Friday, 3 September 2010
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Policy
BlackBerry data encryption in Asia
After a jittery week for Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry, the Indonesian government has said that it will not ban the popular device. But what about governments elsewhere around the world?
Local Government
Seoul tops global cities ranking for e-govt
The South Korean capital of Seoul is the world’s ...
Digital Inclusion
Should internet access be a basic human right?
How valuable to human life is information? Well, in Finland ...
7 June 2010 | News
UN reveals changes to E-Government rankings
In an interview with FutureGov, the director of the United Nations E-Government rankings has revealed how the next survey will be modified to stay up to date with emerging trends.
1 June 2010 | News
World’s largest public safety radio network planned
The Federal Agency for Digital Radio of Security Authorities and Organisations (BDBOS) in Germany is in the process of rolling out the world’s largest radio network for public safety.
21 May 2010 | News
World City Prize winner revealed
The inaugural Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize has been awarded to Bilbao. The Spanish city famous for the Guggenheim art museum was picked from 78 nominations from 32 countries for a “knowledge revolution” that transformed a fading post-industrial city into a vibrant culture and business hub.
18 May 2010 | News
OECD plots next generation e-govt indicators
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has entered talks with the producers of the major global e-government surveys with a view to launching new e-government indicators that focus on public sector performance.
11 May 2010 | News
World Bank opens up development data
The World Bank is the latest information-rich organisation to free up its data for public consumption. The portal data.worldbank.org will give policymakers access to more than 2000 financial, business, health, economic and human development statistics, information that was previously exclusive to paying subscribers.
7 May 2010 | News
Are you ready for the digital Big Bang?
Within the next decade, the volume of data amassed in the world will be equivalent to a stack of DVDs reaching halfway from earth to mars. Data streaming through cables and airwaves will amount to 35 trillion gigabytes by 2020, a 44-fold increase in the volume of information around today.
28 April 2010 | News
How govts are making sense of social media
Social media presents government with a headache-inducing glut of unstructured data from which it is difficult to make any sense. But as governments in Australia, Hong Kong and Europe reveal in interviews with FutureGov, analytics tools that trawl blogs and social networks are helping to test public sentiment and shape policy with increasing efficiency and effectiveness.
20 April 2010 | News
What role will govt play in social web of the future?
In the not too distant future, a new generation of social media will be administered by virtual civil servants and patrolled by cyber sheriffs. Highly evolved versions of Second Life, where netizens meet, trade, and play, will also become places where policy is debated and decided. Sound fanciful? Well, this is the way the world is headed, predicts futurist and author Thornton May.
11 April 2010 | News
Why gov 2.0 calls for risk managers
If governments are to use social media more effectively, they must learn to operate in environments over which they have no control. In interviews with FutureGov, government modernisers from Hong Kong, Australia and the UK said that the “wild west” of web 2.0 calls for a new approach to risk management.
8 April 2010 | News
Do the benefits of open govt data outweigh the costs?
“Data belongs to the people, particularly that held by the public sector,” Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, said recently. But putting government data online is not without risks. FutureGov asked officials in Singapore - which launched an open data initiative last week - South Korea, the UK and the Netherlands whether they feel that the benefits of open government data outweigh the costs.
5 April 2010 | News
Are civil servants cut out for social media?
Most senior civil servants are Baby Boomers or Generation Xers, born at a time without the internet. But does this mean that web communities are too ‘young’ for top officials to operate in effectively? In interviews with FutureGov, government officials from Australia, Malaysia and the UK argue that although civil servants may not feel comfortable using social media to reach young citizens, the rewards are worth the risks.
19 March 2010 | News
Will Facebook profiles replace govt web sites?
It’s all the rage for ministries and agencies to have a Facebook pages these days. Government is going where its citizens are. So why bother having a web site at all? The idea may seem farfetched. But as officials from Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Netherlands reveal in interviews with FutureGov, government web sites could disappear into the ‘social cloud’ sooner than we think.
