E-Government - The Emerging Paradigm

Keywords

E-government, public services, Government Enterprise Transformation, GET, e-citizen, Wireless technology

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The Key Challenges

Most of the problems in delivering e-government services are organizational and political rather than technical. An IT department will only automate existing government processes. It is not a technical person's job to transform the government. The government needs tech-savvy visionaries.

Several challenges lie ahead for e-governments: The greatest being how best to invest to achieve optimum results from their IT initiatives. Senior government executives must consider not only the extent of funding required for transforming their traditional enterprise to an e-government portal but also the potential changes with regard to physical, technical and human resource infrastructures. Privacy and security are the issues that have been of major concern since the inception of the Internet. The virtually unregulated environment of the Internet has prompted citizens and businesses to question the security and privacy of disclosing personal information on websites. Security, though a technical problem in nature, also has a significant degree of trust involved. Governments would have to demonstrate significant improvements in online security to make citizens and businesses more willing participants in any e-government initiative.

There are also widespread concerns about the privacy of information published and transmitted through the Internet. Thus, security and privacy warnings or protection devices are considered important for government websites. Unfortunately, very few government sites have such capabilities.

Disability access is also an important issue. If a site is not equipped to provide access to individuals with disabilities, the site fails in its attempt to reach out to as many people as possible. Only 15% of government websites in the world have some form of disability access. To be accessible to the disabled, the site must have either a Text Telephone or Telephonic Device for Deaf, which allows hearing-impaired individuals to contact the agency by phone.

Conclusion
The e-government revolution will continue to evolve. Government officials need to incorporate advanced technology into their websites in order to take advantage of the full potential of Internet. New government services and features must be regularly made online that would in turn make the government more responsive and more accessible.

About the Author
Vivek Gupta is a Faculty Member of ICMR (IBS Center for Management Research), Hyderabad and Consulting Editor of E-Business magazine.