Britain's multibillion pound effort to create electronic government received a confidence boost this week. It is officially the most advanced large European country at making public services available online.
In the latest regular survey of e-government progress, covering 28 countries, only Sweden and Austria beat Britain in a league table of sophistication.
Previous surveys placed the UK in the middle of a field led by Nordic countries, with their small and technically savvy populations. It echoes the findings of the latest United Nations survey of e-government, which placed the UK behind only the US and Denmark in a league table of 191 countries' "e-government readiness".
Evidence that the UK is relatively good at something to do with computers in government will surprise people who assume that widely reported disasters are uniquely British. It is welcome news for the government, which is betting on IT to crack a range of difficult national issues, from fuel taxation to doctors' productivity. The bad news is that there is little evidence that e-government makes public services more efficient, or contributes to overall national wellbeing.
The author of the European survey, Graham Colclough, of consultancy Cap Gemini, warned this week that the most difficult challenges for e-government lie before us.
The European Commission "benchmarks" e-government progress as part of an "e-Europe action plan" designed to catch up with north America and east Asia. The latest survey is the fifth, and the first since the EU's expansion to 25 member states. It also covers non-members Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
Researchers working for Cap Gemini, a French-based company, tested the extent to which 20 basic public services were available online: 12 for citizens, eight for businesses.
The results show that most public organisations in Europe are on the web - across the 28 states, 84% of "service providers" had a website. Almost all offline bodies are local organisations such as hospitals.
Different functions of government are moving online at different rates. Not surprisingly, the most advanced group contains processes for collecting taxes. The least developed group covers "permits and licences"; in most of Europe, applying for planning permission cannot be done online.
In country rankings, the five most sophisticated e-governments are Sweden, Austria, the UK, Ireland and Finland. The UK's jump from seventh position places it among the pioneers. Another fast mover is Estonia, a new member state. It comes eighth, ahead of France, the Netherlands and Germany. Latvia is bottom of the 28, while Luxembourg, at 23, is the least developed of established EU members.
Luxembourg breaks the rule that small rich countries are generally good at e-government because its population is simply too small to make investment worthwhile.
Among individual online services, the UK scores well in passport applications. It is the only country apart from Portugal to offer a service ranked 100% for sophistication. The 100% score does not mean that it is possible to apply online for a passport, only that the website "offers an official electronic form to start the procedure to obtain an international passport".
Along with Norway, Britain also scores 100% for the sophistication in its online driving licence applications. In public libraries, however, Britain is well down the league, with 17 states ahead in the sophistication of services. The UK is 10th in the sophistication of procedures for registering businesses and is also well down the league in electronic public procurement.
The study offers several examples of services that might be usefully adopted elsewhere in Europe. One is the UK Customs and Excise's Chief system for processing customs duties. Britain's planning portal also won praise for its ability to submit planning applications electronically to some local authorities.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German federal border police apparently have a sophisticated website for collecting "hints or observations" on border security, while the French education ministry runs a national site for holders of the French baccalauréat to enrol in university.
Norwegians do not have to apply for birth certificates - they are issued automatically on the basis of data that hospitals submit to the population register. In Finland, likewise, all authorities have access to a population register if they need proof of identity.
Belgians claiming social security do not have to notify the authorities when their status changes - an organisation called the Crossroads Bank receives the information automatically and changes the benefit accordingly.
Europe's approach to benchmarking e-government has several weaknesses. By concentrating on the same set of services year after year, it creates a temptation for countries to boost their ratings by investing only in procedures that will be measured.
A more serious weakness is that it does not differentiate between a website slapped on top of an existing process, and one truly integrated with it. It is only by the second approach that e-government can save money, and in most countries this process has scarcely begun. "We've done the easy bit," Colclough warned.
E-Government and the Smart Community John Eger, May 2003
This is the text of John M. Eger's opening keynote remarks at the Middle East E-Government conference in Muscat Oman May 10-12. The conference was organized and hosted by the Municipality of Muscat, the Arab Urban Development Institute, and the World Bank, and co-organized by the California Institute for Smart Communities, of which Eger is president and CEO.
