Project N° 9

Government On-Line

Progress Report - April 1996

Introduction

The Government On-Line project is intended to promote collaboration in the area of best practices and to improve public services through the increased use of on-line systems. It has three main themes : the increased use of electronic mail for communications with and within government ; the provision to the public of on-line services ; and the development of transaction processing services for more complex transactions.

Participation in the Government On-Line project now extends to sixteen countries in various stages of development.

Progress

Four meetings of the project steering group have been held to date, and a number of sub-projects which address the main themes set out above have been established.

A review of sub-project progress against the performance criteria established previously has indicated that significant progress is being made. Although shortage of resources is a concern, most sub-projects are progressing well and some tangible results are anticipated in 1996.

The steering group is working to ensure that project activities relate closely to national IT objectives and to the overall objectives of the G7 pilot projects. To this end, evaluation criteria for sub-projects have been established.

A Government On-Line Resource Centre is being established on the World Wide Web, providing useful documents and links to other web sites. This will be an adjunct to the current Government On-Line web site (http://www.open.gov.uk/govoline/golintro.htm). Initially, sub-project descriptions and reports are being made available.

Standards to allow the efficient electronic dissemination of documents have been agreed. A beta version of a project CD-ROM has been produced and was demonstrated at the last project meeting, held in Washington D.C. As a result of several successful trials, it has been agreed that the project will make increased use of videoconferencing in its work.

Four themes will be demonstrated at the ISAD conference in South Africa : on-line provision of information ; electronic support for democracy; videoconferencing between experts in the

developing and developed worlds, and public access kiosks. The Government On-Line project will also participate in the Reinventing Government Pavilion of the Internet 1996 World Exposition

Future meetings

Further meetings will be held in June and October.

Contacts

Co-chairmen

Ruth Kerry, Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), United Kingdom.

Fax + 44 1603 704 817 ; e-mail rkerry@ccta.gov.uk

Michael Harrop, Treasury Board Secretariat, Canada

Fax +1 613 957 8700; e-mail Harrop.Mike@tbs-sct.gc.ca

Secretariat

CCTA, United Kingdom

Fax + 44 1603 704 817; e-mail g7gol@ccta.gov.uk