Mobile Government: An Emerging Direction in E-government

Mobile Government: An Emerging Direction in E-Government Ibrahim Kushchu Mobile Government Consortium International,...

Author: Ibrahim Kushchu

35 downloads 2563 Views 4MB Size Report

This content was uploaded by our users and we assume good faith they have the permission to share this book. If you own the copyright to this book and it is wrongfully on our website, we offer a simple DMCA procedure to remove your content from our site. Start by pressing the button below!
Report copyright / DMCA form

DOWNLOAD PDF

Mobile Government: An Emerging Direction in E-Government Ibrahim Kushchu Mobile Government Consortium International, UK

IGIP

IGI Publishing Hershey • New York

ii Acquisitions Editor: Development Editor: Senior Managing Editor: Managing Editor: Assistant Managing Editor: Copy Editor: Typesetter: Cover Design: Printed at:

Kristin Klinger Kristin Roth Jennifer Neidig Sara Reed Sharon Berger Amanda Appicello Amanda Appicello Lisa Tosheff Yurchak Printing Inc.

Published in the United States of America by IGI Publishing (an imprint of IGI Global) 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200 Hershey PA 17033-1240 Tel: 717-533-8845 Fax: 717-533-8661 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.igi-pub.com and in the United Kingdom by IGI Publishing (an imprint of IGI Global) 3 Henrietta Street Covent Garden London WC2E 8LU Tel: 44 20 7240 0856 Fax: 44 20 7379 0609 Web site: http://www.eurospanonline.com Copyright © 2007 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher. Product or company names used in this book are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the names of the products or companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the trademark or registered trademark.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mobile government : an emerging direction in e-government / Ibrahim Kushchu, editor. p. cm. Summary: “This book provides selected examples of current developments from various countries in terms of technology, applications and services, and various real world m-government examples, their evaluations, challenges and opportunities. It contains introductory knowledge on m-Government, and then moves on to a deeper examination of various applications, that are significant in terms of current and future developments in m-Government”--Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-59140-884-0 (hardcover) -- ISBN 1-59140-886-4 (ebook) 1. Internet in public administration. 2. Internet in public administration--Case studies. 3. Electronic government information. 4. Electronic public records. I. Kushchu, Ibrahim, 1964JF1525.A8M623 2007 352.3’802854678--dc22 2006034504 British Cataloguing in Publication Data A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.

iii

Mobile Government: An Emerging Direction in E-Government

Table of Contents Preface ............................................................................................................. vii Section I: The Conceptual Context for Mobile Government Chapter I Introducing Mobile Government.................................................................... 1 M. Halid Kuscu, Mobile Government Consortium International, UK Ibrahim Kushchu, Mobile Government Consortium International, UK Betty Yu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Chapter II mCity: User Focused Development of Mobile Services Within the City of Stockholm........................................................................................... 12 Anette Hallin, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden Kristina Lundevall, The City of Stockholm, Sweden Chapter III Usability Driven Open Platform for Mobile Government (USE-ME.GOV) ............................................................................................. 30 Paul Moore Olmstead, Atos Research and Innovation, Spain Gertraud Peinel, Fraunhofer FIT, Germany Dirk Tilsner, EDISOFT, Portugal Witold Abramowicz, The Poznan University of Economics, Poland Andrzej Bassara, The Poznan University of Economics, Poland Agata Filipowska, The Poznan University of Economics, Poland Marek Wiśniewski, The Poznan University of Economics, Poland Pawel Żebrowski, The Poznan University of Economics, Poland

iv

Chapter IV “It’s the Mobility, Stupid”: Designing Mobile Government ...................... 60 Klas Roggenkamp, Dipl. Designer Electronic Business, Germany Chapter V Business Models for M-Government Services ............................................. 86 Gertraud Peinel, Fraunhofer FIT, Germany Thomas Rose, Fraunhofer FIT, Germany Chapter VI Soft Success Factors for M-Government ................................................... 106 Eugenio Capra, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Chiara Francalanci, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Clementina Marinoni, Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, Italy Chapter VII The Impact of M-Government on Organisations: A Mobility Response Model............................................................................................................. 134 Ibrahim Kushchu, Mobile Government Consortium International, UK Seda Arat, Mobile Government Consortium International, UK Chet Borucki, Temple University, Japan Section II: Mobile Health Chapter VIII Mobile E-Health: Making the Case ............................................................ 155 Norm Archer, McMaster University, Canada Chapter IX Adoption of Mobile Communication Technologies in the Municipal Open Care Service Sector............................................................................ 171 Anna Sell, Turku Center for Computer Science (TUCS), Finland Erkki Patokorpi, Abo Akademi University, Finland Pirkko Walden, Abo Akademi University, Finland Bill Anckar, Abo Akademi University, Finland Chapter X Mobile Supported Patient Care: The Dichotomy of National and Local Needs ................................................................................................... 188 C. J. Fitch, University of Portsmouth, UK C. Adams, University of Portsmouth, UK

v

Section III: Mobile Government Cases Chapter XI Enabling M-Government in South Africa: An Emerging Direction for Africa ....................................................................................................... 207 Blessing M. Maumbe, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Republic of South Africa Vesper Owei, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Republic of South Africa Wallace Taylor, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Republic of South Africa Chapter XII M-Government Initiatives at the Local Level: The Case of Zaragoza ... 233 Luis V. Casaló, University of Zaragoza, Spain Carlos Flavián, University of Zaragoza, Spain Miguel Guinalíu, University of Zaragoza, Spain Chapter XIII The State of Mobile Government in Turkey: Overview, Policy Issues, and Future Prospects ................................................................................... 252 Mete Yildiz, Hacettepe University, Turkey Chapter XIV The Prospects of Mobile Government in Jordan: An Evaluation of Different Delivery Platforms ....................................................................... 268 Ala M. Abu-Samaha, Amman University, Jordan Yara Abdel Samad, Ministry of Information & Communication Technologies, Jordan Section IV: Technology and Trends for Mobile Government Chapter XV Multi-Channel Delivery of E-Services in the Light of M-Government Challenge ...................................................................................................... 292 Panagiotis Germanakos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus George Samaras, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Eleni Christodoulou, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

Chapter XVI A Secure Wireless Data Access Service for the Government of Canada .......................................................................................................... 318 Howie Macumber, Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), Canada Bing Cheung, Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), Canada Chapter XVII Anonymous Code Lists for Secure Electronic Voting over Insecure Mobile Channels .......................................................................................... 339 Nico Voutsis, Hewlett-Packard, Switzerland Frank Zimmermann, Hewlett-Packard, Switzerland Chapter XVIII An Evaluation of U.S. City Government Wireless Networks for Mobile Internet Access ................................................................................ 357 Ben Coaker, Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, USA Candace Deans, University of Richmond, USA Chapter XIX Technical and Functional Quality in the Development of T-Government Services ............................................................................... 375 Margherita Pagani, Management Department, Bocconi University, Italy Chiara Pasinetti, Bocconi University, Italy About the Authors ........................................................................................ 406 Index .............................................................................................................. 419

vii

Preface

Mobility is no longer (about) a technological revolution. It is more about how businesses and governments can provide a better social infrastructure through mobile applications and services. Adoption of mobility, therefore, is an indispensable asset for the public sector in meeting the demands of citizens. While e-government was an important step taken by many governments, provision of services through mobile technologies is now inevitable. Public demand for mobility, the efficiency, and productivity gains of the public sector through mobility lead to a natural move from e-government to m-government (mobile government). M-government emerges as the next big wave in the process of ICT use in the public sector. This evolution offers a comforting social infrastructure for the society, where mobile devices, often embedded, breathe-in, process, and breathe-out data that exist all around us. After 2000, Japan, starting with i-mode, created the signs of such a mobile welfare society. Companies such as NTT DoCoMo are no longer “technology companies” but companies providing a “social infrastructure”. While living in Japan, interacting with such businesses, and teaching mobile business at the International University of Japan (IUJ), I was deeply influenced by the effect these new technologies may have on the society. I was spending long hours reading about the adoption of ICTs by the public sector for the public. A few years ago, on the Internet, I came across the writings of a few authors such as M. Zelesak and O. Ostberg on how mobile technologies could be used by the governments. Then later in 2003, I and M. Halid Kuscu, whose expertise is in public administration, published probably the first academic article on m-government at a European e-government conference. Although there were various ways mobility was adopted by the public sector, the term m-government was not widely used. I, then, through my colleagues and graduate students started to work in this field. Our aim was to establish and promote m-government as a field of research and practice. While doing our research at International University of Japan (IUJ), mGovLab (www. mgovlab.org) was setup as the first specialized and comprehensive resource site

viii

for m-government. The following year there was a special track organized by me at the European e-government conference where a small number of m-gov experts gathered. The recognition of the m-government concept was gaining momentum in Asia and in Europe, but more needed to establish the m-government field and promote it. Then myself and the members of mGovLab group at IUJ decided to organize a conference in the field, aiming to gather academia, industry, and government representatives together. The same year, due to a rising need, I initiated efforts to establish an international consortium on m-government (MGCI—www. mgovernmnet.org) which aims to promote and shape the future of m-government developments all over the world. MGCI has been the driving company behind the international conferences on m-government (ICMG), first of which the EURO mGOV 2005 to be held in the United Kingdom. This book is also part of our recent efforts to establish and promote the m-government field. This book is a collective effort of many experts in the area setting the concept, and providing selected examples of current developments from various countries in terms of technology, applications, and services. It helps the readers find answers to the questions such as: •

What is m-government and how does it relate to e-government?

•

What are the examples of existing implementations and the technologies used?

•

What lessons can be learned from federal government or local government case examples?

In searching answers to these questions, various real-world m-government examples and their evaluations, challenges, and opportunities for m-government are also presented. In this way, it may be useful for IT solution providers, researchers, government officials, and policy makers. This book is intended for various groups, including m-government practitioners and researchers, government officials, policy makers, and mobile IT solution providers in the areas of e-government, mobile business, mobile Internet, and public administration. As m-government is becoming increasingly popular and essential for governments, an increasing number of people from various countries and public professionals may also be interested giving the book an international dimension. Apart from the government and commercial use, the book can also be of interest to educators, researchers in academia, and students. Over the past couple of years, many professionals ask me, “what is m-government really?” They often argue, it is really just e-government using new technologies. My response is that, “M-government is a natural and inevitable extension of egovernment”. It is a new and very fertile field of research and practice. Recently, it has received great attention from the public sector, IT, and Telcos and academia.

ix

However, there are already differing views on its significance in e-government efforts, its impact on the public sector organizations, the work and the employees, and the information society. M-government is often viewed as a technological extension of e-government. However, neither e-government nor m-government is about developing excellent technology for applications and services, but they are rather about creating an “able society”. In such a society, the citizens should be able to adopt those applications and services easily. They are also about creating “responsive public organizations” which can provide those services and applications effectively. Whatever position one takes, the term m-government is a concept creating an “identity” for many mobility and e-government professionals and their efforts in the area. This book is an attempt to create a large collection of articles as a book on mgovernment. Despite the fact that the m-government field is very new, there was a significant number of submissions of chapters in response to our call. The selection process was difficult in terms of identifying what a pioneering book should ideally include while ensuring quality content for such a fresh field. After careful consideration, this book was designed to respond to at least three important needs for the readers. It contains introductory knowledge on m-government, and then moves on to a relatively deeper examination of various applications, which are significant in terms of current and future developments in m-government. These include applications at the local government level—the development of mCity, applications in mobile health care, and law enforcement. The book also contains technical aspects of developing applications, especially on security. One important chapter takes a different perspective and evaluates impact of mobile technologies on government organizations. Finally, the book also contains speculative chapters to provoke ideas and discussions on issues related to understanding m-government as a field of practice and research and determining its position relative to other fields such as mobility and e-government. The chapters are organized into four major sections. In the first section, the mobile government is introduced and its significance is discussed. The articles in this section create a conceptual context and grounds for the further chapters. The next section is devoted to articles dealing with an important application area of mobile technologies for the public: mobile health. The following section presents various cases both at country level and at local government level applications. Finally, the last section contains articles on the technology and provides a basis for understanding both current applications and the trends for the future. Here are brief summaries of each chapter: Chapter I is aimed at introducing m-government by presenting a working definition; and by discussing the drivers and the key issues in m-government followed by examples of applications from various countries. It serves the reader to be familiar with what m-government is and what kind of distinctive characteristics it has in relation to e-government. It also summarizes key challenges for implementing

x

m-government. The chapter argues that m-government is a concept under the egovernment and mobility umbrella, and that it will be a significant complement to e-government efforts. Whether the ubiquity and pervasiveness of IT systems and applications will change this argument or not is a significant point yet to be seen in the near future. Chapter II introduces a very important concept—mobile city or mCity—by describing a Swedish project of “mobile Stockholm”. The mCity concept may spread easily to various cities of the world. It will not be surprising to see M-AnyCity applications at the local government levels quite soon. The mCity project of Stockholm focuses on building communities around mobile applications such as health care, education, tourism, and businesses. The chapter takes an important emphasis on the “users” rather than the technology. It shows how user involvement and following adoption is important for the success of m-government. The technology can be perfect but without someone using it to its full purpose and potential, it becomes simply “useless”. Moving one step further, the chapter re-visits the m-government concept and relates it to today’s society. It raises an important future concern in m-government developments: mobility is not about the technology but it is about the people and the society. Mobility brings in an infrastructure for life, and thus the users must be of primary concern in the development processes. Chapter III presents a project which deals with an important issue of creating and implementing mobile applications while ensuring a smooth sharing of technological infrastructure among various partners to projects. It deals with issues that are key to a success of any ICT implementations including openness, interoperability, usability, and security. Chapter IV presents a discussion of various issues related to m-government. After introducing m-government and various application areas and security-related implementation issues, this chapter provokes essential thoughts on m-government by speculating on key issues such as perspectives on mobility, the government and its organization, and user acceptance. The chapter closes with assessing the term “mobile” in government for now and for the future. Chapter V deals within important dimension of mobile government implementation. Based on various projects in Europe, it examines factors influencing the behaviors of the partners to the value chain in mobile government project and how they interact. It presents business models, including financing, which enable various projects to be realized and sustained. Chapter VI, on the other hand, turns into those implementation factors which belong to internal organization of the projects. These factors, called “soft factors” by the authors, are those invisible but essential factors including leadership, management style, involvement, and support. These factors are evaluated using two projects. Following up from the previous chapters, Chapter VII turns into understanding the impact of mobility on government organizations and the mobile working. It starts reviewing m-government’s unique and significant contributions to e-government:

xi

where it compliments e-government and where it adds value to it. Next, it develops “an organizational response model”—a number of technological demands and responses of public organizations—for a systematic exploration of impact of mobile technologies on the business processes, on the work, and on the employees. The response model is evaluated using a number of real-world cases where mobile technologies are used for enhancing mobile working in the UK and Hong Kong. The response model is very important to understand how public sector gains efficiency and productivity by adopting mobile technologies and how it leads to progress in public organizations and the public work work. One can extend “the response model” to the dynamics of interactions with the—information—m-society, and tie the response model to a set of principles and policies promoting an understanding of technological and non-technological issues in m-government. This is how the social infrastructure is actually created. Section II is opened by an introductory chapter (Chapter VIII), which deals with mobile applications in health care. This chapter, among others, introduces the mobility and health care emphasizing the technical suitability and value proposition of mobile health care applications. Health care is one of the most important services often provided by the public sector to the society. The mobile technologies need to be assessed both in terms of technological convenience and value added to the health care operations. After making the case for technological context, the chapter discusses some of the key elements of mobile health care applications: usability, adoption, interoperability, and change management, risk, security and privacy, and ROI issues. These issues are then exemplified through a case from the Canadian health care system. The readers might find the chapter useful as it provides a broad approach to evaluating and selecting mobile health care applications. It also provides a background for Chapters IV and V on mobile health care. Chapters IX and X detail some of the key issues related to mobile health care. The former focuses on user adoption and reports on an empirical study conducted in Finland, Turku, on how social workers respond to the use of mobile technology and applications in domestic care. The latter focuses more on the organizational and work environment aspects of community health care. Chapter X reports on UK National Health Services (NHS) from the south of England, based on interviews with several health and social care professionals. In addition, these chapters provide a relatively deep insight into one of the most significant application areas of m-government. Section III deals with various applications and cases from different countries. The first two chapters provide examples from South Africa. Chapter XI introduces the recent developments in the country and presents the potential for effective mgovernment deployment, while Chapters XII through XIV present examples from three more countries: Spain, Turkey, and Jordan, respectively. Chapter XII presents a specific example of a local government implementation in Zaragosa, Spain; on the other hand, the other chapters have broader perspectives at the country level implementations of mobile government. The implementations in Zaragosa emphasize the citizen involvement and the relationship between government institutions at a

xii

local and public level. Chapter XIII takes a look at the m-government implementations in Turkey from the policy perspectives. Focusing more on mobile phones, it tackles issues related to health and safety issues stemming from mobile phone use and mobile phone manners when they are used in public. IT closes the chapter with a summary of future prospects of m-government in Turkey. Chapter XIV presents the emergence of mobility for the public use in Jordan by taking it from fixed network-based e-government applications. It also provides an evaluation of different delivery channels. The final section of the book contains chapters concentrating more on the technology. Chapter XV opens the technological debate by bringing in the issues of adapting to the multi-channel delivery when it is challenged by mobile applications and services. In this respect, it accounts for both architectural and usability issues such as interoperability and security, and privacy and personalization. The next two chapters discuss the security issues from a rather technical perspectives. As it is known, mobile networks are inherently insecure. Chapter XVI deals with the provision of secure wireless data accesses to the departments and agencies of the Canadian government. The chapter takes a particular focus on Wi-Fi security issues and spectrum management policies to show that it is possible to enable government workers with a secure infrastructure by augmenting some of the existing technologies and that this may help them work effectively. Similarly, Chapter XVII deals with building secure mobile channels in order to enhance one of the controversial application areas of electronic or m-government: e/m-voting. The chapter proposes a voting protocol and design principles to enable secure implementation of m-voting applications. These two chapters present architectural and technical issues which might be of interest to those readers who are more interested in engineering and design aspects of m-government. Chapter XVIII brings in challenges and opportunities faced by local governments (i.e., cities) in the United States when using wireless networks in providing services via the mobile Internet. The chapter presents various cases from different U.S. cities by considering, for example, financing and maintaining services, security, and collaboration with the local operators. These issues are evaluated for the services provided by the local authorities such as law enforcement and emergency services. Chapter XIX opens up discussions on a new trend in mobile government called t-government, which encompasses whole range of public services and application transmitted via digital TV. The core of the chapter is related to the evaluation of the reasons why e-services delivery could be preferred over a more traditional delivery for public services. In this way, the chapter proposes guidelines for effective delivery services especially for new channels such as those using mobile devices and digital TV. This book is only the beginning of contributions to a gradually growing field of study and practice. Mobile government is now widely accepted as a field of study and practice. There are various students doing their PhDs on the topic and various

xiii

projects leading governments and other public organizations in using mobile technologies both from the public and private sector. Starting with this one, several books will be coming out and a series of conferences will be running in the field. My own efforts together with various colleagues in establishing mobile government as a field of academic study and practice are paying off, but there definitely is much need for more work to promote the importance and deeper understanding of the field. I do hope the readers will enjoy stepping into the field through this book and finding out more about m-government, its context, and the potential for the future. Professor Ibrahim Kushchu United Kingdom, 2006

xiv

Section I The Conceptual Context for Mobile Government

Introducing Mobile Government 1

Chapter I

Introducing Mobile Government M. Halid Kuscu, Mobile Government Consortium International, UK Ibrahim Kushchu, Mobile Government Consortium International, UK Betty Yu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Abstract This chapter introduces the mobile government concept and creates a context for discussing various applications, services, and the relevant technologies. The context presented also includes the introduction of ideas on the characteristics of mobile government and some major issues that justify the necessity of the mobile government and identify the potential that it possesses. This chapter should serve as a foundation for the discussions on the further chapters.

Introduction E-government efforts aim to benefit from the use of most innovative forms of information communication technologies, particularly Web-based Internet applications, in improving governments’ fundamental functions. These functions are now using mobile and wireless technologies and creating a direction for e-government: mobile government. Mobile government (m-government) may be defined as a strategy and its implementation involving the utilization of all kinds of wireless and mobile technology, services, applications, and devices for improving benefits to the parties Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

2 Kuscu, Kushchu & Yu

involved in e-government including citizens, businesses, and all government units (Kushchu & Kuscu, 2003). Despite its early stage, m-government seems to have a substantial influence on the generation of set of complex strategies and tools for e-government efforts and on their roles and functions. M-government is inevitable. The number of people having access to mobile phones and mobile Internet connection is increasing rapidly. The mobile access—anywhere any time—is becoming a natural part of daily life, and the governments will have to transform their activities according to this demand of convenience and efficiency of interactions for all parties. The coming age of m-government raises several interesting questions. Will mgovernment replace the e-government activities? Despite its significance, m-government cannot be seen as replacing e-government, and in many cases it will be complementary to e-government efforts. The conventional e-government efforts provide services through wired network with interactive and relatively intelligent Web applications. The value of m-government comes from the capabilities of applications supporting mobility of the citizens, businesses, and internal operations of the governments. For example, supporting law enforcement agents who are on patrol is a distinctive advantage of mobile government services over conventional e-government implementations. Wireless applications may enable greater mobilization of the government officials with the ability to handle real-time information concerning, for example, crimes, accidents, safety, and other public issues. This chapter provides an introduction to m-government. In the following section, a number of m-government applications from various countries are briefly presented in order familiarize the readers with what is actually involved in m-government. Next, the distinctive characteristics that differentiate m-government from e-government are stated. Finally, a discussion of current issues in m-government is presented.

Some Mobile Government Applications and Services The technology and the services landscape is slowly taking its place in various mgovernment implementations. Some of the early adopters of m-government services include law enforcements, fire fighting (Easton, 2002), emergency medical services, education, health, and transportation (Yu & Kushchu, 2004). The following tables provide examples from each group of applications on where the application is developed, and a brief description of each.

Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Table 1. Instant information release Where

Description

Relevance

SMS for people with hearing disabilities Great Britain

• citizens with hearing problems can be contacted • may not be replaced by the wired Internet. by the police with SMS. Amsterdam • SMS message are sent to citizens with hearing • people with hearing problems cannot listen to warning bells and the only way to warn them problem in emergencies. of danger is by the use of mobile devices which • includes instruction such as “go home” or “leave can vibrate to notify the users. the place”, so they understand how to react.

• satisfies the need to warn citizens with hearing problems about potential danger.

Special notification cases California, USA

• SMS are sent to citizens in case of energy black- • governments try every communication channel outs. to notify citizens during emergencies.

London

• Police may send notifications to citizens about • yet working people are too concentrated on work and may not receive the warnings. potential terrorist threats or attacks. • notice danger when friends or families call. • more effective to spread the message directly.

SMS floods warning systems Malaysia

• automatic measuring devices are installed to • citizens may aware of danger in day time even monitor water level. without warnings from government. • when flooding rises to certain level, the control • in nighttime, mobile devices which are often centre sends a message to all the affecting with the user serve as a very good way to warn the users of potential danger. citizens.

United Kingdom

• In case of emerging floods, information are sent via SMS, e-mails, fax, and television.

Instant Information Release Mobile devices are often carried by users and are always turned on. This characteristic enables mobile devices to serve as a warning or reminder to users with quick and specific information release (Table 1).

Quick Information Collection The possibility of retrieving information while on the move is one of the major characteristics of mobile government applications. This allows civil servants to collect necessary information to provide more efficient and effective service to the public. Examples are shown in Table 2. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Table 2. Quick information collection Place Description Fire fighting USA

Relevance

• firemen receive critical information on their way • in the short time between receiving fire alarm and arriving at the site, fire fighters may have only a to the site using mobile devices. few minutes to form a strategy based on limited • get information such as structure of building, information. presence of toxic materials, surrounding environment and number of people trapped. • fire fighters can receive more information and forms better strategy. • can connect mobile devices to camera in the buildings on fire and observe the interior • impossible to use wired Internet. environment.

Search for missing children/citizens and criminals Germany

• when police are searching for missing person or • increase the chance of finding missing person by criminals, SMS message will be sent to registered extending the search from police to drivers. bus and taxi drivers. • minimize the searching time for missing • includes relevant information such as description people. of the person and possible location to be aware. • minimize the potential danger of criminals posed on the public.

Mobile Transactions Transactions are essential parts of doing business. Currently, many companies are exploring the possibility of mobile commerce and some governmental organizations have already taken the initiative to utilize this opportunity (Table 3).

Table 3. Mobile transaction Place Description Mobile automobile parking Sweden

Relevance

• registered driver can log in and log out a parking • drivers can skip the painful process of carrying loose changes and searching around for the nearest space using a mobile phone. parking machines. • fee is automatically charged to the driver’s account. • the convenience and time saving create a better experience. • receipt is sent via SMS.

Tax declaration Norway

• pre-filled tax declaration form is mailed to the • citizen in advance. • • if the person has nothing to change in the form, he can send a SMS message with specific code and complete the entire tax declaration procedure.

simplify the tax declaration. is feasible in e-government context, but mobile technology improves users’ experience because they can complete the whole process even during his way to office.



Table 4. Faster information exchange Place

Description

Relevance

Mobile hospital staff Sweden

• doctors and nurses can catch, deliver and receive • mobile technology enables hospital staff to have care data at the point of care. faster information flow. • equipped with pocket PCs which are connected • decrease in time for transferring data results in through wireless LAN to the central database. better decision in shorter time.

Mobile elderly care workers Sweden

• field workers are equipped with mobile • ability to access data from service site allows care workers to spend more time on their job rather devices. than travelling around for information. • provide updated information on elderly, ailing or handicapped people in need of home care.

SMS for higher rate of employment Australia

• target: citizens, mainly teenagers.

• allows job seekers to reach information in a timely manner.

• on potential offers or updates. Sweden

• improves users’ experience in accessing the • SMS were sent to a pool of registered workers information. who are willing to work as temporary.

More efficient garbage collection via SMS Quezon, • reports need for cleaning services in given • allows citizens to communicate with dustmen Philippines areas. service, so the environment can be improved.

Faster Information Exchange In case the speed of information exchange is important but not critical, applications are defined as enhancing the pleasure value for users (Table 4).

Fighting Against Crime To fight against crime, law enforces need citizens’ corporation to provide information. The reports from citizens can increase the chance for police to arrest suspects, find missing people and better investigate the cases. Table 5 shows some examples. Table 5. Fighting against crime Place Description Reporting crime Manila, Philippines

Italy

Relevance

• can report suspicious activities via SMS.

• encourage people to report criminal activities by simplified procedures, easier channel and faster • receive SMS messages on the increase in crime response. rate in particular region. • improved the participation in crime prevention • a couple of thieves are caught after photos of from citizens. criminal act were taken by others and sent as MMS to the police.



The Characteristics of M-Government M-government involves a strategy and implementation of governmental services through a mobile platform to provide its users, both citizens and civil servants, the benefit of getting services and information from anywhere at anytime (Kushchu & Kuscu, 2003). The use of mobile technologies and applications differentiates m-government from any other developments in the public sector using new technologies, including e-government. Based on various studies on mobile government applications (Yu & Kushchu, 2004), and their use in practice (Cilingir & Kushchu, 2004), a number of differentiating factors can be identified in terms of better precision and personalization in targeting users and in delivering content, more convenient accessibility and availability, and a larger and wider user base. •

•

•

More convenient accessibility and availability (power of pull): o

M-government enhances the adoption of online governmental services by citizens through the improved convenience it offers. Citizens can use the online governmental services not only “anytime” but also “anywhere”.

o

Mobile devices are always on. This is different from personal computers where most mobile devices are always switched on. Usually, these devices stay at an inactive state, but applications can “wake up” the device. This is very different from e-government applications.

o

Mobile devices are designed to be carried around. As mobile devices are always carried around by the user, applications can be designed to provide instant information to the users. An example is to send out warnings during emergencies.

Better precision and personalization in targeting users and delivering content (power of push): o

A computer can be shared among different users, but mobile devices are designed to be used by a single user. This means that personalized information can reach the same user at any time through that one specific device.

o

M-government increases the acceptance, adoption, and the usage of online governmental services by reaching the citizens through a more personal, familiar, and friendly device.

Larger and wider user base (power of reach): o

M-government reaches a larger number of people through mobile devices, which often far exceeds the wired Internet user community.



o

M-government reaches a variety of audiences, including people who have no training or experience with computers and the Internet, but are active users of mobile communication.

Major Issues in M-Government The Drivers of M-Government There are various technological and non-technological driving forces for m-government. These forces will place severe influence on the new and existing e-government efforts to move towards adoption of mobile applications and services. Some of these forces include: •

increasing mobile infrastructure and mobile device penetration in Europe and in the world;

•

evolution of mobile Internet technologies, standards, and protocols toward faster and more sophisticated applications; and

•

adoption of mobile Internet applications and services by individuals and businesses.

The Transition from E-Government to M-Government M-government is building upon e-government efforts, and there are basically two important issues related to the transition from and the relationship between e-government to m-government: •

M-government is inevitable. The major forces influencing m-government adoption include: (a) current technological advances in the areas of wireless World Wide Web and the Internet; (b) benefits to be gained from value added business models stemming from these developments; and (c) the citizen’s rising expectations for a better and convenient government services.

•

M-government will be complimentary to e-government. Some of m-government services are replications of e-government services on the mobile platforms. However, the real value of m-government efforts surfaces with those services and applications which are only possible using wireless and mobile infrastructure.



The synergy between e-government and m-government may be of concern especially for those countries that have already gone ahead in making substantial investments in e-government implementations. Now that m-government is inevitable, extending activities to wireless devices and networks will enable these countries to be more proactive in their operations and services by providing real-time and up-to-date information to officials on the move and by offering citizens a broader selection of choices of interaction. For these countries, m-government implementations are emerging as one of the additional value-added features for the integrated and flexible data communication and exchange mechanism among government units. They may use more advanced wireless applications such as location-based information exchanges. These emerging applications are expected to stimulate m-government by enhancing location-based services such as fire fighting and medical emergencies. If requested, these technologies may be used to transfer location-specific information to mobile device users (i.e., information about traffic conditions or the weather). How about the implications for those countries that have not yet started or are at the early stages of e-government strategy and implementation processes? These countries may have more advantages depending on the type of the issues faced by the governments. In developing countries, mobile government applications may become a key method for reaching citizens and promoting exchange of communications especially when used in remote areas. In such countries with insufficient conventional telecom infrastructures and greater acceptance of mobile phones, ability of reaching rural areas may be considered an important feature of m-government.

Implementation Issues Implementing m-government will also bring a series of challenges. Some of the typical challenges for e-government are naturally shared by m-government efforts. Lanwin (2002) states some of these challenges. Among them, we will visit those which are most relevant to m-government including infrastructure development, privacy and security, legal issues, mobile penetration rate, and accessibility. •

Developing wireless and mobile networks and related infrastructure: For m-government to flourish, the information technology infrastructure must be present. This infrastructure is both physical and “soft”. The physical infrastructure refers to the technology, equipment, and network required to implement m-government. Equally important are soft infrastructures such as institutional arrangements, and software that make m-government transactions possible. Even though m-government is in its initial stage, various software



are available for m-government services. PacketWriter, Pocket Blue, and Pocket Rescue are a few examples of m-government software developed by Aether systems (for more information, please visit http://www.aethersystems. com/webfiles/industries/government/#roi). •

Promoting mobile penetration and increasing accessibility: The success of mobile government will depend largely on the number of its users: the citizens. But socio-economic factors such as income, education level, gender, age, handicap, language differences, and regional discrepancies will affect the citizens’ attitude toward mobile government. In order to increase citizen participation and provide citizen-oriented services, governments need to offer easy access to m-government information in alternative forms, possibly, using video and voice communications.

•

Protecting privacy and providing security for the data and interactions: Privacy and security are the most significant concerns citizens have about m-government. The general fear is that their mobile phone numbers will be traced, when they send their opinions and inquiries to the government. The government and related parties must overcome the mistrust, and assure mobile users that people’s privacy is protected and that the information will not be sold to third parties.

•

Regulating and developing legal aspects of mobile applications and use of the services: Many countries around the world have not yet adopted legislations for data and information practices, which spell out the rights of subjects (citizens) and the responsibilities of the data holders (government). In some cases, the law does not recognize mobile documents and transactions. There is yet no clear legal status for government’s online publications, insufficient regulations and laws for online form filings, online signatures, and on online taxable transactions.

Conclusions The recent developments in business models, services, and technologies of the WWW and Internet created new dimensions on the interactivity, mobility, and intelligence of Web-based solutions. As e-business evolves towards m-business (Sadeh, 2002), e-government seems to follow the trend with a few but significant mobile government (m-government) applications. Millions of mobile phone users, equipped with Internet connections, will put severe pressure on the government to extend appropriate e-government services into the mobile platform. It is now inevitable for e-government professionals, practitioners, and researchers to acquire necessary skills to face the new move toward m-government.



There already exist various m-government applications and business models in the areas of law enforcement, education, transport, health, and firefighting. M-government business models will typically follow an enhanced version of e-government models (Abramson & Means, 2001) where appropriate. We will see applications enabling governments to perform better: 1.

in serving the citizens using mobile information and communication models;

2.

in doing business with the citizens and other government and business organizations using mobile transactions models;

3.

in integrating various government units and officials through mobile portals; and

4.

in promoting active participation in the government affairs establishing mdemocracy models.

The existing technological foundations, applications, and services support the idea that m-government will be a significant part of e-government efforts. The policy makers and IT professionals need to get ready to embrace these developments and participate in the ways to enhance e-government activities through m-government. As this brief overview suggests, m-government is in its early stage of development. The developments in e-business and m-business areas are influencing mobile technology adoption by governments. In parallel, the existing research in the m-government field often focuses a few applications (Easton, 2002) and mobile business issues as they relate to e-government (Holmes, 2001). There is now a growing need to examine m-government-related issues from the perspectives of their own and build a framework for the study of m-government efforts. Recently established Mobile Government Consortium International (MGCI—www.mgovernment.org) and the research resources site www.mGovlab.org are two leading groups aiming to build and guide the developments in mobile government research and practice. The interest to the m-government field is growing significantly from mainly three groups: IT and Telco’s, government organizations and academia, and series of conferences (i.e., International Conferences on Mobile Government) are providing a forum for exchange of ideas among these groups.

References Abramson, M., & Means, E. G. (Eds.) (2001). E-government 2001. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Cilingir, D., & Kushchu, I. (2004). E-government and m-government: Concurrent leaps by Turkey. In D. Remenyi (Ed.), Proceedings of European Conference on E-Government (ECEG 2004), Trinity College, Dublin, June 17-18 (pp. 813821). Department of the Taoiseach, Dublin, Ireland; Reading, UK: Academic Conferences International. Easton, J. (2002). Going wireless: Transform your business with wireless mobile technology. USA: HarperCollins. Kushchu, I., & Kuscu, H. (2003). From e-government to m-government: Facing the inevitable. In the Proceeding of European Conference on E-Government (ECEG 2003), Trinity College, Dublin, July 3-4 (pp. 253-260). Reading, UK: Academic Conferences International. Holmes, D. (2001). eGov: eBusiness strategies for government. London: Nicolas Brealey. Lanwin, B. (2002). A project of info dev and The Center for Democracy & Technology: The e-government handbook for developing countries. Retrieved February 15, 2004, from http://www.cdt.org/egov/handbook/2002-11-14egovhandbook. pdf Sadeh, N. (2002). M-commerce: Technologies, services and business models. Canada and USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Yu, B., & Kushchu, I. (2004). The value of mobility for e-government. In the Proceedings of European Conference on E-Government (ECEG 2004), Trinity College, Dublin, June 17-18 (pp. 887-899). Department of the Taoiseach, Dublin, Ireland; Reading, UK: Academic Conferences International.


12 Hallin & Lundevall

Chapter II

mCity:

User Focused Development of Mobile Services Within the City of Stockholm Anette Hallin, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden Kristina Lundevall, The City of Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract This chapter presents the mCity Project, a project owned by the City of Stockholm, aiming at creating user-friendly mobile services in collaboration with businesses. Starting from the end-users’ perspective, mCity focuses on how to satisfy existing needs in the community, initiating test pilots within a wide range of areas, from health care and education, to tourism and business. The lesson learned is that user focus creates involvement among end users and leads to the development of sustainable systems that are actually used after they have been implemented. This is naturally vital input not only to municipalities and governments but also for the IT/telecom industry at large. Using the knowledge from mCity, the authors suggest a new, broader definition of “m-government” which focuses on mobile people rather than mobile technology.


The mCity Project 13

Introduction All over the world, ICT technologies are used to an increasing extent within the public sector. For cities, ICTs not only provide the possibilities of improving the efficiency among its employees and its service towards tourists, citizens, and companies; it is also an important factor in the development of the city and its region, as ICTs today generally are considered to constitute the driving force of economy and social change (Castells, 1997). It is also argued that ICTs can improve efficiency, enhance transparency, control, networking and innovation (Winden, 2003). Thus, several cities are involved in projects concerning the development, testing, and implementation of ICTs. A few examples include Crossroads Copenhagen in Denmark, Testbed Botnia, and TelecomCity from the cities of Luleå and Karlskrona in Sweden. Within all these projects, triple-helix like organizations are used involving the local municipality or national government, the local university, and the locally-based companies (Jazic & Lundevall, 2003) Also within the City of Stockholm, there is such a project—the mCity Project. This was launched by the City of Stockholm in January of 2002, with the aim of organizing “the mobile city” through the implementation of relevant ICTs. The mCity Project consists of several small pilot projects, focusing on identifying needs in the community and creating solutions to these. In this chapter, we intend to describe this project, its organization, work processes, and the results. We also discuss the experiences made and how the project can serve as an inspiration towards a broader understanding of “m-government”.

Briefly about the City of Stockholm The City of Stockholm is Sweden’s largest municipality with about 760,000 inhabitants,1 but is, compared to other capitals in the world, a small city. Due to the Swedish form of government, Stockholm—as well as all other Swedish cities—has large responsibilities, including child care, primary and secondary education, care of the elderly, fire-fighting, city planning, and maintenance, and so forth. All these responsibilities are financed through income taxes, at levels set by the cities themselves, with no national interference. The operational responsibility lies, in the case of Stockholm, on 18 district councils and on 16 special administrations, depending on the issue. Through 15 different fully-owned or majority-interest, joint-stock and associated companies (hereafter called “municipal companies”), the City of Stockholm also provides water, optical fibre-infrastructure, housing (the City of Stockholm has the largest housing corporation in the country), shipping-facilities (the ports in the Stockholm area), parking, tourist information, the city theatre, the



Globe Arena (for sports, concerts and other events) etc. In total, the city has an organization comprising 50,000 employees, and a yearly turn over of 31.5 billion SEK,2 which is equivalent to about 5 million USD. For the City of Stockholm, it is only natural to engage in ICT projects of different kinds, as this could be expected to have both financial and pedagogical benefits within this large organization—just as it had for other public organizations in Sweden (Grenblad, 2003). In fact, ICT projects are encouraged by the City of Stockholm through the Stockholm “E-Strategy”. This is a visionary and strategic document, issued by the City Council3 in the beginning of 2001 which—among other things—firmly states the role of the citizen as the central figure for all activities in the city organization; the development of mobile technologies to enhance flexibility, as well as the importance of the city acting to aid Swedish ICT industry (The City of Stockholm’s E-Strategy, 19th of February 2001). It is the City Executive Board4 which is responsible for implementing the resolution of the City Council, but the “E-Strategy” document also points to the responsibility of the management of the different district councils, special administrations, and municipal companies for the strategic development of ICTs within each organization. The document also describes the function of “the IT Council”, which is to ensure that the e-strategy is implemented in a good way within the municipal organization, that is, not as a separate strategy, but in close contact with the activities for which the organizations are responsible.

Background, Organization, and Goals The idea of mCity was born in 2000 when the former EU Commissioner Martin Bangeman suggested a cooperation between European cities in order to stimulate the use of the upcoming 3G network and its services. In January 2001, a workshop was held with representatives from a number of major cities, telecom operators, vendors, and investors. A project proposal was submitted by Bangeman, suggesting that a few other European cities—Stockholm, Bremen, and Berlin among others—should start a holding corporation in order to develop and sell 3G services. However, this collaboration project did not become a reality. Instead, the City of Stockholm decided to proceed with a smaller scale project—mCity. The following goals have been specified for the mCity Project in Stockholm: •

To improve the working environment for the employees of the City of Stockholm. By putting people in the center and letting them lead the development of mobile services, they will help develop services that will ease their own work tasks and their everyday lives.



•

To increase the quality of services for citizens. The mCity Project strives to improve the service of the city to its citizens and visitors by improving the work environment for employees and by introducing citizen-specific solutions.

•

To stimulate the regional business (IT/Telecom). By developing new solutions in collaboration with industry, new opportunities for the ICT industry within Stockholm, and throughout Sweden are developed, thereby creating a strong home market for companies in Stockholm.

•

To reinforce Stockholm’s profile as an IT capital. By developing new and useful mobile services, Stockholm’s reputation as a leading IT capital will be further reinforced.

•

To spread the good example. By working with small-scale test environments and small-scale tests, the results can be duplicated if successful. By involving the end users closely in the project, sustainability is ensured. An effect of more deeply involved users is that the users themselves become spokespersons for the services and actually help spread the word.

During its first year, the project was located in one of Stockholm’s district councils, which meant close contact with the end users. The project manager felt, however, that in order to keep up with the ICT development in other parts of the city, the project would be better off if it could be located more centrally in the organization. Since then, the project has been moved closer to the central administrative organization in the city. The project organization of mCity is described in Figure 1. The Steering Committee, organized with representatives from different parts of the city, for example the IT Department and the City of Stockholm Executive Office,5 make strategic decisions about budget issues, what projects to initiate, and so forth. Different heads have chaired the Steering Committee during the course of the project. There are also members from the Stockholm IT Council in the Steering Committee, to ensure that the mCity Project follows Stockholm’s E-Strategy. The different pilot projects are initiated together with district councils, special administrations, or municipal companies which undertake the responsibility of local project management in each case. The mCity Project Manager is in charge of initiating and setting up the local projects in collaboration with the local project management and then keeps track of the day-to-day development of the projects. He/She is also responsible for collecting and spreading information about the projects, and for preparing the meetings with the Steering Committee as well as implementing the decisions of the Steering Committee. In their work, he/she can also use the Think Tank, to which a number of companies within the mobile technology industry belong, to ask for advice concerning technology or market requirements/development. Finally, a researcher from KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology, has been responsible for documenting the project. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Figure 1. Organization of the mCity Project

Working Process Within the mCity Project, services for both private and public sectors are tested and thereafter developed in a larger scale if proven relevant. The services are operated and tested in “small islands” because it makes it easier to get close to the users and to change the tested services if something needs to be improved. Using this model, mCity has been able to connect groups with specific needs with companies developing mobile services that can satisfy these needs. End-user needs, that is, the needs of citizens, visitors and employees within the City of Stockholm, form the starting point of every initiative within mCity—see Figure 2. One way of creating situations where users can make their voices heard is by initiating hearings, focus groups, interviews, and so forth. In some cases, the mCity Project Manager has been involved in this first part of the process; in other cases, the local management of the different district councils, special administrations, or municipal companies take the initiative of formulating an application, specifying the need. The exact details of the working process have shifted, depending on the organizational setting of the project. In the next step, the mCity Project management uses their Competence Network to form a group with technical expertise to which the user’s need is presented. The group ponders about the possible technical solutions suitable to solve the problems and in this process, the end-users’ knowledge of ICTs, their workload, and the financial/



Figure 2. Working process within mCity

technical situation of the user environment are also taken into account. Depending on the situation, mCity can also contribute financially to the pilot project. Through mCity, the hope is to accomplish a better every day life for end users. Therefore, the benefits of the services developed in relation to the concrete needs of users, are of high interest and hopefully, it is also possible to measure the added value. End solutions should be easy to use—it should be almost intuitive to understand how to use the provided service. This is one reason for why simple technology is mostly used in mCity Projects—technology is seldom the problem, the focus is rather on what to introduce and how to introduce it. To summarize, the working process can be described in three keywords: •

user-oriented

•

benefit-driven

•

simple

It should be pointed out that mCity primarily does small-scale pilot projects; when these have been launched, it is the responsibility of the district councils, the special administrations, or the municipal companies involved to decide whether to keep



running the project, to enlarge it, and also to take the full operational and financial responsibility for the future project.

Pilot Projects mCity has started and financed several pilot projects since its launch in 2002. Different user groups are in need of different services and the largest segments identified are people who work, live in, and visit the City of Stockholm, as shown earlier in Figure 2. Through the pilot projects, these segments have been further specified, as described in Figure 3: tourists, students, SMEs, commuters, and city employees.

Tourists The very first project within mCity was carried out in 2002 for tourists, when the official event database owned by Stockholm Visitors’ Board6 was made available via mobile Internet. The city wanted to do this in relation to its 750th anniversary which was to be celebrated that year, and it was decided that something new should be tested, which is why WAP was chosen. A few years later in 2004, another service targeting tourists was developed by mCity. This time the development process was conducted by a group of talented students taking a project course at the Royal Institute of Technology. This project, .tourism, was initiated by the Art Council at the Cultural Administration in order to find new ways of making information about Stockholm available through new technology. The result, a Web site with information on statues, art objects, and buildings of interest is available via mobile or fixed Internet on the address, www. explore.stockholm.se. The server recognizes if the user is accessing the Web site

Figure 3. Focus groups of the mCity Project



from a PDA, a laptop, or a mobile phone. By using XML functionality, separate interfaces for the different devices are shown, giving the user the best experience possible depending on the device used. On the Web site, it is possible to search by the name of an object, a location, or a street. It is also possible to list all attractions within a city district. One can also make a guided tour through the Web site, and making this accessible for others to benefit from. Naturally, the personal tours have to be authorized by an administrator in order to filter non-ethic information.

Students mStudent is a joint project venture between the Federation of Student Unions in Stockholm (SSCO), the Stockholm Academic Forum, and the City of Stockholm within the framework of mCity. The objective is to develop mobile services which are useful to 80,000 students in the Stockholm region. For example, if students can receive an SMS telling them that a lecture has been cancelled, they might not have to come to the university campus at all that day, saving time to be better used for studies or other activities. During the spring of 2003, 28 students from eight different universities and university-colleges in the Stockholm region participated in a feasibility study to identify a number of services interesting to students. This first phase of the project was carried out together with Telia,7 Ericsson, and Föreningssparbanken.8 The objective was to identify mobile services that would be useful to students in their everyday life. In order to really use the most of the students’ innovative minds, they were all given one of Ericsson’s most modern mobile phones and were allowed to use them without limitations. This made them experts on the available services and also good judges on new services. Today, mStudent initiates and administrates different forms of tests and evaluations of mobile services in cooperation with businesses in Stockholm. The purpose is to encourage companies and universities to develop and use improved mobile services and thereby increase the quality of service to students as a group. The activities carried out are based on the list of mobile services that the students identified as interesting in the first phase; but apart from this, mStudent has also become a testbed which tests and evaluates all types of mobile services that can be useful for students. The “test pilots” are all students from Stockholm’s universities and university colleges, and mStudent gathers the students in focus groups for workshops, evaluations, and other activities. Some companies are already working together with student reference groups in order to gain feedback on their planned services.



SMEs mCity has been involved in one project aiming toward higher use of mobile services among SMEs.9 In one of the shopping malls in central Stockholm, Söderhallarna, the stores can use the Internet and mobile technology to communicate, both with customers and the mall administration. The choice of Söderhallarna was not a coincidence. The property is actually owned by the City of Stockholm, and it is of importance to the mall administration to keep up with the technological development to be able to attract stores to the premises. By working closely with the storeowners and the mall administration, mCity managed not only to improve the internal communication, but also to provide new ways of treating customer relations with the aid of mobile services. For instance, stores can now inform their customers of last-minute offers or arrivals of new products with SMS or e-mail. Also, customers can easier interact with some of the companies. One of the lunch providers receives the orders from their customers via SMS. This increases the probability of preparing the food on time when not having to take orders on the phone. The technology is also used by the Head of Marketing for the mall, in order to create VIP offers to customers, and to communicate with SME owners and other mall staff, such as janitors.

Commuters Up-to-date traffic information, provided by the City of Stockholm and the Swedish Road Administration among others, is today available on the Internet site, www. trafiken.nu. The information can be reached via WAP and Internet, but more ways of accessing the information have been developed. To make traffic information available regardless of place or time is important since it brings the choice to commute at a given time to the commuter. The commuters can improve their itinerary and choice of transportation based on the information about the current traffic situation. mCity is involved in several pilot projects within the traffic area all initiated with a pre-study to find out what kind of information commuters are interested in and would benefit from. In one project, mCity has financed the development of the use of dynamic voice to present information available on the Internet site. The synthetic voice starts reading the new information when a commuter calls a special telephone number available from both fixed and mobile telephones. In another project, commuters are able to subscribe to information on specific routes. The commuter submits information about specific time spans during which he/she is interested in knowing about traffic disturbances on a Web page. As soon as something happens on the route of interest on the specific time span, an SMS is sent out with this information.



Employees mCity has initiated several SMS management systems within the municipal organizations of Stockholm. Even though the technology used often is the most basic one, the impact has been extensive. Three examples of SMS solutions developed within mCity are described in the following sub-sections.

Schools: Absence Management A few compulsory and upper-secondary schools have been provided with an absence management system. By keying in their social security number and a four-digit code, pupils can report themselves absent into an automated solution provided by the school. The information is then automatically sent as an e-mail or an SMS to the teachers, thereby reducing administrative work. The flow of information between the school and the parents is also improved since parents may receive an SMS when the child skips class or when parents should remember to pack extra clothes for special extracurricular activities.

The Care Sector: Scheduling Services Within the care sector, scheduling is a time-consuming effort. Now, staff can plan and book time slots through the Internet, and changes can be made by management through SMS. Positive effects with the solution is that staff motivation has increased and the Head of Staff can now work with core activities as the administrative workload is reduced. This solution was tested together with the SMS solution described next.

The Care Sector: Substitute Management Within the care sector, a group SMS service has been implemented to facilitate substitute management. Instead of trying to reach substitutes through regular phone calls, managers can send SMSs to groups of staff, saving several hours every time. This creates better opportunities for planning, resulting in less stress for care staff and great financial benefits for the City of Stockholm. Also, managers have discovered the possibilities of encouraging staff through group SMS; an occasional “Have a nice weekend!”, or the like, is very much appreciated by the staff working in mobile care units, not seeing much of their colleagues and managers when spending much time out in the field.



