The eaGov blog

There is a chance that my boss and I will present our paper “How Can Government benefit from web2.0?” at the CEDI conference in december.

More info when its available…

My paper that i co-wrote/researched for together with my boss Søren Duus Østergaard titled “How can Government benefit from Web2.0?” was presented at 2008 WMSCI conference in Florida in June, was was awarded “Sessions Best Paper“.

In my other assignment about NPM (New Public Management) I try to discuss the enhanced web tools (web2.0) and the way they can challenge old mindsets and put forward an improved, along with a much inexpensive, value proposition to the public sector. In this regard, I think the acknowledge is a step closer to this goal .. but there is a long way to go still.

Today was exam at CBS and I recieved the grade “A”/10 (or maybe a B?) and Im happy about it.

Relax a bit and then back to my Master Thesis.

Just found this:

“The European Commission, Directorate General for Informatics (IDABC), is organising a special event aiming to present and inform on the new version of the European Interoperability Framework. This EIF Info Day is to take place on 25 June 2008 in Brussels.”

Status: Im going!

The new iphone 3G is out and as a Apple Fanboy i allready love it! There are the 3G, the longer batterylife, the software version 2.0 etc. And now 60 countries carry it. Most of Europe is covered and many citizens will carry on of these small computers, that they really are even more than an phone. And with the new “openness”-strategy from Apple, letting developers with app’s in, there will be a huge market for this phone, as with many other smartphones.

To sum up: many smart phones in the hands of citizens, new opportunities and great ways of connecting and socialising etc.

I guess there is some smart services in the pipeline from governments, taking part in the revolution/evolution (depending on how you sees it). Of course every government will give their citizens the possibility to connect with government on a mobile device/platform when these are penetrating the marketplace, and will spread viraly/fast Im sure. Im sure that there will be (government-)developers who will put great services, or at least some private, who will come up with ways to mix gov-services with “what do I know”-services, for this mobile platform. Or ..?

In Denmark, where I am located, the strategy for mobile devices is none-existing. There is no such thing as government services directed at these devices. I really have no idea why this is, do you?

Being the proud owner of an iPhone, enjoying the great free web-based services for this device, I can’t help wonder, where the great Government (mobile-)services are for my iPhone. Where’s the will to take hold on this?

I am contemplating whether I should turn my NPM assignment into some sort of essay, or a feature article, in order to try to create a debate about the topic, which I see as very relevant. Where, in which media, should I try to give it a go? Would it do any good at all?

Many questions, and many thoughts – but no answers so far.

Today I turned my New Public Management assignment in. You can find it here, in a (DANISH) censored version.

Be happy to hear your feedback, if any.

I’m back at the office at ITU, doing some reading, working on my NPM assignment, having spend exciting 5 days in Prag speaking at the East European eGovernment conference. IBM, where I work, and with who I have been co-written a paper titled “How Government Can Benefit From Web2.0”, sponsored the trip. 

Doing a bit of reflecting on what I have learned on the trip, which experiences I have had, these are my thoughts:

- The countries in the east, are getting out of the plan-economics, and getting around to a new paradigm, where the Internet and the current revolution (or evolution?) is Web2.0, Enterprise architecture is the way forward to getting IT and business goals aligned (am I missing anything here?). 

- Some (many) of the contribution on the conference, by the east (central maybe) European countries, missed the fact, that the web is a platform where we can learn many great things about user inclusion, transparence etc. They seem to have their mind set on the phenomenon web2.0 as yet another technology like any other, with really nothing to give. Of course this is a provocation towards my article on “How Government Can Benefit From Web2.0″, hence I have to give my opinion on this topic. The explanation is probably centrated around the fact, that the governments of the east, are focused on the back-office systems to work, hence postpone the “technology” of the teenagers room – and of course letting others do the bleeding (Carr).

- Enterprise architecture was hardly mentioned approximately one or two times during a four days conference. Striking I think, as we in Denmark seems to believe firmly in this paradigm as a motor to create it-systems of the future. There is undoubtedly some work there, for consultants feeling keen on going east, preaching the good word..  

- The EU is far in supporting projects, preaching the word of tomorrow. My “meeting” with Davis Osimo was a pleasure, and was able to qualify the keynote of the first day. Ill be adding his blog to my Bloglines.

Well thats it for now, more thoughts to come..

Im in my office at ITU working on an assignment about New Public Management (NPM), being the current governance paradigme of many states. NPM is a notion that the known bureaucratic hierarci has slowed the every decision and, basically that the departements of the government is not efficient enough. The answer to these prayers is NPM, creating a quasi market, by putting great parts of the public sector to be managed by private companies, hens the public sector, being unproductive (not my take), should learn  to manage in a marked oriented way. Many authors (Dunleavy etc.) proclaim this not to be the case, since we are in a Internet age, where new paradigmes are the law of the land. 

Of course my optics are eGovernment, and I will be observing this from that angle, asking if NPM is the right way to make eGovernment. As of today i’ll be looking at interviewing a few with knowledge in the area of NPM and eGovernment 

If you have relevant insights on this topic or related, I’ll be pleased to hear from you!!

Friday the 25.th was the day where I were to present my ODF/OOXML/B103 assignment at an oral exam. The paper is quite good and I’m really happy with the result, eventhough it doesn’t bring forward new groundbreaking  material. But I guess  there has been a need for some new insights on the whole “game” – though, working for IBM probably biases the complete situation a bit. On the contrary, I feel the paper is balanced evenly out. Well, the result of the exam was an 10.      UPDATE: The paper is not online  yet and I don’t know if it will be, since it is in danish and is mostly about the danish scene. Furthermore it was made in 4 quick weeks.