12 March 2010 | News
How government web sites build citizen trust
Government modernisers in Asia and Europe have stressed the importance of building transparent official web sites as a way to boost citizen trust. In interviews with FutureGov, public sector experts from Singapore and the Netherlands said that more needs to be done to make information on government web sites more accessible, timely and searchable if closer ties are to be built with netizens.
2 March 2010 | News
Turkey’s GCIO reveals success of citizen ID
Speaking exclusively to FutureGov, Dr. Ramazan Altinok, Head of E-government Project Group, Office of the Prime Minister of Turkey revealed how the government successfully implemeted a national ID database which formed the backbone of the country’s e-government infrastructure.
23 February 2010 | Feature
Malaysia banks on ICT to meet 2020 development goals
Malaysia’s Government CIO has hailed ICT as a “key enabler” to fulfil Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s mission to transform Malaysia into a developed nation by 2020. Speaking at the FutureGov Forum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday (23rd February 2010), Dr Nor Aliah Zahri, Government CIO and Deputy Director General of the Malaysian …
9 February 2010 | News
Interpol rebuffs calls for web police
Calls for the creation of an internet police force to tackle unprecedented levels of cyber crime have been rebuffed by the director of IT at Interpol in an interview with FutureGov. Noboru Nakatani, Director for Information Systems and Technology for the global police network Interpol said that setting up a net police would be “reinventing the wheel” and the …
9 February 2010 | News
Should govts archive social media posts?
It is fashionable for government agencies to have a Facebook or Twitter account these days. But should tweets and status updates be backed up to leave a digital trail for transparency’s sake? Not all policymakers have made their minds up, as perspectives from the United States, Europe and Asia reveal in interviews with FutureGov.
2 February 2010 | News
World’s first CCTV Regulator appointed
The world’s first CCTV regulator is coming to Singapore to take the pulse of Asia’s security industry.
27 January 2010 | News
Gov 2.0 championed at FutureGov Forum Singapore
Government modernisers from South Korea and Europe urged delegates at the FutureGov Forum Singapore today (Wednesday 27, 2010) to be bold in embracing social media and open information as ways to help solve society’s problems. Dr Jung-hee Song, Assistant Mayor for IT and Chief Information Officer, Seoul Metropolitan Government, pointed to …
26 January 2010 | News
Politicians ponder what’s next at FutureGov Forum
Elected politicians from Hong Kong and Singapore shared their perspectives on the future of governance and public service delivery at the FutureGov Forum in Singapore today. Zaqy Mohamad, Member of Parliament & Chairman for the Government Parliamentary Committee for Singapore’s Ministry of Information Communication and the Arts, told delegates that while his country has always …
19 January 2010 | Feature
Ending the tyranny of distance
In remote areas such as Qinghai Province in China or the northern reaches of Thailand, videoconferencing is proving to be the most effective way yet of connecting disparate communities in far flung places. Robin Hicks and Wang Zhen explain how.
19 January 2010 | Feature
Should data centres be outsourced?
Government data centre outsourcing contracts can help local IT players grow. This creates jobs and boosts the local economy. But the real dynamics of data centre outsourcing have been slow to take off in Asia. Why?
19 January 2010 | Interview
What are government’s security weak spots?
Microsoft’s global public safety and national security head Tim Bloechl has a Facebook account, but doesn’t trust social media as a reliable source of intelligence. Not yet anyway. When confronted with a threat to public safety, dealing with it should be second nature. So says Tim Bloechl, Microsoft’s Managing Director for Worldwide Public Safety and National Security.
19 January 2010 | Interview
Acute care, astute IT
Going by its location in central Kuala Lumpur and state-of-the-art design, people tend to perceive Prince Court Medical Centre as a very expensive facility. But Harald Feiel, PCMC’s Chief Information Officer, says this is a myth. “Although we aspire to become the best acute care hospital in Asia with unique, top-notch facilities, we are no more expensive than other private hospitals here in Malaysia,” he explains. “We have done market analysis and in most areas our fees are comparable with those of other hospitals.”
19 January 2010 | Feature
Government Cloud: Public or Private?
