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Q: Research on E-Government ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   4 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Research on E-Government
Category: Relationships and Society > Government
Asked by: jhabley-ga
List Price: $200.00
Posted: 18 May 2003 12:19 PDT
Expires: 17 Jun 2003 12:19 PDT
Question ID: 205497
I need research (including case studies and best practices) that
explores the FUTURE of e-government. Specifically, I need to identify
five key trends shaping the future of how the public sector will
provide service. One of these five trends should be how wireless is
being used, another should discuss how the public sector is/will be
meeting the needs of ever-demanding consumers now used to immediate
24/7 service (i.e. CRM). The other three trends we'd agree on through
comments. I'll be checking this page every 3-4 min. Each of these five
trends should include at least two case studies of public sector
groups that are demonstrating the trend. Half of the total case
studies should be Canadian examples and as many as possible should
contain lots of visuals (URLs to web shots or screen shots) as the
research will be used in a PowerPoint presentation.

I have one other similar extensive research project (in the field of
accountancy) that I will be happy to give to the researcher if an
excellent job is done of this one.

Request for Question Clarification by ragingacademic-ga on 18 May 2003 13:57 PDT
jhabley - 

Thanks for submitting this very interesting question.
I will be working on it during the next couple of days, but wanted to
first clarify how important the Canadian requirement is to you,
because there may not be enough cases out there that are based in
Canada.

Also, just to clarify that I understand what you are expecting - I
will conduct research to identify the five trends and then support
each trend by identifying two cases where public sector groups are
already demonstrating the trend.  Note that because you are asking for
trends that are basically already being implemented, what we will
actually be exploring is not so much the future of e-government as
much as it is forward-looking applications of e-government.

Finally, no need to check back every few minutes because this will
take some time - and I will be glad to iterate with you on the trends
before attempting to locate the relevant cases.

Looking forward to your response.
thanks,
ragingacademic

Clarification of Question by jhabley-ga on 18 May 2003 14:11 PDT
Hi RagingAcedemic (nice nickname, btw) :-)

 > I will be working on it during the next couple of days

Super, I'm glad you're able to take this on. I do have a deadline of
tomorrow (Monday) evening. Will that still work for you? (I need to
present the findings the following morning.)

 > how important the Canadian requirement is to you,

I do understand it's not as easy to find those. I'd be happy if 20-25%
of your examples are Canadian.
 
 > I will conduct research to identify the five trends and then
support
 > each trend by identifying two cases where public sector groups are
 > already demonstrating the trend.  Note that because you are asking
for
 > trends that are basically already being implemented, what we will
 > actually be exploring is not so much the future of e-government as
 > much as it is forward-looking applications of e-government.

Yes, you've got it perfectly. The goal is to identify five trends of
how e-government should/will be done in the future, and illustrate
them by showing how some forward-looking public sector organizations
(municipal, state/province, or federal) are succeeding.

I'd also be okay if you wanted to do four trends "in progress" and one
way out there that nobody's doing yet.. perhaps the text there is of a
futurist speaking about the opportunities and their application to
e-government.
 
Again, the more visuals, the better as this will be a PowerPoint file
-- screen shots of software, URLs to web sites, charts, etc.

Thanks again -- I'll keep checking periodically to see if you have any
additional questions. I'm also happy to provide a phone number or
email address if you want to reach me quicker... not sure if policy
permits that or not.

Request for Question Clarification by ragingacademic-ga on 18 May 2003 14:41 PDT
jhabley - 

Great, tomorrow evening should work well.
+ 20% to 25% Canadian examples sounds good and doable
+ unfortunately, we're not allowed to communicate directly, but only
through the Google forum; I do find it to be very efficient, however,
except for the fact that we still can't do attachments
+ finally, you do understand that I will be pointing you to visuals
that others have created rather than creating original visuals,
correct?  I just want to make sure our expectations are well aligned!

I like the idea of doing one that's "out there..." - will make sure to
identify something interesting.

thanks,
ragingacademic

Clarification of Question by jhabley-ga on 18 May 2003 14:47 PDT
> finally, you do understand that I will be pointing you to visuals
 > that others have created rather than creating original visuals,
 > correct?  I just want to make sure our expectations are well
aligned!

Yes, thanks for clarifying that. The visuals would be in the form of
existing JPG or web URLs that you can point me toward.  Thanks - I
look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Answer  
Subject: Re: Research on E-Government - Part I
Answered By: ragingacademic-ga on 19 May 2003 13:58 PDT
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
Dear jhabley,

(I am posting this as an answer but will continue to work on this as
we had agreed.  Please provide feedback on the trends and I will
immediately launch into phase II of our project)

As I began to conduct my research for your project, I came across a
very useful classification scheme developed by Accenture (what was
formerly Andersen Consulting) – Accenture is doing quite a lot of work
in the e-government space, as you will see, and they divide all
government initiatives into three groups:
1)	Publishing-related initiatives (i.e. content)
2)	Interactive initiatives (for example, send feedback to your
congressional representative)
3)	Transactive initiatives (for example, pay your property taxes
online and receive a receipt)

As services mature they tend to develop from purely content-based
initiatives to interactive and then to transactive electronic
processes.

Before we dive into the trends, let me just point out that Canada is
considered tops in this arena - Accenture identifies Canada as a world
leader in e-government implementations and innovations –

“Canada Leads 22 Countries In Developing eGovernment For Third
Consecutive Year”

http://accenture.ca/xd/xd.asp?xd=news_media/media_releases/2003/04/08A.xml

:-) !!!

Here are the five major trends I would like to address – 

+ GOVERNMENT PORTALS - In the first arena, publishing-related
initiatives, one could say that governments have moved from rhetoric
to implementation, and many now provide a wealth of information to
citizens online, reducing citizen-facing jobs on the government’s end
and saving citizens time, money and aggravation.  There are many
excellent examples, highlighted in Accenture’s 2002 report, “Realizing
the Vision” –

eGovernment Leadership – Realizing the Vision (video, 88-page .pdf
report etc.)
http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enWeb&xd=industries%5Cgovernment%5Cgove_welcome.xml

(see page 44 for Canada country report)

Some excellent such examples are – 

CANADA!
http://canada.gc.ca/main_e.html

Australia – NOIE Projects
http://www.govonline.gov.au/projects/

Singapore Government Online Portal
http://www.gov.sg/

Hong Kong Government Online Portal
http://www.esd.gov.hk/home/chi/default.asp

France Government Online Portal
http://www.service-public.fr/etranger/english.html

Norway Government Online Portal
http://www.norge.no/

Ireland Government Online Portal
http://www.irlgov.ie/


+ NATIONAL ELECTRONIC IDENTITY CARDS – these are on the other end of
the spectrum, since they will allow full transactive capabilities
between citizens and government using a single, electronic
identification card.  Here is a description based on plans announced
by the Italian government:

“It is not only an ID card with reliable electronic identification
stored on the microchip, but also a single services card, that will
provide each citizen with a “key” to all the electronic  services
provided by local authorities, central government departments, and
other bodies  (such as banks and post offices). to be transformed into
electronic format and then record, store, file, identify and transmit
them electronically between different offices or departments.”

