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posted by Unknown @ 11:50 AM 4 comments

Japan's old-fashioned campaigning

By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Tokyo

Japanese lawmaker Kan Suzuki's office in Second Life
This Japanese politician's office in Second Life is closed temporarily

Now the campaign for the upper house election in Japan has started, tough rules on how politicians can canvas for votes have come into force.

Surprisingly, in a country with some of the fastest broadband speeds and a wide internet penetration, it is now illegal for candidates to create new websites or update existing web pages between now and election day, 29 July.

So instead, the loudspeaker vans are out on the streets again. The candidates sit inside, waving regally wearing white gloves, smiling and politely asking for votes.

Prof Phil Deans, who works at Temple University in Tokyo, describes it as "almost a throwback to the 1950s".

"Cars with speakers on the roof, the use of posters, leafleting, and the almost complete absence of electronic media to communicate political messages, is one of the most startling things about the way elections are conducted here," he says.

Kan Suzuki wants to change all that. He is a lawmaker who wants to modernise the way elections are fought here.


Japanese lawmaker Kan Suzuki
In my constituency, I can only distribute enough [leaflets] for 3% of voters
Kan Suzuki

He has built an office in Second Life, the virtual world where you can work, play and interact with others.

Here, he says, he can get his message out to people who do not normally listen to politicians.

But now that the campaign has started, he has had to close the office temporarily.

"Basically, the election law was drawn up in the 1950s," he says.

He is also critical of another old-fashioned rule, limiting the number of posters and leaflets that a candidate can give out.

"In my constituency, I can only distribute enough for 3% of voters to get a leaflet from my party. So 97% of voters can't. How can I reach them?"

Little support

Usually Japan allows its politicians to use the internet to communicate with voters.

But as soon as an election campaign starts - the time when you might well think you would really want to communicate with them - the use of electronic media for campaigning is banned.

Instead it is on the traditional media where politicians hold court - for instance, on ponderous political TV discussion shows that sometimes look like they have not changed in 20 years.


YouTube is more casual... but if the government or any politicians are on the web it doesn't feel right
Kentaro Shimano, student

Prof Yasunori Sone, a political analyst from Keio University in Tokyo, says Japanese election law is very strict.

"There are many rules and prohibitions. But many parties want a strict law to contain other parties' political activities," he says.

"Some of us are trying to get the law changed. But the number of supporters for a change in the law is very small."

One group you would think would be keen to see the internet used in campaigning is young voters.

In Japan, 95% of people in their 20s surf the web, but only a third of them bother to vote.

Some, though, do not seem keen on politicians using the web to try to win their support.

"I believe that internet resources are not very official," says Kentaro Shimano, a student at Temple University in Tokyo.

"YouTube is more casual; you watch music videos or funny videos on it, but if the government or any politicians are on the web it doesn't feel right."

Haruka Konishi agrees.

"Japanese politics is something really serious," she says. "Young people shouldn't be involved, I guess because they're not serious enough or they don't have the education."

There cannot be many places in the world where students feel their views should not count. Perhaps it is really a reflection of the reality - that they do not.

Here in Japan, it is seen as important to treat politicians with respect.

But such is the deference paid to them, it is hard for anyone to challenge them to try new ways to make the political system better.

posted by Unknown @ 9:03 PM 0 comments

Government websites 'too complex'

Government websites 'too complex'
Tony Blair launching a website
The Blair government put many services online
Many government websites are still too complicated and difficult to use, says the National Audit Office.

While services like online road tax renewal are very popular, other sites such as HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), are too complex, the report said.

Nearly 25% of departments do not know who is using their sites, or how much they cost.

Government sites cost £208m a year overall but little improvement had been made to quality since 2002, it said.

In January the government announced plans to close at least 551 of 951 websites, in order to streamline services through its "super sites".

'Radical extension'

The NAO report said the growth in online government services was "perhaps the most radical extension of access to public services as a whole for several decades".

Two fifths of the population do not have internet access, many people rely on "intermediaries" to use online services but in general, people were increasingly using the sites - particularly with the spread of broadband, the report said.

Local authority websites appear to be very popular - with 180m visitors a year.


% OF PEOPLE USING GOVT SITES
Iceland - 55
Sweden - 52
Finland - 47
Luxembourg - 46
Netherlands - 46
Estonia - 31
Austria - 29
Slovakia - 27
UK - 24
Figures taken over three months in 2005

But most people only knew a few key sites and tended to use "transactional services" once or twice a year - like filing income tax returns or renewing their car tax.

The Jobcentre Plus site was among the most popular and was visited at least once a week by 78% of users.

But others were difficult to use, too "text-heavy" and filled with policy material that was irrelevant to the visitor, the report said.

The average central government site had 17,000 pages - roughly equivalent to that of a large department store - yet most of their search engines "often fail to work satisfactorily", the report said.

'Lost in documentation'

The HMRC website was criticised by some of those interviewed who said they got "lost in complex documentation" looking for tax codes.

But the Directgov and Business Link "super-sites" were popular with the NAO's focus groups, who found they were "laid out clearly".

However few knew about them beforehand, and some felt the name Directgov was difficult to remember.


Websites are still hard to navigate and citizens have to wade through masses of irrelevant information to find what they need
Edward Leigh
Committee chairman

Up to a third of government websites may not meet standards for disabled or visually impaired people while, of the 3,400 forms available to download, only one in eight could be filled in and returned online.

"The vast bulk (85%) of forms still need to be printed and filled out on paper," the report said.

The report said that government websites had "improved slightly" between 2001 and 2006 in terms of quality, and about a tenth of all government sites had made "major improvements," but one in six sites had got "significantly worse".

NAO head Sir John Bourn said progress had been made in getting more information on the internet, but "little improvement" had been made in information held on the cost and use of websites.

"Departments need to focus on understanding the cost effectiveness of their websites and who uses them and why, so that they can better meet the needs of citizens."

The Conservative chairman of the public accounts committee, Edward Leigh, said it was "disappointing that there had been so little improvement in the quality of government websites since 2002".

"Departments have poor information on costs, websites are still hard to navigate and citizens have to wade through masses of irrelevant information to find what they need," he said.

In January, the government announced plans to close at least 551 of 951 websites, in order to streamline services through its "super sites".

posted by Unknown @ 8:56 PM 0 comments

E-Government Fès: Achievements

E-Government Fès: Achievements

* Project Preparation Workflow
* Workshop
* First Phase Workflow
* Network Infrastructure
* Technology Enablers
* Security Infrastructure:
o Authentification Workflow
o Security Infrastructure
o Phase 3 Biometrics
* Fès Portal:
o Visit Fès Portal
o GUI for illiterate users
* Fès Portal Bureau d'Etat Civil Automation:
o Existing System Workflow
o Bureau d'Etat Civil Application
* Visit to Canada
o Technical Consultant Visit
o Social Consultant Visit
* Online Services:
o Online Birth Certificate Workflow
o Online Birth Certificate Proposals
o Deployment Phase Workflow
* Social Aspects of Fez E-Government Project
o Outcome Analysis Method: Overview
o Fez e-Government Survey
o BEC Manual workflows
o Portal Content
o Project’s contribution to making BEC more citizen-Friendly

posted by Unknown @ 8:43 AM 0 comments