Comments on: Standardization and eGovernment

By: Tweets that mention TalkStandards » Open Forum: Standardization and eGovernment -- Topsy.com

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:51:46 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ajit Jaokar, TalkStandards. TalkStandards said: Ongoing realtime forum about eGov and standardization: http://www.talkstandards.com/?p=2171 [...]

By: Stacy Baird

Stacy Baird — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:30:14 +0000

Niklas: These are very complex questions you raise – the short answer to how do you get everyone on board is bring them in early in the development process. The challenge will be how do you make progress if you have a large number of ‘cooks in the kitchen?’ This is where leadership come in. From the top government political leaders down through the chain or chains of management, there has to be the political will – I can’t emphasize it enough – the political will to achieve what may well be a new world order for some in public administration. As to getting the citizens to use the system, a couple of things come to mind. First, don’t underestimate senior citizens, I just saw statistics showing that in 2009 Facebook saw an increase in the 55+ age group while high school kids were falling off. 55+ users went from 2.3% to 8.1% in the first 6 months of the year. Further, a government can do what has been done in Portugal and elsewhere, establish one-stop store-fronts for government access, maximizing the use of the ICT infrastructure. It makes government more accessible in general, and puts the technology in the hands of citizens who may not otherwise think to use it. I would say the same about the choices in technology – government has to look at what the citizens use and go where they are, technologically speaking. If mobile is the platform of choice in a population, government has to meet the citizens where they live – on the mobile platform.

By: Niklas Lindblom

Niklas Lindblom — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:07:07 +0000

>Stacy,
After having read your interesting post I believe that you highlight what has been, and probably still is, one of the large roadblocks on the route towards more electronic administration. Human resistance towards change can be strong and therefore the development process slows down. You are right in that the first step in implementing an eGov strategy must be taken by those inside the public administration. After all, if no one can administrate the service how can citizens be able to use it… What is the easiest way to get everyone onboard the new policies? I suppose one possible solution is to design services as similar as possible to reduce the amount of training, however could this mean that important functions are left out in order to keep the service “basic”?
Another aspect is the resistance among users, in this case primarily older citizens who might not have the natural knack for computers that kids today are born with. So how should the policy be formed in order to “sell in” the new e-solutions to all citizens?