Asia‘s first ever public sector summit on cloud computing suggested that the economics of cloud computing trumped other concerns - but that private clouds would be the necessary first stepping stone to prove the technology could deliver.
13 January 2010 | News
Asian govts eye gains from setting data free
More of the huge reserves of information locked away in the basements of government buildings should be made available to the public. So say government modernisers in Hong Kong, South Korea and Australia following the news that the Mayor of London has sparked an “information revolution” in the British capital by putting data online for public consumption for the first time, free of charge.
13 January 2010 | News
Denmark helps businesses with national e-invoicing system
A national electronic invoicing infrastructure has eased government-to-business and business-to-business transactions in Denmark. Catherine Lippert, Acting Deputy Head, Division for IT Infrastructure & Implementation, National IT & Telecom Agency (NITA) spoke to FutureGov about the drivers for the project and the agency’s plans to migrate the system into the cloud.
7 January 2010 | Feature
Building a healthy Malaysia
Like many of its neighbours, Malaysia has been experiencing changing disease patterns. The era of acute infectious diseases and malnutrition has been succeeded by one of chronic diseases and lifestyle related illnesses. So the country’s healthcare strategy has had to shift from making traditional health and hygiene improvements to promoting healthier lifestyles and managing chronic diseases.
7 January 2010 | Feature
Moving from planning to impact
Government is back, and it is not going away anytime soon. Following a tumultuous 12 months in which governments throughout the region had dramatically increased their role within national economies, the 132 delegates to the FutureGov Summit, Asia’s annual gathering of senior government officials, took time out of the busy schedules to share what had worked well, and lay out their plans for the future of public administration.
5 January 2010 | Interview
Putting government to the test
Two candidates enter the hall for the same examination. As the examination proceeds, the computer selects the next question from a database based on each examinee’s performance so far. The stronger candidate gets presented with more difficult questions while the other get easier ones. Immediately after, the computer generates equitable scores even though both have experienced a different test set.
5 January 2010 | Feature
Schools: The Public sector’s green Champions
169 education executives participated in a FutureGov Research survey on the future trends transforming teaching and learning in June. The results, from 13 countries across Asia Pacific, will have put a smile on the faces of tree huggers.
10 December 2009 | News
British Library unveils futuristic storage facility
The £26m building will keep literary records in a safe, high-density environment with automated storing and retrieval by robots governed by algorithm
11 August 2009 | News
User resistance to German e-health cards
Germany’s electronic health card rollout, aimed at improving communications and data exchange within the country’s healthcare sector, has been delayed due to physician resistance.
29 July 2009 | News
UAE travelers use ID cards at passport control
The United Arab Emirates has introduced a scheme where identity cards can be used to go through passport control at entry and exit points across the country to enable travelers to pass quickly through immigration, an Abu Dhabi Police official has said.
28 July 2009 | News
UK govt launches Twitter guide for civil servants
The UK government is developing a strategy for civil servants to use the microblogging service Twitter in the hope of giving government an “informal, human voice” with which to communicate with the public.
27 July 2009 | News
China and UK cooperate on network security
The Chinese State Council Information Office and the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have agreed to combine their efforts to safeguard national network security and collaborate on information sharing and intelligence gathering.
15 July 2009 | Spotlight
The unification of information
With the Internet making the world flatter, the world has changed profoundly over the last ten years. Citizens are expecting higher information quality delivered from their Government agencies more than ever before.
13 July 2009 | News
Bahrain to enable bill payments by mobile phone
Bahrain residents will soon be able to pay their electricity and water bills using their mobile phones, the latest of a series of eGovernment initiatives on the island state.
10 July 2009 | Interview
Birmingham: a new model for city administration?
Glyn Evans, Corporate Director of Business Change with Birmingham City Council, explains how England’s second city is embarking on the country’s most far reaching local government transformation programme.
7 July 2009 | News
India to help African state with e-government project
The government of India is set to help the African Kingdom of Lesotho set up a statewide e-network to facilitate services such as tele-education, tele-medicine and net connectivity for video conferencing among the heads of state.