See for example – 

http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/ida/export/files/en/1167.pdf

Such an implementation will require “cross-agency integration,” a
concept being touted by Accenture’s e-government practice as the key
to successful and innovative e-government implementations.


+ e-PROCUREMENT IMPLEMENTATIONS – the first two trends above are
citizen-facing – implementing eProcurement government-wide is more of
an internal initiative, but it is one that will save governments and
their tax-paying citizens huge amounts of money.


+ REVENUE GENERATING SERVICES – obviously, electronic tax initiatives
top the list as this is the primary method through which most
governments generate revenues.  Some governments – such as Canada –
are WAY ahead of others.  Canada, for example, provides such services
not only to its citizens at –

http://www.netfile.gc.ca/

But also to businesses – 

http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/tax/business/

and to small-businesses and self-employed individuals – 

http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/tax/business/smallbusiness/menu-e.html


+ Finally, #5 can be POSTAL SERVICES.  This is also well supported by
the Accenture study.


*** A couple of other options for futuristic scenarios – 

+ ONLINE VOTING – taking democracy to the extreme!  But – depends on
the successful implementation of SMART CARDS (the national electronic
identity cards discussed above) together with DIGITAL SIGNATURES

+ ELECTRONIC JUSTICE – Justice Departments around the world could
benefit immensely from the introduction of electronic systems,
initially even just at the publication level; this seems to have been
the one area thoroughly neglected thus far on a worldwide basis, even
among the more innovative governments.  Would not be as
technologically sophisticated as some of the other forward-looking
initiatives discussed but would allow for the introduction of dramatic
efficiency gains to the system.


Let me know what you think ASAP and I’ll get to work wrapping this up.

Thanks,
ragingacademic-ga


Additional Links:

Canada tops global e-gov study; U.S. ranks third
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/egov/18154-1.html

eGovernment Leadership – Realizing the Vision (video, 88-page .pdf
report etc.)
http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enWeb&xd=industries%5Cgovernment%5Cgove_welcome.xml

(see page 44 for Canada country report)

Accenture eGovernment Case Studies
http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enweb&xd=industries\government\case\gove_clie.xml

Request for Answer Clarification by jhabley-ga on 19 May 2003 14:08 PDT
Thanks RA.  I generally like the direction you're going in.

-- Government Portals: Yes, specifically research into what citizens
want in a portal, what they tend to use most often, trends in content
management, perhaps screen-shot examples of how multiple departments
can update a single site? To comprise perhaps 20% of your content.

-- National identity cards: Let's drop this one... it's not really
within the scope of what I'm after.

-- Revenue-generating -- yes, in fact this is a key one. I'd like to
know what *creative* models governments are developing, especially in
private/public partnerships. I'd see this comprising 50% of your
content.

-- Electronic justice and e-voting -- I love both of these. I'd like
to get just a small amount of text/visuals about these. Maybe 10% of
your total content.

-- Interactive initiatives -- Is there more here that would be
interesting? I'd love this to be the 5th trend, if it's genuinely
forward-looking (i.e. a web form or congressman's blog doesn't cut
it).

Please also note that XML links don't help me -- I need something
browser-readable. Finally, what is also helpful (perhaps more so) in
case studies are examples of where a project FAILED and why it failed.

Thanks for this -- what's your ETA for Phase II?

Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 19 May 2003 14:20 PDT
jhabley - 

I understand you need this all tonight - 
what time zone are you in?
Give me a deadline and  i'll deliver...

thanks
ragingacademic

Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 19 May 2003 15:35 PDT
jhabley - 

I'm afraid your #5, "Interactive Initiatives," is too broad and
amorphic.  How about we go with either eProcurement or Postal for #5? 
According to Accenture, there are some very interesting things
happening on the postal front - and it's intriguing because postal
services are well-established and among the most ancient of government
services.

What do you think?

ragingacademic

Request for Answer Clarification by jhabley-ga on 19 May 2003 15:35 PDT
Hi RA - I'm in Pacific. By 9pm would be great...

Request for Answer Clarification by jhabley-ga on 19 May 2003 15:37 PDT
Postal won't work because the content needs to be applicable to ALL
levels of the public sector (federal, provincial/state, and
municipal).  Postal services only apply federally. Could we narrow
down 'interactive initiatives' to something like
citizen-to-representative direct communication or something like that?

Request for Answer Clarification by jhabley-ga on 19 May 2003 15:43 PDT
Or how about instead of interactive initiatives (and the subgenre I
suggested) you aim for how CRM (customer relationship management) is
being used in the public sector? The more I think about it, the
stronger that would be...

Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 19 May 2003 16:04 PDT
CRM is huge, sounds good.

ragingacademic

Request for Answer Clarification by jhabley-ga on 19 May 2003 16:20 PDT
Great, thanks. Remember, screen-shots of government applications of
CRM is key here -- it's a visual presentation I'll be giving, so the
more visuals the better.  Especially in a series of explanatory
walk-throughs, if you find any. So to clarify these are the areas and
rough focus:

1. New Revenue Models (40%)
2. Government applications of CRM (30%)
3. Government Portals (20%)
4. Online Voting (5%)
5. E-Justice (5%) 

Thanks for your great efforts... I'll check back in every hour or so
to see if you have any questions.

Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 19 May 2003 18:21 PDT
Dear jhabley,

Thanks for your question.  First, let me request that if any of the
following is unclear or if you require any further research – please
don’t hesitate to ask me for a clarification.


Introduction
*************

As I began to conduct my research for your project, I came across a
very useful classification scheme developed by Accenture (what was
formerly Andersen Consulting) – Accenture is doing quite a lot of work
in the e-government space, as you will see, and they divide all
government initiatives into three groups:
1)	Publishing-related initiatives (i.e. content)
2)	Interactive initiatives (for example, send feedback to your
congressional representative)
3)	Transactive initiatives (for example, pay your property taxes
online and receive a receipt)

As services mature they tend to develop from purely content-based
initiatives to interactive and then to transactive electronic
processes.