We meet this week in Muscat at an historic turning point in the history of the world; in the history of telecommunications and information technology; and clearly in the history of cities. For as technology and economics converge -- the technology of telecommunications and information and the economics of a global economy -- three major trends are rapidly reshaping our world, our nations, and local municipalities across the globe.
First, power is devolving from nation states to individuals and individual communities as never before. Second, wealth is being redefined as information production, use and transfer replace the dominant role of agriculture and manufacturing in shaping the world economy. And third, we are reawakening to the urgent need to reinvent our cities as the crucibles of civilization and the incubators of creativity as our cities once again are being challenged to meet the demands of a global, knowledge-based economy.
What I would like to do in the time allowed me today is:
- briefly outline these trends and the challenges they present;
- underscore the importance of municipal leadership in helping develop community-wide strategies to meet these challenges; and
- talk about comprehensive e-government strategies as a bridge to building "smart communities" -- communities fully and consciously deploying the tools of our new age to transform every sector of our economy and society to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
First, as many of you know, we are living in the midst of a revolution in communications. Today, thanks to a vast network of satellites orbiting the earth at 22,000 miles in space, undersea fiber-optic cables, wired and wireless networks, cellular phones, palm-top and lap-top wireless computers, there's almost nothing of importance anywhere in the world that isn't reported instantly.
The "global village" author and visionary Marshall McLuhan first talked about is here. It's not the world community he envisioned, perhaps, but nonetheless a new mosaic is forming and some very definite trends are becoming clear.
As I've already mentioned, there is a major realignment of power taking place. No government, no matter how popular or dictatorial, can set its nation's public policy agenda anymore. Who does? It is world public opinion. Charles Wick, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan's director of USIA, once underscored this in remarks to the National Press Club in New York City when he said: "How else could a dock worker in Poland, not a general, create that great force change,
Solidarity? How else could an ordinary housewife aspire to the dreams of her country and rise to become president of the Philippines? How else could a black woman say 'No!' to the ravages of apartheid, as Winnie Mandela did in South Africa, and the world stop and listen?"
As the pervasive spread of the Internet empowers increasingly more citizens, more subtle, but dramatic changes in governance are predicted. For now, where possible, citizens are saying "No!" How else can one explain the fall of the Berlin wall? The shattering of the Eastern Bloc? The decimation of the former U.S.S.R.? The general elections in India? The loss of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party or Mexico's PRI?
A major redefinition of wealth is also taking place in the world. Walter Wriston, former Chairman of Citibank, in his book
The Twilight of Sovereignty points out with great clarity what happened when Great Britain entered into an agreement with the People's Republic of China for control of Hong Kong. "Trading screens began to light up all over the world and the traders began to trade," he said, "and their trades, like a global plebiscite, reflected world public opinion that it was not a good treaty." Overnight, billions of dollars left Hong Kong.
Information has replaced gold as the new monetary standard, and in this post-industrial Information Age, it is information or knowledge that is the new wealth and of course, it is information technology that has become the tools of wealth creation. Which, of course, is why we meet here today to talk about e-government -- how we use technology to transform the delivery of government services; and importantly, e-governance; how we use these systems and new information infrastructures to empower our citizens to create a new model of governing in the digital age.
Many communities, often without being consciously aware of it, are starting to sketch out the first drafts of the 21st Century communities. Singapore successfully launched its IT 2000 initiative, also known as the Intelligent Island Plan almost 20 years ago. It is a plan literally to wire almost every home, school, hospital and business in the region and to transform the delivery of health care, education, business and government itself to prepare itself for the knowledge-based economy.
