Digital Literacy in Malaysia: February 2007 Issue

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THE E-GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE FOR ASIA & THE MIDDLE EAST

Digital Literacy

MyRealTouch

MyKad Intelligent “Touch n Go” Device for Diesel Subsidies Purchase Control System

e-Government in Public Administration Benefits & Challenges

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VOLUME 3

| ISSUE 2 | FEBRUARY 2007

Urban vs. Rural areas in Malaysia

SPECIAL FOCUS

DIGITIZATION OF LEGAL DOCUMENTS E-GOVERNANCE GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL S UB S C R IB E R C OPY NOT FO R S A LE

REGION FOCUS

E-GOVERNANCE A RISING WAVE IN GOA INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

SECURE SOLUTIONS FOR GAMES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM EVENT DIARY

4TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON E-GOVERNANCE BOOK REVIEW

E-GOVERNMENT DANGEROUS ENTHUSIASMS?

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Digital Literacy in Malaysia

EDITORIAL GUIDELINES eGov is a monthly magazine providing a much needed platform to the voices of various stakeholders in the arena of e-Government, apart from being a repository of valuable information and meaningful discussion on issues of e-governance in general, and e-Government in particular -- both to the specialist and the generalist. Contributions to egov magazine should be in the form of articles, case studies, book reviews, event report and news related to eGovernment project and initiatives, which are of immense value for practitioners, professionals, corporate and academicians. We would like the contributors to follow these guidelines, while submitting their material for publication.

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PRESIDENT

Dr. M P Narayanan

EDITORIAL e-haves and e-have-nots: Digital gulf widens

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Ravi Gupta ASSISTANT EDITOR

Danish A. Khan SR. SUB EDITOR

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ARE

THE Asian countries really e-ready, or for that

matter how e-Governments are evolving and being adopted in the region? This million-dollar question has raised serious concerns in the latest UN Global Egovernment Readiness Report 2005, which outlines the e-readiness status of the 191 UN Member States. Referring to the e-readiness status of the developed and developing countries, the report has highlighted some stark realities regarding the regions of South and Central Asia and Africa that together house one-third of the humanity. The report acknowledges the existence of a serious access divide between the developed and developing countries despite the progress made in the last three years. Currently, Asia is perceived to be the largest regional Internet market with around 1 billion estimated potential users. The Asian nations are emerging as most promising global economies. However, the region gravely suffers from high access costs, poor telecommunications infrastructure and the slow pace of deregulation affecting the growth of ICTs, particularly the Internet. However, even where access is available, lack of literacy and technical skills prove to be obstacle and limit e-services. At the current pace, therefore, disparities between the e-haves and the e-have-nots is bound to worsen unless the Governments in the region make concerted efforts and rise to the occasion to face the grave challenge posed from the new technological revolution. With a plethora of public management and administrative challenges facing most Asian nations, coupled with heightened expectations of rapid socio-economic development, the need for efficient government is higher than ever before. The need of the hour is to create an Asian platform for consultative dialoguing, strategic planning, knowledge networking and business partnering in the field of e-Government in order to bridge the digital divide. egov Asia 2007, which is being organised in Malaysia, is a humble effort from our side in this direction aimed at bringing diverse stakeholders such as highest echelons of government, industry, academia and civil society on a single platform, and help build a knowledge network for the Asian e-Government movement.

accountable for any loss incurred, directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided. egov is published in collaboration with Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. (www.elets.in) ÂŠ Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies 2007 www.csdms.in

February 2007

Ravi Gupta ravi.gupta@csdms.in

w w w . e g o v o n l i n e . n e t | volume 3 | issue 2 | february 2007

COVER FEATURES

8Digital Literacy 16MyRealTouch

Urban vs. Rural areas in Malaysia

Marhaini Mohd Noor & Asiyah Kassim

MyKad Intelligent “Touch n Go” Device for Diesel Subsidies Purchase Control System Mustafa Man, Md Yazid Mohd Saman, Wan Aezwani Wan Abu Bakar & Rosli Hussin

in Public Administration 20e-Government Benefits and Challenges Abdul Rauf Ambali

SPECIAL FOCUS

Digitization of Legal Documents

A step towards e-Court Abdul Nasir & Abad A. Shah

e-Governance grievance redressal < < <

Judicial perspectives Kamal Dave

REGION FOCUS

e-Governance: A rising wave in Goa

J.J.R. Anand

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Solutions for Games Management System

Shanghai Special Olympics 2007 Interview: Dennis Rose, Vice President - Paciﬁc, Citrix Systems, Inc. along with Aldis Berzins, Director, IT Initiatives and Applications, Special Olympics

EVENT DIARY

4th International Conference on e-Governance

(ICEG 2006)

BOOK REVIEW

e-Government: Dangerous Enthusiasms?

D.C. Misra

REGULAR FEATURES

FACTS

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ASIA

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February 2007

INDIA

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BUSINESS

COVER FEATURE

Digital Literacy Urban vs. Rural areas in Malaysia Based on the aspirations to become an industrialised nation, Malaysia has made many conscious efforts to improve and develop literacy. By the Year 2020, it is aiming to achieve a literacy rate of 100%. Today, the country’s population is close to 20 million, the Malaysian literacy is 85%. It is estimated that 20% of the 4.2 million school children in Malaysia have some understanding of computer applications. However, as would be expected in developing countries, the school children in the urban areas are more computer literate than their counterparts in the rural areas

Marhaini Mohd Noor & Asiyah Kassim

ICT and the Internet becomes a new form of literacy, as

HE ABILITY TO USE

what it is called ‘Digital Literacy’. Digital Literacy is fast becoming a prerequisite for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship and without it citizens can neither participate fully in society nor acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to live in the 21st century. Further, as Malaysia is facing globalisation, the era of “Digital Age” is important and needed. With the development of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), the importance of ICT literacy or digital literacy becomes wider. Some of the key issues of digital literacy in Malaysia are being discussed. This pertains to the level of literacy between the residents in the urban and rural areas in Malaysia, the accessibility to ICT and the Internet, and to bridge the gap on the digital divide. Malaysia has formulated Vision 2020, which envisages the transition of Malaysia from a modern economy to the digital economy. The vision is essentially to evolve a completely holistic modern society that is authentically Malaysian – a caring, civilised, and a well-informed society.

DIGITAL LITERACY DEFINED

In defining Digital Literacy, Allan Martin [Journal of eLiteracy, Vol 2 (2005)] proposed that the concept of digital literacy should include several key elements. He stated thus: “Digital Literacy involves being able to carry out successful digital actions embedded within life situations, which may include work, learning, leisure, and other aspects of everyday life; digital literacy, for the individual, will therefore vary according to his/her particular life situation, and also be an ongoing lifelong process developing as the individual’s life situation evolves; digital literacy is broader than ICT literacy and will include elements drawn from several related “Literacy”, such as information literacy, media literacy and visual literacy; digital literacy will involve acquiring and using knowledge, techniques, attitudes and personal qualities, and will include the ability to plan, execute and evaluate digital actions in the solution of life tasks, and the ability to reflect on one’s own digital literacy development”. In brief, digital literacy is the awareness, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use digital tools and facilities to identify, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, analyse and synthesise digital resources, construct

Digital Literacy is fast becoming a prerequisite for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship and without it citizens can neither participate fully in society nor acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to live in the 21st century. Further, as Malaysia is facing globalisation, the era of “Digital Age” is important and needed. With the development of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), the importance of ICT literacy or digital literacy becomes wider

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new knowledge, create media expressions, and communicate with others, in the context of specific life situations, in order to enable constructive social action; and to reflect upon this process. Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, outlined the Ninth Malaysia Plan – it priorities and strategies. The stress was to “build a knowledge based economy with focus on the software elements that touch on human development.” Besides, the program for Bridging Digital Divide was allocated about MYR153 million (US$40.5 million), which was reported under the Eighth Malaysia Plan. On the advancement towards bridging the digital divide, the National IT Council (NITC) together with several ministries and agencies were tasked to advance the National Policy on this matter. Furthermore, the Demonstrator Application Grant Scheme (DAGS) was intended to facilitate social and economic progress through the innovative use of ICT. There are some 100 projects ‘piloted’ under this programme. Seven ICT disadvantaged groups were identified under the programme – urban poor, rural, disabled, seniors, SMEs, women and youth. Currently, there is no publicly available formal report on the learnings from 100 pilots and/or the MYR153 million. ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

However, digital literacy doesn’t end with the purchase of PCs. While affordability is a key component in ensuring comov

February 2007

puter ubiquity, national computer ownership programs run by both the government and PC vendors has barely moved the needle on the PC penetration rate in the country (still under 20%). TMNet and Intel are in the game for providing ICT for all, and Microsoft’s partnership with Courts Mammoth to provide MYR30 a month payment modes for beginner users to own a localised, customised Windows XP Starter Edition PC all seem to have made just a very small dent in the 5.5 million households. Compare this to Hong Kong or Singapore, which have already attained over 50% penetration. Malaysia’s relatively low level of IT use and penetration rate puts at a disadvantage in this rapid information and technology age. The beauty of it not so much as the cost of the computer (where the average household income is around MYR1500 a month), but the value it provides to the buyer at the end of the day. The plans of ICT for digital literacy comes to nothing if the public cannot directly benefit from these projects and that means bringing about a change in lifestyle and improving the economic well-being of the community. The easiest way of making digital literacy pervasive is taking bold moves on being forward or else we are bound to suffer with bigger gaps in achieving greater competitiveness. First, strong political will with big bold goals are required that would allow us to quantum leap our digital inclusion progress. For instance, the National Broadband Plan, while noble in its goals, has set a 10% high-speed Internet access by 2010. This is indeed a bold step that would drive the vendors to push incumbents to get out of laurels and put national 9

COVER FEATURE

DIGITAL LITERACY | URBAN VS. RURAL AREAS IN MALAYSIA

interest ahead of immediate commercial gains. Second, we need a tipping point. Malaysians are relatively, a comfortable nation. An undesired outcome from the success of our previous economic genius has made the country generally less competitive than others. The sliding ranking on the Global Competitive Index is an indicator towards this. We need something to jolt us out of our state of complacency. We need a strong government policy mandating digital literacy, similar to that of the formal education system today. When the Education Ordinance 1957 resulting from the 1956 Razak Report was promulgated, it became mandatory for children to attend formal schooling under the single system of national education. Thus, the village head or champion also played a key role in exciting grassroots masses – and something we should definitely look to cultivating in a national digital literacy plan. The Ministry of Education is encouraging this programme as beyond increasing digital literacy, it will also tackle issues on reducing the cost of maintaining PCs in schools and to provide a software application to monitor schools computer maintenance activities. Further, this program will also catapult existing in-school initiatives like “cyber brigade” or for some, ‘the computer club’ whereby, students can integrate skills learnt into existing frameworks. LITERACY RATE IN MALAYSIA

Based on the aspirations to become an industrialised nation, Malaysia has made many conscious efforts to improve and develop literacy so that it will achieve a literacy rate of 100% by the year 2020. The country still has a long way to go but there are positive indications that the literacy rate is increasing. The World Education Report (1993) stated that Malaysia had one of the lowest literacy rates (78.4%) compared to the other Southeast Asian neighbours, like Singapore (100%), Indonesia (81.6%), Thailand (93%), and the Philippines (89.7%), respectively. Today, the country’s population is close to 20 million, the Malaysian literacy rate is now 85%. However, it is possible that the rate is higher because comprehensive research on the literacy profile of the population has not been undertaken for many years. In Malaysia, it is estimated that 20% of the 4.2 million

Malaysia’s relatively low level of IT use and penetration rate puts at a disadvantage in this rapid information and technology age. Today, the attendance at most telecentres and Internet hubs set up by various agencies under the 8th Malaysia Plan is only for email and chat, for which, of course, the government is not at fault or responsible. The easiest way of making digital literacy pervasive is taking bold moves on being forward or else we are bound to suffer with bigger gaps in achieving greater competitiveness

school children have some understanding of computer applications, such as word processing, using spreadsheets, and using some educational courseware. As would be expected in developing countries, the school children in the urban areas are more computer literate than their counterparts in the rural areas. This rate is increasing steadily as more and more schools form their own computer clubs and provide computer literacy through their own initiatives. Currently, 35% of the schools in Malaysia have computer clubs and conduct computer literacy programs. The present government also has plans to use computers to disseminate knowledge in schools to enhance teaching and learning. In 1992, a ‘Computer in Education’ project was launched. About 20 rural schools in the state of Selangor were chosen as pilot schools to use computers in the teaching and learning process. Both teachers and students were trained in computer literacy. Each school was also equipped with 20 computers in its computer lab. Presently, more than 100 schools are involved in the project. In fact, a new subject called Reka Cipta, or Creative Design, has been introduced to the secondary school students. The subject involves teaching students how to use ComputerAided Design. The Malaysian government has also developed the “smart school” concept in the country and plans are being geared into this by various organisations (for example, universities, private companies, and the Ministry of Education). The collaboration among these organisations, termed a consortium, is aimed at developing the delivery concept (i.e., the architectural concept on how the lessons will be delivered) and the development of the content or the courseware itself. Soon, all primary and secondary school teachers would be computer literate, which would also mean that more schools would conduct computer literacy programmes and lessons would begin to be introduced through courseware via the Internet. It is anticipated that network computers would be used in schools instead of personal computers because of their less expensive cost. The courseware will be put in a regional or local server and students can then download them to their computers and run the programmes. Besides, in higher institutions the computer literacy rates among lecturers and students are very promising, and one can safely conclude that the degree of computer literacy among the university and college population is above 80%.

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DIGITAL LITERACY IN MALAYSIA

Like in many other countries, both developing and developed, Malaysia’s Digital/ICT infrastructure development has been concentrated primarily in its cities and towns. Digital infrastructure distribution on a geographical basis has largely reflected regional inferences in economic development and population density with the predominantly rural states of Sabah and Sarawak falling far short of the national average. Out of 136 districts that make up the country, 89 have been identified as underserved areas (i.e. with a teledensity of 20% below the national average). Most of these districts come overwhelmingly from the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak states, which have the lowest population densities in the country. While districts vary in terms of size and population, underserved areas are designated on a district level as they from the main administrative unit. According to an Internet subscriber study in 2002, more than 90% of the subscribers of the largest ISP, TM Net, were located in the Klang Valley area and cities such as Johor Baru, Penang, Kuantan, Kota Kinabalu and Ipoh. Similarly, around 73% of the subscribers of Malaysia’s second largest ISP, Jaring, came from the capital and the more urbanised states of Selangor, Johor and Pulau Pinang. In addition to this urban-rural divide, it is important to note that the pace of infrastructure development has also not been uniform across all urban areas. Among the country’s cities and towns, infrastructure providers have also favoured particular areas. These areas include, in particular, the Klang Valley region, the town of Penang in the North and the town of Johor Baru in the South. In terms of distribution of Personal Computers (PCs) in the urban and rural areas, the concentration is in the urban areas, primarily Selangor, Federal Territories and Penang, which contribute to more than 65% of computer density in Malaysia. However, the rate of PC penetration per household is still very low, ie. at 5%. As for Internet access, the 1998 statistics showed Internet penetration at 6% for every 100 population and 11.9% for every household. While Malaysia recorded a growth rate of 182% in Internet subscription, once again growth concentration is more on the Klang Valley area, Selangor and major towns in the country. These statistics clearly shows the overwhelming difference of PC and Internet availability between the urban and rural areas. Among the most important steps to enhance digital literacy are to create awareness among the rural population and to provide the infrastructure to the rural areas. The Malaysian government and the private sectors especially in providing infrastructure have already carried out many efforts. To boost the development, a few awareness campaigns through Internet and other medium have been launched. Malaysia’s latest effort in creating Digital / ICT awareness is an integrated campaign through a monthly bulletin, a web portal and a video commercial/montage promoting Digital / ICT to the rural population. The Ministry of Electricity, Water and Communication (MEWC) and its predecessor ministry, the Ministry of Electricity, Communication and Multimedia (MECM), have embarked on numerous digital inclusion initiatives aimed at fulfilling the national objective of ensuring equitable provision of affordable ICT and digital services in pursuance of the Malaysian Governov

February 2007

ment’s initiatives to improve digital literacy, primarily, to correct the digital imbalance. BARRIERS IN DIGITAL LITERACY RATE IMPROVEMENT

There is apparent gap in digital literacy. There exists a disparity between the digital/information rich and the digital/information poor among various groups in Malaysia. Coincidently, the pattern is that the former is located in urban areas whilst the latter in rural, as similar scenario as in the case of poverty. The high cost of installing and maintaining these services in remote and sparsely populated areas, however, make it difficult for commercial operators to provide telecommunications services in such areas at urban prices even though there is considerable demand. A host of obstacles stand in the way of cheap deployment costs. In terms of geography, parts of Malaysia’s rural population, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak, live scattered in the midst of dense rainforest, often in hilly terrain that obscure line of sight. Severe weather conditions that can alternate between flooding and drought further complicate telecommunications infrastructure deployment and the maintenance of equipment. There are some issues pertaining to the level of acceptance and awareness of ICT/digital technologies between residents in urban and rural areas due to level of formal education, occupation, accessibility, affordability and affinity. SIGNIFICANCE OF BUILDING UP DIGITAL LITERACY