The following site provides a great introduction to this
classification scheme of eGovernment efforts –

The Three Phases of eGovernment
http://www.cdt.org/egov/handbook/part1.shtml

Before we dive into the trends, let me just point out that Canada is
considered tops in this arena - Accenture identifies Canada as a world
leader in e-government implementations and innovations –

“Canada Leads 22 Countries In Developing eGovernment For Third
Consecutive Year”
http://accenture.ca/xd/xd.asp?xd=news_media/media_releases/2003/04/08A.xml


Trend #1 – Government Portals
**************************

In the first arena, publishing-related initiatives, one could say that
governments have moved from rhetoric to implementation, and many now
provide a wealth of information to citizens online, reducing
citizen-facing jobs on the government’s end and saving citizens time,
money and aggravation.  There are many excellent examples, highlighted
in Accenture’s 2002 report, “Realizing the Vision” –

eGovernment Leadership – Realizing the Vision (video, 88-page .pdf
report etc.)
http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enWeb&xd=industries%5Cgovernment%5Cgove_welcome.xml

(see page 44 for Canada country report)

Some excellent such examples are – 

CANADA!
http://canada.gc.ca/main_e.html

Australia – NOIE Projects
http://www.govonline.gov.au/projects/

Singapore Government Online Portal
http://www.gov.sg/

Hong Kong Government Online Portal
http://www.esd.gov.hk/home/chi/default.asp

France Government Online Portal
http://www.service-public.fr/etranger/english.html

Norway Government Online Portal
http://www.norge.no/

Ireland Government Online Portal
http://www.irlgov.ie/


The Canadian government justifies the need for its investments in the
Canadian portal as follows:

“Government information is critical to enable Canadians, particularly
those most in need, to access programs and services available to them.
However, in today's communications environment only 50% of Canadians
can identify a government program, service or initiative (Ipsos-Reid,
January 2001) and 42% believe they receive too little information from
the government (Listening to Canadians, Fall 2000).”

http://www.communication.gc.ca/reports_rapports/rpp/2002-2003/rpp2002-2003_2_e.html

A December 2000 article highlights what was possible – even three
years ago – on Canada’s government portal:
“The Canada portal already serves as a gateway to all federal Web
sites and currently receives more than seven million hits each month.”
Canada’s government portal goes way beyond providing information to
its citizenry - some of the services up and running then -
Health Network - brings together the resources of over 460 Canadian
health-related organizations
National Job Bank - used by 10,000 people each day with more than
350,000 job opportunities posted annually
CanLearn Interactive - Canada’s one-stop resource for exploring
education and training opportunities, career options, learning
strategies and ways to finance learning goals
Electronic filing of taxes  - all Canadian individuals and businesses
can now file their taxes over the Net.
National Film Board of Canada - 800 films online and free of charge
through CineRoute
Canadian Business Service Centers - one-stop access to a database of
information on programs, services and regulations from the federal
government, provinces and territories, as well as the best of private
sector information of interest to the business community.
Business Incorporation - incorporate a business in Canada online, 24
hours a day, from anywhere in the world, pay online in a secure
environment, and download a certificate of incorporation the same day.
Patent Filing - entire patent filing process can be conducted online,
including initial searching, filing an application, payment of fees
and obtaining a granted patent.
Export Licensing - every month, over 50,000 Canadians interested in
export make use of the Canadian Trade Commissioner Web site for direct
and easy access to the services of its 133 Canadian offices around the
world.”
Partially quoted from – 

Wired for a New World
http://www.govtech.net/publications/gt/2000/dec/canada.phtml

Leading state portals in the US provide the following – 

• Car registration
• Tax filing, form and instruction download
• Professional licensing
• Access to state regulations and pending
legislation
• Recreational licensing
• Access to local municipalities, state, and
federal agencies

from:

State Web Portals – Delivering and Financing eService
www.myscgov.com/SCSGPortal/johnsonreport.pdf


For diagrams exhibiting a government portal framework, content update
workflow and more see –

Jordan eGovernment Portal Scope and Vision Document
http://www.amir-jordan.org/pdf/del2/portal.pdf

(Do you know how to grab images from a .pdf document?  You need a
software program such as Hypersnap.)


For a snapshot of what users do on a government Web site see page 5 of
above report – provides “The percentage of those who use government
web sites who have ever done these activities at government web sites
…” – from the Pew Internet and American Life Project Government Web
Site Survey, September 2001.  This is a great resource for emphasizing
“what citizens want.”

Suggested images – screen captures of some of the portals above,
images from Jordan report, images from Accenture presentation –

Accenture presentation – eGovernment Around the World – Lessons
Learned
http://www.mampu.gov.my/cio/dokumen/sesi%203%20-%20accenture.ppt

and -

Accenture - eGovernment Leadership – Engaging the Customer
http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/industries/government/gove_capa_egov_leadership.pdf

Another one – UK eGovernment metadata framework – detailed sketch of
an eGovernment data “entity”

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/publications/e-gov-metadata/


Recommendations for portals – from:

http://www.cdt.org/egov/handbook/publish.shtml
·	Begin with a strategy to get information online, with appropriate
milestones.
·	Post information of value to people in their daily lives, and
emphasize local language content.
·	Consider a mandate that all agencies publish a specified range of
information online.
·	Seek attainable results using available resources. 
·	Design sites so they are easy to maintain, and sustain funding to
ensure that information is updated regularly.
·	Focus on content that supports other goals, e.g. economic
development, anti-corruption, attracting foreign direct investment.
(this page also includes many additional examples of government
portals you will be able to “grab”)



Trend #2 - Revenue Generating Services
*********************************

From the Accenture report – 

“Revenue agencies worldwide are facing increasing pressure to
accelerate both revenue collection and compliance levels.  In order to
achieve these goals, the leading Revenue agencies are articulating and
implementing sophisticated online strategies.  Online filing of tax
returns is just one element of these programs,  and covers a broad
range of functions from simple, one-directional transfer of forms to
sophisticated, interactive and transactional facilities.”
Obviously, electronic tax initiatives top the list as this is the
primary method through which most governments generate revenues.

Motivation for collecting taxes online?

