e-Governance: Concept and Case

Studies

Guest Lecture

Krishna Pandey

IT Consultant, Government of Nepal

IT Expert, CSC (P) Ltd

kris.pandey@hotmail.com

Academia International College

Gwarko, Lalitpur

Contents

Trends for better e-society

Electronic GovernmentStages of e-government

Legal and Institutional Arrangements

Types & Modes of service delivery

Advantages and disadvantages

How to measure?

Collaborative e-government research

IssuesDigital divide

Technological issues

Social issues

How to overcome it?

What is e-government?

What is E-government

Several definitions

Electronic government or e-government (from consumer’s

point of view) is defined as the practice of public service

provisioning to citizens, businesses, and other government

agencies where government services can be accessed

through:

The internet

Mobile

Fax

Mail

Telephone and

Personal, or any other electronic means

Khan et al., (2011)

E-government defined (2)

Use of information technologies and new business

processes to transform how Governments interact with

citizens, businesses, and other government agencies.

Transformation of.. Information about services

Access channels

Levels of service

Business processes (front and back office)

Organizational structures

E-govt. V.S Traditional Governance

End Goals

Legal and Institutional Arrangements

How does e-Government develop over

time?

Initiatives from Government

E-Governance Master Plan- 2006

IT Policy 2011 (Revised), ETA 2007

Institutional Arrangements

MOSTE

DOIT

NITC/ GIDC/ DRC

OCC

MOIC

NTA

Website Development and Operational Guidelines

GEA and Ne-GIF, etc

E-government models

To understand E-government

developmental process different models

are proposed

Layne and Lee (2001) Four stage Model

<Figure 1> Dimensions and stages of e-government development (Layne and Lee, 2001)

Six stage model by Silcock (2001)

Stage 1: Information publishing and

dissemination,

Stage 2: Official two-way transaction,

Stage 3: Multi-purpose portals,

Stage 4: Portal personalization,

Stage 5: Clustering of common services,

Stage 6: Finally full integration and

enterprise transformation

UN (2002) five stage model

Emerging

Enhancing

Interactive

Transactional, and

Full integration

Example of one stop service Portal

Types of Services

Different e-governments’ services have been identified

and organized into various categories:

online payments, registration and permits, customer

service, communication, license, images, audio/video,

documents, applications, and procurement, among

others.

These services are mainly provided to the users in the

G2C, G2B, G2E, and G2G e-government relationships

Modes of Services

Government to Citizens (G2C)

e.g. Birth certificates, Passports, Citizenship, etc

Government to Business (G2B)

E.g. E-customs, Company Registration, e-Tax,

etc

Government to Employees (G2E)

E.g. Payroll, paying tax, and e-learning

Government to Government (G2G)

E.g. information sharing, data sharing,

validation

Can you name some of the advantages of

E-government?

Advantages

Transparency:

what the government is working on as well as the policies they are trying to

implement

Due to governments web presence citizens can easily know about projects,

plans, and outcomes. (through e-Portal)

Democratization (Web 2.0)

Greater citizen participation in governments policy and decision making

(Forums for constitution draft)

E.g. through e-voting, blogging, chat rooms, emails etc

Convenience

Any where any time services

Reduction in physical contacts no need to travel to govt. office

Speed and efficiency

Improved accounting and record keeping through computerization, and

information and forms can be easily accessed, updated, and modified resulting

greater speed and efficiency.

Disadvantages?

Disadvantages

Reliability & Trust

Reliability of information on the

web, and Security

Hidden agendas of government

that could influence and bias public

opinions.

Disadvantages (2)

Surveillance & Privacy

More and more information with governments about

citizens

When the government has easy access to countless

information on its citizens, personal privacy is lost

False sense of transparency and accountability

E-government system maintained by the governments

themselves.

Information can be added or removed from the public eye

Very few organizations monitor and provide accountability

for these modifications

Can we measure e-government?

How?

E-government readiness index

Measures the status of e-governments

around the world

Several International rankings of e-

government maturity are available.

UN e-Government Readiness Index are

among the most frequently cited

What they measure?

E-government readiness index Web measure index

Infrastructure index

Human capital index

Digital Opportunity Index (DOI)

Internet and PCs index

Telephone and cellular index

TV and online population index

Education index

Service deliver per stages

E-participation index

World and Regional e-Government

Leaders

UN e-Gov Survey 2014

The three components of the E-Government

Development Index (EGDI)

OSI—Online Service Index

TII—Telecommunication Infrastructure

Index

HCI—Human Capital Index

E-Governance Development Index

Calculation

E-government development index UN

2010

Challenges in reviewing a country’s

online presence

Selecting the appropriate site/URL at the

national level

Integrated portal and multi-portal

approaches

Accessing websites in national official

languages

Data quality checks

Towards a more citizen-centric approach

UN E-participation Index

A country’s strength in e-participation is

measured against three benchmarks:

Does the national government publish information on

items under consideration?

Are there ways for the public to engage in consultations

with policy makers, government officials and one

another?

Can citizens directly influence decisions, for example by

voting online or using a mobile telephone or polling?