7 July 2009 | News
Poor progress for Britain’s green govt strategy
A recent study by an environmental non-governmental organisation has highlighted the inadequacies of Britain’s green government strategy initiated a year ago.
6 July 2009 | News
UK country revamps info-management system
The Welsh Assembly Government has unveiled a major software and services overhaul to replace traditional methods of information management.
30 June 2009 | Interview
Hospital COO on medicine as a service industry
Brian de Francesca, who runs one of the biggest public hospitals in the United Arab Emirates, believes there is no magic in medicine. He thinks like any other service provider, hospitals should improve performance and guarantee service levels.
30 June 2009 | News
Dubai promotes ICT in push to save energy
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has launched a nationwide educational campaign to promote the use of modern information and communications technology and e-payment services that save time and energy.
23 June 2009 | News
Supply chain management key to green govt: analyst
Supply-chain management software has a key role to play in helping the public sector meet its green mandate - but the products available are far from mature, according to analyst firm Ovum.
8 June 2009 | News
World’s first tuition-free online university opens
The United Nations (UN) has launched the world’s first tuition-free, online university.
4 June 2009 | News
First stage of Sweden’s e-health scheme deployed
‘National Patient Overview’ gives 500 care providers in the region of Örebro authorised access to consolidated patient information
2 June 2009 | News
Is Singapore's e-govt model exportable?
Singapore wants to sell its e-government model to the world. But do other countries want or need what Singapore is offering? FutureGov asked government information officers in India, China, South Korea and the Philippines…
1 June 2009 | News
Qatar to set up government agency network
Qatar has launched a project to interlink government agencies over a secure communications platform in a bid to improve data sharing and enhanced security for government e-services.
26 May 2009 | News
Academic: 80 per cent of e-govt projects fail
The Head of Online Services at the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development has revealed the government’s plans to increase e-services from six to 35 per cent of business transactions by 2012. However, 60 to 80 per cent of e-government projects around the world fail, Dr Nabeel Al Qirim, Associate Professor, College of Information Technology, UAE University, warned in an interview with FutureGov.
26 May 2009 | News
Swine flu calls for tougher IT security for home workers
With the threat of a global swine flu pandemic looming, IT consolidation and virtualization initiatives may be the solution to enable workers to work from home, an IT infrastructure and security vendor has suggested.
26 May 2009 | News
Bahrain e-government services now on mobiles
The government of Bahrain is the latest country to introduce e-government services that can be accessed through mobile phones.
19 May 2009 | News
Stimulus packages to add to rising data burden
Government efforts to stimulate their economies will lead to a dramatic increase in the volume of digital information created, a report by EMC and IDC has predicted.
18 May 2009 | News
UK smart meter project expected to bust budget
The UK Government has underestimated the cost of a nationwide rollout of smart electricity and gas meters by as much as £6.4 billion (US$9.7 billion), according to the accounting firm Ernst & Young.
15 May 2009 | News
Singapore shapes Qatar's e-govt model
Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority is assisting ictQATAR in implementing the Qatar Services Infrastructure (QSi) project, a fast developing e-government initiative.
28 April 2009 | News
India and Africa’s satellite links set to expand
An ambitious project to link up African Union countries with Indian hospitals and universities via satellite will accelerate this year after a pilot project in Ethiopia proved successful.
27 April 2009 | News
Russian Minister: e-government to curb bureaucracy
The creation of an e-government in Russia will rid people of bureaucratic procedures, Minister of Mass Communications Igor Shchegolev has said.
22 April 2009 | News
Government to buck trend for cutting green IT
Governments are expected to buck an industry-wide trend for diverting spend away from green IT projects due to the global economic downturn, according to IT analyst Gartner.
22 April 2009 | News
Sun/Oracle merger: why the public sector should worry
Oracle Corporation’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems should worry the public sector because the enlarged entity could lead to price hikes and “vendor lock-in”, according to an IT analyst.
