EGovernment research & implementation sketches of the breadth and depth of a growing...

eGovernment research & implementation

sketches of the breadth and depth of a growing multidisciplinary field

Network of Informatics Research in Governmental Business

Maria A. WimmerUniversity of Koblenz-Landau

Institute for IS Research, Research Group eGovernment

[email protected]

SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 2

Overview

• eGovernment – a broad field of research and application

• Holistic approach to eGovernment developments

• Challenges of enriching simple standard eGovernment solutions– Ontologies for eGovernment– Interoperability


Policy making

Three main functions of the public sector

Policy implementationSupportive collection of

information and statistical data

a variety of activities and application fields for ICT


eGovernment: many fields of research and application• eGovernment in a narrow

sense (eAdministration)– Public services in the

sense of policy implementation

– Public sector internal ICT-diffusion and usage

– eAssistance• eDemocracy

– Democracy services in the sense of policy making

– eParticipation – eCouncil / virtual townhall– Five application areas

• eConsultations, ePetitions, eVoting, Web castings, Information

• eGovernance / ePolicy– Management of State

and Administration• eLaws

– Legislative process• eJustice

– Implementing/applying the laws

– Jurisdiction• eHealth

– Medical care• eEducation

– Schools– Distance learning

• …


Multidisciplinary eGovernment research - Concepts and methods

- Basic infrastructure

From sectoral investigations to the overall discipline …

eDemocracy / eParticipation

eAdministration eHealth

eConsultation

eVoting

eServices

eAssistance

eHealth-insurance

el. medical care

eCouncil

eProcurem

ent

eProcedures

eJustice

eJurisdiction

eLaw

s

eY..

eX…

Sectoral approaches & solutions

Different domains of eGov research & implementation


Overview





Overall aim: supporting a smooth transformation from traditional to innovative, smart governments

Tec

hn

olo

gia

l ch

ang

e"Organisation

follows technology"

Organisational change

"Technology follows

Organisation"


Factors impacting and forming eGovernment …

Society / democracy /public value

expectations / environment & cultureICT

innovations, new emerging technologies

Public sector responsibilities and duties /

policy making & policy implementation

Economics, efficiency and effectiveness /

good governance


Multidisciplinarity and integration role of eGovernment as a research discipline

Computer

sciences

Social and

human sciences

Organisational and

economic sciences

Information and knowledge research

sciences

Political and legal sciences

eGovernment as a research

discipline


Holistic reference framework – an attempt to structure eGovernment for eService delivery…

Org

anis

atio

n

Dat

a,in

fo,k

now

ledg

eIC

TU

sers

Sec

urity

, tru

stL

egal

gro

unds

Soc

iety

, mar

ket

Pro

cess

es

Views

Contact, n

egotia

tions

and co

ntract

Service

perform

ance,

paymen

t, deli

very

Afterca

re

Informati

on and

inten

tion build

ing

Progress of process

Information technology

Interaction

Processes, workflow

Strategic decisions

Abstraction layers


Overview




… what we urgently need:

a common understanding of the field and how its aspects and projects relate to each other.

Ontologies as the underlying concept of structuring parts of a knowledge map


Ontologies … examples from eGovernment service provision (1/3)• Building ontologies for the life-event concept /

business situations structure

Moving home

Change of address....

....Update citizen registry database

Marriage

Marriage atRegistry hall....

....Certificateof marriage

Lif

e-ev

ent

onto

logy

Life event

Publicservice

Product


Ontologies … examples from eGovernment service provision (2/3)• Linking single ontologies via relations of any

kind (e.g. temporal, causal, conditional, hierarchical, etc.)

Moving home

Change of address....

....Update citizen registry database

Marriage



Lif

e-ev

ent

onto

logy

Life event

Publicservice

Product

Conditional relations

In the case of moving home when marrying, automatic and proactive service provision can be offered


Ontologies … examples from eGovernment service provision (3/3)• Distinct sub-ontologies linking to the same

objects

Top

ics

onto

logy

Topic

Public service

Produkt

Sub-Topic

Documents

Valid passport

Passport

Update passport data....

....

....

Conditional relations In the case of changing the name when

marrying and person is in possession of official documents/certificates

Marriage



Lif

e-ev

ent

onto

logy

Life event

Publicservice

Product


What ontology concepts can serve for: integrating scientific concepts and implementation projects …

Str

uct

uri

ng

co

nce

pt

Pra

ctic

al

imp

lem

en

tati

on

• eGovernment ontology and knowledge map– Common understanding and shared definition of

knowledge objects of the domain– Shared understanding of concepts and methods

• Processes, services, projects, public sector information and knowledge – Intelligent service provision across organisations– Interoperability among systems and services– eGovernment projects linked up with one another

… yet the ontology development is just a starting point and a basis for enhanced knowledge maps :

Intelligent services can be offered with the help of semantically enriched knowledge nets and with machine computable inference rules ...


