Rialtas.net - Government 2.0

The Global Information Technology Report is the world’s most respected assessment of the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on the development process and the competitiveness across the planet. This year, after covering 127 economies across Earth, Denmark came out on top.

The report notes the importance and benefits of strong government leadership and vision in identifying the importance of ICT for government and governance in Denmark.

“Denmark, in particular, has benefited from very effective government e-leadership, reflected in early liberalization of the telecommunications sector, a first-rate regulatory framework and large availability of e-government services.”

The Report features four thematic parts.

Part 1 includes the findings of the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) 2007–2008, together with a number of insightful essays on selected issues of networked readiness, with a specific focus on how it can foster innovation.Topics covered stretch from the link between innovation and ICT to recent trends in innovation (such as Unified Communications) and e-skills and telecommunications regulation in emerging markets.

Part 2 focuses on country/regional case studies showcasing best policies and practices in fostering networked readiness.This year, Singapore, Qatar, and EU cases are analyzed in depth.

Part 3 provides detailed profiles for each of the 127 economies covered in the Report, presenting a comprehensive snapshot of each economy’s current networked readiness status and allowing for international and historical comparison on specific variables or components of the NRI.

Lastly, Part 4 provides detailed data tables for each of the 68 variables composing the NRI this year, with global rankings.

The NRI rankings for 2007–2008 confirm Denmark as the most networked economy in the world for the second year consecutively, as a culmination of an upward trend observed since 2003.The other Nordic countries also continue to show their prowess in leveraging ICT for increased competitiveness, with Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Norway at 2nd, 6th, 8th, and 10th position, respectively. Among the top 20, Switzerland is up two places, at 3rd position, continuing last year’s notable upward trend, while the United States improves three ranks to 4th place. Korea, at 9th, realizes one of the most impressive improvements (10 places) from last year among the 127 economies covered by the Report.

The Networked Readiness Index
2007-2008 rankings (top 50 of 127) download full ranking.

Click here to view and download the report

Oxford Internet Institute : Webcast, University of Oxford.

For over a decade UK government has been busy moving online. This has made some progress, for example in driver and vehicle licensing, but is yet to take off in terms of usage in the way of some spectacular contemporary Internet examples like Facebook and iTunes.

Is this inevitable? Are there good reasons why government and public services do not engage people in the way music, shopping and social networking do? Or is government not yet going about this in the right way, and does the success of the contemporary Internet have important lessons for the design of public services and public engagement? How can we improve value for money, and achieve higher returns on investment, better services and improved operational efficiency? How can the government build public trust and protect privacy?

Over 10 hours of video presentations and panel discussions are available for viewing or download here:

http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20080125_209

Speakers:

* Dr Ian Brown (Oxford Internet Institute)
* Professor David Cope (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, POST)
* Professor Jim Norton (Institute of Directors)
* Martyn Thomas (Visiting Professor, Oxford University Computing Laboratory)
* Professor Ross Anderson (Cambridge University Computer Laboratory)
* Alun Michael, MP
* Jerry Fishenden (Microsoft)
* William Heath (Ideal Government)
* Tom Steinberg (mySociety)
* Simon Davies (LSE)
* The Earl of Erroll (House of Lords)

http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20080125_209

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

Stigmergic Collaboration

I have just finished reading Mark Elliot’s PHD dissertation entitled “Stigmergic Collaboration- A Theoretical Framework for Mass Collaboration” and I found it to be inspiring and profound.

This is one of the most scientific and rigorous examinations of mass collaboration and social networking technologies and their interactions that I have come across, and I highly recommend reading it. In fact reading this paper has reinforced my interest in 2.0 technologies and my view that they are just the beginning of a new mode of working and of communicating. In fact I am now totally fascinated by research in the area of stigmergy and emergence, thank you Mark.

One element covered by Elliot (and I hope he will correct me if I am misinterpreting him) is that the whole web 2.0 collaborative technology framework is an human emergent (stigmergic) structure, emerging spontaneously through the simple actions and interactions of many individuals self-organising and evolving more complex structures as the social and technological conditions necessary for these types of structure to emerge become more prevalent (just as termite mounds and ant hills arise out of the simple behaviour of individual insects). This is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of the web and collaborative work (and of course collaborative art, and entertainment, and play…)

Here is a summary of the dissertation from Elliott’s own Blog:

The core insight of the thesis is that mass collaboration (Wikipedia, open source software, Second Life etc) enables a shift from social to cultural negotiation, shattering the traditional glass ceiling of collaborative participation from approximately 25 members maximum, towards hundreds of thousands and beyond.

Social negotiation is the means by which all traditional collaboration takes place and is characterised by turn-taking communication. In the case of mass collaboration, a digital workspace mediates participant interaction, providing stigmergic cues to negotiate contributions via the various literacies associated with digital technologies and the particular workspace’s norms, languages and ‘netiquette’. While this does not preclude turn-taking communication, it places the interactive focus on cultural information which serves as the first point of engagement.

In other words, the workspace acts as a boundary object that removes social barriers to participation in online contexts (establishing, negotiating and maintaining social relations with thousands of people) and streamlines the creative process through providing a single site of work to a theoretically infinite number of participants.

Many other themes and sub-frameworks contribute to the overall work such as

• an in depth review of the state of stigmergy research and applications;
• a original, general theory of collective activity;
• an etymologically researched, cross-disciplinary, collaboratively informed definition of collaboration and the beginnings of a general theory of collaboration;
• a framework for understanding indirect, mediated communication;
• the documentation of a number of real-world projects which apply and test the findings of the thesis;
• and of course, a framework for mass collaboration which integrates the above as well as preexisting frameworks and theories.

