e-governance and citizen information - Universitat Oberta de ...

E-governance and Citizen Information 13 IntroductionThe main purpose of the study presented in this report is to analyse the transformations thattake place with the incorporation of technological innovations in citizen information processescarried out by the Public Administrations. These technological innovations obviously belongto the group of information and communications technologies (ICTs) with a digitalbasis, where the Internet and IT systems play a predominant role, but they also includesome of the oldest technologies, such as the telephone. These citizen information servicesbasically include the corporate interface of the Administration with the three main channels:telephone, web and face-to-face support.The transformations under analysis are related to three basic considerations. Firstly, wehave focused on the changes in the way in which citizens (as the main users) and the Administrationinteract. Secondly, we have analysed the transformations in the internal operationand within the organisation of the Administration, as a result of the transformations inthe communications channels employed by users. Finally, we have considered the changesin the practices used to manage (design, plan, organise and execute) change and innovation,taking into account the roles of the different actors (not only public ones) that participatein these processes.The thematic scope of the research is e-governance, a term which, as explained later on,has a wider scope than electronic government (e-government), in addition to a series of theoreticalconnotations that make it more suitable for our analytical objectives. In addition, thestudies have a clearly empirical character: with a series of research questions and an analyticalmodel built mainly in accordance with a prior revision of the relevant literature, wehave carried out an extensive empirical study based on various research techniques.The empirical study has two main objectives. Firstly, the Administration of the Generalitat ofCatalonia (Autonomous Government of Catalonia). Most of our fieldwork was carried outwithin the very heart of this institution, mainly on some innovation projects developed by theadministrative unit in charge of running the corporate support channels: the Citizen InformationDepartment (Direcció General d'Atenció Ciutadana or DGAC, part of the PresidentialDepartment). This unit has a special interest in our research project, given the transversalcharacter of its activities and projects. However, we have also carried out an empirical investigationof the activities of other areas of the Generalitat: either by following the developmentprocess and operational branches of the projects of the Citizen InformationDepartment , or by analysing other projects linked to ICTs in all other departments.In addition, we have also carried out a small study – with a smaller scope and depth – one-governance in three international regions with the purpose of contrasting the phenomena,problems and trends detected in the Generalitat. The three regions selected were:Scotland (United Kingdom), Quebec (Canada) and Emilia-Romagna (Italy).http://www.uoc.edu/in3/pic