At Kilkenny County Council we have just launched a consultative website for the forward planning department.

The new website allows members of the public to comment on and to make submissions to the Local Area Plan. These comments and submissions are considered by the Council in the formulation of the Local Area Plans.

We believe that this site will help to enable enhanced transparency within the consultative process and will also permit a wider group of interested parties to participate in the process.

This site represents an evolution of our planning wiki project , the new site is easier to use and to navigate than the wiki site and allows interested parties to easily make comments on or submissions to the plan.

As far as we are aware Kilkenny County Council is the first Local Authority in Ireland to allow members of the public to make submission to such plans online.

Three additional Local Area Plans, for Fiddown, Piltown and Mooncoin will be published using the same format over the coming months.

Visit Gowran Local Area Plan

http://www.malmo09.org/

The first popular European e-government conference takes place in Malmö, Sweden 19-20 November 2009. It coincides with the 5th official EU e-gov event in the same city. The popular Malmo09 event aims to offer a memorable creative statement of what Europeans really want from e-enabled government.

Anyone interested is welcome to apply to speak, participate contribute ideas or help in any other way. It is particularly aimed at European digital-rights organisations, consumer advocates, and those with a political, academic, artistic or design interest in e-government. No presentation will last longer than eight minutes. Music, pictures and video content is welcome. The event will close with awards for the “pertinent art” which best expresses popular feeling about e-government, and for the best independently coded or mashed-up projects based on public data or public services.

http://www.malmo09.org/

What else is happening in Malmo:

Ministerial Meeting 18 November

EU Ministers meet on the eve of the conference, 18 November 2009, to finalise a Ministerial Declaration on eGovernment to 2015. That will be presented jointly by the Swedish Presidency and the European Commission on the first day of the Conference.

Official Conference 19-20 November

The official by-invitation-only conference promises high-level speakers, 1000 delegates including officials, business and academia. The organisers of the Malmo09 event weren’t invited to and form no part of the official proceedings, but hope to offer a constructive and complementary set of insights and ideas in partnership with the official event.

The Official 5th Ministerial e-Government conference weblink is here: http://www.egov2009.se/

The Commission must do its part. It must not rely on one vendor, it must not accept closed standards, and it must refuse to become locked into a particular technology – jeopardizing maintenance of full control over the information in its possession.

This view is born from a hard headed understanding of how markets work – it is not a call for revolution, but for an intelligent and achievable evolution.
But there is more to this than ensuring our commercial decisions are taken in full knowledge of their long term effects. There is a democratic issue as well.
When open alternatives are available, no citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to use a particular company’s technology to access government information.
No citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one, through a government having made that choice first.

These democratic principles are important. And an argument is particularly compelling when it is supported both by democratic principles and by sound economics.

I know a smart business decision when I see one – choosing open standards is a very smart business decision indeed.

Read the full text of the commissioner’s speech..

‘EUtube’, the European Commission’s new channel on YouTube, was officially launched on 29 June 2007. By offering an additional way of communicating Europe to its citizens, EUtube indicates that some of the European Institutions are starting to keep pace with some of the newer developments on the web. EUtube is another example of the use of the ‘Web 2.0’ communication technologies at EU policy level.

YouTube is a popular video-sharing website where users can upload, view, share, and rate video clips. Both the average ratings and the number of viewings are made public. As such, YouTube is a typical ‘Web 2.0’ communication IT tool, allowing viewers not only to receive information but also to publicly comment it, react and confront points of view. About 50 % of YouTube users are under 20 years old.

Following the conclusion of a non-exclusive arrangement between the EU Commission and YouTube, the EUtube channel now offers approximately 50 video clips on a wide range of topics that explain EU workings on main issues from across the 27 Member States. Topics covered by EUtube stretch from the EU’s first post-war historical steps to current environment concerns or even the EU’s ‘Help!’ campaign against smoking.

As for the regular YouTube contents, EUtube users can post comments and rate the video clips. At present, there is content in English, French and German with plans to add more languages wherever possible.

In presenting the main reasons for setting-up the channel, Commission spokesman Mikolaj Dowgielewicz stated: “We have audiovisual material on our own website…but people don’t know it exists… It’s part of our strategy to use the tools that people use,” he added.