15 April 2009 | News
Bahrain launches complaint service site
Bahrain’s Industry and Commerce Ministry has launched a web site for unsatisfied customers to lodge complaints against a product or service.
23 March 2009 | News
IT chief: e-gov in South Africa has a long way to go
The development of e-government in South Africa still has a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the world, the country’s State IT Agency Chief of Strategic Services Moses Mtimunye has warned.
23 March 2009 | News
Poverty holds back e-gov services in the UK
A survey by UK government telecoms regulator Ofcom has found that e-government services are becoming increasingly popular - but are held back by the digital divide.
18 March 2009 | News
Three quarters of gov agencies to embrace GIS
Three-quarters of government agencies in Europe and North America have, or plan to implement geographic information systems (GIS) for crime monitoring, urban planning, traffic monitoring and national defense, according to a survey by market analyst Datamonitor.
18 March 2009 | News
Qatar adopts mobile health messages
E-government services are going mobile and Qatar is the latest to jump on the bandwagon. Qatar’s Sidar Medical and Research Centre will be making public health information available via mobile phones, says David Kerr, the country’s Chief Research Adviser.
25 February 2009 | News
Blunkett: UK becoming a 'big brother' state
David Blunkett, the former home secretary of the United Kingdom, has warned that the UK is in danger of becoming a ‘big brother’ state.
24 February 2009 | News
Recession drives Irish government services online
Ireland is looking to e-government to make savings as tough economic times bite, while education online can be up to 40 per cent cheaper than educating people in a classroom, according to an Irish online strategy company.
15 February 2009 | News
Is your agency equipped to repel a ‘cyber attack’?
The more government leverages technology to automate core business processes, the more vulnerable to cyber attack it becomes. In the United States, experts have been warning for years against an ‘electronic Pearl Harbor’, a ‘digital September 11’ or a ‘Cybergeddon’.
10 February 2009 | News
Bahrainian govt launches building maintenance e-service
The Ministry of Works in Bahrain has launched the building maintenance application service via the Bahrain e-government portal web site.
24 January 2009 | News
German hospital group to adopt LORENZO
German hospital group, Krankenhaus Buchholz and Winsen, becomes IBA Health Group Limited (ASX: IBA)’s latest iSOFT customer for LORENZO. IBA specialises in building software applications for healthcare and it’s the largest health information technology company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
21 January 2009 | News
Bahrain to standardise govt ICT
The eGovernment Authority of Bahrain has rolled out a new initiative “Enterprise Architecture Project” to upgrade and standardise the level of Information Communication Technology in all government entities.
30 December 2008 | Research
Technology for engaging England’s pupils
Commissioned by the UK government’s technology agency Becta, new research by Manchester Metropolitan University shows that online learning has been useful in engaging students who have become disaffected by education, and is helping to re-engage those who are not succeeding in school or are not learning by traditional teaching methods.
23 December 2008 | News
More Arabic web sites in the Middle East
A new project to digitise approximately 18,000 books in Arabic has been implemented in Qatar and the Gulf.
18 December 2008 | News
UN launches e-learning initiative in over 160 countries
A new UN e-learning initiative will offer developing countries opportunities to draw upon a rich array of training and capacity-building resources.
9 December 2008 | News
Scottish Govt upgrades records management system
The Scottish Government has successfully upgraded its mission critical electronic Records and Document Management system in under a week, with minimum disruptions of service to its 6300 users.
4 December 2008 | News
Israel upgrades government LAN
The Government of Israel has awarded a multi-million-dollar networking solutions contract for its new LAN infrastructure project, as part of the Government’s plans to build a modern, cutting-edge network to support its growing online initiatives.
25 November 2008 | News
Shanghai university receives UNESCO prize for ICT
The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, has named the laureates of the 2008 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Education.
18 November 2008 | News
All-of-govt agencies in Kuwait to share information
The Kuwaiti government has implemented the new Kuwait Information Network, which will see all of the country’s 62 government agencies collaborate and share information in a faster, more secure and more cost-effectively.