This SMS system has been so successful that it has now been made available to all employees within the City of Stockholm to use and benefit from. An interesting fact is that as more people are getting the opportunity to use the system, new areas of use are discovered every day by the users themselves.

mCity Experiences Looking at the mCity Project, it is clear that by focusing on and involving users who traditionally are considered underdeveloped within the field of ICTs, mCity reduces the digital divide. Areas like education and the care sector present great potential for municipalities and ICT companies as large savings of time and money can be made when administrative tasks are simplified. Also, by focusing on the areas with largest potential, one can increase average levels of use and knowledge of ICTs in the organization, even if simple technology is used. Thus, even the use of SMS might be an important step toward the use of more advanced mobile services (Williamson & Öst, 2004). By involving the end user early on, the development process becomes more time consuming. On the other hand, there seems to be a higher chance of successful development and implementation. The involvement of end users in the development of mobile services leads to the appreciation of the users who feel that their experiences are valuable and have real impact. It is important to note that the “end user” is the very person who will use the system in the end, not his or her supervisor or manager. Thus, in small-scale projects, it is often necessary to involve several levels of management, involving the ones who will use the system, the ones who can oversee work processes, as well as the ones who will pay for the system. It is not always easy to involve people with limited skills and knowledge in technology in projects involving technology. Some people are also more skeptical of changes than others; they may have gone through several organizational changes within a short time span, or might not be interested in revising their working processes at all. This is especially obvious when implementing new technology. Thus, it is important to recognize that technological artefacts are as much social as technological objects, affecting people’s way of life as time and space are changing (Brown, 2002; Glimell & Juhlin, 2001; Urry, 2000). In order to involve the end users, the project must be presented in a way which makes it come across as a project which will lead to obvious changes for the better and not primarily as a technological project. “We’re not necessarily positive to technology per se, but we are positive to all new projects and ideas that will improve



our work”, a manager involved in the SMS project for substitute management stated in an interview (Hallin, 2003). The information generated through the process also provides the companies involved with valuable input on user behavior and preferences. To engage companies in an m-government project like mCity has been very rewarding for all parties, but even though the pilot projects have been too small to make it necessary to issue invitations to tender, a discussion about the delimitations of working together with the private sector in development projects has taken place within the Steering Committee. This discussion has been similar to the general discussion going on in Sweden, as several public institutions find that the Public Procurement Act makes innovation in the area of public e-services difficult (Grenblad, 2003). In Sweden, there are not many precedents concerning these kinds of simple and quick forms of cooperations between the private and the public sectors. Clear directives as to how and when companies should be involved are needed. A final lesson from the mCity Project is that simple technology offers great possibilities. mCity has not per se been interested in testing new technology just for the sake of testing new technology; the effects should be real and readily measurable, as described previously. This said, new technological inventions may also be tested and used, as has been the case within the mStudent Project and within the early tourist project. The clue is to always have in mind who is going to use the service. Students are in the forefront when it comes to usage of technology, and tourists also tend to be open minded to use new technology when travelling. Administrators in elderly care or in the school sector might not be as mature in their use of ICTs. The choice of technology is also often subjected to other types of limitations. When developing new systems based on new technology, you have to be able to answer a lot of questions. One is whether the service should be available for all or just for a small group of people. In the case of mCity, this has been a difficult aspect since all services are tested on a small scale, enlarged when proving relevant. In small-scale environments, technological integration is not really necessary, but when making a service available on a larger scale, it is. In the projects in elderly care and in school administration, this was clearly evident. When making the group SMS project a large-scale implementation, integration to several internal programs was necessary, such as the mail system and the identification portal. This was not impossible, but of course involved more work and thorough consideration. In a municipality, it is also necessary to consider the cost of implementing new technology. The new services have to deliver lowered cost or some other kind of gain for the city; developing services just for fun or because they are high-tech at the moment is not good enough.



Toward a New Definition of M-Government Is mCity an m-government project? Generally, “m-government” is defined as “a subset of e-government”, involving the use of mobile/wireless applications in the public sector, making the public information and services available anytime, anywhere (Lallana, 2004). According to this definition, it could be questioned whether mCity is an m-government project, as there are pilot projects with other goals than the one stated earlier. The mStudent Project, for example, aims at improving the life for students in the Stockholm region by introducing new mobile services from different providers, and in the SME project, small- and middle-sized companies and their customers benefit from the mobile service introduced. It is clear that the City of Stockholm through the mCity Project takes a broader grip on the task of providing people with the possibility of accessing public information and services, by also taking on a pedagogical role of encouraging people to use ICTs in different areas of city life, and by stimulating the ICT industry to develop new applications as well as rethink old applications. In order to understand this approach we must establish the relationship between the mCity Project and the municipal and national ICT strategies as well as the project’s relationship to the vision of Stockholm as an IT capital.

mCity in Relation to Municipal and National Strategy As described previously, the Stockholm E-Strategy is the policy document according to which the ICT work in the city is done. On its very first page, the document points out that the globalization process inevitably will lead to a new Europe where Stockholm will face tougher competition from other European cities, and that in order to face these challenges, the use of ICTs is an important factor. “IT must help to make Stockholm more attractive by securing the city’s long-term goals that Stockholm should continue to be a fine place to live and work in”(The City of Stockholm’s E-Strategy, 19th of February 2001). The “E-Strategy” of Stockholm is, on a municipal level, what the “24/7 Agency” is on the national level. The “24/7 Agency” was issued in 2000 by the Swedish government, aiming at extending the public sector’s use of ICTs, making services available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (The 24/7 Delegation). The vision entails all parts of the public sector—municipalities, county councils as well as central government—and is the Swedish government’s way of trying to cope with expected demographic changes leading to a larger aging population which will demand more of a public administration with fewer employees. At the same time, citizens in general are expected to demand more value for money and a growing internationalization is Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


thought to increase the competitive pressure on public bodies. The development of e-government in Sweden is a way of meeting these challenges (Lund) and the belief of the 24/7 Agency is that the Swedish administrative model, with independently managed central government agencies, is a factor for the success of rapid development of digital applications and e-services (Lundbergh, 2004). Swedish authorities primarily call for the most appropriate services, not specific technologies. Thus, the name of “the 24/7 Agency” places focus on the time aspects of service-provision—public services should be provided around the clock—not on specific technologies. The question “how” is subordinated, as, “Accessibility, irrespective of time of day and geographical location, may be achieved through a range of established service channels” (Östberg, 2000). Also, the Stockholm EStrategy is on purpose called the “E-Strategy”, and not the “IT-policy”, in order to shift “…focus from IT to activities and show [..] how enhanced integration of electronic services (‘e-services’) can develop the municipality’s work” (The City of Stockholm’s E-Strategy, 19th of February 2001). According to this, the E-Strategy does not prescribe certain technologies, but only points at different areas that the city should work with: Internet, information management, mobile technologies (in general), and so forth.

mCity and the Vision of Stockholm as an IT Capital The mCity Project not only aims at developing technology which make the city available around the clock. It is also a project used to enhance the image of Stockholm as an IT capital; an image based for example on the fact that Ericsson and other major players within the ICT sector have their development offices within the area. According to the Stockholm E-Strategy, IT can play an important role in making Stockholm an attractive city for people to live and work in, and therefore, the city must take an active part in creating business opportunities for ICT companies. One of the goals stated in the E-Strategy is to, “Be one of the most attractive municipalities for relocation, start-up and running of businesses, in competition with the foremost European cities” (The City of Stockholm’s E-Strategy, 19th of February 2001, p. 14). Through the mCity Project, the city has given several ICT companies in the Stockholm area the opportunity to test ideas, develop new applications and market themselves in and outside the country—naturally, in compliance with the Public Procurement Act. This strife to encourage local development conveys an entrepreneurial stance which might be perceived as contrasting with the managerial practices of earlier decades which primarily focused on the local provision of services, facilities, and benefits to the population (Harvey, 1989). However, when cities find themselves competing on a global—not only on a national—arena, a new kind of city man-



agement develops, involving proactive management of the images of the city as a management tool. Today, city managers are not only active administrators of the traditional areas of responsibility (Czarniawska, 2000) and the “branding” of the city involves much more than producing colorful brochures (Ward, 1998).

mCity and M-Government As described earlier, the mCity Project aims at creating “the mobile city”, as this is thought to be a good place for people to live, work, and spend their holidays in, since mobility means flexibility. But this does not necessarily mean that the project only deals with the development of mobile technologies, which makes information and services of the City of Stockholm available. “Mobile” here does not refer to the technology, but to the people using it, and “the mobile city” is the city where people have the flexibility to do what they want, where and when they choose. The mobile city can be achieved by the city becoming a role model, using mobile technology for its own activities, for example in schools, in homes for the elderly, or through mobile services which give commuters information about traffic, but also by stimulating the use of mobile technology in general, for example by encouraging students in the Stockholm area to ask for and use mobile services. It is also obvious, that for mCity, the traditional m-government definition is not sufficient, as the city itself is not limited to its municipal organization. As we have showed earlier, the projects within mCity involve cooperation with both national institutions (for example, within the traffic projects), regional institutions (for example, within the mStudent Project) as well as private companies. Thus, rather than focusing on technology or the municipal organization, mCity focuses on people, and to see this project as an m-government project is to broaden the definition of m-goverment from only encompassing the use of mobile/wireless applications in the public sector, making the public information and services available anytime, anywhere. And rather than having the municipal organization as the starting point for its activities, the city, as it is perceived by its citizens, visitors, and employees, is the unit from where the project takes off. Thus, we suggest a new definition of m-government: A public body which supports the mobility of its people, by providing its services when and where the people need them, and by supporting the development of whatever wireless technologies are needed, and the education of people in these.



The Future of M-Cities It has been argued that the organizing capacity of a city determines whether the city will be able to develop in a sustainable way, and that the ability to include ICTs is becoming a more important aspect of the organizing capacity of cities (Winden, 2003). This, we believe is true. Once a small, local initiative, mCity has grown into a project which covers many application areas. Through the project, it has become clear that mobile services can help Stockholm simplify routines, minimize administration, save both time and money, and make life a bit easier for people thus contributing to a better working and living environment by improving the service quality offered by the city. These results further strengthen the notion that the building of m-government is important, probably not only for cities, but for all public bodies. But in order to be successful, a people’s perspective has to be adopted and the traditional borders of the public body might have to be challenged. To start with people rather than with technology or with the organization, is an important prerequisite for success.

References The 24/7 Delegation. (No. Dir 2003:81). Retrieved November 19, 2006, from http://www.sou.gov.se/24timmarsdel/PDF/Eng%20version.pdf Brown, B. (2002). Studying the use of mobile technology. In B. Brown, N. Green, & R. Harper (Eds.), Wireless world. Social and interactional aspects of the mobile age (pp. 3-15). London: Springer. Castells, M. (1997). The power of identity (vol. 2). Oxford: Blackwell. The City of Stockholm’s E-Strategy. (2001, February 19). Available through the City of Stockholm +46 (0)8-508 00 000. The Swedish version can be retrieved (last retrieval, November 20, 2006) from http://www.stockholm.se/files/1610016199/file_16185.pdf Czarniawska, B. (2000). The European capital of the 2000s: On image construction and modeling. Corporate Reputation Review, 3, 202-217. Glimell, H., & Juhlin, O. (Eds.). (2001). The social production of technology. On the everyday life with things. Göteborg: BAS. Grenblad, D. (2003). Growth area – E-services in the public sector, analyses of the innovation system in 2003. Vinnova (The Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems).



Hallin, A. (2003). Mobile technology and social development – Dialogic spaces in msociety. EGOS Annual Conference, Copenhagen, July 2-5. Harvey, D. (1989). From managerialism to entrepreneurialism: The transformation in urban governance in late capitalism. Geografiska Annaler, 71B(1), 3-17. Jazic, A., & Lundevall, K. (2003). mWatch – A survey on mobile readiness in the Baltic Sea Region. Presented at the 5th Annual Baltic Development Forum Summit, Riga, Latvia. Retrieved November 20, 2006, from http://www.bdforum.org/download.asp?id=49 Lallana, E. C. (2004). eGovernment for development, mgovernment definition on and models page. Retrieved January 13, 2005, from http://www.e-devexchange. org/eGov/mgovdefn.htm Lund, G. The Swedish vision of 24-hour public administration and e-government – Speech by Gunnar Lund, Minister for International Economic Affairs and Financial Markets, held December 9th. Unpublished manuscript. Lundbergh, A. (2004). Infra services – A Swedish way to facilitate public e-services development: MEMO. The Swedish Agency for Public Management. Urry, J. (2000). Sociology beyond societies, mobilities for the twenty-first century. London & New York: Routledge. Ward, S. V. (1998). Selling places. The marketing and promotion of towns and cities 1850-2000. New York: E & Fn Spon. Williamson, S., & Öst, F. (2004). The Swedish telecommunications market 2003. (No. PTS-ER-2004-24), The Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency. Winden, W. v. (2003). Essays on Urban ICT Policies. Rotterdam: Erasmus University Rotterdam. Östberg, O. (2000). The 24/7 agency. Criteria for 24/7 agencies in the networked public administration. Stockholm: The Swedish Agency for Administrative Development.

Relevant Web Sites www.stockholm.se/mCity www.stockholm.se/english/ www.mstudent.se www.telecomcity.org www.testplats.com www.24-timmarsmyndigheten.se Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


www.pts.se www.trafiken.nu www.explore.stockholm.se

Endnotes 1

All of Sweden has about nine million inhabitants.

2

2004.

3

The City Council is the supreme decision-making body in the City of Stockholm, consisting of 101 members from the six parties represented in the council, and are elected by the Stockholmers every 4th year.

4

The City Executive Board consists of 13 members, who proportionally represent the parties in the City Council.

5

The Office of the City Executive Board.

6

The municipal company in Stockholm providing service to visitors.

7

The largest telecom operator in Sweden today known as TeliaSonera after a merge with the Finish company Sonera.

8

One of the major bank corporations in Sweden.

9

Small- and middle-sized enterprises.


30 Olmstead, Peinel, Tilsner, Abramowicz, Bassara, Filipowska, Wiśniewski & Żebrowski

Chapter III

Usability Driven Open Platform for Mobile Government (USE-ME.GOV) Paul Moore Olmstead, Atos Research and Innovation, Spain Gertraud Peinel, Fraunhofer FIT, Germany Dirk Tilsner, EDISOFT, Portugal Witold Abramowicz, The Poznan University of Economics, Poland Andrzej Bassara, The Poznan University of Economics, Poland Agata Filipowska, The Poznan University of Economics, Poland Marek Wiśniewski, The Poznan University of Economics, Poland Pawel Żebrowski, The Poznan University of Economics, Poland

Abstract This chapter introduces the USE-ME.GOV project that supports and encourages the authorities with the access to new e-government services at any time and anywhere


Usability Driven Open Platform for Mobile Government (USE-ME.GOV) 31

through the use of mobile communications and Semantic Web technologies. The USE-ME.GOV system addresses openness, interoperability, usability, and security scientific goals, and throughout the chapter the methodology and main outcomes are described.

Motivation and Goals IST initiatives for improving services to citizens and businesses are increasingly being promoted and implemented by individual authorities and organizations. Even smaller towns operate their own Web site with access to general public information, whereas larger cities and institutions generally offer a wider range of more sophisticated electronic (Web-based) services. However, the richness and quality of these services can vary significantly. In particular, small authorities, for example, in rural areas, have limited financial, technical, and human resources in order to implement and deploy electronic services with the same quality as large organizations (Leenes & Svensson, 2002). This aspect becomes even more critical for the deployment of mobile services because of a higher complexity of service implementation, the required organizational changes as well as higher costs for commercial exploitation due to the complexity of the value chain. Authorities are usually organized in departments, each with their own responsibilities, tasks, structure, and customers. Unfortunately, the IT infrastructure and equipment, as well as the corresponding technical background knowledge, are often different in each department. Mobile operators or portals are searching for content to promote their new mobile technologies and approach public organizations to deliver services on Internet and wireless networks. Once contracted, one department connects to a particular mobile operator and “somebody” implements a proprietary bridge to one specific operator interface. This bridge can normally not be reused for other applications or other mobile operators. Authorities are now actively searching for mobile solutions to implement regulations and recommendations from state, national, and European bodies calling for e-government, e-governance, and of course m-government. But due to a lack of adequate technical background, monetary shortcuts, legal restrictions on innovative partnerships and business plans, and less experience in mobile markets and their interdependencies, the authorities are hesitant about investing time and money in stand-alone proprietary solutions that require major investments. The deployment of an open service platform, that can be shared by networked authorities and institutions (e.g., on a regional scale) in terms of technical resources as well as commercial exploitation, would harmonize the quality of public services and overcome related divide phenomena. On the other hand, resource sharing on Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Figure 1. Current state of authorities’ mobile interface architecture

Authority

several proprietary mobile interfaces

the basis of attractive business models would also provide the conditions for costefficient m-government services especially in geographical areas with low Internet penetration. Therefore, the USE-ME.GOV project aims to provide an open and interoperable platform that can be shared by different local authorities and diverse organizational units. This sharing of the platform means that the cost of ownership of such a solution is reduced. Also, by emphasizing the openness of the platform, any involved party is given the choice of providing services in any suitable or available technology.

Figure 2. “Dream” situation while using the interoperable platform

Authority

central mobile platform

Authority Authority Authority Authority Sharing of platform



Hence, the USE-ME.GOV project’s key objective is to support authorities entering the mobile market with an open source platform that allows: •

The sharing of common modules with other departments or other authorities (for example, subscription, alerting components);

•

Making development and operation more secure through open source transparency;

•

Bringing on board other mobile operators independent of their respective interfaces; and

•

Being able to estimate costs, efforts, outcomes, and benefits in advance.

This proposal gives an overview of the USE-ME.GOV project, its current state and findings including planned services, the obstacles that have been experienced, and the technological design and implementation work in progress.

Usability Requirements Groundbreaking topic-specific mobile applications focus mainly on the challenges related to mobility itself, mobile assistance, and location-based services (Abramowicz, Bassara, Filipowska, Wisniewski, & Zebrowski, 2006). In all these areas, usability is seen as a key challenge (Barton, Zhai, & Cousins, 2006). For the design of the open service platform and pilot services, a usability-driven approach was followed, as also indicated by the name of the project. The concept of usability is many-fold and encompasses the following fields of research and application: •

Enlarged access to public information services. In order to ensure broad access by a significant part of the population, the platform has to provide openness and interoperability with regard to the interconnection with different networks, the integration of external content providers and public authorities providing their services, and must further consider diverging mobile device characteristics and capabilities.

•

Intuitive and user-friendly mobile interfaces. Services are designed taking into account heterogeneous user characteristics, addressing the common needs of the citizens with different educational or even cultural background, age, and interests, allowing for easy access to and search of information considering location, context, and user interests.



•

Deployment of services. The concept of usability also implies that mobile services must be easy to deploy for the authorities, not depending on expensive software-hardware products or demanding technological skills for their configuration, maintenance, and continuous update of service content.

•

Economical sustainability. The participation in the platform is thought to be open to all interested providers of public mobile information services including small authorities and organizations that have limited financial capabilities to deploy mobile services on an individual basis. The framework for exploitation takes into account the diverse needs and interests of public and private providers of services and information.

One of the major problems developers must deal with is the small display and limited user input of mobile devices. User interfaces for mobile technology and ultra-portable devices like cellular phones, PDAs, computer tablets, and wearable devices tend to mimic user interfaces originally designed and established for desktop computers to date but these basic versions of the interfaces do not usually translate well to mobile situations. There were two divergent streams of usability research in the USE-ME.GOV project. Pilot services designed for present day smartphones were created using the standard interactive methods available in these devices (basically keyboard and pen/finger). The usability of these services was then validated in field and laboratory testing with 10 users following the criteria detailed earlier. But also, in parallel, one of these pilot services (the City News Broadcasting Service) was redesigned for future smartphones with an additional voice input channel, hence turning its UI into a multimodal UI. The objective of this work was to identify and to give recommendations that can be applied to the design of multimodal 3G services on mobile devices. A comparative user test with 20 subjects was conducted to assess and compare the usability of the tactile only and the multimodal UI.

Needs and Benefits for Public Mobile Services The need for and usefulness of mobile services provided by public administrations is mainly seen to be from the perspective of multi-channel service delivery. While the debate on mobile government is ongoing, research on the benefits and applicability of mobile services for the public administration is sparse and much of the available literature actually refers to pilot projects and implementations. The previously-mentioned project USE-ME.GOV therefore conducted a study on the particular needs and expectations of each of the authorities involved in the project:



•

Bologna City Hall (Italy)

•

Extramadura Association (Spain)

•

Vila Nova de Cerveira (Portugal)

•

Gdynia City Hall (Poland)

It was found that these organizations follow a variety of operational, economical as well as political and IST strategic goals (D2.2, 2004). Despite the existence of common needs, a diversity of requirements and potential benefits were extracted and synthesized: •

Mobile services are seen as a new and/or complementary dissemination channel and a means of access to public information. Public information is of various types: o

General public information;

o

Time-critical information (emergencies, traffic); and

o

Notifications according to user-specific interests.

Key Benefits

•

o

Dissemination of information to a larger number of people (mobile access) in a very short time.

o

Increased accessibility, transparency, and citizen satisfaction.

o

Improved public perception of the town or city.

The mobile channel provides an efficient means of communication between the authority and the citizen The most evident application of this concept is in the sending of notifications, bulletins, and so forth, having to do with specific cases and processes such as, for example, requests for certificates and other documents issued by the public authority). Even though mobile services cannot be expected to eliminate entirely the need for personal attendance, they can substantially simplify process-related correspondence and provide instant and accurate information to the citizen whether serving as the primary channel or as a complement to other channels. Key Benefits o

Reduction of average service processing time, especially for correspondence concerning simple notifications.

o

Ubiquitous and instant contact.



•

o

Reduction of costs.

o

More time freed up and which can be dedicated to particular cases.

o

Citizen and private-user satisfaction.

Mobile services can serve as a stimulus for the participation of the citizen in local community affairs and be applied as a channel for the submission of complaints, suggestions, and so forth, accessible to the public. This kind of service also encompasses the communication between the authority and the citizen during the follow-up of the complaint/suggestion. Key Benefits

•

o

Early detection of problems reported by the citizens.

o

Greater accessibility.

o

More transparency.

o

Increased participation of citizens in community affairs.

o

Higher levels of citizen satisfaction.

o

Ubiquitous and instant contact.

Within the context of general public information services, mobile services can also be used as vehicle for promotion of local (cultural, fairs) events. The promotional effect would be particularly useful for local businesses with limited financial and organizational capabilities to announce their presence at events such as local fairs. Key Benefits o

Dissemination of information to a larger number of people (mobile access) in a very short time.

o

Reduction of costs.

o

Contribution to sustainability.

o

Promotional support to local businesses.

o

Improved image of city, town, region, …

The results of the study show that mobile services have a very high potential and can bring substantial benefits. It should be noted that, generally speaking, the improvement of the quality of public services for citizens and private businesses



are probably the most important expected benefits, whereas the apparent potential for increased service efficiency and economy, stemming from the streamlining of internal administrative work processes, is recognized, but not seen as the key driver for the adoption of mobile service delivery. It was further concluded that the authorities who participated in the study had a clear understanding of how the targeted mobile services fit into the organization’s individual IST strategy and which particular benefits could be obtained. On the other hand, a lack of experience as well as missing (defined, tested, proven) business models make it difficult to achieve a reliable assessment of the relation between costs and benefits and financial sustainability. Obviously this kind of uncertainty is often perceived by the authorities as a risk and ultimately can cause an organization to refrain from mobile service provision. Even though the potential for increased organizational efficiency and productivity is realized, the impact on administrative workflow sometimes turns out to be a barrier to adoption. As a matter of fact, mobile service provision cannot stay disconnected from underlying workflows for service provision and require a certain amount of process re-organization and re-engineering. The bottlenecks and problems of current workflows and processes are generally known. However, the impact of introducing particular mobile services can be quite significant and complex, and organizational resistance to change and the need for modifications to established norms and administrative procedures must also be considered.

Usability in the Multimodal Services By combining different output modalities (text, graphics, sound), information transmission and comprehension can be both easier and more effective. By allowing the use of different input modalities (phone keypad, virtual keyboard, pen, handwriting, spoken commands), users can easily adapt to different circumstances (stationary use, noisy environment, use while walking). Finally, context-awareness mechanisms can also be considered since they can make input tasks easier by providing the service with required information (e.g., user’s location, environmental information, time) and hence alleviating user’s effort. Dealing with heterogeneity means that active (user-initiated) and passive (systeminitiated) adaptation mechanisms should be considered for filtering and presenting relevant information to users. However, intelligent systems raise specific usability issues related to the need for users to control their system. Future research must explore acceptable guidance strategies that will help users decide how to set their preferences. It is also important to identify the procedures by which an intelligent system could maintain users awareness of its current setting, allowing them to easily understand how and why it behaves differently in different circumstances.



Following this study, the main considerations to take into account for integrating speech interaction into a graphical and tactile UI can be summarized as follows: •

Natural language tends to flatten functions hierarchies, hence the navigation structure must be deeply reconsidered to take into account the power of speech to combine multiple information in a single sentence.

•

Visual prompts and feedbacks must be carefully integrated into the graphical design so that users can guess the most efficient verbal phrases and get control on the interaction.

•

It may be necessary to create advanced graphical interactive components with tactile interaction that mimic the phrasing and chunking capabilities of speech to keep both modalities equivalent.

However, all these considerations are general and do not guarantee success. As the user tests showed, users interacting with a PDA or a smartphone are willing to naturally speak with sentences once they realize it is possible, but their first expectation seems to have a system that only understands keywords or simple phrases. Moreover, it appeared that the visual prompts we chose were not efficient enough. Further research is clearly needed to find better ways to guide users toward the appropriate and effective ways to utter their requests and commands. A few directions are indicated by the test results: •

Creating an area of the screen dedicated to user guidance. Visual prompt and feedback will appear only in this area. Such an approach could help users to know which information to exploit in order to know what to say but we anticipate difficulties with it due to the reduced space of the screen of mobile devices.

•

A dialogue based on speech input/speech output instead of speech input/visual output: based on previous studies (cf., Hone & Barber, 2001), it may be argued that such an approach should help users to naturally speak to systems more rapidly and, with appropriate prompts, reduce the number of errors. However, such a solution might not fit some mobility constraints (disturbance caused to other people with an audio output, privacy concerns, …).

•

In any case, improved strategies to deal with dialogue errors are necessary. In particular, rather than expecting users to produce unambiguous requests and commands, ambiguity should be expected and a specific dialogue should be designed to deal with it. Also, users should be prompted to shift to another input modality when more than two errors in succession occur.



Another lesson learned from our user test is that even with appropriate prompts— whether audio or visual—users would probably deviate in uttering spoken commands from the lexical and syntactical rules exhibited with these prompts. The conclusion is that designers of multimodal UI should create flexible grammars and sufficiently wide vocabulary. Since it is difficult to anticipate all the required words and phrases from the beginning, an iterative design process should be adopted where pre-design studies (Yankelovich, 1998) and Wizard-of-Oz tests (Fraser & Gilbert, 1991) can help in identifying them before any program development begins. We have also learned that it should be preferable to make any word or label visible on the screen understandable by the system. Most importantly, technological improvements are required to reduce the number of recognition errors. Even with an iterative design process, it seems difficult to expect today, with the available market products (such as Nuance) and under real use conditions, recognition rates higher than 80%. Since other available modalities on small devices exhibit a better reliability, which also means a better ease-of-learning and ease-of-use, a majority of users could prefer them to voice input. One could question the need to expect these improvements. After all, if users learn very quickly and found easy to use the current user interfaces of smartphones and PDA, why providing them with the ability to use voice as an input channel? The reasons why we still believe necessary to look for multimodal UI are: •

There exists a great variability among users about which input modality is preferable whatever the situation. As our test revealed, some users clearly seem to prefer voice input even if it is less reliable than other available modalities while other users seem to prefer pen-based interaction, whatever the speech recognition performances.

•

Each modality fits particularly well some specific task characteristics. For instance, voice input is the preferred input modality to select objects that are not visible on screen. Other studies have shown that gestures are preferred to select points or geographical areas on a map (Oviatt, DeAngeli, & Kuhn, 1997).

•

Even if a specific modality is preferred, users may encounter situations where they need to shift to another modality. This is especially true when an user faces repetitive errors with a specific word or in selecting a specific area of a touchscreen, for instance.

•

More generally, multimodal UI enhances the users’ adaptive capabilities. Depending on the situation characteristics, users may prefer to use voice or the pen. For instance, when moving, they should prefer to use voice. Being stopped in a quiet place, they should prefer to use the pen.



All these reasons lead us to believe that research on multimodal UI should continue and produce technological, methodological, and design progresses so as to increase their usability and acceptance.

General Architecture The analysis of the user requirements leads to the design tasks that are initiated with the architectural design. Collected, formalized, and classified requirements are analyzed to give functional designers a framework and technologies to work upon. This is not an easy task, as it needs to satisfy both the functional requirements and provide a basis for the detailed system design. One the one hand, the system must fully comply with the requirements. But, on the other, system designers must feel comfortable with this basic architecture so that during the entire design process they are not unduly constrained by technology or architectural decisions. These constraints could arise from the limitations of both the chosen technologies and/or the sketched architectural solution. Although there is no ideal solution where such constraints would not appear, the architectural designers should aim at minimizing that gap. In the area of m-government, according to the main European Union’s initiatives in the field, such as IDABC (former IDA Framework), systems’ analysts should conform to the service orientation paradigm. This paradigm describes a single unit of functionality as a service. The service providers form a specific marketplace, on which the services can be searched, utilized, joined together, and ran. Therefore, the main focus is placed on services, and therefore, on service orientation. In a more technical fashion, we can talk about service-oriented architectures (SOA) that are a roadmap, and serve as the set of recommendations on how the specific applications need to be constructed. The application of SOA opens up other “ideological” advantages: •

Openness. The ability of the system to stay open for multiple non-proprietary technologies and frameworks. The more open the system is, the more extendible, and thus usable, it is.

•

Interoperability. The ability to provide technical, organizational, and semantic means for data and information interchange and utilization. In the area of e-government, this is of steadily increasing importance, and it has been one of the major focus points for the technical and research partners in the USEME.GOV project.



Interoperability Interoperability has been an issue since the first information systems lost their homogenous nature. Multiplicity led to the emergence of “islands” of objects that were originally thought as cooperative units. However, the operability on the “island” level is still only a possibility, and these units are unable to operate within external frameworks. Here the problem of interoperability arises. There is no coherent and agreed definition of interoperability. Mainly because the concept is broad enough to be comprehended from many different perspectives. The common pitfall is to think of interoperability in terms of only technical issues, whereas all its aspects should be considered. These additional aspects could be grouped into the semantic and organizational domains. On the other hand, some misunderstanding of the concept of interoperability led to multiple and inconsistent definitions. The definitions vary from extremely simple: the ability of two or more systems or components to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged (IEEE, 1990), the ability of software and hardware on multiple machines from multiple vendors to communicate1; to more complex: capability to provide successful communication between end users across a mixed environment of different domains, networks, facilities, equipment, etc., from different manufacturers and(or) providers. In this context the communication is meant between end users or between an end user and a service provider2. Even so, the European Commission (EC) (2003) has its own way to define interoperability. It is not a real definition but a neat comparison: Interoperability is like a chain that allows information and computer systems to be joined up both within organizations and then across organizational boundaries with other organizations, administrations, enterprises or citizens. The purpose of interoperability is to share and reuse information in a way that the exchanged content will be understandable by the applications. Furthermore, the sharing of information shall not interfere with internal organizational code. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Technical Interoperability Weiser’s (1993) original research on pervasive computing was driven by the vision of interoperable miniaturized devices. Multiple kinds of devices, software, and operating systems and network access mechanisms all stand behind the idea of interoperability. All these pre-requisites form the technical aspect of interoperability. Weiser’s vision is now regarded as a roadmap for the contemporary research communities. Technical interoperability in m-government is a complex term because it involves interoperability issues on five distinct levels: •

Representation languages

•

Data formats

•

Operating systems

•

Transmission protocols

•

Heterogeneous hardware

To help understand the problem, we may ask the question: where has the technical interoperability succeeded? There are obviously domains in which interoperability was not only the key issue, but also the main necessity. In those areas, it has succeeded. The postal code is an example—unified, standardized, commonly used, and simple. The example may seem trivial, but moving on to telephone numbers things get little more complex. Finally, the latest benefactor from the interoperability revolution is the Internet. It almost seems unreal, but the compliance to agreed standards has been achieved. The backbone of the Internet lies in the hands of technical protocols, namely TCP/IP and HTTP. To some extent, the success of the Internet is based on technical interoperability. However, not all of the interoperability aspects are covered in the Internet which is clearly a driving force behind the initiatives devoted to the promotion of coherent conceptualization. But in many spheres technical interoperability is still failing. The realm of information systems is tremendously diverse, and in the foreseeable future, this diversity means that, for the most part, problems in interoperability will continue to plague us. To bring us closer to the ultimate goal of real interoperability different approaches are being considered. Service-oriented architecture and all the accompanying standards with Web services as a backbone bring the promise of application level integration. Technical interoperability is, in specific cases, achievable. The problem is of a different nature—how to convince or impose standards and technologies. In the case of simple homogeneous systems architecture the situation is trivial. However, as Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


the complexity grows the interoperability problem escalates. This requires that all participating parties conform to the technologies that have been agreed upon.

Semantic Interoperability Semantic interoperability is to ensure that the precise meaning of exchanged information is understandable by any other application not initially developed for this purpose (EC, 2003). When dealing with semantic interoperability one has to consider problems of a different kind. That are of a structural or semantic character. The structural problems are due to the variety of model representations, whereas semantic problems have to do with incoherency in meaning. The idea is to build a framework which will form an internally compact solution. Thus, a new application will be able to understand and use the information. This should be considered as a shortcoming of the EC’s definition of semantic interoperability. New players should not only gain access to the information but also be able to utilize it. Knowledge representation has been a subject of many new trends over the past decades. Currently, the leading of these are based on ontology theories. In fact, the semantic aspect of interoperability is all about the ontology and how it deals with knowledge: •

representation;

•

management; and

•

utilization.

Semantic aspects therefore are vital to achieve the overall objective of interoperability and are presented in more detail in the Service Repository section. Application level integration promised by service-oriented architecture requires mechanisms to compose exposed WSDL endpoints; these mechanisms are known as service composition. Currently, the OWL-S3 initiative defines the processes behind Web services composition.

Organizational Interoperability Organizational changes are not easy to be implemented. The time of simple, hierarchical, and unified organizational structures seems to be gone. The organizational structures of Europe’s administrations and enterprises vary significantly. At the same time, they tend to have closed structures that do not easily allow for operating with Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


external units. Therefore, even providing technical and semantic interoperability is not enough, as often organizational constraints will not permit interoperability. This implies re-organization of internal structures. Sharing and reuse of administration-specific information, which is the whole point of interoperability, should not, however, unduly interfere with internal organization structures. Of course, the pre-requisite is the appropriate preparation of these structures. Though re-engineering of the authorities’ processes is often one of the stated goals of their IT projects, developers cannot expect them to very actively participate in the technical design of the business processes. The main challenge, therefore, is to define and execute process re-organization in such a way that platforms such as USE-ME.GOV do not require intense technical participation of the authorities in the course of the product life cycle but, in the end, the functional requirements of the authorities are met.

Functional and Architectural Partitioning Platform requirements analysis released as an object model (D5.1.1, 2004) should be the initiator for the subsequent analysis and design activities. Analysis and design activities should be split into functional and architectural partitioning according to the Unified Process (Larman 2005; Maciaszek, 2005) as the most common and acceptable methodology. An object-oriented approach results in the Unified Modelling Language being used as a modelling language for communication purposes as well as documentation of work conducted. Functional partitioning starts with an analysis of the functional requirements of the platform. Stated requirements should be analyzed both syntactically and semantically to derive direct mappings to the objects. For non-trivial object identification, sequence diagrams are constructed and refined according to the outcomes of the analysis model. The initial functional partitioning activities are conducted in three subsequent phases in order to demonstrate the legitimacy of the achieved results. For each identified functional area, detailed sequence diagrams should be constructed to define objects’ operations and detect all possible design imprecisions. Architectural partitioning refers to the analysis of the current, most appropriate technologies for the domains involved and the subsequent architecture elaboration. The main factor behind the architectural partitioning is to design the architecture in a such way that to ensure that both stable and extensible application systems can feasibly be provided. The stable application system should include all the functionalities that are indispensable for all other system’s parts and therefore, constitute a core system’s functionalities. Extensible parts of the system should provide for all those functionalities that can be joined up, shared, and utilized among all other participating entities.



As well, the project team should approach the issues of openness and interoperability of the proposed solution with an exhaustive attention. As already stated, technical aspects require that the platform utilize and accept common standards of the most influential standardization bodies, notably the W3C4 and OASIS5 organizations. Architectural usability aspects require that other defined entities have the possibility to co-exist with the system being developed, so that the content can be shared or added and services or any other defined functionality can be provided. Openness and interoperability of the system should permit all parties to have a wide choice of technologies that they are allowed to use. The architectural requirement for the division of application systems and the project’s technical goal for open and interoperable platform are able to be fulfilled only by one architectural framework. Service-oriented architecture, most notably its latest version of Web services architecture (WSA, 2004) has proved to be a huge success among research bodies. To ensure that the SOA is reflected in the architecture, the system under construction should, where possible, map the concepts that are defined in WSA to the context of the system being defined. Not all defined concepts will necessarily be used, of course, but the most relevant ones will probably form the main part of the architecture. Web services architecture can be applied from four different viewpoints, thus its reference consists of four different models: •

Message-oriented model that deals with a message as a focus point;

•

Service-oriented model that focuses on a service;

•

Resource-oriented model that deals with resources; and

•

Policy model that defines the modelling of the constraints to the resources, services, and agents.

In USE-ME.GOV system, we have, in particular, utilized the service-oriented model as a focal point of our system.

Platform Design The USE-ME.GOV system is designed to allow the delivery of content and e-services to users who use a variety of mobile devices with different capabilities and connecting by various communication channels. These services constitute an added value (from now on added-value services—AVS) and are not an integral part of the USE-ME.GOV platform.



AVS are intended to be delivered by third parties and may be created using virtually any technology and deployed on any machine as long as its functionality is accessible via the designed interface. For interoperability issues, open and commonly accepted technologies are used. AVSs use Web services (conformance to WS-I Basic Profile) for remote procedure calls and electronic documents interchange and use WML and xHTML over HTTP for content delivery. The user is not allowed to invoke AVS functionality directly. The USE-ME.GOV platform takes care of finding appropriate service, dispatching request from user to AVS and forwarding responses to users and contacting users on behalf of services. The USE-ME.GOV platform consists of two separate application systems that are deployed on J2EE servlet container—the core platform and service repository. The core platform serves as a single point of contact for users and is also responsible for management of users and terminals. The user does not need to be aware of the AVSs available or their location. The core platform is responsible for forwarding messages to the proper location. This task is achieved with the help of the service repository. The service repository serves as a central registry of available services. Every service which wants to be discovered must register its description within the repository. The description (description language is defined by meta-protocol of service types) contains functional and non-functional features of service encoded in semantically rich format. These descriptions allows for easy finding of relevant services as well as their automated execution.

Figure 3. USE-ME.GOV general architecture



The USE-ME.GOV system also contains platform services—services provided either by the platform operator or third parties which extend the functionality of the USE-ME.GOV platform. Their functionalities must also be exposed as a Web service, and they also must be registered within the service repository. They differ from AVSs in that there are not directly accessible by users. Sample platform services included in the platform installation are: •

Context aggregation service

•

Context provision service

•

Localization service

•

Content aggregation service

•

Content provision service

Developing spatially-aware information systems for dynamic, location-specific information in mobile environments has been a challenge on it own (Harsha & Joel, 2005). Such solutions can be plugged-in to the USE-ME.GOV architecture according to the openness and interoperability capabilities. Currently for external connections to mobile operators, there is no accepted standard to which all operators comply but the most common standard is OSA/ParlayX. For this reason, the interfaces for connecting the USE-ME.GOV platform to the national mobile operators have been developed conforming to the OSA/ParlayX standard.

Figure 4. USE-ME.GOV platform interfaces



In those cases where operators did not have a ParlayX platform, specific connectors had to be developed. The core platform includes the following modules: •

HTTP Server Adapter: It is an adapter to the application server. HTTP server allows for interactive connection with the platform. It should forward every request to an HTTPAccessPoint and return the response generated by an AVService.

•

MO Messaging Adapter: It is an adapter to mobile operator messaging capabilities. It allows sending and receiving SMS and MMS messages. It also allows to be notified when a message arrives and to check message delivery status. Initially, UseMeGov will provide implementations for interacting with a ParlayX interface. If the network operator does not have such a platform, special adapters will need to be implemented to access network messaging functionality.

•

Communication: This subsystem is responsible for managing the communication with user terminal. The communication is established between user terminal and specific access point.

•

Communication Channel: Manages communication channels registered in the platform. Communication channel which possesses specific characteristics is used to describe access point capabilities.

•

Billing: This subsystem records data necessary for billing purposes. Client subsystem decides which data post to billing subsystem. Due to the variety of the billing needs of each operator, this subsystem will be modeled as a controller which dispatches billing events to some registered listeners.

•

Platform Management: This subsystem allows access to the platform administrative capabilities like subsystems monitoring, status reporting, and resources management.

•

Operations: Start stop platform, manage users, terminals and access points, subsystems status management, configuration management, performance management, and so forth.

•

Terminal: Terminal package deals with all significant issues related to terminal management in the UseMe.Gov platform. Main objectives of the package is terminal data persistency, terminal identification, and terminal properties management. This package handles also with the mobile operator data that are crucial to platform operation.

•

User: User package provides necessary infrastructure for the management of user-related persistent data. It performs four main tasks: manages user authentication data, manages user subscription status to external services, provides



infrastructure for user profile management, and enables indirect access to terminal package. •

Properties: Property package deals with provision of mechanisms for properties management. Properties could be either user preferences, terminal preferences, or any profile-related attributes. It is designed in order to provide terminal and user subsystems with a capability to manage properties sets.

WS Interfaces: •

Messaging Service: This Web service exposes basic messaging functionality

•

User Management Service: This Web service exposes basic user management functionality. It allows the suspension an reactivation of a user subscription in the platform.

Service Repository Many functional requirements for the USE-ME.GOV system are formulated around the concept of automatic service discovery and execution. It is assumed that it should be easy to create new services that are hosted on the platform or may be used by the platform (or its services). These services include services which are directly accessible by the end user—AVServices (added value services), and services that extend platform capabilities such as: •

Content provision services

•

Content aggregations service

•

Localization services

Services may be created and provided by virtually anyone, which means that the major problem is platform awareness of their existence and the ability to communicate with them. Therefore, there exists a strong demand for a mechanism for the exchange of service offers and requests, allowing client applications to dynamically locate services that satisfy their requirements. For this reason, every technology that allows for creation of SOA should be equipped with this kind of mechanism, which may be generally divided in two categories: discovery and lookup.



•

The lookup mechanism requires the existence of a central repository (or repositories), which stores all necessary information on available services. This information should be sufficient to successfully establish a connection between the service requester and the service provider. In the most common scenario, the service provider announces (registers) its services in the central repository providing all the necessary information such as: service name, address, terms of usage, interface (or many others depending on the target technology). The service requester knows the location of service repository as well as the protocol of communication with it. The requester may then retrieve services that fulfill certain criteria. The sample implementation of this mechanism are: CORBA Trading Object Service (Wohlever, Fay-Wolfe, Thuraisingham, Freedman, & Maurer, 1999) and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI).

•

In contrast, the discovery mechanism does not require a central repository. A client request is usually multicasted (or a search agent is used) to all available or potential service providers. In response, service providers which host services that fulfill the client’s criteria respond with the necessary information. The sample implementation of such an approach is service location protocol (Hagen, 2001).

From among the many potential technologies that allow for development of service-oriented systems, Web services became the backbone of inter-component communication in the USE-ME.GOV system. The choice has been made based on the requirements of interoperability (highlighted in the previous section) which are most fully complied with by this technology. In Web services, the most important element is UDDI, which is a standard platform and API for publishing and discovering information about Web services. UDDI’s approach is based on a distributed registry of organizations and descriptions of respective provided services, implemented in a common XML format. The main component of UDDI is the registry, which corresponds to an XML repository containing information about organizations and their services. Conceptually, information about an organization stored in a UDDI registry consists of three components: “white pages” including address, contact information, and identifiers; “yellow pages” that describe categorizations based on standard taxonomies; and “green pages” including references to Web services specifications. These three conceptual components are, in practice, implemented in the XML format through four basic elements containing information about the organization itself (businessEntity element), offered services (businessService), service access (bindingTemplate), and service specification (tModel) (UDDI). The UDDI is however not sufficient for dynamic execution of services, while it lacks means for the negotiation of message semantics (semantic interoperability is not Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Figure 5. Process of service execution SERVICE CALL

SERVICE

XML Document

SERVICE REQUESTER

EXECUTION DATA

QUERY

XML Document

QueryObject

>

>

> Service Semantics API Service Data Model

Platform Ontologies

supported; WSA assumes that the semantics are negotiated outside the framework). The semantics of the service is a kind of agreement between parties that provides a coherent vision of the behaviour of the service. In other words, it is an agreement on effect of service’s invocation. This agreement may be reached if the parties involved agree on a common vocabulary, which in the platform’s service repository is encoded as a set of ontologies. Sample ontologies include the definition of (D5.2.4, 2005): •

content

•

type of content



•

processes along with necessary parameters

•

types of services

The general mechanism is very similar to all lookups mechanism except that it uses ontologies to compare queries with service descriptions and the fact that the result of the query may be directly used for services execution (without any additional information). The main scenario is as follows: 1.

The service requester connects to the service repository. The service repository itself is exposed as a Web service and so the client application may be constructed in any language.

2.

The service requester formulates a query which uses concepts from ontologies provided by the platform. A sample query may expressed as follows: content: news contentType: text deliveryRegion: sectorA Queries are always considered to be a conjunction of criteria. In this case, the service requester should be provided with all the services which provide textual news in a region called sectorA.

3.

This query is compared against all registered services which are described by a language which is a rough modification of OWL-S.

4.

The requester is provided with a set of services that satisfies the criteria. Each service may be automatically executed while the service description contains all necessary information.

The service repository utilizes this description mechanism, which is based on a solution known as OWL-S. The description of each service consists of: Figure 6. The architecture of service description



•

ServiceProfile: Contains a non-functional description of the service, which includes information on the service provider, optional rating, charging information as well as possibly some internationalization information if applicable. ServiceProfile may be easily extended with so-called provision models. A sample extension includes spatial model, which allows defining (using both geographical coordinates and region names) the spatial range of service.

•

ServiceModel: Defines the behavior of the service in terms of processes that may be executed as well as all parameters that must be passed to the service in order to achieve the agreed functionality.

•

ServiceGrounding: Contains all information that is sufficient to execute the service, that is, to achieve the functionality defined by ServiceModel.

Bearing in mind that both service descriptions and queries are expressed using concepts (individuals) from ontologies, the matching process may now be conducted on a semantic level instead of using string character comparison. In the previous example, the query for news will return all kinds of news. The most important change with respect to UDDI is in the area of services execution. Every process that may be executed contains the list of input and output parameters. For instance, the simple process of computing a quotient requires two input parameters: dividend and divider and one output parameter result_of_division. As opposed to the Web service performing the division operation, it may be defined as an: operation which has as an input two numbers and one number as a

Figure 7. Platform ontologies



result. Either statement itself is not sufficient to execute such a service. In the first case, one knows (assuming that the semantics of “process of computing a quotient”, “dividend”, etc., are agreed on) the exact semantic of the operation but is unable to execute the service as long as the technical invocation details are unknown. In the second example, however, technical details are known but the semantics of the operation cannot be determined. Therefore, the service caller after querying the service is provided with full semantic description of the service along with the technical details of invocation.

USE-ME.GOV Applications Added value services are intended to be delivered by third parties and may be created using virtually any technology and deployed on any machine as long as its functionality is accessible via the designed interface. The main goal of the USEME.GOV project was to develop the platform so that it can be used by any partner that wants to provide end services to citizens. For the test purposes, four diverse added value services were developed and validated. Each of the selected services present some of the aspects of the designed solution. In this sense, AVS are treated as applications of the USE-ME.GOV platform. In this section, we would like to present one of these services—health care service. The main objective of the health care service is to provide information about health care prevention programmes and initiatives for citizens (especially young families with babies and elderly people). Nowadays in Gdynia (Poland) where the service is to be implemented information about health care centres and health care prevention programmes is published on the Web and as well as in the bulletin of the City Mayor. This should be enriched with the functionality of providing citizens with an opportunity to request and make appointments at a health care centre (according to needs—medical speciality and time preferences). The health care service aims at providing citizens with an easier way to get an appointment, discover information about health care programmes and health care centres using mobile devices. The health care service is designed to be used with Gdynia’s specific internal system and end service. AVS is to be deployed in the public authority (in the case of the pilot—in Gdynia) and is stable between installations. Stability means that even if the place of the deployment changes, the component stays the same. It is a stand-alone application that encapsulates all service business logic and functionality. In general, end services are used in situations where some IT systems already exist within the authority or within the unit the authority collaborates with. Typical



Figure 8. Health care general architecture AVServiceInterface AVServiceInterface AVService AVService

Gdynia City endend point Gdynia CityHall Hallplatform platform point

US-ME.GOV system / External Entities entities USE-ME.GOV system / External

EndServiceInterface EndServiceInterface

EndService EndService Gdynia Hall Internal System GdyniaCity City Hall Internal System

situations include databases with user information or information on authorities activities. The existence of the end service means that some IT systems already exist by the time USE-ME.GOV platform is deployed, or these systems are going to be introduced in the near future. The solution for this approach is depicted in Figure 8. The pilot service implemented and deployed in Gdynia includes the AVS part of the health care service architecture and an additional part of the end service. Any platform for e-government service provisioning should not impose any technological choices on the services that are being provisioned by the service providers. By showing the architecture of the health care service as a typical AVS, it was intended to show how the USE-ME.GOV platform deals with that challenge. The USE-ME.GOV platform does not impose technological choices on health care services, or for that matter on any other future AVS. The internal construction of AVS or end services are transparent from USE-ME.GOV’s point of view.