This is not the first of the EU’s moves towards ‘Web 2.0’ communication technologies. Already implemented is the practice of blogging, which was adopted by several EU Commissioners.

http://www.youtube.com/eutube 

However, to make this happen, the Web of Entities must trigger (as the WWW did) what economists call network externality effect, and this requires at least three pillars to be in place:

1. a suitable infrastructure which can support the open and sustainable growth of the Web of Entities;
2. a critical mass of new entity-aware content and data accessible to a very large number of users in a relatively short time;
3. a collection of exemplary and high impact applications, which can prove to the key players in ICT that investing on the Web of Entities is worthwhile.

The OKKAM project presents a strategy and an effective work plan to build the three pillars of this Web of Entities, not only from a technical point of view, but also from a social, organizational and business-oriented perspective.
To achieve this goal, Okkam have been the promoters of a large European initiative, which ended up in a successful Large-Scale Integrating Project called … OKKAM – Enabling the Web of Entities. Check the new project web site.

http://www.okkam.org/

The UN E-Government Survey 2008: From E-Government to Connected Governance assesses the e-government readiness of the 192 Member States of the UN according to a quantitative composite index of e-readiness based on website assessment, telecommunication infrastructure, and human resource endowment. ICTs can help reinvent government in such a way that existing institutional arrangements can be restructured and new innovative arrangements can flourish, paving the way for a transformed government.

The focus of the report this year, in Part II, is e-government initiatives directed at improving operational efficiency through the integration of back-office functions. Whilst such initiatives, if successful, will deliver benefits to citizens, the primary purpose is to improve the effectiveness of government and governmental agencies. Models of back-office integration, irrespective of the delivery mode, fall into three broad categories: single function integration, cross functional integration, and back-office to front-office integration. The level of complexity, expressed in terms of the number of functions within the scope and number of organizations involved, is the primary factor influencing a successful outcome – with a tendency amongst the more ambitious projects to fail to deliver the full anticipated benefits. The key variables involved in the delivery of back-office integration are the people, processes and technology required.

Here are some excerpts from the report:

E-Consultation

The Survey clearly indicates that few countries are implementing e-consultation applications and tools. Only 7 per cent of the countries surveyed received a score of more than 50 per cent. One way to improve these results is for governments to implement online applications to engage and include citizens in a dialogue.Web 2.0 has generated a class of online individuals and groups that want to share their views through blogs and/or online community networks such as MySpace, YouTube,Facebook and LinkedIn to name a few. As of October 2007, the blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 108.6 million blogs. This recent explosion in online blogging and publishing tools underscores a significant interest of web users in creating and consuming user-generated content. A few governments are beginning to acknowledge this phenomenon.

Countries that Use an Open Web Forum for Discussing Topics

Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Congo, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia,France, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Mexico, Mongolia,Mozambique, New Zealand, Norway, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sweden, Ukraine, and United States of America.

E-Decision-Making
E-decision-making evaluates the extent of a government’s commitment to eparticipation,as evidenced by the definitive acknowledgement of an individual citizen’s input and by a stated commitment to take it into account when making decisions. The Republic of Korea is the leader in this assessment, followed by Denmark and France. With a number similar to e-consultation, approximately 66 per cent of the countries surveyed received a score in this section. To balance the heavily quantitative scoring, a few qualitative questions were still included to allow researchers to rate the general edecision-making performance. Only 11 per cent of countries surveyed committed themselves to incorporating the
results of e-participation into the decision-making process. This figure clearly indicates that the majority of not in position to directly involve citizens into the decision making process.

Governments that Publish Findings/Results of Citizen Opinions,including e-Opinions, on Websites

Australia, Bhutan, Canada, Cape Verde, China, Denmark, Estonia, France, Israel,Japan, Latvia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand,Republic of Korea, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom,United States of America and Viet Nam.

Of Interest to Irish Readers

Ireland ranked 19 (out of 35) in the e-government readiness index and 17th out of 35 for web measurement assessment.

The web measurement assessment looks at how governments are providing egovernment policies, applications and tools to meet the growing needs of their citizens or more e-information, e-services and e-tools. It measures the online presence of national websites, along with those of the ministries of health, education, welfare, labour and finance of each Member State.

