E-Government, (sometimes known as electronic government, e-gov, digital government, online government or connected government), was developed by the Labour Government under Tony Blair.
E-Government is defined as "The employment of the Internet and the world-wide-web for delivering government information and services to the citizens" by the United Nations in 2006.
E-Government should allow anyone with access to a computer to visit a city website, and communicate and interact with city employees via the Internet with graphical user interfaces (GUI), instant-messaging (IM), and audio/video presentations. These are all more sophisticated than a simple email, and are more likely to be noticed and taken seriously.
The Digital Divide:
The digital divide refers to inequalities between sections of society in terms of access to, use of,or knowledge of information and communication technologies, (ICT). The divide inside countries, (e.g. the United States), can refer to inequalities between individuals, households, businesses, and geographic areas at varying socioeconomic and other demographic levels, while the Global digital divide designates countries as the units of analysis and examines the divide between developing and developed countries on an international scale.
Individuals, households, businesses and communities connect to the Internet with desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, iPods or other MP3 players, Xboxes or Playstations, electronic book readers (e.g. Kindles), and tablets such as iPads. Therefore, if you are too poor to afford one of these or don't because you don't understand how to use them, then you are unable to access the internet and so can not be part of government online.
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E-Government has developed online services, making them "better" and "more efficient". The Cabinet Office stated that the vast majority of government services would be available online by the end of 2005.
The current take up of these services in 2004 was:
- 1.1 million tax returns were filed electronically.
- 65% of people applying for university entry used Electronic Application Services (EAS).
- 67% of business incorporations were processed online.
- 79% of vehicle registrations were now electronic.
- 40% of bookings for the driving test were online.
- Over 1,300 land registration applications were filed online per day.
- 28% of the auditing community visited government websites.
- 6% of the population dealt with various branches of government via websites, (e.g. making payments, booking, etc).
- NHS Direct received 600,000 visits per month.
Investigate government services online:
Websites I am going to investigate:
- Website of the UK government (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm)
- The official website of the British Prime Minister (http://www.number10.gov.uk/)
- Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (http://www.dft.gov.uk/dvla/)
- HM Revenue & Customs (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/)
- Bedford Borough Council (http://www.bedford.gov.uk/)
- National Health Service (http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx)
- Bedfordshire Police (http://www.bedfordshire.police.uk/)
In my opinion, the most useful website would be the Bedfordshire Police website, purely because the consequences of not having a website run by the police would be immediate and imminently dangerous.
The second most important ranking website, in my opinion, would be the website of the UK government, since this gives you lots of useful information which might be difficult to find elsewhere on the internet. There, everything is laid out neatly and you are able to find it with just a few key words.
The third most useful website is the National Health Service because it gives out advice and, if you are ill, you can look up your symptoms on there and see possible solutions for an illness you may have.
The fourth most useful website is the official website for the British Prime Minister, since, on this website, important information about voting, elections, referendums and much more can be found, along with lots of other useful information and links about our government and democracy.
The fifth most useful is the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency because it gives you information about driving tests and how to license your car, along with advice and print-out sheets of the application forms needed to have driving lessons, etc.
The sixth most useful website is the HM Revenue & Customs website - while the information on it is useful enough if you want to find out about the UK's customs and taxes, the information is not anything that could save lives or stop criminals, (e.g. NHS or the Bedfordshire Police). However, there is lots of useful advice and, as such, the website is still very useful for things such as research and interests in government, etc.
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"According to a Cabinet office report in 2004, the UK Government hopes to save £1.3 thousand million within three years by migrating its services online and to have saved consumers £1 thousand million. How is this possible?"
This will save money because, by implementing E-Government, the efficiency of our current system will be improved greatly, saving money and time. This will also facilitate better communications between governments and businesses, saving money so that things like stamps and letters are not necessary. Furthermore, this will permit smaller business to compete with larger business for government contracts. Business and citizens can obtain information much faster and, because it is online, this can be done at any time of the day. Therefore, this will create an open market and a stronger economy.
Additionally, moving away from a paper-based system to an electronic system will save huge amounts of money because there will be less man power needed and so less employees would need to be paid to complete tasks that could be done online.
Much money will be saved with this new system, and it will help everyone who has access to the internet.
However, a disadvantage is that, if people do not have internet access, they will not be able to visit the websites and, therefore, their opinion will not be counted and they will be disregarded.
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Websites I used:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Government
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide
http://www.number10.gov.uk/
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
http://www.dft.gov.uk/dvla/
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/
http://www.bedford.gov.uk/
http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx
http://www.bedfordshire.police.uk/
http://msg-itlg.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/advantagesdisadvantages-of-electronic.html
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