Improving the digital literacy is essentially about empowerment, in which, it is about using new technologies and the 11

DIGITAL LITERACY | URBAN VS. RURAL AREAS IN MALAYSIA

COVER FEATURE

Last but not least, as a developing nation, Malaysia needs to develop its local content on most ICT/digital application such as in the websites, online transactions and so forth. medium to empower the poor (those who are located in rural areas) just as they now empower the rich. When the ICT industries talk about providing “end to end solutions” to users they are talking about fulfilling aspirations of users that is empowering them. Thus, uplifting the digital literacy must necessarily involve empowering the poor by studying their circumstances and then finding ways to shift the context that reinforces their poverty and make them part of K-based economy. Enhancing digital literacy is a good way to sustain the growth of our national market. Without extending ICTs/Digital Technologies to the other population of consumers (those in rural areas, low-income earners and less educated), our national markets will be restricted to only a small group of users (especially those in urban areas) who have already saturated markets for the major ICT markets, e.g. for cell phones, computers and software. As prices drop, the private sector will face dropping prices, devaluation and overcapacity unless new customers emerge. The only places new customers exist are among the low-income and those in remote areas. The only way to reach them affordably and profitably is through ICTs. RESEARCH ON LITERACY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

There is research on the development of a multimedia literacy program to encourage reading that was undertaken by UKM under the IRPA (Intensified Research Priority Areas) grant given to priority areas of research in the country. This research has been targeted at the young population of the country to prepare for the information-rich society. Computer-Assisted Learning (CAL) and Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) have been proven in various researches to be able to motivate learning, particularly in the subject areas of mathematics and English. For this particular research, the courseware for motivating literacy is in the vernacular language (the national language). A multimedia approach was felt to be most suitable because a variety of media graphics, text, sound, voice, animation, and video – can be integrated in one digital environment. Another advantage is that it is interactive and children can learn at their own pace. Another related research project that would be carried out is a MY3mn (US$1.5mn) multimedia research project to develop educational courseware to enhance teaching in schools conducted by UKM and sponsored by an established local information technology company. Initially, the research would study the best method of delivering mathematical knowledge through the computer, and eventually it would also cover other subjects in schools like reading in English and the national language. Although the research is not directly related to literacy, the development of courseware would help to encourage children not to be afraid of the computers and to develop computer literacy skills indirectly. This is what the government hopes to aspire in the year 2020. In fact, 12

the Ministry of Education had proposed four subjects – Science, Mathematics, English, and Bahasa Malaysia – would be taught using computers based on the smart school concept. This is a step toward developing an information society in a truly information environment. CONCLUSION

The world is now entering the digital economic era, and Malaysians would have to be prepared for this information environment in order to be a true information-rich society by the year 2020. This means that proper strategies needs to be undertaken to create a fully literate society with a 100% literacy rate. Not only the society be an information-rich society that possess characteristics such as a high literacy rate, ability to read and write fluently in the vernacular as well as the second language of the country as well as possibly a third language, citizens who are motivated to read, and citizens who seek knowledge, but they must also possess the information technology skills (at least, computer literacy skills) because more and more information would be available in electronic form and the citizens will have to equip themselves with the necessary technology skills in an information environment. Malaysia’s effort to raise the level of digital literacy has been creditable. Through its Ministries and its agencies the Malaysian Government has clearly taken a proactive role in achieving its goal of universal access to ICTs by channelling significant amounts of resources in terms of financial and administrative support into initiatives designed to meet that objective. The Malaysian government has shown itself to be aware of the problem and has taken a number of steps to remedy the situation. Looking at what it has done and what it intends to do, Malaysia’s commitment to improve digital literacy is clear. Last but not least, as a developing nation, Malaysia needs to develop its local content on most ICT/digital application such as in the websites, online transactions and so forth. Most of the ICT/digital applications are using English language interface, therefore, it would be difficult for most of residents especially in rural areas who literate in mother tongue to use ICT widely. It is imperative to develop local content by focusing on the language used as the medium to promote ICT. Marhaini Binti Mohd Noor [marhariz@yahoo.com] is Lecturer, Faculty of Administrative Science & Policy Studies cum E-PJJ Coordinator, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.

Asiyah Kassim is Lecturer, Faculty of Administrative Science & Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.

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NEWS REVIEW

ASIA

E-JUSTICE PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION BY 11 MALAYSIAN COURTS

NDER MALAYSIA’S e-Justice system, the administration system of 11 courts in Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur has been computerised. The Malaysian Government has decided to implement the eJustice system in all the 410 courts throughout the

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country. Malaysia’s e-justice project is being implemented under the Court Computerisation Master Plan formulated in 2003. The e-Justice system is being implemented in four stages -- development of basic justice technology; content management system; electronic case filing and trial management system; and, file tracing. Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, during the handing over ceremony of the e-Justice system to Malaysian judiciary recently, said, “Malaysia is among the first in the world to opt for an electronic judicial system. We have seen the effectiveness of the e-Justice system and would implement it at all the courts in the country,” and added, “e-Justice would help in the automation of the justice administration system through the application of the case management system at 11 trial rooms, and in the court recording and transcription system in two trial rooms.”

e-Passports in Taiwan starting 2008

FROM

2008, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs would begin issuing e-Passports. Wang Chien-yeh, Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that the e-Passports would store personal information on a tiny radio frequency identiﬁcation computer chip. Wang said, “It would be very difﬁcult for counterfeit rings to get any personal information from the e-Passport. There is some hidden information, but they wouldn’t be able to see it. So, actually these passports will be quite effective in protecting against counterfeits.”

E-MARRIAGE SYSTEM IN MALAYSIA’S KELANTAN SOON

O KEEP an effective check against growing number of forged marriage certiﬁcates among Muslims in Malaysia’s Kelantan, an e-Marriage (Nikah) system accompanied by a security-seal certiﬁcate would soon be introduced. According to Kelantan State Religious Development Committee Chairman Hassan Mohamood, the e-Marriage system would as-

sist state religious authorities to keep tab on legitimate marriages performed by licensed Kazis. Setting up of an e-Marriage system comes in the wake of the state Syariah High Court ruling against a couple charged with forging their marriage certiﬁcate. Hassan said that the newly married couples would get a new security-seal document featuring security contents that could be veriﬁed only by the state religious authorities. The document would also bear an electronic signature of the Kazi who

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BEIJING 2008 OLYMPICS E-MAP LAUNCHED

OR THE Beijing 2008 Olympic games, the English e-Map for the ofﬁcial website was launched recently. The Chinese version has already been released on 23rd January 2005. The Olympics Games ofﬁcial website

February 2007

BY 2008, VIETNAM TO ADOPT E-CUSTOMS

IETNAMESE CUSTOMS would introduce nationwide e-Customs clearance procedures by 2008. The decision comes after successful pilot program introduced by the General Department of Customs (GDC) in the northern port of Hai Phong City and Ho Chi Minh City few years ago. The pilot program was also officially introduced in September 2005 in some key provinces. Several businesses lauded the new system saying that it took a mere 2-3 minutes on average to have goods cleared instead of the usual 7-8 hours when filling out paperwork by hand. However, Customs offices at the borders are yet to be linked with the system. The Ministry of Trade is undertaking the e-Customs project as part of a larger e-Commerce project.

solemnises the marriage, thus making it difﬁcult to attempt a duplication of the signature. The move is being made particularly for those who marry without consent or those taking second or third spouses, and falsifying their documents.

would for the ﬁrst time use electronic GIS (Geographic Information System) applications in multi-languages. The dynamic map features Olympic competition venues, Olympic-licensed stores, subway stations, and traditional dwelling blocks in Beijing -- Hutongs. Besides, the map would act as a practical city guide platform with information regarding government institutions, health and medical community, academies, entertainment, media, shopping, real estate, chambers, sports venues, scenic spots, catering, and hotels and restaurants. More information and functions would also be integrated into the map in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games. 13

INDIA

NEWS REVIEW

DELHI E-GOVERNANCE ROADMAP LAUNCHED

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KALAM ADVOCATES ESTABLISHING INSURANCE E-GOVERNANCE GRID

RESIDENT A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in his address recently at Pune to mark 25 years of the National Insurance Academy (NIA), advocated the need to establish an insurance e-Governance grid to enable a total company-wide connected environment. Kalam remarked that even though the present insurance industry in India has undertaken the computerisation of different sub-systems, it is still a long way to go towards using e-Governance. “The insurance grid will need to have a secured virtual private network connectivity with PKI Infrastructure with necessary dynamic encryption systems. NIA should work on strategies to enable ﬁrms to accept authenticated digital signature for all insurance transactions including ﬁnancial audit,” President Kalam said.

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ELHI Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit recently launched the e-Governance roadmap for the State stipulating the e-Governance vision and strategies to bring about all round development. Dikshit hopes that her dream of a paperless secretariat would soon become a reality bringing about a significant change in work culture and effective curbing of corruption. Delhi plans to roll out e-Governance services in the next five years. The e-services to be rolled out numbers 115, and have been classified as G2C, G2B, G2G, G2E, G2N for citizens, businesses, other Government departments, employees and non-government organisations respectively. The e-Governance initiatives would be undertaken in various sectors such as health, education, welfare, infrastructure, finance, revenue, support and administration.

COMPUTERISATION OF EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES ON THE CARDS

HE Central Government has announced that employment exchanges would soon be computerised across India. The computerisation would be done under the National e-Governance Programme (NeGP). The Central Government would bear 75% of the cost burden, while the respective States would share the remaining cost. Many States have already expressed their

Jharkhand to establish its ﬁrst CSC

Bihar becomes India’s ﬁrst in T-Governance

AFTER

e-Governance and mGovernance, it is now the turn of T-Governance. The State of Bihar has decided to take the lead in T-Governance and has become the ﬁrst State in India to do so. With an aim to empower people and bring transparency as well as accountability in the administration, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recently announced the setting up of the RTI (Right to Information) helpline in coordination with an NGO, Parivartan. According to Mr. Kumar this step was necessary because most of the people wanting to ﬁle RTI applications were sim-

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desire to computerise their respective employment exchanges with the assistance of the Centre. The software for the employment exchanges would be prepared by the National Informatics Centres (NICs) of the respective States. According to an NIC ofﬁcial currently there are two speciﬁc targeted states for which the software for e-processing of employment is being worked out. Over eight States have expressed priority for employment exchanges in their list of MMPs (Mission Mode Projects).

N an effort to bridge the gap between the Government and citizen, the State of Jharkhand has decided to establish its first CSC (Common Service Centre) under the NeGP (National e-Governance Programme). The CSC would act as the single gateway for G2C (Government-to-Citizen) services. Aruna Sundararajan, Chief Executive Officer of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services and in-charge of CSC’s project under DIT (Department of Information Technology), said that Jharkhand’s first CSC would be established in the next 2-3 months. Presently, there are 15,000 CSCs functioning in different parts of India, and are being run by various companies and agencies.

ply unable to do so owing to the technicalities involved. “In most of the cases, officials were found unavailable. Even, some offices were located in far away places. The new call centre service would save the common man from the nitty-gritty problems of RTI application. It is the responsibility of the call centre to redress the grievance,” Kumar said and added, “People have a right to know about the fate of ongoing projects, reasons for delay, amount spent, status of loan applications, etc. It is hoped that the helpline acts as a deterrent against corruption.” Amir Subhani, Secretary, Personnel, Bihar, explained that under the new provisions, the applicant would be required to dial a specific number forwarding his/her request

to an attendant who would process it and send an application to the concerned ofﬁcial. The applicant seeking information under the RTI Act would not be required to write an application. A duplicate copy of the applicant’s request would be forwarded to the District Magistrate through email followed by a fax message. Besides, the caller would also receive a copy of the application at his/her address within three days. The caller would also be given a special number for follow-up action. The caller would be required to pay Rs. 10 as RTI application fee, which would be added to the telephone call charge.

www.egovonline.net

COVER FEATURE

MyRealTouch MyKad Intelligent “Touch n Go” Device for Diesel Subsidies Purchase Control System Government Multipurpose Card (GMPC) is the initiative of the Malaysian Government in providing the public with added convenience on a single smart card. The GMPC represents the ﬁrst step for Malaysians to an incredible transformation in their lives -- in the way they work, communicate and do business. In future, the GMPC will become the common key to the information highway and other new business methods and processes that will be developed, including that of the other MSC ﬂagship applications Mustafa Man, Md Yazid Mohd Saman, Wan Aezwani Wan Abu Bakar & Rosli Hussin

‘M

ULTIPURPOSE GOVERNMENT SMART CARD’ or KPPK or also known

as MyKad is one component of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) initiatives. The project is one of the seven major applications identified to be developed by the Malaysian government in order to produce a world-class technology innovation. MyKad has initially been launched with its full application around MSC-KL, which is for Klang Valley area. Other than Klang Valley area, MyKad only provides one application, which is an identity card. The major challenge of this project is to develop a system and new processes that can fit multipurpose security aspects, as well as integrating various applications from various government department and private sectors in a single card. Currently, there is no other such system launched throughout the world, hence the Malaysian Government should create and develop all the system, procedures and basic methodologies to attain objectives of implementing government multipurpose smart card based on intelligent card technology. ‘My’ in ‘MyKad’ is Malaysian Internet address while Kad is ‘Kad Akuan Diri’, which also means a card. So, MyKad is a Malaysian Government initiative to provide facilities for public through a single intelligent card for multi-application. Unlike other cards, MyKad integrates various government as well as private applications in a single card. MYKAD APPLICATION

MyKad combines applications replacing two major government documents – Identity Card and Driving License. Currently, MyKad has several applications. MyKad replaces identity card with existing plastic cover. Compact with biometric chip technology with high security features, the number of identity card in MyKad is used to be an access key for another system applications. KyKad now functions as a driving license replacing 16 }

the current driving license card. MyKad assists Enforcement Officer by revealing current record about driver’s detail. This application would be used by Jabatan Pengankutan Jalan (JPJ) officer and Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM) police traffic. Besides functioning as Identity Card and Driving License, MyKad also consists of Malaysian passport information to facilitate exit and enter management to or from other country through Malaysian Immigration exit and enter door. However, MyKad would not be replacing passport because the passport is still needed while going abroad. MyKad technology would also facilitate diagnosis process and health awareness in public medication or even emergencies. This is because MyKad chip embeds basic and critical health information like blood type and allergies. MyKad would also function as e-Cash Card. It would ease the process of paying items or services especially, which involves small amount of money thus increasing efficiency and provide facilities in business processes as well as public services and payments. MyKad would also act as ‘Touch n Go’ card, and can be used at all places exhibiting Touch n Go logo as payment method in Malaysia such as toll in highways, bus services, commuter and LRT (STAR or PUTRA), monorail, parking, theme parks and other places. While acting as ATM card, MyKad would smoothen banking transactions. MyKad integrates various security features such as biometric verification thus preventing data security from fraud and cloning. MyKad holder would be able to use the card at ATM terminals to withdraw cash, balance statement enquiry, change pin number and other facilities as provided by ATM. Regarding MyKad’s usage as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), this infrastructure would entitle MyKad holder a key to operate Internet banking by using digital certificates. Verification and integrity of data is preserved and can only be used by original My Kad holder. Information kept in MyKad chip is basic information needed for every MyKad application. Other detail information is kept in databases by enforcement bodies, which are not included in www.egovonline.net

‘My’ in ‘MyKad’ is Malaysian Internet address while Kad is ‘Kad Akuan Diri’, which also means a card. So, MyKad is a Malaysian Government initiative to provide facilities for public through a single intelligent card for multi-application. Unlike other cards, MyKad integrates various government as well as private applications in a single card. Currently, there is no other such system launched throughout the world

the chip. Information in the chip can be accessed using mini card reader or Mobile CAD. E-DIESEL SYSTEM AND E-LANDING IMPLEMENTATION

Other than giving subsidy on petrol, the Government also gives discount for selected sectors to depreciate people’s burden especially those with low-income rate. Discount to subsidised oil price is given to public transport entrepreneur under ‘Sistem Pemberian Diesel Bersubsidi’ through a fleetcard. 84% of public transport and consumer good transport are more than 275,900 transports are entitled to receive subsidised diesel price for RM1.43 per litre which means that 15 cents lower ov

