Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Within the states, New South Wales (NSW) is one of the pioneers in the areas of e-
government (in 1997, the first online-vision for interactive communication between citizens,
business, and administration, was published). Connect.nsw is an Internet-based approach
for the whole administration, used to flatten administration processes.
Another e-government approach has started the national administration of Canberra
in the early 1990. The Austouch Citizen Information System was developed, which was based
on public touchscreen-kiosk systems. It offers information about government and commu-
nity services in Canberra and makes it possible for citizens to identify responsible agencies
easily and make payments for the following areas: housing and land rates, business payments
and commercial licences, motor vehicles, gazettes, publications and legislation, tickets,
permits, bookings, and fees.
Electronic Government in the EU
In 1994, some members of the European Union began to formulate their specific
strategies for the development of their national information society. Some members like the
Netherlands, Finland, and Denmark started before 1994 with the announcement of reports and
action plans. Other countries started much later to deal with the new information and
communication technologies (Europäische Kommission, 2000). In 1996, Sweden, Germany,
and Luxembourg published strategies and national programs. Most countries chose different
ways to develop their own national strategies. National committees were founded for
information societies (Belgium, Finland), consulting institutions (Sweden, Ireland), commit-
tees of ministers (France, Spain, Greek, Portugal), public control committees for information
technologies (Ireland, Italy), and groups of experts (Austria, Spain, Denmark, Netherlands).
Most stated initiatives and strategies were basis for further discussion and were not followed
by concrete action plans: Greek — first white paper in 1995, second white paper in 1999, no
action plan; and Italy — government agenda in 1995, reference scheme in 1997, no action plan.
Other countries like France or Austria prepared concrete action plans after having published
their first strategies. Austria developed its first initiative in 1994, and developed an action plan
in 1997 (Ayer, 2000). In the following section, it will be shown how electronic government is
realized in Austria, a country that is partly leading within the EU in doing e-government
(Europäische Kommission, 1998).
E-Government Strategies in Austria
There are three different supply models for electronic government: information, com-
munication, and transaction. In most countries, the first level, information, is realized. In some
countries, you can find approaches of the second level: communication. Most of the time,
this communication is limited to offering email functions for users. The third level, transaction,
is not at all or not sufficiently realized in the countries of the European Union. In Austria, there
are realized services at Level 1 (information) and Level 2 (communication) in a sufficient way
and partly in Level 3 (transaction):
•
Information provision to citizens from the administration (citizen information systems)
•
Access for users to relevant data from a coordination authority (mostly for business
relevant data)
•
Creation of value-added products (mainly for geographic information systems)