+ facilitates voluntary compliance - taxes may be filed and paid
rapidly online
+ significantly improves customer service – 24x7 anywhere anytime
filing, allows electronic filing, online payment, ongoing inquiries
and does not require incremental manpower
+ encourages electronic filing – more efficient and less expensive to
process
+ digital certificates allow citizens to digitally sign legally
enforceable tax returns

Some governments – such as Canada – are WAY ahead of others.  Canada,
for example, provides such services not only to its citizens at –

http://www.netfile.gc.ca/

“One of Canada ’s newest electronic tax-filing options is
NETFILE -www.netfile.gc.ca.This service allows the user
to file personal income tax and benefit returns directly
to the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA)
over the web.NETFILE is available to most Canadians,
with the restriction that there are some types of tax
returns that cannot as yet be submitted electronically.
It streamlines the tax-filing process,provides a secure
and confidential medium, enables faster refunds
(generally in two weeks),ensures greater accuracy,
removes the need to mail in a paper return, receipts
unless requested at a later date, with the user receiving
immediate confirmation that the tax return has been
received. If the citizen decides not to use the NETFILE
service, they may be eligible to use one of the other
electronic tax-filing methods, such as EFILE or TELEFILE.”

(Accenture, eGovernment Leadership – Realizing the Vision)

Canada also provides businesses with tax payment services – 

http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/tax/business/

and to small-businesses and self-employed individuals – 

http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/tax/business/smallbusiness/menu-e.html

“The CCRA -www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca -also supports
business clients so they can meet their fiscal
obligations and receive their entitlements. Many
financial institutions permit citizens to pay their
business or personal taxes electronically. The CCRA
describes available payment options and provides
hyperlinks to the web sites of participating financial
institutions. Canadian businesses can pay their
business taxes electronically through their financial
institution ’s telephone and Internet banking services.”

(Accenture, eGovernment Leadership – Realizing the Vision)


Other countries leading the charge in revenue generation and doing
some interesting things include Ireland –

http://www.ros.ie/

Interesting set of demos at –

http://www.ros.ie/pubdemo/gen/viewlet/Welcome.html

Spain goes beyond tax collection and also collects customs and excise
taxes online –

www.aeat.es

What other revenue generating opportunities are there for government
online?

+ Permits
+ Certificates (e.g. marriage, birth, death)
+ Licenses
+ Registration
+ Collect fines / pay traffic tickets etc.

For example, the state of Virginia in the US has been extremely
innovative in leveraging revenue-generating services to finance the
development of its Web properties –

“My Virginia receives more than 28,000,000 hits a month and provides
access to thousands of state, local, education, and business related
Web sites. VIPNet has partnered with more than 90 government entities
to create more than 200 Web-related e-government services for citizens
and businesses since its inception. VIPNet processed more than five
million Web-based transactions in 2001.”

And - 

“The network has provided all of those services without the use of
taxpayer dollars or other appropriations by the General Assembly.
Rather, VIPNet has been funded through online services for businesses,
including enhanced data access, electronic filing, and licensing
applications.”

The State of Virginia portal is at -

http://www.vipnet.org/cmsportal/

For more examples and content, see also pages 32-35 in – 

eGovernment Leadership – Engaging the Customer

http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/industries/government/gove_capa_egov_leadership.pdf

*** Example of public/private partnership comes from South Africa:

“South Africa ’s My Tax -
www.mytax.co.za -is a joint venture between private
companies and the South African Receiver of Revenue
(SARS).It is a service that enables all businesses,
provisional taxpayers and accounting firms to file
various statutory returns directly with the SARS via
the web.  MyTax facilitates the electronic submission of
VAT,PAYE,Skills Development Levy (SDL)and Provisional
Tax. The site also includes other useful facilities such as
being able to view all individual correspondence with
SARS,full payment and forms submission history, help
facilities and online guides,reminders,end-to-end
forms and payment tracking, electronic confirmation
of all transactions; in short, everything needed to
efficiently and effectively manage the relationship
with the Receiver of Revenue. When a citizen becomes
registered,MyTax.co.za enables real-time payment
to SARS via a secure connection over the web.”

http://www.mytax.co.za/



Trend #3 – Electronic Justice
************************

Justice Departments around the world could benefit immensely from the
introduction of electronic systems, initially even just at the
publication level; this seems to have been the one area thoroughly
neglected thus far on a worldwide basis, even among the more
innovative governments.  Would not be as technologically sophisticated
as some of the other forward-looking initiatives discussed but would
allow for the introduction of dramatic efficiency gains to the system.

For example, let’s look at how the US Department of Justice is using
the Web –

http://www.justice.gov/

Ignoring the fact that the page design harks back several years, only
selected rulings and cases are offered online –

http://www.justice.gov/05publications/05_2.html

(select any, and you’ll see that the description of the list that is
returned is described as “selected” or “partial” etc.)

The first step in providing the citizenry fair access to justice
should be to ensure that all legal content is online and available to
all – after all, the court system is a public entity in every single
country around the world.

According to Accenture’s eGovernment Leadership – Engaging the
Customer report (2003) -

“In the area of justice, existing organization boundaries
continue to be an obstacle to the implementation of
“integrated justice,” the seamless application of justice
processes across the multiple agencies involved, for
example,police,courts,prisons and probation services.
The emerging trend in this area is the development of
standards to facilitate the sharing of justice-related
data between separate agencies.”

The report points out an innovative approach put forth by Singapore:

“A particularly innovative solution in the justice
arena is offered by Singapore. Built on the infra-
structure of their electronic filing system (EFS)the
Supreme Court in Singapore has developed an
eLitigation solution that has transformed the paper
mill of a traditional court into an integrated and
connected paperless system (www.lawnet.com.sg).
Using Short Message System (SMS)text messaging,
lawyers now get information on court hearings
without the need to make telephone inquiries to the
Supreme Court Registry,and the CaseWatch service
provides information,via e-mail alert,relating to
any court action in which a lawyer has registered an
interest.The EFS databases can be accessed remotely
and in the City Hall building via wireless Local Area
Network (LAN),with a smart card –based authentica-
tion system.A further development has seen the use
of consumer Internet protocol videophones in the
Supreme Court ’s Technology Courts,making it possi-
ble for lawyers to appear in court without physically
attending.The virtual court solution is designed to
integrate all aspects of the process and revolutionize
the courtroom.Its success is evident in its take-up
rate,with more than 315 law firms subscribed to
the system and more than 82 percent of court
documents e-filed to-date.”