February 2007

than the new rate of RM1.58 per litre for other consumers. Some 20 types of transports are entitled to use fleetcard in 2771 petrol station all over the country. Those entitled transports are school bus, short distance bus, express bus, taxi, cargo lorry and etc. The person in charge for the transport is already given a letter by ”Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna” (KPDN & HEP). The government has also introduced e-Diesel System for fishermen in fisheries sector. Through this system, the government is giving subsidised diesel of RM1.00 per litre to about 18000 fishermen in the country. Besides, about 15000 nearby beach fishermen who use boat engine with petrol are also being given subsidised petrol at RM1.00 per litre starting from 1st June 2006 if registered with Lembaga Kemajuan Ikan Malaysia (LKIM). Kementerian Pertanian dan Industri Asas Tani will generate 100 sale centres throughout the country, which would be developed by LKIM. Subsidised diesel for boat passenger entrepreneur in urban Sabah and Sarawak has been reduced to RM1.20 per litre from 16th March 2006. The entrepreneur of Ulu Tembeling, Pahang, would also receive subsidised diesel at RM1.20 per litre after the method to channel the material is being finalised. Through e-Diesel system, LKIM would sell the material electronically to ensure the supplies are sent through Persatuan Nelayan Kebangsaan (NEKMAT), which is using services from Persatuan Nelayan Kawasan (PNK). However, LKIM and NEK17

COVER FEATURE

MYREALTOUCH | MYKAD INTELLIGENT “TOUCH N GO” DEVICE FOR DIESEL SUBSIDIES PURCHASE CONTROL SYSTEM

MAT are still having difficulties in infrastructure because they have just been given a supplier contract by government to avoid diesel smuggling activities to overseas. Earlier, the government introduced 48 diesel supplies licenses including to NEKMAT and deep sea fishermen who owned personal jetty. The use of e-Diesel card would be enforced throughout the country. All the boat owners insisting on buying diesel would be required to hand over the card that acts as an intelligent card with their name and boat registration number in it. LKIM spent RM10 millions to implement the system, which is placed in 200 jetties all over the country in order to cut-off diesel diversion. Kementerian Pertanian dan Industri Asas Tani would introduce two new technologies to uncover subsidised diesel misuse. The technologies are nanotechnology (oil signage) and e-Landing system. Nanotechnology is normally used in developing countries where nano materials are added into oil. Through this method, the ministry can detect diesel used by industrial party, which is actually the diesel that is sold illegally from fishermen. Normal people won’t notice but authorised party would know how the diesel could be at different places. Through e-Landing, a new software is loaded into e-Diesel card, and fishing records by certain boats would be discovered while refilling diesel oil. Through LKIM rules and regulations, a fisherman should declare his fishing, which is fundamental to e-Landing system. Every time they go sailing in and out from the sea, they should report the amount of fishing based on the size of the boat and when refilling diesel, and have to prove fishing. However, none of the fishing result is found, they would have to explain where the oil was spent. The Government of Malaysia has spent RM45 million per month for e-Diesel subsidy, provided to fishermen who are allocated 30000 litres diesel per month. E-DIESEL AND E-LANDING IMPLEMENTATION BENEFITS

LKIM believes that by auditing subsidised diesel sale system (e-Diesel) for fishermen, the smuggling syndicate could be effectively cut off. Audit process would involve thorough record of sending diesel from depot to PNK tank and also sale record from dedicated tank to those who owned e-Diesel card. Ever since e-Diesel system was introduced in January 2006, LKIM hasn’t implemented thorough audit, which involved NEKMAT and PNK. Through the audit, the weaknesses of LKIM, NEKMAT and PNK in adopting the system would possibly be traced. Consequently, it would also trace

Citrix Systems Product Vision

other party who might use the facilities for own purposes. Thus, those involved in corruption and bribery would also be effectively identified. The implementation of e-Diesel and e-Landing has resulted in firm action being taken against those involved in negative activites. Since last July some 97 fishermen, who owned e-Diesel cards, have been blocked from buying diesel at the price of RM1.00 per litre, while three jetty managers of LKIM including five PNK supervisors have been transferred because of smuggling activities because of the subsidy. The boat owner, mostly deep sea boats have been detected of neither misusing the facilities whether by selling it in the middle of the sea nor selling it to the third party at fish landfall jetty. The jetty manager of LKIM and PNK supervisors have been caught in abetting the boat owner by using e-Diesel card of other boat owner but filling up fuel into another fishermen’s boat to gain extra profit. MYREALTOUCH: SYSTEM DESIGN FOR DIESEL PURCHASE CONTROL SYSTEM -- DPCTNGO

The purpose of design development of MyRealTouch-DPCTnGO system is to control buying of subsidised diesel by using one of the features in MyKad. Through the design, new application would be developed and hence it would optimise the use of MyKad and subsidised diesel diversion would be reduced. MyRealTouch-DPCTnGO system uses special device, which is developed by for the purchasing controlling system that call MyRealTouch. MyRealTouch would enable scanning of MyKad with the same feature as ‘Touch n Go’, which is available in MyKad. MyRealTouch is based on the management and access control. It also reuses the concept of attendance system whereby it is controlled by computer and is being implemented with www.egovonline.net

microprocessor. Through ‘touch in and touch out’ attendance concept, the MyRealTouch-DPCTnGO system would adopt the same concept. Each activity could be controlled by referring to the activity and record done by each individual. All the records are saved in a database. All data stored can be accessed, updated, analysed and deleted as needed. MyRealTouch Device includes several features – It can be integrated with various smart card reader; real time smart card controlled and logged record; add, delete and update smart card users; log and record; and, interactive user interface (web-based system). The MyRealTouch-DPCTnGO system is designed to suit with current technology needs. It is a webbased system whereby all information that is touched with MyKad would be recorded and user identity would be identified. Later, action would be taken to inform the jetty manager to manage diesel oil sales. When a fisherman uses MyKad and ‘touch in’ at smart card terminal, then the fisherman’s information would be identified automatically. In fact, the maximum amount of diesel, which can be bought for the day would be displayed through computer terminal. After that, diesel oil can be sold and the time during ‘touch in’ would be recorded (date, day, time and amount of diesel bought). The MyRealTouch-DPCTnGO system would control the buying of diesel by recording ‘touch out’ time. Whether fishermen goes to catch fish or not, he/she must land out all amount of fishing at the same jetty. After fish landing is done physically, then the fishermen must ‘touch out’ at MyRealTouch Intelligent Device and the ‘touch out’ date, time and day will be recorded. After ‘touch out’, the fisherman can buy diesel for the next fishing activity and it depends on the daily quota set by LKIM. Whenever ‘touch out’ process isn’t done, the fisherman would not permitted to buy the next subsidised diesel. This is because the system would automatically check date of ‘touch out’ before enabling the next ‘touch in’ activity. Record of buying and fish landing activity would be recorded. Analysis of buying activity and fish landing will be done. Data or information relevant to the amount of diesel supplies to buying centres or fish landing jetty can be controlled as well as the amount of diesel needed can be covered and identified. MyRealTouch-DPCTnGO system is developed using Visual Basic 6.0, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) and MySQL database. Visual Basic 6.0 software is used to develop smart card terminal software, PHP is used to develop web base application and MySQL is as a database for the system. MyRealTouch-DPCTnGO system consists of several modules, which are fisherman’s profile module, touch-in and touch-out module, data processing module, access system of jetty manager

The use of e-Diesel card would be enforced throughout the country. All the boat owners insisting on buying diesel would be required to hand over the card that acts as an intelligent card with their name and boat registration number in it. LKIM spent RM10 millions to implement the system, which is placed in 200 jetties all over the country in order to cut-off diesel diversion (PNK) module and report analysis and record module. It is hoped that MyRealTouch-DPCTnGO system will assist PNK, LKIM and especially Government of Malaysia to recover the problem of subsidized diesel diversion. CONCLUSION

In spite of everything, the system would not be affected if there exists some businessmen trying to get rid of gaining extra profit. Thus as a user, everybody should react and do wisely in expenses. Everyone should balance out expenses based on information and must be accountable for all expenses done. People or individual should judge wisely and play role to cater the increasing expenses of the diesel. They should plan their expenses so that there’ll never overspend. Users should adapt to the lifestyle with what they can afford so that they would never be facing any financial burden or social problem. They should use their power as a consumer in buying and selling at an affordable price. About 41% of energy uses are from transportation sector. Thus, one can plan travelling earlier, car pooling or using public transport so that we can save fuel expenses. It is hoped that with the alternative solution of MyRealTouch-DPCTnGO system based on ‘touch n go’ technology, the problem in subsidised diesel diversion for the fishermen would be reduced as well as the use of MyKad application would be optimised.

Mustafa Man [mustafaman@kustem.edu.my] is Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, University College of Science and Technology, Malaysia.

Wan Aezwani Wan Abu Bakar [wanie7194@yahoo. com.my] is Lecturer, Department of Computing Studies, Cybernetics International College of Technology, Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.

Md Yazid Mohd Saman [yazid@kustem.edu.my] is Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, University College of Science and Technology, Malaysia.

Rosli Hussin [rosly@netmaxe.com] is associated with Netmaxe Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia.

February 2007

COVER FEATURE

e-Government in Public Administration Benefits and Challenges The world is moving towards more democratic and open forms of governance. Governments are under increasing pressure to improve managerial performance of their public sectors. Information technology is today undoubtedly playing greater role in providing integration, coordination in public sectors and also in building the interface between the government and its services to the people

HE EMERGENCE OF THE INTERNET and concerns for developments in processing capacity as well as data

Abdul Rauf Ambali

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storage over the 1990s has significantly altered the environment for ICT use across society and governmental institutions and agencies. While the long-term effects of this digital revolution are likely to be profound, the needs for developments have drastically pressurised the public sectors to improve performances, capitalise on external opportunities within the environment and prepare to overcome both internal weaknesses as well as external threats. Due to differences in ideological perception of individuals, e-Government means different things to different people. According to Stephen Barr, eGovernment is “the use of Internet technology and protocols to transform agency effectiveness, efficiency, and service quality.” In a different way, Gartner Group describes e-Government as “the continuous optimisation of service delivery, constituency participation and governance by transforming internal and external relationships through technology, the Internet and new media.” Detlor and Finn define electronic government as “the delivery and administration of government products and services over an information technology infrastructure.” However, electronic government is essentially the use of information and communication technology to promote more efficient

and cost-effective government, facilitate more convenient government services, allow greater public access to information and make government more accountable to its citizens. ADVENT OF INFORMATION SOCIETY

The advent of Information Society is creating unprecedented conditions for access to, and exploitation of, public sector information and represents a potential turning point in the ways in which societies are governed, administered and public services delivered. In other words, information and communication technologies can be argued to be a driving force and a powerful tool to help achieve the Millennium’s developmental goals. Indeed, the Millennium declaration and its roadmap to globalisation campaigns have called on governments to pursue a strategic management through the knowledge infrastructure, particularly ICTs via a creative partnership. In fact, the mainstream of ICT within planning and design of improving strategies in public sectors is pivotal, both at national local and regional levels of government administrative bodies. Hence, e-Government becomes a particularly important ICT application. More importantly, the “World Summit on the Information Society”, which took place in Geneva, December 2003, and Tunis, 2005, pointed out the www.egovonline.net

international communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s readiness to improve initiatives that enhance the role of ICT for political, cultural and economic development. The summit specifically explored the best practices in new ICT based modes of interaction between government and its citizens. As such, e-Government can be considered a process, or a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. e-Government is still in the earliest stages of development and promises to evolve with advances in technology and increased acceptance and trust in electronic communication.

G2G dimension

STRUCTURAL DIMENSIONS

The conceptual section of this paper provides the basis for structural dimensions of application of e-Government in public administration. Some analysts sought e-government in terms of specific course of action to enhance job information. Others have broadly perceived e-Government as automating the delivery of government services to people. In other words, e-Government is seen as a means to enable citizens interact and receive services from the federal government, state and local governments. On the basis of this different conceptualisation, one can identify three distinctive areas for application of e-Government in public administration. First, e-Government application can be from government-to-government (G2G), second, from government-to-business (G2B), and third, from governmentto-citizens (G2C). Besides, another area may be from government-to-employee (G2E) also. However, the G2E dimension is considered to be a subset or intra-agency activities of the G2G interface. Hence, it is not deemed as a separate entity. ov

February 2007

G2G dimension application represents the corner stone of eGovernment. In fact, Atkinson and Ulevich have argued that federal, state and local governments should enhance their own internal systems and procedures before electronic transactions with both citizens and business communities could be successful. There are three levels of initiative forces that call for the application G2G dimension of e-Government. First, in relations to laws and government regulations the growing emphasis is on paperwork reduction in order to reduce the information collection efforts and reporting requirements of the federal government as well as to coordination of governmentwide information management activities easier. In addition, the important of computer security requires that the federal agencies need to adopt an information security plans. Second, the interest in improved efficiency, cost savings by increasing the speed of transactions, reducing the number of personnel necessary to complete a task and improving the consistency of outputs. Third, according to Sprehe, an attempt to apply â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;best practicesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in public sectors, as in private sectors, make 21

APPLICATION OF E-GOVERNMENT IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION | BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES

COVER FEATURE

it imperative for G2G electronic initiatives. He contends that state and local governments are often perceived as models for e-Government initiatives due to their role in delivering services to citizens. Most of the policymakers are now advocating for best approach to restructuring G2G relationships. In this context, e-Government is often proposed as solution. A glaring example of G2G application of e-Government is the Northeast Gang Information System (NEGIS) in US. NEGIS is sponsored by Department of Justice and Services as a shared resource for street gang information for states in the northeast such as Rhode Island, Vermont and New York. NEGIS covers information on gang related activities, gang intelligence and even reference library. Hence, it connects state police departments of the participant states, which in turns, transmit the information to the states law enforcement agencies. G2B dimension

Another dimension of e-Government application in public administration is the building of interface between government and business sector of a nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy. According to Gilbert, G2B initiatives receive a significant amount of attention in part because of the high enthusiasm of the business sector and the potential for reducing costs through improved procurement practices and increased competition. This dimension of e-Government can reflect information about the sale of surplus government goods to the public as well as procurement of goods and services. Although not all are directly dependent on the use of information technology, however, performance-based contracting is a sound electronic method in which the payment that governments made to the contractors can be based on the actual goals and outcomes of the job done. Another G2B e-method is Share-in-Savings contracts. This is a method in which the contractor pays for the up-front costs of a project such as installation of a new computer sys22

The growing younger citizen demand is one of the driving motives for establishing the G2C dimension by any administrative institutions of government. In fact, e-Government application in public administration is expected to increase signiďŹ cantly in Asia within the next decade, as the youths, who are now growing up with personal computers and the Internet as a routine presence in their lives, become adults

tem and receives payment passed on the savings generated. The third e-Government application to government-business interface is a reverse auction method that can be conducted over Internet. This method allows companies to openly bidding against each other in real time to win a government contract. There are two primary motives for application of e-Government in building the interface between government and business sector of any country. The first rationale and/or motive is the business community itself, whereby the use of electronic means to carry out various activities like procurement, sales and hiring can be become an easy task for state industries. In addition, many companies would like to extend the cost savings realised in their business-to-business (B2B) transactions to their business with federal, state and local governments. The second motive is the growing demand by policymakers for cost cutting and more efficient procurement. The fact is that the G2B e-Government initiatives is promoted on the potential to streamline and improve the consistency of personnel intensive tasks such as processing license renewals or employee benefit changes as in the Malaysian government proposal for e-Government. www.egovonline.net

In practice, one-stop example of G2B e-Government application is Government Services Administration Auctions (GSA) where GSA sells federal surplus property via online Web site to the highest bidders. The items sold to industrial machinery and vehicles range from hand tools to furniture. G2C dimension

The third application of e-Government in public administration is to build interface between government and its citizens. It is a realistic initiative to facilitate citizen interaction with the government. As a public administration that is responsible for the needs of the people, G2C electronic application can provide transactions relating to renewing of licenses and certifications, tax-payments, applying for certain benefits by the citizens such as government loans or houses in a lesser time consuming and easiness in carrying out. More importantly, this structural dimension strives to enhance citizen access to public information through the use of dissemination tools like web sites and/or kiosks. In other words, it is a dimension purposefully meant to attenuate the agency-centric, and at times, process-laden nature of some government functions towards its citizens. In the same line of argument some e-Government advocates suggest that one of the goals of implementing this dimension should be to create a ‘one-stop shopping’ site where citizens can carry out a variety of tasks, especially those that multiple agencies, without requiring the citizen to initiate contacts with each agency individually. The growing younger citizen demand is one of the driving motives for establishing this dimension by any administrative institutions of government. In fact, e-Government application in public administration is expected to increase significantly in Asia within the next decade, as the youths, who are now growing up with personal computers and the Internet as a routine presence in their lives, become adults. Another pressing factor for application of e-Government in building G2C interface is time frame. The citizen may demand for ways to reduce time spent standing and queuing up in administrative departments for permits or any kinds of transactions. POTENTIAL BENEFITS Improved efficiency

