Fostering Innovation in eGovernment

About

This open workshop of the MODINIS project Breaking Barriers to eGovernment will focus on ways in which innovation can be and has been achieved in eGovernment to improve governance in the information age. How can the widespread diffusion of the Internet and Web enable governments to transform not only the delivery of public services but also approaches to governance? The project has already identified 7 key categories of barriers to the development of eGovernment across Europe. This workshop turns attention to approaches for overcoming these barriers to stimulate innovation. These approaches span at least four key categories:

• Legislative solutions, where legislation at member state or EU level has been or can be developed to overcome barriers to eGovernment, such as, harmonisation or co-ordination problems, identified as a key obstacle to eGovernment progression.

• Technological solutions that build on innovative designs and uses of new communication and information technologies and applications in Europe or around the world. Potential solutions include the use of social networking and community sites, for example, broadly defined as Web 2.0. Can such applications be harnessed by government in creative and useful ways?

• Citizen-centric solutions are those focused on empowering the users of eGovernment, creating real incentives for the public to use eGovernment applications, for example by more effective segmentation of the public that enables strategies to be tailored for specific groups, or by innovative ways of interacting with intermediaries standing between citizens and governments.

• Organizational solutions are changes that can be made within the culture or structure of organizations to facilitate eGovernment, for example, understanding and addressing resistance of those who have considerable organizational learning invested in off-line channels.

What can the proponents of eGovernment initiatives learn from specific cases, and from theory and research on the diffusion of innovations in information and communication arenas?

Agenda

Time	Session
09:30	Registration / Coffee
09:45	Welcome, Introductions and Overview by Eduard Aibar and William Dutton
10:00	Manuel Castells: Innovation in a Networked Society
10:30	Marta Continente: Innovation in eGovernment in Catalonia
11:00	Helen Margetts: Digital-era Governance and Web 2.0
11:30	Coffee Break
11:45	Sjaak Nouwt: Innovation in eGovernment: The Use of Geo-information
12:15	Rebecca Eynon and Helen Margetts: Online Job Search in the EU
12:45	Lunch
13:45	Ernesto Abati: eAccess to Public Administrations by Citizens in Spain
14:15	Miquel Peguera and Dr Agustí Cerrillo: Electronic Signatures
14:45	López Carmona: Data Protection Best Practices in eGovernment: Real Experiences
15:15	Coffee Break
15:30	Summary and Synthesis by William Dutton: Theory and Reality
16:00	Concluding Comments / Close of Workshop