Working Group on e-Government, Working Program 2010:

Improving the e-Government Learning Platform

Coordinators:
Ljupco Todorovski, Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Ignace Snellen, Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands

The e-Government Working Group (WG) studies Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications in the area of public administration and analyzes their impact on the relationships between government (administration) and business (G2B), government and citizens (G2C), and government departments between each other (G2G). The special geographical focus of the studies and analyses are in the transitional countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (we will refer to them as NISPAcee countries). The public administrations in these countries share some common problems related mostly to the transition from very rigid bureaucratic administrative practices, commonly used in the past, to modern, more flexible, governance policies and approaches. Thus, the special interest of the workgroup is to evaluate the contribution of ICT applications to the transition process and its success. Apart from the transition problems, most NISPAcee countries are also concerned with the readiness, i.e., the level of technological development that allows for implementation and proper use of ICT solutions in public administration, as well as the sophistication of the developed ICT applications, which usually lag behind the similar indicators in other EU countries.

Thus, the results of the e-Government WG intend to favor the quality of government policies and activities in the ICT sector. Papers presented by WG members contribute mostly to the exchange of best practices and experiences between NISPAcee countries and provide valuable materials for education at a higher vocational and academic level. Last year, within the e-government WG, we focused our efforts on establishing a common framework for facilitating a more formal exchange of best practices, where the transfer of knowledge can be monitored, documented, and evaluated, or facilitate comparative analysis of good practices that would go beyond single country borders. The result of this effort is establishment of this common framework, referred to as the “eGovernment Learning Platform”, available at http://daisy.fu.uni-lj.si/nispacee-wiki/

The main theme of this year conference is improvement of the established learning platform in several directions outlined below. Before reading the guidelines, please note that the thematic specification is not exclusive, so other contributions related to the general topic of e-government are welcome as well.

1. Introducing Transfer Studies in the Platform

The presenters of the showcases included in the learning platform are encouraged to contact the officials in their countries responsible for the presented projects. In each case, the presenters will study and analyze the conditions under which the showcase might be transferred to other NISPAcee countries. Other participants of the workgroup are encouraged to select one or more showcases already included in the learning platform, they find promising for implementing in their own countries. The goal then is to study and analyze the conditions for establishing interest for transferring these cases. In both above cases, the resulting papers will be included in the platform and presented at the next year conference.

2. Extending the Initial Set of Showcases in the Platform

Workgroup participants will be also encouraged to extend the initial set of showcases included in the platform by contributing new innovative showcases of using ICT in public administration domain.

3. Addressing the Main Conference Theme

Other papers relevant to the e-government aspect of the 2010 main conference theme “Public Administration in Times of Crisis” will be included in the program of the next year meeting. The role of ICT in reducing the costs and improving the efficiency of governance is directly related to the theme, as well as the learning platform as an enabler of efficient expertise transfer. Studies in these and other directions, addressing the main conference theme, will be very welcome.

You may see the accepted  presentations scheduled
in the Preliminary Conference Programme