Related Work Years of research and development in the domain of Web services have resulted in the existence of many platforms from various vendors that allow for deployment and execution of Web services. At the same time in the past few years, there has been a huge increase in the use of mobile services as well as in the mobile communication systems that support them. As a consequence of this, there has appeared the need



for solutions that bring together theses two different worlds (Abramowicz, Bassara, Filipowska, Wisniewski, & Zebrowski, 2006). One of the main movements in this field is the existence of the Parlay Group that acts dynamically in a favor of the creation of some standardized interfaces to help opening mobile operators’ networks to enterprises and content providers. As a result, there came into being several open specifications devoted to the interfaces between the mobile networks and the Internet. The existence of these APIs permits the linking up of IT applications with the capabilities of the telecommunications world as well as generating new possibilities for revenue streams. The API for the area of Web services is Parlay X (Parlay, 2005) which is a set of standardized Web services that provides developers with access to telecom functionalities available in an operator’s domain such as short messaging, multimedia messaging, call control, terminal location, and so on. This specification has been incorporated into several existing commercial platforms, for instance, Oracle9iAS (Oracle, 2004), IBM WebSphere (IBM, 2005), or HP Mobile Services Delivery Platform (HP, 2003). According to the vendors, their solutions are robust, scalable, flexible, versatile, and easy to maintain and deploy. The drawback is that they are commercial products and so, in most cases, that also means that they are expensive. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, developers do not have other choices, as there is no open solution that can be considered to be mature enough to be used as a platform, on the one hand, for orchestrating Web services and, on the other hand, for integrating with a mobile operator network.

Conclusions With the introduction of the USE-ME.GOV project, we tried to make the provision of m-government applications much more convenient than ever before. In this chapter, we presented the general process that can be applied to the development of such platform. In particular, we focused on the usability design, its end users, and authorities aspects. Especially, much attention must be paid to the end users (local authorities) who need to be abstracted from the technical and development details that often obstruct their day-to-day duties. The main challenges that are highlighted throughout the chapter are requirements studies and platform design. The requirements analysis is particularly important with usability studies becoming the essential aspect of users acceptance. The proper design with openness and interoperability guarantees the acceptance on one hand and choice on the other. There is no danger of being a “lone island”, allowing islands owner to choice whatever technology is suitable at the same time.



References Abramowicz, W., Bassara, A., Filipowska, A., Wisniewski, M., & Zebrowski, P. (2006). Mobility implications for m-government platform design. Cybernetics and Systems, 37(2-3), 119-135. Barton, J. J., Zhai, S., & Cousins, S. B. (2006). Mobile phones will become the primary personal computing devices. WMCSA 2006 Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, Washington, USA, April 6-7. D2.2 (2004). Deliverable 2.2: Service and Use Scenario Definition. USE-ME.GOV Consortium. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www.usemegov.org D5.1.1 (2004). Deliverable 5.1.1: System requirements. USE-ME.GOV Consortium. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www.usemegov.org D5.2.4 (2005). Deliverable 5.2.4: Meta-protocol of Service Types. USE-ME.GOV Consortium. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www.usemegov.org European Commission. (2003). Linking up Europe: The importance of interoperability for egovernment services. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http:// ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/2036/5583 Fraser, N. M., & Gilbert, N. G. (1991). Simulating speech systems. Computer Speech and Language, 5, 81-99. Hagen, S. (2001). Guide to service location protocol. San Jose, CA: Podbooks. Com Llc. Harsha, T., & Joel, J. (2005). Developing spatially-aware content management systems for dynamic, location-specific information in mobile environments. In the Proceedings of the 3rd ACM International Workshop on Wireless Mobile Applications and Services on WLAN Hotspots, Cologne, Germany, September 2 (pp. 14-22). New York: ACM Press. Hone, K. S., & Barber, C. (2001). Designing habitual dialogues for speech-based interaction with computers. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 54, 637-662. HP. (2003). Mobile service delivery platform. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www.hp.com/ IBM. (2005). Telecom Web services toolkit preview. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/ IDABC. Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://europa.eu.int/idabc/



IEEE. (1990). IEEE Standard Computer Dictionary: A Compilation of IEEE Standard Computer Glossaries. New York, NY: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Larman, C. (2005). Applying UML and patterns (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Leenes, R. E., & Svensson, J. S. (2002). Size matters – Electronic service delivery by municipalities? In the Proceedings: Electronic Government – First International Conference, EGOV 2002, Aix-en-Provence, France, September 2-5 (pp. 150-156). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer. Maciaszek, L. (2005). Requirements analysis and system design (2nd ed.). Harlow, England: Addison Wesley. Oracle. (2004). Oracle application server wireless 10g Parlay and Parlay X. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www.oracle.com/ Oviatt, S. L., DeAngeli, A., & Kuhn, K. (1997). Integration and synchronization of input modes during multimodal human-computer interaction. In the Proceedings of Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘97), Atlanta, Georgia, USA, March 22-27 (pp. 415-422). New York: ACM Press. Parlay. (2005). Parlay X Web Services Specification, Version 2.0. The Parlay Group. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www.parlay.org/en/specifications/ UDDI. Universal Description, Discovery and Integration. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www.uddi.org/ USE-ME.GOV Project Deliverables. (2004-2006). Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www.usemegov.org/ Weiser, M. (1993). Hot topics: Ubiquitous computing. IEEE Computer, October, 71-72. Wohlever, S., Fay-Wolfe, V., Thuraisingham, B., Freedman, B., & Maurer, J. (1999). CORBA-based real-time trader service for adaptable command and control systems. Second IEEE International Symposium on Object-Oriented Real-Time Distributed Computing, Saint-Malo, France, May 2-5 (p. 64). Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society. WSA. (2004). Web Services Architecture. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/ Yankelovich, N. (1998). Using natural dialogs as the basis for speech interface design. In S. Luperfoy (Ed.), Automated spoken dialog systems (pp. 30-56). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.



Additional Reading D4.1.1 (2004). Deliverable 4.1.1: Review of State of the Art in User Interface Design for Mobile Applications. USE-ME.GOV Consortium. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www.usemegov.org D4.1.2 (2004). Deliverable 4.1.2: Usability Requirements Definition for Selected Scenarios. USE-ME.GOV Consortium. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www.usemegov.org D4.1.3 (2004). Deliverable 4.1.3: Usability Driven Design and Mock-Up Evaluation. USE-ME.GOV Consortium. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www. usemegov.org D6.1.2 (2004). Deliverable 6.1.2: Pilot Services Requirements Specifications. USE-ME.GOV Consortium. Retrieved November 14, 2006, from http://www. usemegov.org

Endnotes 1

http://www.hyperdictionary.com/computing/interoperability

2

http://www.anuit.it/conv0312/hebert03a/tsld004.htm

3

http://www.w3.org/Submission/OWL-S/

4

W3C—World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3.org/).

5

OASIS—Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (http://www. oasis-open.org).


60 Roggenkamp

Chapter IV

“It’s the Mobility, Stupid”: Designing Mobile Government

Klas Roggenkamp, Dipl. Designer Electronic Business, Germany

Abstract This chapter looks at mobility and the term government to describe influencing factors for the process of designing mobile government. A detailed review of perspectives on mobility and a subsequent examination of the government term is given to reach a better understanding of what mobile government can be. Furthermore, four questions are refined which are aimed at helping to first justify and assess a possible m-government service and second to classify this service in a given context. By focusing on mobility as a key component of mobile government, the author hopes to aid developers and researchers alike with designing new and better mobile services within the public sector.

Introduction Mobile government as a subject of debate, research and actual services is gaining momentum within the field of electronic government. The number of mobile phone


“It’s the Mobility, Stupid” 61

users is exceeding the number of fixed line phones and, though at a slowing pace, is still growing. With the recent roll-out of mobile broadband data services such as UMTS or Wireless LAN, one gets the idea that we are still just looking at the tip of an iceberg. So far, e-government has allowed for a faster, more convenient and often valueadded delivery of public services. It has started a regrouping and rethinking of processes in many administrations, helped to create a new and improved access to various services, and also supported citizen participation in political processes. Even where it is not obvious to “front-end users” like citizens, e-government has in many cases boosted the more efficient gathering and processing of data. Information and communication technologies in governmental organizations have reduced cost, redundancies, and errors, thus speeding up the handling of services. Nevertheless, mobile technologies, however unknown their real value still is, will take this development to an even higher level. Not only are such mobile services promising more efficiency, faster and less erroneous processing of data, but also an improvement of service as a whole through direct contact with citizens. “As painful as e-government transformations have been, the challenges of dealing with an alwayson society and workforce will be even more daunting. Service delivery, democracy, governance and law enforcement will all be affected” (Di Maio, 2002). Mobile government by itself can still be considered in its “infancy” (Zálešák, 2003)—when it comes to governmental organizations we can assume a “transitive state” (Kushchu & Borucki, 2004, p. 830). The services currently considered to deserve the label mobile government range from W-LAN in public buildings to stand-alone mobile applications. They depend on, utilize, or incorporate features of mobile technologies. In-between these two extremes, we can observe a vast variety of services such as mobile information via SMS, mobile tickets for parking or trains, and alike. Hence, it is rather unclear what we talk about when we actually refer to mobile government. The definitions given in the literature vary slightly. Some describe m-government as “a functional subset of all-inclusive e-government” (Arazyan, 2002) respectively saying, that technologies used for m-government “are limited to mobile and/or wireless technologies” (Llalana, 2004) in comparison with e-government. To others, m-government is “a complex strategy for efficient utilization of all wireless devices” (Zálešák, 2003) with the goal of “improving benefits to the parties involved in e-government” (Kushchu & Kuscu, 2003). Defining m-government as a form of mobile business, some see it as a connection between Internet and mobile communications offering context-dependent and highly individualized information and not huge amounts of data (cf. Frischmuth & Karrlein, 2002, p. 15). By ruling out mobile yet stationary interaction as well as random wireless connections, m-government is considered restricted to public mobile services that need time-critical information access (cf. Thome, 2003).


62 Roggenkamp

If an application fits one of these definitions or if it falls short of certain features is a debate of its own and shall not be the issue here. Whether one talks about mobile government, mobile e-government, or mobile public services is a semantic issue. The process of planning, developing, designing these service offerings is, however, important. In this process, several sets of interests need to be aligned to allow for a coherent offering in the first place. We will look at mobility, government, and the scope of connotations to each term with the aim of describing factors to be considered in the design process of such a mobile service in the public sector. Requirements toward mobile services from both sides will be detailed and combined. As a first step, the following second part will review the term mobility from a technological, economical, and sociological perspective. As a result, a set of questions will be derived to pin-point issues to consider in the context of being mobile. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the involved parties, the third part will subsequently examine the government term. By separately looking at the organization, the actors, and the processes, the scope of this term becomes clear. To what extent these subsets and their goals can be combined will be discussed alongside a brief description of important challenges. Following these separate considerations, part four will discuss the interaction of mobility and government and thus give an overview of factors to consider when thinking about mobile government. This will be concluded with an outlook into future developments.

Mobility Perspectives Mobility in a general sense is understood as a form of being mobile. The adjective “mobile” goes back to the Latin word “mobilis”, meaning movable. In this sense, mobile objects are capable of moving or being moved. Depending on the context, in which the term is used, its implication is variously extended. These differences lead to distinct approaches how to deal with mobility, how to become mobile, or how to support being mobile. For example, the question “Are you mobile?” does not ask for the status of someone being physically movable but for the subjects ability to move from one place to another in a more social context. Maybe the asked person has obligations that do not allow leaving (“I’m stuck here”), thus making him immobile, at least for a certain amount of time. It could also be asked, whether someone is mobile in a sense of willing to move. The title of this article states the importance of understanding the concepts of mobility how to properly deal with them. Obviously mobility is one of the key features of



mobile government of whatever kind, depending on the starting point of planning such a service, the issues considered as key problems are rather different. Between the fields of information science, economics, and sociology, we can observe very distinctive perspectives on mobility (see Hess et al., 2005; Kakihara, 2003; Urry, 2000). As a result, each comes to its own conclusions which are often not easy to align. From the technological viewpoint, dealing with mobility is primarily concerning shared computing and distributing data. Even though this also includes allowing end users to move more or less freely, this is dealt with in a very different manner compared to economical or sociological debate. Vice versa questions asked by social sciences on for example the reason to be mobile at all, or the needs while being mobile are constrained to this field. Yet again, financial aspects of mobility can hardly be found, neither in the sociological nor the technological handling of mobile topics.

Technological Perspective on Mobility The current debate on mobile government (and more generally mobile services) on the one hand and a supposedly mobile society on the other is in part due to the availability of certain mobile technologies. No matter if it is mobile hardware (such as a PDA or a mobile phone) or mobile networks and protocols to use them (such as GSM, UMTS, W-LAN), we have to consider certain issues alongside mobility that enable us to actually create and use mobile services. The underlying technologies are dealing with four basic concepts of mobility, of which at least three are of primary concern (Hasan, Jähnert, Zander, & Stiller, 2001): •

device mobility;

•

user mobility;

•

service mobility; and

•

session mobility.

Device mobility deals with the continued access to services while being spatially mobile, that is, moving from one physical location to another. This access can be granted via locally limited Wireless LAN access points. Other standards include concepts of handing over connections between access points, as is the case for mobile phone networks based on standards such as GSM. The reach of the device and the general possibility to roam a broader area thus depends on available networks, and of course on the hardware itself. Assuming that a user is mobile without physical constraints, user mobility from this perspective refers to location- and device-independent service access. Pre-requisite Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

64 Roggenkamp

is an appropriate means of identification. Again, a common example would be the mobile phone network which is utilizing the subscriber identification module (SIM) to identify a user within the network. With service mobility comes the idea of access anytime, anywhere. More appropriately one should add “anyhow” to this often cited paradigm since this concept includes the idea of service delivery regardless of device and user specific settings (see Perry, O’Hara, Sellen, Brown, & Harper, 2001). Implementations allowing for service mobility are currently hard to find—neither GSM nor UMTS or W-LAN includes the capability to provide a certain service irrespective of device and user. There are, however, approaches to offering seamless services, which automatically suit themselves (e.g., to available bandwidth of a network (FOKUS, 2000)). The session mobility describes the capability of starting, pausing, and resuming a user session while switching between devices and/or services. The session itself is considered as a relation between distributed service components which integrates needed resources. None of the available communication systems allows for session mobility, yet (Hess et al., 2005). Current mobile communication technologies particularly allow for the mobility of device and user and thus enable the growth in this field. On the path from mobile to ubiquitous computing, however, also the latter two concepts need to be fully included. As for now, some services (also in the field of government) are mobile when considering scalable and adapting front-end interfaces as a means of serving this goal. Nevertheless, offering truly mobile services in this sense can only be attained by solving technical and most of all security issues. To what extent session mobility really is an issue for mobile government has to be questioned. Secure and reliable service delivery—independent of respectively adaptive to an available device and the available network type and bandwidth—surely is of concern in the case of more complex transactional services.

Economical Perspective on Mobility Whereas the previously discussed technological perspective on mobility takes a device- and service-based approach, the economical perspective can be described as focusing on the intersections between a business process and mobility. Within a typical business process, there are three steps to consider, each of them open for a different perspective of including mobile aspects: •

the value chain;

•

market transactions; and

•

mobile goods.



Looking at the influence of mobility within the value chain the question is raised how mobile services can contribute to the process of value creation. Mobility can affect the efficiency and effectiveness, embracing mobile technologies and thus directly offering support to employees working in a mobile setting can create added value. Typical examples can be found in the areas of field work (Rossado-Schlosser & Hacke, 2002); in a government setting this would include police forces (Bazijanec & Pousttchi, 2004). Apart from directly supporting a mobile workforce, the implementation of mobile machine-to-machine communication (e.g., radio frequency identification (RFID)) can allow for the substitution of certain human-bound subprocesses by directly connecting objects with their environment respectively the organizational information processes (Hess et al., 2005). When properly implemented, both approaches can reduce operational cost and errors while possibly speeding up processes as a whole. As part of market transactions, that is, the exchange between a business (or government) organization and a buyer respectively customer (or citizen) mobility becomes an issue as part of hindering, complicating, or yet demanding mobility (Khodawandi, Pousttchi, & Winnewisser, 2003). Within this setting, mobility can lead to an increase in transactional cost. Through the implementation of mobile communication, these costs can be reduced in the same way as is true for the internal value creation (cf. Kaspar & Hagenhoff, 2003). Striking examples for the effective use of mobile services in this field are, among others, services offering critical information prior to the initiation of a transaction. These may be just accessible via mobile network and device or actually allow for location-dependent information. After this initiation phase the actual transaction can be supported within a mobile context, for example, by enabling mobile payments. Following the transaction mobile services can allow for specialized CRM-methods, either simply by addressing a customer directly or by allowing for a mobile feedback channel. Furthermore, mobility becomes an issue when dealing with or creating mobile goods. In the context of this chapter, this shall only span mobile information goods. Here we can observe a vast variety of goods which are merely a piece of software being delivered to mobile devices, anyhow very successful: ring tones, mobile games, and other mobile entertainment services. Considerably more complex and less intrusively marketed, another field for mobile services as a good of its own is offering adaptive, context- or location-aware information, for example, tourist guides, maps, or realtime information on public transport (see Turowski & Pousttchi, 2003, p. 181). From this focus on business processes, one can identify general economical issues connected with mobility and ways to theoretically surpass obstacles due to it. In some cases, this perspective can actually help to identify possible new markets connected with or created by mobility, mobile services, and mobile users. However, assuming that services will be used as planned in up-front business would mean ignoring user behavior. Not only is it inevitable to convey the gains to the


66 Roggenkamp

prospective user. As a matter of fact, these gains need to be identified. A simple monetary equation, however promising, simply falls too short. This is all the more valid in a government setting where there are not only competing access channels or behavioral obstacles within an organization, investments have to be legitimized to a critical public and in the context of budgets constraints.

Sociological Perspective on Mobility The sociological perspective on mobility is dealing with the description of mobile contexts and needs to be connected with these situations. Concerning mobile communications, we can add the more explicit question about reasons to use a certain service. On a general level, there is a distinction made within this perspective as to what kind of mobility is applicable or rather, what types of mobility can be found. We can distinct three types: •

physical mobility;

•

social mobility; and

•

virtual mobility.

“Perhaps the most widely adopted usage of mobility is that of people in terms of geographical movement” (Kakihara, 2003, p. 39). This type of mobility is to be called physical mobility, meaning going from one place to another. To more closely define this mobility, it shall be characterized by the mode of movement respectively the overcome distance (Kristofersen & Ljungberg, 2000). Local mobility best describes “wandering” within a building or a local area. “Visiting” one place and then moving to another location extends the locally bound movement. The opposite of wandering in this sense is “traveling”, describing a state of moving from one place to another by using a vehicle of some kind. Gerstheimer and Lupp (2001) also consider the separation of mobile and fixed locations, the first matching the mode of “traveling”, the latter the modes of “wandering” and “visiting” (p. 67). In general, physical mobility serves a certain purpose connected to getting from A to B. As a consequence, the process of moving is of primary concern for the moving subject, rendering other side-activities secondary. Where there are slots of attention for such activities, tools and services involved need to adapt themselves or the result of their involvement to a given setting and needs thereof. Traveling by car does not allow for interaction such as typing on a keyboard or visualizing complex content. However, voice interaction might be as well a solution as simplified displays within the sight of the driver.



Social mobility on a macro-level describes the permeability of a society between pre-defined societal levels. On a micro-level, the term refers to the ability of an individual to change roles in reaction to external influences and contexts (see Goffmann, 1967; Ling, 2000). Each physical movement leads to a change of context, if just related to surrounding people (e.g., being with friends as opposed to being with colleagues). A different social context is also attributed to physical location itself—the most general distinction being that of public and private places (Agre, 2001). To visualize this, one might think of a youth among his friends or with his parents. Assumed and fulfilled roles vary in the same way as we would for instance imagine when riding the bus or spending the evening in a comfy chair at home. With the social role played, a behavioral change can be observed, concerning language, volume of speech, even posture or clothing can be implicitly affected. Resulting from networked and more often also location-independent communications we were able to experience the rise of what Castells (2000) calls a “network society”. This new sphere is untying physical location and the range of activity of involved people, along with all due implications. This so called virtual mobility has a broad impact on many areas, leading to new behavioral patterns and expectations. On top of the virtuality offered by Internet communication as a whole, mobility extends the grasp of this even further. The consequences of this have been described by many authors (among others Agre, 2001; Geser, 2003; Ling & Yttri, 1999). As a consequence of virtual mobility—especially in conjunction with mobile communications—it can be observed how, on the one hand, the social context is being more detached from the physical one. On the basis of a mobile communication channel, a mutual virtual but private space can develop between two communication partners, regardless of the fact that they might be physically located in the middle of a crowded public space. On the other hand, just due to the option of such a virtual presence, the perception of actual physical co-presence emerges. Ling (2000) has shown how this perception develops within a youth group whose members are not all in the same location at the same time, however the absentees are perceived to be part of the actual group activity because they can be contacted wherever they are. Similar observations have been made concerning mobile workforce (Kakihara, 2003; Vincent & Haddon, 2003). Pica and Kakihara (2003) talk about a “duality of mobility”. Interpersonal ties may be weakening due to the ease of having ephemeral contact which can be fit into idle times throughout a day. The same opportunities may result in more persistent communication relations for the effects of virtual mobility stated earlier, namely the perception of virtual co-presence. Nevertheless, especially the sociological perspective leads to the conclusion that many of the topics connected to mobility should be considered as constantly evolving. Certainly, norms influencing and influenced by mobile user behavior are steadily changing. We just need to consider the general perception of using a mobile phone.


68 Roggenkamp

A few years ago, public use of a mobile phone was considered snobbish. These days the opposite is true: not having a mobile phone is often considered to be awkward. Usage of voice services (i.e., telephony) and other mobile services (i.e., data) is also subject to so called social shaping—not only the patterns of usage but also the perception of the use, the user, and services as a whole keep developing (see Palen & Salzman, 2002). Hence, it is rather short-sighted to plan and design services merely from the technological or economical perspective. Bringing these three mobility perspectives together reveals a set of questions which cannot be answered by solely taking one isolated perspective into consideration. The main goals of the different perspectives (Figure 1) are the creation of technological solutions for mobility, the economical assessment of possible business processes in regard to, above all, efficiency and value creation as well as the reflection on social preconditions and interdependencies of technology and everyday life and work. At the intersection of technology and economy, the key questions to ask would be: •

Which are potential added values?

•

(How) Can the range of old products be extended?

•

What are possible new goods?

Figure 1. Main research goals and open questions of different perspectives (Hess et al., 2005) Perspective Technological

Goal • Development and improvement of new technologies and applications

Open Questions • Business models and user behavior

Economical

•

•

Sociological

•

•

Services and business models to support business processes and development and roll-out of mobile goods Social pre-requisites for the adoption of new technologies and applications Implications of new technologies for society

• • •

Technologies to translate and implement business models Forecasting user acceptance and adoption Creation and designing new technologies and application Economical strategies, business models, and value chains



The combined perspective of economy and sociology lead to questions in the manner of: •

What are current user needs?

•

How can these needs be transformed into accepted products?

When connecting sociology and technology, questions arising are: •

How technologically feasible are user wishes/needs?

•

What are the interdependencies between technological solutions and usage?

•

How can technology adapt to these needs/interdependencies?

In sum, the result would be a mobility cycle with which the goal to make sense of mobility as a feature of mobile communications can be attained. In this cycle, the possibilities of technology will be shaped into applications and services appealing to users and also offering added value to providers. However simplified and generalized the previously-made statements are, they do show possible ways to combine the three different perspectives on mobility in general and on dealing with mobile communications in particular.

Government Perspectives After having brought forth a more detailed image of mobility and dealing with mobile communications, this chapter will approach the term “government” in a similar manner. By taking into consideration the particular connotation of this term, we will derive key aspects of developing services for mobile government. Even when it seems evident what might be mobility issues, it is yet unclear whom this shall serve, who and what is crucial within the field of government when planning a certain service. From a semantic viewpoint, government as a collective term consists of four main elements: •

the (political) system,

•

organizations within the government system,


70 Roggenkamp

•

the processes of governing,

•

the actors constituting government.

In Figure 2, showing the relation between the elements, we see that the system is the framework in which people being administered by “a” government are located, as well as the governing organizations. Since the system itself has a rather normative character, it is of less importance when dealing with mobile government. More important is the governing element, the organizations performing within the superior system, compliant to given values and norms as well as pursuing and enforcing them. The distinction between a government and administrative branch is merely functional; from the current point of view, this distinction shall also be neglected. Of interest is the single organization as a whole, supposedly acting as one instance in relation to other organizations and preliminary elements (citizen, businesses). The processes of governing describe the actual ways of interaction between these active elements. Usually, there are certain procedural requirements which have to be met by effected participants. In general, these are available in form of laws and regulations, determining how a process is to be run, who is involved, which resources are required, and what the possible outcome is. Involved actors within government constitute the governing authority, implicitly legitimizing its existence. The set of actors include the citizen as the basic part of the

Figure 2. Elements of government citizen

“the” government / administration

businesses

“government”

system

organisation

actor

process



system, sometimes also acting as a representative of a business or as an employee or representative of a governmental organization. In this setting, electronic government describes using ICT in the interaction of the named governmental elements, thus including m-government. To provide a rough distinction between e-government and m-government, it shall be understood here, that of course mobile government mainly extends electronic government, but at the same time, it adds mobility as a new feature, allowing for new, genuine mobile services. Whether mere extension or true innovation, m-government is dealing with mobility in the context of government, especially but not primarily with mobile technologies as a means of service delivery. When designing a mobile government service, at least one part of the elements of government described earlier is mobile. Depending on what is being mobilized, different requirements have to be met. Of general concern are certain specifications set out by the system, possibly the availability of services to the whole public, thus often creating the problem of competing access channels. Recent research (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2004) reveals that multi-channel government is needed and wanted on the one hand, while on the other it decreases or at least consumes some of the efficiency gains by reducing the overall number of transactions within one channel, and requiring the support of parallel infrastructure. By adding yet another channel to the already available multiple channels (paper/forms, telephone/call centre, Internet/Web sites), it can be assumed that this issue will not be solved too easily. Thus, where there are several access channels for the same process, investment and roll-out strategies for new services have to closely monitor current capacities, and consider competition between available means of communication and effective demand. This competition issue is more relevant in the case of dealing with external parties (most likely citizen) than it is for internal exchange. In the latter case, it can be assumed that offerings are less prone to allow for diversity, due to the opportunity to simply impose standards in a top-down manner. Since we are discussing the inclusion of mobility as a feature of a mobile government service, we have to take a closer look at the government elements who actually are mobile or to whom mobility is of importance. In the same way as we previously identified different perspectives on mobility, it will now be described how the different elements deal with mobility in the context of mobile government.

Process Requirements The processes of government are the link between actors and organizations. In the context of mobility, one can think of many features of mobile communications which might be useful for governments. However, since government processes are rather formalized, they need to integrate many preconditions, with security being


72 Roggenkamp

just one. The challenge for mobile government is thus combining formal, procedural requirements with opportunities of the technologies. From a more distant perspective, we have to first understand that a process consists of several steps. It is initiated by some kind of triggering event. This can be mobile, for example, a transaction being initiated in response to a mobile context. Then there is the actual process, involving certain logic as to who is responsible, what resources are needed, and what decisions need to be taken. All of these can be mobilized as well. Decision makers can be linked to other participants via mobile communication channels, allowing for on-the-spot decisions or feedback when and where it is needed. Resources can be requested or procured in a similar manner. The final product itself may also be delivered using mobile technologies. Information as a product might be passed on to a mobile device, or the process result might trigger a new follow-up process, equally mobile. As to whether or not a service can be made mobile is not only depending on the fantasy of a designer, but also on formal requirements imminent to the process. The question is thus a rather specific one and cannot be discussed in detail here. Nevertheless, there are some general properties to a government process offering a generic guideline. First of all, a dominance of informational process can be assumed, that is, most of the transactions are based on information exchange and information processing. Depending on the content, especially the processing of information is more or less sensitive and time-critical. The complexity can differ, too, as well as the form of presentation. The information focus is connected to the fact that general conditions for government processes are comparability, legal validity, and binding character of results (e.g., a decision on your taxes is based on your income, not on the mood of the decision maker; the decision is binding but can be legally challenged). The process itself is governed by law and usually processed along an organizational and functional path. Though these criteria still need to be detailed for each application, they offer assistance for the design process. As is true for any government service, the formal requirements have to be matched with what is technically possible. A general method for such a matching process for mobile communication has been set out by Gerstheimer and Lupp (2001; see also Roggenkamp, 2004, p. 864). Notwithstanding this, describing what is feasible within the possibilities of technology and requirements of government processes is just the starting point. Designing mobile government must not be constrained to analyzing what can be mobilized. Furthermore, it is imperative to identify how and where additional value can be created, for the individual user as well as the providing organization.



Organizational Willingness Different to a business organization, an organization in the public sector is acting in a kind of monopoly—the customer (in this context being a citizen, a business, or other governmental actor) cannot choose between different providers of public services. There usually is just one police, one local administration responsible, and so forth. In addition, a government organization is not seeking a rent of a financial kind; instead, it needs to legitimize its actions and existence towards the public, whom it is supposed to serve. Thus, when it comes to the question as to whether, how and for what and whom an organization should rethink and re-organize its way of “doing things”, a dilemma is surfacing which needs to be solved: external pressure and internal opposition. The common driver for implementing new technologies is external pressure: the demand for more and more efficient services, technologically enhanced process-handling as well as improving the public perception of an organization respectively of the people in charge. Hence, technology is often implicitly imposed on an organization as a response to this pressure. A supposedly new way most often simply transfers the old way of doing things into the digital world. Replacing a paper-form by a Web site in fact leads to gains in productivity and cost reductions. Gora (1996) concluded that traditional organizations are insufficiently incorporating possibilities of ICT. According to a recent survey of European public sector organizations (Net Impact, 2004) structural changes within the organization are in most cases made in response and not prior to the implementation of technology (p. 30). This results in lower gains in productivity as would have been achievable the other way around. The problem government organizations have to deal with is that “technology has evolved to a point where it is more difficult to change human behavior than it is to get the technology to do what you want” (p. 33). While there is external pressure to change, there is internal opposition hindering these changes. A description as to why this opposition occurs and how it arises has been thoroughly given by Borins (2001) and less detailed but focused on mobility issues by Kushchu and Borucki (2004). At this point it shall be of more interest how an organization can estimate the scope of this dilemma, especially in the course of designing mobile government. While considering process requirements, it has already been roughly outlined how to identify processes. The task of an organization is to find out where stakeholders actually are confronted with mobility. From this deduction potentials for mobile services to be successful can be identified: from a productivity perspective to deal with internal opposition (by offering an enhanced mobile working environment) and with external pressure (by improving overall outcome). Taking the previously-made statements about economical perspectives into account, we can identify three fields of action as starting points:


74 Roggenkamp

•

internal processes (value chain);

•

transaction processes; and

•

government products (as results of the earlier-mentioned).

A whole set of possible services in the various fields of government has been described by the Centre for Public Service Innovation (2003) based in South Africa. Since there are already quite a few services available (see Zálešák, 2003), it should be a manageable task to identify applicable service proposals. As a method to assess whether and when an organization should consider implementing a certain service, Chang and Kannan (2002) have identified four relevant factors: the “extent of mobility in the target segment, information access needs, security/privacy requirements of the application, and technology readiness of the target segment” (p. 32). By joining the first three factors they generate an indicator for the sophistication of technology to meet certain requirements. In relation to the technology readiness, the actual question to be considered from the organizational perspective, they create a matrix (Figure 3) with which possible services can be ordered in a timely manner. Of course, each organization which is considering mobile government services, as an option to invest in, needs to create a more detailed depiction of what it actually needs as well as an outline of why it needs a mobile service.

Figure 3. Matrix for suitability of mobile services (Chang & Kannan, 2002, p. 21)



Concerning the fact of technology readiness—describing an attitude towards technology and not the mere competence to use it—will vary from one organization to the other, also from one department or team to another. By taking a step-by-step approach, the readiness can improve with each project. Generally speaking, as experience grows, so will the readiness to accept a new service (see also Davis, 1989, on perceptions of technologies). When considering mobile service, it has so far been made clear that problems for an organization will most likely arise from within: in the form of internal opposition. By approaching more and more sophisticated services to deal with mobility in all fields of a government organization one step at a time failures can be avoided or at least contained. Nevertheless, to legitimize an investment in mobile services, the value created has to be clear to the providing organization and its stakeholders. Where there is an overall strategy for service creation, criteria to assess and prioritize possible services in compliance with superior goals are easily found. In general, however, a real improvement has to be proven, for example, by pilot implementations. Mere feasibility of mobilizing the processes is one thing to be shown here, but also the feasibility of integrating the service into existing backend structures and more so into communication structures within an organization. While the value of each service will often be easily assessed, the willingness and ability to realize potential gains through mobile services in common processes is the key from the perspective of an organization. Otherwise, even the most promising mobile added values would be just that: promising.

User Acceptance We have so far looked at feasibility of mobile government services and discussed organizational willingness. Now we will focus on user acceptance as the main driver for the success of a service. The situation, into which mobile government will be deployed, can usually be described as competitive as there are other access channels to certain services. Thus, it is inevitable to consider why a user is lead to adopt a service. User acceptance can be described as a product of user behavior in relation to the available technology and a given environment. Davis (1989) has described perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use as the main influences on user acceptance of information technology (p. 320). As a consequence thereof, to achieve user acceptance the development of these perceptions need to be dealt with. Methods in this field reach from standard quantitative approaches simply asking about how services would be or are perceived to explorative approaches of shadowing users. The latter are able to find out more about actual usage patterns and social


76 Roggenkamp

shaping factors (see Vincent & Haddon, 2003). From the research we learn that for mobile communication the usage patterns are influenced by the “representation” (Churchill & Wakeford, 2002) of a service, meaning the image being drawn by suggesting value (based on supposed usage). This image is usually framed by the reaction of the individual environment of a prospective user, considering norms and general values. This leads a user to the initial decision to get to know a service—to test it. During this “learning phase” previously formed expectations determine the subsequent, repeated usage, allowing for new experiences. Important at this stage is not only typical front-end usability but a more generic feeling of actually being able to control and, to a certain extent, to understand functions offered by the used technology. Palen and Salzman (2002) have described four dimensions important at this point, of which at least two are within the reach of government. Hardware, being the first dimension, roughly covers the device used for accessing a service. On such a device, a set of software is controlling user flows. The netware is the connection of hard- and software with mobile technologies’ functions. This is surrounded by the bizware, consisting of all sorts of customer support and customer relation. For a government organization offering mobile services, the points to connect into this structure would mainly be the net- and bizware, offering services and supporting their usage. Following the state of acquainting with a service, the user individually explores the opportunities offered, possibly seeking new patterns of usage, as well as feeding back his experiences to his environment. At this point, but also in the initial phase, we can observe what Vincent and Haddon (2003) call “social shaping” of mobile technology: the creation and reassessment of value expectations, changing usage and behavioral patterns as well as overall norms defining how to properly behave, use, and consider certain mobile services. The choice to use a mobile service, as is the case for any ICT, is thus guided by the perception of use and the actual use. User needs, more so the evaluation of a service to meet these needs is crucial for its success. Yet, research has also shown (cf. Pew Internet, 2004; Vincent & Haddon, 2003) that a typical user will not only make smart choices about the technology to use, but he will often consider the appropriateness of a means from a functional (reflecting the actual service) and a social (reflecting the outside perception) point of view. Furthermore, often parallel structures are maintained, for backup purposes or to meet requirements of unexpected situations. This is related to trust on the one hand, to a somewhat haptic experience on the other (Perry et al., 2001). In both cases, the biggest challenge for mobile information access is a paper-based process, for mobile interaction services the challenge is the fixed line phone (see also Vincent & Haddon, 2003). Since government services are most often based on trust (especially when exchanging sensitive personal or



corporate information) while allowing for several channels of interaction, this issue should be thoroughly considered. Nevertheless, trust can be built (by experience), whereas complementary services as a first step will lead to substituting less helpful stationary services in the long run. By assessing needs more closely, the impact of the previously-named issues can be softened. In general, mobile business services consider a user in a certain situation, and come to conclusions about his needs by deconstructing the individual context (see Gerstheimer & Lupp, 2001; Roggenkamp, 2004). For existing services to be mobilized, this is helpful, though not fully leading to conclusions. Because of this, a different method of looking at user needs shall be introduced to extend this perspective. Before, one has to distinguish between need in the sense of wishing for something and need in the sense of demand, connected to the willingness to trade resources to satisfy this demand. Hence, the needs we will talk about now are of the latter type, considered from the supply side. Governments offer certain services in pursuit of meeting common rules and fulfilling assumed tasks. This “supply” can be characterized (Figure 4) as to what kind of interaction it offers: information, communication, or transaction. Second, the intention of a service can be defined: whether it is aimed at following a user, thus allowing him to be mobile. Or whether it is aimed at guiding a user, thus supporting his mobility. Finally, we can consider the dependency of user and service, being connected due to time, location, or person. With each aspect, it can be estimated as to how sensitive a service is, and how much it relates to situations which are mobile. An assessment of how a service will be perceived can be based on the results of this description. From the initial description of influences on user acceptance, the second relevant issue for government is user experience. As has already been mentioned for organizational willingness, a step-by-step approach seems to be appropriate in the course of entering the field of mobile services. Not only can the providing organization adjust to demands of mobility, the actual users too can familiarize themselves with mobile government and explore technology, services, and functions available.

Figure 4. Describing a service to identify resulting needs Interaction level • Information • Communication • Transaction

Intention of a service • Follow user/ allow for mobility • Guiding user/ supporting mobility

Dependency user/service • Time • Location • Role/Person


78 Roggenkamp

Finally, an issue not to be underestimated is the overall perception of mobile government. We have to bear in mind that mobile communications are currently most often used for purposes of social connectedness, whereas we also see mobile services most successful when offering entertainment and tools to customize the personal item “mobile phone”. Against this background, it has to be proven that mobile government is more than supposedly helpful SMS or more intrusive government officials with remotely trustworthy devices that seem to reveal and collect by far too much sensitive data. Electronic government has reached a point where the extreme perceptions reaching from subversive Internet-based liberation to data-gathering “big brother”-like organizations have diffused into something convincingly useful, that can be utilized as needed. The biggest changes have occurred within the backend infrastructures. Since mobile government is, due to its mobility, doomed to take place far more in public spaces, the positive images have yet to emerge, the general perceptions yet need to be formed.

Thinking about Mobile Government When thinking about mobile government, the following four general questions should lead the way on to a definition of an aspired service. Also, they are supposed to help identifying beforehand, if and where there are flaws in the concept and actual message connected with a service and its goals.

What is Being Mobilized? Reviewing existing m-government, it becomes obvious that the scope of services awarded this label is wide, to be distinguished by their primary function and their reach. To answer this question, initially it needs to be defined whether the main goal is offering mobile access to some data source or if a service is supposed to be a genuine mobile application (or more likely something in-between, but tending to one side or the other). Whereas mobile access most often means getting rid of wires, the being-mobile is part of the functionality of a full-scale mobile application. Services such as geographical or tourist information are a case in point, since being stationary bound impedes their value dramatically. The reach of a service in this context is considering geographical limitations, whether a service is limited to a single location, a region or whether it reaches even beyond. From this initial evaluation, we can derive pos-



sible bearing technologies applied for transmitting, accessing, or delivering services in question. The second part of this evaluation dealt with needed/offered complexity, sensitivity, and criticality of a service. Referring to the earlier-identified process elements, we can look at: •

triggering events,

•

control mechanisms,

•

resources, and

•

resulting products and recipient,

as able to be mobilized, as well as consequences thereof. Triggering a process is probably less complex than governing it. With the recipient being mobile, embedded within a certain context, and depending on the product being possibly presented mobile, there are particular problems to be dealt with for each element.

Why Mobile? This rather broad question is supposed to lead to name driving forces behind the creation of mobile services. The case of actual, focused public demand is found rather seldom. Hence, we can conclude key motives to be efficiency, effectiveness or political goals. Furthermore, when looking at the purpose of mobilization, the mobile value being expected should be directly addressed. When an answer cannot be easily found here, it should be doubted that targeted users will be convinced. Less so, when they are actually obliged to cover extra cost (connection fees, infrastructure, etc.). Nevertheless, the opposite situation of being instantly able to state exact and conclusive reasons is no guarantee for success, for initial user adoption.

Are there Alternative (not Mobile) Services Available? Will Existing Services be Replaced? Based on the already found answers, this subject should be quickly covered. The mere existence of an alternative to a mobile service puts the question of expected added values attributed to such a service back on the agenda; especially when these alternatives are maintained. Competing with other communication channels, the mobile channel covers certain areas of use, namely social and private ones. Therefore it is appropriate to ask whether and why the mobile alternative should be better. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

80 Roggenkamp

Nevertheless, the data on the not-mobile services can help to assess how to improve it, and how to transfer this into a mobile context. Also, it can be better identified who would actually be served, and how often.

What is the General Agenda? Who will Benefit? This third version of the “Why mobile?” question is asked separately, because it scrutinizes the superior strategy of a providing organization. Naming those who will benefit is especially important when a service is deployed into a kind of monopoly, as we find to be predominant in most of the public sector. An individual cannot choose with which organization it prefers to do government business, however, in many cases it can choose how it wants to do it. By identifying those who gain advantages by a mobile service it can also be determined who will have to cover any additional cost.

Conclusion In the course of this chapter, the term mobility has been described as the key component of mobile government. Three (technological, economical, and sociological) different perspectives have been shown along with goals connected to their respective view. The combination of these perspectives has helped to identify key issues to be considered when dealing with mobility. With the description of these views, it is possible to develop a mobility cycle which combines questions of technological feasibility with economical demands and user needs. Focusing on the elements of the government term, it has further been described how process requirements, organizational willingness, and user acceptance can influence mobile government services. Also, a rough distinction between e-government and m-government has been provided, stating that mobile government mainly extends electronic governments, but considering mobility as a new feature, new services become possible which do not fit in a narrow view of e-government being a digital way of service-delivery. Resulting from the previous dealing with mobility perspectives and the elements of government, four questions (Figure 5) were identified which ought to be dealt with when conceptualizing and designing mobile government. The questions are supposed to guide developers through the process of designing mobile government services: First by helping to define and justify scope and content of a service. Second, the service can be classified and reviewed in its context, by assessing the possible competition it might face and by naming its beneficiaries. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


government • processes • organization • users

classify service

• technological • economical • sociological

„key questions“

mobility

justify service

Figure 5. Key questions when designing mobile government What is being mobilized? • primary functions • procedural needs Why mobile? • driving forces • expected gains Competing services? • advantage of mobile • existing experiences Strategy and beneficiaries? • scrutinize superior strategy • who will gain from service

Outlook Leading to a more generalized debate on mobile government, it is yet unclear whether mobile services in the public sector should be seen as something completely different that “traditional” services, or if we need to amend our evaluation criteria just a little. All in all, most of the mobile services can be reduced to “old-fashioned” online services, based on existing backend infrastructure, with only significant differences being the feature mobility, to be understood as an add-on. However, the debate on mobile interaction points out that the addition of “mobile” as a feature and important component of a service (including all the technological functions like localization, etc.) lead to changing behavior; the expectations toward the public sector are affected while the boundaries of public and private are diminishing. Similar things have been said on the peak of the online hype and following the invention of the World Wide Web, just a few years ago: virtual democracy was expected by many commentators. However, the debate developed from euphoria to disillusionment—the drastic expectations of an Internet-based revolution did not come true. This notwithstanding can we observe changes in behavior and perception among users. Also, we have to recognize the changes on the government side,


82 Roggenkamp

which is now looking for the creation of better services. Even the most pessimistic evaluation of mobile services in the public sector has to acknowledge the sustainable effect on users and providers alike. Apart from the common criteria of service assessment, such as cost and quality, the potential of location-independence and other features of mobile technology have yet to be understood in all their impact. Mobile government is not per se something new or even special. Due to the technological features and more so due to mobile users, it is an issue growing to become more and more important. And that is enabling and supporting mobility.

References Agre, P. (2001). Changing places: Contexts of awareness in computing. HumanComputer Interaction, 16(2-4), 177-192. Arazyan, H. (2002). M-government: Definition and perspectives. Retrieved August 12, 2004, from http://www.developmentgateway.org/download/143909/mGovernment_Interview_2.doc Bazijanec, B., & Pousttchi, K. (2004). Suitability of mobile communication techniques for the business processes of intervention. In D. Remenyi (Ed.), Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on e-Government (ECEG 2004), Dublin, Ireland, June 17-18 (pp. 805-812). Borins, S. (2001). The challenge of innovating in government. In the Innovations in Management Series, 02/2001. Arlington, VA: The PricewaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government. Castells, M. (2000). Rise of the network society. Sagebrush Education Resources. Centre for Public Service Innovation. (2003). Government unplugged – Mobile and wireless technologies in the public service. Originally retrieved March 8, 2004; New URL [retrieved November 18, 2006 from] http://www.cpsi.co.za/ contentfiles/tblFile/5_filFilePath_Government%20Unplugged.pdf Chang, A., & Kannan, P. (2002). Preparing for wireless and mobile technologies in government. Arlington, VA: IBM Endowment for the Business of Government. Churchill, E., & Wakeford, N. (2002). Framing mobile collaborations and mobile technologies. In B. Brown, N. Green, & R. Harper (Eds.), Wireless world, social and interactional aspects of the mobile age (pp. 154-179). London: Springer.



Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319-339. Di Maio, A. (2002). Toward a wireless public sector. Gartner Research – ID AV18-0223. FOKUS. (2000). Vehicular Video-Inter-car Video Transmission. Retrieved March 8, 2004, from http://www.fokus.gmd.de/research/cc/cats/projects/vehicular/ flyer.pdf Frischmuth, J., & Karrlein, W. (2002). Aktuelle Trends im Electronic und Mobile Business. In P. Blaschke, W. Karrlein, & B. Zypries (Eds.), E-Public: Strategien und Potenziale des E- und Mobile Business im öffentlichen Bereich (pp. 9-30). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Gerstheimer, O., & Lupp, C. (2001). Zukünftige Kundennutzenpotenziale im Bereich der mobilen Datenkommunikation, Doppeldiplomarbeit im Studiengang Produktdesign, Schwerpunkt Systemdesign. Kassel, Germany: Universität Kassel. Geser, H. (2003). Towards a sociological theory of the mobile phone. Retrieved November 18, 2006, from http://www.siocio.ch/mobile/t_geser1.htm Goffmann, E. (1967). Interactional ritual: Essays on face to face behavior. New York: Anchor Books. Gora, W. (Ed.) (1996). Auf dem Weg zum virtuellen Unternehmen. Köln: Fossil. Hasan, H., Jähnert, J., Zander, S., & Stiller, B. (2001). Authentication, authorization, accounting, and charging for the mobile Internet. In the IST Mobile Summit 2001, Barcelona, September 9-12. Hess, T., Figge, S., Hanekop, H., Hochstatter, I., Hogrefe, D., Kaspar, C., Rauscher, B., Richter, M., Riedel, A., & Zibull, M. (2005). Mobile Anwendungen – eine interdisziplinäre Herausforderung. In the Die Wirtschaftsinformatik, Nr., 02/2005 (forthcoming). Kakihara, M. (2003). Emerging work practices of ICT-enabled mobile professionals. PhD dissertation, Department of Information Systems, London School of Economics and Political Science, London. Kaspar, C., & Hagenhoff, S. (2003). Geschäftsmodelle im Mobile Business aus Sicht der Medienbranche. In the Arbeitsbericht, Nr., 15/2003. Georg-AugustUniversität Göttingen, Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik Khodawandi, D., Pousttchi, K., & Winnewisser, C. (2003). Mobile Technologie braucht neue Geschäftsprozesse. Originally retrieved September 23, 2004; New URL [retrieved November 18, 2006 from] www.wi-mobile.org/fileadmin/Papers/MBP/uni-augsburg-mobile-16-11.pdf


84 Roggenkamp

Kristofersen, S., & Ljungberg, F. (2000). Mobility: From stationary to mobile work. In K. Braa, C. Sørensen, & B. Dahlborn (Eds.), Planet Internet (pp. 41-64). Lund: Studentliteratur. Kushchu, I., & Borucki, C. (2004). Impact of mobile technologies on government. In D. Remenyi (Ed.), Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on e-Government (ECEG 2004), Dublin, Ireland, June 17-18 (pp.829-836). Kushchu, I., & Kuscu, M. (2003). From e-government to m-government: Facing the inevitable. In the Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on e-Government (ECEG 2003), Dublin, Ireland, July 3-4. Ling, R. (2000). We will be reached: The use of mobile telephony among Norwegian youth. Information Technology and People, 13(2), 102-120. Ling, R., & Yttri, B. (1999). Nobody sits at home and waits for the telephone to ring: Micro and hyper-coordination through the use of the mobile telephone. In the Telenor Research & Dev Report 30/99. Llalana, E. C. (2004). mGovernment definitions and models page. Retrieved November 18, 2006, from http://www.egov4dev.org/mgovdefn.htm Net Impact. (2004). Net impact: Europe eGovernment, Cisco Systems, Momentum Research Group. Retrieved September 27, 2004, from http://www.netimpactstudy.com/pdf/NetImpact_04b.pdf Palen, L., & Salzman, M. (2002). Welcome to the wireless world: Problems using and understanding mobile telephony. In B. Brown, N. Green, & R. Harper (Eds.), Wireless world, social and interactional aspects of the mobile age (pp. 134-153). London: Springer-Verlag. Perry, M., O’Hara, K., Sellen, A., Brown, B., & Harper, R. (2001, December). Dealing with mobility: Understanding access anytime, anywhere. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 8(4), 323-347. Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2004). How Americans get in touch with government. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_E-Gov_Report_0504.pdf Pica, D., & Kakihara, M. (2003). The duality of mobility: Unterstanding fluid organizations and stable interaction. In the Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2003), Naples, Italy, June. Roggenkamp, K. (2004). Development modules to unleash the potential of mobile government. In D. Remenyi (Ed.), Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on e-Government (ECEG 2004), Dublin, Ireland, June 17-18 (pp. 857-866). Rossado-Schlosser, A., & Hacke, M. (2002). Mobile Datendienste – Revolution der Geschäftswelt? Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.digitaltransformation.mckinsey.de/pdf/2889247_digital_transformation_modul5_mobdaten. pdf



Thome, R. (2003). M-government. In T. Schildhauer (Ed.), Lexikon Electronic Business (pp. 212-213). Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag. Turowski, K., & Pousttchi, K. (2003). Mobile commerce: Grundlagen und Techniken. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. Urry, J. (2000). Mobile sociology. British Journal of Sociology, 51(1), 185-203. Vincent, J., & Haddon, L. (2003). Informing suppliers about user behaviours to better prepare them for their 3G/UMTS customers. Final Report: Assessment and Analysis of Findings. In the UMTS Forum Report 34, UMTS Forum, Surrey, GB. Zálešák, M. (2003). M-government: More than a mobilised government. Retrieved January 2, 2005, from http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID= 14482 and http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=14495


86 Peinel & Rose

Chapter V

Business Models for M-Government Services Gertraud Peinel, Fraunhofer FIT, Germany Thomas Rose, Fraunhofer FIT, Germany

Abstract This chapter reports on experiences gained in the sustainable implementation of mobile e-government services. Sustainable operations require appropriate business models and partnerships for the implementation and provision of services. The lessons learned are based on experiences gained in major European research projects for the implementation of information services for environmental information and for the provision of mobile services. This chapter will briefly present the mobile services provided in these projects and then turn to the specific dimensions of interest: added values materialized by the combination of m-government, business models, and, in particular, revenue models for financing the services. Specific attention will be devoted to public-private partnerships for implementing, maintaining, and operating the services. Each dimension will be discussed in terms of pros and


Business Models for M-Government Services 87

cons. The section on business models will be completed by a summary of specified experiences gained with different stakeholders.

