An EU-funded research project on Barriers to eGovernment, led by the Oxford Internet Institute, has identified seven top barriers to success in eGovernment:
- Leadership failures
- Financial inhibitors
- Digital divides
- Poor coordination
- Workplace and organizational inflexibility
- Lack of trust
- Poor technical design
An interim report is now available for public consultation across the EU, contributing to implementation of the i2010 eGovernment Action Plan (2006-2010).
According to Professor William Dutton, Director of the Oxford Internet Institute, the project findings are: “shattering the very common view that there is one ‘killer issue’ – a single major barrier to e-Government. To the contrary, we are finding a wide range of barriers at many levels, from individual resistance to change to regional economic constraints. However, knowing these barriers will direct attention to the many initiatives required to advance electronic government. We find behind every barrier a set of directions for moving ahead.”
“The top challenge now is to use our knowledge of the barriers, such as their legal foundations, to speed up, rather than slow down the process”, says Dr Rebecca Eynon, Project Manager of the study.
The Barriers project is a three-year study led by the Oxford Internet Institute , University of Oxford in collaboration with: gov3 , a leading UK-based e-Government consultancy; TILT , the University of Tilburg , Netherlands; CRID , the Research Centre for Computer and Law of the University of Namur, Belgium; and the University of Murcia , Spain. Its aim is to investigate the barriers to effective e-Government services. Based on their recent survey of e-Government experts and users, the most prevalent barriers perceived across all respondents were:
- Coordination across central, regional and local levels of government
- Resistance to change by government officials
- Lack of interoperability between IT systems
The most recent report can be accessed via the links below. Feedback on the interim results will lead to further exploration, in order to refine the project’s findings. An update will be issued in December 2006.
Further Information