Nearby Malaysia has created what it calls the Multi-Media Super Corridor, encompassing Kuala Lumpur and its new international airport. This high-tech, free trade zone of 20 by 30 kilometers has attracted major investors throughout the world. For within the zone, there are no taxes for 10n years. There are no import duties or tariffs either on the free movement of information goods and services; no restrictions on the immigration of the high-tech knowledge worker, no censorship and little if any controls on the use of the Internet and its progeny, the World Wide Web.
Dubai launched a similarly aggressive strategy three years ago for attracting companies interested in headquarters in the Middle East. Called Dubai Internet City, it has the largest commercial Internet protocol telephony system in the world and one of the most developed IT infrastructures. Not surprisingly, Microsoft, Oracle, HP, IBM, Compaq, Dell, Siemens, Canon, Logica, Sony, Ericsson, and Cisco are but a few of the global companies headquartered in Dubai.
On another scale, cities like Dublin, Ireland, and New Delhi, India, have used low corporate taxes, relatively low wages, and skilled English-speaking labor to help build "call centers" for major global corporations like IBM, Lufthansa, and Compaq Computer. Dublin has managed to garner a large segment of the European market and New Delhi, most of Asia and the Americas. Their experiences pushing unemployment rates down and bolstering their own economies serve as models to leapfrog into the 21st Century knowledge economy.
Small rural communities like Blacksburg, Virginia, home of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Ashland, Oregon, another quaint college town with a little over 20,000 population, developed aggressive plans to fiber their communities and to connect all their citizens and institutions public and private, by partnering with local utilities and organizing a community-wide collaboration of institutions public and private that rightly had a stake in the new information future. Some observers believe that these efforts to create an "electronic village" in the long run may prove to be the most promising as bigger cities struggle to confront the overwhelming issues of sprawl, lack of affordable housing, crime and pollution and the other ills that befall mega-cities around the world.
In San Diego, California, where the "City of the Future" was first aggressively pursued as a concept in the early 1990s, the region can boast one of the most sophisticated wired and wireless information infrastructures in the nation. Further, by emphasizing not just the connected community, but a creative and a concerned community as well, San Diego -- according to researcher Richard Florida at Carnegie Mellon University -- ranks third in the nation in terms of creativity and, in turn, has become a magnet for attracting the high-tech knowledge worker for the 21st Century. Indeed, the region now boasts a population with more advanced degrees than any other region in the country.
What is most striking about all of these communities repositioning themselves for the new economy is their strategy to move beyond e-government, to increase the attractiveness of their regions to the high tech workers and high-tech industries so in demand worldwide; while at the same time ensuring that their regions, their communities, are not cut off from the mainstream of economic development.
Thus the business of government and e-government has taken on a dramatic new role beyond providing people with more convenient access to government information services, and specifically improving the quality of service delivery. Instead, it has provided the portal or bridge to provide greater opportunities for citizens to participate in their democratic institutions and processes, thus empowering and energizing their communities to renew and reinvent themselves for the new economy.
Dr. Nasser Saidi, Lebanon's former Minister of Economy and Trade, in a paper entitled "E-government: Technology for Good Governance, Development and Democracy in the Middle East North America countries" writes about "E-leadership" and argues persuasively that because "E-government implies administrative and civil service reform as part of the business process re-engineering of government ... strong, high level leadership -- typically at the head of state -- is needed to supply the vision, establish a national e-strategy and ICT task force and rally support from the public and private sectors."
Saidi is very complimentary of Jordan where King Abdullah personally involved himself, in e-government; likewise President Mubarak in Egypt, Dr. Assad in Syria and Sheikh Zayed in the U.A.E.
Indeed, from our own studies of e-government efforts, private/public cooperation and a genuine public involvement and ownership of change are key to sustaining successful e-government, e-communities; in other words, smart communities development.
While it might seem at first so much easier to pursue a top-down, policy-driven strategy particularly given the head of state's personal involvement, it is the community that must be involved in both the vision and the plan or it will fail. The starting point is the "collaboratory" -- a new decision-making mechanism that identifies and includes all the stakeholders. This could be local and neighborhood associations, elected officials, university presidents and those responsible for the health, wealth and well-being of the community...the so-called Third Sector.