Introduction This chapter revolves around the customer and business aspects of mobile government services. Rather than wallowing in pure e-government issues or IT science and technologies, we want to talk about business. This business stance compasses the exploration of business partnerships and models as well as the market investigation of service content, that is, the design of use-oriented and citizen-centred services. Governmental information services and in particular online services towards the citizen still fell a step short of success. They are mainly created to meet the demands of legislations and regulations concerning information needs, but mostly do not entertain and attract the citizen, for example, by additional services taking into account individual situations, or by impelling people to a more active information exploration stance. A significant share of information services fell short concerning intuitive presentations and user interfaces for navigation, in particular taking into account normal citizens as customers. Instead, raw numbers and/or a large amount of reports dominate. One reason for this lack of customer orientation are diverging perceptions of the information strategy of authorities: merely offering access to information to the public versus pro-active information dissemination (Craglia & Masser, 2001). The latter requires processes taking into account also modern information technologies and customer-oriented thinking (even though we respect possible problems by transferring the concepts of e-commerce to e-government (Adams, Haston, Gillespie, & Macintosh, 2003; Stahl, 2005). M-government services often require not only pull but also push functionalities such as sending of SMS notifications: In contrast to pure Web services, the sending of SMS has to be financed explicitly. Experiences from the Government of Malta mGov project (Government of Malta—Ministry for Information Technology and Investment, 2003) as well as project USE-ME.GOV (USE-ME.GOV Consortium, 2005b) showed that authorities tend to cover the expenses of mobile services, since other funding possibilities and business models with private organizations are eyed suspiciously. The following sections will further elaborate on the range of business and revenue models for running m-government services in a sustainable way, and accompanied information strategies based on the results of EC-funded projects.


88 Peinel & Rose

Background Projects APNEE and APNEE-TU Project APNEE (Air Pollution Network for Early warning and on-line information Exchange in Europe—APNEE, 2006) evaluated the potential of raising money with m-government information services; or at least to create a win-win situation between public and private partners. It implemented ubiquitous information services available on mobile phones (WAP, SMS, MMS), PDA, street panels, voice servers, and Internet. These services are operated in public-private partnerships while each partnership creates dedicated value for the end user, that is, the citizen as customer. APNEE has been launched during the hype of the content industry. Only a few years ago, content was considered king for the telecommunication industry. Environmental information was ranked third place in customer interviews about attractive content. Moreover, the Information Society Technologies programme for information technology development and deployment of the European Union begun to promote citizen-centered services, that is, services and in particular information services that generate added value for many citizen. Hence, the ingredients for a success story were in place. APNEE materialized on these ingredients and delivered a multi-channel dissemination platform for air quality information, which was successfully evaluated in field trials in several European regions. Based on the successful implementation of an online information service for the citizen, a major European field trial was launched with project APNEE-TU (Take-UP measure). The vision of APNEE was to establish an information service which informs citizens about the current air quality taking into account the current location of the citizen (different values depending on region), the preferences of the citizen (i.e., sensitive to ozone, pulmonary diseases, limits, alert intervals), and the availability of different information access channels (mobile: mobile phones, smart phones, PDAs, street panels; at home: PC with Internet, voice server) (Peinel & Rose, 2004). APNEE finally operates air pollution information service in Norway, Germany, Spain, France, and Greece on different channels according acceptance and business models. The success of the online information services stayed with APNEE from a citizen’s point of view. However, the business partnerships changed significantly while getting closer to the commercialization of the services and the products built.



USE-ME.GOV Project USE-ME.GOV developed an open platform for m-government services that is both cost-effective and efficient. These crucial attributes can be especially beneficial for smaller and financially weak local authorities. This open platform for m-government services fosters usability, sharing, openness, interoperability, and scalability, thus enabling service deployment and access. The project also elaborated business models for the sustainable operation of such services while at the same time considering the sharing of services by several authorities as well as public-private partnerships between authorities and commercial companies. IST initiatives for improving services to the citizen and businesses are prevailingly promoted and implemented by individual authorities and organizations. Nowadays even smaller towns operate their own Web site with access to general public information, whereas larger cities and institutions use to offer a wider range of more sophisticated electronic (Web-based) services (Leenes & Svensson, 2002). However, the richness and quality of these services vary significantly. In particular small authorities, for example, in rural areas, have limited financial, technical, and human resources in order to implement and deploy electronic services with the same quality as large organizations (ibid). This aspect becomes even more critical for the deployment of mobile services because of a higher complexity of service implementation, required organizational changes, as well as higher costs for commercial exploitation due to complexity of value chain. Authorities are usually organized in departments each with own responsibilities, tasks, structure, and customers. Often hardware, and moreover software differ from door to door and are not shared (also named “patchwork” in a study from DB Research (2005), or “information silos” as described for example in Kane (2004) and Saxena (2005)). On the other hand, mobile operators or portals are searching for content to promote their new mobile technologies and approach public organizations to deliver services on Internet and wireless networks. Once contracted, one department connects to the mobile operator in charge and “somebody” implements a proprietary bridge to one specific operator interface. This bridge can normally not be reused for other applications or other mobile operators. Authorities are now actively searching for mobile solutions to implement regulations and recommendations from state, national, and European bodies calling for e-government, e-governance, and of course m-government. But due to often missing technical background, monetary shortcuts, administrative regulations, and less experience about mobile market interdependencies, they are hesitating to invest time and money in solitaire solutions with a high degree of propriety and accordingly major investments.


90 Peinel & Rose

The deployment of an open service platform that can be shared by networked authorities and institutions (e.g., on a regional scale) in terms of technical resources as well as commercial exploitation harmonizes the quality of public services and overcomes related divide phenomena. On the other hand, resource sharing explored on the basis of attractive business models will also provide the conditions for costefficient m-government services namely in geographical areas with low Internet penetration, since penetration of mobile technologies already got ahead of Internet penetration. Hence, project USE-ME.GOV’s key results was to support authorities entering the mobile market with an open source platform allowing: •

to share common modules with other departments or other authorities (for example subscription, alerting components);

•

to secure development and operation by open source transparency;

•

to attract further mobile operator independent of respective interfaces; and

•

to estimate efforts, outcome, and benefits in advance.

The platform has been finalized and validated in four European regions and will be operated on the basis of different business models depending on the individual validation results. Sharing of the platform, sponsoring, and public-private partnerships prevail.

Value Chains for Multi-Channel Services Business partners are normally not considered in the supply chain of e-government or m-government services (Abramowicz, Bassara, Filipowska, Peinel, Rose, Wisniewski, & Zebrowski, 2005). But, telecommunication companies have the technological know how and infrastructure to deliver services on a large scale and on multiple channels. Moreover, portal operators and content syndicators are eager to get new content in order to provide new and better services. On the other hand, environmental authorities and research organizations have profound knowledge about and access to environmental data, but they are not experts on the use of modern information and telecommunication technology for reaching the citizen with their messages. Thus, the ingredients for a successful business partnership are available in principle. Rather than mimicking other partner’s roles at low quality, organizations should team-up for business. APNEE implemented a value chain with several stakeholders:



Figure 1. Structure of the information value chain in APNEE(-TU)

•

Authorities and Non-Governmental Environmental Organizations: Provide the data and the knowledge about the data, its sources, measurement networks, quality measures and of course legislation background.

•

Research Institutes and Universities: Supplement this information with forecasting models and impact analysis.

•

Private Portal Operators: Are bringing in the contacts and knowledge about information markets and specific customer requirements. Therefore, they supplement the data with background information (like health impacts) and user-friendly visualization means.

•

Telecommunication Operators: Are delivering the information and service to the customers via multi-channel platforms. They might also enhance the service with location based features.

This value chain proved to be successful because: •

High-quality data is available.

•

The impacts of air pollution elements are well researched.

•

Internet and mobile end user devices are common and widespread; multi-channel service provision will therefore better reach the citizen.

•

Telecommunication providers host multi-channel systems and are eager for content with demand.

•

Authorities want and have to reach the public with modern communication means.


92 Peinel & Rose

•

Authorities and NGOs foster the capitalization of their data and services to create value.

Telecommunication operators were first inclined to host valuable content themselves and blocked any integration attempts. Now they increasingly offer standardized interfaces to their infrastructure leaving the market to portal operators and information providers. This opening allows authorities an easier implementation of multi-channel information services for reaching the public—provided they are able to master questions of usability, interaction mechanisms, and use of medium.

Business Experiences Gained APNEE has evaluated several business opportunities and models to establish egovernment services as a sustainable business. One specific business perspective has been explored by telecommunications providers and operators in early phases: establish air quality information as premium content, such as traffic information, and charge the citizen on a use or subscription basis. This business idea has not proven profitable for a mass market. It will only generate revenues for niche markets, although there is again a significant difference among Northern and Southern European countries. Since the participating telecommunication companies focused their business on the big picture, this business concept has not been further elaborated in APNEE(-TU). The change of business interest might also be caused by a vanishing of content-related businesses in general or by missing content delivery frameworks for environmental information. Although new directives for the publication of public sector information (PSI) have been published (European Commission, 2000b), they do not specify how to implement and regulate this publication. There are in particular no content delivery frameworks to offer online information to external entrepreneurs that might turn them into commercial and professional services. Formal content delivery contracts between public information providers and commercial syndicators have proven critical in the course of APNEE. Contracts have been negotiated at national levels, for example, in Germany where the federal states (Länder) and the federal environmental agency wanted to use APNEE services with online data managed by a federal environmental institute. Yet, there is no European framework. Content delivery management is further compounded by competition issues. Can we transfer a set of services operational in Germany to Spain and use publicly certified data online from Spanish sources? Our talks with authorities showed a clear reluctance to offer the data to foreign companies.



There has been a major shift from telecommunication companies as service syndicators towards public administrations as provider of APNEE-like services as for example in Norway. Public administrations might use APNEE services to elevate their service quality in the context of government-to-citizen and e-government initiatives. Hence, the pendulum moved backwards from high quality content for commercial information services on a charge basis towards information services to be offered by public authorities. Air quality information as a life style service commercially operated is somehow in between with the addition of a niche market for dedicated groups of citizens. APNEE services will likely be offered as additional modules to existing air quality management systems and be offered to public bodies in charge of air quality monitoring.

Options of Revenues A joint provision of services by private and public bodies might be based on a rather classical thinking of costs, revenues, and financiers. This approach of finding one party who pays the bills has been aged out by many examples of Internet projects. Based on experiences gained in this business community, we present a number of potential financing sources for the integration and operation of mobile services, which have been elaborated in the USE-ME.GOV project. These business model recommendations include a checklist of options to evaluate when planning m-government services (USE-ME.GOV Consortium, 2005a). The following is the list of recommendations that should be considered for financing m-government initiatives: •

National and international funding;

•

Public-private partnerships (in low cost or win-win relationships);

•

Advertising and sponsoring;

•

Payment by the citizens (at least for push services);

•

Sharing of the service or the platform with other authorities;

•

Or some combination of these all options.

National and International Funding At the start of project USE-ME-GOV, the participating authorities put their faith in national and international funding sources as financing option. Even though


94 Peinel & Rose

national or European funding seems to be the easiest way to support m-government activities, this solution neglects the advantages of partnerships with private organizations as stated in the next section (but of course also avoids any problems related to it). But, with public purses under strain, such financing is often limited in amount and time, and this might not allow a flexible answering to increased or extended customer demand, not to talk about required expenses for further adaptations to new technologies. Public funding should be used to support innovations, start-up, or implementation phases of projects, but not the permanent operation of such undertakings.

Public-Private Partnerships (in Low Cost or Win-Win Relationship) Public-private partnerships (PPP) between stakeholders of governmental information service value chains combine partners from the public and the private sector. They are by nature differently structured, have a different policy and business aim, and underlie different legislations. But, partnerships between public organizations and private companies would allow a simple business model: Authorities deliver their data and service to a well-defined interface, and commercial organizations pick it up, polish, and perhaps revalue them for their respective business purposes, obeying the syndication rules agreed upon, that is, concerning the end-user price. This business model could fertilize the market of public sector information, gives each commercial partner a fair access, and avoids competition by public authorities operating such services themselves. In APNEE-TU, the German Internet and WAP services operated by a commercial company did not cause any extra costs for the citizen (the implemented SMS information services, which have been tested in the project, did not survive the validation: accepted price and number of potential customers did not reach the threshold of the commercial partner). The company offered the Internet and WAP services for free to extend their information portal with this information in order to attract more customers which might in turn invoke services with costs. Unfortunately, this PPP by service level agreement did not survive more than three years, since: (1) the commercial company took over risks and costs (monthly amount for data provision by the authority) of the partnership; and (2) the authority did not support the partnership with a common objective, engagement, or investment. Finally, the commercial company changed their business interest and online presence, and the German APNEE services were abandoned tacitly. Not every possible service has to be and should be operated by authorities, not only from a financial and effort point of view, but also because governmental activities



should not interfere with the private market. In some states of Europe and in the U.S., the competition of the government with the private sector are forbidden by law to avoid precluding other entities from developing markets (Software and Information Industry Association, 2001; Weiss, 2002). “A further objective [of the EC competition law] is the avoidance of situations in which a government agency or organization might be perceived as abusing its monopoly supply position with regard to distribution, pricing, licensing and competition” (INSPIRE DPLI Working Group, 2002). But, partnership must be carefully negotiated, since delegating the service provision to commercial partners might hinder governmental policies concerning reaching all citizens (for example, by having no influence on the provider policy regarding customer selection) or concerning free information to satisfy specific information needs of the public (commercial providers might want to charge for the information). It must also be assured that private companies do not control the information flow between citizen and government and thus influence and filter content and reach. PPPs can also be used for the initial implementation: the private sector carries the cost of initial implementations in order to prove the effectiveness of the technology, and further costs are covered by the government, if the service is successful (Goldstuck, 2004). The government of Hong Kong already established specific PPPs for electronic services delivery named the electronic service delivery (ESD) scheme. Here, the private sector operator is responsible for developing, financing, operating, and maintaining the system, and the government starts to pay transaction fees to the operator after the transaction level has reached a pre-agreed volume. The commercial operator is allowed to make use of the information infrastructure for advertisements and e-commerce services for additional income. The business risk to the government is low; while the private sector operator has continuous incentive to promote the wider use of the e-government services and to introduce service enhancement. “This also drives the development of e-commerce in the business sector” (Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 2004). Another option for a PPP is that the commercial company builds and operates the mobile service, and charges the customer/citizen for using the service. Revenues can be shared between authority and private partner, or retained completely by the private company as reimbursement for efforts. This business model is successfully implemented in the U.S. with a company named NIC (National Information Consortium, Inc.) currently operating 18 U.S. state portals through the so-called “self-funded model” (NIC Homepage, 2005). The negotiation and implementation phases in APNEE and USE-ME.GOV showed problems and advantages of these public-private partnerships, which will be described in the following sections.


96 Peinel & Rose

Problems of Partnerships We experienced in the projects the following conflicts (which either have been solved by individual agreements or are still under negotiation). •

Law concerning exchange of data and ownership/copyright of data: Even the EC provides with the new directives on access to public sector information and communication of environmental data (European Commission, 2000b, 2003) a first indication on how to deliver public data and services to external parties, other issues of such a deal are still open for negotiation: do authorities have to deliver to ALL external customers, including customers from other countries with different legislation? Are external parties allowed to process the data? Allowed to resell the data? We experienced that a reselling might be condoned by the authorities due to an unclear legal position about this in some states. In face-to-face discussions, most authorities showed a strong reluctance when asked to sell their data and services to other countries.

•

PPP contracts missing: Still, generally accepted contracts for information services operated in PPPs are rare in most European countries. This means that for each binding agreement lawyers have to negotiate service level agreements between the accuracy-oriented authorities and the reliability-oriented commercial providers. Among other problems, the latter normally integrates in content provision contracts passages about penalties if the provision fails or is not available in time, and this demand is certainly not acceptable for public organizations. Nationwide and moreover European-wide standard contracts would ease this negotiation process and spare time and costs.

•

Documentation ownership: Information services should inform the public sufficiently and extensively. This means that for example environmental services should not just send raw measurement values, but indices and additional information about health impacts and actions to undertake, in order to allow the citizen to assess the danger of air pollution. This background, general, and regulation information—be it text, pictures, videos, animations—should be backed by authorities and research competences. But, the ownerships of such documentation might be problematic to settle. What is legally allowed on a public or research site must be clarified in ownership before presented on a commercial site. This could result in a tiresome fight to detect who is the originator and such owner of which piece of information.

•

Niche product versus public policy: It is public policy to reach most citizens in order to inform and protect. On the other hand, commercial organizations tend to concentrate on the biggest part of the picture and therefore do not want to invest in niche services, which might result in low revenues with high invest-



ment. A successful partnership must therefore try to balance the investment on the private and the public site for a win-win-situation of both parties. •

Intermediator: Authorities are rightly careful when external parties intermediate the channel to the citizens. One topic of caution is the potential misuse of individual data of the citizen. While authorities are judged as trustful, private companies have to overcome the suspicion of customers concerning the use of their sensitive data. Also, the USE-ME.GOV validation interviews showed a clear expression of mistrust by citizens with regard to data privacy when commercial companies are involved in service provision. It should also be controlled that the data and information is not changed and tampered for specific business needs, say for advertisement of pharmacies. The contract between public and private organizations must be flexible enough to allow additional financing on the private site, but it ought to be strict with regard to misuse and incorrect interpretations on the other side.

Advantages of Partnerships We also want to highlight the clear benefits both partners can capitalize on: •

Provision of multi-channel services: Authorities should implement multichannel services to get a maximum reach towards the citizen, anyhow, anywhere, and anytime (European Commission, 2004). But the required investment confronts with the current problematic financial situation of most public organizations. Especially mobile services have to be tested on a large amount of devices to be useful for a larger audience due to a large variety of mobile standard implementations. In addition, the number of new devices appearing year for year on the market results in never-ending tests and adaptations. Following the APNEE approach, authorities do not have to waste taxes and efforts to join this rush of new technologies but can concentrate on data delivery to private operators. The latter are already operating implementation centres for the transfer and test of content to new devices and can such serve the most common and most up-to-date technology.

•

New information markets: The PIRA study (European Commission, 2000a) estimated in the year 2000 that public sector information presents an economic value of between 28 billion and 134 billion Euro per annum in Europe and this market is still underdeveloped. The business chain of APNEE showed that PSI can be successfully exploited creating a win-win situation for all partners. Other services based on PSI like water quality, or for example statistical data can be implemented in the same way. From the citizen point of view, these kinds of information services with PSI is not yet offered, and hence new demand with emerging commercial value can be created.


98 Peinel & Rose

•

Market driven approach of commercial partners: Certainly commercial partners are market and customer oriented. We also suppose they are more creative in getting value out of data and services and are hence inventing new service types and new demand: “by assembling, arranging, and organizing it [public sector information] in useful ways; by combining it with information from other sources; by adding indexing, cross-referencing and annotations; and by updating and expanding databases to make sure that they are comprehensive, timely and accurate” (Software and Information Industry Association, 2001). One example idea from the APNEE partners was to invent a Bio-feel-goodindex like the already established bio-weather. This index should approach the new generation of health-concerned citizens and give information about the daily environmental condition. We see this example as a new concept of extending pure environmental information to new promising “information products”. Extending public information or services with other information or services to new “products” improves public services and such provides more value for citizens.

•

Bundling of information: Combining several sources (different types, different regions) to an information bundle (like also presented in the item before) fosters also the information awareness of citizen. New visualization means like maps with zooming and smart map facilities (Peinel & Rose, 2001) covering a larger region like the whole country seduces to information detection and exploration. Citizens tend to be curious not only about the situation in their neighborhood, but they also want to compare with other regions, check also water, weather, sun, UV, and the like.

•

Reselling of data: The information provision from authorities can certainly not be bound to only one commercial partner. Other interested parties have the same right to access the data. But, it might be easier for them to “buy” now the data from the already-established private partner because it already knows the semantics and use. Provided reselling of data is allowed, this will spread the availability and use.

Advertising and Sponsoring Citizens do not expect to receive “content” for free and are therefore not strictly against advertising integrated in information services; this was also demonstrated by a survey made by the mobile operator Amena, partner in USE-ME.GOV. Given the choice of (1) the payment of a service, (2) advertising for financing, or (3) no service at all, advertising was clearly the favorite. Even advertisements on e-government portals have been debated for quite some time among the actors (see, for example, Peterson, 2000), apparently reluctance still prevails. A survey of e-government



services showed in 2005 that only around 4% of government Web sites world-wide relied on ads (the same as the year before) (West, 2005). They were presented as banners, pop-ups, and fly-by advertisements. The author of Koppell (2001) compared governmental Web sites with a bus and a park. Either like a park, “a public space that shouldn’t be marred by clever clickthrough ads…” or like city buses “literally wrapped in advertising”. Citizen and authorities preferring the latter view will not care about advertising combined with public services. And as the author finalizes his opinion in favor of advertisements: “Talk is cheap. But someone has to pay for the servers and software that will make egovernment work. If you’re not willing to pay for them, maybe Motel 6 will be.” We experienced in project APNEE-TU (Peinel & Rose, 2004) that the authorities involved did not object to commercial advertising on the same interface where the environmental information is presented (probably because it was not an authority operated interface but a commercial one). But they restricted the type of advertising. Naturally, they forbid commercials for unhealthy products like cigarettes and offending material like gambling and the like. We would expect the same opinion for all authorities, and this will require controlled advertising by special contracts or by special advertising companies. We define sponsoring as financial support of an information service by an external non-public party, with the service in turn showing the sponsor’s name on the Web or mobile interface, and/or mentioning them in other official publications. If advertising is not well accepted by citizens, sponsoring could be a more discreet possibility of financial support. Sponsoring requests should not be targeted only to pure commercial companies. Public organizations seeking for additional funding should also consider to approach NGOs, other public bodies, societies, chambers, unions, and the like. As an example, automobile clubs might sponsor a public infrastructure complaint service as additional support service for their members, since deteriorated streets and highways are of special concern for car drivers.

Payment by Citizen Most authorities are reluctant to ask the citizen for payment of services, even push services that require an active transmission of data which in turn causes costs on the invoker side. Citizens would argue that the tax payer is stressed enough with payments to the state, so governmental services should be as free as possible. On the other hand, there is no argument that authorities have to provide their services with all the bells and whistles on every channel available for free; specific personalized services with a clear added-value could be supported by the citizen with an additional payment. A second argument has already been mentioned—the competition to the private market, and the possible exploitation of public sector information by new marketable services thus creating new value, and in turn new tax revenues. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

100 Peinel & Rose

If authorities decide to claim a reimbursement from the citizens, the revenue model can be based on subscriptions, pay-per-use, or transactions. Payment can be done by micro-payment systems such as FirstGate or Mobipay, via the phone bill and transfers to the authority by the mobile operator, or by direct cash in the office (for example, when a notification about the pickup of a passport should be sent by mobile phone to the citizen, the notification fee is included in the total issue fee and directly payable). Concerning professional micro-payment offers (like PayPal, Firstgate), it should be noted that such services “eat” a large percentage of the overall revenue, and such a reduction has to be taken into account when calculating the overall service revenues and of course also when calculating the price customers have to spend. Also, citizens in different European countries show a different acceptance of technology and use. This results also in a difference of pricing acceptance. As project APNEE showed, North-European countries accept higher prices for mobile services than citizens from southern Europe (Peinel & Rose, 2004). In addition, younger and older customers differ in their acceptance of technology, especially with regard to mobile technology. It should be carefully evaluated who is the normal customer for the intended service in order to be not confronted with the digital divide phenomena.

Sharing of the Service or the Platform with Other Authorities All costs and efforts can be naturally reduced if several authorities share the service and operation of the mobile offer. This sharing can be done with commercial organizations too, but sharing with other authorities might be easier to carry out considering trust, privacy, and regulations. On the other hand, this sharing can also pose some problems since other departments and moreover other authorities have very probably different leadership and work-sharing models, hierarchy, and structure. Consider the diverse organizational structures in countries with a federal constitution. But the advantages are clear: •

Sharing of costs and efforts, exchange of experiences and results.

•

Provision of a larger dissemination field for services, possibility to offer cross border services (also municipality borders), giving one anchor point for all services—one-stop shop.

•

Stronger negotiation position against mobile operators by bundling and increasing customer base.



•

Implementation of chained and combined services (i.e., move from one city to another; notifications of a move in one service instead of two notifications at two city portals).

•

Bundling of services according to citizen needs, not the authority structure.

IT investments and operational costs are especially difficult for smaller authorities, municipalities, or rural civil services, which do not only have low IT resources and investment for establishing electronic service delivery, but also serve a great variety of service types to, for the most part only a limited number of customers (citizens). Well-known and often cited examples of e-government services are mostly operated by larger authorities with a large clientele and more focused business segments like tax offices (Leenes & Svensson, 2002). The authors Leenes and Svensson also strongly recommend the sharing of services between authorities to lower investment, and also to bundle services in central access points for citizens.

Recommendations Public authorities need to have an open mind for PPPs, as they offer them the opportunity to expand their service portfolio by sharing the investment with private partners (and possibly reduce development and operational costs by reuse of infrastructure and value-added mobile network operator services (Dietz, 2005)). Private companies, on the other hand, can open new market opportunities with new services based on public sector information. Due to the experiences in APNEE, we believe in the success of PPPs. Even we experienced a “cultural” habit of authorities to retain the custom of power control in their hands to avoid any intervention or meddling. Until now, there also seems to be a tendency of public authorities to hide behind the reliability shield. Authorities retain their behaviour to convey also those information to the public that has proven to be water tight. The hidden objective is to minimize risks of reliability claims by information processors and information receivers. However, in light of current and emerging budget restrictions, public authorities have to start establishing mutual contracts with syndicators for the provision of information as well as to settle the range of services that might operate with the information provided. Moreover, European legislations in terms of EU directives pave the way for new business services based on public sector information (European Commission,


102 Peinel & Rose

2000b). Public sector information has been gathered and maintained in enormous quantities and typically come with premium quality. PPP will enable a collaborative exploitation of this information with commercial business. One major obstacle to this business bonanza so far has been the variety of technical interfaces that are not standardized among authorities and different national initiatives. Industry and commercial standardization bodies come as natural partners to these exploitation initiatives. Projects that build upon public information, for example, information public due to the act of free information in the United States, have already taken-off with success in the U.S. (European Commission, 2000a). However, in Europe many cross-border initiatives and hence businesses fail due to different implementations of frameworks that are actually striving for European uniformity. In addition, we experienced animosity when authorities were asked to provide information crossborder to “unknown” recipients.

Conclusion We have been arguing that authorities need to reconsider their financing options. Rather than limiting their minds to governmental do-it-yourself, they ought to open their line of thinking to already established financial mechanisms and modes of operations in the commercial market. Advertising, payment by the citizen, and public-private partnerships for a sharing of business risks and operating costs are additional options to be considered to enable service provision while minimizing public investments. In addition, sharing of services between authorities and departments gives the advantages of establishing a one-stop-government, sharing of experiences and efforts, as well as stronger position when negotiating with commercial providers. Project APNEE provides the evidence for the PPP approach presented. In the course of the project various business models have been applied. By the end of the project, the services are operated as different value chains resulting in a variety of partnerships that are contingent upon regional preferences as well as business interests. Hence, the entire spectrum of business options needs to be explored and suitable partners have to be identified. On the other hand, USE-ME.GOV has produced recommendations on when certain options are most favorable and which caveats have to be taken in account. Results serve as guidelines for sustainable m-government services.



Acknowledgment APNEE has been supported by the European Commission DG XIII under contract IST-1999-11517, APNEE-TU under contract IST-2001-34154. Project USE-ME. GOV is supported by the EC under contract IST 6FP 002294.

References Abramowicz, W., Bassara, A., Filipowska, A., Peinel, G., Rose, T., Wisniewski, M., & Zebrowski, P. (2005). Technical implications and business recommendations for building open and interoperable platform for m-services provisioning. In I. Kushchu, & M. H. Kuscu (Eds.), Proceedings of the First European Conference on Mobile Government, Brighton, UK, July 10-12 (pp. 7-16). Brighton, UK: University Sussex. Adams, N. J., Haston, S., Gillespie, N., & Macintosh, A. (2003). Conventional and electronic service delivery within public authorities: The issues and lessons from the private sector. In R. Traunmüller (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference, EGOV 2003 (Vol. LNCS 2739, pp. 129-134), Prague, Czech Republic, September 1-5. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. APNEE. (2006). Air pollution network for early warning and on-line information exchange in Europe. Project Homepage. Retrieved November 18, 2006, from http://www.apnee.org Craglia, M., & Masser, I. (2001). Access to geographic information: A European perspective. Paper presented at the ESF-NSF Workshop on Access to Geographic Information and Participatory Approaches Using GI, Spoleto, Italy, December 6-8. Retrieved April 2002, from http://www.shef.ac.uk/~scgisa/ spoleto/craglia.pdf DB Research. (2005). E-government in Germany: Much achieved – Still much to do! E-conomics, Digital economy and structural change. Retrieved April 2006, from http://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_EN-PROD/ PROD0000000000188264.PDF Dietz, U. (2005). Mobile government and mobile network operators – Is cooperation possible. In I. Kushchu, & M. H. Kuscu (Eds.), Proceedings of the First European Conference on Mobile Government 2005, Brighton, UK, July 10-12 (pp. 133-142). Brighton, UK: Sussex. European Commission. (2000a). Commercial exploitation of Europe’s public sector information (Final report). Retrieved June 2005, from ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/ econtent/docs/commercial_final_report.pdf Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

104 Peinel & Rose

European Commission. (2000b). Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 on the re-use of public sector information. 2003/4/EC, Official Journal L 345, p. 90-96. European Commission. (2003). Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information and repealing Council Directive 90/313/EEC. 2003/4/EC, Official Journal L 41, p. 26-32. European Commission. (2004). Final Report of the Multi-channel delivery of egovernment services - June 2004 (EN) (Short report): EC, Enterprise DG, Interchange of Data between Administrations. Retrieved June 2005, from http://europa.eu.int/ida/servlets/Doc?id=16867 Goldstuck, A. (2004). Government unplugged, Mobile and wireless technologies in the public service. Centre for Public Service Innovation, South Africa. Retrieved April 2006, from http://topics.developmentgateway.org/egovernment/rc/filedownload.do~itemId=379174 Government of Malta—Ministry for Information Technology and Investment. (2003). Mobile government services of the government of Malta. Retrieved December 2005, from http://www.mobile.gov.mt/?mb:lang=en Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. (2004). Publicprivate sector partnership. Retrieved November 2005, from http://www.info. gov.hk/digital21/e-gov/eng/init/index.htm INSPIRE DPLI Working Group. (2002). Data policy & legal issues working group position paper. Retrieved August 2005, from http://www.ec-gis.org/inspire/ reports/position_papers/inspire_dpli_pp_v12_2_en.pdf Kane, B. (2004). Connecting The dots – Why Danish IT architecture does not result in interoperability. ITU - IT University of Copenhagen. Retrieved May 2006, from http://www.interop.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/Brian_Kane_Thesis_EAI_FINAL_public_version_v3.pdf Koppell, J. (2001). Your ad here. Industry Standard, Online Magazine, February 5, 2001. Retrieved December 5, 2005, from http://www.newamerica.net/index. cfm?pg=article&DocID=100 Leenes, R. E., & Svensson, J. (2002). Size Matters – Electronic service delivery by municipalities? In R. Traunmüller, & K. Lenk (Eds.), Proceedings of the Electronic Government – First International Conference, EGOV 2002 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2456), Aix-en-Provence, France, September 2-5 (pp. 150-156). Springer. NIC Homepage. (2005). NIC Inc. Retrieved March 2006, from http://www.nicusa. com



Peinel, G., & Rose, T. (2001). Graphical information portals: The application of smart maps in GeoNet 4D. Journal of GeoInformatica, 5(4), 327-344. Peinel, G., & Rose, T. (2004). Dissemination of air quality information: Lessons learnt in European field trials. In the Proceedings of the EnviroInfo 2004, Geneva, Switzerland, October 21-23. Retrieved from http://www.enviroinfo2004. org/cdrom/Datas/Fullpaper.htm Peterson, S. (2000). This space for rent. Government Technology, Online Magazine, December 2000. Retrieved November 1, 2005, from http://www.govtech. net/magazine/story.php?id=3024&issue=12:2000 Saxena, K. B. C. (2005, October). Towards excellence in e-governance. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 18(6), 498-513. Software and Information Industry Association. (2001). Promoting public-private cooperation in e-government – Not competition. In Congressional Internet Caucus and its Advisory Committee (Ed.), Briefing book outline: E-government. Internet Issue Compilation Books. Retrieved November 17, 2005, from http://www.netcaucus.org/books/egov2001/pdf/netcaucu.pdf Stahl, B. C. (2005). The ethical problem of framing e-government in terms of ecommerce. The Electronic Journal of e-Government, 3(2), 77-86. USE-ME.GOV Consortium. (2005a). Recommendations for the planning of mobile services in public administrations (Deliverable D3.1) (public deliverable). USE-ME.GOV Homepage. Retrieved March 1, 2006, from http://www.usemegov.org USE-ME.GOV Consortium. (2005b). USE-ME.GOV Project Homepage. Retrieved March 1, 2006, from http://www.usemegov.org/ Weiss, P. (2002). Borders in cyberspace: Conflicting public sector information policies and their economic impacts. U. S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service. West, D. M. (2005). Global e-government. Brown University’s Taubman Center for Public Policy. Retrieved October 2005, from http://www.insidepolitics. org/egovt05int.pdf


106 Capra, Francalanci & Marinoni

Chapter VI

Soft Success Factors for M-Government Eugenio Capra, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Chiara Francalanci, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Clementina Marinoni, Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Abstract This chapter proposes a reference “soft” competence framework to support both the implementation of m-government actions and the management of related organizational changes. Our framework focuses on organizational factors and competences that act as enablers of successful e-government and m-government implementation, and has been tested by means of an empirical analysis carried out in the major European countries. E-government and m-government policies are analyzed according to this framework, which is based on several dimensions, including centralization, involvement, leadership, learning, and soft skills. Key success factors are discussed and validated by empirical evidence. Finally, two significant cases of m-government projects, one successfully implemented and the other about to be implemented, are presented. Furthermore, the chapter aims at showing how soft factors are crucial for the success of m-government initiatives.


Soft Success Factors for M-Government 107

Introduction Companies and institutions increasingly feel the need for strong organizational frameworks and soft skills, that is, behavioral and managerial skills to be integrated with technical competences (Spencer & Spencer, 1993). The importance of soft factors for e-government development has been recently discussed (CoBrA, 2004; OECD, 2003b). The Information Society Directorate-General of the European Commission (2004) has defined e-government as “the use of information and communication technologies in public administrations combined with organizational change and new skills in order to improve public services and democratic processes and strengthen support to public policies”. From a more technical point of view, the UN (United Nations, 2003) has defined e-government as the process by which public administration transforms internal and external relationships with the use of modern information and communication technology (ICT). In fact, the concept of e-government has been evolving in order to satisfy customers of public administrations by leveraging all the existing ICT technologies and channels. Mobile government, also referred to as m-government, is the extension of e-government to mobile platforms, as well as the strategic use of government services and applications which are only possible using cellular/ mobile telephones, laptop computers, personal digital assistants and wireless internet infrastructure (Hutchinson Encyclopedia, http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/M-government). A broader definition is provided by Kushchu and Kuscu (2003), who defined mgovernment as a strategy and its implementation involving the utilization of all kinds of wireless and mobile technology, services, applications, and devices for improving benefits to the parties involved in e-government including citizens, businesses, and all government units. Mobile devices and technologies allow to provide citizens with a more complete, flexible and pervasive service. Multi-channel service is a way to establish a new and closer relationship with users, as they can choose the most convenient medium to interact with the public administration (Bracchi & Mainetti, 2005). Accordingly, m-government is not a replacement for e-government, rather it complements and completes it. As a successful implementation of e-government requires organizational change and new skills, according to the definition of ISDG reported earlier, m-government too requires at least the same focus. In fact, m-government leads to new services and relationships, which need a deep internal re-organization. Consequently, most of the considerations about soft factors which apply to e-government apply to m-government too, as it may be considered an extension of it.



This chapter proposes a reference “soft” competence framework to support both the implementation of m-government actions and the management of related organizational changes. Part of the model and of the empirical evidence reported was developed within a project sponsored by the Italian Ministry for Public Administration to develop a local reference framework for e-government, but, as stated previously, it can be easily extended to m-government too. The framework presented here (see also Capra, Francalanci, & Marinoni, 2005) focuses on organizational factors and competences that act as enablers of successful e-government and m-government implementation, and has been tested by means of an empirical analysis carried out in the United States, Canada, and in some major European countries (Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom). Some fundamental concepts of management theory can be applied to the e-government and m-government development process: •

The implementation of successful and effective m-government services requires cultural changes among public administration managers and employees, who must develop a citizen-oriented attitude and learn to share the values of the information society.

•

In order to stimulate cultural change among managers and employees, particular attention must be paid to organizational solutions and ways of learning (Senge, 1992; Senge et al., 1999), as well as empowerment (Piccardo, 1995; Zimmerman, 1990) and involvement of the teams in charge of developing and implementing e-government projects.

•

Soft skills such as change management capabilities, strategic vision, capacity to gain support from top level management, and communication skills, are potential enablers of e-government success.

•

These competences can be acquired through informal/non-formal learning processes as well as specific recruitment, but they can also be acquired from external experts and consultants.

•

Cultural changes can be fostered by incentive systems and career paths.

The next section provides a background overview of the increasing importance that soft factors are assuming for industrial companies and how these phenomena extend to m-government too. The Methodology section briefly describes the methodology adopted for the research. The following section presents the reference framework developed; change processes potential enablers are described in details and empirical evidence is discussed. The Significant Cases section analyzes two m-government case studies from a “soft” point of view: a project successfully implemented and a case in which mobile technologies could be the “silver bullet” to reach success in Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


the early future. Finally, future trends and final conclusions and recommendations are presented.

Background For the last two decades, the industrial sector has been characterized by diverse changes and innovations with regard to products and organization. The new global competition and the need for a stronger service and customer orientation, the information and communication technology revolution and the new opportunities it brought about with respect to communication, processes optimization, and integration, determined new ways of working, managing, and behaving within business organizations (Davenport, 1991; Womack, 1991). New business organization paradigms, such as structures and people flexibility, creativity, innovation, and quick response, emerged (Kanter, 1982). New managerial concepts such as leadership, coaching, processes integration abilities, and competences development appeared (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1996; Ghoshal & Bartlett, 1997). Lean organizations and management by processes on one hand, new managerial skills and organizational behaviors on the other, were considered the leverage to win the new competition. People at all organizational levels had to become closer to customers, to be able to create value along the supply chain (client and suppliers both internal and external), and to feel as the owners of the work process. In this scenario, the middle management had to change its traditional roles, which were becoming obsolete also due to the information and communication technology revolution. Middle managers ought to lead the integration process of different functions and competences scattered about the company. They had to become coaches and to provide their collaborators with the right resources to perform well. Moreover, they should be free to change members of the work teams if needed (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1996; Ghoshal & Bartlett, 1997). According to this situation, skills such as leadership, communication, relationship, and integration abilities enabled to effectively activate the work processes. Currently, the industrial sector has deeply changed. Aims and orientations established in the near past have just become reality, and intangible factors such as knowledge and service have become crucial for the global competition. Consequently, soft skills (for a specific definition, see Winterton, Delamare-Le Deist, & Stringfellow, 2005) are becoming even more important than before and, as such are considered, key success factors (Henderson & Larco, 1999). Team work, cooperation, and listening capability seem to be strongly required as well as team building and team management, involvement, and supporting abilities. Managers are more and more leaders who have to mediate and communicate. Furthermore, learning is becoming increasingly crucial in order to make organizations creative, flexible, and lean (Eraut, Alderton, Cole, & Senker, 2002; Senge, Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


1992; Wenger, 1998), to anticipate new changes, and to manage the instability of the business and market conditions (Senge et al., 1999). The importance of ICT skills too is continuously growing, as recent publications show (Frinking, Ligtvoet, & Lundin, 2005). However, ICT skills need to be complemented with behavioural and soft skills in order to be effective in complex and unstable contexts (Dragoni, Francalanci, Marinoni, & Tarantini, 2005). The motivations behind changes in the industrial sectors can be compared to those of public administrations. In fact, public administrations are now facing new challenges: they need to change their organizational culture and focus on citizens rather than procedures. They need to learn how to cooperate, work by processes, leverage new opportunities enabled by ICT, accept changes, foster innovation, and continuous improvement. These goals can be achieved only if processes are re-engineered and no-added-value activities eliminated in order to obtain higher efficiency and effectiveness. Process re-engineering requires specific training and learning initiatives, restructuring of organizations and major changes of habits and work practices (Bracchi & Mainetti, 2005). These changes are just in line with those undergone by industry in recent years. Consequently, the attention paid to enabling soft skills in industrial contexts, typical of the ‘90s, has now shifted toward public administrations and governance processes. For example, OECD (2003b) has highlighted the importance of leadership and soft skills for successful e-government. In general, several works have been done about soft aspects in e-government, such as EIPA (2005), Miralles (2005), Sinclair-Ross (2004), and Settles (2002). One of the aims of this chapter is to extend these researches to m-government, as Sandy and McMillan (2005) have partially done.

Methodology Our reference framework, which will be presented in next section, has been validated through an empirical analysis of 12 countries. The study has focused on nine countries of the European Community: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. These countries were selected because they have significant e-government experience and at the same time represent the diversity of cultural, geographical, and economical contexts of the European Union. In addition, Canada and the U.S. have been studied for their importance at a global level, and Switzerland was also considered due to its specific role in the European context.



Firstly, a preliminary desk analysis was conducted for each country in order to classify their organizational structures according to the framework and described in the next section. Analyzed documents include: •

Vision, strategic plans, and action plans for e-government of single countries;

•

Public administration Web portals; and

•

Documents and research papers of independent institutions, such as UE and OECD (see also CoBRA, 2004; OECD, 2003b)

This first classification was done according to qualitative criteria and aimed at providing some guidelines for further analysis and some suitable metrics for the dimension which will be presented in Figure 1. Secondly, questionnaires were submitted to key roles of the e-government (and mgovernment) top-management and the departments for public administrations. The questionnaire included the following sections: •

a multiple-choice question for each of the dimensions of analysis presented in the next section;

•

a table to be filled in with the soft skills considered most important for the different job profiles;

•

some more qualitative questions to understand what factors are considered critical for e-government success; and

•

an indication of projects which needed a deeper analysis.

Eventually, on-site interviews were conducted in five countries (Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and the U.S.) in order to discuss the questionnaires in-depth and to analyze successful projects in details. These five countries were chosen because the questionnaires showed interesting points to debate and discuss and according to the availability of potential interviewees. The structure of interviews was very similar to the structure of questionnaires, but local successful projects as well were analyzed in detail in order to better understand the context and the impact of critical factors on e-government/m-government implementation. A fundamental goal of these face-to-face interviews was also to provide an interpretation of the evidence gathered by the questionnaires.



A Soft Reference Framework for M-Government Success Change Process Enablers Besides the re-engineering of administrative processes to remove bureaucratic roadblocks typical of pre-e-government era and specific ICT skills and competences to design, develop, and maintain the new e-systems, the implementation of successful and effective m-government services also requires cultural changes of public administration management and employees, who must develop a citizen-oriented attitude and learn to share information society values. In order to stimulate and produce cultural changes among managers and employees of public administration particular care must be paid to some organizational solutions, ways of learning (Senge, 1992; Senge et al., 1999), empowerment (Piccardo, 1995; Zimmerman, 1990), and involvement of teams charged to develop and implement m-government-related projects. Moreover, soft skills such as change management capabilities, strategic vision, capacity to gain support from top level management, and communication abilities, are strong enablers for m-government success. These competences can be acquired through informal/non-formal learning processes as well as specific recruitment, but they can also be provisionally imported from external experts and consultants. Cultural changes can be fostered by means of incentives and stimulating personnel policies. According to these assumptions and drawing inspiration from the essentials of organization theory (see, for example, Daft, 2001), we developed a reference framework

Figure 1. Cultural changes: Related enablers Centralization vs. Decentralization

Profiles, skills, competences

Structures vs. Individuals

Cultural changes

Leadership processes

Involvement processes

Learning processes



which incorporates a set of organizational, behavioral, and learning dimensions as well as skills and attitudes. The framework was built following a desk analysis within the 12 countries considered, and validated by online questionnaires and field surveys as explained in the Methodology section. In Figure 1, the mentioned reference dimensions are represented.

Centralization vs. Decentralization This dimension describes the relationship between central government and local agencies. Responsibilities of central public administration are different depending on the level of centralization; in some cases, central structures simply suggest opportunities and provide guidelines, while in others they deliver specific policies and rules to be followed by all agencies. While decentralization characterizes successful early-stage e-government projects, public administrations with a more mature level of digitalization should try to harmonize all the different contributes.

Structures vs. Individuals This dimension classifies projects according to the importance which is given to structures rather than to individuals. “Hard” central structures could have the task to deliver and provide specific core competences, procedures, and standards to local agencies. On the other hand, choices and mutual coordination could be deferred to managers and public servants.

Involvement Processes This dimensions focuses on the meaning of “involvement” within e-government and m-government policies. Involvement is very important when a new e-government or m-government project needs to be promoted, both internally and externally. Involvement processes can be both top-down and bottom-up, that is, they might take place when a need arises within a local agency or they might depend on decisions by central public administration. We believe that involvement process is crucial, both internally, for example, toward employees and public servants, and externally, for example, toward customers (citizens and companies) and stakeholders. With regard to involvement, besides local specificities, there should be some convergence about when this process should start (possibly quite early), its stages, and



the actors involved in each stage (external stakeholders, internal managers, and public servants). The development and management of these processes, as well as learning ones, require appropriate organizational environments and competences (Spencer & Spencer, 2002).

Learning Processes This dimension focuses on how public administrations “learn” and on which role is attributed to formal training. Learning can be seen only as a formal process, or be considered a spontaneous process which necessarily happens. Organizational models and size can have a significant influence on positive, constructive, and worthy informal (unaware/natural) or non-formal (non-structured even if explicit) learning processes. Learning is a key factor for cultural changes. In fact, beside new technical skills and competences that people must learn, a sound learning process may also allow them to better understand the new contexts and objectives, and gain business process ownership, self-motivation, empowerment, customer orientation attitudes as well as the propensity to share information and knowledge. In spite of this, the most common approach within public administrations is formal training by structured courses out of work. The questions are how far these initiatives are really effective to improve competences and soft skills; how much they are really appreciated by adults who are engaged in their daily operative work and can have some difficulties to acquire abstract notions in a classroom. The field interviews that we conducted helped us discover alternative solutions to learning: non-formal and informal paths. In particular, non-formal paths are concerned with “aware” learning plans aimed at supporting people development during their job, through mentoring and coaching, team working, working by projects, job rotation, business trips, and so on (CEDEFOP, 2002). Informal paths are concerned with individuals’ “unaware” learning during their job as well as daily life.

Leadership Processes This dimension describes projects according to the model of leadership adopted. Leadership, which is the capability to manage a complex process and become a recognized guide as well, could be referred to structures or to individuals.



Profiles, Skills, Competences This dimension aims at identifying the skills and competences, that is, knowledge and skills put into action (Cortellazzi & Pais, 2001), which actors with different job profiles need to develop and manage m-government projects. Our framework classifies skills into categories and takes different profiles into consideration. The main categories are: •

Leadership

•

Communication

•

Coordination

•

ICT vision

•

Knowledge sharing

•

Creativity

•

Project managing

•

Customer orientation

The profiles considered are: •

Top management

•

Chief executives (middle management)

•

Public servants

•

ICT experts

•

Citizens

In order to implement successful m-government projects, specific skills for each profile should be sought for, by means of recruiting, and promoted, by means of training. Online questionnaires and field interviews allowed us to identify the key skills for the framework, which will be presented in Table 3. Obviously, the six dimensions presented here are strictly related to each other. In fact, according to organizational choices, specific involvement and leadership processes, ways of learning, skills and competences to be developed can be found.



Empirical Evidence The reference framework proposed is completed and validated by an empirical analysis, described in the Methodology section. Several data are reported directly from questionnaires, which were quite structured. Other facts and information are an extrapolation of the huge quantity of qualitative evidence that we gathered by speaking to top managers and key figures of public administrations, both by phone and face-to-face. Our study aimed at qualitatively identifying factors concerned with the “soft” aspects of organizations (behaviors, skills and competences, ways of learning, and working), required to develop and implement e-government and m-government-related projects effectively. Our basic assumption is that m-government is an extension of e-government, and that from a “soft” point of view all the critical factors which enable success for e-government apply to m-government too. This was already discussed in the Introduction. The focus on skills, especially soft skills, is something quite recent within surveys and studies on e-government. In the same way, among managers of public administrations, there is not yet a full awareness about the role (positive, negative, or neutral) played by soft skills. For this reason, the search for data by desk analysis as well as online and in-field interviews was very difficult, and the data emerged were often not homogeneous. All gathered information is summarized in Table 1. The table classifies each country according to the dimensions of the reference framework described in the previous section. The classification is mainly based on the results of the questionnaires, completed by information from field interviews when available and from the desk analysis (see Finnish Ministry of Finance, 2001; I&DEA, SOCITM, 2004; Office of Management and Budget, 2005; OSIC, 2005; Swedish Ministry of Finance, 2004). The metrics applied are based on the multiple-choice answers adopted in the questionnaires. In the table, the e-government readiness index for each country is also reported. The e-government readiness index (United Nations, 2004) is computed as a weighed average of three parameters related to Web site evaluation, telecommunications infrastructure, and devices available to human resources. The index varies between 0 and 1 and measures e-government success objectively and homogenously across countries. In the following sub-sections, we present empirical data and try to establish a correlation with the population of the country and with e-government success.