One of the overarching benefits of e-Government application in public sectors is improved efficiency. In applying e-Government, the efficiency can take different forms. For example, one form is to reduce errors and improve consistency of outcomes of governmental projects through automating standard tasks. The second form of efficiency improvement is to reduce costs and the many layers of organisational processes (the popular bureaucracy) by streamline operating procedures through e-applications. Part of efficiency improvement is reduction in time spent on repetitive tasks. According to Breen, this will give the federal, state and local government employees ample opportunity to develop new skills and advance their carriers. Services improvement

vides opportunity and benefit to improve quality and accessibility of services to the citizens. In addition to efficiency enhancement, the quality of services may improve via quicker transactions, accountability and fast/better processes. The evolution of e-Government can also create potential for new services. The potential benefit is to contribute to a qualitative change in how government agencies handle business functions and how citizens interact with government. Increasing citizen participation in Government activities: One potential benefit of e-Government application is to increase citizen participations in government activities. The citizens in remote areas can easily be connected through establishment of ‘one-stop’ flagship centre to send and receive information more easily from the government agencies and institution bodies. Application of e-Government in public sectors also allows C2C interaction by providing opportunities for people with similar interests, opinions and concerns, who may be geographically separated, to interact and share information affecting their daily lives and the country in general. Administrative reform and improvement: It is highly believed that no managerial reform can be materialised unless it is supported by ICT to improve effectiveness and efficiency of personnel management, procurements and many other government activities. Landsbergen and Wolken also point out that ICT-enabled reforms can yield many benefits, including lower administrative costs, faster and more accurate response to requests and queries of the citizen, especially after the normal office hours. It will also lead to direct access to transaction or customer accounts held in different parts of government. More so, it provides basis for ability to harvest data from operational systems, thus increasing the quality of feedback to manager and policymakers. However, the benefit can only be materialised if difference offices and people are willing to share information. BENEFITS OF E-GOVERNMENT: TRENDS IN ASIA PERSPECTIVE

Application of network in government agencies typically supports basic administrative functions relating to payroll and accounts. Adopting such systems can deliver significant benefits such as reduction of information handling costs and compliance costs. The net savings can also be realised from reduced labour costs and speeded up of processing tasks. e-Government application can provide integration of all departments and functions across public sector with one single

Application of e-Government in public administration provides opportunity and beneﬁt to improve quality and accessibility of services to the citizens. In addition to efﬁciency enhancement, the quality of services may improve via quicker transactions, accountability and fast/better processes

Application of e-Government in public administration proov

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APPLICATION OF E-GOVERNMENT IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION | BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES

COVER FEATURE

an attractive networking environment. The new systems provide opportunities to the public sector to effectively handle different financial managements such as treasury cash management, human resources management relating payroll and records management within a one-stop computer system. Initially, the systems used to be a client-based, but the latest versions are increasingly Internet-based that allows information to be accessed independently by anyone. Inter-organisational benefits

Application of network in government agencies typically supports basic administrative functions relating to payroll and accounts. Adopting such systems can deliver signiﬁcant beneﬁts such as reduction of information handling costs and compliance costs. The net savings can also be realised from reduced labour costs and speeded up of processing tasks

computer system that can serve the needs of different departments. A living example of network application in government agencies in Asia context is Computer Crime Investigation Department (CCID) established in 2000 by the Republic of Korea Supreme Prosecutor’s Office and the Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office. This enables the prosecution of offences that become more technological tactical in nature easier to deal with. In Pakistan, ICT systems have been introduced into entire tax department. This has helped reduced contact between tax collectors and taxpayers. According to Parry, effective application of e-Government is the new financial management systems designed for Sri Lanka Government as a way to offer 24

In relation to inter-organisation benefits, e-Government application in public sector provides opportunities to manage workflow. Workflow refers to the ability to move images, files and documents from one workstation to another. This may include authorisation, data entry, and data editing. Hence, transaction procedures that used to be accomplished by moving papers can now be electronically managed. This helps solve the problem of delay often associated with paper hardcopy documents and manual processing. The workflow systems also entail claims processing and management, bid and proposal routine, and tracking. e-Government also helps in handling people complaints, grant and scholarship award, as well as human resource recruitments and/or hiring. A glaring example is the National Tax Service Unit in the Republic of Korea. The unit has recently introduced a Tax Integrated System through a computerised system that accumulates tax-related information. This makes discriminative selection of taxpayers to be audited by tax officials reduced to some extent. Hence, a manual assessment of about 5 million cases on a yearly basis has been replaced by computer-assisted assessment. Thus, it closes all unnecessary face-to-face meetings between tax officials and taxpayers and helps eliminated unfair influences of tax officials in selecting taxpayers for audit. Enhancing Government-Citizen interface

One of the potential benefits of e-Government application in public sector is enhancement of government-citizen interface through effective communication. In other words, e-Government has been used to resolve the problem of communication gap between citizens and governments in Asia. In Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Computer-aided Administration of Registration Department (CARD) is a good example of a successful e-Government application to enhance the interface between government and citizens. According to World Bank report, about 214 registration offices have completely computerised in Andhra Pradesh since 1998. This facilitates deeds registration in less than an hour, while services like issue of encumbrance certificates and valuation certificates can be accomplished in just about 15 minutes. Thus, it brings the opaqueness of property valuation that used to force citizens to hire middlemen to an end. More importantly, the time frame always consumed by manual copying of documents and storage in paper forms have been replaced by computeraided system. In Hong Kong, an estimated 65% of amenable government services delivery to citizen is available online. Enhancing G2B transactions: Electronic government applications in public sector have supported the development of flexible and convenience ways for people to conduct busiwww.egovonline.net

India's Premier ICT4D event 31July - 02 August, 2007 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

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Organisers knowledge for change

A report by Goldman Sachs stated that between 2007 and 2020 India will see a structural increase in potential growth to nearly 8%, four times increase in productivity in industry and services as compared to agriculture, four times increase in GDP per capita, and house ten of the fastest growing cities in the world. This report has identified investment to information technology, openness to trade and greater financial deepening as the key drivers to this accelerating growth. While India has made huge strides and has been a key player in the Information technology revolution, vast digital divide still exists that inhibits a sustained all-inclusive growth for the society. India is bracing itself to catalyse the potential of ICTs in all spheres of development and creating opportunities for private investment and initiatives to supplement its development. In this immense growth environment, there is also a need for strategic planning, knowledge sharing and collaborative vision building between the government and the private sector to leverage the country’s growth potential and steer the country to lead the knowledge revolution. eIndia 2007 is an inclusive, consultative and constructive ICT for Development forum – the largest and only one of its kind in India – promoting and propagating the use of ICT4D through its five seminal conferences. Through its five different but interrelated conferences namely, egovIndia2007, Digital Learning India 2007, Indian Telecentre Forum 2007, eHealth India 2007 and mServe India 2007, the conference will address the issues of digital divide and identify and explore opportunities for Digital India.

INDiA

2007

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has formulated the National e-Governance Plan which aims to bring all government services to the doorstep of each citizen by making the services citizen centric and ensuring that the right people get the benefits. To further bolster the drive towards efficient and transparent governance, the Right to Information Act was passed in late 2005. While these measures are making a positive impact on the governance practices, there are still issues of access, content, partnerships which need to be addressed for creating the desired environment of trust between the state and her citizens. egov India 2007 aims to consolidate the information available in the domain, giving key stakeholders from India and around the world a chance to showcase the progress and highlight hindrances in this field. The conference will shape the debate around egovernance and build the path towards a constructive knowledge sharing platform and the way forward for the Indian egovernance programme.

India is trying to achieve the ‘Education for All’ goal in one hand and investing in building infrastructure and initiating programmes to build a world class human resource capacity on the other. The National Knowledge Commission has emphasised the need for extensive use of ICTs for research, collaboration and university networking for building ICT skills, sharing education resources and reaching the un-reached in higher education though distance learning. The Indian Government has also recognised that skill building and lifelong education has to begin from school and has increased its investment in school education and technology-enabled learning. Taking a cue from the global trends in education and capacity building, India’s progress to a driver of the knowledge revolution through its human capacity is possible only though sustained efforts by the government, global assistance and collaboration and partnerships with private sector and civil society. Digital Learning India 2007 will take on the existing debates and provide a platform for all stakeholders to deliberate on the issues of enabling and strengthening capacities to achieve the national goals of education.

With the launch of a national programme 100,000 Community Service Centres, the Indian telecentre movement is at a vibrant stage of development, with the key stakeholders representing government, private sector and civil society besides donors being engaged in fulfilling the aspirations of the grassroots community to join the knowledge economy. Technological innovations to improve access have begun to get tested for emerging markets/ emerging people. Civil society is piloting and testing role of upscaled ICTs and telecentres/ public access knowledge centres to fulfil social objectives, provide access to governance and empower the communities, at a scale un-thought of anywhere else in the world. How exactly will we measure the progress, and monitor the impacts? Second year in the series of annual consultations, the Indian Telecentre Forum 2007 will provide the platform to take stock of what has happened. The Forum will shape the way forward for the telecentre movement within India, and for creating an example for the world to learn from.

Telemedicine has been a technological takeaway for the developed countries. Defined as the use of communication networks for the exchange healthcare information to enable clinical care, it is increasingly being viewed as a tool for improving care and enhancing access to healthcare. One of the major ehealth initiative in India was executed by the Indian Space Research Organisation. ISRO took up the initiative of telemedicine in the year 2001 to further expand the application of INSAT to newer areas with the specific aim of bringing in the expert medical facilities to the grassroots level population.Telemedicine helps to connect remote rural hospitals/health centres to super specialty hospitals located in the cities and helps patients in remote and rural areas to avail timely consultations from specialist doctors without the ordeal of travelling.

The Indian telecom sector after liberalisation has shown tremendous growth with its growth rate being one of the highest in the world. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has said the total number of telephone subscribers in India had hit 189.9 million, of which 149.5 million are mobile customers.The mobile phones apart from bringing in the aspect of mobility in connectivity have an inherent ease in terms of usage unlike computer-based connectivity, which requires people to be literate and eLiterate at the same time. The immense growth has also meant that the cost-perequipment has also come down drastically. This growth though, has been lopsided and the mobile revolution has been limited to urban areas primarily.The rural areas have remained untouched and in a nation which is plagued by connectivity lapses, mobile technology may well emerge as the key to bridging the digital divide.

eHealth India 2007 will deliberate on such initiatives and many other excellent though scattered efforts in this field and bring it together to form a conduit of critical information.

mServe India 2007 will showcase the immense potential of mobile technology in the implementation of existing and future m-Government, education, agriculture and other applications.

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Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), G-4, Sector - 39, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Phones: +91-120-2502180-85 Fax: 91-120-2500060

For any information/enquiry contact Sulakshana Bhattacharya Tel: +91-9811925253 email: sulakshana@eINDiA.net.in

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ness with government. In Asia, for example, the Philippines Custom Bureau has developed systems for custom payments, processing of clearance documents and releasing of shipments from custom control. The benefit is sought to minimise the chance of fraud and corruption that always arise from contact between business people, officials and messengers. In addition, the Korea Republic Procurement service has developed an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to make the purchase of commodities and all accounting transactions be easily executed. Thus, cyber shopping is available for the procurement of office supplies, cultural products and cycled goods as well. In fact, the computerisation of contract data and the use of automation to supply procurements are also underway. This is aimed at reducing opportunities for officers to contact customers for illegal objectives.

also throughout the globe. For example, in a series of evaluations published since July 1999, the General Accounting Office (GAO) in US has repeatedly alerted that the largest federal agencies “were not adequately protecting critical federal operations and assets from computer-based attacks.” In the same line of argument, another report in year 2001 by GAO has identified six crucial areas of weakness in application of e-Government. These include security program management, access controls, software development and change controls, segregation of duties, operating systems control and service continuity. In other words, it can be inferred from such alert that effective service continuity in e-Government application in public sector is not only for availability of services delivery, but also to build citizens’ confidence and/or trust in government institutions or agencies. Corruption challenge

POTENTIAL CHALLENGES

Disparities in computer access: The disparities in computer access or the so-called digital divide is a potential challenge for e-Government applications in public sector. It serves as a potential barrier because the poor and lower income groups who do not have access to the Internet will be unable to benefit from online services provided by government. Hence, the inability of government to provide online service to all citizens may cause obstacles in the usage of various e-government applications. Although, it is beyond a reasonable doubt that in Asia region a growing number of people have access to the Internet, however, there are still large numbers of people who do not. In addition, advocates for the disabled argue that computer can present new obstacles for citizens, ranging from the blind to physically impaired, who may require a very costly hardware or software (i.e., oral controls) for their computers to be able to access online information and services of the public sectors. Privacy challenge

Privacy issue poses a big challenge to application of e-Government in managerial activities of public sector. Citizens are unlikely to use e-Government services without a solid guarantee of their privacy protection. Various concerns about the issue of “cookies”, information sharing between agencies and the disclosure of citizens’ private information have become subjects of debate in society. Privacy issue in e-Government is a crucial challenge that needs to be addressed for successful application even in the developed countries including USA, what to say about Asia’s developing countries. For example, in June 2000, it was reported that the National Drug Control Policy Office was using ‘cookies’ to track the Internet movement of visitors to its site. Such breach of privacy jeopardises the citizens’ trust in government websites and web-based services provided. In the context of Asia, one may argue that addressing the issue of privacy challenge to e-Government application would require both technical and careful policy responses. Computer security challenge: Computer security is another underpinning challenge for e-Government application in public sector. This challenge is not only in Asia region but ov

February 2007

It is a common belief that the application of e-Government in public sector will reduce opportunities for corruption, but the reality is more complex. While ICT does sometimes facilitate ways to combat corruption in the administration of public sector, it can also provide new avenues for corruption opportunities. It can provide new sources of corrupt income, especially for ICT professionals and removing opportunities from those without ICT skills. In addition, it should be admitted by Asia and global governments that computerisation of records often closes down access to some administrative staff members but opens up access to others who operate the ICT systems in e-Government. One may argue that with application of e-Government in public sector, corruption may increase or decrease depending on the relative integrity of the staff members. In other words, data quality and the myth of computer omnipotence have made many government agency leaders to believe that ICT totally removes opportunities for corruption. Thus, they fail to institute controls on computerised systems used for service delivery to public masses. Yes, ICT advances, like other technological changes, can improve the productivity potential and services delivery of public sector to the people, however, Olson points out that only the top management of e-Government knows the actual productivity and services improvement obtained. Hence, it is in the collective interest of the managers of public assets that their superiors underestimate service potential of the ICT advances. In such cases, agencies may receive more resources than they need, which can in turn be used to increase the income or leisure of staff or management. This form of corruption was widely practiced in centrally planned economies. EFFORTS TO OVERCOME CHALLENGES Ensuring a common vision

A common vision is an integral part of a successful e-Government implementation in administration of public sector. Common vision is essential to e-Government as a means to manage and coordinate agency activities. A common vision is not a goal in itself, but a means to achieve the desired e-Government objectives. A government-wide vision helps to tie e29

COVER FEATURE

APPLICATION OF E-GOVERNMENT IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION | BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES

Government initiatives, in any country, with broader strategic reform objectives. It can promote inter-ministerial coordination, ensure balance and fairness, and even help to stay the course of actions in service delivery to people forever. Having a clear vision of reforming public sector through application of e-Government helps maintain consistency and a sense of purpose. Towards this end, political leaders and government agency administrators are key supporters of e-Government vision. Political leadership serves to diffuse the vision and give it added weight. While a clear vision statement is needed, however, it is not enough. The vision rationale and the validation for better change in public sector also need to be communicated throughout the government administrations that are implementing e-Government. Need for effective coordination

The nature of e-Government requires a level of cooperative action to ensure interoperability, avoid duplication, ensure coherent action in a range of crucial areas, such as security, privacy protection, and to provide the framework and capacity for adequate service delivery to people in public sector. The need for coordination among government agencies becomes more pressing as Asian governments increasingly move to implement more complex transaction services. There is a central dilemma for e-Government success. A generic problem is how agenciesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; responsibility for effective results and autonomous operation can be retained while at the same time ensuring the interests of government administration at large in question pertaining to interoperable systems and shared use of information resources. While this reflects a broader issue for government on question of coordination versus devolved management responsibility if e-Government is to succeed, it is crucial to get the balance right. Lack of proper coordination may jeopardise innovation and initiatives, even leading to forgone opportunities in eGovernment application. However, an effective coordination approach can generate efficiencies, reduce risk and facilitate a faster and broader rollout of e-Government initiatives. In addition, whole government structures can play an important role in steering e-Government applications by providing a framework for collaboration across agencies and by keeping e-Government activity aligned on broader public administration agendas. Approach that can be adopted may include setting up committee of agency heads and chief information officers. Their roles may range from purely advisory and information sharing to policy development and implementation oversight. Also, the involvement of non-government

representatives from industries, academia and civil society organizations are crucial. Need for Public-Private Partnership

It is obvious that engagement with private sector suppliers has been an integral feature of government use of ICT in public sector. Hence, private-public relationships have broadened from the acquisition of products and service such as computer mainframe, which governments themselves could not provide, to services such as the operation of computing facilities and direct provision to end users of government services. Partnership may involve arrangements whereby work, risk and rewards are shared. However, accountability, scrutiny and proper audit are requirements that need to be sound foundation of such relationship. Retaining the public administrationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capacity to manage the relationship with the private partner is of crucial concern. Therefore, managerial awareness and commitment is essential to ensure that the required skills are developed and maintained in public sector. Respect for accepted privacy principles: The moral challenge facing e-Government implementers in public sector is to respect accepted privacy principles while allowing the benefits of e-Government to flow to citizens. This balance is of particular importance when considering service delivery involving data sharing among agencies and government institution bodies. Government has a responsibility to provide leadership in developing a culture of privacy protection and security. This leadership role must be provided right from development of public policy, as owner and operator of systems and networks, and as a user of such systems and networks themselves. As a user of information systems and networks, government shares a role with business, other organisations and individuals for ensuring secure use of the systems. Need for appropriate legislations