“In the area of justice,existing organization boundaries
continue to be an obstacle to the implementation of
“integrated justice,”the seamless application of justice
processes across the multiple agencies involved,for
example,police,courts,prisons and probation services.
The emerging trend in this area is the development of
standards to facilitate the sharing of justice-related
data between separate agencies.
Police and courts agencies worldwide are beginning
to move in the direction of increased public access.
With courts in particular,a wide gap exists in the
level of eGovernment initiatives.Some countries
have moved to advanced electronic filing systems
and paperless courts,but many other countries have
not yet developed services in this area.
without the need to make telephone inquiries to the
Supreme Court Registry,and the CaseWatch service
provides information,via e-mail alert,relating to
any court action in which a lawyer has registered an
interest.The EFS databases can be accessed remotely
and in the City Hall building via wireless Local Area
Network (LAN),with a smart card –based authentica-
tion system.A further development has seen the use
of consumer Internet protocol videophones in the
Supreme Court ’s Technology Courts,making it possi-
ble for lawyers to appear in court without physically
attending.The virtual court solution is designed to
integrate all aspects of the process and revolutionize
the courtroom.Its success is evident in its take-up
rate,with more than 315 law firms subscribed to
the system and more than 82 percent of court
documents e-filed to-date.”

http://www.lawnet.com.sg/



Trend #4 – iVoting
****************

ONLINE VOTING – taking democracy to the extreme!  But – depends on the
successful implementation of SMART CARDS (the national electronic
identity cards discussed above) together with DIGITAL SIGNATURES
because online voting will require positive and certain identification
of citizens, with the prevention of fraud being an almost absolute
certainty.

What we are actually touching on here is i-voting, and not e-voting:

“In any discussion of “high-tech” voting solutions, it is important to
make a
distinction, from the start, between systems which use digital data to
capture
the original voter selections and/or act as official record thereof –
“e-voting”
systems – and systems which use the remote connectivity of the
Internet, or
other public network to cast, collect and tabulate ballots –
“i-voting” systems.”

“The Business of Electronic Voting” by C. Andrew Neff, June 20, 2001
http://votehere.net/whitepapers/fc2001.pdf

Requirements of an i-voting platform – from Neff - 

1) Fairness -  only votes from distinct, eligible voters should be
counted in
the final tally.
2) Accessibility - no eligible voter should be prevented, or
“deterred” from
casting his/her vote, either by malicious or accidental forces.
3)  Accuracy - final published election results should be,
mathematically,
an exact “count”
4) Privacy - the contents of each ballot should be known only to the
voter
who cast it. 
5) Receipt Freeness - to discourage both vote buying and coercion, it
is
important that a voter not be able to prove how he/she voted.

Many countries are implementing e-voting, e.g. Brazil –

“Brazil ’s largest-scale eGovernment citizen applica-
tion,electronic voting,which was conducted by the
Electoral Courts,uses electronic ballot boxes with
votes stored in magnetic disks and electronically
processed.In the 2002 national elections,approxi-
mately 390,000 of such electronic ballot boxes were
used,with the participation of around 114 million
voters and results finalized in a matter of hours.”

http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/industries/government/gove_capa_egov_leadership.pdf

Japan – 

“Electronic voting,for example,is still at a local
rather than central government level.Last June,the
city of Niimi in Okayama Prefecture became the first
municipality in Japan to implement electronic voting,
when it allowed voters to cast their ballots in the
mayoral and local assembly elections from electronic
voting machines.”

(ibid)

and Ireland – 

“a step toward eVoting was taken this year with the intro-
duction of kiosk-based electronic voting on a pilot
basis in the May 2002 general election and extended
in October 2002 for the Nice Referendum.”

(ibid)

But there are no real implementations of ivoting as yet.



Trend #5 – Customer Relationship Management
***************************************

CRM integration in eGovernment initiatives was the biggest trend
identified in Accenture’s 2002 and 2003 reports.  From the 2003 report
–

“Government executives are becoming
more comfortable with the use of the term “cus-
tomer ”and the fact that the principles of CRM
apply to their organizations.In fact,we take
the idea of the relationship between CRM and
eGovernment a step further in this report:CRM
principles form a basis for sound eGovernment.”

“The goal for eGovernment now is to tailor service
delivery to meet citizens ’needs,as opposed to
approaching it from the government side.”

And from the executive summary – 

“Our third finding is that CRM underpins eGovernment.
We discovered a growing convergence in thinking
about CRM and eGovernment among government
executives.As governments rethink their strategies
to focus on delivering value,they must also create
a customer impact.Administrations are increasingly
applying the principles of CRM in their eGovernment
initiatives as a way to reorganize online service
delivery around customer intentions.
delivering innovative eGovernment solutions.
Taken together,they provide a map for developing
an eGovernment program that delivers return
on investment.”

http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/industries/government/gove_capa_egov_leadership.pdf

Note that there’s a whole section in the report on CRM, with graphs
that you could grab for the presentation – see pages 14-15.

According to a presentation put together by Sun, motivation for CRM in
eGovernment comes from the following –

+ Improve customer (citizen) satisfaction,employee productivity,
revenue and profitability
+ Offer a comprehensive view of all customer interactions,
regardless of channel
+ Provide a complete view of customer life cycle
+ Enable more effective customer acquisition and retention
+ Optimize service scheduling and product configuration

from:

Connect Citizens – The Open Federated Choice – Sun in eGovernment
http://in.sun.com/events/presentation/files/egov/ConnectCitizens.pdf

Applications of CRM in eGovernment – 

+ Self Service - Without mediation of employees; Intelligent agents
+ Interaction Management/Aggregated View - Manage and track all
contacts through all channels; Inquiries and complaints; Case
management
+ Campaign Management
+ CRM Analytics - Citizens receive the right campaign information;
Service patterns are identified and recurring problems resolved;
Training is tailored to meet real rather than perceived needs;
Resources applied to various channels are allocated based on usage
trends

(check out this Sun presentation for some great images and graphics as
well)

Examples of CRM implementations / case studies:


AUSTRALIA - Department of Immigration,Multicultural and Indigenous
Affairs

“only service to rate on the CRM Insight
measure (Accenture’s). Offering tailored experiences for
citizens and businesses based on previous visits
presents an opportunity for Australian agencies
to continue to develop the use of CRM techniques
in the year ahead.”

www.immi.gov.au


HONG KONG

“To serve the public in a customer-
friendly way,the services provided in the ESDlife
website (www.esd.gov.hk)are primarily organized
around user intentions,while also providing a view
according to government agency.ESDlife includes
transactional and interactive services from the gov-
ernment as well as some offered by commercial
entities.Initiatives like these reflect Hong Kong ’s
high showing in the CRM measure;its score of
47 percent was sixth highest overall.”