“Soft” Description of Analyzed Countries Involvement processes are usually bottom-up in Northern or Anglo-Saxon-like countries, where more importance is traditionally accorded to individuals rather than structures. A clear exception to that is the UK, where the organization is currently changing toward a top-down approach, and a Public Administration CIO (Chief Information Officers) Council has been created to develop visions and directions for e-government at central level. Finland may be also seen as an exception, as it is focused on structures in spite of its decentralization. That is mainly due to the historical tradition of Finnish Public Administration, which still bears some memories of its former bureaucracy. It is worth noting that the U.S. e-government approach is based upon decentralization and bottom-up involvement processes in spite of its dimension, while the biggest European countries, such as Germany, France, and the UK, tend to have a top-down approach and a more centralized structure. The U.S. federal organization and the high independence in the matter of public administration of each of its states account for this peculiarity. The U.S. is such a big country that a strong centralized and top-down approach would be very difficult to implement and would result ineffective. Finland, Portugal, and Greece are the only countries where there is little attention to soft skills. In this case, a distinction should be made in order to analyze the possible causes of this piece of evidence. Portugal and Greece do not pay attention to this aspect simply because the question regarding the relevance of soft skills has not been neither raised nor discussed yet, following the scarce e-gov readiness of these countries. In Finland, soft skills are not cultivated because any form of “cultivation” is made unnecessary by the small dimension of the public administration, where everybody knows almost everybody else, and by the particular working methods which are adopted. Stimulating and cooperative working habits could easily develop and leverage soft skills in a “silent” manner, without any need for further attention to them. All the other countries pay some attention to soft skills, which are detailed in the sub-section, A Model of Soft Skills for M-Government Based on Empirical Observation. A similar analysis can be done about learning methods: Portugal and Greece are the only countries where only formal methods are considered, while all the other countries consider either informal or non-formal methods to some extent. Finland is the only country where only informal learning methods are considered. That is due to the fact that formal sessions of learning were tried in the past, but were constantly disregarded and not attended by top and middle management of public administration. This led to gradually abandoning any form of traditional classroom learning and to spread knowledge by means of cooperative work and informal people networks.



Correlation of Soft Factors with Population A first comparison can be made by considering the organizational factors measured in correlation with the size of the countries (see Table 1). Although population may Table 1. Comparison of change processes enablers for analyzed countries ordered by population numerousness.

Country

Finland Switzerland Sweden Belgium Portugal Greece Canada Spain UK France Germany USA

Structure Focus on Population E-Government (Centralized/ Structures/ (million) readiness Decentralized/ Individuals Mixed) 5 7 9 10 10 11 32 42 59 60 82 291

0.8239 0.7538 0.8741 0.7525 0.5953 0.5581 0.8369 0.5844 0.8852 0.6687 0.7873 0.9132

D D -> C D M C C D D M C M D

S I S+I n.a. S S S+I S I S S I

Involvement process (Top down/ bottom up)

Leadership Skills (Structures/ (Soft, Individuals) Hard)

BU BU BU BU TD TD BU TD BU -> TD TD TD BU

S S+I S+I n.a. S S S+I S (I) I S S I

H S+H S+H S+H H H S+H S+H S+H S+H S+H S+H

Way of Learning (Formal, Informal, Not Formal) I F+I NF+I F+NF F F F+NF F F+NF+I F+NF F+NF+I F+NF

eGov readiness

Figure 2. Lack of correlation between e-government readiness and population. Trend line equation and R-squared value are indicated (Note: USA has been omitted to make the comparison more homogeneous).

Population (Million)



be seen as an intrinsic indicator of the complexity of e-government requirements, the size of a country does not seem to be strictly correlated to the parameters analyzed in the study. For example, Sweden and Greece are comparable for their dimension, but while the former is decentralized, based upon a bottom-up involvement process and focused both on hard and soft skills, the latter is centralized, based upon a topdown involvement process and focused mainly on hard skills. In fact, Sweden and Greece have very different structures and organizations, in spite of the similarity of theirs dimension. Figure 2 plots e-government readiness index versus population for the analyzed countries. As the trend line shows (linear regression co-efficient is 0.0005), these variables completely lack correlation.

Correlation of Soft Factors with E-Government Success To identify successful organizational factors which enable e-government, it is very useful to sort the synthetic data collected by the e-government readiness index, as in Table 2. It can be easily noted that the countries considered present very different levels of e-government maturity, as the e-government readiness index varies from 0.56 of Greece to 0.91 of USA, with an increment of more than 62%. The first five countries in the list, that is those which have an e-government readiness index greater than 0.81, that is, different for less than 10% from USA, which is Table 2. Comparison of change processes enablers for analyzed countries ordered by e-government readiness. The countries regarded as significant examples of successful e-government implementation are reported in italics.

Country

USA UK Sweden Canada Finland Germany Switzerland Belgium France Portugal Spain Greece

Structure Focus on Population E-Government (Centralized/ Structures/ (million) readiness Decentralized/ Individuals Mixed) 291 59 9 32 5 82 7 10 60 10 42 11

0.9132 0.8852 0.8741 0.8369 0.8239 0.7873 0.7538 0.7525 0.6687 0.5953 0.5844 0.5581

D M D D D M D -> C M C C D C

I I S+I S+I S S I n.a. S S S S

Involvement Leadership Skills process (Structures/ (Soft, (Top down/ Individuals) Hard) bottom up) BU BU -> TD BU BU BU TD BU BU TD TD TD TD

I I S+I S+I S S S+I n.a. S S S (I) S

S+H S+H S+H S+H H S+H S+H S+H S+H H S+H H

Way of Learning (Formal, Informal, Not Formal) F+NF F+NF+I NF+I F+NF I F+NF+I F+I F+NF F+NF F F F



regarded as a global leader in e-government, are considered as significant examples of e-government successful implementation. It is reasonable to sustain that characteristics and organizational factors common to all these countries can be regarded as successful e-government enablers. The change processes enablers which emerge from the analysis are: •

decentralization;

•

focus on individuals;

•

mainly bottom-up involvement processes;

•

leadership of individuals;

•

presence of non-formal and informal learning methods; and

•

focus on both hard and soft skills.

Hereafter we summarize the key aspects of the framework, which we validated by means of phone and field interviews. Each analyzed country has a different level of e-government implementation and consequently they focus on different aspects of the e-government process. Typically, in the early stages focus is mainly on structures and organizations, which have to been built from scratch (e.g., Greece, Portugal, Spain). At more advanced stages, focus shifts on more complex problems such as integration, interoperability, and standardization (e.g., Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland). However, in none of the analyzed countries do skills play an explicit and formalized role in e-government policies. A clear exception to this is the UK and the U.S., where the strategic plans provide a wide description of skills required (both hard and soft) and actions to enhance them.

Decentralization Most of the countries with more advanced e-government systems (UK, Sweden, and Finland) have chosen a decentralized structure and a bottom-up approach. An interesting case is the UK, which formerly adopted a decentralized and bottom-up approach, but after reaching a satisfying level of e-government diffusion, is now evolving to a more centralized and top-down approach, in order to standardize services and processes. For example, the UK has recently created a CIO (Chief Information Officers) Board to develop central directions for e-government. A similar case of centralization can be found in Sweden, where central public administration proposes ideas and “they are good till some agency has a better one”. Consequently, a “light touch method” is applied where the government declares



its vision and tries to facilitate and stimulate development within agencies in different ways, as well as the cooperation between agencies. Moreover, to foster the standardization of technological solutions adopted by each agency without being imperative the Swedish Central Public Administration stipulates medium-term contracts with technology vendors centrally, and offers to agencies the technological services provided by vendors at a cheaper price. In this way, they can get a “de facto standardization by convenience”. In the U.S., centralization at federal level is promoted by means of horizontal activities across departments within work teams. In particular, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sets goals for these cross-department activities and chooses an agency which is responsible and should act as leader of the process. Each team can organize independently and according to its own specificities, but if it does not reach the objectives in the time established by OMB, the leader agency could be changed or the project stopped. To summarize, the role of central government is crucial from the beginning of egovernment implementation, as it must foster the creation of a fertile environment and support local structures in their projects. Involvement process, which could be seen both as an interior and an external process, is one of the strongest enabling factors. In particular, a pre-requisite to the interior involvement is the top-management commitment.

Focus on Individuals According to our research, we believe that empowerment of individuals in general can boost and foster the development of innovative projects, such as m-government. Focus on individuals can be enhanced through attention to individual performances, internal mobility, specific career paths, and specific learning. Collaborative attitude among public servants, team work, and decisional freedom have shown to be key success factors in several e-government projects (e.g., Finnish suomi.net portal, Swiss Neuchatel canton eVote project; see OSIC, 2005). With regard to human resources policies, the main issue for several countries (e.g., Belgium, Canada, Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA) is retention. To face this problem, the adopted solutions are quite standardized: benefits, career promotion, and involvement. However, this subject is not directly related to e-government. An exception is constituted by the United Kingdom, where central public administration has defined a policy related to career development within e-government strategy. In order to improve civil servants’ formation from a 360 degrees point of view, special career paths have been designed: mobility, both geographical and functional, has become a mandatory requisite to reach upper management level.



Bottom-Up Involvement Processes With regard to involvement, bottom-up approach usually leads to successful projects, as it is demonstrated by the agency-oriented culture which characterizes the countries with the highest level of e-government and m-government, such as the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, and Northern European countries in general. Not only is it very important to gather ideas from employees and to heavily involve them in project development, but also to understand the real needs of the final users of a new service. Failing to do this could result in a failure of the project, as it will be exemplified for the Finnish electronic identity card presented in the Significant Cases section. Strong internal commitment from top-management is also crucial and can help create political steering committees to involve all the stakeholders. Communication, team building, team management, and leadership may become core capabilities to manage the involvement process.

Leadership of Individuals As regards to leadership, focus on procedures and structures can be useful in early stages of e-government (as it happens, for example, in Greece, Portugal, and Spain), but, according to our research, we believe that leadership of individuals and decisional freedom can be more effective for mature contexts. “Natural” and voluntary-based selection of employees for new projects, attention to individuals’ development by means of mentoring as a training instruments and the ability of managers to involve and excite people can surely be considered as enablers of innovative projects success.

Non-Formal and Informal Learning Methods All typologies of learning are useful, but non-formal learning methods seem to be the most effective, especially when dealing with adult people. Coaching and mentoring are successfully employed by British Public Administration, and in general, formal training sessions do not seem to have been very successful in Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland. Emblematic is the case of a formal training program recently organized by Finnish Central Public Administration: the program was targeted at top managers, but although it covered both technological and business “hot” topics and included several workshop to actively involve participants, it was not attended by most of the invited managers.



Finland presents some difference from the other countries considered here, as it focuses on structures rather than individuals and only on hard skills. With only five million people, Finland is the smallest country of those analyzed, and that surely makes informal communication easier. It is also the country with the poorest IT spending public administration budget (Finnish IT cost per employee is only of 4,500€ per year, much lower than the European average spending of 11,000€ per person; Rissanen, 2004), which leads to a natural need for efficiency. In addition to that, Finland has a very peculiar history of political evolution from Eastern to Western-like approach and of economic growth. According to the field interviews which have been conducted, the key success factors for Finnish e-government are not to be sought among organizational and structural characteristic, but in the particular attitude and way of working of its civil servants. Finnish so-called “winter war attitude” boosts collaboration and knowledge sharing among civil servants and middle management, that is enough to counter-balance the lack of attention to individuals from top level public administration. Government does not need to focus on soft skills because they are leveraged by all the agencies in informal and bottom-up manners. These factors are crucial in the change process which is currently transforming the extreme efficiency-oriented culture of Finnish Public Administration into a more modern client-oriented one (OECD, 2003a). The Finnish case suggests to add a new enabler to the framework presented in this chapter, that is, the general attitude and working methods of civil servants. However, it should be noted that this latter enabler is probably made significant by the very small dimension of the country.

A Model of Soft Skills for M-Government Based on Empirical Observation In Table 3, we propose a schematization of soft skills which managers of public administrations identified as most relevant within questionnaires and interviews. These soft skills are classified according to different job profiles (see also Ferguson, 2001; SFIA,2004; Sinclair-Ross, 2004). Soft skills and competences are essential for success. In particular, the following skills were acknowledged as essential by all the public administration top managers who were directly interviewed (i.e., from Central Governments of Finland, Sweden, UK, USA): •

Leadership

•

Ability to involve people and upper management (both inside and outside public administrations)



Table 3. Schema of the main e-government-related soft skills emerged in success cases. •

•

• •

•

•

• •

LEADERSHIP: o Top Management: initial inputs o Chief Executive (Middle Management) eChampions: Ability to lead and manage the change process, organization changes (integration, different customer approaches, communication, home working, etc.), ICT culture development, ICT integration—harmonization and effective use, culture of transparency and interoperability diffusion o Public Servants: Understanding the change process; development of process ownership and an orientation towards transparency and cooperation COMMUNICATION o Top Management: Ability to involve stakeholders o Chief Executive (Middle Management) E-Champions: Ability to maintain involvement and excite servants’ interest COORDINATION o Chief Executive (Middle Management) E-Champions: Ability to manage “multi-objectives” teams; multi-competence teams ICT VISION o Top Management: Vision, understanding of new ICT scenarios; new possible ICT usages, strategic impacts o Chief Executive (Middle Management) E-Champions: ICT new trends and strategic impacts; current, effective, operative ICT use and exploitation o Public Servants: Understanding how to use ICT tools at best; ICT effective opportunities o ICT Experts: Supporting ICT culture development; helping to understand new ICT scenarios and exploitations KNOWLEDGE SHARING o Chief Executive (Middle Management) E-Champions: Ability to start knowledge sharing processes o Public Servants: Understanding the utility to share knowledge CREATIVITY o Top Management: Ability to create new visions of new services and exploitation of new ICTs, integration o Chief Executive (Middle Management) E-Champions: Ability to identify new potential services and ICT usages; ability to invent ways of leading changes PROJECT MANAGEMENT o Top Management: Planning o Chief Executive (Middle Management) E-Champions: Project management CUSTOMER ORIENTATION o Top Management: Vision, understanding of new potential services, new integration between ICT and services; partnerships with private Institutions (example, Banks) o Chief Executive (Middle Management) E-Champions: Development of Service and Customer culture o Citizens: Participation

•

Team working

•

Communication

With regard to soft skills related to the ICT world, e-government successful projects seem to be similarly born by a vision of either new ICT opportunities (e.g., in Fin-



land) or new services to citizens (e.g., Sweden, UK). The capability to understand the usage of ICT, imagine innovative services, connect and integrate them and make those visions concrete, is what is really crucial. With regard to leadership, besides its complexity, it is not a univocal concept. In fact, in some countries (e.g., Finland) the term “leadership” is not usually used to indicate the ability to involve and lead people as well as to take decisions and directions. Rather, it is linked to power and manipulation concepts. Even though such a term is banned, the set of reference skills required to manage the change process are still the same as in the other countries and are concerned with the capabilities to involve and inspire people. These capabilities are present whenever an e-government project is successfully implemented. According to this, another quite interesting aspect emerges. That is, the way of how these skills and the involvement process can grow and take place. This is especially a matter of learning and particularly a matter of learning organization, that is, informal and non-formal learning processes connected with informal, non-formal knowledge sharing. Actually, only few countries are able to combine successfully formal, nonformal, and informal learning (e.g., UK and Germany). Most of the countries we analyzed develop formal initiatives only (e.g., Greece, Portugal, Spain). It is very difficult to understand whether they also take into account other forms of learning. Contrarily, in most countries (e.g., Finland, Sweden, Switzerland), formal learning is not very much appreciated by people, too busy to find time for training. But in these same countries, team work is a common way of working, and the team composition is a critical factor, too. Attention is paid to integrate diverse and several know-how and competences, hence building heterogeneous and interdisciplinary teams. Communication strategies are adopted and testimonial media are used to inform and sensitize both workers and citizens (I&DEA, SOCITM, 2004). No one speaks of learning and training but still, everyone is continuously learning, exercising what just learned, sharing knowledge in some way (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). As a matter of fact, in thinly-populated countries, it may be easier to manage few people’s learning processes as well as their involvement and coordination. Populated countries are another matter: here awareness about those processes becomes a must to reach success (as it happens, for example, in the UK and the USA). The ways of working and the organization mentioned previously must become aware forms of skills development. New organization models and ways of working have to be introduced and enabled to promote the exchange and the integration of tacit and explicit knowledge and experiences, for example, mutual learning.



Significant Cases Swedish Customs Mobile Services The aim of this project (see www.tullverket.se) was to make this service more efficient and effective, considering the dimension of its business. In fact, Swedish Customs has 2,200 employees, 5,000 km border, 5.9 million declarations, 96 % electronic declarations, 79% automated clearance, 45 billion Euro revenues, and approximately 95 million border movements, per year. It consisted in eliminating waiting time at the border by “one stop shop” or “no stop shop” at all, through the “convergence” of Internet and mobile telephony with three types of interaction: 1.

electronic meetings

2.

on-distance meetings

3.

physical meetings

Companies send all data needed to identify the means and the goods transported by Internet, so that the driver only has to notify a reference civil servant that he/she is crossing the border. This is called “one stop shop”. With mobile technology companies still have to provide the needed information concerning means, goods transported, and date of moving across the border by Internet, but drivers do not need to stop at the border, as their border crossing (time and place) is automatically registered by the mobile phone network. At present, this system is in use with the Norway border. With regard to security, each driver has an ID user and password which are sent by SMS. Common mobile phones actually are smart card (SIM) readers connected to a communication network which can also track the cell in which each apparatus is located. The success of the project is evident: •

reduced compliance costs by 30-75%;

•

improved quality in declarations;

•

better controls on accredited companies;

•

hit rate on examinations from 5 to 44%;

•

increased number of drug seizures; and

•

improved service to Trade and Industry.



According to the project leader, the main critical success factors of the project have been: •

the ability to clearly gather and understand users’ needs;

•

the deep involvement and agreement of all the parts (public administrations, companies, mobile operators) obtained by means of accreditation systems, partnership and trust indentures;

•

constructive, strategic collaboration with customers;

•

the strong involvement of the Board of Trade and Board of Agriculture;

•

the creation of joint committees (strategic, R&D, production) composed by political figures too, to ensure empowerment;

•

the possibility to publish two ad hoc paragraphs in the Swedish Customs law; and

•

the creation of new functions and career paths.

No external consultants were involved and the core development team was composed of: •

a project manager with a strong leadership;

•

IT experts; and

•

administrative employees to ensure continuity and adherence with former processes.

In this framework of innovation soft skills play an important role, as it is crucial that any civil servant is keen on creating what customers want. Overall, it is clear that soft skills, involvement of employees, top managers and politicians, and in general soft factors have acted as strong enablers for this mgovernment project.

Finnish ID Card (EID) Launched in 1999, EID (IDABC, 2005) is an identity card featuring the holder’s photograph and contains a microchip that holds the user’s e-number, which is required for transacting official business. Apart from being a valid identity card, the EID card can be used as a secure network key for all online services which require the identification of a person, such as all government and many private sector services.



Basically, the card enables the service provider to reliably identify the user. It also works as an official travel document in 29 European countries. The card is issued by local police department, and the Finnish Population Register Centre supplies the necessary onboard certificates. In addition to the card, a card reader is needed for online use. Unfortunately, only 60,000 cards have been issued since the launch of the project, very few compared to the Finnish population (about five million people). The main problem is that most people are not using public services which require signature, actually because a lot of services do not require identification. Consequently, the low number of transactions has led to a high cost per transaction, which together with the necessity of a specific card reader for the use of online services has discouraged the use of the EID card. The lack of success of the project is due to the absence of a preliminary analysis of the context in which the new services were to be supplied and to a superficial process re-engineering before the beginning of the implementation. Mobile technologies might be the silver bullet which will bring the EID card to a new life in the early future, or at least this is the mindset of Finnish Public Administration top managers. Mobiles phone contain a microchip reader and are owned by a vast majority of the population, so they could easily substitute the current EID card readers, while the SIM cards could be used to store ID information too, provided that the owner’s identity is certified at the moment of purchase. The success of this initiative can be enhanced by the following soft factors: •

understanding of real users’ needs;

•

involvement of citizens;

•

collaborative attitude and involvement towards mobile operators; and

•

political commitment to make the identification at the moment of the purchase of the SIM lean and easier.

Obviously, the use of mobile technologies raises new issues related to security (e.g., a mobile phone acting as EID could be lost or stolen). These issues will need proper analysis, but they are very similar to those emerged in e-business, which are already widely studied.



Future Trends Soft skills and organizational culture have emerged as critical success factors for e-government implementation and, consequently, the same considerations apply to m-government too. Although soft skills in several cases are not yet formally acknowledged, public servants often own them in practice. Public administration is becoming aware of the importance of soft factors, especially when innovative tools and services, such as m-government, are concerned. An important issue in the early future will be how to formalize soft factors within structures and organizations of public administrations, how to make them part of the system. For example, soft skills can be enhanced by specific recruitment processes, training, and working habits. Operative and prescriptive frameworks for soft skills (for example, following SFIA, 2004, proposed by the UK), involvement and leadership are needed to allow countries to take them into consideration when defining guidelines for future projects and strategies for development. In particular, learning processes will become increasingly important and will generally require more attention, as our world has been changing quickly and is still changing. Mobile technologies can be considered as “promoters” of these changes, and consequently they will particularly benefit from a new attention to skills and soft factors in general.

Conclusion This chapter proposes a “soft” framework for m-government successful implementation, validated by empirical evidence related to e-government projects and situations in 12 major countries. In order to foster a successful implementation of m-government, the following key success factors emerge: •

Decentralization for local m-government diffusion;

•

Central government support to local projects in order to promote standardization;

•

Soft skills, in particular leadership and communication;

•

Skills enhancement on the job rather than formal training;



•

Horizontal organizations and bottom-up approaches, but with strong commitment of top management; and

•

Early involvement of people both internal and external.

All these factors could be applied in a country willing to boost successful m-government. While decentralization and horizontal organizations require significant structural modifications, which could take a long time to be effective, all the other factors could be applied and be effective in the short term, provided that there is a strong commitment from government and central public administration top management. In the countries where e-government is most successful, these factors are mainly achieved through solutions of micro-organization of the work, such as cooperative teams, coaching, and mentoring (e.g., Finland, Sweden, and UK). On the other hand, only the U.S. and the UK organize formal learning sessions on soft skills on a continuous basis.

References Bartlett, C. A., & Ghoshal, S. (1996). Release the enterpreteneurial hostages from your corporate hierarch. Strategy and Leadership, 24(4), 36-42. Bracchi, G., & Mainetti, S. (2005). E-government: The evolution of public administration. Italy: Il Sole 24 ore (in Italian). Capra, E., Francalanci, C., & Marinoni, C. (2005). eGovernment skills and organizational culture as a key to egovernment success. In D. Remenyi (Ed.), International Conference on e-Government (pp. 77-87). Dublin, Ireland: Trinity College. CEDEFOP. (2002). Non-formal learning (Press Release). Retrieved April 18, 2002, from the CEDEFOP Web site, http://www2.training village.gr/etv/nonformal/ index.asp CoBrA Recommendations to the eEurope Advisory Group. (2004, September). eGovernment beyond 2005 – Modern and Innovative Public Administrations in the 2010 horizon. Paper presented at the 3rd eEurope eGovernment Subgroup Meeting, Amsterdam, Netherlands, September 7-8. Cortellazzi, S., & Pais, I. (2001). Il posto della competenza. Italy: Franco Angeli. Daft, R. L. (2001). Essential of organization theory. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western. Davenport, T. H. (1991). Process innovation, reengineering work through information technology. Boston, USA: Harvard Business School Press.



Dragoni, G., Francalanci, C., Marinoni, C., & Tarantini, P. (2005, February). ICT profession, ICT competences and certifications observatory: An integrated experience. UPGRADE, The European Journal for the Informatics Professional, VI(1), 66-74. EIPA. (2005). Organizational changes, skills and the role of leadership required by egovernment. Retrieved June 2005, from the EIPA Web site, http://www. eupan.org Eraut, M., Alderton J., Cole, G., & Senker, P. (2002). Learning from other people at work. In R. Harrison, F. Reeve, A. Hanson, & Clarke (Eds.), Supporting lifelong learning (Vol. 1), Perspectives on learning (pp. 127-145). London: Open University with Routledge/Falmer. Ferguson, M. (2001). e-Government – A strategic framework for public services in the Information Age. UK: Society of IT Management. Finnish Ministry of Finance. (2001). Public services in the new millenium. Finland: Summary of a Report by the Information Society Advisory Board. Frinking, E., Ligtvoet, A., & Lundin, P. (2005). The supply and demand of e-skills in Europe. Interim Report, Rand Europe. Ghoshal, S., & Bartlett, C. A. (1997). The individualised corporation. A fundamentally new approach to management. Great companies are defined by purposes, process and people. London, UK: William Heinemann. Henderson, B. A., & Larco, J. L. (1999). Lean transformation, how to change your business in a lean enterprise. Richmond, Virginia, USA: The Oaklea Press. Hutchinson Encyclopedia. Retrieved July 5, 2006, from http://encyclopedia.thefreedICTionary.com/M-government IDABC. (2005). e-Government factsheet – Finland. Retrieved April, 15, 2005, from http://europa.eu.int:80/idabc/en/document/1352 Information Society Directorate-General of European Commission. (2004). eGovernment definition. Retrieved April 15, 2005, from http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/eGovernment_research/ I&DEA, SOCITM. (2004). Local e-government now: building on success. Retrieved April 15, 2005, from http://www.idea.gov.uk/transformation Kanter, R. M. (1982, July-August). The middle manager as innovator. Harvard Business Review, 60(4), 95-105. Kushchu, I., & Kuscu, M. H. (2003). From e-government to m-government: Facing the inevitable. The 3rd European Conference on e-Government, Dublin, Ireland, July 4-7 (pp. 253-260). Reading, UK: Management Centre International Limited.



Miralles, F. (2005). Participative democracy and e-government: A strategic management model for local government. In D. Remenyi (Ed.), International Conference on e-Government (pp. 221-231). Dublin, Ireland: Trinity College. Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge-creating company: How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. New York, USA: Oxford University Press. OECD. (2003a). e-Government in Finland. Retrieved April 15, 2005, from http:// www.oecd.com OECD. (2003b). The e government imperative. Retrieved April, 2005, from the OECD Web site, http://www.oecd.com Office of Management and Budget. (2005). FY 2004 Report to Congress on Implementation of the E-Government Act. USA. OSIC. (2005). Analisi della situazione sullo stato dell’eGovernment in Svizzera. Switzerland: Berna. Piccardo, C. (1995). Empowerment. Italy: Cortina. Rissanen, O.-P. (2004). Development of e-government services in Finland. Internal presentation. Sandy, G. A., & McMillan, S. (2005). A success factors model for m-government. First European Conference on Mobile Government, Brighton, UK, July 10-12 (pp. 349-358). Senge, P. (1992). The fifth discipline. UK: Sperling & Kupfer. Senge, P. et al. (1999). The dance of change: The challenges of sustaining momentum in learning organizations. UK: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Settles, A. (2002). What skills are needed in an e-world: E-government skills and training programs for the public sector. Session 3: E-Government skills of the OECD E-Government Project Seminar on Reform of Public Administrations, Paris, France, September 23-24. SFIA. (2004). Framework reference v2. Retrieved June, 10, 2005, from http://www. sfia.org.uk Sinclair-Ross, H. (2004). The HR implications of e-government. UK: Employers Organization for Local Government. Spencer, L. M., & Spencer, S. M. (1993). Competence at work. Model for superior performance. New York, USA: John Wiley & Sons. Spencer L. M., & Spencer, S. M. (2002). Competenza nel lavoro. Italy: Franco Angeli Swedish Ministry of Finance. (2004). Some guiding principles: Towards the 24/7 agency. Sweden.



United Nations. (2003). E-government at the crossroads. World Public Sector Report 2003. United Nations. (2004). Global e-government readiness report. UNPAN/2004/11. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practices. Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Winterton, J., Delamare-Le Deist, F., & Stringfellow, E. (2005). Typology of knowledge, skills and competences. Report No RP/B/BS/CreditTransfer/005/04. Thessaloniki: Cedefop. Womack, J. R. (1991). The machine that changed the world. New York, USA: Simon & Schuster. www.suomi.net www.tullverket.se Zimmerman, M. A. (1990). Taking aim on empowerment research: On the distinction between individual and psychological conceptions. American Journal of Community Psychology, 18, 169-177.


134 Kushchu, Arat & Borucki

Chapter VII

The Impact of M-Government on Organisations:

A Mobility Response Model Ibrahim Kushchu, Mobile Government Consortium International, UK Seda Arat, Mobile Government Consortium International, UK Chet Borucki, Temple University, Japan

Abstract Adoption of mobile technologies by government organizations not only benefits the parties who use these services, but also has positive impact on the internal workings of the public sector. Those government entities which initiated mobile applications have visible gains in productivity and cost and operational savings. This new way of performing tasks also undoubtedly has some repercussions on the organizational structure, civil worker, and the business processes. This chapter tries to underline some of the issues that might arise in these areas by examining some ongoing mobile government projects.


The Impact of M-Government on Organisations 135

Introduction Wireless technologies are leading the trend toward a ubiquitous and pervasive living environment enabling individuals and organizations to communicate and perform specific tasks anytime and anywhere. Tablet PCs, mobile phones, PDAs, and smartphones are becoming an indispensable part of the personal and professional lives of an increasing number of people in an increasing number of countries, with timesaving applications both on and off the job. Location, and to some extent, contextbased mobile applications are allowing users to benefit from not only the mobility, but also the information and guidance that these devices provide. Advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) and especially the rapid adoption of mobile phones around the world contributed to the introduction of new mobile technology applications and services in recent years. Hence, mobile technologies offer solutions to a wide range of audiences ranging from individuals to businesses and government institutions in a world where speed and efficiency matter the most. The benefits and consequent improvements in efficiency and service that earlier generation technologies have provided are evident in activities that are now often taken for granted, for example, banking or paying bills online, or what is commonly referred to as e-commerce. Applications of information technologies in the governmental sector are sufficiently different from those in the private sector such that they are commonly referred to as e-government. However, special consideration is warranted for those government applications and services made available to the citizens specifically via the use of mobile technologies, hence the emergence of the field of mobile government or m-government (Kushchu & Kuscu, 2003). At first glance, applying wireless solutions to the bureaucratic, slow-paced, and rigid public sector entities may seem a little out of place, but the increasing number of mobile government applications around the world show that there are indeed many opportunities for governments to improve and enhance their services, cut down on operational costs and create a better functioning organization. Traffic updates, navigation assistance, emergency assistance, weather updates, notification for tax and bill payments, field inspections, and tracking systems for stolen vehicles, all of which are possible with mobile technologies, are some of the more common applications used by governmental agencies (Yu & Kushchu, 2004). Though these applications have much promise, their widespread acceptance by governmental agencies is still in question. Kushchu and Borucki (2004) further argue that while mobile government applications can have immediate and significant benefits for end users, many of the governmental units offering mobile solutions have yet to achieve major gains, especially in terms of workplace productivity. Given the bureaucratic nature of governmental agencies, critical changes in decision-making processes and shared values under guiding organizational culture and organizational structure tend to occur much slower than



they do in private sector companies. The authors contend, however, that as the demands of its citizens continue unabated, governments would be eventually forced to accelerate the diffusion of mobile technologies. Once accustomed to convenient services received from private sector organizations such as airlines, banks, and utility companies that allow timely sharing of information and seamless transactions without face-to-face interactions, it is not unreasonable for the public to expect the same from governmental agencies. In our opinion, it is important to understand the impact of mobile technologies on government administration as there are implications for the success of well-planned, integrated, and widely-adopted m-government applications. A technology-influenced state of administrative efforts, whether broad e-government initiatives or mobile-specific m-government initiatives, can potentially lead to the re-definition of job descriptions and duties, improved relationships between citizens and other governmental agencies, and promote new policies for enhancing services. However, where government agencies tend to lag private sector organizations in the diffusion of technology is in essential internal changes in organizational structure, hierarchical decision-making processes and politically-oriented shared values or culture. The inherent characteristics of governmental administrations understandably are difficult to change but in the short run, various efficiency gains in terms of speed, improved services, and cost savings may be possible. Having introduced mobile technologies and their utilization in the governmental sector, the remainder of this chapter is organized as follows. In the next section, we provide an overview of mobile government and its differentiating characteristics followed by an assessment of the impact that mobile technology has on governments. We then review and evaluate the typical responses that governmental organizations have exhibited in response to the pressures exerted by mobile technologies. Five case studies will be discussed (four from the United Kingdom and one from Hong Kong) in part to illustrate the challenges and opportunities presented by the applications of mobile technologies in governmental agencies and to show that there are examples where considerable efficiency gains have been possible. Furthermore, the chapter will highlight some potential changes that might occur in governmental organizations in terms of structure, the attitudes and skills of the civil worker and business processes as a result of utilizing mobile technologies. We close the chapter with a summary of our findings and implications for future research.



M-Government and Its Differentiating Characteristics M-government pertains to the strategy and implementation of governmental services through a mobile platform to provide end users, both citizens and civil servants, the benefit of obtaining services and information from anywhere at anytime (Arazyan, 2002; Kushchu & Kuscu, 2003). As indicated earlier, the specific use of mobile technologies and applications is what differentiates m-government from any other developments in the public sector using new technologies, including e-government. Based on a study of mobile technologies (Yu & Kushchu, 2004), and their practical applications in governmental agencies (Cilingir & Kushchu, 2004), the following differentiating factors are apparent: •

•

•

Convenient accessibility and availability: o

M-government facilitates the adoption of online governmental services by end users through the improved convenience it offers. Citizens can use the online governmental services not only “anytime” but also “anywhere”.

o

In contrast to laptop computers, for example, mobile devices are always “switched on”. Usually, these devices remain in an inactive state, but applications can “wake up” the device. This is also serves to differentiate m-government from e-government applications.

o

Mobile devices are designed to be mobile—or carried around by the user. Thus, applications can be designed to provide instant information to the users. An example is to send out warnings about forthcoming bad weather conditions or emergencies.

Precision and personalisation in targeting users and delivering content: o

A computer can be shared among different users, but mobile devices are intended and designed for personal use by one individual—a person generally does not “share” use of a cell phone with others, for example. This means that personalized information can reach the same user at any time through that one specific device.

o

M-government increases the acceptance, adoption and the usage of online governmental services by reaching end users through a more personal, familiar and friendly device.

Larger and wider user base: o

M-government reaches a larger number of people through mobile devices, which often far exceeds the wired Internet user community.



o

M-government reaches a variety of audiences, including people who have no training or experience with computers and the internet, but are active users of mobile communication.

Mobile Technology’s Pressures on Governments The impact of these differentiating characteristics of mobile technology places considerable pressure on governments, to a varying degree. Some are technology related and others are related to public expectations and the governments’ position to improve its services and business, and can be summarized as follows. •

The pressure to meet increased expectations: Trends in a high rate of adoption of mobile Internet applications and services in the private sector lead to higher expectations for timely service from governmental agencies. This requires more efficient government units with employees who need more accurate and timely information readily available regardless of where they are working (Yu & Kushchu, 2004).

•

Pressure towards adoption of new technologies: The emergence of the mobile Internet and the high level of mobile penetration world-wide exerts pressure on governmental agencies to catch up with the developments in the technology. The development of 3G mobile network services makes the provision of mobile government applications possible and more accessible than using the wired Internet. The evolution of mobile Internet technologies, standards and protocols allows faster and more sophisticated (voice and multimedia) application developments (Yu & Kushchu, 2004).

•

Pressure towards further improving e-government efforts: M-government is best viewed as complementing, rather than replacing e-government. End users can access the applications from a new platform from “anywhere” through mobile devices. However, there are certain applications that are only possible with mobile technologies such as location dependent information delivery (Cilingir & Kushchu, 2004; Yu & Kushchu, 2004).

•

Pressure for increased governmental efficiency and effectiveness: The essential value of mobility is often observed in faster responses and reach to a wider user base, resulting in economies of scale in performing various governmental tasks.

•

Pressure for supporting economic development, especially for rural areas of developing countries: Mobile applications in many developing countries



are being used to “leapfrog” wired e-government efforts where there is not enough infrastructure of wired Internet in terms availability of networked computer and skilful users of computers (Ghyasi & Kushchu, 2004). To appropriately respond to these pressures, there is a call for significant improvements in the internal structures, decision-making processes, and culture of many governmental agencies. Although provision of these new mobile technology developments is mostly related to improving government services for external users, such improvements would be incomplete without bringing significant changes to government organizations themselves. Kushchu and Borucki (2004) suggested that governments are giving more priority to satisfying the requirements of external stakeholders such citizens and businesses rather than intra-governmental agencies, units, departments, and so forth at local, state, and national levels. However, recent case studies, which will be summarized next, indicate that some governmental agencies are trying to attend to both external customer needs and internal organizational transformations in traditional policies procedures, and practices, with varying degrees of success.

Typical Responses According to Kushchu and Borucki (2004), governments implement mobile technologies either as a response to complement their existing e-government initiatives or as a response to take advantage of the benefits of mobility. Their observations were summarized in the form of a “response model” which appears in Figure 1. The model highlights three interrelated issues: First, it identifies what is special about mobile technologies as a set of unique characteristics of mobile government developments. Second, the various pressures bureaucratic governments face in adopting mobile technologies and transforming themselves into effective and efficient administrative organizations are highlighted. Finally, based on examination of various mobile government applications (Cilingir & Kushchu, 2004; Ghyasi, Farshid, & Kushchu, 2004; Yu & Kushchu, 2004), the model enumerates the “response” of governments to address those pressures. In brief, the response model suggests that much remains to be done for current m-government applications to be able to serve governments with effective tools of administration. Various m-government applications and business models have been developed and implemented to address the pressures identified earlier. In general, there are two categories of responses: those complementing e-government efforts and those exploiting the unique essence of mobility.



Figure 1 The response Model Mobile Government Unique Contribution of Mobility APPLICATIONS

Pressures on Government for adoption of mobility

CITIZENS

GOVERNMENT

WEAK IN SELF SERVING

PRIORITY SERVING AREAS

BUSINESSES

Source: Kushchu and Borucki (2004), A Mobility Response Model for Government

•

Upgrading efforts: Here, governments endeavor to upgrade their applications and services to confront technological and user expectation pressures, and these include m-government applications that are complementary to e-government applications. Such “add on” mobile applications are intended to increase the value provided by e-government applications and enhance end user convenience. Thus, the value of electronic government applications is enhanced by adding the “anywhere” component to the “anytime” value proposition.

•

Innovative efforts: These efforts are intended to build m-government applications that create a novel and unique set of benefits stemming from unique characteristics of mobile technologies and the nature of m-government applications. A new definition of value is created with the implementation of mobile applications, and this category of services is not dependent on e-government applications and the real value stems from the mobility itself.

Case Studies on Mobile Technology Diffusion and M-Government There are many ongoing mobile government projects in different parts of the world where attention seems to be paid to the goals of both external user satisfaction and Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


internal organizational efficiency and effectiveness. It is still very early to be able to clearly identify the impact of mobile government on the organization since most of the mobile government projects are smaller-scale, local in origin, and involve a small number of civil servants in few departments. One such project initiated by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in United Kingdom is “Project Nomad”. Project Nomad aims to facilitate the use of mobile technologies in interested local government organizations by offering a wide range of assistance varying from research and business case design to technical issues such as planning, technology selection, data integration, and management and organizational issues. Some local organizations that participate in this project are Cambridgeshire County Council, Sheffield City Council, North Somerset Council, Norwich City Council, London Borough of Sutton, London Borough of Greenwich, London Borough of Lewisham, Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Kirklees Metropolitan Council, and Cumbria County Council.1

North London Strategic Alliance Street Wardens Pilot Project Overview (UK) North London Strategic Alliance (NLSA) Street Wardens Pilot Project, a collective effort of four London Boroughs (Enfield, Haringey, Barnet, and Waltham Forest) is a mobile government application aimed at streamlining the operations of street wardens. The scope of this pilot project is currently limited to environmental crime and abandoned vehicles. This application allows the street wardens to fill in information regarding the incident at the scene using a mobile device like a XDA2 smart phone or Pocket PC. These mobile devices have GPRS and Bluetooth connectivity. Thus, all information provided by the warden is instantly transferred to a password secured database accessible via the Internet. These mobile devices also have mapping capabilities. With this new application, the wardens do not have to go back to the office to enter the information into the database and therefore can be responsive to more incidents. Furthermore, the accuracy of the information is improved. For instance, the wardens can take pictures of environmental crimes by their mobile devices to support their formal letter to the citizens. Regarding the impact on internal organizational efficiencies and overall effectiveness, the following have been observed: •

20% time savings in report writing for wardens;

•

Increase in the response rate of wardens to incidents (they can be on the road longer since they do not have to return to the office);



•

Elimination of duplicate work (before wardens who filled in the report by handwriting had to go back to the office to re-enter the information into the database making reporting inefficient);

•

Increase in the accuracy of reporting and reduction in citizen claims and legal costs due to visual evidence; and

•

Cost savings for each council for abandoned vehicles.2

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Berneslai Home Impact Team Officers Mobile Data Project Overview (UK) Impact Team Officers Mobile Data Project is owned by Berneslai Homes which is an “Arms Length Management Organization” of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. Bereslai Homes is a new organization within the borough specifically created to establish better relations with the tenants living in the council housing by listening to their concerns. One key tenant concern raised has been anti-social activities. In order to find a solution, Bereslai Homes introduced the Impact Team Officers to replace the existing Council Estate Officers. These new officers will spend their time in the estates to be closer to the tenants. This requires the officers to be highly mobile. Thus, the project permits 42 Impact Team Officers to use Bluetooth enabled mobile phones and iPAQ handheld devices to instantly transfer their reports on anti-social behavior taking place in council housing estates while still at the site. Previously, the Council Estate Officers were to write their reports once they return to the office and then upload it to the council’s IT system. Their interactions with the tenants were limited since they were generally present at the estates whenever there was a complaint. However, with the new project, the Impact Team Officers will spend their entire time on the premises completing and transferring their reports wirelessly without the need to go back to the office. Since Berneslai Homes is an organization established by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council to oversee the council housing issues, the information systems of both entities have been integrated for smoother operations and knowledge sharing. Reported efficiencies gained include the following: •

Operational efficiency in the form of elimination of duplicate work, minimization of traveling time, attending more tenant complaints, and so forth;

•

Cost savings since less office space and workstations are needed; and

•

Better service offering to tenants.3



Mobile Working at Barking and Dagenham Project Overview (UK) Mobile Working at London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Project enables six void inspection surveyors, who deal with 2,000 void inspections every year to use Pocket PCs to transfer their findings electronically back to the office. Prior to this project, the surveyors were relying on Dictaphones to keep a record of the inspection results and then taking the tapes to the office for two typists to type. A paper-based questionnaire was also filled out by the surveyor in each site visit. The old process was burdensome necessitating the surveyors to return to the office to hand in the tapes and the questionnaires. Under this project, these surveyors not only can transfer data like inspection results and questionnaires seamlessly, but can also access additional information such as timescales, tenancy agreements, and so forth, in the field. The organization is planning to extend this project to include the remaining 12 surveyors who are annually in charge of 80,000 responsive repairs. Mobile Working at Barking and Dagenham Project increased productivity in the following ways: •

Surveying time has been improved and increased by 2 hours per day compared to before.

•

Void turnaround has been cut down by at least 2 days.

•

Some savings achieved in HR since there was no need for the two typists anymore.

•

Less office space is required since the surveyors don’t have to go back to the office.

•

The quality of the surveyors reports and the gathered data has improved.

•

Surveyors are able to access more information outside of the office which contributes to the quality and accuracy of their reports.4

Norwich City Council Street Scene Project: Parking Services Overview (UK) Norwich City Council Street Scene Project enables 34 parking attendants to report illegal parking and environment related issues using their handheld devices to the central parking system called Langdale. In the past, these parking attendants had to go back to office to upload the information. Since monitoring litter, graffiti, abandoned vehicles, fly posting, and fly tipping is also among their secondary duties, the parkCopyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


ing attendants in addition prepared reports concerning these environmental issues to be passed on to the relevant authorities for further action via e-mail. Moreover, at the beginning of each working day, the attendants had to be present at the office to be briefed by the Parking Team Leader. With this project, the attendants will be able to upload their reports on illegal parking to Langdale system wirelessly without going back to the office. They will also be able to submit their environment-related reports to parties concerned like City Care or Environmental Health (Comino system) electronically. In other words, this project will allow the parking system and environmental health system to be loosely integrated to work more effectively together. The project will also eliminate the need for attendants to be present in the office every morning for the daily briefing since a messaging system will be developed to inform them of new developments each time they connect to the system. Thanks to the mobile technology deployment, Norwich City Council Street Scene Parking Services expects to observe: •

Increase in productivity by around 15% (from 60 to 75%);

•

One man hour saving per parking attendant every day (if the attendants were to be out in the streets rather than staying in the office in this “non-patrolled” time period, it is estimated that 6,000 additional tickets would be issued annually and the organization would make additional £112,000 revenue);

•

Less paper work since the environmental reports will be sent to parties concerned electronically; and

•

Less office space since the parking attendants do not need an office to perform their tasks anymore. Instead they will be using a new depot at the city center.5

Environment Protection Department of Hong Kong Mobile Field Inspection System Overview (Hong Kong) Environment Protection Department (EPD) of Hong Kong is the authority in charge of environmental issues and, to this end, conducts regular inspections on chemical waste collectors and compiles the compliance results. Before the realization of the Mobile Field Inspection System, the inspectors were writing their reports on paper and then re-entering the same data to the database at the office. This business process was not very efficient. Therefore, EDP introduced a mobile field inspection system which uses touch-screen PDAs to enter the inspection information at the scene. The inspectors are also able to review the results of past inspections through their PDAs to have a better knowledge about the inspected waste collector. Once



the data is stored in the PDA, it is transferred directly to EDP’s back-end system through synchronization. As for EDP Mobile Inspection System, some of the savings are: •

Increase in productivity by around 10%;

•

1.5 man hour saving per inspection team on a daily basis; and

•

Elimination of duplicate work.6

The Impact of Mobile Government on the Internal Organization Though the five projects described previously are quite small in scale with limited involvement of civil servants and in only a few departments, they do suggest that some progress is being made in accomplishing the dual goals of end-user satisfaction and internal governmental agency efficiency and effectiveness. In this section, we summarize some of the potential impacts of mobile technologies on organizational structure, civil workers, and business processes.

The Impact on Structure One expected outcome of utilizing mobile government applications is increase in productivity in line with the increasing demands of the citizens for faster and better service. Increase in efficiency and productivity due to mobile government applications is inevitable as exemplified earlier and may reflect itself in the structure of the organization in following possible ways: 1.

Reduction in the number of people performing the job. A small though appropriate example is the laying off of the two typists who are no longer needed in case of the “Mobile Working at Barking and Dagenham” Project.

2.

Establishment of new virtual departments. The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is considering whether to ask the six void inspection surveyors to be home based since they do not require office space anymore to perform their tasks. The borough is also thinking about expanding the project to include other surveyors. In due course, this department could turn into a virtual one. We can expect to see a similar ap-



proach in other projects we have explained previously. Another example for a virtual department is the National Department of Seniors in Canada which offers local, regional, and national services to Canadians in English and French. Although this department is not part of the existing organizational structure, its online services are guaranteed by a group of civil workers working in the local, regional, and national government entities (Robillard, 2003). 3.

Consolidation of divisions/departments so that complementary or parallel departments are replaced with fewer functional departments and reduction in hierarchical levels due to these consolidations. In all these projects, since it’s only the wardens, inspectors, surveyors, attendants, and officers who are affected by new mobile applications and it is simply using a new tool to do the same task, a major potential effect on the organizational structure in this form will be very unlikely at least for the time being. But as more interrelated departments start using mobile applications, department consolidations are to be expected. In the transition phase, it is very likely that these interrelated departments will first integrate their databases or information sharing processes and then gradually move into a full-scale consolidation.

The Impact on Civil Workers In the case of some mobile government applications, the civil workers may be required to acquire some new skills like learning how to use a new wireless device or how to enter information via wireless networks. Although these devices and applications may be user friendly, depending on the age and background of the users, adaptation may take longer than anticipated hindering the success of the project or causing delays in outcomes. Furthermore, some adjustments in the civil workers’ job descriptions may be required or the new application may call for hiring new people with different skills into the organization. Before the introduction of the NLSA Street Wardens Project, 12 wardens who are part of the pilot were handwriting the information at the scene and then going back to the office to enter that information into a database to be accessed and shared by other departments. This meant a waste of time because of the duplication of work. Furthermore, the wardens were not quick enough in attending new incidents since some of their working time was allocated to staying at the office to prepare the report. Once this project was introduced, the street wardens were required to use mobile devices to perform their task of entering information on the incident at the spot. These mobile devices freed the wardens from spending unnecessary time at the office. However, since this was a new tool with many features, all wardens using these devices were trained for half an hour to an hour. The training sessions, which



also involved senior management, were relatively short because the software was developed with simplicity and user friendliness in mind. However, extra training was required for those who were not used to information technologies. Likewise, the inspectors at EDP were entering information by hand and then transferring it to the database manually. With the new system, the work process is streamlined and the inspectors have more time at inspection sites. Although they still need to go back to the office to synchronize the data with their back-end system, with the introduction of new devices like Blackberry, it is very likely that in the near future, the inspectors would be able to send their reports through their device without going to the office. The PDAs were designed for easy use, so the training time was short. As part of the Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Berneslai Home Impact Team Officers Mobile Data Project, all Impact Team Officers were given a two-day training session in which they learned how to use the device and connect to the database and how to use the forms available to them. Additionally, to assist officers further, eight people were trained to act as “super users” to be the main contact point when officers faced problems. In the initial stages, management also monitored the officers to see how often they use the mobile solution and tried to understand the reasons behind infrequent use by some officers. Although these training sessions were successful, during the implementation phase, some technical problems were encountered that affected the motivation of the officers making them wary of the benefits of deploying mobile technologies. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that the civil workers who will be part of the mobile solution are encouraged to take part during the planning and implementation phase so as to convince them that they can perform better and save time by using these applications. It would not be wrong to conclude that using wireless technologies to perform certain tasks may reduce the amount of personal communication between people. For instance, rather than going to the office and asking for additional information from a colleague, the civil worker may simply use his/her device to retrieve that information, never directly communicating with anyone from his/her office. In other words, face-to-face communication may be replaced with human-to-machine communication and any interdependencies between individuals or departments can be dealt with through the wireless system. Although the mobile government application is aiming to make the working process of civil workers more efficient, due to the location-based nature of the application, it is possible to track them. On one hand, this helps to identify where each civil worker is located and may improve efficiency when it comes to calling the person on duty located closest to the incident. On the other hand, the civil workers may feel that they are being monitored and tracked. This may also have some legal repercussions as these projects become full scale.