The success of e-Government application in public adminis30

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tration is highly dependent on governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in ensuring a proper legal framework for the operation. The application and uptake of e-Government services and processes will remain minimal without a legal equivalence between digital and paper processes. For example, the legal recognition of digital signatures is necessary if they are to be used in e-Government for the submission of electronic forms containing sensitive personal or financial information. Additionally, complexity of regulations and requirements on agencies can be another barrier. If agencies are unable to determine what is required of them, they may be unwilling to invest in a project that may not conform with requirements. Also, privacy and security concerns need to be addressed through appropriate legislation and regulations before eGovernment initiatives can advance in Asia and other part of the world. Hence, it would be a relevant value to regularly undertake a review of the overall regulations and requirements that govern e-Government application in public sector particularly, those that govern ICT acquisitions and uses. Identifying these areas would help reveal where redundant or overlapping regulations existed. An agreed process of regular examination would provide an opportunity to get rid of requirements that have outlived their usefulness. Need for harmonising technical framework and infrastructure: Today, governments continue to make considerable ICT investments and at any point in time will have a wide range in place. All these investments need to be well harmonised. Harmonisation is a particular element in e-Government application as ineffectiveness of strategies may be in part due to failures to harmonise systems and standards. For example, investment of legacy systems can be inflexible and incompatible, which make it hard to deploy new applications that involve the need for data sharing or other interaction between disparate systems. In fact, the difficulty of integrating legacy systems with new initiatives can be a major barrier to the success of e-Government application. Establishing common technical standards and infrastructure can pave way for greater efficiency within government agencies. In addition, shared infrastructure for authentication of key customer groups can facilitate individual agency initiatives that would otherwise lack a business function requirement. Therefore, the promotion of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;whole-of-governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; framework, standards and data definitions by e-Government coordinators will further facilitate proposal to develop across agency-integrated services. Need for effective monitoring and evaluation: It is of great importance to monitor and evaluate e-Government application in public administration to understand demand, assess the benefits to users from time to time and evaluate the effectiveness of proposed approaches in meeting their objectives. In fact, evaluation is needed to argue the case for new projects and expenditure; to justify continuing with initiatives; to allocate additional ICT funds; to assess progress towards program goals and to understand impact of e-Government activities. Therefore, in an era of increasingly tight public spending, governments need to show concrete benefits of ICT investments in order to gain and maintain political support of the people whom the program is deemed for. It is quite understandable that monitoring and evaluation ov

February 2007

of e-Government is generally difficult. For example, given the frequent lack of clarity of objectives owing to the different and often competing views held by different stakeholders. More importantly, overlapping initiatives and policies of continuous fine-tuning of initiatives complicate the efforts of monitoring and/or evaluation. This, in part, may be due to the pervasive nature of ICTs, the integration of ICT goals with policy goals and the organisational changes that necessarily accompany e-Government initiatives. Hence, effective evaluation requires good metrics and devices. To overcome these problems, a successful e-Government evaluation effort would need to address various issues. These include a framework for assessment must be prepared prior to initiation; e-government indicators should be designed to reflect program goals; results need to be available to decision makers at the right time; evaluation process should be unbiased and independent; evaluation should be based on a mixture of qualitative and quantitative indicators; direct and indirect costs-benefits must be taken into account; and e-Government application should be repeatedly evaluated from time to time. CONCLUSION

The paper has shown that e-government application in public sector provides interactive access of people to social services, employment assistance, tax and revenue services, corporate registration, licenses and permits renewals are possible through a common entry point and shared portal services provide by government agencies. Therefore, it is an effective means of building the interface between G2G, G2B and G2C. In addition, it helps generate efficiency, improve administrative reforms and improve services delivery of government agencies to people at large. So, by improving connectivity between employees and departments, and with citizens and business, e-Government application in public administration offers more convenient government services and greater public access to information. This ultimately creates an administration that is more accountable to those who vote it power. Several factors are driving the application of e-Government in various government entities in Asia and elsewhere in the world. These include technology development such as growing of computing power and telecommunications bandwidth and business investment in adoption of technology and competitive pressures. The promised benefits of e-Government do not take place simply by digitising information and placing it online by government agencies. Instead, the challenge is to understand how the use of new ICT tools in public administration can be used to leverage a transformation in the culture and structure of government institutional bodies or agencies in order to provide better services to citizens.

Abdul Rauf Ambali [abdul682001@yahoo.com] is Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, UiTM, Shah Alam, Malaysia.

SPECIAL FOCUS

Digitization of Legal Documents A step towards e-Court

Abdul Nasir & Abad A. Shah

Security of the court documents is a critical issue. Use of information technology in the courts has become inevitable to improve the working conditions of record rooms and to facilitate in dispensation of justice. As such, without the adoption of modern technologies it would become extremely difďŹ cult for the existing system to manage judicial record

TORAGE/REPOSITORY AND RETRIEVAL of

judicial files (cases) have been alarming issue over the years. Preservation and maintenance of

judicial record requires immediate attention. This is due to several reasons. These include limitation of space, decaying process of paper, natural calamity, security and reconstruction of record. Limitation of Space

Shortage of space is one of the major issues being faced by the courts and other organisations. For example, more than 18,000 square feet area of Lahore High Court is being utilised for storage of millions of judicial files. Every year, about 60,000 files are being consigned to the record cell. The growth rate is approximately 15% per annum. This would mean that Lahore High Court would need approximately 600 square feet area per year to maintain the judicial record at the present rate of growth. Decaying Process of Paper

As per the current storage system the condition of paper is continuously decaying. Information/record is becoming partially/completely non-retrievable due to poor and deteriorating condition. The practical difficulty being faced is that retrieval of information/record out of millions stacked files is almost next to impossible.

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Natural Calamity

The probabilities of natural calamities like fire, floods, torrential rains, collapsing of dilapidated record rooms and even deliberate attempt for record tampering can no be ruled out. Security

The security of legal/judicial record includes three main aspects â&#x20AC;&#x201C; secrecy, integrity, and accessibility. Ensuring integrity of document means preventing/detecting/deterring the improper modifications. For example, the concerned staff/ employees should not be able to modify or improperly alter the record. Courtsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; secrecy and integrity are often needed in combination. Wrong information/document can entail heavy damage ranging from financial loss to human loss. Reconstruction of Record

Most difficult task is to reconstruct any judicial record, which may have been lost due to fire or any other natural calamity. Whenever some old file is destroyed and requires to be reconstructed one has to face great difficulty due to non-availability of authentic/certified copies of the proceedings. In the past several incidents where record was lost due to fire, heavy rains and floods etc., great difficulty has been experienced in reconstructing the record. In such an eventuality the agony of the parties who may have vested rights attached to or by the said judicial record is beyond conception.

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SOLUTION

The rapid development of information technology in the recent past has led to the widespread use of computer systems in various public and private organisations, especially in courts and other Government organisations. Preservation of judicial record on electronic devices and to provide authenticated information to the courts and litigant public are the necessity of time The effort to digitise/computerise the record would not only reduce reliance on space but also manpower. The cost savings will be an effect by default. And most importantly will lead to paperless environment. Delay and inconvenience faced by the litigant public as well as counsel for having attested copy of orders/judgments will be reduced. All the information/record will be integrated and chances of tampering will be eliminated. The methodology will help in better document management, reducing workload and expeditious retrieval of desired record. The system will bring a revolutionary change in the judiciary in respect of preserving the judicial record by adopting the modern techniques. By doing so the orthodox and conservative system of maintaining the record would be rejuvenated. The three most important features that make it highly effective are cost effectiveness, secure and reduced possibilities of it being tampered, and convenient backup in case of disaster. The increasing use of information technology has proved the necessity to support courtsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; functions on the one hand, whereas on the other it has also posed serious problems of documents/data security. In fact, damage in such environment does not only affect a single user or application but rather the whole information system thus the consequences becoming unpredictable. Advances in information processing techniques (tools and languages) aimed at a simplification of human machine interfaces have served to make data/ documents available to different types of users consequently ov

February 2007

Storage/Repository and retrieval of judicial ďŹ les (cases) have been alarming issue over the years. Preservation and maintenance of judicial record requires immediate attention. This is due to several reasons. These include limitation of space, decaying process of paper, natural calamity, security and reconstruction of record

more serious security problems arise, therefore, in IT based judicial system security is essential both to assure continuity of systems, reliability and the need to protect documents/data and programs from destructions, modifications, theft and unauthorised disclosures. Distributed processing has also contributed to advances in the development and automation of judicial systems. Today, the processing units of any superior court and its remote offices and/or subordinate courts can exchange information rapidly with each other via computer/communication networks and workstations; thus allowing a rapid transfer/exchange of a large amount of data and information. SCOPE

This system can cover two tasks: (i) Fresh Institution and (ii) Current Decided Cases. In the Fresh Institution system, the public would be able to file their cases electronically. However, some amendments in procedures and rules are involved. Similarly, by incorporating some modification in the present system, fresh institution can be entertained by mode of Internet. Insofar as Current Decided Cases is concerned, it must be noted that currently 33

DIGITIZATION OF LEGAL DOCUMENTS | A STEP TOWARDS E-COURT

SPECIAL FOCUS

Preservation of judicial record on electronic devices and to provide authenticated information to the courts and litigant public are the necessity of time. The effort to digitise/ computerise the record would not only reduce reliance on space but also manpower. The cost savings will be an effect by default

decided cases are the most important and highly referred document of any office. The retrieval ratio remains high owing to continuous access of information. It requires an online, fast access that measures the productivity. The judicial record needs to be regularly scanned, orders should be entered into the computer on day-to-day basis and finally on Document Management System Server. Lastly, the data should be secured on CDs/DVDs as a backup for easy/speedy access and durability for many years to come. The court record consists of backlog (decided cases) and pending cases. The volume of backlog is estimated in millions of files with millions of pages. Most of records are dumped and frequency of its retrieval reveals from the latest to the oldest. For decided cases, keeping in view, the volume of data and paper condition, scanning seems to be the best solution. It can be preserved on CDs or the Hard Disk on which we can process data for so many years, having efficient retrieval as well. Document will be scanned in gray-scale at 200dpi and in case where OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is necessary at 300dpi. At least three persons per scanner may be deputed one for document preparation – one for operating scanner and one for de-preparation. The most important part in scanning is document preparation and de-preparation i.e. removing staples, unfold, striating etc. and putting them together after scanning. It speeds up the scanning process considerably. After scanning it will be converted into PDF or any noneditable format so that no tampering/alteration can be made. First page of each case file would be preferably OCR as well, to help in search the file through text. Simultaneously embossing will be made for document originality. Same pattern will be followed, where scanning of any document is carried out. EXPERIMENT

As a test case preservation system was installed at District & Sessions Court Attock. In the first phase, it is intended to scan and preserve the judicial record for 6 years i.e. from the year 2000 to 2005 (about 20,000 files). It is expected that this

huge exercise would be completed within 6-8 months. After successful completion and evaluation of this task, the remaining judicial record would also be preserved. The above-mentioned 20,000 files can be preserved in only 20 CDs, which would cost a small amount (PKR.500/- approximately). It is interesting to note that about 1000 judicial files having average volume of 25 pages can be preserved in only one CD that costs PKR20-25. The cost of the hardware and software is a one-time expenditure or rather a fixed cost. No special staff is required for this project. Some officials from amongst the existing staff can be trained and engaged in this exercise. The experiment shows that about 100 files can be scanned and preserved daily but this depends on the devotion and dedication of the staff on this assignment. The passion and firm commitment are the basic requirements for accomplishment of this gigantic task. As an alternate arrangement save and preserve the judicial record on the Hard Disk as well. In 80 GB Hard Disk, which is in common use these days costing about PKR4500/-. We can preserve about 100,000 files. As the Hard Disk does not cost much, therefore, it is proposed that the record scanned and saved on Hard Disk may not be deleted and by doing so we can preserve the Hard Disk as well, besides persevering the Data on CDs. By doing so, the same record shall be presented and available at three different locations, i.e. the original record and its two backups. STORAGE MEDIA

Each CD is allocated a serial number or code and it will contain the index showing the files preserved therein. This system would be fully protected from interpolation because the CDs we are using are not rewriteable. So once the CD “Burning” (Writing) is completed and the DATA is transferred to CD from the Hard Disk it stands locked and cannot be tampered, overwritten or deleted by anyone. In case, loss of any judicial file, hard copies thereof can be prepared from the CD conveniently by using the printer. With the passage of time

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and original CDs are stored in a safe place. These virtual Juke Boxes can store from 100–1000 CDs of 650 MB at a time and 60–800 CDs with RAID protected caching. These virtual Juke Boxes are used as online mass storage devices with a capacity up to 1000 GB for quick retrieval on single PC or network. These CDs are loaded on Hard disk drive for quick online retrieval. Since change in storage technology is inevitable and generally it is expected to change in 20 years or less. Therefore it is always advisable to use the latest available technology for storage. Secondly, as soon as media changes, tool for conversion to new media become available. CONCLUSION

we will gain more experience and improve the performance. This is the first and unique project of its kind. It is expected to bring a positive change in the country in respect of maintaining the judicial record. RECOMMENDATIONS

Digitisation of the record of the courts and public sector organisations is a very serious/sensitive issue and require corresponding attention and very strong commitment for the top management; therefore, a digitisation section must be established separately in the organisations. The sole responsibility should be scanning and digitisation of record. They must be given adequate staff and equipment to meet the digitisation targets. Keeping in view the technology/media there are two options, which seems to be most feasible on case-to-case basis. Option 1 is through CD-Document Recorder and Option 2 is through Scanner. Regarding Option 1, CD-Document Recorder is latest equipment, which scans and stores pages directly on CD without involvement of any system. It has its own indexing system. CD prepared on it can be retrieved on any window-based environment. It is completely tamper proof as scanned images are directly saved on CD in a noneditable format. Recently available such like CD-Document Recorder, CD-4070 manufactured by Cannon work well in distributed environment as well. Insofar as Option 2 is concerned, the scanning technology would be in the fitness of things to opt for old record/currently decided cases. Flat Bed Scanner, Sheet Fed/Rotary Scanner and Planetary Scanner are used for document larger than A3, bound originals (book etc) as well as very old record, which has become fragile and even flatbed cannot handle, but it is slow. The size of the scanned document is automatically detected, and areas around the document are cropped. This reduces the size of the document and saves storage space. Presently, the latest in document storage and archival technology is compact disk. Backup copies will be made on CDs or DVD. On line storage will be made on 350GB SCSI Hard disk for quick access. Documents are stored on CDs and used as backup. These CDs are loaded on Hard Disk Drive for quick online retrieval or virtual Juke Boxes can be used for quick access on network

February 2007

The Courts are opening up to a global environment like Electronic Case Filing, Electronic noticing, Electronic Mail. Some security breaches may be accidental or committed innocently enough such as sharing a password with an unauthorised person, allowing easy access to PCs with sensitive information. Consequently, in such environments secrecy would be ensured only for a portion of data that is defined as critical. There is a need to encourage the officials to implement certain measures. Among other measures, grant limited access. A solution to this problem is also possible by preservation of record on electronic devices. A duplicate copy of record will available and would also lead to paperless environment. Delay and inconvenience faced by the litigant public as well as counsel for having copies of orders/judgments will be reduced. All the information/record will be integrated and chances of tampering with it will be eliminated. The same methodology can be opted for all public sector organisations.

Delay and inconvenience faced by the litigant public as well as counsel for having copies of orders/judgments will be reduced. All the information/record will be integrated and chances of tampering with it will be eliminated. The same methodology can be opted for all public sector organisations.

Abdul Nasir [nasir_bhutta@yahoo.com] is associated with Department of Computer Science & Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.

Abad A. Shah [abad_shah@yahoo.com] is Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.

SPECIAL FOCUS

E-GOVERNANCE GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL Judicial perspectives Grievances are likely to arise whenever there is interaction between two parties. In e-Governance too, the likelihood of the grievances cannot be ruled out. The grievance handling mechanism must not only exist, but must also be functional. Unless there exists a functional mechanism of grievance handling, the system is likely to collapse. Not to forget even under the British rule the Congress party was formed to act as safety valve The grievance handling mechanism is thus a must for any kind of system and -GOVERNANCE implies interaction inter-se between any absence is likely to ruin the the government and the gov- entire system.

