16 Jan 08

The project has identified barriers to e-government across Europe

An EU-funded research project on barriers to e-Government, led by the University’s Oxford Internet Institute (OII) has analysed how to improve e-Government across Europe. The project has identified the obstacles to the creation of e-government and how these can be overcome.

E-government is the use in public administration of information and communication technologies, such as the internet, together with the associated organisational changes and skills development. It is used to enhance the delivery of public services and citizen's engagement with government through providing, for example, more flexible and customised services. 

One key proposal in the report is to create a network of e-government champions in public sector bodies across the EU. This involves both political support but also the creation of a Chief Information Office (CIO) role throughout government organizations who would promote e-government initiatives. CIO networks in member states would support the work of the EU’s i2010 eGovernment subgroup that already promotes this area within the EU.

The report recommends that the CIOs should meet on a regular basis to promote cross-government awareness of e-government and to highlight common themes and to support co-operation across different bodies. Professor Helen Margetts, OII, said: ‘The CIO role should be created for agencies and public bodies as well as at departmental level, to ensure that a ‘seam’ of e-government champions exists throughout government administrations. It is also important that the needs of those agencies below departmental level with large IT budgets and policy-critical IT systems are incorporated into CIO discussions.’

Professor Bill Dutton, Director of the OII, said: Tthis project reminded us that e-government entails major change in the ways governments do what they do, which makes organizational innovation central to its success. This is the one meta-message of the project. If governmental actors focus on innovation, the legal obstacles will fall.’

The report, Breaking Barriers to e-government, is a three year study carried out for the European Commission’s eGovernment Unit, DG Information Society & Media. It is led by the Oxford Internet Institute in collaboration with institutions in the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.

The project team undertook in-depth case studies, an online survey and reviews of other work in this field. It also engaged closely with leading experts, practitioners and other eGovernment stakeholders.

Seven key barrier categories were identified: Leadership failures; Financial inhibitors; Digital divides and choices; Poor coordination; Workplace and organizational inflexibility; Lack of trust and Poor technical design.

Eight legal foundations of these barriers were explored: Administrative law; Authentication and identification; Intellectual Property Rights (IPR); Liability, Privacy and data protection; Public administration transparency; Relationships between public administrations; citizens and other ICT actors and Re-use of public sector information.

This work is expected to contribute to the implementation of the i2010 eGovernment Action Plan (2006-2010).