Semantic modelling as a basis to create comprehensive knowledge nets• Knowledge maps

– Serve to visualise knowledge in a way human beings think and in this way support human thinking

– Serve to structure and store knowledge– Serve to demonstrate interrelations among

knowledge objects– Base on semantic modelling concepts and

allow simple and affordable navigation

• Advanced knowledge nets allow automatic machine computation

… another challenge:

Solutions for interoperability among systems, services, (human) agents and organisations.

the semantic web as a means to reach semantic, technical and organisational interoperation …


Interoperability in eGovernment currently of highest interest

EU defines interoperability as „the means by which the inter-linking of

systems, information and ways of working, whether within or between administrations, nationally or across Europe, or with the enterprise sector, occurs”[http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/egovernment_research/doc/interoperability.pdf]


Many initiatives on interoperability …

• EU/international standardisation initiatives– EIF & IDABC, MODINIS framework, ISO standards on Records

Mgmt, UN/CEFACT, OECD, LegalXML, etc.

• National standardisation initiatives– E.g. SAGA & DOMEA & XÖV & XArchiv (DE), ELAK & EDIAKT

(AT), OIO (DK), FAST & ADELE (FR), MoReq & e-GIF (UK), etc.

• EU-projects on interoperability– Athena, Terregov, Guide, Qualeg, eMayor, BRITE, R4EGov,

etc.

Interoperability can, however, only be reached, if the activities are being coordinated among each other ….


Integration vs. Interoperation

• Integration: forming of a (temporary or

permanent) larger unit of government entities for

the purpose of merging processes and/or sharing

information

• Interoperation: information systems controlled

by different jurisdictions/administrations or by

external partners smoothly and effectively work

together in a predefined and agreed upon

fashion[R. Klischewski & J. Scholl, HICSS 2006]


Interoperability & Standards

• Interoperability: basic principle of any eGovernment service or system to interact among each other without developing a single integrated solution

• Standards: prerequisite and key methodology to realise interoperability

– Based on international standards (XML, Web Services, SOAP, XPDL, DAML+OIL, OWL, etc.)

– Independent of platforms

– Coordinated development of organisational and technical specs


S1

= I

ntak

e st

ruct

ure

| S2

=

reco

rds

stru

ctur

e | S

3 de

liver

y st

ruct

ure

| S4

notif

icat

ion

of d

eliv

ery

| S5

paym

ent

stru

ctur

e

Scenario of interoperable eAdministration – applications & interfaces

Authority back-office

Forms

ServerS1

Application from other systems or

portalsDocument and Workflow Mgmt System

Legacy syst.

Online Intake/ authority‘s portal / Intermediary of a

local authority

S1

Foreign workflow system

S1

S1

Online delivery

S3

S3

S2

Arc

hivi

ng s

yste

m

S2

S2

ePayment

S5

S5S4

S4

S4

SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 25Seamless eGovernment

Methodological concept for interoperability

Organisation

Process

Content

Data

Components

Protocols

eIn

form

atio

n

eId

en

tific

atio

n

eF

orm

s

eS

ign

atu

re

eP

aym

ent

eIn

voka

tion

eW

orkf

low

Do

ma

in a

pp.

Da

tab

ase

s

eN

otic

e

eD

eliv

ery

eA

rch

ivin

g

LocalNational

International

In

tero

pera

bili

ty

Tec

hn./S

eman

t./O

rgan

is.


Seamless eGovernment

Organisation

Process

Content

Data

Components

Protocols

eIn

form

atio

n

eId

ent

ifica

tion

eF

orm

s

eS

ign

atu

re

eP

aym

ent

eIn

voka

tion

eW

orkf

low

Do

mai

n a

pp

.

Da

taba

ses

eN

otic

e

eD

eliv

ery

eA

rch

ivin

g

Inte

rope

rabi

lity

Tec

hn./S

eman

t./O

rgan

is.

LocalNational

International

Can the semantic web be a means to realize fully interoperable seamless eGovernment solutions ???


eGovernment research and implementation- Concepts and methods

- Basic infrastructure

eDemocracy / eParticipation

eAdministration eHealth

eConsultation

eVoting

eServices

eAssistance

Health

insurance

Medicalcare

eCouncil

eProcurem

ent

eProcedures

eJustice

eJurisdiction

eLaw

s

eY..

eX…

Sectoral approaches & solutions

Different domains of eGov research & implementation

Can the semantic web be a means to link eGovernment research and sectoral implementations ???


What is further needed …

• Exchange of knowledge and lessons on semantic web used in eGovernment contexts– Efforts to develop semantically enriched

knowledge resources are very high– eGovernment solutions are still built with

traditional technology, even if their limits are known ...

• Learning cycles and widespread research for “creating an eGovernment semantic web”

Let‘s exchange and widen the scientific dialogue on SWEG concepts and solutions ...

[email protected]://www.uni-koblenz.de/FB4/Institutes/IWVI/

http://www.egov-network.org/

Network of Informatics Research in Governmental Business

Thank you for your attention !

EGovernment research & implementation sketches of the breadth and depth of a growing...

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