Kamal Dave

erned i.e. Citizen and noncitizens. As we know that the government provides substantial number of services such as defence, policing, municipal, health and social infrastructure, education etc., and does financial planning functions such as budgeting and allocation of funds to all the departments. The government generates revenues by levying taxes, duties, etc. that is not only necessary for functioning of the government machinery but also for the economy as a whole. As a result of interaction between the government and the governed i.e. citizen and non-citizens substantial information besides this, the exchange of money takes place. With the e-Governance initiatives the interaction has transformed from the purely paper based to electronic based governance i.e. e-Governance. Grievances are likely to arise whenever there is interaction between two parties. In e-Governance too, the likelihood of the grievances cannot be ruled out. The grievance handling mechanism must not only exist, but must also be functional. Unless there exists a functional mechanism of grievance handling, the system is likely to collapse. Not to forget even under the British rule the Congress party was formed to act as safety valve. Due to various compelling reasons and irrespective of the proper evolu-

36 }

tion, development and implementation of efficient system problems may arise. Despite the existence of the procedures and at times, in practice, there is departure from specified procedures. These deviation causes setback in the implementation or efficient functioning of the system giving rise to the grievances. Thus, the grievances are likely to arise from this media also. As such, any system may develop glitches due to lack of planning or unplanned; improper non-existing rules, policies, procedures etc. or ignorance thereof; improper/non-adherence/lackadaisical implementation of the procedures; evolution of methods/techniques to circumvent established procedures; and, interference in implementation due to high handedness of influential persons etc. The government or public may suffer due to non-functioning or improper functioning of system leading to grievances some of which could be non-payment/improper recording of tax return; despite payment of taxes the imposition of penalty, surcharge and fine; refunds not made to proper person; improper scrutinization and elimination of citizen from voter list or non-issuance identity card; disparities in issuances of ra-

tion-card (including for citizens below poverty line) and misuse thereof; infiltration of criminal/terrorist/unscrupulous/unauthorised persons due to faults in scrutinization/checking or non-adherence of procedures or identification cards/travel documents/ passport etc; disparities and disputes in issuances of various licenses; disputes and disparities in salary, allowances and funds of the government servants; disputes and disparities in the stocks of government stores; disputes due to irregularities or improper elimination of contractors, irregularities and disparities in tender allocation and allotment for government contracts. These grievances/disputes, if remains unredressed, are likely to cause setback to the functioning of the government. The role of government and more particularly judiciary thus comes into play to adjudicate on to the matters and resolve the disputes. The judicial arm of the government i.e. judiciary/adjudicating authority thus determines the rights of the individual. The grievance handling mechanism is thus a must for any kind of system and any absence is likely to ruin the entire system. The need to establish a separate authority to look into the disputes arising from the e-Governance is thus the need of hour. In order to establish rule of law the need for setting up of the e-Courts for the disputes arising from these is a must. The government must therefore enact adequate and relevant e-Laws, rules, procedures, policies, guidelines etc for proper adjudication for e-Disputes. www.egovonline.net

PMS IMPLEMENTATION IN

INDIA’S LARGEST JAIL

E-FILING OF COMPLAINTS PROPOSED BY ANDHRA HIGH COURT

ANDHRA PRADESH High Court Chief Justice G. S. Singhvi recently said that the Andhra Pradesh High Court proposes to facilitate electronic filing of complaints through emails. The Chief Justice expressed his views during the All India Law Ministers and Law secretaries Conference. Singhvi said that the usage of Internet would be encouraged to file cases, bail applications and serving of notices. Singhvi said, “The court had embarked on computerisation of all works relating to courts including document management, office automation, Internet access and electronic case filing in an effort to ensure speedy disposal of cases. Now, we can instantaneously obtain certified copies of depositions and judgments owing to computerisation,” and added, “All information including cause lists, court numbers, name of lawyers, and date of hearing would be made available on the Internet.” Justice Singhvi also opined that video conferencing be popularized for case hearing in court, which would not necessitate the physical production of accused in courts from jails and police stations, thus saving enormous amount of expenditure and movement of police personnel and undertrials and avoiding unpleasant incidents during transit.

The e-Courts must thus be equipped with not only the adequate infrastructure but also the adequate infrastructure for training programmes for concerned judiciary and officials to adjudicate in accordance with law. Kamal Dave [kamal_dave_advocate@ yahoo.com] is Advocate, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi.

February 2007

Besides creating transparency and simplifying information handling, the application has helped in creating a central database to provide information about all jails in the Tihar Prisons Complex

largest and jail MAsia’s second largest ANAGING INDIA’S

– Tihar Jail – has never been easier as it is now. Ever since the implementation of the Prison Management System (PMS) in 2004, it is proving to be a boon for Tihar Jail authorities and has made the task of administration simple. Tihar Jail currently has a huge database involving profiles of 16,000 inmates, 40,000 fingerprints, and 60,000 photographs. The PMS application, which has been developed and implemented by the NIC (National Informatics Centre), has provided the right tools to the jail authorities to make the administrative mechanism more efficient. It may be noted that earlier in 1994, Tihar Jail used the Prisons Inmates Information System. Tihar Jail complex is spread over 400 acres, and houses over 10 jails. Tihar complex has got the sanctioned capacity to hold only 5,648 prisoners, but is currently housing 16,000 inmates. The implementation of PMS has enabled the adoption of a systematic and uniform approach in handling information about Tihar prisoners. With this application, jail authorities are now able to keep details about inmates such as category of the prisoner, criminal record, year of entry, biometric details at the time of their entry, prisoner number, photograph, personal details (age, address, information-related to family members etc.), medical details, lodging etc.

Explaining about the PMS, Rajiv Saxena, Deputy Director General, NIC, said that PMS is a G2G and G2C e-Governance tool, and is good in dealing with over-populous prisons such as Tihar. Saxena said, “Besides creating transparency and simplifying information handling, the application has helped in creating a central database to provide information about all jails in the Tihar Prisons Complex. The application is proving to be crucial in providing information to officials regarding inmates under their custody.” Saxena also added that the local jails could also adopt the PMS according to their requirements. He informed, “PMS is supported by open database connectivity that ensures access to any data from any application irrespective of any Database Management System (DBMS) handling the data.” In 2005, Tihar Jail adopted the Visitors Management System (VMS) that manages the visitor database of 50,000 visitors along with their photographs. Some 3,000 visitors visit Tihar Jail daily on an average. Presently, Tihar Jail is in the throes of adopting advance technology such as video conferencing from jails to prisons, CCTV, DFMDs and HHMDs. Regarding the adoption of advanced technology, Saxena said that all the central jails of India would be integrated with the police departments in order to share information about prisoners at the national level. 37

REGIONAL FOCUS

E-GOVERNANCE A RISING WAVE IN GOA Goa is still an ‘Aspiring Leader’ as most of the initiatives taken by the Government of Goa so far on the Information Technology front are still in their nascent stage. It may take a couple of years for the things to get stabilised and start yielding the desired results. At the same time efforts are also being made to make Goa an IT destination

MAHITHI GHAR PROVIDING IT SERVICES IN GOA

J.J.R. Anand

OA, A TINY STATE in India, is a well-known

spot on the world tourism map. It is famous for its beautiful beaches, pleasant climate and peace-loving people. Along with the waves of the Arabian Sea, in recent times the waves of information technology (IT) have started taking Goa in its stride. Though Goa is a late entrant in the arena of IT, it is all set to catch up with the situation. As per the e-Readiness Assessment Report 2004 published by the Department of Information Technology, Government of India, Goa is given the 38 }

status of ‘Aspiring Leader’. Undoubtedly, at the current juncture, Goa is still an ‘Aspiring Leader’ since most of the initiatives taken by the Government of Goa so far on the IT front are still in their nascent stage. It may take a couple of years for the things to get stabilised and start yielding the desired results. At the same time efforts are also being made to make Goa an IT destination. Since beginning much efforts have gone in this direction. The Info Tech Council, a high-level body headed by Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Director General, CSIR, has been constituted to advise the Government on various IT matters, particularly in the areas relating to applications of technology in R&D, and www.egovonline.net

Though Goa is a late entrant in the arena of IT, it is all set to catch up with the situation. As per the e-Readiness Assessment Report 2004 published by the Department of Information Technology, Government of India, Goa is given the status of ‘Aspiring Leader’

issue the ROR (Record of Rights: Form I & XIV and Form D) instantly across the counter to the public from all the offices and Mahiti Ghars (Information Kiosks). All the offices are interconnected through a Statewide Network called GOANET which makes it possible to issue the ROR of any Taluka from any other Taluka or Mahiti Ghars. Touch screen based kiosks have also been installed at strategic locations to provide land records information in multilingual form to the people. Municipal councils

development of relevant infrastructure. A Task force for Good Governance has been constituted under the Chairmanship of the Minister to lay down the policy framework for achieving the objectives of Good Governance, including e-Governance. The Task force is responsible, inter alia, for ensuring flow of sufficient funds for e-Governance activities. Goa IT Policy was announced in 2005. A High Level Monitoring Committee has been constituted which is responsible for review and monitoring of the measures taken by the Government for the implementation of the IT Policy. Rajiv Gandhi IT habitat, IT Park and IT Retreat are being established to house IT/ITES companies. Govt. of Goa has declared them as SEZ (Special Economic Zones), which would further create conducive atmosphere for rapid growth of IT/ITES industry. Besides, more incentives for investment in the IT sector have also been announced. Cyberarge scheme was launched to provide computer systems to all the 11th standard students to develop their IT skills and also to make their family e-Literate. A training programme was launched to ensure that in the next five years every graduate becomes computer savvy. E- GOVERNANCE SCENARIO

The Government of Goa has set two key strategic goals – Convenience and Integration. Regarding convenience, the Government aims to provide services anytime, anyhow and anywhere. It also aims at providing services that are integrated, customer-centric through whole-of government approach. As far as Goa is concerned, the first stage of e-Governance, i.e. dissemination of department specific information, started way back in 1989 when NIC Goa was set up in the State. A few departments have gone in for computerisation of some of their functional areas with the help of NIC Goa. The computerisation during this period mainly focused on creation of databases for dissemination of information with accuracy and speed. Also, one could see some remarkable improvements in the computerised process over the manual process of functions. Today, Goa has comfortably positioned itself in the second stage of e-Governance by offering department specific services to its citizens (G2C). It has also come out with a couple of G2G and G2E services.

The Municipal Administration Software implemented in all the 13 municipal councils in Goa facilitates online registration of births and deaths, issuance of births and deaths certificates across the counter, easy and faster collection of house tax, lease rent, trade licence fee and renewal of licences. It also helps in timely generation of tax bills, demand and warrant notices and in efficient maintenance of taxpayer wise accounts. Since all the transactions are carried out online at any given time up-to-date status are available on various parameters. Village panchayats

INFOGRAM software provides all government services to citizens at grassroots level in a faster and an efficient manner. INFOGRAM provides various services like registration of births and deaths, house tax and light tax collection, lease rent collection, construction licences, and trade licences. All transactions are carried out online and hence up-to-date status is available on various parameters. INFOGRAM also provides services like issuance of Form I & XIV, issuance of various certificates like residence certificate, income certificate, character certificate, caste certificate etc., and issuance of NOC for water and electricity connection. Through INFOGRAM citizens can also get information on citizen charters of all Government departments, BPL schemes etc. So far INFOGRAM has been implemented in 22 village panchayats and is being rolled out in the remaining 167 village panchayats. RTO

The Government of Goa has computerised the transport department. This has enabled the department to deliver its citizen oriented services in an efficient manner. People in Goa are no longer required to wait in long queues or go through the middlemen to get their work done by the transport department. With the new system in place, learner’s licence can be obtained from the Mahithi Ghars after fulfilling all the requirements. As a novel idea, the new vehicles can be registered by the dealers at their outlet itself. Smart card based driving licences are also being issued in order to make the system perfect. Efforts are on to make available the details of all the vehicles registered in Goa on web. This would help in quickly identifying the vehicles involved in crimes. Courts

G2C SERVICES

Land records (Form I & XIV): Goa is the first state in the country to computerise 100% land records. The land records computerisation software called DHARANI is being used to ov

February 2007

After the computerisation of the Panaji Bench of Bombay High Court and the district courts, the advocates and litigants are largely benefited by the information services provided by these courts. A Touch Screen Information Kiosk has been set up in the Panaji Bench of Bombay High Court to provide 39

E-GOVERNANCE | A RISING WAVE IN GOA

COVER FEATURE

MUNICIPAL COUNCILS ON A WORKING DAY

information to the public on final orders, farad orders, judgements, acts, rules and regulations, court fees etc., The Touch Screen Kiosk software provides the user a very user-friendly query feature so that the user can query on various parameters like case number, party name, advocate, order date etc. Case related information are also available on the website. Preparations are on to computerise all the lower level (Block level) courts. Right to Information

The Right to Information Act 2005 is slowly getting popularised in Goa, and to meet the information requirements of the people the Government of Goa has launched a citizen portal for disseminating information under RTI Act 2005. The required information is electronically maintained in a central system and being updated from time to time by the Government departments.

for the current year received from the DOA, budget for a financial year is prepared and electronically made available to the DOA. The DOA is the budget controlling authority for the Government of Goa. DOA has one Head office and one Branch office. There are two District Treasuries and 9 SubTreasuries. Software Systems have been implemented in DOA and Treasuries for bill processing, treasury accounting, works audit and compilation of accounts. There are several advantages of computerisation of DOA. Bills are cleared faster. Cheques are issued faster. Reconciliation of cheques is also done effectively. Availability of up-to-date Budget Control Register figures. Compilation of various accounts is done faster and all the accounts are closed in time. As the DOA and the District/ Sub-Treasuries are interconnected it is possible to provide the receipts and payment figures on daily basis to the Finance Department.

G2G services

Computerisation of budget and accounts: The Government of Goa has taken keen interest in computerising the Finance Department and Directorate of Accounts (DOA) to provide G2G services with respect to budget and settlement of accounts. Budget Information System has been implemented in the Finance Department of Goa Secretariat. By capturing the details such as Expenditure estimates for the next year received from various departments and Actual expenditure, Revised estimates, Recovery, Receipt, Budget Account Head Information and the Supplementary budget requirement 40

G2E SERVICES General Provident Fund

There are about 40,000 GPF subscribers in the State of Goa. GPF System has been designed to maintain their accounts up-to-date, which includes monthly subscriptions, advances, refunds, withdrawals, interest calculation and final payment. The GPF System has also the features to generate GPF slips, employee wise summary statement, statement of interest, DDO wise GPF subscription schemes, various reports and www.egovonline.net

on the need and demand. All the Government, semi-government organisations and corporations would be connected through 1 Gbps connectivity. Mahithi Ghars and Citizen Service Centres

registers.

Government of Goa is planning to set up more Mahithi Ghars and around 200 Citizen Service Centres in the State under BOO model to provide various government services under one roof. Depending on the requirements the operator may provide some value added services to the citizens. In order to execute its e-Governance plan systematically, PWC and NISG have been appointed as consultants to the government. PWC has prepared the e-Governance roadmap and has identified around 600 citizen and business oriented services for implementation. NISG has been advising the Government on Goa Broadband Network. Simultaneously with other activities, the Government departments, which have not been computerised so far, are going in for total computerisation. Applications are being developed for 32 departments. Online services can commence once the database is built through backend computing. State Data Centre

A State Data Centre along with suitable Disaster Recovery (DR) Site is being planned to support the implementation of various e-Governance projects. It has been proposed to utilise NIC Data Centre at Hyderabad as DR Site. State Portal

Employee advances

Advances Management System is deployed to help the staff at the Loans and Advances section of DOA to efficiently process the requests from the employees of the Government of Goa for various types of advances like HBA, MCA, Fan, Cycle etc., and to maintain up-to-date records. Advances Management System has the provision to check for availability of funds, pass the bills for advances, maintain up-to-date employee wise account, close accounts monthly and annually, calculate interest, issue No Dues certificate and to generate various reports and registers. INITIATIVES TOWARDS INTEGRATED SERVICES GOANET to Goa Broadband Network

No doubt, GOANET at present is acting as a backbone in providing various G2C services and G2B services. GOANET is a combination of 64 Kbps and 2 Mbps leased line circuit network connecting all the Taluka headquarters and a few Government offices. However, to integrate services of various Government departments and to take more services to doorsteps of the citizens it is necessary to have a large network with very high bandwidth. Government of Goa is all set to establish a Goa Broadband Network which is a optic fiber network under BOO (Build-Own-Operate) model. This network is expected to provide a bandwidth of 10 Gbps to the State, District and Taluka headquarters, 1 Gbps to village panchayats and 2 to 100 Mbps to each household depending ov

February 2007

It is very much essential to have a single official portal for the entire State of Goa to act as a single contact point for the services offered by the State of Goa. Through this portal, it is planned to offer, all informative, interactive, transactional and collaborative services to the citizen and business. CONCLUSION

No doubt, efforts are being made to make Goa an ‘IT Destination’ and ‘e-Governance Leader’. However, this requires a strong political will and commitment irrespective of the political party that is in power. Continuity in the IT projects is very important for their success. They should not be scuttled for political reasons leading to wastage of taxpayers’ money. Bureaucrats/Government officials/Decision makers need to be proactive with altogether a different mindset suitable for this exercise. High priority and importance should be given to IT Projects. Process re-engineering in the functional areas and use of e-Governance standards will help to provide effective and scalable IT solutions. Citizens, instead of remaining as mute spectators, should legitimately demand for high quality and timely services in all fronts from the Government.