11 November 2008 | Deals
UAE signs environmental pledge
UAE pledges for presevation and sustainability along with United Nations, IAHC and LG Electronics.
11 November 2008 | News
UNESCO helps Iraq launch educational TV channel
Iraqi children who are unable to attend classes due to security concerns will now be able to continue their studies through distance learning thanks to a new educational television channel launched by UNESCO and the education ministry in Iraq.
10 November 2008 | News
Low Cost Computers for Ugandan Schools
After two years of waiting, primary, secondary and tertiary institutions can now acquire low cost computers. The Uganda Ministry of Information and Communication Technology launched the Computers for Schools Uganda, a project aimed at bridging the digital-divide in the country.
10 November 2008 | News
Bahrain, a rising IT hub in the Gulf
Bahrain has strengthened its position as the IT hub of the region, with more international IT companies establishing their regional headquarters in the kingdom.
7 November 2008 | Deals
Singapore and Kuwait strengthen e-govt cooperation
Singapore and Kuwait further strengthens their e-government partnership with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate cooperation in e-government.
5 November 2008 | News
Palestine seeks Estonia’s help for e-government
Estonia has received a request from Palestine to share its experiences in building an e-state.
4 November 2008 | News
Bahrain launches e-govt portal
Bahrain has introduced a new e-government gateway as an outcome of a study conducted to cater to the needs of the public through streamlining e-government services procedures.
31 October 2008 | News
Microsoft to help the Gulf develop public technology policy framework
The Dubai School of Government has signed a deal with Microsoft to develop a pioneering technology policy that will aid officials in the Gulf to improve service delivery to the public.
22 October 2008 | News
Uganda's education needs internet subsidy
High internet connectivity costs remain a major handicap to the widespread integration of IT in teaching and research at Ugandan educational institutions.
9 October 2008 | News
Nature-based enterprises to help rural poor
Expanding nature-based enterprises can increase income for the world’s rural poor. This approach, as outlined in World Resources Report 2008, can also develop the rural poor’s resilience to social and environmental threats such as climate change.
9 October 2008 | News
Israeli security expert discusses public safety at Singapore meeting
Ze’ev Sarig, Managing Director at the Ben-Gurion International Airport will discuss the leveraging of technology to prevent, respond to and recover from disasters and conflict.
7 October 2008 | News
ICT initiative for African villages
The Imo State Government—a provincial government in oil-rich Nigeria—has plans to embark on an e-village project that would create a sustainable Information Communication Technology (ICT) foundation in the local government areas of the state.
25 September 2008 | News
Dubai egov partners university
Dubai eGovernment has signed an agreement with Zayed University to collaborate in providing career development opportunities for university students in the field of information technology.
23 September 2008 | News
IBM tops security software report
A new report has rated IBM as the leading vendor worldwide in identity and access management security software in 2007.
18 September 2008 | News
R&D centre launched for social software
IBM has launched a centre for social software, which will bring together the top talent at the company who will work with university students and faculty, clients and partners, for the research, development and testing of social software.
9 September 2008 | News
27 schools embrace e-learning in UAE
The e-learning project will revolutionise conventional teaching techniques in favour of equipping students, teachers and even parents, with smart IT tools.
4 September 2008 | News
Dubai E-government sets US$276 million revenue target
Dubai’s integrated electronic payment system (ePay) has collected US$163 million so far this year and is expected to record revenues of US$276 million by the end of 2008.
3 September 2008 | News
Hands-free access for disabled children at a UK college
National Star College is a registered charity and national independent specialist college that helps young disabled students to achieve their potential through innovative programmes of education and independence training.
2 September 2008 | News
Google launches web browser
Google is joining the browser war by launching its own application which aims at offering safer and richer web experience.
2 September 2008 | News
UAE authorities emphasise importance of green buildings
Ali bin Towaih says, “The EGBC goal this year is to align its members from the industry with local and Federal Government initiatives. The partnership will be the council’s way of conducting business with its stakeholders in addition to its role in public awareness.”
