Working as a do in a sparse, rural area I can sympathise with the line taken by Jeffrey Roy in a report in the Canadian Financial Post of Tuesday 5 October 2010. The report states that:
“Canadians living in rural areas are less likely to have access to a reliable Internet connection, a serious obstacle to accessing services that are delivered virtually. This problem isn’t insurmountable, but solving it will require resources and political support.”
He then goes on to compare the massive expenditure being made by the new government in Australia.
For those still comparing e-government with e-commerce Roy has this to say: ”
“Banking is a great analogy. When e-commerce first started, people predicted the end of retail banking, but in reality a lot of banks are building new branches. They’ve been very effective at creating a multi-channel model where there are incentives for carrying out routine transactions online, and for high value-added services, or for transactions that are more complex, you can still interact with the bank in person.”
This is also something some ardent supporters of e-government still have to understand.
The Great E-mancipator 