J.J.R. Anand [jjr.anand@nic.in] is Technical Director, National Informatics Centre, Goa, India.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Solutions for Games Management System Shanghai Special Olympics 2007

“For any large-scale event like the Special Olympics, building and managing key components of the IT infrastructure come with considerable challenges. A critical IT requirement for any sporting event is to provide game ofﬁcials with secure and easy access to applications, game results and information in real-time,” contends DENNIS ROSE, VICE PRESIDENT - PACIFIC, CITRIX SYSTEMS, INC. along with ALDIS BERZINS, DIRECTOR, IT INITIATIVES AND APPLICATIONS, SPECIAL OLYMPICS, in an interview to DANISH A. KHAN OF EGOV

DANISH A. KHAN (DK): For 2007

Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai, Citrix Systems is going to provide Game Management System (GMS) to enable ofﬁcials access real-time information at the games. How has the use of information technology (IT) really helped in the smooth conduct of such large sporting events?

Building and A managing key components of the IT infrastructure for any large-scale DENNIS ROSE (DR):

event like the Special Olympics come with considerable challenges. A critical IT requirement for any sporting event is to provide game officials with secure and easy access to applications, game results and information in real-time. The application delivery solutions contributed by Citrix for various applications including the Game Management System (GMS) have ensured that >

the officials are able to securely access real-time information at the games. At the core of the IT infrastructure at the Shanghai Special Olympics (SO) is the Presentation Server that has helped the game officials in centralising IT administration, which is essential to ensure continuity and security. All key information, data and applications pertaining to the games are centralised at a data centre. By virtualising applications and other critical information, the Presentation Server enables the user to interact with the application without actually installing it on his or her computer or any other access device. The Presentation Server’s “secure by design” imperative enables IT administrators to provide secure delivery of applications and critical games information in real-time to end users who could be in multiple locations, using different devices. Earlier, Citrix also provided application delivery solutions at the 2006 Special

DENNIS ROSE, VICE PRESIDENT - PACIFIC, CITRIX SYSTEMS, INC.

42 }

www.egovonline.net

Building and managing key components of the IT infrastructure for any large-scale event like the Special Olympics come with considerable challenges. A critical IT requirement for any sporting event is to provide game ofﬁcials with secure and easy access to applications, game results and information in real-time

Olympics Invitational Game, a precursor to the 2007 event, which was held from 12th – 20th October 2006 in Shanghai. DK: Please tell us about GMS and its

applications in detai?

The GMS is customised software that will hold the crucial information on the athletes’ data and results produced by over 7,000 special athletes, representing more than 170 countries, who are expected to compete in the 2007 Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai. GMS is used to standardise the reporting and recording of real-time competition results. This software registers the participants, organises the divisioning of athletes, stores the competition results and provides standardised reports for games officials, the public and media. GMS provides for registration of participants and real-time reporting of competition results. Other

features include Participant Registration Wizard; automatic competition results display via sports competition “timing systems”; integration with the Special Olympics World Games Credentialing System and Medical Services software; and, results posting to Internet. At the SO World Games, the GMS operates in the Windows 2003 Server Operating System environment with a SQL database backend. Secure access to GMS is provided in a network infrastructure covering 22 sports venues across the 19 districts of Shanghai.

ALDIS BERZIS (AB):

February 2007

DK: How effective is GMS in Games

results management, information dissemination and facilities management? AB: Citrix application delivery infrastructure has been a successful triedand-tested solution for GMS in the past such as the 2003 Ireland Special Olympics World Summer Games, as well as the recent 2005 Nagano Special Olympics World Winter Games in Japan, where we contributed our secure application delivery solutions.

DK: In 2003 Ireland Special Olympics

Citrix Systems deployed the HealthOne patient record system over the Internet to provide doctors with instant access to detailed medical information about Special Olympics athletes. Besides HealthOne patient record system, what other solutions is Citrix Systems going to provide for the 2007 Shanghai Special Olympics? DR: For the Shanghai Special Olympics Summer Games (2007) and Invitational games (2006), application delivery solutions for the Game Management System (GMS) was contributed, which includes 260 concurrent user licenses of Citrix Presentation Server 4, Enterprise Edition. For the Special Olympics Healthy Athlete Software (HAS) support is being provided. During the 2007 Games, HAS will collect medical screening data of the athletes in the 6 disciplines of the Healthy Athlete event: Healthy Hearing, Opening Eyes, Special Smiles, FUNfitness, Health Promotion and FitFeet. A pair of Citrix Access Gateway appliances and 200 concurrent user licenses– a universal SSL VPN solution to provide secure, always-on, single pointof-access to the GMS to ensure game continuity for the authorised officials 43

SOLUTIONS FOR GAMES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM | SHANGHAI SPECIAL OLYMPICS 2007

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

DK: What are the future plans of Citrix

Systems?

Citrix Systems Product Vision

from any device, location and network, has also been provided. DK: How has GMS addressed security

and other risk factors?

GMS application delivery solutions have ensured total security of all information and applications. As already told, the Presentation Server is “secure by design” as it virtualises applications, meaning that applications and information are centralised in the data centre which is secure and easier to manage. No critical application or data leaves the data centre as the applications are executed entirely on the server, hence ensuring utmost security of all information. With centralized IT administration at the data centre, the application delivery infrastructure solutions also ensure game continuity, for example, if the

DR:

doctors need to access special athlete’s medical record while out on the field to attend to emergency cases or game officials need to update the competition results real-time, they are able to perform these crucial information access or update effectively using any kind of enabled devices even if their own desktop computer or laptop fail. DK: There are other industry players like

Hewlett Packard, Atos Origin, India’s CMC etc. in the GMS area. How has Citrix System positioned itself? DR: Citrix is the leading provider of endto-end application delivery infrastructure solutions for any applications – be it client-server, Web or desktop applications at the lowest cost, highest security and best performance.

DR: Secure, on-demand access to business applications and information from anywhere is a fundamental component of many businesses needs today. Users need access to be invisible. They want easy, on-demand access from wherever they are, using any device and network. IT Department needs access to be visible. To observe, monitor, control, and manage access and resource usage to deliver the highest security, best performance and at the lowest cost. In May 2006, Citrix acquired a company called Reflectent Software – renamed as Citrix EdgeSight, which is an application performance monitoring solution that provide enterprises with the ability to monitor performance in real-time, across all applications and users regardless of connection method, application type or application delivery technology. We can now provide our customers with the insight, data and tools they need to intelligently plan capacity, solve performance problems, to better ensure that all IT resources are operating at peak efficiency. Most recently, we expanded our partnership with Microsoft in end-to-end application delivery to make computing faster, more secure and more cost-effective for employees in branch office locations through the new Citrix WANscaler branch office appliance. The joint solution represents a new type of branch office appliance that combines advanced wide area network (WAN) optimisation technologies with consolidated branch office services in a single, multifunction appliance that is easy to administer remotely. In the Pacific regions, we have 21,000 customers and they are seeing tangible business benefits from their initial deployments, and now want to extend those benefits further out into the enterprises. We continue to drive business growth in the region by investments in key marketing, sales professionals at Pacific Headquarters and local systems engineers to drive our go-to-market strategy with our channel partners. We are focusing to develop leadership position in the application security and networking market.

www.egovonline.net

BUSINESS

NEWS REVIEW

FIVE NEW OPEN SOURCE PRODUCTS LAUNCHED BY C-DAC

< < <

TCS eyeing big chunk in India’s US$6bn e-Governance expenditure

TATA

CONSULTANCY Services (TCS) is aiming to gain a sizeable share in India’s US$6bn e-Governance expenditure in the next ﬁve years. According to company sources, the TCS’ global government industry group is hoping to boost company’s turnover by contributing as much as 10-12% by the next 2-3 years. Tanmoy Chakraborty, TCS’ Vice President and Head -- Global Government Industry Group, said that his company is into different stages of partnership with various Central Government bodies and States in India. Chakraborty disclosed, “TCS is concentrating on India and has notched up a hit with the MCA21, the ﬁrst e-Governance project of the Ministry of Company Affairs. The department has now submitted an expression of interest for a project of the Centre to IT-enable the environment and forest departments worth about US$80-100mn.” Regarding TCS’ partnership with different States, Chakraborty informed, “Gujarat has invited the department to implement INR1200mn project and a INR500mn project for Andhra Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh and Bihar are also seeking TCS’ help on projects on portals. The

IVE NEW Open Source products -- Bharat Operating Systems Solutions (BOSS), Network@Guard Enterprise Edition, Area Traffic Control System (ATCS), e-SAVYA and Bangla-Assamese-Manipuri Speech Corpora -- were recently launched by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) at the 2-day ‘Electronics and Information Technology Exposition (ELITEX) 2007’ at New Delhi, which was organised by the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. Besides the five new products, a directory of Open Source projects, a network security tool, and a supply chain management solution for SMBs were also launched. C-DAC also showcased its several other products such as Telemedicine, Health Information system, e-Learning solutions, wheel chair for the handicapped, Bioinformatics portal, India Development Gateway and others drawn from its centres at Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Mohali, Noida, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram. BOSS Linux has been developed to enable the people of India to be exposed to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and GNU/Linux. C-DAC has developed e-SAVYA or ‘e-Saral Vyapar Suvidha’ as an Affordable Supply Chain Management System for the SME sector enabling it to achieve greater coordination and collaboration among their supply chain partners. The Area Traffic Control System (ATCS) has been developed as a fully adaptive road traffic control system that uses data from vehicle detectors and optimises traffic signal settings in an area to reduce vehicle delays and stops. C-DAC’s ‘Network at Guard: Enterprise Security Solution -- N@G-ESS’ addresses the issues of securing end systems. The E-Intrusion Detection System (E-IDS) focuses on the reduction of false alarms and is build on top of the N@G to develop the enterprise wide IDS. C-DAC’s Speech Corpora is a collection of Annotated Speech Corpora for Bangla, Assamese and Manipuri. This has been developed keeping in view the increasing demands for large speech databases regarding the development of Speech Technology and Acoustic Phonetics research of different languages.

February 2007

West Bengal Government has already responded to TCS proposal for the INR800mn State Wide Area Network. A system on Value Added Tax (VAT) has also been implemented in 11 States including Gujarat, Rajasthan, the Northeastern states and Bihar.” In the overseas, TCS is currently working on a INR150mn 3-year project of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFiD) to design end-to-end systems. In Ecuador, TCS recently signed an agreement with Banco Pichincha, Ecuador’s largest private bank, to provide a comprehensive outsourcing solution valued at over US$140mn over a period of 5 years. TCS announced that the comprehensive solution would include a complete renewal of the bank’s core banking solution with a TCS’ BANCS solution.

FIJI TO GET ALCATEL SHANGHAI BELL IP VOICE AND DATA SOLUTION

HE REPUBLIC of Fiji would get an advanced IP voice and data solution for its e-Government programme from Alcatel Shanghai Bell soon. Fiji’s e-Government project includes a private IP voice and data communication and encompasses IT platforms, including security and network management. The Fiji Government said that it would be provided turnkey services by Alcatel Shanghai Bell, along with National computer Systems (NCS) of Singapore and Fiji Government Implementation Agency Information Technology and Computer Services (ITCS). The service includes consultation, program design, implementation, management and maintenance, as well as training. Fiji’s e-Government program began in Q4 2006 and is expected to be complete in 2 008. The completion of the program would see Fijian ministries, businesses and citizens gaining direct access to information and services online.

< < <

IBM LAUNCHES NEW RFID TECHNOLOGY

BM HAS launched a new technology, WebSphere RFID Information Centre, designed to provide a standard way to securely communicate the data created by sensors and RFID tags, and tie it to existing business information and trading partners. The new technology would enable clients the securely share and analyse accurate and real-time data generated by

sensors like Radio Frequency ID tags, enabling signiﬁcant consumer and business applications like drug authentication and e-Customs for the ﬁrst time. IBM sources said that they have already deployed the IBM WebSphere RFID Information Centre successfully for a number of early-adopter IBM clients spreading several industries, including consumer packaged goods company Unilever, the e-Customs project ITAIDE in Europe, and ‘Big Three’ pharmaceutical distributor AmerisourceBergen. 45

EVENT DIARY

‘STANDARDISATION OF GOVERNMENT PROCESSES AND SERVICES MUST BEFORE EMBARKING UPON E-GOV JOURNEY’ 4th International Conference on e-Governance (ICEG 2006)

THE

INTERNATIONAL Congress of EGovernment (A society for the advancement of knowledge in e-Governance) under the aegis of Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management organised the 3-day 4th International Conference on e-Governance (ICEG 2006) from 15-17 December at the Seminar Hall, IIT-Delhi. The theme of the conference was ‘e-Governance and Development’. The conference was co-hosted by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, and National Institute for Smart Government (NISG), Hyderabad. Prof. M. P. Gupta, Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, was the Program Chair ICEG 2006. On Day 1, the inaugural session was addressed by Kiran Karnik (NASSCOM), F. C. Kohli (TCS), Daniel Dias (Director, IBM Research Lab), and Wajahat Habibullah (Chief Information Commissioner, GoI). B. N. Jain, IIT-Delhi, presided. Keynote Session on ‘e-Gov Brass Tacks’ was conducted with Mr. Sushil from IIT-Delhi in the Chair. The session was addressed by Stan Kachnowski (USA), Rohit Kumar (Microsoft), Jaijit Bhattacharya (Sun Microsystems), D.C. Mishra (Retd. IAS), and M.L. Goyal (CMC). Three special sessions -- Providing Urban Services to Rural Areas, e-Gov Infrastructure and Polity Justice -- were conducted. The day ended with a cultural programme followed by dinner. Day 2 began with the keynote session on

46 }

e-Gov in mega cities with reference to Delhi hosting Commonwealth Games, with a brief presentation given by a school student. R. Chandrashekhar (Addl Secy, GoI), Narendra Kumar (IT Secy, Delhi), Dr.Kamesh (CMC), Sam Pitroda (USA), Tanmoy Chakravarty (TCS) and R. Watal (Sports Authority of India) addressed the keynote session. Special sessions on State of States, Economic Impact of Open Source and ODF, General Issues, Challenges, Security and Standards and Technology Models, were conducted. The day ended with a dinner. On Day 3, special sessions on General Issues, Leveraging IT for Education, Rural e-Gov, Showing by Examples and Service Delivery, were conducted. An exhibition was also held. The day concluded with valedictory address by Oleg Laptenok, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus. Vinayahil Gautam, Professor, IIT-Delhi, was the Chief Guest. Three books -- Technology in Government, E-government: Macro Issues and Delivering eGovernment -- were released on the occasion. The ICEG had earlier published three books -- Government Online, Towards E-government and Promise of E-governance. The issues emerging during ICEG 2006 are as follows: Standardisation of government processes and services is the ﬁrst step before embarking upon a journey of e-Government, which is indeed a big challenge for a diverse country like India;

Business Process Reengineering remains an area of concern; Rural sector has emerged as an important area. The challenge now is connecting ‘last mile ﬁrst’; Government ofﬁcers have to own up ‘e’ part of e-Gov; Use of open source software in e-Governance has become necessary; Education and awareness about the tools and services is important, etc. ICEG was founded 3 years ago at IIT Delhi in 2003 to address the growing need for furthering our knowledge in e-Government. The response at that point was overwhelming. More than 600 delegates participated of which more than 100 were from abroad. Subsequently, in 2004, the conference was hosted at the University of Colombo and patronised by the Government of Sri Lanka, with the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka as the Chief Guest. In 2005, it was organized at Lahore with support from LUMS. ICEG has now become a signature event that brings together the thought leaders, policy makers and practitioners of e-Governance. In ICEG 2006, more than 200 papers from authors and researchers hailing from different parts of the world such as Malaysia, Bangladesh, Australia, Canada, USA, Germany, Greece, Romania, Singapore, UK, Iran, Taiwan and India were received of which 94 papers were shortlisted. The Special Interests Group on E-gov (SIGeGOV) of CSI (Computers Society of India) has agreed to host ICEG 2007 from 2830 December at Hyderabad.

www.egovonline.net

BOOK REVIEW

E-GOVERNMENT

DANGEROUS

ENTHUSIASMS? Dangerous Enthusiasms: E-government, Computer Failure and Information System Development Gauld, Robin and Shaun Goldfinch with Tony Dale 160 pp, $39.95 DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND, OTAGO UNIVERSITY PRESS WWW.OTAGO.AC.NZ/PRESS/BOOKSAUTHORS/2006/DANGEROUS_ENTHUSIASMS.HTML