29 August 2008 | News
Czech Senate passes e-govt bill
The Senate has approved a bill which will allow civil servants to do more of their government paperwork over the internet.
29 August 2008 | Research
Having everyone equipped with PCs has green flaws
Across the globe, the number of personal computers in use has exceeded one billion and the figures will double by 2014. This development will account for PCs dumped into landfills without consideration for its toxic content, says Meike Escherich, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner.
28 August 2008 | Feature
Raising the standard for research and education networks
Dai Davies, General Manager at Europe’s advanced research network DANTE, talks about the challenges of meeting rising user demands and fending off cyber threats.
25 August 2008 | Spotlight
Accenture appoints new Public Service head
Barcelona-based Accenture veteran to oversee company’s business serving public-sector clients.
13 August 2008 | News
E-government ideas competition launched in Europe
The Estonian government has launched an ‘Idea Competition’ with the purpose of generating new ideas for extending and improving the country’s e-services. Citizens are encouraged to contribute their ideas to the central government portal.
8 August 2008 | News
Bahrain shares e-govt plans with United Nations
A high-ranking delegation of officials from Bahrain is visiting the United Nations headquarters in New York to benchmark the Arab country’s e-government plans.
7 August 2008 | Feature
WiMax around the world
Jianggan Li rounds up his interviews with the people behind WiMax deployments in France, the Netherlands and the United States.
6 August 2008 | Research
UK civil servants want more access to Web 2.0 tools
A new study by Huddle.net - ‘Social Collaboration and Public Sector’ - has indicated that local government workers in the UK are straining at the IT department’s leash to use social internet tools.
5 August 2008 | News
Conferencing key govt productivity tool
African country deploys videoconferencing to increase the effectiveness of senior government official meetings.
1 August 2008 | News
IBM Research develops tech fix to aid human memory
New software helps people struggling with information overload.
17 September 2007 | News
Estonian Tax and Customs Board offers e-Service to local authorities
The Estonian Tax and Customs Board has offered e-Service to local authorities which will allow them to make inquiries on the incomes of the taxpayers living in their area.
20 August 2007 | News
Business solutions to be deployed at the Abu Dhabi government
The Abu Dhabi System and Information Committee (ADSIC) signed an agreement to deploy Oracle’s business solutions throughout the Abu Dhabi government’s IT infrastructure.
30 July 2007 | News
E-patient records in the United Kingdom
A long term contract was issued to improve health and social care services in Guernsey, the British crown dependency.
20 July 2007 | News
Cairo approaches South Korea for e-govt advice
Rising connectivity in Egypt spurs discussions of national e-government infrastructure - and they have come knocking on South Korea’s door for advice.
3 May 2007 | Spotlight
Transparent, interoperable, secure: the Office Open XML file format
Oliver Bell, Regional Technology Officer, Microsoft Asia, highlights the importance of choice and compatibility in achieving the maximum benefits through effective XML data representation.
1 May 2007 | Interview
Delivering the largest healthcare IT service
Richard Granger, Director General of IT for the National Health Service in England, talks about recent developments in Britain’s healthcare technology.
29 December 2006 | Feature
Banking on information: KM at the Bank of England
Simon Mills, Head of Information Management for the Bank of England, discusses the role of Knowledge Management at the United Kingdom’s central bank with Sarah Sim.
7 May 2006 | News
Extending the enterprise: ruggedised government computing
There is no longer a trade off between knowledge-based working and mobility as a new generation of Panasonic ruggedised notebooks find favour with government users.
10 March 2006 | News
Building government from scratch in Estonia
Ivar Tallo, Head of the e-Governance Academy in Estonia explains how the Baltic government gone all-out to streamline citizen-government interactions.
16 February 2006 | News
Autodesk web mapping goes open source
Design and data visualisation giant Autodesk has revolutionised the prospects for open source web mapping by making the code of its next-generation web mapping platform freely available.
22 September 2005 | News
UK unveils biometric standards for ID cards
The BS ISO/IEC 19794 series of standards cover the science of using “biological properties” to identify individuals, such as fingerprints, iris scans and facial recognition.