The Impact on Business Processes Introduction of mobile technologies may suggest that the organizational structure will become flattened with fewer hierarchical levels and looser connections between employees. Moreover, being able to access recent information “anytime and anywhere” may require a more integrated approach to mobile government solutions. The cases we have analyzed support this contention. For instance, an inspection report prepared by one warden in one borough using mobile technologies may need to be shared by other boroughs in London or even across the UK and accordingly may require a unified business process. Since currently the information within different government organizations and different departments within the same government organization is scattered, mobile government can help to combine all organizational knowledge on a real-time basis so that process time and costs are reduced. For instance, Norwich City Council Street Scene, Parking Services Project allows efficient information flow and sharing between parking services and environmental health. Similarly, Berneslai Homes and Barnsley Borough Council have integrated information systems which allow the civil workers who have different roles/tasks in the same process to perform faster and more efficiently. There is no doubt that with the introduction of mobile government, the civil workers involved are more mobile than before. They no longer have to go to the office to do their job. In other words, they do not require any office space. As a result, these civil workers could be viewed as virtual workers. They can be informed about the incident, prepare and send their report via their mobile devices, hence, never needing to go to the office to fulfill their duties. This encourages a more flexible environment and promotes looser connections when it comes to peer-subordinate relationships. However, having virtual workers raises some important issues that require attention such as performance evaluation and working efficiently and effectively, both individually and collectively, as part of a team without direct supervision. The biggest impact of mobile government is likely to be on streamlining business processes on a single, shared platform by gathering, updating, and processing data from all departments anytime and anywhere. Figure 2 shows the evolution of mobile government. Although it’s too early to predict the progress of mobile government strategies, it is possible to expect that initially the mobile government strategies will be decentralized since they will be first tried out locally rather than on a city or country basis. Accordingly, the database and infrastructure supporting these strategies will be independent of a unified database or infrastructure. In the second stage, as mobile government applications become more common and successful, more local authorities will adopt it. This will pave the way for a common, unified database and infrastructure within and among various government units. In the later stage, a more integrated mobile government strategy will be favored within the government as a whole and an integrated database and infrastructure will allow the information to be shared across all government entities. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Figure 2

Conclusion Recently, governments around the world are setting very aggressive targets to move towards e-government and mobile government. This bureaucratic or top-down approach, which to a great extent is a result of external pressures from citizens and businesses, may fall short of visibly identifying strategies as to the content (what) and process (how) of this shift to e- and m-government. In other words, governments should have a roadmap that clearly identifies when it is necessary to make the change, what needs to be changed and how to make it happen. We have tried to identify the impact of utilizing mobile government applications on the organizational structure in light of some real-life examples presented in the previous sections. Although these case studies are insufficient in allowing us to reach more than general conclusions, they do suggest that some governmental agencies are embracing mobile technologies and are following through with some internal changes in structures, policies, and practices in an attempt to reap benefits more often seen in private sector companies. However, at least for the near future, it is not likely that we will see wide-scale major structural changes in public institutions due to mobile government. This is mainly because most of the mobile government initiatives are at the local level with the involvement of very few departments and civil workers.



Furthermore, these applications seem to have insufficient impact on the workings of the organization to necessitate a major structural change. The case studies, as few and as limited as they are, indicate that change occurred not in the formal structure of the organization, but rather in the way the tasks were accomplished. In other words, there were some changes in the business process and workflow of the departments involved. We should also note that structural changes require more time and energy, and structure in whatever form should support strategy and fit with other internal organizational components such as organizational culture, though clearly, in governmental agencies, there are many cases where both structure and culture need to be changed. As more and more departments embrace mobile government applications, a more unified mobile government strategy as well as more integrated infrastructure and databases within the government is likely to be observed. Once this level of adoption is achieved, it would be possible to witness some major changes in the structure of the government organization due to bottom-up pressures coming from those local or regional departments that have benefited from m-government applications. These changes might be in the form of virtual departments, consolidation of some departments into one or reductions in headcounts. Additionally, we can argue that the role of the civil worker, who is part of the mobile government service, is likely to be re-defined making him/her a more independent, mobile agent accountable to not only one but many different departments by fulfilling his/her tasks under the mobile government project. It is quite possible that the shift to e- and m-government applications will make governments more functional organizations since the tasks would be completed by different people with different skills and job descriptions working at different departments at different parts of the country, though a process-oriented structure may be more desirable. This would also facilitate a working environment where the relationships are loosely defined giving more flexibility to the civil worker while performing his/her tasks. Although the examples used in this chapter are small-scale and there are no issues of rejection of the concept on the part of the civil workers, it may be of importance to dwell a little on the resistance to change on the part of the employees as a result of mobile government initiatives. Habits, fear of the unknown, security, and economic factors are some reasons why people can be resistant in accepting new approaches. We have already mentioned some effects of mobile applications on the civil worker. As a consequence of these changes, employees might think of these applications as a threat that will lead to redundancies or the loss of jobs, or may have a feeling that they are losing control to machines. The fear of not being able to acquire the skills or concerns over future competencies may make the employees suspicious to these applications. Interpersonal communication should be at the center of this process in order to persuade the parties involved to willingly be part of the change rather than forcing them to agree to the set goals. Forcing employees to accept something that they do not believe in or something they see as a threat will bring resistance and hindrance during the transition phase and may lead to total rejection later on.



In other words, employees should be motivated and supported all throughout this process through proper education and training. The culture of an organization is of utmost importance when it comes to embracing change without much difficulty. At times, organizational culture needs adjustment to fit the change. Lucienne Robillard, President of the Canadian Treasury Board, and member of Parliament for Westmount-Ville-Marie gives an example from the Seniors Department in Canada in a speech delivered on May 8, 2003: “…What is also changing, quite significantly, is the role of the individual public sector employee and his or her relationship to information, clients, organization and colleagues. Drawing from our “Government on Line” experience, we are beginning to understand that cultural rather than structural change may be more important at this time. And that our approach to information, information systems and understanding the concept of “communities of practice” may be more radical and necessary than ‘machinery’ change…” (Robillard, 2003) There is no doubt that mobile government applications not only make the lives of the citizens easier, but also increase the productivity within the government organizations. However, while adopting it, a careful consideration should be made as to its effects on the work processes, the civil workers, the span of control, and the formal structure of the government entity. Longitudinal research with case studies of larger governmental agencies in different contexts would provide data on when diffusion of mobile technologies is successful and under what conditions, and would further shed light on the impact of these technologies on internal organizational functioning.

References Arazyan, H. (2002). m-Government: Definition and perspectives. Retrieved January 17, 2005, from http://www.developmentgateway.org/download/143909/ mGovernment_Interview_2.doc Cilingir, D., & Kushchu, I. (2004). E-government and m-government: Concurrent leaps by Turkey. In D. Remenyi (Ed.), European Conference on E-Government (ECEG 2004), Trinity College, Dublin, June 17-18 (pp. 813-821). Department of the Taoiseach, Dublin, Ireland; Reading, UK: Academic Conferences International. Ghyasi, A. F., & Kushchu, I. (2004). m-Government: Cases of developing countries. In D. Remenyi (Ed.), European Conference on E-Government (ECEG 2004),



Trinity College, Dublin, June 17-18 (pp. 822-829). Department of the Taoiseach, Dublin, Ireland; Reading, UK: Academic Conferences International. Kushchu, I., & Borucki, C. (2004). A mobility response model for government. Retrieved January 15, 2005, from http://www.mgovlab.org/library/mgovlab/ mgovlab_ikcb.pdf Kushchu, I., & Kuscu, H. (2003). From e-government to m-government: Facing the inevitable. In the Proceedings of the European Conference on E-Government (ECEG 2003), Trinity College, Dublin, July 3-4 (pp. 253-260). Reading, UK: Academic Conferences International. Robillard, L. (2003). When e-government becomes simply government: Making the case for radical incrementalism in public sector governance. Speech. Crossing Boundaries Conference. Retrieved April 30, 2005, from http://www.tbs-sct. gc.ca/media/ps-dp/2003/0508_e.asp Yu, B., & Kushchu, I. (2004). The value of mobility for e-government. In D. Remenyi (Ed.), European Conference on E-Government (ECEG 2004), Trinity College, Dublin, June 17-18 (pp. 887-899). Department of the Taoiseach, Dublin, Ireland; Reading, UK: Academic Conferences International.

Online A Mobile Working Solution for London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Project. Retrieved April 30, 2005, from http://www.projectnomad.org.uk/docstore/15/ pdf/357_MobileWorkingSolutionForLondonBoroughoBarkingandDagenham. pdf Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Berneslai Home Impact Team Officers Mobile Data Project. Retrieved April 30, 2005, from http://www.projectnomad.org. uk/docstore/12/doc/193_BarnsleyApprovedCaseStudy26January2005.doc Norwich City Council Street Scene Project—Parking Services. Retrieved April 30, 2005, from http://www.projectnomad.org.uk/docstore/12/pdf/367_NorwichCityCouncilStreetScene.pdf NLSA Street Wardens Project Case Study. Retrieved January 17, 2005, from http:// www.projectnomad.org.uk/7xJ5321CSn17443NQj5vOnxf4Si3SI66/docstore/12/doc/34_North%20London%20Strategic%20Alliance%20-%20Final %20Report%20Version%201%20-%201st%20December%202004.doc Project Nomad—http://www.projectnomad.org.uk/ http://www.asiawireless.net/cust-002.php http://www.palmone.com/au/solutions/enterprise/studies/hk_edp.html



Endnotes 1

http://www.projectnomad.org.uk/ and http://www.localegovnp.org.uk/default. asp?sID=1095853022025

2

http://www.projectnomad.org.uk/7xJ5321CSn17443NQj5vOnxf4Si3SI66/docstore/12/doc/34_ North%20London%20Strategic%20Alliance%20-%20Final%20Report%20Version%201%20%201st%20December%202004.doc

3

http://www.projectnomad.org.uk/docstore/12/doc/193_BarnsleyApprovedCaseStudy26Januar y2005.doc

4

http://www.projectnomad.org.uk/docstore/15/pdf/357_MobileWorkingSolutionForLondonBoroughoBarkingandDagenham.pdf

5

http://www.projectnomad.org.uk/docstore/12/pdf/367_NorwichCityCouncilStreetScene.pdf

6

http://www.asiawireless.net/cust-002.php and http://www.palmone.com/au/solutions/enterprise/ studies/hk_edp.html



Section II Mobile Health


Mobile E-Health 155

Chapter VIII

Mobile E-Health: Making the Case1 Norm Archer, McMaster University, Canada

Abstract Health care is an industry with a diverse set of stakeholders: governments, private health care providers, medical practitioners (physicians, nurses, researchers, etc.), home health care providers and workers, and last but not least, clients/patients and their families. Overlapping and interacting environments include hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, primary care providers, homes, and so forth, involving acute, emergency, chronic, primary, and outpatient care. Patient transitions between these environments are often unnecessarily difficult due to an inability by providers to access pre-existing patient records. Mobile/wireless solutions can play an important role in supporting health care by providing applications that access health care records and reduce paperwork for clinical physicians, nurses, and other workers, community health care practitioners and their patients, or mobile chronically ill patients such as diabetics. This chapter makes the case for mobile health care and its solutions in the non-acute community health care environment, where critical issues include usability, adoption, interoperability, change management, risk mitigation, security and privacy, and return on investment. A proposed community health care application demonstrates how these issues are addressed.


156 Archer

Introduction Many individuals receive their care from more than one caregiver or other provider: individual physician, group practice, hospital, long-term care facility, laboratory, pharmacy, walk-in clinic, urgent care center, work-site clinics, school clinics, and so forth. When and where choice is available, clients can select caregivers or other providers based on their proximity, bedside manner, quality and capability, cultural aptitude, or other factors. Clients/patients also must move among health care providers as their state of health changes, creating a need for their health records/histories to move with them, so each provider does not need to prepare a totally new patient history at admission (see Figure 1). Without the general existence of digital health records and some means of integration or interoperability, individual choice and movement leads to fragmentation of the individual’s health care experience. Typically, this means that client record transfers are accomplished from one or more sources via paper, scanned digital records, and/or fax. The result is that client records may be stored on paper at a number of caregiver institutions or re-keyed into institutional databases, with no possibility of version control or compatibility. This fragmentation of records often leads to errors, duplication, lack of coordination (Brailer, 2005), conflicting approaches to a patient’s health care, service and/or resource duplication and many other problems including reduced quality of care, reduced effectiveness, and increased cost to society. Integration mechanisms have been tried in the past, although none has delivered lasting benefit. These include horizontal and vertical mergers of providers, statesponsored networks of community care services, and so forth. However, there is theoretically no technical barrier to establishing a network of providers that would use information in an interoperable manner for integrated support of patient care, and this would not require a massive integration of physical assets and the bureaucracy required to operate it. In the U.S. alone, the potential savings from such an approach have been estimated at U.S. $77.8 billion per year (Walker, Pan, Johnston, AdlerMilstein, Bates, & Middleton, 2005). This does not include the substantial clinical and quality of life benefits from this approach. Unfortunately, it has been virtually impossible in most jurisdictions to get broad agreement on a standard and portable electronic health record (EHR) that would support this interoperability. Although the standardized EHR has a continuing focus of the health care community (Berner, Detmer, & Simborg, 2005), the process of adopting a standard would still require large investments in the database conversion process and the necessary secure communications network that would safeguard client privacy and confidentiality. However, without interoperability and health information exchange, health information will remain as it is now, in proprietary and often inaccessible silos. The lack of a standard EHR definition, and the lack of interoperability among health care providers are both major strategic issues in information technology support for


Mobile E-Health 157

Figure 1. Information flows in patient-centred health care (adapted from KrullNaraj, 2004) 24/7 Hospitalization Episodic Care/ Emergency Room Outreach Teams Community Care Long Term Care Pharmacies Specialists Primary Care Patient & Family Providers Support Groups Community Care Access Centres Telehealth Walk-in Clinics/Urgent Information Flows

health care. No doubt at some time in the distant future both these problems will be addressed at a macro-level, but in the meantime, it is essential to make incremental improvements that will adapt to the constantly changing environment in a way that continuously improves health care support at the local level (Lenz & Kuhn, 2004). Such changes may be significant enough to be disruptive to users, so it is critical to plan and implement changes so that already overburdened health care professionals and administrative support receive relief in the most effective and efficient manner possible under the circumstances. Health delivery practice for non-acute care in many industrialized countries is shifting toward the home. The reasons are the better possibilities for managing chronic care and controlling health delivery costs, but the appropriate infrastructure must be in place in order to maintain client quality of life through quality health services, and the need to predict and thus avoid serious complications. For this potential to be realized, new interoperable telemedicine and information technology (IT) solutions need to be implemented and integrated in the health delivery system, but these solutions need to be assessed through evidence-based medicine in order to provide solid proof for their usefulness. To ensure that quality care delivered efficiently any time


158 Archer

and any place requires ready access to patient records and expertise from remote sources such as specialists and online databases, and mobile wireless technology can enable this support. True wireless communities where processes, technology, and people are fully aligned to mobile applications, have a great deal of potential, especially where smooth transitions by patients among the types of care they may experience, including acute, emergency, chronic, primary, and homecare, require continuing coordination among health care institutions, medical practitioners, health care workers, care givers, and the patients themselves. The real benefit of mobility support will come only when technology and process are built around a plan that embraces mobility, and where mobility is not an afterthought. As mobile wireless unfolds, the health care world must assess both its technical and value propositions, to determine if it has a real value proposition to offer, in terms of quality of life maintenance at lower costs than existing systems. The objective of this chapter is to discuss the roles that electronic mobile solutions can play in health care, and particularly the value propositions and their evaluation that must play a role in the selection of these solutions for efficient and effective use. The concepts presented will be demonstrated by an application in a real mobile health care application.

Mobility Mobility is an aspect of many environments. How mobility affects individuals tends to differ, depending on the nature of what they are doing (working, relaxing, traveling, etc.), their preferences, the form that mobility takes, and the amount of time involved. Supporting mobility through electronic solutions is having a growing impact on individuals by enabling them to carry devices that assist them to stay in constant communication with their organizations, friends, family, and advisors. This may involve using voice or data messages, paging, direct communications by telephone or teleconferencing, and database or document information access, storage, and retrieval. In working environments such as hospitals, such applications are often built upon existing e-business solutions such as corporate and operational databases, along with functional or corporate support areas and their associated networks such as LANs and Internet connectivity. The growing availability of a variety of mobile applications and technologies has encouraged the extension or replacement of existing approaches and business processes. We are only beginning to see true wireless environments where processes, technology, and people are fully aligned to a mobile environment.


Mobile E-Health 159

Mobile Solutions The potential selection of systems and devices for mobile support includes voice and data communications, ranging all the way from cell phones to laptop computers and PDAs (personal digital assistants). It will be assumed that end users have ready access to voice communication through cellphones, since these are rapidly becoming as ubiquitous as landline telephones. Mobile or wireless solutions discussed here may use the same networks, including and extending voice cellphone communication. Mobile solutions can be used to support hospital or clinical workers, or community health care practitioners or their patients, where the workers may be away from their home office a high percentage of the time, while traveling or meeting with clients. Others may need to travel occasionally to different sites for meetings, conferences, or training. Clients such as ambulatory care patients may also adopt mobile or monitoring devices, in order to use the services of mobile health care providers. Mobile solutions allow employment hours to be flexible and to extend beyond those hours actually spent in the office, including lunch and break time, traveling to and from work, traveling to meetings, holidays, weekends and evenings. Although this may result in an attendant increase in productivity, working with others through mobile applications may not necessarily fulfill all the needs of workers.

Pervasive Computing Pervasive computing can be defined as personalized computing freed from the desktop, enabling information access anywhere, anytime, on demand. This provides an apt description of the objective of mobile worker support. Computing devices range from desktop (fixed), to laptops and palmtops (transportable) to handhelds and wearables (fully mobile) (Gorlenko & Merrick, 2003). Mobile devices can be differentiated according to their wireless connectivity. Content transmitted by technological solutions in the mobile wireless world can be mobile (but not wirelessly connected for synchronization with wireline content), wireless (but not mobile), or both mobile and wirelessly connected. Mobile wireless content is converging with the wireline Internet, with the result being referred to as the mobile Internet. The growing mobile wireless market demands both voice and data (text-graphics) communication services. Multimedia content is a suitable mix of the two. The content is carried through the network of a wireless network operator and a service provider. Some mobile devices are unconnected while on the move (e.g. PDAs—personal digital assistants, laptops, and palmtops) although they may be equipped for wireless connectivity in a stationary environment. Clinical, business, and technology functions are usually intertwined in a complex manner in wireless systems, it is essential to maintain patient safety and quality of life, if a health care system is to be implemented acceptably (Scalise, 2005). Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

160 Archer

Value Proposition for Mobile and Wireless Solutions in Health Care The business model for adopting mobile solutions is the economic justification for the use of the technology, or the means by which the technology generates a value proposition. In the current wireless marketplace, with an increased system complexity that is driven by the number of players and their interactions (Olla & Atkinson, 2004), (network operators, carriers, content providers, mobile device manufacturers, etc.), the value chain is developing into linkages of partnerships for delivering value to end customers (Sabat, 2002). End customers in e-health may be individual physicians or they may be networks of health care workers who interact in such a way that mobile solutions can assist in improving their interactions cost effectively. Business partnerships involved in supporting mobile solutions continue to evolve, engage, and disengage as new technology evolves and appears, and certain business partners thrive while others fail. It is often difficult to justify a business case for a mobile project financially. A 2002 survey by CIO Magazine (Worthen, 2002) indicated that the two most popular measures of ROI for wireless projects were increased productivity (54%) and improved internal customer satisfaction (40%). For mobile e-health applications, we can add an important constraint which is that the application must not decrease the quality of life of the clients, or ROI justification becomes meaningless. One framework that has been proposed for value determination of mobile solutions, includes two dimensions: time and place—the work can be either dependent or independent of one or both these dimensions (Wiberg & Ljungberg, 2001). Mobile applications in this framework can be in one of four quadrants: anytime and anywhere; anytime and a particular place; a particular time and anyplace; and a particular time and particular place. Maglaveras et al. (2002) discuss a community-based health care support system that proved the usefulness of wireless technology in providing wireless interactivity anytime and anywhere, but also proved the necessity for restructuring educational medical knowledge for delivery to the patient. An example application of the anytime-anyplace model is in mobile support of chronically ill clients who are still able to work. Here, occurrences could be identified in all four of the quadrants, since clients have particular places where they may spend a considerable amount of time (at work and at home), and certain procedures could be specified at particular times, but there would be value in support in the “anytime and anywhere” quadrant. These concepts help in planning potential mobile support applications. To justify mobile solutions, health care institutions that deploy wireless data solutions do so on a very selective basis, supporting only those employees who have a demonstrated need for real-time access. There are strong indications that return


Mobile E-Health 161

on investment (ROI) can be most strongly justified for specific classes of tasks in vertical markets such as health care, manufacturing, government, and transportation (Wheelwright, 2002). For example, a recent study of mobile solutions in a variety of applications in 35 major companies found hard benefits that included sales increases of 5-10%, reduced customer wait times by as much as 80%, increases in service calls of up to 32%, and service call responsiveness improvements of up to 7% (Gillott, 2002). Payback periods ranged from a few months to 30 months. Mobility and flexibility are the biggest drivers of mobile solutions in many institutions and companies (Wheelwright, 2002). Health care companies may choose wireless solutions because they have an outbound workforce that needs to be connected within a corporate environment or when making calls on homecare clients. Cost has slowed the adoption of mobile technology in the past, although it is becoming less of a concern as prices drop and businesses recognize the benefits of offering wireless access to their workforce. Mobile portals provide convenient places where Web users can link to a set of applications that are relevant to their interests and/work (Clarke & Flaherty, 2003). Portals assist the wireless user to interact with Webbased content, and serve a valuable purpose in aggregating multiple applications and/or content providers through one Web site. They also provide a greater degree of personalization and localization than traditional Web portals.

Evaluation of Mobile Business Applications The novelty of many of the mobile applications currently entering the marketplace, along with inexperience of business with mobile solutions, greatly increases the risks associated with adopting such solutions. For this reason, the business value proposition of proposed mobile applications must be studied with care. To that end, we have developed a process framework (Archer, 2004) that organizes the planning and evaluation process logically. This proceeds from identifying the business goals, defining potential user groups and the applications they would use, and the technical considerations that will lead to the appropriate mobility choice. When implementation issues are factored in, tempered by a variety of moderators, the application can be evaluated, along with its ROI, and compared with the existing application in terms of tangible values such as revenue, cost, and efficiency, and intangibles such as user and customer satisfaction. This process is an essential first phase in any mobile application, since it considers logically the costs and benefits of implementing the planned solution.


162 Archer

Key Issues for Mobile E-Health Applications A number of key issues can affect the potential for a successful mobile e-health implementation. These include usability, adoption, interoperability, change management, risk mitigation, privacy and security, and return on investment. These are considered in more detail in the following. Usability can be defined as the quality of a system with respect to ease of learning, ease of use, and user satisfaction (Rosson & Carroll, 2002). It also deals with the potential of a system to accomplish the goals of the user. Usability is a key issue in the adoption of any information system, but it is particularly so for mobile systems, where the end-user device is often hand-held, with limited display and data entry capability (Tarasewich, 2003). Interface design and the design of the device itself have a critical impact on usability. Adoption: As in any user population, technological changes in the supporting technology for doing tasks make demands on both the quality of user interface and the functionality of mobile devices. Adoption is clearly related to usability, although it involves additional issues. The questions of interest are (Zhu, Nah, & Zhao, 2003): (1) what factors influence users’ adoption of mobile computing?; (2) how does the design of mobile devices and interface affect user adoption?; and (3) to what degree do specific factors such as trust and enjoyment (in using mobile devices) play a role in adoption? Zhu et al. (2003) have proposed that perceived ease of use (input and output modalities, navigation, bandwidth), perceived usefulness (service offerings, degree of mobility, compatibility, coverage, reliability), trust (security, privacy, vendor characteristics, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness), and enjoyment (congruence of skills and challenges, focused attention, interactivity, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness) will affect intentions to use mobile devices, which will then influence actual usage. Evidence suggests that inadequate access to information and ineffective communication tend to be causes of error and other adverse events for in-patient care (Mendonca, Chen, Stetson, McKnight, Lei, & Cimino, 2004). Information-based handheld wireless applications at the point of care that link to clinical data can help reduce these problems. Interoperability: Interoperability with existing health care applications and/or databases is necessary, to improve or at least avoid worsening any existing “stovepipe” characteristics that plague the health care IT field. In the absence of compatible databases or health records, separate applications may communicate through messages containing health record information using standard protocols such as HL7.2 Supporting software could be developed with a messaging toolkit such as Chameleon,3 or the health record information may be mapped to a particular database using Iguana.2 Significant barriers that must Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

Mobile E-Health 163

also be addressed include policies on accessing and updating existing systems, due to privacy, confidentiality, legal, and regulatory concerns. Change Management: Many issues arise when technology is changed or introduced to a user population, often transforming the way users must perform their tasks. The manner with which change is introduced, irrespective of the effort invested in enabling it, will impact system adoption. There are multiple obstacles to implementing such a system. These include resistance to change by end users and IT staff, and integration with existing systems. These must be considered in advance in order to mitigate potential risks (Wang & Paper, 2005). There are two important aspects of change that must be considered. The first is in the organizational and business process structures. Not all change can be anticipated and planned in advance. Difficulties in managing change in the introduction of technology arise when the organization does not plan the management of unanticipated change. This increases the complexity of change because the organization unprepared to deal effectively unanticipated complications. For example, new technology often leads to anticipated changes in staffing levels, but there are usually psychological or social dimensions to the remaining jobs that are not anticipated. Two types of unanticipated change include (Rivard, Aubert, Patry, Pare, & Smith, 2004): •

Emergent change, that may arise spontaneously in response to planned change, with either positive or negative impacts on the organization (for example, a requirement for new skills in analyzing data now being collected that was not previously available).

•

Opportunity-based change, introduced intentionally during the change process in response to unexpected impacts. For example, the introduction of mobile technology may create new opportunities for other applications that were not previously considered possible when the mobile infrastructure was not yet in place.

The second major consideration is the technology itself. Even if the new technology offers the full functionality required, with a fully-tested interface, user compliance is far from guaranteed. Studying user interactions with the system, as well as improving it to suit their needs, can be complex, costly, and time intensive but may result in significant rewards. Simple modifications may be introduced to help users to learn and operate the system, thus increasing acceptance. Schoenberg, Safran, and Sands (2000) suggest a functionality for assessing system performance from the user perspective: acquire user information in the background and through direct


164 Archer

survey, target population subsets of interest and avoid interrupting those who are not, invoke data acquisition methods “just-in-time” as the user interacts with the system, be as brief and concise as possible during interaction, provide incentives to compensate users for their time, and be consistent across all applications. Risk Mitigation: End-user adoption is an important issue, and this is addressed by change management, usability, and so forth. Obstacles to end-user adoption of the system must be mitigated, through training and motivation for end users and clients through improved quality of work and life. System reliability is critical in health care, and parallel testing during the test phase until there is sufficient confidence in system reliability (Mikkelsen & Aasly, 2001) is one way to develop confidence in the system. Security and Privacy: Health record privacy and confidentiality in many jurisdictions are regulated strictly by government guidelines, in terms of controlling need to know and client permission to access records. Mobile applications must adhere to these guidelines, as well as maintaining security by encoded communications and databases. An additional consideration is the reliability of the system, to ensure that information is not lost and that service interruptions are managed effectively. Return On Investment: In health service applications, ROI (return on investment) considerations are overridden by a constraint that quality of health care must be improved, or at least not reduced. In calculating ROI, cost considerations include software, hardware, installation, ongoing maintenance, and further development. Savings include some that are more easily quantifiable such as IT staff time, and employee time savings (e.g., time saved when data can be entered directly online, or reduction in errors and the associated time needed to fix them). Virtual office operations and field sales operations tend to have a higher ROI than company groups with little customer-facing work. Health services require a convincing case for the adoption of mobile applications, since there are so many other competing demands on resources. In addition, since there are typically a number of stakeholders (client, physicians and nursing staff, administrative staff, institutions—hospitals, homecare institutions, etc.), each should receive a perceived benefit in order to encourage participation.

Case Example: Mobile Applications in Home Health Care Health care is the responsibility of the provincial governments in Canada, where the publicly-funded system provides universal access. In the Canadian province of Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

Mobile E-Health 165

Ontario, health care has been organized into a multi-tiered system. Family physicians provide primary care, typically operate as small businesses, and bill the province for services rendered. They may refer patients to specialists, who may also operate as small businesses or work as hospital employees. Acute care is supported by hospitals. Non-acute care is supported in long-term facilities or in a home environment. Laboratory testing services may be operated privately or in a public hospital. Patients are supported in the home environment by their families and friends, in addition to homecare nursing and housekeeping support that is managed and funded by the Province. To provide homecare and long-term support, the Province has chartered a number of Community Care Access Centres (CCACs) throughout the Province, that contract with private homecare providers for nursing and other patient support. As demonstrated in Figure 1, information must flow among the various providers in order to provide continuity to patient support, and access to information that exists at many places throughout the system. Unfortunately, the number of Canadian primary care physicians that have fully digitized records is only in the neighbourhood of 5%. Although each of the types of health care institutions (hospitals, CCACs, and homecare providers) has internal digital systems and databases that support its own applications, there are no standards for health records, and little digital communication to support specific clients. Most information flows are on paper forms, usually transmitted by fax, and scanned and stored or transmitted as images. This may serve storage and legal purposes, but the information can not be retrieved in a form that can be used for management or decision support analysis. There are the usual problems in the paper-based system, resulting from delays, errors, and loss of information. To solve some of the problems associated with current paper-based systems, a project has been proposed for Venus,4 an Ontario county, to use wireless applications to link mobile homecare workers to centrally supported applications and databases. The Venus County Mobile E-Health Project is being planned through the collaboration of three health care organizations: Mars Home Health (provider of visiting nursing and other services), Venus County CCAC, and Jupiter Hospital. The Aquarius Research Centre plays a role in research and development, and a number of corporate vendors are also involved, including Zodiac Wireless Inc. A carefully researched process will be used to build and trial the system, with the end result being a mobile system that can be easily implemented as an ongoing commercial operation in Venus County and potentially throughout other Canadian jurisdictions. The project is aimed at improved outpatient quality of care, while eliminating or easing routine work for health care workers. The initial focus will be on reducing or eliminating paperwork by homecare nurses accessing the remote system wirelessly onsite for client details or to enter new data. The project will be led by health care staff and professionals to maximize the chances of successful implementation. The project is incremental in approach, and undertaken in phases, with activities and outcomes carefully researched and evaluated throughout each phase. The project may Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

166 Archer

be terminated or adjusted at the end of each phase. The focus will be on delivering real benefits for clients and health care providers while overcoming the barriers to information exchange among some of the entities indicated in Figure 1, without undue inconvenience to regular health care activities. An analysis of the business case through a logical process (Archer, 2004) has predicted an approximate reduction of 50% in direct (labour and system) costs by the project. Intangible benefits include: delay until data is available online reduced from 24 to 0 hours, online availability of data increased from 10% to 100%, error rate for data entry reduced from 0.20 to 0.05 per data item, homework by homecare nurses (faxing and other work) reduced from substantial to minimal, time for client-centred care increased during nursing visits, and time required for routine work reduced.

Project Phases Each phase includes a research component, which will be used to plan the work, collect information, and evaluate results to ensure that the outcome of the phase is optimal from the point of view of the overall project objective. The following describes in limited detail the major phases in the project: 1.

A prototype of several mobile wireless applications with a high potential impact on homecare operations, will be designed, tested, and implemented through a trial by a small group of Mars Home Health homecare nurses. Aquarius and Zodiac will be heavily involved in interface design, and a study of usability and user acceptance. The highest impact applications currently in use in paper form by homecare nurses are: supplies ordering, wound care, key path, admission, status change, and discharge. These will be implemented in the first prototype. Technical considerations include the choice of suitable end-user devices to support applications, and wireless network provision. Secure access will be available to data through both wireless mobile and office computers. Linkages to existing databases at Mars Home Health and Venus CCAC will be designed to ensure interoperability. Figure 2 is a conceptual description of the proposed system. Interoperability challenges with existing databases require the development of an interim database for data that does not currently exist in digital form. Decision support applications for clinical and administrative use will be able to access all the digital data collected. The secure server provides application support for wireless and desktop devices. Due to the low reliability of access to wireless devices in remote areas (and sometimes in basements or other shielded areas), the devices will need to carry “fat client” applications. That is, applications will run securely on the devices rather than on the server, and data uploads and downloads will occur automatically when wireless access is available.


Mobile E-Health 167

Figure 2. Data flows in mobile e-health support system Hospital Patient Records Community Care Access Centre Patient Records Interim Database Homecare Agency Patient Records

Secure Server

Portal Presentation Templates Best Practices

Transcoder

Wireless Applications

Communications Adapter Educational Support Information

Desktop Applications

Primary Care Office Records

2.

Based on a successful prototype test in phase 1, the prototype will be revised for full operations according to prototype results and learning, and rolled out as a commercial operation to the entire Mars Home Health visiting nurse population of over 120.

3.

Further applications specified and required by Mars Home Health and Venus CCAC, will be designed, based on experience in Phase 1, resulting in a suite of applications based on previous and new applications. The full suite will be trialed with a small group of Mars homecare nurses, including an evaluation of the suite (usability and user acceptance) and revisions necessary for commercial operations. This will be followed by a full commercial rollout at Mars.

4.

Because there will be a significant increase in data availability online, there will be an investigation into how to make use of the additional information gathered from wireless inputs available online to the health care providers, for managing and decision making. Applications will be designed and developed as appropriate, and the impact on the institutions and clients involved will be studied. An example is improved wound management data collection for monitoring and control purposes: •

To facilitate a consistent technique in wound assessment;

•

To facilitate a consistent means of documenting wound status;

•

To be a tool to infuse evidence-based practice in wound care management; and


168 Archer

• 5.

To provide a means of data collection that would aid in evaluation and outcome tracking.

The final phase will be to design and implement a wireless mobile e-health prototype to assist the three health care institutions to support newly educated Type 2 diabetics. The client process includes working through an education process in the Jupiter Hospital’s Diabetes Education Centre, continuing as the clients move out of the hospital into a normal work and homecare situation over a period of several weeks. The desired end result is client self-management of diabetic condition with integrated back-up support from the health care institutions and primary care physicians.

Conclusions Mobile health care technology has the potential for not just supporting health care in any particular health care environment (hospitals, clinics, long term care facilities, homecare), but for more easily managing transitions as patients move from or to acute, emergency, chronic, or primary care. Mobile applications can either eliminate or greatly reduce the use of paper forms, thus reducing system cost, as well as reducing errors and delays in making digital information available online. But if mobile e-health is to be introduced successfully, care must be taken to include all the stakeholders in planning and implementing mobile solutions. Critical issues that have been identified for mobile e-health applications include usability, adoption, interoperability, change management, risk mitigation, security and privacy, and return on investment.

References Archer, N. (2004). The business case for employee mobility support (Working Paper No. 9). Hamilton, ON: DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University. Berner, E. S., Detmer, D. E., & Simborg, D. (2005). Will the wave finally break? A brief view of the adoption of electronic medical records in the United States. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 12(1), 3-7. Brailer, D. J. (2005, January 19). Interoperability: The key to the future health care system. Health Affairs, W5-19–W15-21. Clarke III, I., & Flaherty, T. B. (2003). Mobile portals: The development of m-commerce gateways. In B. E. M. a. T. J. Strader (Ed.), Mobile commerce: Technology, theory, and applications (pp. 185-201). Hershey, PA: IRM Press. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

Mobile E-Health 169

Gillott, I. (2002, April). The ROI benefits of wireless. Communications News, 39, 6. Gorlenko, L., & Merrick, R. (2003). No wires attached: Usability challenges in the connected mobile world. IBM Systems Journal, 42(4), 639-651. Krull-Naraj, K. (2004). Information flows in patient-centred healthcare. Barrie, Ontario. Lenz, R., & Kuhn, K. A. (2004). Towards a continuous evolution and adaptation of information systems in healthcare. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 73(1), 75-89. Maglaveras, N., Koutkias, V., Chouvarda, I., Goulis, D. G., Avramides, A., Adamidis, D., et al. (2002). Home care delivery through the mobile telecommunications platform: The Citizen Health Citizen (CHS) perspective. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 68, 99-111. Mendonca, E. A., Chen, E. S., Stetson, P. D., McKnight, L. K., Lei, J., & Cimino, J. J. (2004). Approach to mobile information and communication for health care. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 73, 631-638. Mikkelsen, G., & Aasly, J. (2001). Concordance of information in parallel electronic and paper based patient records. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 63, 123-131. Olla, P., & Atkinson, C. (2004). Developing a wireless reference model for interpreting complexity in wireless projects. Industrial Management and Data Systems, 104(3), 262-272. Rivard, S., Aubert, B. A., Patry, M., Pare, G., & Smith, H. A. (2004). Information technology and organizational transformation. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. Rosson, M. B., & Carroll, J. M. (2002). Usability engineering: Scenario-based development of human-computer interaction. San Francisco, CA: Academic Press. Sabat, H. K. (2002). The evolving mobile wireless value chain and market structure. Telecommunications Policy, 26, 505-535. Scalise, D. (2005). One generation to the next. Hospitals and Health Networks(Winter), 10-15. Schoenberg, R., Safran, C., & Sands, D. Z. (2000). Studying clinician-computer interaction in Web-based systems. Paper presented at the Annual AMIA Symposium, Los Angeles, CA, November 4-8. Tarasewich, P. (2003). Wireless devices for mobile commerce: User interface design and usability. In B. E. M. a. T. J. Strader (Ed.), Mobile commerce: Technology, theory, and applications (pp. 26-50). Hershey, PA: IRM Press.


170 Archer

Walker, J., Pan, E., Johnston, D., Adler-Milstein, J., Bates, D. W., & Middleton, B. (2005, January 19). The value of health care information exchange and interoperability. Health Affairs, w5-10–w15-18. Wang, B., & Paper, D. (2005). A case of an IT-enabled organizational change intervention: The missing pieces. Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 7(1), 34-52. Wheelwright, G. (2002, Dec. 3). The business benefits of mobility. Financial Times of London, p. 11. Wiberg, M., & Ljungberg, F. (2001). Exploring the vision of “Anytime, Anywhere” in the context of mobile work. In Y. Malhotra (Ed.), Knowledge management and business model innovation (pp. 153-165). Hershey, Pennsylvania: Idea Group Publishing. Worthen, B. (2002, December 1). When wireless works. CIO, 16, 1. Zhu, W., Nah, F. F.-H., & Zhao, F. (2003). Factors influencing user adoption of mobile computing. In J. Mariga (Ed.), Managing e-commerce and mobile computing technologies (pp. 260-271). Hershey, PA: IRM Press.

Endnotes 1

This research was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

2

http://www.hl7.org/library/implement/implementation.htm

3

Trademark of iNTERFACEWARE Inc. http://www.interfaceware.com/

4

Venus County is a pseudonym, and Venus County CCAC, Mars Home Health, and Jupiter Hospital are pseudonyms for the health care organizations involved in the project. Aquarius Research Centre and Zodiac Wireless Inc. are pseudonyms for the research and business organizations involved.


Adoption of Mobile Communication Technologies 171

Chapter IX

Adoption of Mobile Communication Technologies in the Municipal Open Care Service Sector Anna Sell, Turku Center for Computer Science (TUCS), Finland Erkki Patokorpi, Abo Akademi University, Finland Pirkko Walden, Abo Akademi University, Finland Bill Anckar, Abo Akademi University, Finland

Abstract In this chapter, the writers present and discuss the findings from an empirical study conducted in Turku, Finland, to explore the social workers’ willingness to adopt mobile communication technologies in the workplace, and more specifically in the context of domiciliary care. As the respondents have many distinguishing features (the population consisted solely of females with a relatively high median age), the results contradict some assumptions generally made in literature about the impact of age and experience on technology adoption. Considering the rate at which information and communication technology is developing and its use spreading in


172 Sell, Patokorpi, Walden & Anckar

all walks of life, one hardly needs to stress the need for studying the technology acceptance and adoption of special, more marginal, user groups.

Introduction In today’s business world, mobility is increasingly seen as a key ingredient for success. Companies and company employees need to move faster, operate more efficiently, and improve their service levels. But mobility will not play an important role in the private sector alone, it will do so in the public sector, too. Numerous tasks and routines relating to public services can, no doubt, be significantly enhanced by using new mobile technologies. The field of social services and especially domiciliary care deserve special attention in this respect, due to the true mobile nature of their tasks and services. Mobility is especially relevant in Finland, which is a large, sparsely populated country with very extensive public sector responsibilities for the arranging of welfare services. The elderly people constitute the largest, and a steadily growing, customer group of open care services in Finland. The national social policy is to favour and develop municipal service forms, which allow elderly people to stay at home for as long as possible. This is primarily achieved by using home helpers—trained persons who visit their clients on a regular basis. The home helpers perform a wide variety of tasks. They, among other things, exercise the physical and mental health of the elderly, perform common housekeeping tasks, and shop for daily consumer goods based on lists provided by the clients. Although the number of old people is constantly increasing in Finland, the money spent on municipal care is not. Social service organizations all over the country are facing the dilemma of performing their constantly growing service obligations with greater efficiency and higher productivity, yet with stagnant resources (Hellström & Hallberg, 2001). Since there seems to be little hope of hiring more workers to better meet the increased demand for social services (including domiciliary care) in the near future, the pressure to produce more without increasing costs is enormous. In Turku, a city of approximately 165,000 inhabitants in Southwestern Finland, the situation is no different. As an attempt to cut costs and to increase the efficiency of its elderly care services, the municipal open care service bureau in Turku, Finland decided to use mobile communication technologies for some specific tasks relating to the daily service routines. The home helpers were given a number of Nokia Communicator mobile devices for the purpose of ordering groceries for the elderly and disabled who receive domiciliary care. The driving force behind the managerial decision was a motivation to: (a) save employee time, (b) reduce employee physical strain, and (c)



focus on the core competence of their open care workers. Up until 1999, the home help workers made all the grocery shopping for those customers unable to do it for themselves. The social service’s own calculations of the employees’ working time showed that one shopping trip for one customer took on average about 45 minutes (Turku, 1999). It means that an employee spent a significant portion of his or her working hours outside the customer’s home. Thus, the traditional way of providing groceries for the customers means that the employees’ time is partly being misspent on a physically quite straining task that does not require competence or experience in elderly care. It significantly reduces the total time spent on mental and physical health care as well as on crucial housekeeping tasks. The City of Turku decided to test online grocery shopping service for a period of 15 months. The Turku social welfare office, which operates in the four districts (the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western districts), decided to run the e-shopping trial only in the Northern and Western districts. A similar test was carried out by the cities of Helsinki and Espoo. After the test period, the City of Turku decided to continue the Internet grocery shopping service for the elderly and disabled, including the Eastern and the Southern districts as well for the subsequent trial period. We were given a one-of-a-kind possibility to study the technology adoption process as the City of Turku decided to acquire mobile devices (Nokia Communicators, see http://www.nokia.com) for their home helpers. The communicator is a wireless communications device which combines a mobile phone and Internet, communication by e-mail, SMS, and fax. The home helpers, being constantly on the move, were expected to place all orders for daily consumer goods for the elderly and disabled electronically, mainly through the communicator. The communicator empowers the home helpers to make the orders when on the move and whenever they find it convenient, thus adding more flexibility in their job performance. The significant practical relevance of the study lies in exploring some of the possibilities of using information and communication technologies to aid the health care sector in distress. ICT applications have the potential to facilitate the work done in the sector, but in order for that to be successful, we need to know more about the usage of mobile devices in this special setting. This study adds to knowledge in the domains of both mobile commerce and m-government, as the study was conducted in a municipal government setting but utilising a mobile commerce application.

Technology Acceptance In spite of an increasing number of studies relating to the use of mobile phones, technologies, and services in the recent years, little is still known about consumers’ willingness to adopt mobile communication technologies, and the factors that influ-



ence adoption decisions and value perceptions relating to m-technology. Kwon and Chidambaram (2000) have studied the adoption of mobile phones as such. Pedersen (2005) has studied early adopters’ behaviour using mobile Internet services, and Pedersen and Ling (2003) and Pedersen, Nysveen, and Thorbjørnsen (2003) have studied cross-services, focusing on the adoption of text messaging, mobile payment, mobile gaming, and contact services. Pedersen and Nysveen (2003) have studied users’ adoption of mobile parking services. Khalifa and Cheng (2002) have studied the adoption of mobile services, and Anckar, Carlsson, and Walden (2003) have studied the factors affecting adoption decisions and intents. Hung, Yang, Hsiao, and Yang (2004) used students in their study on acceptance and use of mobile services. Oh and Xu (2003) have studied location-aware advertising in order to find out the effects of multimedia on mobile consumer behaviour. Han (2005) has studied physicians’ acceptance of mobile technology. Very little is also known about the impact of gender, age, experience, and management-initiated use on adoption decisions and willingness to adopt technologies in general (cf. Venkatesh 2000; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000; Venkatesh, Morris, Davis & Davis, 2003) and mobile technologies in particular (cf. Han, 2005). The personnel at the welfare office of Turku were trained in the use of PDAs in home care in November 2002. A qualitative study reporting on the experiences of a trial use of PDAs is available, but reveals very little about the adoption process as the main objective of the study was to describe how the use of the new mobile devices will influence work (Vuokko & Järvinen, 2003). In this study, we will present empirical findings relating to female social workers’ willingness to adopt mobile communication technologies in the workplace, and more specifically in the context of domiciliary care. We will briefly present and discuss some well-known adoption models in order to illustrate what previous research has focused on, and what tools it has used when studying technology adoption and user experiences of technology use. Three fields of research deserve a brief description in this context: (1) technology adoption and use, (2) mobile applications and services, and (3) the use of technologies in the health care and social service sector. The term technology acceptance is often associated with Davis’ so-called Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which was presented more than a decade ago. Initially, the TAM was used to predict user acceptance of computers, but in the course of the years, the model has been applied in new fields and contexts relating to information and communication technologies (ICT). The basic TAM model rests on two variables: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, which are derived from empirical studies, and convincingly validated in Davis (1989, see also Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989). TAM is an adaptation of the theory of reasoned action by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980). Other models and theories applied in adoption studies are for example the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1985), the decomposed theory of planned



behaviour (Taylor & Todd, 1995), the social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986), and the diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 1995). Compared with the others, TAM is explicitly developed to study the user acceptance of technology and is widely used to explain and predict a user’s behaviour in adopting and using information systems in organisations. Davis’ theory has the undeniable merit of simplicity, and empirical testing has shown that TAM successfully predicts 40% of a system’s use (Legris, Ingham, & Collerette, 2003). Nevertheless, some recent critics (e.g. Pedersen & Nysveen, 2003; Anckar et al., 2003; cf. Venkatesh et al., 2003) have pointed out that dividing user perceptions of technology adoption into two essentially utilitarian categories will necessarily leave out further things that significantly affect user perceptions. Further, age, gender, experience, and voluntariness are significant moderators of acceptance (Venkatesh et al., 2003). Following this line of reasoning, the present study explores the impact of age, experience, and computer literacy in relation to attitudes towards the technology at hand. Mobile applications and services in Europe are still after all these years mostly in a tentative state. The respective failure to get people to adopt WAP services in Europe serves to show that we do not know much about the factors that make people adopt mobile services, and what their actual user experiences are. The situation is somewhat different in Japan, where the success of the i-mode has offered opportunities to study extended and routine use of mobile services (see, e.g., Teo & Pok, 2003). Nevertheless, the research on mobile services and technologies in general is scarce, and the suitability of the old technology acceptance models and insights in the context of mobile technology adoption is far from self-evident. Pedersen et al. (2003) have extended the TAM model in a way which can be found generally useful (see also, Pedersen & Ling, 2003; Pedersen, Methlie, & Thorbjørnsen, 2002). Pointing out that certain aspects, such as entertainment and selfexpressiveness of user acceptance, are neglected in the TAM model, the authors introduce self-expressiveness as a non-utilitarian, derived motivational determinant, which influences technology adoption. Moreover, since the users of mobile services typically are both young, skillful, and experienced in terms of using technologies, Pedersen et al. argue that the determinant ease of use probably influences such users’ technology adoption behaviour less than could be expected on the basis of TAM. A more challenging system may sometimes be more attractive to these users. On a general level, it can be argued that not only young people, but also older persons today are more experienced with ICT, and thus have more informed preconceptions of what to expect when facing new technologies. Along with the diffusion of ICT to ever new walks of life, the constructs usefulness and ease of use have become less suitable to catch the gist of technology adoption. For instance, some ICT applications and services in socializing and entertainment are sometimes by some users seen as an extension of their body or personality. In their study on young people’s use of mobile phones, Oksman and Rautiainen (2001) say that, “Mobile is seen as Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


something humane and intimate, not as ‘real’ technology. ‘It’s like a friend I carry in my pocket’ (Girl, 17)”. It is clear that here utilitarian attributes fall short of satisfactorily describing, explaining or predicting user behaviour. Anckar et al. (2003) have questioned the suitability of the TAM model to the consumers’ choice of a commercial channel. M-commerce applications and services are often competing with alternative applications, services, and channels. Consequently, the existence of alternative technologies, which put consumers in a multiple-choice situation, needs to be taken into account. Moreover, since m-commerce encompasses both transactional and non-transactional dimensions, one needs to distinguish between different levels of user adoption of m-commerce. Perhaps the most pertinent piece of criticism presented by Anckar et al. is that the TAM model largely ignores the existence of perceived barriers to using technologies, although there is empirical evidence indicating that perceived barriers are more significant determinants of adoption decisions than the users’ perceptions of the benefits associated with the technology (Anckar et al., 2003). In the health care sector, new technologies have generally been applied as a means to increase efficiency and saving time and money (see, e.g., Goolsby, 2001). A case of documented technology adoption and use close to our case is the one made in Sweden. In Sweden, the Nokia Communicators have been tested for home care service purposes. The staff received their schedules by e-mail, and also the presence control and reporting was made with the help of the communicator. The results were not promising. The home help workers felt lonely and experienced stress due to slow connections. The communicator was also thought to be bulky. No real time savings were achieved (Andersson, 2002).