As many of you know, the Arab Urban Development Institute and the California Institute for Smart Communities have been talking a great deal about the smart community concept since AUDI held its seminal conference in November 2001 in Riyadh. Held under the auspices of His Royal Highness Prince Salaam bin Abdul Aziz al Sud, Governor of the Riyadh region, it was concluded inter alia that:
- In the process of planning for future development ... full participation of all members of society (including women and children and youth) should be included;
- Arab cities should also be encouraged to utilize digital technology in the various walks of life in future cities and provide the infrastructure necessary to incorporate and utilize (such) new technologies;
- The pivotal role of private and non-governmental sectors in future planning and development (is reaffirmed); and
- Government should support provision of information infrastructure as an essential component of future cities; and initiate serious discussion about the concept of "smart communities" by expanding the applications of e-government, distance learning, e-commerce, in ways that do not contradict the humanitarian aspects of future cities.
For those reasons, it was clear that the Arab Urban Development Institute and the California Institute for Smart Communities shared similar goals and visions of the 21st century community and, importantly, shared a mission to cooperate so as to encourage and facilitate the development of "smart communities" within the Arab region.
Some time in the near future, we hope to launch a major annual smart communities conference to serve Arab towns and cities and perhaps to begin working independently with many of you here to develop a number of pilot projects in your communities. Toward that end, I would also like to outline some of the steps that every community can or should embrace as it makes its journey across the digital divide -- from the industrial past to the Information Age future -- to become a truly "smart community", a "city of the future."
The "Smart Community Concept" Must be Well Understood Becoming a smart community is not so much about technology as it is about understanding the basic shift in the structure of the economy and society. While technology plays a vital role as a catalyst in transforming life and work in this new economy, jobs, dollars and quality of life are the real benefits. In undertaking the task of becoming a smart community, therefore, everyone needs to know this is really a process of "reinventing" community for a new age of information.
Ownership of the Smart Community Concept Must be Broadly Defined Because of the devolution of power, or the reverse flow of sovereignty if you will, all individuals and individual communities -- down to and including the smallest neighborhoods, now have the ability to take ownership of this concept to shape their lives, that of their families and their closest neighbors. Policies and programs, therefore, whether developed at the local, state or federal level, must be communicated broadly and well understood by all stakeholders in order for them to be successful.
A New Decision-Making Mechanisms Must be Created Because power has devolved, every individual must be persuaded, indeed enticed, to change the way life and work take place within his or her community. The concept must not only be well understood but individuals and individual stakeholders throughout the communities must understand that they will participate in the process. Toward that end, a new decision-making mechanism -- we call it a "collaboratory" -- involving all of the stakeholders, must be established. These stakeholders include businesses large and small, academe at every level from K-12 through the university, non-profit organizations throughout the community and government itself. Such a collaboratory will greatly influence and enhance the ability to create a smart community.
The Needs of the Community Must be Assessed and the Community Defined Geographical boundaries -- cities, towns, villages, and states, indeed even nation-states -- are being redefined by the convergence of technology and economics; the technology of telecommunications and computers, and the economics of a global economy. A first step to launching a smart community initiative, therefore, is determining the size and geographic limits of the community. Is it a neighborhood? A city? A larger region of several municipalities? Second, but most important, what are the needs as the stakeholders perceive them? Only by understanding the needs and then developing a sense of priority can a well-rounded smart community initiative be developed.
A Vision and Mission Statement Must be Developed Only after understanding the interests and concerns of a community can a broad vision and mission statement be developed. Often, this can be done in one day through a facilitation of key stakeholders and then codification into a one-page vision and mission statement. It is important that after the vision and mission statement is drafted, it be submitted to the city or county and/or other political bodies in the community for ratification. Individual groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Development Corporation, and other governing bodies, should be encouraged to comment on and support the vision and mission statement.