D.C. Misra

e-Government a dangerous enthusiasm? Yes, according to the conclusion reached by Gauld, Goldﬁnch and Dale after a number of e-Government case studies in New Zealand and a survey of wider literature. And it is an interesting judgment in case of New Zealand, a country with 4 million population, but well advanced in e-Government. By mid-1990s most New Zealand government departments had established a web presence. New Zealand also has clearly set e-Government goals. For example, by 2007 the ICTs will be integral to the delivery of government services, by 2010 the operation of government will be transformed, and by 2020 people’s engagement with the government will have been transformed. Its site http://www.e.govt.nz/, primarily meant for government servants, is rich in resources. It has one-stop portal, http://www.govt.nz/, for the citizens. The Government ICT spending is estimated at US$3 billion annually. But nothing of this impresses the three joint authors of this book -- Robin Gauld, a senior lecturer in health policy, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago, Shaun Goldﬁnch, senior lecturer, Department of Political Studies at the same university and Tony Dale, a senior programmer in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury. Written for a general audience, the book “takes a critical look at policies, problems and prospects of e-Government in a series of case studies. Why have ICT failures in the public sector occurred and what lessons do they provide for the future?” The book has 7 chapters, notes, references

February 2007

and index. In Chapter 1, e-Government and information system development, the authors provide a good review of literature and propose a model containing four ‘pathological’ enthusiasms: (1.) Idolisation (public servants ‘idolise’ IT and see it as leading to great benefits), (2.) Technophilia (More and better technology prevents or fixes problems), (3.) Lomanism (Feigned or genuine belief of IT suppliers and sale staff in their company’s products), and (4.) Managerial faddism (new management or structures bring benefits and prevent or fix problems) (p-19). In Chapter 2, What is ‘e-Government’, authors define e-Government, describe e-Government expectations (managerial, government coordination and transformation, and participation) and developmental phases of e-Government (online information, two-way interaction, vertical integration, and horizontal integration) and discuss e-Government developments in Australia, Britain, United States and New Zealand. In Chapter 3, ICT in New Zealand’s health sec-

Health Waikato (US$17 million) and Capital Coast Health (US$26 million) projects, both of which were abandoned. It shows the realities of implementation of ICT projects including inability to fix responsibility for failure. Similarly, in Chapter 5, the INCIS fiasco in the New Zealand police force shows how US$100 million Integrated National Crime Investigation System (INCIS) project, out of US$800 million Police budget and 10 years of work, was abandoned starving Police for funds. In Chapter 6, Landoline: Qualified success or partial failure, shows mixed results. In concluding Chapter 7, lessons from computer development in the New Zealand public sector, the authors dispel the belief that “project failure could be avoided largely setting in place the right monitoring regime, the right contract design, and using the required risk analysis mechanisms.” (p-121). Similarly, they find accountability at political/bureaucratic level largely intractable. The authors draw the single most important lesson that large projects almost always fail (p-133) (emphasis original). Despite this conclusion, the authors are aware that large scale, ambitious IT projects will continue to be launched. They therefore advise that pessimism should be the guiding principle (p-135), pessimism being the expectation of failure. However, e-Government is not a dangerous enthusiasm, as the alarming title of the book makes it out to be. Enthusiasm is necessary in e-Government, as indeed in any walk of life, if we wish to achieve anything worthwhile. All that is required is caution, which should not be thrown away in planning and implementing e-Government projects. Problems are solved only when they are

Enthusiasm is necessary in e-Government, as indeed in any walk of life, if we wish to achieve anything worthwhile. All that is required is caution

tor: A story of lost opportunity, the authors say that “the story is one of lost opportunity, political negligence, shifting ideas about health policy and the shape of the health system, and the development of the Byzantine ICT topography.” (p-45). “ …progress was variable despite a succession of high-level information management strategies, and problems that were identiﬁed at the start of the decade remained unresolved at its end (ibid., p-48). A new strategy was successively applied in 1991, 1996 and 1999 with the patient information system occupying the centre stage of the problem. Two key lessons emerge from the New Zealand experience. First, central governance is required if interoperability, including architecture and standards, is desired. Secondly, collaboration, and not competition, is required in the health sector. In Chapter 4, a major health care information system project failure reports failure of

posed and faced and not when they are brushed aside under the carpet, which is often the political/bureaucratic norm in IT project administration. Gauld, Goldﬁnch and Dale deserve to be complimented for writing this valuable book whose strength lies in presentation of well-documented case studies of New Zealand public sector though at times the reader feels that the case of project failure is often overstated. This book should not be missed by any one interested in e-Government. Otago University Press too has done a good job in attractively producing it.

D.C. Misra [dc_misra@hotmail. com] is e-Government Consultant based at New Delhi, India.

FACTS & DATA

100 Million Websites

THE NUMBER OF INTERNET WEBSITES EACH YEAR SINCE THE WEB’S FOUNDING

Even though there will be many more sites to come in absolute numbers, what matters to the user experience is the rate of change, which has stabilised. From tech explosion to commodity in only 15 years: that’s in itself an indication of the fastmoving nature of the modern world

Netcraft’s

latest web survey found 101,435,253 websites in November 2006. Not all of these sites are live: some are “parked” domains, while others are abandoned weblogs that haven’t been updated in ages. But even if only half the sites are maintained, there are still more than 100 million sites that people pay to keep running. Surpassing 100 million is a big milestone, and represents immense growth since the Web’s founding 15 years ago. As the chart shows, the web has experienced three growth stages: 1991-1997: Explosive growth, at a rate of 850% per year. 1998-2001: Rapid growth, at a rate of 150% per year. 2002-2006: Maturing growth, at a rate of 25% per year. Of course, only on the web would we call 25% a “mature” growth rate. Any other ﬁeld would be happy to grow at half that speed. If the web maintains this growth rate, it will reach 200 million sites by 2010. On the one

48 }

hand, it’s only realistic to expect the growth rate to slow as the web matures even further. On the other hand, 200 million sites still won’t represent full penetration -- the world has many more than 200 million companies, non-proﬁts, and government agencies, and eventually they’ll all have websites (as will many individuals). Thus, 200 million sites is expected fairly soon, even if 2012 may be a more realistic target date than 2010. DESIGN IMPLICATIONS OF WEB MATURATION

The Year 1994 was the fastest growth period in the web’s history. That year, the web went from 700 sites to 12,000 sites, for a one-year growth of 1,600%. The web’s rapid growth ended in 2001 and all the usability guidelines found since then have been repeatedly confirmed. Although web usability isn’t completely settled, newer work is aimed more at discovering additional insights than challenging “old” findings from 2001 and beyond. At this point, the maturing web has a welldefined user experience, and users have firm expectations for how a website should work. For example, all users have one specific mental model for search, and our research confirms that users look at search results pages the same way -- even when sites deviate from the standard model.

This isn’t to say that search can’t be further improved. On the contrary, search has one of the lowest usability scores of all the web’s elements and there’s much room for enhancing user performance. The point is simply that users’ basic expectations have settled and you should design accordingly, unless you have something that’s substantially better. A small improvement won’t work if it requires an unconventional interaction style. Even though there will be many more sites to come in absolute numbers, what matters to the user experience is the rate of change, which has stabilised. From tech explosion to commodity in only 15 years: that’s in itself an indication of the fast-moving nature of the modern world. When designing a website, comply with users’ expectations. In a mature system, differentiation doesn’t come from a contrarian user interface. Such interfaces serve only to chase users away from a site. The web is no longer a marvel of innovation, it’s an everyday tool, and you differentiate yourself by providing both better content and better solutions to users’ problems. SOURCE: HTTP://WWW.USEIT.COM/ALERTBOX/WEBGROWTH.HTML

www.egovonline.net

NUMBERS

1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678 9012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456 7890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234 5678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012 3456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678 9012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456 7890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 67 89 01 23 45 67 89 01 23 45 67 89 0 1 2 3 4 56 7 8 9 0 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3456123456

was detected to have been swindled in bogus 3.25 CRORES OF RUPEES refund claims in Delhi. In one case, there were 158 bogus refunds involving Rs 56.07 lakh. There was yet another case of Rs 1.07 crore from 25 ﬁctitious

companies that was detected in Delhi. In another startling case, refunds worth Rs 1.66 crore were found to have been issued when actually the circle did not even have a jurisdiction over them. The tax frauds have led the Government to embrace e-Refunds.

SOURCE:HTTP://TIMESOFINDIA.INDIATIMES.COM/NEWS/INDIA_BUSINESS/TAX_FRAUDS_FORCE_GOVT_TO_EMBRACE_E-REFUNDS/ARTICLESHOW/916141.CMS

were ﬁled online in India in just 15 days when the 3,63,055 DOCUMENTS government made e-Filing of documents using digital signatures by authorised signatories mandatory from 16th September 2006. The deadline for e-Filing such documents was 30th September 2006.

SOURCE: HTTP://WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM/FE_FULL_STORY.PHP?CONTENT_ID=150792

105

is the ranking of Vietnam out of 191 nations in accessibility and comprehensiveness of e-Government, according to a report by the United Nations. There are only 49 cities and provinces across the country with their own websites and only 80% are frequently updated. In the case of ministries, 22 out of 26 ministries and ministerial level agencies have websites, yet only 32% of the available websites offer public services for enterprises and locals.

16,000

prisoners, 40,000 ﬁngerprints, and 60,000 photographs -- is the huge database of Tihar Jail, India’s largest and Asia’s second largest prison. The implementation of the PMS (Prison Management Systems), developed and implemented by the NIC (National Informatics Centre), at the Tihar Jail has made administration a simple task, and is proving to be the right tool to enhance efﬁciency of the administrative mechanism. SOURCE: HTTP://WWW.DQCHANNELS.COM/CONTENT/SPACE/107011304.ASP

SOURCE: HTTP://ENGLISH.VIETNAMNET.VN/SOCIAL/2006/12/644556/

189.2 mil

lion Pesos is the amount of savings made this year by the Philippine government owing to its e-Procurement system, according to ﬁgures released by the Department of Budget and Management. The Philippine eProcurement System was particularly successful in the Department of Education, which saw procurement costs cut by 50% and the purchase of medical and health supplies which experienced a 30% saving.

lion US$ is the amount spent by US agencies on the e-Government initiatives, while fee-for-service generated about US$240 million in fiscal 2006, according to the report “Expanding E-Government: Making a Difference for the American People Using Information Technology”. For fiscal 2007, OMB (Office of Management and Budget) estimates agencies would chip in US$156.5 million, while fees would bring in about US$301 million.

SOURCE: HTTP://WWW.PIA.GOV.PH/DEFAULT.ASP?M=12&FI=P061228.HTM&NO=17

SOURCE: HTTP://WWW.UNI-POTSDAM.DE/DB/ELOGO/IFGCC/INDEX.

400 mil

PHP?OPTION=COM_CONTENT&TASK=VIEW&ID=22255&ITEMID=93&LANG=DE_DE

1.50

lakh companies out of 7.50 lakh companies registered online with the Registrar of Companies under the MCA21 project in India were found to be either defunct or inactive, according to the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India. The implementation of MCA21 would help in clear identiﬁcation of such companies, the Ministry said.

1.4 mil

lion Australians have been issued e-Passports as Customs authorities prepare for the debut of the country’s ﬁrst major biometric passenger control system in Brisbane in February. The electronic passports ﬁrst became available in October 2005. Australia had a total of 8.9 million passport holders. About 1.2 million a year are being added.

SOURCE: HTTP://WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM/FE_FULL_STORY.PHP?CONTENT_ ID=150792

SOURCE:HTTP://AUSTRALIANIT.NEWS.COM.AU/ARTICLES/ 0,7204,21063915%5E26199%5E%5ENBV%5E15306-15319,00.HTML

February 2007

WHATS ON

11 - 12 FEBRUARY 2007

Middle East Electronic Documentation and Archiving Strategies Conference Dubai, UAE www.datamatixgroup.com/conferences/agenda. asp?id=354

10 - 13 APRIL 2007 MARCH 2007 International Conference ‘Advancing eGovernment’ Berlin, Germany

12 FEBRUARY 2007

PLYCA Forum on eProcurement Madrid, Spain www.aplycados.es/

12 - 13 FEBRUARY 2007

Personal Health System 2007 Conference Deployment Opportunities and ICT Research Challenges Brussels, Belgium http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/ phs_2007/index_en.htm

15 FEBRUARY 2007

www.bmi.bund.de/

ARES 2007 - The Second International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security Vienna, Austria www.bundesarchiv.de/instada/en/index.html?lang=en

11 - 13 APRIL 2007 5th Eastern European e|Gov Days 2007 Prague, Czech Republic

5 - 7 MARCH 2007 Strategic Email Management Sydney, Australia www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/events-search.htm

6 - 7 MARCH 2007 Fifth Annual eGov Summit 2007 London, UK

http://egov.ocg.at/

16 - 18 APRIL 2007 EISCO 2007 - European Information Society Conference Hämeenlinna, Finland http://www.hameenliitto.fi/eisco2007/

www.egovsummit.com

7 - 9 MARCH 2007 Intranet Usability Melbourne, Australia

24 - 26 APRIL 2007 International Standards for Digital Archives 3rd European Conference on EAD, EAC and METS Berlin, Germany

Nothern European Subset Workshop eProcurement Brussels, Belgium

8 - 9 MARCH 2007

25 - 27 APRIL 2007

www.nesubl.eu/news/nesworkshop.4.6f606811015c 9bf49800022.html

European e-ID Card Conference Leuven, Belgium

TED Conference on eGovernment Olten, Switzerland

20 FEBRUARY 2007

Electronic Document and Records Management London, UK www.kablenet.com/KE.nsf/EventsSummaryView/ AF3A0797ED414B4180257233005A6680?OpenDoc ument

20 - 21 FEBRUARY 2007

2nd International cc:eGov Workshop - Organisational change for citizen-centric eGovernment Athens, Greece www.ccegov.eu/?Page=Workshops

26 - 27 FEBRUARY 2007 Net-ID 2007 - European Conference Net-ID Identity, Trust, Privacy and Security

Berlin, Germany www.computas.de/html/1netid.html

27 FEBRUARY 2007

Future challenges for records management in the public sector London, UK www.i-b-e.co.uk/forthcoming_events/future_ challenges_for_records_management_in_the_ public_sector.phtml

28 FEBRUARY 2007

Workshop on Open Document Exchange Formats (ODEF) Berlin, Germany http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/ document/6474/5935

www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/events-search.htm

www.eema.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=focus. content&cmid=328

15 - 21 MARCH 2007 CeBIT 2007 - The leading business event for the digital world Hannover, Germany www.cebit.de/homepage_e?x=1

21 - 23 MARCH 2007 Marketing Online Government Services Sydney, Australia www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/events-search.htm

27 MARCH 2007 Transforming Front Line Service Delivery London, United Kingdom www.kablenet.com/ke.nsf/EventsSummaryView/ 457F4EBE4700A6DB8025725D0040E659?OpenDocument

27 - 28 MARCH 2007 12th Dubtech Government ICT Summit Dubai, UAE www.datamatixgroup.com/conferences/agenda. asp?id=297

28 - 30 MARCH 2007 I-ESA ‘07 - Interoperability for Enterprise Software and Applications Madeira, Portugal www.aidima.es/iesa2007/web/index.htm

2 - 4 APRIL 2007 Data Quality: Capturing and maintaining accurate information Sydney, Australia www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/events-search.htm

http://international.fhso.ch/ted/ted

2 MAY 2007 e-Government Forum Sydney, Australia www.agimo.gov.au/resources/events/2006/cebit_2007

1 - 3 MAY 2007 CeBIT Australia 2007 Sydney, Australia www.agimo.gov.au/resources/events/2006/cebit_2007

21 - 22 JUNE 2007 ECEG 2007: 7th European Conference on eGovernment The Hague, The Netherlands www.academic.conferences.org/eceg/eceg2007/eceg07home.htm

25 - 28 JUNE 2007 EEE ‘07 - The 2007 International Conference on e-Learning, e-Business, Enterprise Information Systems, and e-Government Nevada, USA www.world-academy-of-science.org/worldcomp07/ws/ EEE07

8 - 11 JULY 2007 WMSCI 2007 - 11th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics Florida, USA www.mait.com/newsletters/news183-MAIT%20Events%2 0Guide%2023.pdf

18 - 19 SEPTEMBER 2007 Global Biometrics Summit 2007 Brussels, Belgium www.biometricssummit.com

3 - 4 APRIL 2007 2nd UAE eGovernment Projects Summit Abu Dhabi, UAE www.datamatixgroup.com/conferences/agenda. asp?id=303

50 }

www.bundesarchiv.de/instada/en/index.html?lang=en

19 SEPTEMBER 2007 World e-ID 2007 Sophia Antipolis, France www.strategiestm.com/conferences/we-id/07/index.htm

www.egovonline.net

India's Premier ICT4D event 31July - 02 August, 2007 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

eIndia 2007 is the premier ICT4D event of India. This is the largest ever conference and exhibition covering the fast growing ICT4D activities in the country encompassing the following five events: •

egov India 2007

• digital Learning India 2007

•

Indian Telecentre Forum 2007

• eHealth India 2007

•

mserve India 2007