Title: Introduction to Electronic Government
Lecturer: Dr. Tomasz Janowski
Affiliation: The United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology (UNU-IIST)
Time: 18 October 2004, 9:30 - 12:30
Venue: STDM Auditorium, University of Macau, Library Building
Abstract:
This seminar is an introduction to electronic government
(e-government). Our basic premise that the governments' use of
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is not an end in
itself, certainly not a technical exercise, but a tool to achieve
better government. e-Government includes all measures to further this
goal with the combination of ICT and the necessary organisational
improvement. This definition is the point of departure for the rest of
the seminar that covers: reasons to embrace e-government, challenges
to e-government, planning of e-government, front-office and
back-office implementations, and the management of e-government
projects.
In particular:
- Reasons to embrace e-government include: more efficient use of
public funds, improved quality of public services, more effective ways
to obtain desired policy outcomes, greater engagement with citizens,
and better tools to carry out public management reform and to build
Information Society.
- Four factors that can impede the uptake of e-government are:
absent or inadequate legislations, unfavourable budgetary arrangements,
frequent technology changes, and growing digital divide.
- Planning starts with creating a vision statement for e-government,
and continues into more concrete objectives - programs, targets and
outcomes, providing the framework for the actual implementations.
- As part of the front-office implementation, we introduce a
four-level service maturity model, and discuss service quality
measures, strategies for service delivery channels, and citizen
engagement issues - access, consultation and public participation.
- As part of the back-office implementation, we discuss:
organisational change, leadership to motivate and break down barriers
to change, central coordination to promote government-wide
e-government development, inter-agency collaboration to create
seamless services, e-government skill-sets for managers, technical
staff and citizens at large, and public-private partnerships to
mobilise funds and skills for the development of e-government.
- At the end, we discuss the issues related to the management of
e-government, such as: management of risks and costs in e-government
projects, project evaluation and monitoring, predicting and facing
problems, principles to guide project decisions, and setting
priorities for action.
The seminar includes illustrations from the practice of e-government
in several countries worldwide, and provides exercises to apply the
concepts introduced to one's own agency.
Materials: presentation slides
Target Audience:
- e-government decision makers, designers and developers
- IT managers in public administration agencies
- public administration managers
Prerequisites:
- public administration experience
- inclination for generative learning
Bio: Dr. Tomasz Janowski is a Research Fellow at UNU-IIST
and a Project Manager of e-Macao. He obtained a PhD degree in Computer
Science from the University of Warwick, England, and an MSc in
Mathematics from the University of Gdansk, Poland. He can be contacted
by email at tj@iist.unu.edu.
