage agencies acrossgovernment by serving as a virtual hub toaccelerate innovative digital services.Initial efforts are underway establishingshared solutions and training to supportinfrastructure and content needs across theFederal government, and identifying andproviding performance and customerservice satisfaction measurement tools toimprove service delivery.For Further Informationhttp://gsablogs.gsa.gov/SEOUL LAUNCHES ‘SMARTCOMPLAINT CENTRE’ MOBILEAPPLICATIONSouth Korea’s Capital city haslaunched a location-basedmobile application, the ‘SeoulSmart Complaint Center’which enables users toregister complaints regarding communityissues that affect public safety andinfrastructure by linking to the relevantwebsites by smart phone, allowing accessanytime anyplace.Users can download the applicationfrom the leading App stores to map thereported location and allow photos of thelocation to be attached and submitted viasmart phone. Seoul City also plans to linkthe newly introduced application to the‘citizen complaint reporting’ web page onthe GIS map portal site(http://gis.seoul.go.kr)The application developed by the SeoulMetropolitan Government allows citizensto track the progress of their complaintsthrough their smart phones in real time,and an SMS is promptly sent to the user toinform them in detail of every step of thecomplaint resolution procedure.According to an official statement,complaints registered through the “SeoulSmart Complaint Centre” app areimmediately transferred to the ‘120 DasanCall Center’ and are then directed to theappropriate city service. As the ‘SeoulSmart Complaint Center’ app maps thelocation of a complaint, the data thuscollected through the “Seoul SmartComplaint Centre” app will serve as avaluable reference to be used in futuremunicipal decisions. Frequent complaintsin different regions will be collated andused to inform local governmentoperations.For Further Informationhttp://gis.seoul.go.krOctober 2012 | informatics.nic.in | 41