Summary of features assessed related to

e-participation:

Existence of archived information (policies, budget, legal documents etc.)

related to education, health, finance, social welfare, labour information and

environment

Existence of datasets on education, health, finance such as government

spending, social welfare, labour information and environment

Access to government website in more than one official national language

Availability of social networking features

Presence of e-consultation mechanisms for the six sectors: education, health,

finance, social welfare, labour information and environment

Availability of tools in order to obtain raw (non-deliberative) public opinion for

public policy deliberation such as online forums, media tools, polls, voting

tolls and petition tools

Presence of e-decision-making tools for the six sectors: education, health,

finance, social welfare, labour information and environment

Digital Participation

Increasing the reach, breadth and depth

of digital technology use across all

sections of society, to maximize digital

participation and the economic and

social benefits it can bring. (The Digital Britain

report of June 2009 )

www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/digitalbritain-finalreport-jun09.pdf

How can digital participation be

measured?

1) Reach

Access: number of households

online, and numbers using the

Internet outside the home;

2) Breadth of engagement

Modes of usage and consumption

(communication, retail, content

consumed, public services used);

How can digital participation be

measured?

3) Depth of engagement: user contributions,

comments, joining networks, user generated

content, self publishing, content creation, photos

uploaded and shared, etc; and

4) Social and economic impact: particularly the

impact on economic recovery and benefits for

disadvantaged groups and communities

Issues

Digital Divide

What is Digital Divide?

“Haves" and "Have-Nots"

V.S

Digital Divide

Digital divide can be classified as access divide and

social digital divide.

Access digital divide is the gap between people who have access to

digital infrastructure and information and those who have no or

limited access.

Social digital divide exist due to perception, culture, and

interpersonal relationships

Digital Divide (2)

Access Divide:

E-service access

Resource availability and convenience of access to service

E-service access quality

Timeliness (speed), Trust, and Stability of the service

E-service access Skills

Technical and applied e-skills for using the service

Social Divide:

E-service Awareness

Knowledge of the services availability

E-service Social Support

Technical assistance and emotional reinforcement from friends and family

E-service Culturability

National colors, pictures, and local language

Source: Khan et al., 2010

Why we have DD?

Digital Divide: Problems

Irrelevance of the Internet

• To expensive, no electricity, no skills, etc

• Better things to spend money on:

•Health, water, food, roads, education

• Problem of government control and corruption

Problems

Access & Resources

No internet, time, money, experience, etc

Literacy and Skills• Basic literacy

• Information age literacy

Motivation• Social and individual issues

• Life-stage

• We can remove barriers, but not create motivations

Result-> ‘Digital’ exclusion

Poor Jobs

Limited Government services (e-government)

Limited Information (jobs, consumer, politics)

Few Consumer benefits (cost of not shopping online)

Isolation from new culture

New excluded groups - older men

Digital exclusion intensifies as society and

the economy become increasingly based

on the Internet

Never Catch up

Many interlocking issues.

Always new technologies

Increased commercialisation

Are the forerunner opening up the gap?

Global Digital Divide May be due to..

Economic division,

Geographical Division, or

Social division

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjfAFsET28c&NR=1

Second level DD

E.g. Inequality in the Internet use (Hargittai, 2002)

How can we overcome DD?

We need…

Economic incentives

e.g. to buy computers (laptops)

To have internet connection at home

Public access to computers

User friendly spaces - cybercafes, telecentres,

E.g. public libraries, free internet access points

Provide skills (Technical & Applied) e.g. The European Computer Driving License (ECDL)

Free computers+ for whole communities

Government-industry partnerships

E.g. One laptop per child project

We need…

We need..

Donors• Provide Education, tele-centres, etc.

• Donate old computers to less developed countries

Liberalization• Foreign investment

• Infrastructure - Mobile phones

• New markets

• Industry (outsourcing)

References

Khan, G. F., Moon, J., Rhee, C., and Rho, J.J. (2010). E-government skills Identification and Development: Toward a

Staged-Based User-Centric Approach for Developing Countries, Asia Pacific Journal of Information Systems, Vol.20,

No.1, March 2010.

http://apjis.or.kr/issue/Past_sub.asp?uid=3493

-Khan, G. F., Moon, J., Park, H. W., Swar, B., and Rho, J.J.(2011). A Socio-Technical Perspective on E-government Issues

in Developing Countries: A Scientometrics Approach, Scientometrics, Vol. 87, Issue 2, p-267–286.

DOI:10.1007/s11192-010-0322-5

Khan, G. F. & Park, H. W.(2011). International collaboration within e-government domain: A scientometrics analysis,

presented at 2011 KAPA-ASPA International Conference, October 28-29, 2011, Seoul Korea.

http://www.kapa21.or.kr/english/2011conference.htm

www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/digitalbritain-finalreport-jun09.pdf

Layne, K., & Lee, J. (2001). Developing fully function e-government: A four stage model. Government Information Quarterly,

18(1), 122-136.

Deshazo, R.C. Kaylor, and D.V. Eck, Gauging e-government: A report on implementing services among small American

cities, Foundations of Electronic Government in America’s Cities: A Multi-Disciplinary Workshop, Chicago, IL, 2001

Silcock, R., "What is e-Government?," Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 54, 2001, pp. 88-101.

UN, E-government index: http://unpan1.un.org/in tradoc/groups/public/documents/un/ unpan021888.pdf, 2005.

UN 2008, e-Government Survey: From e Government to Connected Governance, New York, ST/ESA/PAD/SER.E/112, URL:

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

http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/942/864

Thank You

Questions