“Many other ESD services also have CRM features.
For example,apart from making e-booking for
marriage,couples can also search for banquet
information and make use of the wedding planner
service provided by the commercial sector at the
same website.When inquiring about public exam
results through ESD,students can also search
for available places in different schools,access
information on career and alternative education
opportunities and exchange views at the public
forums.”

www.esd.gov.hk

“The Labour Department ’s Interactive
Employment Service at www.jobs.gov.hk allows both
job seekers and employers to search for their target
jobs and employees with tailored search capability.
eGovernment program has reached a plateau.Now,
the region needs to formulate and verbalize its plans
for driving up usage of the services that are in place.”

www.jobs.gov.hk


BRAZIL

“The Employment and Labor
Ministry ’s website www.mtb.gov.br,enables citizens
and businesses to register employment-related
information,and the Welfare and Social Assistance
Ministry ’s website www.mpas.gov.br allows the
requisition of social benefits electronically.”

www.mtb.gov.br

www.mpas.gov.br


DENMARK

Danish Ministry of Justice ’s website  - allows citizens to apply and
pay for a passport -

www.netborger.dk

A service for purchasing copies of documents is offered by the Danish
State Information Service -

www.danmark.dk

A service for citizens seeking to change their address is offered at –

www.netborger.dk


I hope this response adequately addresses your request.  Please let me
know if you are in need of additional information concerning this
query.

Thanks,
ragingacademic-ga


Additional Links:

Canada tops global e-gov study; U.S. ranks third
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/egov/18154-1.html

eGovernment Leadership – Realizing the Vision (2002) (video, 88-page
.pdf report etc.)
http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enWeb&xd=industries%5Cgovernment%5Cgove_welcome.xml

(see page 44 for Canada country report)

eGovernment Leadership – Engaging the Customer (2003)
http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/industries/government/gove_capa_egov_leadership.pdf

(Canada – page 50)

Accenture eGovernment Case Studies
http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enweb&xd=industries\government\case\gove_clie.xml

Accenture presentation – eGovernment Around the World – Lessons
Learned
http://www.mampu.gov.my/cio/dokumen/sesi%203%20-%20accenture.ppt

e-Government Across the Globe: How Will “e” Change Government?
http://www.gfoa.org/services/gfr/archives/2001/08/gfr0801.pdf

The Three Phases of eGovernment
http://www.cdt.org/egov/handbook/part1.shtml

Large Number of Reports and Other Resources on eGovernment
http://www.cdt.org/egov/handbook/reports.shtml

Jordan eGovernment Portal Scope and Vision Document
http://www.amir-jordan.org/pdf/del2/portal.pdf

Value Creation in eGovernment Projects – Report to the Danish
Presidency
www.e.gov.dk/sitemod/upload/Root/English/
Value_Creation_in_eGovernment_projects.pdf

Case studies and best practices, Victoria, Australia
http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/Research/CaseStudies/case.htm

State Web Portals – Delivering and Financing eService
www.myscgov.com/SCSGPortal/johnsonreport.pdf

The Advent of Digital Government
http://www.governmentontheweb.org/downloads/papers/APSA_2000.pdf

Connect Citizens – The Open Federated Choice – Sun in eGovernment
http://in.sun.com/events/presentation/files/egov/ConnectCitizens.pdf

Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 19 May 2003 18:25 PDT
jhabley - 

I posted Part II above - please work through and let me know if you
have additional needs.  I was not able to adhere to your content
percentage specifications because it all depends to a large degree on
what is available on the Web, of course - and on the very short time
we have to work on this.

There are a lot of screen captures you can do from the various sites /
case studies + there are quite a few graphs and images you can grab
from the various presentations and documents.

I will be out for the next three hours and will then be back to check
if you need anything else.

thanks,
ragingacademic

Request for Answer Clarification by jhabley-ga on 19 May 2003 19:10 PDT
Hi RA,

I'm really happy with most of what you've come up with -- especially
the portal, e-justice, and voting areas, since they really do seem to
contain more future-looking ideas.  I also appreciate how you've
flagged page numbers in PDFs where I can find visuals.

The revenue generation and CRM areas, though, are still weak. This
could, of course, be due to limited availability of information on the
web, but I was hoping for more FORWARD-looking revenue generation
ideas. You've found mostly purchasing of permits, licences, and paying
taxes online -- all of which have been done for years and aren't
surprising. I would like to find two or three areas which are
forward-looking and surprising -- for instance, is a city selling off
business licence info to wireless location service providers? Is a
state selling access to a reeeeeally good search engine on their site?
 etc. Something that would surprise the average person -- being able
to pay a parking ticket online isn't quite there.

Also, the CRM examples you've found largely aren't CRM at all --
applying for passport (Denmark) and searching for jobs (Hong Kong) are
general functions of a web site. I was hoping for examples of how
gov't can create a single repository (data warehouse) to track citizen
contact and issues outstanding -- then show screen-shots of such a
product in action. There are dozens of such software programs that can
enable this...

Does this make sense?

I appreciate your willingness to refine your research and I'll be
giving you five stars once we nail these remaining items.

Thank you.

Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 19 May 2003 22:08 PDT
jhabley -

Hi, I'm back...

Will work on trying to find more innovative approaches to revenue
generation and CRM.  I'll be honest and say that I rushed through the
CRM section because I knew you need to get started on the presentation
- and that I needed to be somewhere at 6:30pm...  But the CRM examples
*were* defined as such by Accenture, btw, and I think most of them
still are good examples of a government managing its relationship with
a citizen/customer.  Nevertheless, I'll give it another shot seeking
for info through some other sources as well.

I understand exactly what you're trying to get at with revenue
generation.  Will do my best to uncover something "juicy..."!!!

Give me another couple of hours - hope that's ok on your end.

thanks,
ragingacademic

Request for Answer Clarification by jhabley-ga on 19 May 2003 22:12 PDT
Thanks RA - my flight's early in the AM so I will be able to take your
additional CRM research on the road with me and work on it there. I'm
going to rate your answer five-star now with the understanding that
you'll be touching up the revenue generation and CRM areas. Thanks...

Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 20 May 2003 00:27 PDT
jhabley -

I'm hoping your plan is to download in the morning.
Still working on my end.

Will send something soon.

thanks for the stars!!!
ragingacademic

Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 20 May 2003 01:30 PDT
Dear jhabley,

Here’s part III, CRM and revenue generation redux.