The Empirical Study In the study presented here, the home help employees’ use of the online shopping services has certain special features, which need to be emphasized and taken into consideration. First, ordering can be done through several channels: (1) by PC/Internet (online); (2) by mobile devices (Communicators); and (3) by fax. The resulting multiple channel choice situation is likely to influence not only the adoption decision, but also the users’ experiences and preferences regarding the new technologies and practices. In this study, we seek to cover the user preferences regarding channel choice. Second, the home helpers place orders for a third person (the client), and the home helpers are thus not the primary users of the e-service provided. The home helpers are, however, the primary users of the online ordering technology. Third, not all home help employees use the ordering technology, and hence there is a need for some sort of a user segmentation. We have divided the users into adopters (i.e.,



those who actually use the ordering technology) and non-adopters (i.e., those who do not use the system), and have limited our analysis only to the home helpers who have, at the very least, tried using the communicator. Fourth, the communicator is a mobile device, but it was used as a static device in the sense that the home helpers did not carry it around with them. Instead, they placed their orders through the communicator in the recess quarters, as the communicators had to be shared between several home helpers due to a shortage of devices. Accordingly, we have to be careful when considering how, if at all, the features connected to advanced mobility in the research literature will apply. On the other hand, the communicator in the case at hand was mobile within the perimeters of the recess quarters, which significantly distinguishes it from the truly static desktop PC. Mobile technologies are not intended or used only for usage “on the road”—mobility is helpful even in a fixed sphere of usage (cf. Han, 2005). Mobile technologies aid users on the move, but are also used as a means for staying in the same place (Fortunati, 2001), for example, on your comfortable sofa or at the lunch table in the recess quarters. Incidentally, features like ubiquity, flexibility, localization, and mobility are in actual fact rarely fully functional as we still use the more modest 2G and 2.5G networks instead of the more advanced, and more distant, 3G-based technologies (see Anckar et al., 2003). At the Turku social welfare office, the online shopping experiment was implemented first in two service districts for 15 months. After this test period, the experiment was extended to all four service districts. Consequently, there was a lengthy period during which experiences were built up and communicated to others.

Methods Questionnaires were designed to evaluate the home helpers’ usage of and attitudes toward the Nokia Communicator and other aspects of the grocery shopping service. For instance, the respondents were polled on the expected and perceived effects of outsourcing on their work. The questionnaires were distributed to the home helpers through their managers. A similar questionnaire was also distributed to the domiciliary care customers. In addition to these surveys, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with the managers of the health care districts to gain additional insight into the decision-making process and other stages of the process at large.

Population The study was conducted on a population of 600 home helpers working in the elderly and disabled home care. In other words, the questionnaire was distributed to the entire population—all domiciliary care workers in the City of Turku. The domiciliary care



workers employed by the City of Turku are, with very few exceptions, female. This seems to be a common trend in many sectors of the social and health care system. One hundred and ninety-five of the employees (approximately 32% of the entire population) returned the questionnaire. Of the respondents, 193 were female and two were male. The two men have been excluded from the data analysis. The median age of the respondents was 47 years, ranging from 19 to 62 years. Thirty-six percent of the respondents were older than 50 years, and 71% were 40 years or above. The respondents have worked in this line of work from one month to 30 years, the median value being 13 years. The group of workers studied is special in many ways. The age structure is on the older side, the sample comprises only women, the average education level among the workers is comparatively low, as are the salaries.

Limitations We studied a population with unusual characteristics, which by some may be regarded as a limitation. On the other hand, we have gained a very extensive picture of this particular population. Also, it is of value to add to the knowledge on IT usage by user groups that are habitually seen as marginal, for example, older women. Another limitation of the study is that the device was not used as mobile outside the recess quarters, but nevertheless within the perimeters of the recess quarters. In the subsequent sections, the Nokia Communicator is interchangeably referred to with the terms mobile device and communicator.

Research Hypotheses Venkatesh et al. (2003) present evidence that age has an effect on technology adoption in the sense that effort expectancy is especially important for older workers and those with limited experience with a system, and that performance expectancy is especially important for younger workers. On the basis of this, we formulated hypotheses H1 and H2. H1: Employees in the youngest age category (–29 years) have a more positive attitude toward using the communicator than employees in the three older age categories (30-64 years). H2: Employees who have had an opportunity to use the communicator for a longer time have a more positive attitude toward use than those who have used it for a shorter time. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Venkatesh et al. (2003) call for research on, for example, computer literacy and social or cultural background and their influence on acceptance. We hypothesise that computer literacy is a factor affecting attitudes and adoption of technology and have formulated H3, H4, and H5 to test for this effect. H3: Users with extensive computer experience, defined as persons using computers daily or weekly, find the mobile device easier to use than users with less computer experience. H4: Those with limited computer experience, defined as persons who do not use computers or have only tried, find using the mobile device more complex than persons who have more experience with computers. H5: Those with more experience using the computer think using the mobile device is more pleasant than those with less experience of computers. We used the one-way Anova to test for significant differences in means between different user groups in regard to their attitude to using the communicator, except in testing H5 where the independent samples t-test was used. In testing H5, the respondents were divided into two groups only. To find the differing values after the one-way Anova, Tamhane’s T2 test was applied to the material as a post hoc test. Tamhane’s T2 was chosen due to significant differences between variances in the different groups and due to the relative conservativeness of the test. The respondents rated the communicator on a five-point Likert scale (ranging from [5] Completely agree to [1] Completely disagree) and on five dimensions, evaluating the usefulness of the device specifically in the context of domiciliary care: •

Using the communicator is HANDY (H1, H2)

•

Using the communicator is an UNNECESSARY WORK STAGE (H1, H2)

•

Using the communicator is EASY (H3)

•

Using the communicator is COMPLEX (H4)

•

Using the communicator is PLEASANT (H5)

Significance is noted on the .05-level.



Results and Discussion Hypothesis 1: Younger employees have a more positive attitude towards using the communicator. The respondents were divided into four age groups, –29, 30-39, 40-50, and 51-64 years. Significant differences on the two dimensions Handy and Unnecessary work stage could not be found between the different age groups. Therefore, H1, suggesting that the youngest age group would have a more positive attitude than the other age groups, could not be accepted. The fact that the communicator had already been in use for a significant length of time may have reduced or eradicated the differences between the age groups. Also, the effect of performance expectancy is more relevant for men (Venkatesh et al., 2003) and in our all-female respondents not as noticeable. Since usage was mandatory and determined from earlier, it is also conceivable that social influence has smoothed out differences between age groups. Social influence is defined here as “the degree to which an individual perceives that important others believe he or she should use the new system” (Venkatesh et al., 2003). Social influence is especially important for older women at early stages of using the specific technology (Venkatesh et al., 2003). The support and encouragement of important others, in this case different levels of management, might have had a positive effect on the attitudes of the older workers. Hypothesis 2: Longer experience using the device means a more positive attitude toward usage. The employees were divided into two groups by the districts they work in: districts where the communicators have been in use for three years, and districts where the communicators have been in use for 1.5 years or less. We found partial support for Hypothesis 2, as respondents from the districts that had been using the mobile devices for a shorter time were significantly less of the opinion that the mobile device is handy to use, but no more likely to think that using the mobile device is an unnecessary work stage. This is in line with Venkatesh et al. (2003), stating that effort expectancy (handiness) is more salient with limited exposure to the technology, whereas performance expectancy (unnecessary work stage) is not influenced by the amount of exposure. Some support for the hypothesis can be found in Table 1, in which it is shown that a majority of those who currently use the communicator desire to use it also in the future, whereas respondents using other tools would favour their current tool of use also in the future.



Table 1. Future tool preference sorted by tool currently in primary use

Centralised Main tool used at the moment

Communicator

Count % within Current tool

Computer


Fax

48

44

2

8

6

6

114

42,1%

38,6%

1,8%

7,0%

5,3%

5,3%

100,0%

2

23

1

5

4

5

40

5,0%

57,5%

2,5%

12,5%

10,0%

12,5%

100,0%

2

5

1

1

1

10

20,0%

50,0%

10,0%

10,0%

10,0%

100,0%

7

1

3

3

1

15

46,7%

6,7%

20,0%

20,0%

6,7%

100,0%

1

5

20,0%

100,0%


Centralised ordering

Count

Other

Count

% within Current tool

4

% within Current tool Total (n=184)


80,0% 50

80

9

17

14

14

184

27,2%

43,5%

4,9%

9,2%

7,6%

7,6%

100,0%

Total (N=184) Hypothesis 3: Users with extensive computer experience find the mobile device easier to use than users with less computer experience. The respondents were divided into groups according to how often they use computers: daily; weekly; monthly; less than monthly; I have only tried and I don’t use computers. We observed differences between the groups in terms of their perceptions relating to ease of use, but the differences were not statistically significant. Therefore, there was no evidence to support Hypothesis 3, suggesting that employees with more computer use experience would find using the communicator easier. In retrospect, it is easy to understand why individuals with more computer experience do not necessarily find the communicator easier to use than others. Computer users are used to large screens and comfortable keyboards. Interaction with the communicator is not remotely as comfortable as a PC, due to limited screen space and a miniature keyboard. One could hypothesise that the communicator usage training provided has been successful in making the communicator seem approachable and easy-to-use to those without prior experience of computers.



Hypothesis 4: Those with limited computer experience find using the mobile device more complex than persons with more computer experience. Those with limited computer experience found using the mobile device significantly more complex than users with more computer experience. Thus, the results supported Hypothesis 4. Interacting with the communicator is done in accordance with a logic familiar to computer users. The use of menus, the finding of applications or files, and input are all done in an intuitive way by those users who are familiar with the functionality of, for instance, Windows and Word. Users who do not have experience using computers start using the communicator from a completely different level. They need to digest concepts such as electronic mail, Internet, and double-clicking which are not self-evident to users without computer experience. They also need to learn to understand the general logic of using the software. They need to learn, for instance, what to do when a mistake has been typed, which is something that a computer user generally already knows how to do. It is natural that when a non-computer user is faced with a myriad of new terms and a whole new world of technology usage, using the technology can appear complex. Hypothesis 5: Those with more experience using computers think using the mobile device is more pleasant than those with less experience in using computers. The observed differences between the groups were not statistically significant. Therefore, there was no evidence supporting Hypothesis 5, suggesting that employees with more computer use experience would find using the mobile device more pleasant than those with less experience. Considering again the physical limitations of the communicator, it is understandable that computer users do not find the communicator anymore pleasant to use than others. It would have been feasible, though, that better proficiency in usage would have made the usage more pleasant due to fewer problems and less anxiety. The results might have looked different, if the communicator usage would have only been starting at the time of measurement, but now all user groups had had sufficient time to become more proficient users. Table 1 shows the future preferred tool of the employees, sorted by the tool currently in primary use (some of the respondents use a mix of tools, e.g., occasionally faxing in their orders even though primarily sending them via communicator). The majority of respondents are currently primarily communicator users (114, N=184). The figures can be seen as an indicator of satisfaction with the tool currently in use. For instance, the group of 57.5% of computer users that would also in the future use the computer can reasonably be concluded to be satisfied with their tool, or at the very least to have a higher opinion of the tool than of the other available tools.



It is interesting to note that a scant majority of the communicator users would choose the communicator as their future tool, whereas very few in the other groups would switch from their current tool to the communicator. A number of the respondents using other tools than the communicator, especially computers, have migrated from the communicator, perhaps due to, for example, higher level of usage comfort. It is therefore understandable that these respondents do not wish to “go back a step”. Force of habit seems to be a powerful influence on the future intention to use a tool. In all user groups except one (centralised ordering), the currently used tool scores highest also as the future tool. This is explained in part by self-selection. Here, “by self-selection” means that the respondents have had freedom to choose their tool (constrained by available equipment) and have presumably gravitated toward a tool of their liking. For instance, those choosing to fax their orders feel that handwriting is most natural and easy for them. Not all of the users of other tools have even tried the communicator, though. Reluctance in these cases might be explained at least in part by preconceived opinions, negative word of mouth, resistance to change, reluctance to use technology, or fear. The majority of those currently using centralised ordering (i.e., the orders are collected and centrally processed by only one person) would like to use a computer for their orders in the future. This group might be in part explained by new workers who are not yet allowed to process the orders independently, but will do so in the future. Thirty-eight point six percent of the communicator users would like to use a computer in the future. Considering the age structure of the respondents, one should not forget physical considerations which often accompany advanced age and their effect on technology use. First signs of deteriorating eye sight, joint stiffness in hands and fingers, neck and shoulder pains as well as fading motor skills can present themselves before one reaches the end of one’s working life, and all can have an influence on the desire to use a mobile device which might force the user to strain for instance her eyes or fingers uncomfortably.

Conclusion Our intention in this study was to shed some further light on the process of technology adoption by investigating a population with many distinguishing features. The population consists solely of females with a relatively high median age who are using information and communication technologies mainly, or only, in the workplace, and more specifically in the context of elderly care. Based on previous research findings in the field of technology acceptance and adoption, we formulated five hypotheses on the mechanisms of age, experience, and computer literacy in connection to technology acceptance. We found evidence supporting only one of our hypotheses, the one according to which inexperienced computer users regard Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


the use of mobile devices as significantly more complicated than experienced computer users. The fact that not even age was found to be a statistically significant determinant of user behaviour may partly be a result of the special characteristics of the population and the point of measurement. The extensive management involvement and support, which has in the research literature been found to be of special importance to older women, might have facilitated the adoption process of older employees and smoothed the differences between age groups. Nevertheless, the subsequent discussion gave many insights which might prove useful in further studies on mobile technology acceptance and adoption, for example, on the role of computer literacy. For instance, the force of habit seems to be a good indicator of willingness to adopt new technologies. The relative ease of the migration of users to devices with familiar principles of functionality should not be overlooked when planning ICT for special user groups. Many government or municipality jobs include a great deal of daily routine tasks to be performed outside the office. One of these exceptionally and inherently mobile jobs is that of a municipal open care home helper. In the case of home helpers, ICT may serve as a means of enabling the workers to come closer to their customers, that is, spend more time with them face-to-face, and to focus on their core competence, as we have shown in detail in Sell, Patokorpi, Anckar, and Walden (2004). As mobile and other advanced information and communication technologies become more commonplace in society at large, many people formerly little exposed to new technology gradually turn into regular users. Hence, there is a growing need to study how these special user groups adopt or fail to adopt new technology. An early version of this chapter was presented at the 12th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS-2004), Turku, Finland.

References Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behaviour. In J. Kurt, & J. Beckmann (Eds.), Action control: From cognition to behaviour. New York: Springer Verlag. Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Anckar, B., Carlsson, C., & Walden, P. (2003). Factors affecting adoption decisions and intents in mobile commerce: Empirical insights. In the Proceedings of the 16th Bled eCommerce Conference–- eTransformation, Bled, Slovenia, June 9-11 (pp. 886-900). Kranj, Slovenia: Moderna Organizacija.



Andersson, N. (2002). Helping the helpers. Cameo – an information appliance for home care service. In the Proceedings of the Second Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (NordiCHI 2002), Aarhus, Denmark, October 19-23 (pp. 223-226). New York: ACM Press. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319-340. Davis, F. D., Bagozzi, R. P., & Warshaw, P. R. (1989). User acceptance of computer technology: a comparison of two theoretical models. Management Science, 35(8), 982-1003. Fortunati, L. (2001). The mobile phone: an identity on the move. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 5, 85-98. Goolsby, K. (2001). Cure for a healthcare administrative malady. White Paper. Retrieved July 7, 2003, from Outsourcing Center Web site, http://www.outsourcing-requests.com/common/sponsors/4664/Cure_For_a_Healthcare_Administrative_Malady.pdf Han, S. (2005). Understanding user adoption of mobile technology: Focusing on physicians in Finland. Doctoral Dissertation, Nr. 59. Turku: Turku Center for Computer Science, Åbo Akademi University. Hellström, Y., & Hallberg, I. R. (2001). Perspectives of elderly people reveicing home help on health, care and quality of life. Health and Social Care in the Community, 9(2), 61-71. Hung, Y. C., Yang, H., Hsiao, C. H., & Yang, Y. L. (2004). A study of behavioral intention for mobile commerce using technology acceptance model. In the Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Electronic Business, Beijing, China, December 5-9 (pp. 737-736). Khalifa, M., & Cheng, S. K. (2002). Adoption of mobile commerce: role of exposure. In the Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, USA, January 7-10. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society. Kwon, H. S., & Chidambaram, L. (2000). A test of the technology acceptance model – The case of cellular telephone adoption. In the Proceedings of the 33th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, USA, January 4-7. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society. Legris, P., Ingham, J., & Collerette, P. (2003). Why do people use information technology? A critical review of the technology acceptance model. Information & Management, 40, 191-204.



Oh, L.-B., & Xu, H. (2003). Effects of multimedia on mobile consumer behaviour: an empirical study on location-aware advertising. In the Proceedings of the Twenty Fourth International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2003), Seattle, USA, December 14-17 (pp. 679-691). Association for Information Systems. Oksman, V., & Rautiainen, P. (2001). Perhaps it is a body part. How the mobile phone became an organic part of the everyday lives of children and adolescents. A Case Study of Finland. The 15th Nordic Conference on Media and Communication Research, Reykjavik, Island, August 11-13. Retrieved July 7, 2003, from the 15th Nordic Conference on Media and Communication, 12. Children, adolescents and the media Web site, http://www.nordicom.gu.se/mr/ iceland/papers/twelve/VOksman.rtf Pedersen, P. E. (2005). Adoption of mobile Internet services: An exploratory study of mobile commerce early adopters. To appear in Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 15(2). Retrieved April 10, 2005, from http://ikt.hia.no/perep/publications.htm Pedersen, P. E., & Ling, R. (2003). Modifying adoption research for mobile Internet service adoption: Cross-disciplinary interactions. In the Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, USA, January 6-9. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society. Pedersen, P. E., Methlie, L. B., & Thorbjørnsen, H. (2002). Understanding mobile commerce end-user adoption: A triangulation perspective and suggestions for an exploratory service evaluation framework. In the Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, USA, January 7-10. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society. Pedersen, P. E., & Nysveen, H. (2003). Usefulness and self-expressiveness: Extending TAM to explain the adoption of a mobile parking service. In the Proceedings of the 16th Bled eCommerce Conference – eTransformation, Bled, Slovenia, June 9-11 (pp. 705-717). Kranj, Slovenia: Moderna Organizacija. Pedersen, P. E., Nysveen, H., & Thorbjørnsen, H. (2003). The adoption of mobile services: A cross service study. Retrieved April 10, 2005, from http://ikt.hia. no/perep/publications.htm Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations (4th ed.). New York: Free Press. Sell, A., Patokorpi, E., Anckar, B., & Walden, P. (2004). Outsourcing public sector services to electronic commerce players. In the Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Science (HICSS-37)s, Hawaii, USA, January 5-8. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society. Taylor, S., & Todd, P. (1995). Understanding information technology usage: A test of competing models. Information Systems Research, 6(2), 144-176.



Teo, T. S. H., & Pok, S. H. (2003). Adoption of WAP-enabled mobile phones among Internet users. Omega, 31, 483-498. Turku. (1999). Social service board meeting minutes 2nd June, 1999. Diary no. 1611-1999 (442,044). Venkatesh, V. (2000). Determinants of perceived ease of use: Integrating control, intrinsic motivation, and emotion into the technology acceptance model. Information Systems Research, 11(4), 342-365. Venkatesh, V., & Davis, A. (2000). A theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: Four longitudinal field studies. Management Science, 46(2), 186-204. Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003). User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS Quarterly, 27(3). Vuokko, R., & Järvinen, S. (2003). Experiences from an implementation project – Time management and control in home care. In P. Walden et al. (Eds.), ICT and services: Combining views from IS and service research (pp. 174-181). TUCS General Publications, Nr. 25. Turku: Turku Centre for Computer Science, Åbo Akademi University.


188 Fitch & Adams

Chapter X

Mobile Supported Patient Care:

The Dichotomy of National and Local Needs C. J. Fitch, University of Portsmouth, UK C. Adams, University of Portsmouth, UK

Abstract Community health care seems to many governments to be an ideal arena for mobile technological support. Community health care professionals work within the community, visiting people within their own homes or at local health centres. Mobile technologies offer much potential to support these professionals in provision of patient and care information, access to other professionals and services, and overall improvement of patient care. However, there are several challenges to be met before the full benefits can be achieved. At a system level, community health care has many tensions, particularly between national direction and associated funding, and between local needs and practicalities. In addition, technology is not always used and applied as initially expected. This chapter explores some of these tensions by examining an example of community health care support in the South of England.


Mobile Supported Patient Care 189

Introduction This chapter examines issues in providing mobile support to community health care professionals. Its focus is on the apparent problems of flexibility to meet the local needs yet, at the same time, aiming to meet consistency of standards at a national level. The chapter also covers practicalities of mobile support within a complex work environment, where the initial identified benefits and uses do not always turn out as expected. Mobile support, through powerful multimedia and communication devices, offers much potential to enhance the working and operating environment for community health care professionals. The full infrastructure of health information systems can be deployed to support the patient, irrespective of location. The capabilities of the evolving mobile devices will potentially enable seamless access to patient records and allow communication with other health and community services, a key aspect of community health care provision. The role of community health care professionals could be considerably enhanced, enabling a wider range of patient care to be provided in the home or local community. In addition, mobile support without mediation from community health care professionals may support community care through the use of monitoring and communication equipment, in conjunction with allied patient practices. This supports many governments’ desire to move away from traditional acute hospital-focused provision to self-help and independence for patients. Governments have thrown money, political will, and corresponding technology programmes at addressing health care needs. Much of this is focused on community health care. For mobile service developers and providers, this is likely to be a lucrative market, but their systems will have a clear, social benefit as well. So for developers of mobile systems, supporting community health care professionals will be a doubly attractive business area. However, there are some considerable challenges ahead. Developing such enhancements will require significant changes to existing infrastructure and working practices both within community health care and between health care professionals and other support services. Changes will also be required from patients, to encourage self-reliance and independence. The relationship between patients and health care professionals is likely to be re-defined, as more patients develop self-reliance practices and community health care professionals provide a wider range of support services, some of which were traditionally within the confines of a hospital environment. Both patient and community health care professionals will be supported and reliant upon a range of monitoring and communication devices. In addition, as with any change and new technology, there are likely to be challenges in applying consistent coverage and quality of service on a national level. For instance, in the UK, with the National Health Service (NHS), there are already challenges in providing consistent and comparable service across the country. This Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

190 Fitch & Adams

phenomenon has been termed the “postcode lottery”, where people living in one area have access to different health services than people in that adjoining it. Another challenge is that given it is such a lucrative option for mobile service developers and providers, it is likely to be a fiercely competitive market. Development companies will be generating a range of innovative mobile support technologies and services. There is clearly the possibility, or indeed the likelihood, that different services will evolve and be offered in different regions, further worsening the postcode lottery phenomenon. In addition, there may be unforeseen consequences in applying such mobile technologies to support community health care. Previous work has used a “Janus-face” analysis of such technological changes to identify some of the unforeseen consequences (Adams & Fitch, 2004), and a similar approach is adopted in this chapter to extend the analysis, however, focusing on consistent coverage of services and the corresponding quality of service this time. The “Janus-face” analysis takes its name from the Roman deity Janus who looked in opposite directions simultaneously. To illustrate this analysis, a generic case of district nurses in the UK is used, which is based on research developed in the previous work involving a range of community health care professionals in a region of the South of England (Adams & Fitch, 2004; Fitch & Adams, 2006). In the example case, mobile technologies such as mobile phones and data pens are already used to support community health care professionals. Indeed, mostly the professionals are already reliant on “their” existing mobile devices, almost to the point that they could not perform their current activities without the devices. There is also some expectation that more sophisticated support is inevitable, it is only a matter of time. This inevitability is in line with technological developments as well as central government drivers toward moving patient care closer to the home. It seems then that everything is in place for a move toward a more sophisticated application of mobile support for community health care. It is a lucrative market with considerable “social good”, there are supporting technological advances in both mobile and other technologies used within the NHS, there is government support and intention of moving patient care closer to the home, and there is expectation that it will happen “sometime”. The rest of this chapter is structured as follows: first some background to community health care activity around the globe and general trends in mobile support is provided. Then follows a description of health care in the UK along with analysis of some current challenges. A generic case is then discussed based on community health care examples in the South of England. Then, the metaphor of “Janus-faced” phenomena is examined and applied to the community health care case, focusing on equity and quality of services. The chapter concludes with a discussion of some of the likely challenges of applying sophisticated mobile support in such environments. The challenges and issues discussed in this chapter are likely to be relevant to other areas of mobile government support activity, not just health care. Supporting a national workforce in an increasingly mobile context is likely to raise issues of Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


consistency of quality of service and similar challenges in development of standards to meet local needs and national compatibility. There are also likely to be similar issues of health and safety and meeting corporate obligations, or duty of care to the workforce. There is also likely to be a similar set of drivers for introducing mobile technologies and moving toward a more flexible and mobile workforce. Government sets budgets with the corresponding continual efficiency changes and expectations, resulting in a new set of increasingly challenging performance targets for the government workforce of today.

Background: Community Health Care and Sophisticated Mobile Support Mobile information systems using sophisticated mobile technologies offer much potential to enhance the working environment, particularly so for professional groups working in remote contexts. Support for such professionals includes access to corporate information systems, network and communication infrastructures, and the all-important corporate databases. One area that seems ideal for such sophisticated support is community health care. Community health care professionals visit patients in health centres or the patients’ own homes. Community health care professionals provide a key link between the patient/client and other health and/or social care services, and are usually active in collaboration with other support services to address pre- and post-primary health care. A patient’s needs often require input from different services, such as housing, general practitioners, social workers, and local hospitals. Communication and coordination capabilities become critical support mechanisms for community health care services. Community health care provides key support for vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, less mobile, and newly born infants and assists often overstretched primary health care systems. For countries where the health care infrastructure is less well developed, community health care may be the only access to health care for much of the population. As already discussed, health and social care is a very lucrative market for developers of mobile systems. One has only to look at the spending on community health care: a significant proportion of Gross Domestic Product is spent on health care by national governments, and an increasing proportion of this is targeted at community health care (European Observatory on Health Care Systems, 2002). Health care spending around the globe has been increasing over the last decade or so. Indeed, the 2003 OECD study “Healthcare at a glance 2003 – OECD Countries Struggle with Rising Demand for Healthcare Spending” identified that spending on health care outpaced economic growth (nearly double on average). On average, 8.4% of GDP for the OECD countries was spent on health care. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

192 Fitch & Adams

“Particularly in the United States, Canada and Finland, the share of GDP devoted to health rose dramatically in 2000 and 2001 after having stabilised during the 1990’s. This was due partly to an economic slowdown in these countries and partly to a marked increase in health spending following a period of restraint. In the United States, which spend far more than any other country on health, the proportion of GDP spent on health reached 13.9% in 2001, up from 11.9% in 1990 and 6.9% in 1970.” (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2003, p. 1). What is driving this increase in spending? “Development and diffusion of medical technologies and new drugs are among the main drivers of rising health expenditures. During the past 20 years, there has been a surge in the availability of diagnostic technologies such as computerised tomography (CT) scanners and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in most OECD countries.” (ibid). Expenditure on drugs account for a large proportion of the increases. However, health care has become very technology-intensive in many of the countries, particularly in diagnostic technologies but also in information and communication technologies (ICTs). It is difficult to get accurate figures on the investment in technology overall for health care, since data is generally only collected on large expenditure items such as MRIs, though there are overall figures on ICT investment for many countries. Generating figures on the investment in technology to specifically support community health care is even more challenging, since there are no comparable figures collected. The trials of remote support technologies are generally in the more technologically developed and richer countries, such as in Europe, the U.S., and Japan, so one might assume that spending in this area is higher in these countries. The OECD report also identifies that in many of the countries supply of health care has not kept up with demand, even with the substantial increases in expenditure. Probably not surprising, given that much of the surge in technological spending has been on diagnostic technologies: the richer countries are able to diagnose more problems and ailments, causing increased expectations and challenges in treating them. Interestingly, most “technologically” developed and wealthy countries, such as the USA, much of Europe, and Japan, spend relatively more on health care, and of this an increasing proportion is being diverted to community health care. This is driven by several things, including an aging population. People are living longer, so more of them are having mobility and generally “old age” conditions. This results in an increase in home support requirements. There has also been an increase in the number of surgical procedures available. This is matched by an increase in demand for hospital beds in many countries, along with shorter spells in hospital for such Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


surgical procedures. This is leading to an increase in the demands on community health care professionals who provide the support and links between the patient and pre- and post-primary health care activity. The aging population is also likely to have an impact on demands for other social care services, resulting in an increase in demands for collaboration with other support services. However, some of the biggest benefits in spending on community health care are likely to be with poorer countries with limited infrastructure, hospitals, and health care centres. Bringing health care to remote communities may be the only way for large proportions of a population to access health care. There are several examples of projects that have used mobile technologies to support community health care (e.g., Godden & Richards, 2003; Groft, Hagen, Miller, Cooper, & Brown, 2005; Rural Health Forum, 2005). Some examples are prototyping sophisticated technologies to access a range of patient data and support services. To understand the issues involved in such sophisticated technological support for community health care we will look at an example from the UK. An examination of community health care in the South of England shows that mobile technology use is mainly limited to mobile telephones and standalone equipment (Adams & Fitch, 2004; Fitch & Adams, 2006). However, trends point toward an almost inevitable increase in use of sophisticated mobile support in community health care (European Observatory on Health Care Systems, 2002; Wanless, 2002). Governments want increased efficiency, better communication, reduced bureaucracy, and better patient care. Mobile technologies are one way to achieve these by providing better support at point of patient care, providing better recording and monitoring capabilities and integrated communication facilities. However, we argue that before such moves take place, we have to be fully aware of the implications, some of which may be unforeseen and contrary to intended use. The next section looks at the implications of a more sophisticated approach to mobile technology support in community health care. It builds on previous work using a generic community health care case, based on existing practice and applying a “Janus-face” analysis (Adams & Fitch, 2004). Expanding the analysis enables us to explore some possible consequences and practical implications of using mobile technologies within community health care, however, we start with some background on the NHS.

The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) was established in 1948 and aims to offer free care at point of delivery and to be equally accessible to all. These Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

194 Fitch & Adams

two aims are a source of pride to the nation but have implications for funding of services, coupled with growing expectations and limited resources. The NHS is a huge and complicated institution employing over one million people and has an annual budget of around £66 billion. The diagram below (National Health Service, 2004) shows how the various parts of this “current” organization relate to each other, though there is typically “regular” re-organization activity with a change of governing political party or even ministerial reshuffle. In 1997, after almost 50 years of the NHS, a white paper was published (Department of Health, 1997) which listed six principles to develop “a new model for a new century”. These are: •

to renew the NHS as a genuinely national service, offering fair access to consistently high quality, prompt and accessible services right across the country;

•

to make the delivery of health care against these new national standards a matter of local responsibility, with local doctors and nurses in the driving seat in shaping services;

•

to get the NHS to work in partnership, breaking down organizational barriers and forging stronger links with local authorities;

Figure 1

(Source: The National Health Service, 2004).



•

to drive efficiency through a more rigorous approach to performance, cutting bureaucracy to maximize every pound spent in the NHS for the care of patients;

•

to shift the focus onto quality of care so that excellence would be guaranteed to all patients, with quality the driving force for decision making at every level of the service; and

•

to rebuild public confidence in the NHS as a public service, accountable to patients, open to the public, and shaped by their views.

These principles underline some dilemmas facing the NHS and community health care provision. The NHS is a very large bureaucratic institution experiencing a pull between national and local attributes: on one hand, there is a need to have national standards, practices, and equity of services typically requiring even more bureaucracy, yet on the other hand a need for local partnerships, initiatives, and collaboration to increase efficiency and reduce bureaucracy. Community activity forms a key role in many of these principles and is consequently at a pressure point between the national and local forces. Additionally, there is a growing expectation gap between what society would like from its health care and what the funds can deliver. This societal context includes demographic shifts, such as the proportion of elderly in the population being on the increase. The NHS Plan (Department of Health, 2000a) states that those over 65 years of age account for two-thirds of hospital patients and 40% of all emergency admissions, typically requiring community health care support. Increasingly, technology is seen as a means to achieve goals of equity, standards, increased collaboration and efficiency, reduced bureaucracy as well as meeting the growing expectations and demands. The health care trends and challenges were the main driving forces for HM Treasury to commission the Wanless report (2002) to investigate how health care provision can be addressed in the future. The report states: “without a major advance in the effective use of ICT … the health service will find it increasingly difficult to deliver the efficient, high quality service which the public will demand. This is a major priority which will have a crucial impact on the health service over future years.” It had already been recognized that the developments in information and communications technology (ICT), including mobile technologies, offer opportunities for the NHS and Information for Health (Department of Health, 1998), a major health strategy document, emphasized the role ICT can play in the delivery of care. This has been followed by further directions from the UK Department of Health on how


196 Fitch & Adams

this information strategy should be implemented (Department of Health, 2000a, 2000b). The increased use of telemedicine is one of the objectives mentioned in the various documents (Department of Health, 1998, 2000a, 2000b) and some of the aims are to provide: •

“genuinely seamless care for patients through GPs, hospitals and community” (Department of Health, 1998);

•

“fast and convenient public access to information and care through on-line information services and telemedicine” (ibid);

•

“to exploit the new technology, wherever appropriate, to provide as much service as possible in or close to the convenience of the patient’s home” (ibid);

•

to support the supply of “sophisticated equipment such as fall alarms and remote sensor devices” (Department of Health, 2000a);

•

“support health promotion advice and screening services” (Department of Health, 2000b).

Again, these aims have direct impact on community health care provision. There seems to be a concerted drive for increasing levels of sophistication in technology support, much of which will extend out into the community, with systems providing “seamless care” across the NHS. However, this “seamless care” is not an easy matter. As mentioned earlier, the NHS is subject to restructuring and re-organization on a political time frame. Until the early 1990s, the responsibility for health and social care was the remit of a Department for Health and Social Security (DHSS), resulting in health and social care projects being funded and overseen by the same department. Various reorganizations have led to all health care-related issues being the remit of the Department of Health (DoH), with social care being the responsibility of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). This has affected the rate of adoption of technology throughout the various care agencies and so the integration of records. The difficulties caused by this fragmentation were recognized in the NHS Plan (Department of Health, 2000a), which states: “if patients are to receive the best care, then the old divisions between health and social care need to be overcome…fundamental reforms are needed to tackle these problems.” This is an issue that particularly affects patients notes and records. The Information for Health strategy (Department of Health, 1998) called for the creation of electronic health records and electronic patients records, whereby the former constituted the record over a patient’s lifetime with the latter relating to particular episodes of care. However, in its Delivering the NHS Plan (Department of Health, 2002), the DoH advocates an Integrated Care Records Service (ICRS) which incorporates both these ideas. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


The organization of health and social care in the United Kingdom is driven from the centre, and although DoH is now devolving more power to those “on the ground” providing the services, the information technology and modernization projects are still very much communicated from the centre to the frontline staff. Health care is a highly politicized arena. The larger political dimension relevant to health care systems in the UK has been noted by the European Observatory on Health Care Systems (2002): “Health policy is currently the most high profile item on the political agenda. Debate and public policy is focusing on both the finance and provision of health care” (p. 113). Again, recognizing the funding versus provision dilemma, the larger political dimension brings in other challenges. When there is a change of governing political party, there is a political need for the new party to deliver on electoral promises before the next round of elections. This equally applies to changes in political or executive health care posts, with new incumbents wishing a “return” on their investment, with improvements within tight time frames. The task of the new IT Director for the NHS, appointed in September 2002, is to implement the NHS information strategy, including the “effective use of IT” promoted by Wanless (2002). The budget should also consider the equipment the health care professionals “on the ground” require to organize and deliver their care, as such “effective use” does not only depend on the use of the equipment but also on the appropriateness of the equipment itself and the supporting processes for each of the stakeholders involved. Incidentally, this budget was set at £12bn at its inception but at time of writing had grown to £30bn. This brings us to those who provide the community health care for which the centre, that is, the government, issues the strategies and policies. Although health care professionals, as users, should be at the centre of developments, there has been little investigation into how those who provide services to the public might benefit from the developments in ICT and what developments they would like to see implemented. Here also, the political aspects apply at group, service, and organizational levels and community health care projects, being part of the national political debate in health care and interacting with strong professional groups, are likely to be politically charged arenas. Having provided an introduction to the organization and environment of health care in the United Kingdom, we now develop and discuss a case of community health care within the South of England.

Community Health Care: A Generic Case The example developed is based on eight in-depth interviews with different health and social care professionals (Adams & Fitch, 2004; Fitch & Adams, 2006). The


198 Fitch & Adams

needs and practices of district nurses and health visitors are described in a generic format since there are considerable variations at the local level. For instance, district nurses may be attached to a general practitioner (GP) surgery or to a care trust—both of which may have substantially different resources, case loads, or working practices. The examples cover fairly urban areas, including socially-deprived areas. District nurses (DNs) work together with patients and their care-givers in the community where they assess health care needs and develop appropriate packages of care. A health visitor’s (HV) role involves encouraging and helping people to achieve their potential for health and well-being. Within this role, they help individuals and families as well as looking at the broader identification of health needs within a community, allowing them to affect local policy. HVs also undertake the developmental screening of children and help develop and provide health education programmes for individuals and communities, while some HVs specialize in working with older people. DNs and HVs are employed by primary care trusts, or when the NHS and local authorities agree to work closely together because it would benefit local care services, a care trust of which there are only a few at the moment. Both DNs and HVs attend patients in their own homes after initial contact with a general practitioner or after discharge from hospital. The existing level of technology is likely to be based on mobile telephones. Existing management dilemmas include ensuring sufficient mobiles for each staff member on duty and having in place procedures to allow people to use their own mobiles when a staff phone is not available. Smaller weekend cover team staff may have a mobile phone each, yet busy main week schedules mean limited availability of mobile phones so staff may have to use their own. Typically, there will be a discussion on appropriate use of the mobile phone for work activities and bureaucratic processes for recording call activity and reimbursement of personal expenditure. Although use of the mobile phone is not essential, it does contribute directly to efficiency targets. For instance, response targets are set for dealing with routine and urgent calls. Without mobile phones, HVs and DNs are not able to respond within the maximum time set out in the care protocols. Reduced travel time is yet another benefit, as care staff used to return to base to pick up referrals, whereas now they travel direct from one visit to the next after receiving the information via their mobile phone. In addition, community workers can telephone the base to receive specific information on patient notes, if these are available. Another example of “mobile” technology is the use of digital cameras to document wound care. The photos are attached to the patient’s medical record, documenting the patient’s progress and condition, and are available to other medical staff to inform patient treatment. A further example of “mobile” technology is data pens used to record activity. Staff, patients, and the care provided all have unique barcodes; these are swiped at the end of the visit, recording the interventions that have taken place. However, currently, community staff can enter the information, downloading



the information contained in the data pens at the base but retrieval in the field is not possible, as computers for data retrieval are only available at the base in limited number. Issues of current use include “use protocols” such as what data can be stored on the mobile devices, what to do to reduce risk of theft or when a device is stolen, practical issues such as recharging batteries and handing over the phones and other equipment in “good condition” for the next set of users. Mobile technologies have the potential to contribute to efficiency and patient care benefits desired by governments and identified by the Wanless (2002) report. An example is the wound care mentioned previously but now imagine the care in the future where, instead of merely consulting the notes, the DN could provide real-time information to a doctor off-site who could provide clinical input. Such real-time clinical input could provide timely corrective treatment, thus reducing the burden on the NHS from a poorer condition. In addition, in the current situation where a DN is unsure of the treatment options, he will typically err on the side of caution and refer a patient to a GP or hospital, resulting in some minor or even trivial conditions using up overstretched resources. Remote real-time clinical input could free up GP and hospital resources. Overall, the more sophisticated applications offer an increase in quality of patient care, extra support to the DN working in the field, and efficiencies in GP and hospital resources. However, such support would require substantial re-engineering of several systems. The DN requires working protocols and support systems, remote access and updating of patients’ records, a means to access GPs and clinicians, a facility to share patient details, appropriate equipment and necessary training. GPs and trust clinicians need to accommodate changes to their scheduling systems and working practices to allow real-time interruptions and interaction with the DNs and patient details, plus the means to instigate real-time input from a variety of clinical experts, such dermatologists. The clinical experts will equally need to change their working practices and scheduling systems and will require access to patient details. Both GPs and other clinicians may need the DN to undertake some patient examinations, recording, or monitoring activity. The dermatologist, for instance, may wish closer examination of parts of the wound or samples to be taken for later analysis. The “real-time” element is a challenge, since clinicians and experts will need time to consider patient notes, history, and the context of the patient’s condition. This would prove particularly challenging for ad hoc activities but easier for pre-planned visits. There are, of course, technical challenges: connecting different patient record systems, information sharing, and synchronization of different scheduling systems. The mobile devices are easily stolen and the (potentially) confidential nature of any information stored makes the possibility of theft more critical. Issues such as security and patient confidentiality become more important. A solution may be to not store patient notes on the devices but upload or download information when required.


200 Fitch & Adams

The coordination of services and support is another area where more sophisticated mobile technology could improve patient care and efficiency. There have been high profile cases in the UK where vulnerable people suffered tragic consequences through lack of coordination between services. More sophisticated mobile applications, such as providing access to patient notes in a mobile context, possibly recording patient condition or environment, and initiating different services and interventions may prevent these incidents. These coordinating activities need not necessarily take place in real-time, and there are clear benefits for quality of service for the vulnerable groups, as well as efficiency benefits. Technology is not always applied and used as expected. As Arnold (2003) notes: “Technologies of many kinds perform in ways that are ironic, perverse and paradoxical. That is to say, a certain technology applied in a certain way in a certain context may have consequences or implications of one kind, and may necessarily and at once be implicated in a contrary set of consequences.” (p. 232) Arnold, examining the effect of mobile phones on society, uses the “Janus-face” metaphor, taken from the Roman deity Janus who was blessed and cursed with two faces pointing in opposite directions. Some examples given of technology performing in such a paradoxical manner include car brakes which are designed to slow cars down, and yet the more effectively brakes perform, the faster people drive their cars; antibiotics used to kill pathogens and reduce disease actually resulted in pathogens evolving into stronger strains resistant to antibiotics; heroin was recommended as a cure for morphine addiction but generated an even bigger addiction problem. (Arnold, 2003, p. 234). The concept of a technology paradox within the health service has been previously identified by Hebert (1998) while investigating health care provision in five community hospitals. As Hebert noted, “results suggest that, for specific tasks, IT increased efficiency and productivity – a single employee was able to complete more tasks. However, this produced other consequences not predicted. Participants noted this change did not ‘free up time’ to spend with patients, but meant there were potentially more opportunities to provide services and more tasks to complete.” Indeed, technology that was meant to increase quality of service to patients often resulted in less frequent and shorter contact between staff and patients, as staff time was increasingly taken up with computer-orientated tasks. Other unforeseen consequences were noted, including more “visible” accountability, changes in roles and responsibilities and delineation between these, and a reduction in job satisfaction. Arnold (2003, p. 234) identifies conditions where the Janus-face metaphor, incorporating notions of irony and paradox, are applicable:



•

“The performance of the socio-technical system gives rise to multiple implications or sets of implications, at least some of which pull in opposite directions towards contrasting conclusions.”

•

“These contrasting conclusions, implications, or binaries, are observed on the same axis of analysis, within the same conceptual frame, as it were.”

•

“And, these contrasting implications are not a result of error, to be resolved by better methods, but are co-dependent and co-productive, and are intrinsic to a full apprehension of the operation of the system.”

Some of the challenges of more sophisticated mobile developments have already been discussed earlier. We analyse this further by applying the Janus face metaphor to the generic case, focusing on consistent coverage of services and the corresponding quality of service. The Janus analysis provides one view of the likelihood of achieving a solution to the “postcode lottery” discussed earlier.

Equity of Service The potential of sophisticated mobile support enabling access to the full information infrastructure and support of the NHS would mean a consistent and comparable service across the UK. This would address the so-called “postcode lottery” phenomenon, where people living in one area would get access to different services than people in adjoining ones. However, as already discussed, DNs operate from general practitioner surgeries or from care trusts, each with considerably different sets of local resources and priorities. Current mobile telephone use highlights some of the challenges of equity. Different centres use different mixes of technology, some using a pool of mobile phones and others relying more on DNs’ own phones. There are differences even within the same care trust for alternative shifts. More sophisticated mobile support will add more complexity in the form of an increased number of mobile devices and accompanying support mechanisms that have to be rolled out across the UK, which itself is likely to take considerable time to complete, possibly years. There is clearly potential for further inconsistent access to services throughout this transition period, as well as local differences once it has been completed. The fiercely competitive market of different companies generating their own ranges of innovative technologies and services will add to the options and complexity for care trusts, general practitioners, and community health care providers. It is more than likely that different services will evolve in different regions, not in the least because different regions have different focuses for such provision. For instance, a rural community with an aging population is likely to have different community


202 Fitch & Adams

health care needs to an inner city housing estate with younger residents. This competition and variety in needs is further likely to affect the “postcode lottery”. Equity of service has implications for equity of standards. Different, competing technologies and corresponding services are likely to result in the evolution of competing local standards. As already discussed, community health care is often at the forefront of the pull between the “national” and “local” demands. National standards are likely to evolve, driven by the central government. Yet the local needs, competition, partnerships, initiatives, and collaboration coming from different regional environments are likely to result in de facto local standards. In addition, national standards may take considerable time to implement. National standards in the (UK) health service usually require developing a consensus from several different health authorities and different services, all with different aims and priorities. Development of national working standards is likely to take many years! At the local level, one could see the more rapid emergence of an array of local de facto standards as the imperative of local needs and working practices evolve, fuelled by the competitive environment of lots of investment, innovation, and rapidly maturing mobile technologies.

Quality of Service: More Patient Time, Less Patient Focus We have seen that the use of the mobile telephone allows DNs to meet targets for urgent calls as they can be alerted at any time. This means that, unless the phone is switched off when the DN is with a patient, DNs time is divided between attending to the patient and interacting with the telephone. It is likely then that sometimes, during a patient visit, the mobile phone is only an enabler when switched off, as otherwise the DN’s focus switches away from the patient. In addition, patients have shorter waits for visits but the DN spends less time focused on the patient once there, unless the technological enabler is switched off. Perversely, although the DN can get to the patient quicker by bypassing the base, the base will find the DN and interrupt the patient visit. The DN should be focused on the patient but the device comes between the DN and the patient, either because of instructions from the base, or advice required from the base or other clinicians and requested by phone. The health care experience for the patient is likely to become one that is done to him rather than with him. Then there is the issue of exclusion: if the DN is treating the patient and paying attention only to the patient, there is communication between the two. However, when the DN is taking a call, although the patient is geographically present, he is excluded from the communication and the DN’s focus—the patient is there and not there at the same time, whereas the caller is not actually there but



still interrupting the proceedings. The intrusion is given priority over the patient who is already there. Because the DN is contactable, more referrals are made and the calls on the professional’s time are greater, therefore reducing the time available for each home visit. Previously, if a DN had to return to the base to pick up new referrals, an extra five or 10 minutes might be spent with the patient to see that all was well. The more sophisticated support is likely to involve more DN interaction with the technology and less with the patient; input from more professionals yet less personal interaction between the professional and patient.

Summary and Conclusion It is clear that many community health care professionals, from the generic example, cannot do their community activity without some mobile technology support, such as a mobile telephone. More sophisticated support offers much potential to improve patient/client care in the community as well as efficiency benefits. Community health care professionals are generally open to such technologies, however, practical considerations and use protocols need to be addressed before the full benefits can be achieved. However, in considering the adoption of such technologies to address the issues and challenges in health care, we must not forget that new solutions bring new, additional problems that in turn will need resolution. The generic example identifies the re-engineering and process changes required to reach the potential benefits that the more sophisticated mobile applications offer. However, the changes are not trivial and the main challenge of re-engineering is not really technical, though some technical challenges are considerable. The main challenge is more at a system level, getting the different powerful stakeholder groups “onboard”. The complexity of the task and the operating environment is considerable and still undergoing change (Department of Health, 2003). In addition, technology can result in paradoxical and ironic consequences. This has been demonstrated by applying the Janus-face metaphor to the generic case of community health care. Along the dimensions of equity and overall quality of service which seems to be where governments seek improvements, there are doubts whether any net gains will be achieved. This is not to say that more sophisticated mobile applications will not result in gains or even overall net benefits. Indeed, by applying innovative mobile technologies the needs of the patients, professionals and health service as a whole may change. People will be treated for conditions in their homes that would have taken a hospital visit. Some treatments may be performed quicker. There may be better coordination between different support services, possibly resulting in more coordinated support activity for vulnerable patients. Overall, there will be different demands on and for services and different


204 Fitch & Adams

ways of meeting those demands. There is an inevitability to much of this change, brought about by innovative mobile devices. Indeed, much of the change is going on anyway as other technology-led changes take place, such as development and integration of electronic patient records. However, as the Janus-face analysis of the generic case shows, the challenges are considerable and there are doubts whether any of the expected potential benefits are achievable. A technology that is used to reduce the postcode lottery may result in further differences of service in different regions or even within the same region. This paradoxical and ironic nature of technology needs to be considered when introducing the next wave of innovative mobile technologies within the health services.

