e Government research implementation sketches of the breadth
e. Government research & implementation sketches of the breadth and depth of a growing multidisciplinary field Maria A. Wimmer University of Koblenz-Landau Institute for IS Research, Research Group e. Government wimmer@uni-koblenz. de SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer Network of Informatics Research in Governmental Business
Overview • e. Government – a broad field of research and application • Holistic approach to e. Government developments • Challenges of enriching simple standard e. Government solutions – Ontologies for e. Government – Interoperability SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 2
Three main functions of the public sector Policy making Policy implementation Supportive collection of information and statistical data a variety of activities and application fields for ICT SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 3
e. Government: many fields of research and application • e. Government in a narrow sense (e. Administration) – Public services in the sense of policy implementation – Public sector internal ICTdiffusion and usage – e. Assistance • e. Democracy – Democracy services in the sense of policy making – e. Participation – e. Council / virtual townhall – Five application areas • e. Consultations, e. Petitions, e. Voting, Web castings, Information SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer • e. Governance / e. Policy – Management of State and Administration • e. Laws – Legislative process • e. Justice – Implementing/applying the laws – Jurisdiction • e. Health – Medical care • e. Education – Schools – Distance learning • … 4
From sectoral investigations to the overall discipline … e. X… e. Jurisdiction e. Laws el. medical care e. Procedures e. Assistance e. Procurement e. Services e. Council e. Voting e. Consultation e. Health-insurance Sectoral approaches & solutions Different domains of e. Gov research & implementation e. Democracy / e. Participation e. Administration e. Health e. Justice e. Y. . Multidisciplinary e. Government research - Concepts and methods - Basic infrastructure SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 5
Overview • e. Government – a broad field of research and application • Holistic approach to e. Government developments • Challenges of enriching simple standard e. Government solutions – Ontologies for e. Government – Interoperability SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 6
Overall aim: supporting a smooth transformation from traditional to innovative, smart governments Technologial change "Organisation follows technology" "Technology follows Organisation" Organisational change SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 7
Factors impacting and forming e. Government … ICT innovations, new emerging technologies Society / democracy / public value expectations / environment & culture Economics, efficiency and effectiveness / good governance Public sector responsibilities and duties / policy making & policy implementation SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 8
Multidisciplinarity and integration role of e. Government as a research discipline Political and legal sciences Social and human sciences Organisational and economic sciences e. Government as a research discipline Computer sciences Information and knowledge research sciences SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 9
Strategic decisions Processes, workflow Interaction Information technology SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer Processes Data, info, knowledge ICT Users Security, trust Legal grounds Organisation Progress of process s , n e o d c i t n n a ry tia a ing m n re for live ego act tio ild a r e , n tr a bu c r e e p t, d ct on rm n t f e A vic en nta d c nfo tio r m Co an I en t Se pay in Abstraction layers Society, market Holistic reference framework – an attempt to structure e. Government for e. Service delivery… Views 10
Overview • e. Government – a broad field of research and application • Holistic approach to e. Government developments • Challenges of enriching simple standard e. Government solutions – Ontologies for e. Government – Interoperability SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 11
… 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 SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer
Ontologies … examples from e. Government service provision (1/3) Life-event ontology • Building ontologies for the life-event concept / business situations structure Life event Public service Product Marriage. . . . Marriage at Registry hall Certificate of marriage SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer Moving home Change of address . . . . Update citizen registry database 13
Ontologies … examples from e. Government service provision (2/3) Life-event ontology • Linking single ontologies via relations of any kind (e. g. temporal, causal, conditional, hierarchical, etc. ) Life event Marriage Public service . . . . Product Conditional relations Marriage at Registry hall Certificate of marriage Moving home Change of address . . . . Update citizen registry database In the case of moving home when marrying, automatic and proactive service provision can be offered SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 14
Ontologies … examples from e. Government service provision (3/3) Life-event ontology Documents Life event Public service Product Conditional relations Marriage. . . . Marriage at Registry hall Certificate of marriage . . Passport Topic Sub-Topic Update Public passport data service . . . . Valid passport Topics ontology • Distinct sub-ontologies linking to the same objects Produkt In the case of changing the name when marrying and person is in possession of official documents/certificates SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 15
Practical implementation Structuring concept What ontology concepts can serve for: integrating scientific concepts and implementation projects … • e. Government 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 – e. Government projects linked up with one another SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 16
… 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. . . SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer
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 SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 18
… 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 … SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer
Interoperability in e. Government 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_researc h/doc/interoperability. pdf] SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 20
Many initiatives on interoperability … • EU/international standardisation initiatives – EIF & IDABC, MODINIS framework, ISO standards on Records Mgmt, UN/CEFACT, OECD, Legal. XML, etc. • National standardisation initiatives – E. g. SAGA & DOMEA & XÖV & XArchiv (DE), ELAK & EDIAKT (AT), OIO (DK), FAST & ADELE (FR), Mo. Req & e. GIF (UK), etc. • EU-projects on interoperability – Athena, Terregov, Guide, Qualeg, e. Mayor, BRITE, R 4 EGov, Interoperability can, however, only be reached, if the etc. activities are being coordinated among each other …. SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 21
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] SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 22
Interoperability & Standards • Interoperability: basic principle of any e. Government 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 SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 23
Forms S 1 Server S 2 Document and Workflow Mgmt System S 5 S 3 Legacy syst. S 2 e. Payment SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer S 4 S 4 S 1 S 3 Online delivery S 2 Authority back-office S 1 = Intake structure | S 2 = records structure | S 3 delivery structure | S 4 notification of delivery | S 5 payment structure Foreign workflow system Online Intake/ authority‘s portal / Intermediary of a local authority Application from other systems or portals Archiving system Scenario of interoperable e. Administration – applications & interfaces 24
Organisation Process Content Data Components Protocols e. Information e. Identification e. Forms e. Signature e. Payment e. Invokation e. Workflow Domain app. Databases e. Notice e. Delivery e. Archiving Techn. /Semant. /Organis. Interoperability Methodological concept for interoperability SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer Seamless e. Government Lo N ca In atio l te na rn at l io na l 25
Can the semantic web be a means to realize fully interoperable seamless e. Government solutions ? ? ? SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 26
Can the semantic web be a means to link e. Government research and sectoral implementations ? ? ? SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 27
What is further needed … • Exchange of knowledge and lessons on semantic web used in e. Government contexts – Efforts to develop semantically enriched knowledge resources are very high – e. Government solutions are still built with traditional technology, even if their limits are known. . . • Learning cycles and widespread research for “creating an e. Government semantic web” SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer 28
Thank you for your attention ! Network of Informatics Research in Governmental Business Let‘s exchange and widen the scientific dialogue on SWEG concepts and solutions. . . wimmer@uni-koblenz. de http: //www. uni-koblenz. de/FB 4/Institutes/IWVI/ http: //www. egov-network. org/ SWEG 2006, (c) Maria A. Wimmer
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