Specific Goals and Priorities Must be Established After a community develops its vision and mission statement, the next step in the process is to articulate specific goals and priorities. These are best developed and refined by a number of working committees, which the collaboratory should establish. The committees should again be inclusive of all the stakeholders. Committees should be given timelines, an understanding of the importance of the mission, and some assistance in developing the tasks before them. While each community may differ, most communities usually organize around functional areas such as health care, education, transportation, law enforcement, government services, economic development, and so forth. It is important to spend some time in defining the committee structure before establishing the committees themselves.
A Strategic Plan for the Smart Community Concept Needs to be Drafted At this stage in the process, after a vision and mission statement is created, committees formed, and priorities established, a plan must be put in place to implement the development of:
- The hard infrastructure to create a broadband system linking every home, school, and institution within the community;
- Those systems and services that will most benefit the community; and
- The agenda for the soft infrastructure -- the laws, rules, regulations that must be changed in order to facilitate the development of both the new infrastructure and information services.
This step is one of the hardest because it requires the collaboratory to synthesize the work of its subcommittees and agree on how best to take these committee recommendations from concept to reality.
Responsibilities Must be Clearly Defined and Timelines Established This is indeed the hardest task because someone or some agency or committee or organization must be assigned the task of implementing the recommendations. It must be clear in assigning the responsibility what the expectations are and those expectations must be set against a firm timeline. At this juncture, it is also important to determine how this plan will be financed. Private/public partnerships and outsourcing may be the best methods for accelerating implementation of the plan. This is the opportunity to bring together private and public interests, to seek collaboration among and between industry, government at several levels, and the community at large.
Community Linkages Must be Made The vision of the future must be coordinated with all other elements of the community that affect, and are in turn affected by this fundamental plan. There is, for example, a new "architecture" to be developed that will involve zoning, land use and development; art and culture initiatives to provide a magnet for downtown redevelopment. In addition, information systems being developed by other agencies must be coordinated.
Metrics Must be Established and Progress Constantly Monitored After the headlines and the ribbon cutting, the real work must take place. Some things like development of a new GIS system, or linking the schools and the libraries, or even launching a Request for Proposal to develop a broadband grid, will not take place in a day or a week or even a month. Indeed, the business of creating a smart community is truly a multi-year and ongoing process. Mechanisms must be established to keep the energy and focus and commitment alive.
In closing, let me say once again, what a critical period this is in the history of the reinvention and renewal -- not just of cities and Middle Eastern cities in particular; but Middle Eastern civilization as well. For as you know, the first cities in the world were created here along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; this is where the first writings evolved; the first codes of law. These earliest cities are where the symbols of our age -- the world's largest libraries -- were first created. These cities were the centers of commerce, religion and art and the foundations for some of humanity's earliest gifts to mankind in music and math, art and architecture.
I'm not an expert on the history or culture of the Middle East, nor am I an urban scholar, but I know that as past is prologue the Arab world, like many regions, is poised for a modern-day renaissance, and well suited to make a quantum leap from the agrarian and industrial past to an Information Age future; and fortunately many Arab town and cities are already showing the way. But the effort to create the 21st Century Community -- the Smart community, the City of the Future -- is a journey not a destination.
As Walter Lippman, a well-known American commentator and author, wrote not too long ago: "We are living through the closing chapters of the established and traditional ways of life. We are in the early beginnings of a struggle that will probably last for generations to remake our civilization. It is not a good time for politicians. It is a time for prophets and leaders and explorers and inventors and pioneers and for those who are willing to plant trees for their children to sit under."
This conference on e-government, like the conference AUDI hosted on future cities just two years ago, are major contributions toward understanding and committing to that noble effort.
John M. Eger is Lionel Van Deerlin endowed professor of communications and public policy at San Diego State University, and executive director of SDSU's International Center for Communication. He is also president and CEO of the World Foundation for Smart Communities. Professor Eger was Advisor to Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and director of the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy.