CRM
****

CRM stands for customer relationship management (I know you know that,
work with me here… ;-) – according to –

www.whatis.com

“CRM (customer relationship management) is an information industry
term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities
that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized
way. For example, an enterprise might build a database about its
customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that
management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the
customer directly could access information, match customer needs with
product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements,
know what other products a customer had purchased, and so forth.”

So, in a business scenario, CRM provides tools for managing
relationships with customers.  How does this translate to a government
scenario?  CRM in a government scenario would provide a government
with tools for managing its relationships with its constituents.

In the business scenario, CRM has dual goals – optimize customer
satisfaction and maximize customer value (i.e. follow-on sales to the
customer, customer’s lifetime value etc.).  What is the parallel in
the government scenario?  The government would like to optimize
constituent satisfaction because that is its mandate, and because the
party in power would like to be reelected.  The government may also
want to maximize use of resources in which it has already invested
considerable amounts of money.  But there is no real opportunity in
this scenario to bring about what would be the equivalent of follow-on
sales in the commercial sense.

The ultimate eGovernment CRM system would be system-wide integration
of constituent data and government information and services so that a
citizen would be able to do everything he could possibly need doing
across from a government entity through one single portal.

Let me bring back the Italian example we had ruled out earlier,
because I believe the vision behind the Italian proposition is exactly
this ultimate scenario (although I find it hard to believe that it
would be Italy of all places that would first implement something like
this…)

Here is what I wrote earlier – 

+ NATIONAL ELECTRONIC IDENTITY CARDS – these are on the other end of
the spectrum, since they will allow full transactive capabilities
between citizens and government using a single, electronic
identification card.  Here is a description based on plans announced
by the Italian government:

“It is not only an ID card with reliable electronic identification
stored on the microchip, but also a single services card, that will
provide each citizen with a “key” to all the electronic  services
provided by local authorities, central government departments, and
other bodies  (such as banks and post offices). to be transformed into
electronic format and then record, store, file, identify and transmit
them electronically between different offices or departments.”

See for example – 

http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/ida/export/files/en/1167.pdf

Such an implementation will require “cross-agency integration,” a
concept being touted by Accenture’s e-government practice as the key
to successful and innovative e-government implementations.

NOW, it is not difficult to make the leap to a portal – the card could
be an account and password, perhaps verified by some biometric method,
so that every such imaginable service could be accessed from anywhere,
anytime.

Ok, other examples:
-------------------

CANADA!!! COOL – County of Oxford Online (Ontario)

The county of Oxford in Ontario has developed an extensive eGovernment
infrastructure –

“In the year 2000 the County of Oxford launched the COOL (County of
Oxford On-Line) Directory of Businesses based upon technology provided
by the Waterloo University Information Network (WIN) and the County’s
GeoGraphics Information Systems (GIS). Currently over two thousand
local businesses can be accessed through this Internet directory.
Through this Super Build initiative, the County intends to transform
the COOL Directory into an enhanced community portal offering the
following suite of applications and services to the community via the
Internet:
·	E-Government Services 
·	Tourism & Economic Development Services 
·	Web-enabled Emergency Services 
·	Expanded Business Directory 
Through Connect Ontario and GeoSmart, COOL will spur increased
economic development and provide selected government services via the
internet to the citizens of the County of Oxford. Following is a brief
summary of the Connect Ontario components of the COOL project.”

http://cool.county.oxford.on.ca/portalnews/project_description.cfm

As part of this project, the county is developing a CRM – Customer
RESPONSE system –

“CRM tracks citizen concerns, suggestions, service requests, etc.
collected from any source including the internet and makes them
available to everyone who needs to see them. At a glance, front line
service staff will have the information they need to address the
citizen’s concern immediately or to assign it to the appropriate
individual for action.
The CRM system will soon be implemented in the County’s Public Works
Department to deal with concerns relating to Roads, Water and
Garbage.”

http://cool.county.oxford.on.ca/portalnews/crm.cfm

What are the benefits of such a system?

+ Improve consistency and accuracy of government response to citizens
+ Empower front line service staff with readily available information
and knowledge
+ Allow citizens easy access to knowledge and operational procedures
that will allow the community to respond effectively in times of
disaster


And how about this example from New York??

“New York City Launches 311 Citizen Service System Using Siebel
eGovernment Applications - New 311 System Gives Citizens One-Stop
Access to City Services and Information”

Very interesting especially given that NYC implemented this system
using Siebel – the undisputed leader in CRM software, wouldn’t you
agree?

“…the City of New York has successfully implemented its 311 Citizen
Service Management System using Siebel eGovernment applications. The
new system will provide New York City's 8 million citizens with a
single point of access to all nonemergency city services and related
information. Once fully deployed, it will be the largest 311 system in
the country.”

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030409/95238_1.html

Siebel eGovernment solutions pages – 

http://www.siebel.com/products/industries/public_sector/

(download the eGovernment brochure – 

http://www.siebel.com/common/includes/pdf_frame.shtm?pdfUrl=/downloads/products/public_sector/pdf/siebel_egovernment_brochure.pdf

…you may have to register…but some good diagrams and lots of screen
captures)

More Siebel implementations / case studies – 

Spain – Catalan region water supply – 

http://www.siebel.com/common/includes/case_study.shtm?pdfUrl=/downloads/common/case_studies/PublicSector/pdf/AgenciaCatalana.pdf&coName=Agencia%20Catalana%20de%20l’Aigua

Hong Kong government efficiency unit – 

http://www.siebel.com/common/includes/case_study.shtm?pdfUrl=/downloads/common/case_studies/PublicSector/pdf/HKEU.pdf&coName=Hong%20Kong%20Government’s%20Efficiency%20Unit



Revenue Generation
*****************

This was a tough nut to crack…

I found an article in Google’s cache, no longer available at the
original site –

http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:lX4j-TT9GTAJ:www.juliapickar.com/MODELS.html+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

This is a paper by one Julia Pickar titled eGovernment Revenue Models
from spring 2002.  The following section –

“Revenue Generation Models in the Public Sector”

“This section examines a series of revenue models that are currently
being employed in the public sector. It is important to note that in
some cases, organizations set up services in a certain model but don't
actual charge (today) for the service. Following the examination of
business models are several regional government case studies, focusing
particular attention on ways they have striven to employ some of these
revenue models.”

-	includes a long table with eGovernment revenue generation
opportunities.

