EDRI - E-government

Inclusive E-government in Western Balkans

bogdan — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:40:38 +0000

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

Most of the participants in the workshops on inclusive e-government that took place in the capitals of six Western Balkan countries, considered that their countries have established very few mechanisms for e-inclusion and interoperability, even though the interest in e-Government development is high.

The workshops took place within the framework of the project "Western Balkans Network for Inclusive e-Government" and were meant to present the draft research on the levels of sophistication and inclusiveness of e-gov services conducted by project partners using the EU-level Capgemini methodology, with a goal to develop Regional eGovernment Roadmap to facilitate joint efforts by the countries aspiring to soon join the EU.

Third international conference e-Society.Mk 2007

bogdan — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:34:13 +0000

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The conference on the topic of "Inclusive e-Government" was organized by the Metamorphosis Foundation last week within the frames of the project "Western Balkans Network for Inclusive e-Government". The project aims at strengthening the cooperation and coordination among all the relevant stakeholders, decision-makers, government representatives, as well as representatives of the business, academic and nongovernmental sector in order to improve the quality and raise the level of usability and accessibility of electronic services provided by the public administration.

"Although the inclusion is characteristic for the countries with a more advanced degree of development of the information society, this does not

Update ISOC Bulgaria

sjoera — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 15:26:03 +0000

EDRI-member ISOC Bulgaria has published an overview of activities in 2004. From a strong focus on free and open source software, they initiated an important project to use FOSS on the municipal level. The project is steered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to help municipal governments in South-eastern Europe use the Internet to better respond to citizens' needs. Bulgaria is the first region to use FOSS applications to enhance government transparency and people's access to municipal services. After Bulgaria, the program will expand to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro.

The mayor of Kardjali, the first pilot municipality in Bulgaria, expressed his appreciation for ISOC-BG publicly, in front of the President of the Republic, for the successful efforts to train and increase computer literacy of the employees and to provide grant free e-government solutions. ISOC-BG also began to work on preliminary criteria for the development of a FOSS based on-line documentation system for municipal administrations.

Council of Europe outlines e-governance strategy

sjoera — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 10:58:13 +0000

The Council of Europe has adopted a recommendation on e-governance on 15 December 2004. The Council recommends that member states "Work together with the appropriate international, national, regional and local stakeholders, to develop a shared vision of e-governance that upholds human rights, democracy and the rule of law." Member states should use e-governance to strengthen democratic institutions at all levels and make them more accessible, transparent, accountable and responsive. E-governance is not one-sided, but should provide opportunities for all to participate in the process of decision-making. Finally member states should use information and communication technologies to "improve public administration and services by making them more accessible, user-centred, transparent,

E-government and privacy in Denmark

bogdan — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 09:00:21 +0000

"We are currently renegotiating the open society", Gus Hosein from Privacy International stated at a conference on E-government and the protection of personal data in the Danish Parliament on Tuesday 7 September.

The vision of the Danish e-government initiative is one in which personal data are increasingly floating across traditional institutional borders, without paying much attention to the privacy challenges this raises. The conference addressed a number of data protection challenges related to e-government such as re-use of data, data retention, rights of access, and technical solutions such as digital signatures and PET. Considering the large amount of data already being stored about citizens in Denmark, and the proposed mandatory one year data retention scheme (not yet in force), several interventions stated it is crucial that privacy safeguards are enforced and that citizens become more privacy conscious.

Analysis of online presence Romanian MPs

sjoera — Wed, 30 Jun 2004 10:00:54 +0000

The online presence of Romanian MPs is still not very strong. According to a survey published by the Romanian eDemocracy group, the websites of the 2 chambers only present information and ignore bi-directional communication with citizens. In the absence of any interactive services, e-mail is the most important means of communication. But only 27% of the 485 Romanian MPs have a publicly available e-mail address. On average, the minimum in the 'old' EU member states is 46%.

32 of the 42 counties represented in the Senate don't have any senator with an e-mail address. Nevertheless, even if some MPs have an e-mail address, this doesn't guarantee their dialogue with the citizen: only 9% of the inquiries sent via e-mail receive an answer.

In a previous e-mail response study, conducted between 1 October and 30 November 2003, the percentage of e-mail addresses was 25%, with a similar small chance for citizens to get a reply (See EDRI-gram 2.6).

E-Openness awards for Ukrainian city councils

sjoera — Wed, 30 Jun 2004 10:00:28 +0000

During the international conference in Kiev 'Freedom of Information, Transparency, E-governance: Civic Society View' on 15 June 2004 the first Awards for E-Openness in the Ukraine were presented to 4 city councils. The aim of the Award is to demonstrate best practices of local authorities in interaction via official web sites. The Award is called a 'Crystal Dog', shaped as an e-mail @ sign on top of a glass cylinder, a name-pun on the sign called 'dog' in popular Ukrainian.

The Crystal Dogs were presented to the Kharkiv City Council, for setting the best example in online access to official documents and financial transparency and to the Kramatorsk City Council for dealing with petitions. A third award was presented to the Lubotin Town Council for the best practice amongst small towns of online deliberations and a final award to the Solomensky District Council of Kiev City for it's openness in interaction with users.

Open source software for e-government in Bulgaria

bogdan — Wed, 16 Jun 2004 09:00:11 +0000

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Internet Society of Bulgaria (ISOC-Bulgaria) have launched a project to stimulate the use of free/open source software for e-government projects.

The project aims to help municipal governments in South-eastern Europe to use free/open source software applications to enhance government transparency and people’s access to municipal services. Initially launched in Bulgaria, the project will soon expand to include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro.

Under this project, which will last 18 months in its first phase, several Balkan cities will benefit from the creation of e-municipalities. The city of Kurdjali, which serves as a pilot, requested the support of UNDP and ISOC–Bulgaria to help enhance citizens’ access to services and information resources and reduce the cost of the access tools that are required to be part of the global networked economy.

New freedom of information law in the Ukraine

bogdan — Wed, 19 May 2004 09:00:06 +0000

On 11 May 2004 the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) adopted the new wording of a draft law amending several legislative acts concerning the protection of state secrets. This draft law was initially approved in July 2003, but was subsequently vetoed by the President due to several technical inaccuracies (incorrect numeration of articles, repeating several similar provisions, etc.).

The right of printed media journalists to freely receive, use, disseminate and store information will be limited to information which has 'open access mode' (amendments to Article 2(1) and Article 26(2) of the Law 'On Printed Mass Media'). This 'mode' is not defined in any law. This seems to be a violation of Article 34 of the Ukrainian Constitution, that does not limit freedom of information to any kinds or modes of information.

Irish e-voting system under scrutiny

bogdan — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 09:00:33 +0000

The proposed e-voting system in Ireland is under scrutiny due to concerns about fraud. An independent committee of 5 experts is commissioned to look into the alleged flaws of the system. The report is due out on 1 May.

The Irish government plans to introduce electronic voting machines from the Dutch company Nedap for the next European and regional elections in June. The system contains software by the Dutch firm Groenendaal and voting hardware made by Nedap. The same system has been used in the Netherlands for many years.

Civil liberty groups and the Labour Party have severely criticised the lack of an audit trail for the voter. After voting, the voter can not check if his or her vote is recorded correctly. The system does not provide a paper trail for possible recounts.

The debate about e-voting in Ireland gained intensity in March 2003, when a negative security assessment was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The assessment was carried out by the security company Zerflow at the request of the Department of the Environment and Local Government. The Irish government tried to keep the report secret, with adverse effects.