One Irish Government project was identified as a Regional best practice, this was the Etenders website: http://www.etenders.gov.ie/

“Ireland has implemented a single portal to centralize government procurement. As a one-stop shop for businesses to work together with the Irish Government, this portal handles tender submissions and vendor registration. The portal provides businesses with a simple two-page set of instructions in its “Suppliers-Getting Started page. Subscribers to this website receive e-mail alerts as new opportunities are published, access to business opportunities with the public sector, and clear and concise information on working with the government.”

Also on a positive point, Ireland listed as 1 of only 20 countries that use RSS to update and involve citizens, the total list included was:
Australia, Austria, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, ElSalvador, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, Togo, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Download the full report here:

http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan028607.pdf

Halfway into the IDABC programme, the European Commission has decided to organise, together with the Slovenian Presidency of the European Union, a mid-term IDABC conference, European eGovernment Services Conference: IDABC and beyond, on 12 and 13 February 2008 in Brdo, Slovenia.

The mid-term IDABC conference is a part of the eGovernment days (11 to 13 February 2008) organised jointly by the Slovenian Government and the European Commission. eGovernment days will feature two main events:

* 11 February 2008: eGovernment conference ‘Alliance with Users’
* 12 – 13 February 2008: the mid-term IDABC conference ‘European eGovernment Services Conference: IDABC and beyond’

“Countries that score high on public-sector openness, efficiency and eGovernment readiness are also top on the economic performance and competitiveness scoreboards. This strong link between national competitiveness, innovation strength and the quality of public administrations means that in the global economy better government is a competitive must”

states the Commission’s Communication i2010 eGovernment Action Plan.

Link

…reminded me of another OECD related resource… On October 2007, in Ottawa, Canada, the first international policy forum on the participative web brought together policy makers, academics, business executives and a wide range of civil society to address these questions:

What does the future hold for the participative web? What are the trends and impacts on knowledge creation for business, users and governments? How can confidence and trust be enhanced in an increasingly participative Internet environment? What is the government role in providing the right environment for stimulating innovation and economic growth through the use of digital content and information?

The full conference programme is available online the website linked here has links to all of the keynote speeches at the forum in addition to a number of archived webcasts and full session transcripts. I would say this should be essential reading/viewing for everyone but most especially for policy makers and interested influencers.

Link

The presentations and discussions around the themes of creativity, confidence and convergence will contribute to the OECD Ministerial Meeting on The Future of the Internet Economy in Seoul, Korea, 17-18 June 2008.

Link

SEMIC.EU is designed to become the single point of reference for semantic interoperability in pan-European eGovernment ventures. The initial version of the new platform will be launched in May 2008 under this domain.

Apart from general information, the new platform will offer a variety of services for eGovernment projects that are seeking solutions concerning semantic interoperability.

• SEMIC.EU will provide access to interoperability assets which have been developed in previous governmental projects. The website will allow its users to browse, search and download these assets.
• SEMIC.EU will allow you to upload your interoperability assets and documentation, if you are interested in getting greater visibility for your project.
• A clearing process will be installed to safeguard certain rules and standards concerning the quality of the published items, intellectual property rights policy, relevance to eGovernment, completeness of documentation etc.

SEMIC.EU will be developed and managed in close interaction with all interested stakeholders. This exchange will be supported by community features on the platform, e.g. a forum to discuss best practices for the use of assets or project wikis. SEMIC.EU will also invite to seminars and workshops that are related to its activities.

Link

The SEMIC.EU project is owned by the European Union and the IDAPC Programme , IDABC stands for Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Business and Citizens. It takes advantage of the opportunities offered by information and communication technologies:
-to encourage and support the delivery of cross-border public sector services to citizens and enterprises in Europe,
-to improve efficiency and collaboration between European public administrations and,
-to contribute to making Europe an attractive place to live, work and invest.

To achieve its objectives, IDABC issues recommendations, develops solutions and provides services that enable national and European administrations to communicate electronically while offering modern public services to businesses and citizens in Europe.
The programme also provides financing to projects addressing European policy requirements, thus improving cooperation between administrations across Europe. National public sector policy-makers are represented in the IDABC programme’s management committee and in many expert groups. This makes of the programme a unique forum for the coordination of national eGovernment policies.

By using state-of-the-art information and communication technologies, developing common solutions and services and by finally, providing a platform for the exchange of good practice between public administrations, IDABC contributes to the i2010 initiative of modernising the European public sector. IDABC is a Community programme managed by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Informatics.

Link