Paper also includes several case studies – 


Association of Bay Area Governments

http://www.abag.ca.gov

“ABAG provides web development and hosting services to member cities
and has developed a series of 'off-the-shelf' web-based tools, such as
a search engine, bulletin boards, calendar and event-planners that
they are reselling to members for a very competitive fixed fee.”

Key products and services:
·	Publications 
·	Data 
·	Web services, web hosting, 
·	Conferences 
·	Pooled Purchasing ("Power Purchasing") 
·	Financial services

San Diego Association of Governments

http://www.sandag.org

“The most advanced features on the Sandag site are the interactive map
and the dataset delivery applications. All data and other information
is offered for free, however, any analysis and reporting on the data
(e.g., census, transportation, land use, housing) is done on a
consultative basis for a fee. “
Key products and services:
·	Publications 
·	Newsletter 
·	Data 
·	Maps 
·	Economic analysis services (note: Sandag has created a separate but
wholly owned entity called Sourcepoint to provide consultative
services to non-members. Members receive free analysis up to $1000 and
on a cost-basis past this).

Metropolitan Council (Twin Cities, MN)
http://www.metrocouncil.org/index.htm
Key products and services:
·	Publications 
·	Data 
·	Maps 
·	Bus passes 
There are a couple more case studies in the paper.
I hope this response adequately addresses the information you felt was
not complete earlier.  Good luck with your presentation – and if you
can post it anywhere public, I’d love to take a look!

Also, see failure link below.

Thanks,
ragingacademic-ga


Additional Links:

Sri Lanka eGovernment strategy
www.esrilanka.lk/with%20right/Attachment%204.pdf

US eGovernment Strategy
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/2003egov_strat.pdf

*** Avoiding eGov Failures – great diagrams, excellent narrative
http://www.egov4dev.org/avoiddrgap.htm

eGovernment to eCitizen – Narrowing the Gap (so so article)
http://www.nexcellsys.com/PDF/eGov2eCitizenWhitepaper.pdf


Search Strategy:

(egovernment OR e-government) CRM and innovative applications
(egovernment OR e-government) "innovative CRM"
(egovernment OR e-government) innovative "revenue generation"
"e-government revenue"
"e-government revenue sources"
"e-government revenue generation"
"egovernment revenue opportunities"
jhabley-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars
This research did (and, at this writing, is still doing) an excellent
job. They worked with me to define a specific scope of a rather large
job, was clear when they thought the scope was too large in some
areas, and continued to be responsive in refining and clarifying their
answer. You get what you pay for. ;-)

Comments  
Subject: Re: Research on E-Government
From: ragingacademic-ga on 18 May 2003 23:13 PDT
 
Dear research community -

I continue to work on this question and should be able to post a reply
tomorrow per the client's deadline.

thanks,
ragingacademic
Subject: Re: Research on E-Government
From: jhabley-ga on 20 May 2003 06:19 PDT
 
Outstanding work, the Part 3 was bang-on. I've downloaded it and will
work on it on the plane but your end is done now. Thanks again!
Subject: Re: Research on E-Government
From: highnoon-ga on 24 May 2003 08:11 PDT
 
Just want to mentioned that in Singapore, the Government services are
available through the following web site:

http://www.ecitizen.gov.sg/
Subject: Re: Research on E-Government
From: dickboyd-ga on 01 Feb 2004 18:53 PST
 
The future of e-government will be determined by the present. Looking
at this question from the aspect of "DATA" and government procurement
policy, there is a steep learning curve on how information is
collected and then made available. You can't tell where you are going
unless you know where you are.

Where are we now?

In the United States, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provides
guidelines on how the Executive branch can deal with the public. Look
at the top of your 1040 tax form and you will see an OMB number. This
indicates that OMB has reviewed the document and has made a
determination that the time spent on the form is within the duties of
a citizen and the use of the information is protected from further
distrubution. If a government agency asks the public for information
without this clearance, that agency better have the money to pay for
the things it is asking for and be able to protect "proprietary
rights".

However, once that information is "sold" to the government, the seller
is not entitled to additional payments unless there is additional
value added or the seller has retained "rights in data". The
government, that is the taxpayers, have paid once, don't ask to get
paid again. There may be a handling or storage fee, but not a second
collection fee.

GIS, Geographic Information System, is a segment of e-government that
is getting a lot of attention.

The GEOGRAPHY part of GIS is handled by USGS at the Federal level. Do
NOT reinvent geographical reference systems, surveying techniques or
quality control. Each state will have a similar geographical or
surveying office to establish policy on geographic description. Learn
where zero is. What is the geographic datum? North American Datum?
What year. What is the shape of the geoid? What projection will be
used for the "maps" that are produced. How do you translate between
datums and geoid? Places can appear to be misplaced because the
incorrect datums, shapes or displays were chosen.

The INFORMATION part of GIS is handled by the office that has
expertise on the type of information. For example, Centers for Disease
Center (CDC) has federal responsibility for collecting mortality and
illness data. CDC processes that data to provide infromation. Most of
what CDC produces is DECISION information. Information needed to
decide where to spend scarce health dollars to improve health,
increase life span, reduce the number of preventable deaths and the
like. Each state has a similar "roll up" health office.

The SYSTEM part of GIS is the rules of opertion that bring the
geography and information together in an effective and economical way.
Part of the system is FIPS, Federal Information Processing Standards.
ZIP codes, or zone improvement programs for distribution of mail and
packages. Two position coding for states and counties. CA for
California. But does that conflict with CA for Canada?

I see county levels of government wasting money by doing surveys on
road location and the like. Information that has been purchased, often
by their own Public Works Department. For one reason or another, the
information is not available to other departments. Coding is not
standard, range or resolution is inconsistent, quality control was not
exercised. Data is out of date. Some of the common reasons the SYSTEM
fails to work.

GIS can be the leverage to more sharply identify collection of taxes
on an "enterprise" basis. Enterprise has two meanings in this
discussion. The political and economic meaning is "fee for service".
Much as water agencies are paid by the gallon or acre foot. The SYSTEM
meaning is that the standards are established as policy across the
entire "corporation" or "government". The processing is also common
across all computers and all anticipated operating system. Processing
is established for economy and speed. For instance the defintion of
delimeters between data fields allows MACs or Microsoft to use Linux,
Microsoft or common software to access and process the same data and
arrive at the same results.

GIS can be used as leverage to get the correct segment of government
to address the problem. Location of dangerous intersections or
identifying states with greater than average alcohol related crashes
are two expamples.

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