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Global e-government 25 September
Wednesday, September 25 2002
by Sylvia Leatham


Seven constituencies in Ireland to use electronic voting in the Nice referendum |
Critics of the US draft 'cyber security' plan say the scheme lacks bite

Ireland's forthcoming Nice referendum will feature electronic voting in
seven constituencies. The constituencies are Dublin West, Dublin North, Meath --
all of which voted electronically in the last general election -- and Dublin
Mid-West, Dublin South, Dublin South-West and Dun Laoghaire. The government may
have to reschedule its electronic voting plans, however, if a legal challenge
calling for proper bilingual facilities succeeds in the High Court. A judicial
review is set to take place regarding e-voting in Dublin West, following
objections from a Palmerstown resident whose first language is Irish. 





The European Commission has launched a pan-European e-government portal,
Public-Services.eu. The site provides
information on "cross-border public services" in seven EU member states:
Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, France and Germany. It provides
information and services aimed at helping European citizens and enterprises carry
out cross-border activities, such as moving to another country or finding out
about trade regulations. The Commission has so far spent EUR250,000 on setting up
the IT systems for the portal, and it hopes to soon be able to provide
information from all EU member states, as well as from EEA and EU candidate
countries.







A local authority user group in the UK has warned that funding for
e-government initiatives is being wasted, according to a report on VNUnet.com.
Speaking at a local e-government conference, Jim Haslem, president of the Society
of IT Management, said that government targets had encouraged local authorities
to put their services on-line, but this did not ensure they would actually be
used by the public. Haslem recommended that targets should measure customer
satisfaction and integration with external agencies. Andrew Webster, acting
director of public research at government watchdog the Audit Commission, said
that about one-fifth of councils are struggling with their on-line strategies,
and as a result they are concentrating on meeting targets without considering
whether they improve public access to their services.





In other news from the UK, local authorities are increasingly using
Internet filtering software as a means to prevent employees and members of the
public viewing inappropriate Web sites, according to Websense, a supplier of
employee Internet management (EIM) software. The company says that more than 150
government agencies currently use Websense Enterprise software in their
workplace. Driving the purchase of EIM software is a growing concern about
on-line chat rooms, which pose a security threat because attackers of such sites
can circumvent traditional firewall and virus protection.



Young people in the Scottish Highlands are preparing to vote
electronically in the Highland Youth Voice (HYV) elections. Eighty-five HYV
representatives will be elected to an on-line parliament
(www.highlandyouthvoice.org) between 5 and 10 October. The candidates were
nominated by 29 secondary schools in the Highlands, following initial election
processes at each school. The organisation, which is sponsored by government and
health service agencies and supported by the International Teledemocracy Centre
at Glasgow's Napier University, has regular consultations with the Scottish
Parliament.



The US government has revealed a draft "cyber security" plan, but
critics say the proposal lacks bite. President Bush's special adviser on
cyberspace security, Richard Clarke, unveiled the draft proposal, under which
numerous government agency heads and representatives from computer organisations
pledged to work together to eradicate vulnerabilities in IT systems. Critics said
the plan would do little to aid the complex issue of securing the Internet and IT
systems, beyond providing an educational role. "Without a law to back up
recommendations, this plan is a waste of time," said Russ Cooper, a senior
computer security expert at TruSecure in a Financial Times interview.



Romania is reaping the benefits of an electronic procurement system,
reports Government Computing News. A total of 488 bodies across the public sector
have used a EUR40 million pilot e-procurement system, which sells 3,000 products
via an Internet-based system. Ion Marcu, e-procurement co-ordinator for the
Ministry of Communications and IT, said the project had already saved the
government EUR4 million. Marcu noted, however, that the government had had to put
pressure on public bodies to begin using the system.



Concerns have been raised in Jordan that officials seem to be more
concerned with the public acceptance of e-government than with the implementation
of the necessary technology, according to an article in the Jordan Times Online.
The concern was expressed during a recent three-day workshop on implementing an
e-government strategy. The head of e-government for Jordan's Ministry of
Information and Communications Technology (MoICT), Mahmoud Khasawneh, said that
two of the most important e-government functions -- electronic procurement and
accounting -- are almost complete. However, officials acknowledged that social,
political, and cultural values in Jordan will greatly influence the success of
e-government. So far, 30 percent of the e-government initiatives in the north of
the country and 60 percent in the south have failed.



China is one the increasing number of countries that are looking to
open-source software, such as the Linux, as an alternative to Microsoft
applications. Jiang Guangzhi, director of a Chinese government software
development centre, claims that Linux would ensure freedom of choice in the
Chinese software market and would help combat piracy in the country. A Chinese
delegation recently made a trip to the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco and
visited IBM Linux researchers in New York. IBM is the main sponsor of Linux in
the corporate world and has won many government clients. It recently made a deal
with Germany to deploy open-source technology in municipal and national
agencies there.