4 July 2005 | News
The struggle to meet rising citizen expectations
The publication in April of Accenture’s sixth annual report on global government service delivery highlighted a persistent gap between citizen expectations and public sector delivery. Report: James Smith.
29 April 2005 | News
Building a public feedback mechanism
James George Chacko, Programme Specialist with the United Nations’ Asia Pacific Development Information Programme, discusses the policy and operational advantages of listening to citizen feedback. Interview: James Smith.
21 April 2005 | News
Does civil service = poor service?
The private sector has invested heavily in improving the customer experience. Now it’s time for government agencies to play catch-up. Report: James Smith.
9 March 2005 | News
European citizen feedback portal launched
The European Commission has officially launched ‘Your Europe’, a comprehensive web site providing information for citizens and businesses within the EU.
3 March 2005 | Deals
Oman govt signs infrastructure agreement
Oman’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry has signed two agreements that will pave the way for the roll-out of e-government services.
24 December 2004 | Deals
Self-service deployments: best practice guide
Welcome to the second volume in a series of Best Practices Guides written by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories.
9 November 2004 | News
E-government and the surveillance society?
The fight against terrorism, and the data requirements of e-government, raise the issue of finding the right balance between security and privacy, writes Thomas Riley.
12 July 2004 | News
South African govt improves revenue collection through IT
South African Revenue Service saves millions of dollars with unified view of the taxpayer following a Siebel and IBM implementation managed by Accenture. Report: Edmund Tan.
4 May 2004 | News
Enterprise Architecture for e-government
By Dr John Gøtze, Enterprise architect, IT Strategic Office, National IT and Telecom Agency, Denmark.
27 April 2004 | News
Chip-based secure govt in Israel
Israeli government secures access to the government network with card technology. Report: Edmund Tan.
23 April 2004 | News
British police forces deploy new handsets
Seven British Police Forces have decided to jointly deploy a new digital handset to their officers on the national public safety network. Report: Edmund Tan.
7 April 2004 | News
London's wirelessly-controlled CCTV
Westminster City Council is set to transform the heart of London into a Wireless City. Report: James Smith.
25 March 2004 | News
Bahrain's national e-govt infrastructure & Linux
The Government of Bahrain’s Central Informatics Organisation (CIO) is to build its national e-government infrastructure on the open standard Linux platform. Report: Edmund Tan.
19 March 2004 | News
eDubai: a conversation with Omar Bin Sulaiman
Dubai will become the Silicon Valley of the Middle East, supported by one of the world’s most advanced e-govt infrastructures. Edmund Tan spoke with the CEO of Dubai Internet City.
24 February 2004 | News
From disappearing boundaries to security governance
Two seemingly contradictory movements have recently appeared on the IT landscape, writes Philippe Langlois.
5 February 2004 | News
Secure e-government: a European approach
The drive to ‘joined-up-government’ can expose government IT systems to external threats. Germany is trying to reconcile the two through education. Report: Edmund Tan.
28 December 2003 | News
Moving your Malware strategy out of the dark ages
It’s time to review your organisation’s approach to external threats to your network, says Greg Day.
15 October 2003 | News
UAE Ministry of Labour launches SmartForms portal
The United Arab Emirates’ new SmartForms portal will streamline the user experience and reform internal processes. Report: Edmund Tan.
3 May 2003 | News
Glasgow pioneers e-govt call centre
Glasgow City Council implements one of the UK’s first local government multi-media contact centres. Report: Edmund Tan.
11 February 2003 | News
Germany's BundOnline 2005 initiative
By Otto Schily, Federal Minister of the Interior, Germany.
30 August 2001 | News
Asian governance and the 'Knowledge Economy'
A more knowledge-intensive approach to governance will redefine how the public sector relates internally to its own agencies and its own employees, writes James Smith.
15 June 2001 | News
UAE e-govt moves to next level
The United Arab Emirates’ e-government initiative has moved into its second phase where it will focus on managing the government’s financial information. Report: Edmund Tan.
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