My current interesting read is ‘E-government in Canada’ by Jeffrey Roy published by the University of Ottawa Press in 2006. Its a companion volume to ‘Digital State at the Leading Edge’, edited by Sanford Borins et all, published by the University of Toronto in 2007, which I found really useful. With the Canadian model of government (although federated states) being close to the British one, I find it a much better example of e-government usage for the UK than either the USA or Singapore.
The Canadians claim to examine examples in other countries, including England, before trying anything there but they must implement it so much better, since it seems to be original in many cases!
The bookpoints out two paragraphs from the Government of Ontario’s web site:
“The Government of Ontario is proactively moving towards becoming an e-Government, a government that will be able to meet the challenges of the 21st century. In the e-Government Strategy, we recognize the considerable complexity of transforming the way government operates. The current focus of attention for e-Government in Ontario, as in many other jurisdictions, is what we call electronic service delivery, or ESD. ESD enables us to provide government information and services to citizens and to businesses through electronic channels.”
“To make e-Government happen requires a complete re-design of the internal operations of the government and the operating systems of the broader public sector. Our I&IT Strategy guides these efforts. However, much of this re-design work is, and will remain, invisible to the general public. More visible will be another area of e-Government: citizen engagement.”
A side window further emphasises this:
“To strengthen its citizen-centred approach to government, the province has begun to develop a strategy on citizen engagement. One component of this strategy is intended to expand the use of electronic channels, mainly the Internet, to help bring citizens closer to their government. The goal is to ensure citizens have access to a wide range of tools and information that will enable them to participate more fully in the democratic process.”
Not a mention of ‘customer’ or ‘insight’, rock on Canada!
The Great E-mancipator 