E-government is the name given to making government resources and programs available over the internet. The normal stated goal is to enable citizens and others to become more connected to the government. But is the government something you really want to have better connection with?
Through the government surveillance using such things as cameras, automatic license plate readers, cell tower activity logs and the many other forms of non-specific surveillance, it is possible to determine the whereabouts of millions of citizens at any given moment. Much of the government's surveillance that has been recently revealed is to determine a citizens "circle of friends". This is done by surveilling phone records, email address lists, social media and other online presence. Add to this the normal sorts of records such as school, driving, banking, arrest, firearms and hunting licenses and one begins to see that there is an enormous amount of data available to the government.
People forget but computers do not. So long as there is enough electronic storage space, the computer will never forget any piece of data that it has managed to collect. And as computing has become more powerful and software ever more complex and data collection ever more broad and insidious, we are reaching a point where the e-government could produce a very well detailed and complete dossier on every one of its citizens. "E" may very well stand for everything which is what the government knows about you. Are you comfortable with that?
Three more countries have begun the process of developing an e-government system. Bulgaria, Cayman Islands and Rwanda are all joining the ranks of countries that have an e-government system.
Estonia to Help Bulgaria Launch E-Government
Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev
and his Estonian counterpart Toomas Ilves have agreed that the two
countries have common stances and interests on the EU Cohesion
Policy, the measures aimed at encouraging innovation, and energy
diversification and market liberalization in line with the
requirements of EU's Third Energy Package.
The issues were discussed during talks
between Plevneliev and Ilves on during the first day of Plevneliev's
official visit to Tallinn, according to a media statement of the
Bulgarian President's Office.
"We have common ideas and views on
long-term planning in the EU by 2020. Both countries believe in the
necessity of special programs for the less-developed European regions
and rely on the support of the EU Cohesion Policy for developing
infrastructure," Bulgaria's head of state noted in a Thursday
media statement.
The emphasis of Plevneliev's visit to
Tallinn is on the experience of the Baltic country in the sphere of
offering e-services to citizens and businesses.
Ilves attributed Estonia's
widely-recognized success in e-government to the political will for
the achievement of this priority goal, adding that the state bodies
in charge of the policy had been clearly designated.
The two heads of state agreed that
Estonia would assist Bulgaria with the introduction of e-services for
citizens.
"If Bulgaria manages to secure EU
funding for the introduction of e-government in Bulgaria in the
period 2014-2020, we will be able to accomplish miracles in a year
and a half in cooperation with our Estonian friends," Plevneliev
stated after the meeting.
"We need a brave decision – if
we introduce e-government in two years, Bulgaria will be an entirely
different country," he emphasized.
Cayman Islands Push to E-Government
Government says it is readying itself
to make a push towards E-Government. Councillor in the Home Affairs
ministry, Al Suckoo, says he is looking to start up the initiative in
two months, making government switch from doing business on paper to
online.
“We kill too many trees. I’ve been
to countless meetings now where I cringe at the amount of paper in
front of me. We have iPads, we should start using them, but we have
to create the platform in the background that provides things
digitally and in a format that we can easily got through the
information. There is no need to be printing tons and tons of paper
anymore,” said Mr. Suckoo.
Former Councillor of the previous UDP
administration Ellio Solomon started the initiative during his term
in office. Mr. Suckoo says he is now pushing the agenda further.
Rwanda Rolling out E-Government Services with South Korea
The Rwandan government has partnered
with the National IT Promotion Agency (NIPA) of South Korea to
develop e-government services.
The Ministry of Youth and ICT’s
(MYICT) e-Government Master Plan Project aims to improve efficiency
and effectiveness of government-to-government (G2G),
government-to-citizen (G2C) and government-to-business (G2B)
services.
“Our aim is to provide facilities to
the citizens in Rwanda to access services without travelling vast
distances; with the use of ICT in service delivery will be accessible
online or via cell phones and will mainly drive the development of
our economy,” said Jean Philbert Nsengimana, minister of youth and
ICT.
The National Information and
Communication Infrastructure Policy (NICI Plan) 2011-1015 is in its
third phase, with e-government one of its main features.
South Korea’s ambassador to Rwanda,
Hwang Soon-Taik, said: “I see how Rwanda is planning and set goals
of how to fully integrate e-Government in all services in the
country; this is very important and will be a foundation to achieve
more as we did in Korea.”
The government of Rwanda also plans to
develop ICT in the country through its Vision 2020 objectives, by
putting in place a legal and regulatory framework for a national
fibre backbone, the Kigali Metropolitan Network and wireless
broadband networks.