Elliott is also involved in the creation of an Australian ‘Government 2.0′ wiki site

The Australian Bill of Rights Initiative

The Australian Bill of Rights Initiative (ABRI) is a web-based organisation dedicated to the creation of an Australian bill of rights, written collaboratively by volunteers. Currently (in the first stage of this project) anyone can view this site, however contributions are restricted via password. If you are interested in taking part, or would like more information, please email: m.elliott AT vca.unimelb.edu.au

By means of online collaboration, ABRI aims to:

* stimulate a dialogue on the creation of an Australian bill of rights;
* facilitate broad participation in the collaborative process of drafting a bill of rights;
* raise public awareness of the value of preserving and protecting fundamental human rights; and
* provide a forum for determining an ongoing course of action for the adoption of an Australian bill of rights.

http://abri.org.au/bin/view/ABRI/

Last year Project10x released their report on the ‘Semantic Wave’.

The Blurb:

Semantic Wave 2008 Report: Industry Roadmap to Web 3.0 and Multibillion Dollar Market Opportunities. It is the first comprehensive industry study of the next stage of internet evolution — Web 3.0. This landmark 400-page report is written for executives, developers, designers, entrepreneurs, investors, and others who want to better understand semantic technologies, the business opportunities they present, and the ways Web 3.0 will change how we use and experience the internet.

The executive summary (27 pages- the full report is 400 pages long) is available for download from the Project 10x website (you need to register for free to download the summary)

The semantic wave embraces four stages of internet growth. The first stage, Web 1.0, was about connecting information and getting on the net. Web 2.0 is about connecting people — putting the “I” in user interface, and the “we” into Webs of social participation. The next stage, Web 3.0, is starting now. It is about representing meanings, connecting knowledge, and putting these to work in ways that make our experience of internet more relevant, useful, and enjoyable. Web 4.0 will come later. It is about connecting intelligences in a ubiquitous Web where both people and things reason and communicate together.

Project10X’s Semantic Wave 2008 Report tells the story of Web 3.0. Over the next decade, Web 3.0 will spawn multi-billion dollar technology markets that will drive trillion dollar global economic expansions to transform industries as well as our experience of the internet. The Semantic Wave 2008 report examines drivers and market forces for adoption of semantic technologies in Web 3.0 and maps opportunities for investors, technology developers, and public and private enterprises.

http://project10x.com/

I Just came across this document on the Data Protection Commissioners website. Its a projected vision of public surveillance in the near future, a dsytopian one as far as individual privacy is concerned. Thought provoking and worth a read.
A Report on the Surveillance SocietyFor the Information Commissioner, by the Surveillance Studies Network
Public Discussion Document September 2006

The essence of the paper is that we are ’sleepwalking into a surveillance society’

The surveillance society has come about almost without us realising..

It is the sum total of many different technological changes, many policy decisions, and many social developments. Some of it is essential for providing the services we need: health, benefits, education. Some of it is more questionable. Some of it may be unjustified, intrusive and oppressive. People may have many different opinions. But in fact most people know very little about the surveillance society: it is seen as the stuff of science fiction, not everyday life. So there has been very little public debate about surveillance. The surveillance industry is already massive and (especially since 9/11) is growing much faster than other industries : the global industry is estimated to be worth almost $1 trillion US dollars, covering a massive range of goods and services from military equipment through high street CCTV to smart cards. The surveillance society has come about often slowly, subtly and imperceptibly and by the unforeseen combination of many small paths into one bigger road. It is a road whose direction we urgently need to discuss and debate. Read on

The Data Commissioner’s website is an extremely valuable resource for data controllers, perhaps you are one?

The Wiki project is proceeding , I installed MediaWiki on an internal weberver today and found it straightforward to get configured and up and running. We are currently entering some test content before we ask for some input from our staff.

In addition to our public wiki ,we also intend to include an interactive mapping element to our public consultation process (see yesterday’s post).

To this end a GIS expert colleague of mine suggested we might use some of the information provided in this Google Blog as a kick-off point. We do already provide some online custom interactive mapping applications, however what we want here is a simple easy to use system to gather input from the public.

From the Google Blog:

In this crazy Web 2.0 world, it’s all about one thing: the user. It’s about what the user wants from your site, and what the user can contribute to your site. That’s particularly true about map sites - the world is a big complicated place full of users who are experts on the 10 mile radius around them. That’s part of the reason why maps.google.com added user-created maps, geocode editing, and local business reviews this year. Now, the question pulsing through your mind is probably: “How can I get in on some of this user-contributed action??” Good news, we have an answer!

Our latest article, “Creating a User-Contributed Map with PHP and Google Spreadsheets” describes what’s necessary to set up a shared Community Map application. The article takes you through the steps of registering a user, logging in a user, letting users add map places, and creating the map. The article uses Google Spreadsheets for a pseudo-database and the PHP client library to perform HTTP operations, giving you the advantage of a nice frontend for database editing/viewing (spreadsheets.google.com) and a database that’s not dependent on a particular hosting provider.

Link

Speaking of the OECD Review of the Irish Civil Service ….

…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

The National Disability Authority have for several years now, provided some excellent online resources for those designing websites, software and other IT related hardware and services. All government related IT projects should be created with accessibility in mind but it is important too that those creating solutions in the private sector adhere to these guidelines. Accessibility and access to information for all is the basis of an inclusive society. This site is a fantastic resource.

Link