References Adams, C., & Fitch, C. J. (2004). Mobile support for community healthcare: A Janus view. IFIP TC8 Conference on Mobile Information Systems (MOBIS), Oslo, Norway, September 15-17. In E. Lawrence, B. Pernici, & J. Krogstie (Eds.), Mobile information systems (pp. 341-349). Springer. Arnold, M. (2003). On the phenomenology of technology: The “Janus-faces” of mobile phones. Information and Organization, 13(4), 231-256. Department of Health, DoH. (1997). The new NHS: Modern, dependable. NHS White Paper. Retrieved July 2003, from http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/doh/newnhs/forward.htm Department of Health, DoH. (1998). Information for health 1998 – 2005. An information strategy for the modern NHS. Retrieved July 2003, from http://www. nhsia.nhs.uk/def/pages/info4health/forward.asp Department of Health, DoH. (2000a). The NHS plan, a plan for investment, a plan for reform. Retrieved July 2003, from http://www.doh.gov.uk/nhsplan/default. htm Department of Health, DoH. (2000b). Building the information core – Building the NHS plan. Retrieved July 2003, from http://www.doh.gov.uk/ipu/strategy/overview/index.htm Department of Health, DoH. (2002). Delivering the plan. Retrieved July 2003, from http://www.doh.gov.uk/ Department of Health, DoH. (2003). Keeping the NHS local – A new direction of travel. Retrieved July 2003, from http://www.doh.gov.uk/configuringhospitals/confighos.pdf European Observatory on Health Care Systems, EOHCS. (2002). Healthcare systems in eight countries: Trends and challenges. London: LSE. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Fitch, C. J., & Adams, C. (2006). Managing mobile provision for community healthcare support: Issues and challenges. Business Process Management Journal, 12(1) (accepted October 2003). Godden, D. J., & Richards, H. M. (2003). Health research in remote and rural Scotland. Scottish Medical Journal, 48, 10-12. Groft, J. N., Hagen, B., Miller, N. K., Cooper, N., & Brown, S. (2005). Adolescent health: A rural community’s approach. Rural and Remote Health, 5(online), 366. Retrieved June 2005, from http://rrh.deakin.edu.au Hebert, M. A. (1998). Impact of IT on health care professional: Changes in work and the productivity paradox. Health Services Management Research, 11, 69-79. National Health Service, NHS. (2004). The NHS explained. Retrieved June 2004, from http://www.nhs.uk/thenhsexplained/how_the_nhs_works.asp#OPT Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD. (2003). Healthcare at a glance 2003 – OECD countries struggle with rising demand for healthcare spending. Retrieved June 2005, from www.oecd.org Rural Health Forum, RHF. (2005). Support for rural communities. Details retrieved July 2005, from http://www.ruralhealthforum.org.uk/ Wanless, D. (2002). Securing our future health: Taking a long-term view – The Wanless Report. London, HM Treasury. Retrieved July 2003, from http://www. hmtreasury.gov.uk/Consultations_and_Legislation/wanless/consult_wanless_final.cfm


206 Fitch & Adams

Section III Mobile Government Cases


Enabling M-Government in South Africa 207

Chapter XI

Enabling M-Government in South Africa: An Emerging Direction for Africa

Blessing M. Maumbe, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Republic of South Africa Vesper Owei, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Republic of South Africa Wallace Taylor, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Republic of South Africa

Abstract This chapter describes the emergence of m-government in Africa. It examines the introduction of m-government in South Africa. The chapter also provides key examples of similar experiences with m-government in other African countries. The chapter focuses on the emerging patterns of m-government use, and it identifies key issues for consideration in its deployment in the African context. The chapter argues that m-government potential in South Africa in particular must be explored as a complement to the on-going Gateway Project e-government initiatives. The rapid penetration of mobile phones in South Africa offers clear opportunity to deliver government services via this new channel. Security, lack of content development capacity, expensive modern handsets, and high recharge rates are highlighted as


208 Maumbe, Owei & Taylor

key barriers to m-government deployment to the poor in South Africa. The authors contend that development of an m-government strategy and a coordinated effort in awareness generation and service deployment will help deliver a more viable m-government.

Introduction The rising expectations of citizens, businesses, and public administrators for better government service delivery has led to a serious policy debate on alternative delivery channels to meet the rapidly changing needs of the population. Although the Internet has been the main channel for e-government service delivery, access cost considerations, low e-literacy rates, and poor infrastructure to support the e-government architecture especially in remote locations has fueled the debate supporting the need for South Africa to seriously explore alternative methods of service delivery. Some of the leading contenders behind the alternative government service delivery revolution are mobile and wireless-based technologies. Clearly, the adoption and diffusion of such technologies is not meant to displace the World Wide Web (WWW) but rather complement it. The momentum toward embracing the m-government architecture is gaining ground throughout the world and in South Africa as well, where a number of digital government initiatives are already underway. South Africa has adopted a broad vision for modernizing its public service and its focus is on citizen-centered electronic service delivery, participatory governance and building an efficient, effective, and accountable government (Farelo & Morris, 2006). In this regard, a number of e-government initiatives have been implemented at all three levels of government (i.e., National, Provincial and Municipal, or Local). One such initiative is the Cape Gateway Project (CGP) in the Western Cape Province (WCP). The CGP an initiative of the Center for E-Innovation (CeI) in the Provincial Government of the Western Cape (PGWC) is the focal point for the transformation of public service delivery in the WCP of South Africa. Currently, the CGP has been tasked to transform government service delivery from traditional face-to-face to the online interface (De Tolly, Maumbe, & Alexander, 2006). Serving a highly dualistic economy with large income disparities, diverse cultures, and races, the CGP’s challenge is to effectively and equitably respond to the information and service needs of its diverse population. Given that Web-based service delivery is inadequate and risks exacerbating the digital divide by excluding disadvantaged communities in the townships and remote rural areas that face restricted access to the Internet, m-government seems to be the logical next generation mode of service provision designed to extend service delivery to a wider public audience and the under-served communities in particular.



A number of reasons make m-government a popular and logical extension of the traditional e-government. First, the use of mobile technologies is not new to South Africa. It is being applied via the government-to-government (G2G), governmentto-citizen (G2C), and government-to-business (G2B) interactions while new areas are constantly being assessed. As Table 1 shows, mobile technology is being widely applied in South Africa’s economy, and we observed that the predominant number Table 1. Potential application of mobile technology in South Africa, 2006 Category

Applications

Interface

Existing

Mobile Offices

E-mail Internet File sharing Document exchange Access to national health databases Disease diagnosis Disease monitoring & surveillance Improved management of patient records National health warnings—SMS alerts

G2G, G2C & C2G

X X X X X X X X X

E-learning e-student registrations Online training m-courseware deployment. e-grade report and feed back Electronic thesis Educational notification services Financial transactions Pre-paid electricity purchases Financial statement enquiries E-filling taxes

G2C, C2G

Asset management e.g., vehicles, lap-tops etc Location-based services Navigation capabilities Emergence caller identification Biometric identification Research- data collection Scheduling court proceedings

G2G, C2G & C2C

E-Democracy

E-voting Interactive voice recognition (IVR) Public hearings

C2G, C2C, G2C & G2B

Public Security

Instant access to national police database e.g., vehicle registration & driver licenses Better crime scene management Faster communication to obtain reinforcements Efficient criminal surveillance Rapid intelligence gathering, assessment & interpretation Market information Commodity and input prices Weather reports Dispatching field analysis results Farming systems management Extension support to remote farmers

G2G, G2C & C2C

Public Health

Education

E-Billing

Information Management

Agriculture

G2C

X

G2C, G2B & G2G

Potential

X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X

X X X X X

X X X X X

G2C, G2B, &C2C

X X X X X X



Figure 1. The e-readiness of Africa and other economies (Ifinedo, 2005)

Legend: G7 (Group of 7 developed Western countries)

of the existing applications find use in government service provisioning. A second reason is the electronic readiness (e-readiness)1 of South Africa. Figure 1 shows the e-readiness value2. Although the e-readiness of value for South Africa (2.78) is low, compared to those of the USA and the G7 countries, it is seen to be comparable to that of the thriving countries of East Asia and higher than that of a typical African country. Third, as shown in Table 2, the penetration rate for mobile technologies (i.e., a key medium for m-government) in South Africa far exceeds that of fixed lines—and Internet usage has been stunted by Telkom’s (i.e., sole national telephone operator) high-fixed line call charges (Gilwald & Esselaar, 2004). Fourth, majority of the poor people who normally lack ready access to the Internet have a greater chance of owning or at least have access to a family member with a cell phone. Fifth, unlike the Internet, the cost of adopting a cell phone is relatively lower than that for computers. This provides the basis to seriously consider m-government option as an alternative or complementary service delivery platform to under-served communities. Sixth, with increased globalization, thousands of professionals live and work in countries or cities other than their own, and some of these professionals are constantly traveling around the world making hand-held technologies such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) essential as alternate means Table 2. Phones, PCs, and Internet access in selected countries3 Country

Fixed lines per 100 people

Mobile phones per 100 people

PC density per 100 people

South Africa

11.35

21.00

6.85

Africa (all)

2.62

2.93

1.06

Percentage population with Internet access 8.8% 0.8%



for government service delivery. Moreover, the “anytime” and “anywhere” access helps individuals to stay in contact not only with their families, but with their governments as well. This is particularly important for the emerging democracies in the developing countries of Africa where there are huge populations of migrant laborers in mining and agriculture. As a result, the m-government vision is increasingly being viewed as an inherent part of the modernization of government. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the potential for m-government in South Africa. The chapter is divided into five main sections. The next section provides an overview of early m-government initiatives in South Africa and elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. This section not only gives a description of these new services, but it also makes the case that m-government is a logical complement or extension to existing e-government service delivery. The third section identifies key issues, controversies, and problems facing the successful implementation of m-government in a developing country context. The fourth section discusses future trends in m-government highlighting needed research to guide its deployment. Finally, the conclusion outlines relevant emerging m-government experiences, inherent implementation challenges, and lessons for other countries considering this new route of government information and service delivery.

Literature Review Background: Early M-Government Initiatives in Africa This section describes some of the early m-government information and service delivery initiatives in South Africa and Africa generally. Early initiatives in mgovernment development and deployment in South Africa are proceeding via a four-pronged approach. First, m-government efforts have been directed toward providing internal staff with an enabling environment for remote access to office e-mail and intranets, the so-called government-to-employee (G2E) segment. The second thrust aims at citizen interaction with various government departments (G2C). The third focus deals with government-to-government (G2G) market segment which represents interdepartmental interactions or mobile-based communications between different levels of government (i.e., national, provincial, and municipal). Fourth, the government-to-business (G2B) market segment deals with services and functions between government and businesses. Without doubt, the different m-government market segments will proceed at different paces and levels of intensity depending on the demand for such services. Unlike the other three, it is expected that the G2B market segment will be driven by the value proposition and profit motivations for the business sector.



Unfortunately, the potential for the G2C m-government segment is severely constrained by the fact that the majority poor citizens comprising the so-called second economy cannot afford air-time and use their mobile phones mainly to receive calls. In that respect, the interactive capacity of G2C m-government segment might be limited in the short run. While this argument is justified, that position has not dampened the rising momentum for innovative use of cell phones in the G2C segment in South Africa as indicated next.

Department of Health (DOH): Tuberculosis Short Message Service (SMS) In South Africa, the health sector is currently using mobile phones to send text messages to tuberculosis and arthritis patients. Such tuberculosis and arthritis SMS medical alerts act as critical reminders for patients to take their medication at specified times. To some patients, receiving such alerts conjures up feelings that medical experts “disseminating” these messages have a caring attitude. Second, emergency services routinely use a global positioning system (GPS) to identify victims of accidents, crime, and/or domestic violence. With approximately, one in every four South African using a cell phone (CPSI, 2003), the effectiveness of this approach cannot be under-estimated. In addition, pagers are commonly used by emergency personnel and the medical fraternity to alert doctors to respond to hospital and other emergencies. Although SMS are limited in terms of volume of information they convey, new solutions have emerged in the form of the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) that offer high-speed connections as well as fast data downloads for large files and videos (CPSI, 2003). Similarly, Universal Mobile Telephone Services (UMTS) or 3G have advanced capabilities for conducting video conferences on cell phones (CPSI, 2003). It is important to note that world-wide, an average of 45 billion SMS are being sent every month, making it a growing medium of communication in the 21st century (Henten, Olesen, Saugstrup, & Tan, 2004).

South African Revenue Services (SARS) The SARS has adopted text messages as a way to alert individuals and businesses about the status of their tax returns. This service signifies the arrival of a new revolution in tax filing. Although Multimedia Message Service (MMS) is not currently being used as service delivery platform by government, this feature is readily available to customers of Vodacom, MTN, and Cell C in South Africa. At this stage, it is not clear as to the extent to which ordinary citizens (and government knowledge workers) will diversify the use of their cell phones to include voice communication,



SMS, and MMS. The exact location of the resistance in terms of moving forward with new technological features needs to be identified if it exists somewhere.

Department of Education (DOE) Matriculation Results Notification The DOE has been using SMS to inform students about the availability of their matriculation exam results. Usually, an SMS indicating that a candidate’s results are ready for collection at the writing center is issued.

Department of Home Affairs (DOHA) Marriage Status Verification Services The DOHA has devised a way for South African citizens to verify their marriage status. Given that there has been an upsurge in marriage-related scandals involving foreign nationals some of whom may have entered the country illegally claiming that they are married to local women, the need for locals to check their marriage status and who they are married to on a continuous basis has suddenly become an important issue in South Africa. Fake marriage claims by illegal foreign nationals provide them with access to national identity cards and work-related benefits in South Africa.

E-Voting Process The South African Government (SAG) has also introduced a mechanism for its citizens to check whether or not they are registered as voters. South Africans vote in municipal, provincial, and national parliamentary elections. Although citizens cannot vote through e-ballots, they are able to determine through SMS whether or not there are actually eligible and/or registered to vote.

Provision of Innovative Public Transport Service Commuters on the Gautrain in South Africa’s Gauteng Province can use their mobile telephone to check the timetable for the train arrivals and departures. Second, the mobile phones are also used to book a seat on the busy hi-speed train (CPSI, 2003). Other areas of m-government applications in South Africa’s transport sector include advice on road traffic conditions, airline schedules, mobile vehicle and driver status verification as well as pinpointing the exact location of vulnerable individuals such as minor children and senior citizens. Such applications are important to the police services and individual families. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Additional M-Government Functions in South Africa Over the past five years, several opportunities for m-government deployment have been witnessed in South Africa. Additional generic m-government applications include notifying citizens about the availability of certain government documents. These initiatives are particularly useful for researchers who may need such documents and are not sure about their availability. Notification about the outcome of tender procedures and final award is easily conveyed through mobile and e-mail communications. Moreover, with the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA) World Cup games expected to be staged in South Africa in 2010, mobile and wireless communication will play a pivotal role in providing relevant timely information about match venues, weather conditions, and availability of accommodation as well as transport arrangements to thousands of visitors. The foregoing examples indicate that the SAG has embarked on a mission to provide m-government services to its citizens on a limited but growing scale. However, more remains to be done to take advantage of the strategic government functions that can be delivered through mobile technologies. Lessons from developed countries could provide valuable insights into innovative deployment of m-government in South Africa.

M-Government Initiatives in Other Parts of Africa A number of countries in other parts of Africa have also embarked on m-government initiatives. Because of the dependence of these countries on wireless technologies, these initiatives share the common trait of being designed for outright wireless access or not excluding it. This characteristic qualifies them as m-gov projects or potential m-gov projects. It is important to keep this in mind, since in the following discussion, mention of e-government instead of m-government, is made in certain instances. In the rest of this section, some of these initiatives are discussed.

Burundi and Burkina Faso Digital Solidarity Fund Project In addition to deploying high-speed Internet connections for the treatment of AIDS patients in Burundi and Burkina Faso, mobile technologies are being contemplated as complementary options for long distance diagnosis and treatment. Mobile technologies offer a new promise of extending technologies to the poor in order to extinguish poverty (Associate Press, 2005). The Digital Solidarity Fund launched Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Table 3. Summary of early m-government initiatives in South Africa, 2005 M-government Initiative

Brief Description 

Health Service Delivery 

Market Segment/Focus

Medical alerts for individuals with chronic illnesses e.g. Tuberculosis, Arthritis, HIV AIDS. Emergency ambulance services in locating accident victims etc.

G2C

South African Revenue Service



Notification to individuals about tax returns.

G2C

Education Service Delivery



Matriculation results

G2C G2G G2E

Citizen Status Verification Services

  

Marriage status verification Passport collection National identity book collection

G2C G2E

Democratic participation process services



Notice of voter registration status

G2C

Transport services

   

Train time schedule notification Air-line time schedule notification Road traffic conditions Weather reports.

G2C G2B G2C

 

Notification of job interviews Availability of government documents

G2C

Others

at the first World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) held in Geneva in 2003 is expected to support initiatives across the continent aimed at bridging the digital divide. Remote rural clinics are using WiMax, an emerging wireless technology for health service delivery.

Uganda E-Health Project: Applying PDA to Health in Uganda Workers in Uganda’s most remote health facilities, without telephone lines or electricity, have been enabled to access and share critical information via a pilot project that includes data and e-mail sent over the GSM network (DigiAfrica, 2004). Ugandan physicians and health care workers stationed at remote health centers have successfully tested the technology innovation for several months. Without access to telephone lines or electricity, their hand-held PDAs let them communicate with the entire world, retrieve content, access email and submit information. The pilot project was launched by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and was co-financed by the Canadian government. It involved the distribution of 200 PDAs to Ugandan health workers in the remote districts of Rakai and



Mbale. Other local contributors to the project included the Makerere University Medical School at Kampala. The Ugandan Ministry of Health has shown a keen interest in the project and has indicated that it may be extended to the entire country if results from the pilot project are deemed positive. A possible wireless network of health stations would facilitate nation-wide surveys, the reporting of emergencies and outbreaks from the field and between health districts and improve administration of the National Health Service.

Kenya: African Cotton Farmers Go Online The Web site, www.cottonAfrica.com, has been launched to boost cotton trade in Africa. The electronic trade link allows cotton traders and manufacturers from the Eastern and Southern African region to do business on the net. The idea is to increase cotton trade within the region. Buyers and sellers of cotton and textile products in Africa will be able to access information on cotton prices, international grade standards, policy updates, and a directory of all major players in the cotton industry on the continent. Traders will also be linked to other cotton and textiles related Web sites such as the New York Cotton Futures Exchange and Cotton International. In addition to trade linkages, cottonafrica.com also provides trade news, policy updates, and profiles on trade leaders. The Web site is complimented by a call center taking advantage of available communication technology to e-mail, SMS, phone, or fax trade opportunities to regionally-based traders. The Web site has been developed to complement the Regional Agricultural Trade Expansion Support (RATES) Center, a program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and is hosted by RATES.

Government of Nigeria and Private Sector Partnership on E-Government Determined to cut the bureaucracy that attend government business in the country, the Federal Government of Nigeria is set to launch an e-government initiative that will take government transactions online (Nigerian Communications Commission, 2005). The project is a joint initiative between private sector operators which operate under the nomenclature of National e-Government Strategies Ltd (NeGSt) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), an agency of the Federal



Ministry of Science and Technology. The overall mission of the National e-Government Project is to improve organizational performance, service delivery, and the participation of ordinary citizens in the day-to-day activities of government. The scope of the e-government project as envisioned by the NeGSt and NITDA is elaborate with virtually all government business put on the line for automation. The intention is to use ICT to improve efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and accountability in government operations. Among the deliverables of e-government, as enunciated by the Minister for Science and Technology, are e-tax, e-learning, e-traffic, e-procurement, e-pricing, e-mail, e-tourism, e-payment, e-revenue, e-legislature, e-policing, e-judiciary, e-health, eagriculture, e-services, e-kiosks, e-buka (“buka” is a term used in Nigeria to refer to small, often road-side, huts that prepare and sell local foods), and many more. The minister further contends that this new initiative on e-government would see modern government practice in the country like is done in developed and developing economies of the world. He contends that it is the model for a government that wants to deliver development to its people. The e-government initiative is also intended for use in the country’s fight against corruption by eliminating or minimizing the human interface in the provision of certain government services, such as in the issue of passports and driver’s licenses. As explained by NeGST authorities: “By the time citizens do not have to interface directly with the government official who would approve one service or the other for them, there would be no need to ask or give a bribe.” Additionally, the system is geared towards curbing exam malpractice. As explained by NeGST, “once e-government comes on stream in schools, no two students would write the same exam. Students in any exam would answer different questions from the same syllabus. The teachers would have a solution to guide them to mark answers fairly. The teachers would set the questions at the beginning of the semester, and the students would be prepared to read the entire syllabus because they would not know which questions they would choose on the exam day.” The e-government project is part of the civil service reforms that are intended to make the Nigerian civil service pro-active and respond quickly to the needs of the citizenry. It is a way of using modern tools to run government administration for more efficiency.

Rwanda: Poverty Reduction Strategy and Public Sector Capacity Building Two World Bank supported e-government projects are underway in Rwanda: PRSC II (the Poverty Reduction Strategy Credit II) and the PSCB (Public Sector Capacity Building Project). The aim of these e-government initiatives is to utilize ICT to Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


strengthen the government’s ability to provide quality services to its citizens and to improve internal governance (Seed, 2005). PRSC II focuses on monitoring and evaluating the performance of key ministries and enhancing the government’s financial tracking system. PSCB deals with the following three aspects of the government’s use of ICT as an input to economic transformation and growth: a.

The preparation of an ICT policy and strategy for the government, which will help in the setting of standards and guidelines for ICT development;

b.

The training of Rwandans on three levels: top government officials, middle level managers, and support staff (as part of this is the use of an employment fund to hire recent graduates of the university and technical colleges and second them to government ministries, the UN and others); and

c.

The preparation of an inventory of all ICT equipment, skills, usage, training needs, and upward migration path for MDAs (Ministries, Departments, and Agencies) to enable them to address their ICT needs as well as the establishment of a hardware-and-software maintenance shop to support the MDAs.

The plan envisages the setting up of a rudimentary e-government system to do the following: •

Start publishing the ICT policies and standards of the government and procurement documents on the Web.

•

Publish national indicators, budgets, and activities for key ministries.

•

Advertise ICT opportunities—jobs, training, consultancies, procurement opportunities.

•

Publish core data from the ministries to start to form national data center.

The foregoing section highlights some of the early m-government initiatives on the continent. The successful introduction of mobile and wireless technologies will provide a platform for new innovative information and service solutions for the ordinary citizens. The creative use of mobile technology by the SAG could yield efficiency and productivity gains for public sector (CPSI, 2003). In addition, the rapid introduction and take-up rates of a wide spectrum of hand sets with advance capabilities (e.g., PDAs) offer immense opportunities for m-government development and deployment.



Issues, Controversies, and Problems In South Africa, mobile telecommunication services are provided by three firms— Vodacom, Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN), and Cell C. Among them, they serve approximately a third of the entire South Africa population with Vodacom having the greatest subscriber market share (i.e., 54%) followed by MTN (i.e., 38%) and Cell (i.e., 8%) in that order (The e-Business Handbook, 2005). Although inactive subscribers create problems of double counting or over-estimating customer growth projections, the current subscriber membership base has been increasing steadily since 1994 when cellular networks were launched in South Africa (The e-Business Handbook, 2005). The mobile telecommunication service market in South Africa can be characterized as monopolistic competition and new entrants could make the industry more competitive. A number of charges are levied before one can access mobile telecommunication services in South Africa. For instance, the value of a starter pack is estimated at R200.00 although it can be made available free of charge depending on the contract option. The average cost of local calls during peak period range from R1.80 to R2.70 (www.vodacom4me). Meanwhile international calls range from R7.20 to R25.20 per minute depending on the zone. In order to send a local SMS, the estimated cost is R0.80 during peak times. International SMS are more costly as they range from R0.90 to R30.00, respectively. Other charges include connection fees (R100), migration (R200) and call identification activation (R22.80). On average, off-peak rates are about 50% less than that of the peak rates thus providing a major incentive to make calls during this period. Obviously, mobile tariff rates are relatively high for cost-sensitive, low-income earners especially those living in remote rural areas and townships without a constant flow of income stream. However, by providing a whole new range of m-government services especially to those communities based in remote rural locations, mobile communication technologies have the capacity to empower the historically disadvantaged people (DOC, 2001). This is particularly important in South Africa’s dualistic economy. It is also important to note that the cell-phone revolution is exploding, and it is estimated that there are more than 1.2 billion users world wide (The e-Business Handbook, 2005).

Fear of the Unknown As with previous technologies, user response has been characterized as innovators, early adopters, late adopters, or laggards. Throughout the world, innovative governments have started to seriously consider m-government as the next best option and or complement to e-government. While there is a certain level of risk associated with being the first to adopt a given new technology that has not matured, staying



behind a technology revolution might prove costly in the long run. First, mover advantages do accrue to innovative users of technology whether it is in business or the public sector. Foreign investors are more likely to be attracted to economies that have well-functioning information and service delivery landscape. It is also true that when technology becomes standard, other differentiators need to be identified. As e-government revolution spreads, m-government seems to offer a new sensible way to diversify information and service offerings. Adopting a “wait and see attitude”, the fear of the unknown might create unnecessary delays that will put South Africa behind while the rest of the world is moving ahead.

M-Government Policy and Implementation Hurdles At the national level, policy gaps do exist regarding deployment and implementation of m-government in most African countries. In South Africa, it appears that individual provincial governments have implemented m-government initiatives at various scale and paces. Absence of a national strategic framework to implement m-government is synonymous with “flying without a compass”. Unless there are national champions who will promote a high level of consciousness and commitment to embrace m-government in the public sector (i.e., all the three levels of government), not much progress will be achieved in the short to medium term. A survey by CPSI (2003) identified attitudes of decision makers not cost of technology as the major hurdle to implementation in South Africa. However, from an end-user perspective, awareness levels need to be elevated in order for m-government to generate a critical mass of citizen customers. Information based technology uptake is constrained by lack of awareness and failure to appreciate socio-economic conditions under which it is deployed (Maumbe & Swinton, 2003). Also, mobile and wireless technology is perceived as immature, and most applications are in experimental stages (CPSI, 2003). This view tends to justify the limited progress of adoption in South Africa despite world-wide implementation.

Excessive Cost of Mobile Communication and Wireless Solution The socio-economic benefits of using mobile technologies in service delivery remain largely unknown (CPSI, 2003). On the other hand, even if these benefits were known, they could remain elusive unless the cost of mobile communication which seems to spiral out of control is contained. For instance, the cost of telephoning in most African countries is considered relatively high. In addition, with the emergence of MMS, the idea of paying for a “data unit” rather than “call duration” is difficult to conceptualize for ordinary folks (The e-Business Handbook, 2005). Fear of huge Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


bills associated with MMS data transfer could limit its future adoption and penetration which suggests the need to simplify pricing procedures. This will also promote the forward migration from the SMS “alert phase” to the MMS “interactive phase” of m-government. In South Africa, a second network operator (SNO) is still unavailable despite efforts to deregulate the telecommunications sector. As a result, consumers are still being charged uncompetitive rates. Even if significant changes occur in the SNO space, it is believed that the cost of calls may not necessarily come down as there will be a “dependency phase” on Telkom existing infrastructure as the SNO establishes itself. Real benefits from technological diversity arising from the introduction of mobile telephony will accrue to citizens when a truly competitive operator environment has been established. In addition, such competition should not be limited to service provision alone, but should encompass infrastructure competition as well. Limited coverage of remote rural areas will always be a clear reminder of both “government failure” and “market failure” to resolve the digital divide challenge.

Digital Divide The total tele-density in South Africa is 25.1 per 100 households (Gilward & Esselaar, 2004). This demonstrates a more favorable position over other African countries such as Nigeria rated at 8 lines per 100 inhabitants in 2005 (Nigerian Communications Commission, 2005). Although the number of mobile phone subscribers has been on the increase since the introduction of a Global Mobile Positioning Communication Satellite (GMPCS) in both countries, the market segment that remains uncovered suggests the need for a sustained increase in new subscriber memberships over the next decade. This expansion must be accompanied by sustained reduction in cost of recharge cards and mobile hand sets. Optimal benefits from GMPCS cannot occur unless disparities in infrastructure availability and awareness levels of alternative applications of mobile telephony are seriously addressed. More importantly, credit checks that are conducted by mobile companies in South Africa prior to providing contract service to new customers provide ground for denying opportunities to the poor citizens most of whom do not have any credit history. A typical strategic response in building market share is to cover urban areas first. However, the inherent risk of such a geographic bias is to miss a large untapped rural market, and mobile firms ought to avoid such behavior that discriminate users on the basis of geographic location. Perhaps a possible strategy to follow is for local mobile telecommunications firms to enter into some form of network partnerships agreements to enhance their geographic coverage (Curwen & Whalley, 2005) and thus work toward closing the digital divide. Mobile telecommunication is growing faster than the Internet (Anwar, 2003) and making affordable handsets available and charging competitive connection and service rates will expand access to previously Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


underserved communities. The benefits of an economy with better communication networks and the need to catch up with the developed world in the area of telecommunication (Vindelyn Smith-Hillman & Braithwaite, 2004) suggest that South Africa can ill-afford to perpetuate the digital divide in any form.

Security Risks of M-Government The problem of security is a real concern for both e- and m-government service delivery platforms. Both public administrators and end users need safe and reliable services. This is particularly important at a time when global trends indicate declining trust between citizens and governments (World Economic Forum, 2005). How to ensure that personal information exchanged via m-government will not be shared with unauthorized parties is still a major task. South Africa’s proposed eavesdropping legislation or the so-called Regulation of Interception of Communication and Provision of Communication Related Information Act (RICA) is causing some anxiety in the mobile industry, and there are fears that it will deprive the poor from communicating via cellular telephony. Some evidence from Tanzania point to Africa’s increasing vulnerability to security risks (Bakari, Tarimo, & Mutagahywa, 2006). Once users are convinced that mobile communications are too risky and/or that their vulnerability index rises with m-government usage, this will impose unnecessary limitations on the adoption of mobile applications as an alternative service delivery channel. The question of whether m-government is less or more risky than traditional e-government has not been established. In addition, how to tighten security, privacy, and confidentiality issues in the m-government space requires serious thoughts. The issue of citizens’ identity is a contentious one with government, as diverse opinion still rages on the use of public key infrastructure (PKI), multi-use smart ID card, and digital identity (Stibbe, 2005). Balancing security investments with cost consideration is crucial. Service providers alone cannot ensure “perfect security” so it is equally important to boost the security knowledge of users as well (Claessens, Dem, De Cock, Preneel, & Vandewalle, 2002). Nonetheless, South Africa needs to articulate a coherent position on security-related issues. As with any new technology, delivery is always the hardest part and failure to consider security-related risks will only make things worse.

Content Development, Text Sizes, and the Question of Relevance M-government requires a new breed of content development specialists to support the new channel of information and service delivery. Information needs to be presented in such a way that it fits on small mobile phone screens. Therefore, content



providers have a challenge to upgrade available content on government Web sites to suit mobile channel requirements. The availability of the technology is only a first step—successful adaptation of mobile communication technologies for government service delivery platform depends to a large extent on the ability to deliver quality and relevant content. Use of vernacular languages such as Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, and Afrikaans could encourage uptake rates of mobile government. Government should take the initiative to partner with other organizations to develop relevant m-government content on an ongoing basis. When technology (mobile) is affordable, backed by relevant simple to use content and sustained by the economy, only then can real access occur that benefits livelihoods of ordinary citizens. But high staff turnover rates in South Africa’s public sector poses huge challenges in building sustainable human capacity in content development.

Future Trends M-Government: An Emerging New Direction in South Africa The development and deployment of e-government around the world has been motivated by a number of factors such as greater efficiency, broader access to government services, improved service delivery, greater transparency and accountability, reduced corruption, citizen empowerment, and the growth of the Internet (Lam, 2005; Ma, Chung, & Thorson, 2005). The transformative power of the Internet in delivering a broad range of services has been recognized world-wide. But in Africa and elsewhere, the road to the attainment of full e-government integration or mature level of e-government has been riddled with challenges (Appendix Table A1). The uniqueness of Africa’s developmental challenges has triggered debate on the need to assess the relative value, relevancy, and impact of traditional e-government models of service delivery (Alexander, Maumbe, & DeTolly, 2006). Evidence seems to suggest that e-government applications that are not human-centered have serious shortcomings (World Public Sector Report, 2003). The extent to which e-government can deliver public value including democratic participation depends on how it resolves the digital divide dilemma. Whether e-government can fulfill aspirations of usefulness, transparency, accountability, and access equality remains to be seen. What is fundamentally important, however, is the fact that the development needs of any given country should drive the digital government agenda (Alexander et al., 2006). This marks the entry point of m-government, an alternative new vision of expanding service delivery, and the creation of new ones. Although CGP would ideally Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


want to achieve an advanced stage of e-government maturity offering customized or user-targeted comprehensive menu of services, a smooth transition to full egovernment integration is difficult to achieve for a variety of reasons. First, low Internet penetration (estimated at between 6% and 15%) makes it difficult to use e-government as the sole medium for government service delivery for all the citizens in the WCP. Second, poor telecommunication infrastructure makes it difficult for those who may have the will to use online services to actually do so. Third, even in Europe where some of the early e-government initiatives were established, they are perceived to lie somewhere between transactional and full integration (Lam, 2005; Strejcek & Theil, 2002). With 85 million users of mobile phones comprising approximately 9% of the entire African market, mobile technology offers deeper penetration levels than the Internet. About 10 million people in Africa are estimated to have Internet access representing only 1.4% of the estimated 700 million people online world-wide (AfricaFocus Bulletin, 2004). Logically, as an alternative or rather complement to e-government, m-government has the potential to reach a larger base of individuals from a broad segment of society. In South Africa, plans to expand the networks to cover remote rural areas and distribute free SIM cards to poor communities highlights a strong desire to close the information and service gap between government and the poor citizens (CPIS, 2003). There is an urgent need to move from static, information-oriented Web portals, to more service-oriented online government presence. As the communication landscape changes rapidly, mobile technologies are attracting a lot of attention as the next generation of information and service provision. Bridging the digital divide through the Internet has proved to be a difficult task given that more than a decade has passed since the commercial availability of the Internet, but only 14% of the world population is online. The picture is even bleaker for Africa where only one of every 700 people has Internet access, versus one of four in Europe (Baumgartner, 2004). In South Africa, the mobile communication technology revolution is spear-headed by three firms—Vodacom, Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN), and Cell C. It is estimated that by 2007, between 13 and 19 million subscribers in South Africa will be reached by these mobile firms (CPSI, 2003; The e-Business Handbook, 2005). When these figures are contrasted with those of fixed line subscribers (i.e., only 11.35 per 100 compared to 21 per 100 for mobile), the unprecedented take-up rate for mobile phones in South Africa becomes apparent. The potential to reach more than a quarter of the entire population via the m-government channel is quite high. Unlike in other countries where high levels of mobile Internet penetration has been achieved through massive subsidization (e.g., Japan), this has not been the case in the South Africa market. If implemented with a vision, the further advance of GMPCS will bring added benefits of contributing toward the goals of universal access and universal service provision, especially in remote rural communities (DOC, 2001). Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


In South Africa and elsewhere, future applications in m-government will most likely include among others cell-phone blogging, caller identification, municipality bill payments, household electricity purchases (i.e., pre-paid services), video telephony between government extension specialists and farmers, navigation tools, and wireless auctions among others. CPSI (2003) provides a detailed description of future m-government applications in diverse sectors such as agriculture, justice, safety and security, local government, transport, trade and industry, health, and education. For instance, in South Korea where mobile telephony revolution is raging, MMS with video streaming, financial enabler services for bill payments, auctioning, ticketing, and advertising are some of the latest forms of mobile services available to citizens (Henten et al., 2004). In addition to having a national strategy for m-government, future introduction of m-government applications must be guided by three key parameters: (1) effectiveness, (2) efficiency, and (3) the convenience that the public will derive from such service innovations. Unless m-government adds real value to existing information and service architecture, its relevance must be questioned. According to CPSI (2003), another critical question to ask while contemplating m-government deployment is whether or not the environment is ready for the technology and vice versa bearing in mind that mobile enablement of workflow process takes about three years. Moreover, the question of ease of use or simplicity and a clear need for the technology (i.e., business and citizen needs) should not be glossed over else the intended implementation plans will be still born (Hazlett & Hill, 2003). The social and economic development of South Africa depends on a government’s ability to respond to the challenges and urgent needs facing the youth which range from unemployment, poverty, HIV and AIDs, drugs, crime, and safety and security. Apparently, the youth are among the leading consumers of mobile telephony. For instance, the uptake of MMS (i.e., image messaging, streaming voice, and video, etc.) is expected to flourish in the youth market (The e-Business Handbook, 2005). Similar trends were previously observed in Australia (McCormick, 1996). It is therefore important for government to probe how m-government can target meaningful benefits to this growing youth market segment with critical needs. Exploring the potential for m-government as an instrument for advancing developmental needs of the youth is expected to significantly address one of the key challenges facing South Africa’s government.

Developing National Strategy on M-Government Increasingly, mobile phones are getting smarter, and it is now possible to transfer large volume data files using mobile communication networks (The e-Business Handbook, 2005). The advent of the PDAs and sophisticated features on mobile technologies signals the need for government to seriously consider the development Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


of a national strategy on m-government. Such a strategy should act as a catalyst for identifying and aligning citizen and business needs with the new government service delivery formats. The need to scrutinize the compatibility of back-end systems, critically assess internal skills levels, and recruit m-government content development specialist should be addressed in such a strategy. With a clear strategy on m-government, South Africa will avoid the risk of blindly moving into a new technological space without having made a comprehensive assessment of likely implications on government processes and user needs. It is true that m-government service delivery format is a popular alternative but the attendant implementation costs remain largely unknown.

Setting a New Direction: Identifying the Necessary Conditions for M-Government There is growing momentum to utilize mobile telephony as an alternative channel for delivery of government information and services. A number of benefits support this move. The reality is that mobile solutions are taking center stage in transforming e-service delivery in a number of sectors and government is certainly well-placed to embark on that pathway. A number of factors support the argument for creating the necessary conditions for m-government. These include among others: (1) critical level of mobile phone penetration; (2) evenly distributed infrastructure to support mobile technology penetration; (3) relatively affordable cost of phone calls and text messages indicates benefits to citizens; (4) potential to improve quality of life of ordinary citizens through improved communication; and (5) the liberalization of the telecommunication sector. Overall, the ability of mobile or wireless technology to reach citizens in remote locations underserved by e-government and other service provision channels, such as call centers and walk-in centers, stands out as key motivation for their application. Therefore, South Africa stands at a crossroads whether to implement full-scale m-government or stay on course with its pursuit of traditional e-government strategy only. New thinking is required to implement m-government and turn the vision into reality. Lessons from e-government and early initiatives in m-government should be integrated in order to ease the transition to m-government process. The key challenge for policy makers is to perceive and seize the opportunities (and analyze threats) not just from today’s perspective but five years into the future. Unless governments are able to clearly articulate the potential value in mobile and wireless technology, its adoption and utilization will remain an illusion. Moreover, early m-government initiatives should be driven by a national strategy with a long-term vision for mgovernment development. In South Africa, policy on m-government is still evolving (e.g., m-government policy initiatives—Government Gateway Project and Govern-



ment Common Core Network). At provincial government level indications are that employee m-government readiness is still relatively low.

The Need for Future Research So far, South Africa has played a leading role in accelerating e-government information and service delivery on the continent. Naturally, the continent expects South Africa to chart the pathway for m-government deployment in Africa as well. Central to developing a model for m-government development and deployment in Africa is the need to clearly articulate the process, understand user needs, and identify the added value from m-government implementation vis á vis e-government. To date, there is no clear model to benchmark m-government (including e-government) development in Africa and researchers need to address this issue seriously. Second, the relative benefits and cost of m-government implementation and utilization should be examined in order to firmly establish its worth as an alternative channel for public information and service delivery. Third, as with every technology developed in the West, or East for that matter, understanding the social, economic, and cultural conditions in which it will be deployed in Africa makes a huge difference between successful adoption and no adoption. Finally, adapting mobile and wireless technologies to carry new information services may not be a difficult endeavor per se; real challenges lie in convincing the end users that mobile telephony can be used for other things beside receiving text messages and making and receiving calls. Mobile technology can be leapfrogged in South Africa for as long as the citizen customers and public administrators have developed the necessary skills and enthusiasm to apply the technology in ways that make a meaningful difference in their daily lives. The training requirements for raising the m-government readiness index should not be under-estimated.

Summary and Conclusion Mobile and wireless technology represents a great new revolution of the 21st century. The public sector world-wide finds itself at the center of this great transformation that promises to deliver new technology solutions. As mobile telephone penetration becomes widespread, its application in the public sector is increasingly being viewed as inevitable. The emergence of mobile and wireless technology has brought a whole new range of alternative government service delivery options. The question whether m-government will bring governments closer to the citizens, businesses, and employees remains largely unanswered. Despite the clear benefits from wider choice for citizen customers, fears abound in terms of cost of handsets Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


(i.e., with MMS capabilities), recharge service rates, limitations on text that can be sent through mobile telephony, and low level awareness of the menu of services that can be made available to citizens through m-government. Throughout Africa, from Uganda to Tanzania, and Burkina Faso to South Africa, a number of m-government initiatives have sprung up over the past five years. The chapter demonstrates that the public value obtained from m-government is growing gradually in South Africa. Diverse applications of mobile technologies ranging from medical alerts to remind patience with life-threatening chronic illnesses to take their drugs, traffic conditions and air-travel schedule alerts, location identification for vulnerable people, commodity market price signals, weather reports, and marriage status notifications among others are now widely available. Such innovative deployment of government information and services delivery is an attempt to meet growing citizen expectations and promote government-citizen interactions, eliminate inefficiencies, extend services to new constituents, and diffuse some of the frustrations that e-government has failed to resolve. As mobile devices with higher bandwidth become readily available, decisions to implement m-government becomes paramount. Despite the explosion in mobile telecommunication usage in South Africa, challenges and controversies remain in the areas of promoting real competition in the telecommunication industry to protect consumer interest, deal with exorbitant recharge rates levied by mobile service providers, poor connectivity in some remote rural locations and townships, negative attitudes on the part of some public officials to deploy m-government, and an inability to articulate a clear national strategy for the development and deployment of m-government in South Africa. More importantly, factors that influence consumer attitudes and behaviors toward m-government still need to be fully understood. These are important lessons for other countries contemplating m-government. Questions still linger on how to maximize the value derived from using m-government service and information provision in an African context. In particular, there is a need to pay attention to service delivery issues for the second economy and to use opportunities presented by the m-government platform to close and not exacerbate the digital divide in South Africa’s dualistic economy. There is also a need to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the full potential of m-government (i.e., assessment of attitudes, benefits, and costs) given the high rate of mobile phone penetration throughout South Africa relative to that of the Internet and computer usage in general. Within government, it is important to critically analyze m-government competencies and employee readiness for its uptake. Equally important is the need for mobile phone companies to desist from an “urban-centric” approach and instead provide infrastructure and services to rural areas where majority people live. As in the case for e-government, security, privacy, and confidentiality issues still need to be seriously tackled as these concerns could stand in the way of a broad-based



adoption of m-government information and service delivery in South Africa. Finally, South Africa is in a position to capitalize on the rapidly-expanding mobile/wireless industry, and it should use this platform to further transform government service delivery in the 21st century.

References AfricaFocus Bulletin. (2004). Africa: Internet creativity. Editor’s Note, February 17. Retrieved January 17, 2006, from http://www.Internetworldstats.com African Cotton Farmers Go Online. Retrieved May 17, 2006, from www.cottonafrica.com Alexander, H., Maumbe, B. M., & DeTolly, K. (2006). Keeping up with the Jones: Are evolutionary models of e-government useful in the developing world context? Paper Presented at the IST-Africa Conference, CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa, May 3-5. Anwar, S. T. (2003). CASES-Vodafone and the wireless industry: A case in market expansion and global strategy. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 18(3), 270-288. Associated Press. (2005). Fund aims to bridge digital health divide. Monday, November 14. Retrieved May 29, 2006, from www.dsf-fsn.org/fr/documents/ presse/associated_press_14_Nov_05.pdf Bakari, J. K., Tarimo, C. N., & Mutagahywa, B. (2006). Issues and challenges to be addressed in e-government from an information security point of view. Paper presented at the IST-Africa Conference, CSIR Conventions Center, Pretoria, South Africa, May 3-5. Baumgartner, P. (2004). Bridging the digital divide – Africa’s poor connection. In World Press Review, 12(2). Retrieved January 17, 2006, from http://www. worldpress.org/Europe/1744.cfm Center for Public Service Innovation, CPSI. (2003). Government unplugged. Partnership with technology research for scientific and industrial research-Icomtek. Authur Goldstuck, World Wide Worx. Claessens, J., Dem, V., De Cock, D., Preneel, B., & Vandewalle, J. (2002). On the security of today’s online electronic banking systems. Computer and Security, 21(3), 257-269. Curwen, P., & Whalley, J. (2005). The strategic implications of European expansion for mobile telecommunications companies. European Business Review, 17(6) 497-517.



Department of Communications, DOC. (2001). Policy direction on global mobile personal communications by satellite in the Republic of South Africa. Government Notice, No. 275, Government Gazette No. 22170. DeTolly, K., Maumbe, B. M., & Alexander, H. (2006). Rethinking e-government development: Issues, lessons and prospects for the cape gateway portal in South Africa. Paper presented at the IST-Africa Conference, CSIR Conventions Center, Pretoria, South Africa, May 3-5. DigiAfrica. (2004). Applying PDA to health in Uganda. Retrieved May 30, 2006, from http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/DigiAfrica Farelo, M., & Morris, C. (2006). The status of e-government in South Africa. Paper presented at the IST-Africa Conference, CSIR Conventions Center, Pretoria, South Africa, May 3-5. Gilwald, A., & Esselaar, S. (2004). South African 2004 ICT sector performance review. Link Centre Public Policy Research Paper No 7, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Hazlett, S., & Hill, F. (2003). E-government: The realities of using IT to transform the public sector. Managing Service Quality, 13(6), 445-452. Henten, A., Olesen, H., Saugstrup, D., & Tan, S. (2004). Mobile communications: Europe, Japan and South Korea in a comparative perspective. Info, 6(3), 197-207. Ifinedo, P. (2005). Measuring Africa’s e-readiness in the global networked economy: A nine-country data analysis. International Journal of Education and Development Using ICT, 1(1). Retrieved January 9, 2006, from http://ijedict.dec.uwi. edu/viewarticle.php?id=12&8layout=html Lam, W. (2005). Barriers to e-government integration. The Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 18(5), 511-530 . Ma, L., Chung, J., & Thorson, S. (2005). E-government in China: Bridging economic development through administrative reform. Government Information Quarterly, (22), 20-37. Maumbe, B. M., & Swinton, S. M. (2003). The adoption of cotton I.P.M in smallholder production in Zimbabwe: Role of technology awareness and farmer health risks. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, 5(2), 59-86. McCormick, J. (1996).Telecommunications deregulation: An Australian perspective. Information Management and Computer Security, 4(3), 39-41. Nigerian Communications Commission. (2005). Nigeria Communications Commission Report, Abuja, Nigeria. Seed, A. (2005). Report from the field: Two e-gov projects in Rwanda: PRSC II and PSCB. Designing & Implementing e-Government: Key Issues, Best Practices



& Lessons Learned, World Bank ISG Training Workshop, Washington, DC, April 26. Vindelyn Smith-Hillman, A., & Brathwaite, T. W. (2004). Learning to swim with sharks: Caribbean and African telecommunications regulatory experience under monopoly conditions (1993-2003). Info, 6(5), 308-317. Stibbe, M. (2005). E-government security. Infosecurity Today, 2(3), 8-10. Strejcek, G., & Theil, M. (2002). Technology push, legislation pull? E-government in the European Union. Decision Support Systems, (34), 305-313. The e-Business Handbook. (2005). The 2003 review of innovation at work in South Africa business, making knowledge work. Cape Town, South Africa: Trailogue Publication, Cape Town. World Economic Forum. (2005). Trust in governments, corporations and global institutions continues to decline. Retrieved May 17, 2006, from www.weforum.org/trustsurvey World Public Sector Report. (2003). E-government at the crossroads. Department of Social and Economic Affairs, United Nations, New York, USA (p. 237).

Appendix Table A1. Summary of challenges facing e-government information service delivery, 2005 Policy Issues Coordination and collaboration between agency leaders

Social Issues Internet use as a socially exclusive tool

Trade-off between e-government and basic service delivery

High computer illiteracy

Failure to develop relevant content for users

Low awareness about e-government

Conflict between service provision and value for money

Linguistic variation

Devolution versus central coordination Organizational Issues

Perceptions of security risks, trust & confidentiality. Performance Issues

Agency-centric thinking

Lack of technology standardization

Poor technology infrastructure development

Lack of demand assessment

Failure to articulate link between functions and services

Poor assessment of service quality

Bureaucratic tendencies facing e-government

Less responsive public sector



Endnotes 1

E-readiness is used to capture how nations across the globe fare in terms of creating, diffusing, adopting, and using the various components of a networked economy.

2

The index is derived from a computation based on the following three aggregate factors or constructs of e-readiness: Societal Infrastructure, Supply forces, and Demand forces. Each construct is determined by and takes into account accepted e-readiness factors.

3

International Telecommunication Union, March 2002. See http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/index.html.


M-Government Initiatives at the Local Level 233

Chapter XII

M-Government Initiatives at the Local Level:

The Case of Zaragoza Luis V. Casaló, University of Zaragoza, Spain Carlos Flavián, University of Zaragoza, Spain Miguel Guinalíu, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Abstract This chapter introduces the concept of m-government and its implications for both citizens and public institutions. Although m-government is currently in an initial phase of development, its potential in the relationship between the public sector and the citizen is obvious because of, for example, the large number of mobile phone users among the public. In addition, the development of m-government initiatives generates a good number of benefits for the public sector that operates it as well as for the public, who experience improved accessibility to electronic public services. Because of this, this chapter analyses m-government initiatives developed by the Zaragoza City Council (Spain) in order to describe its benefits, implications for the relationship between the City Council and the citizen, and the future perspectives of these initiatives. We have specifically chosen a country like Spain due to the fact that mobile telephone usage is widespread and, at the same time, local government Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

234 Casaló, Flavián & Guinalíu

level has been chosen as the citizen participates more in the relationship with the public sector when it is at the local level.

Introduction Although the concept of m-government is at an initial phase of development, various authors have pointed out its growing importance (e.g., Lallana, 2004a; Sharma & Gupta, 2004) due to the large number of mobile phone users and the vast range of benefits that can be gained from its implementation, for both the citizen and the public sector. For this reason, this chapter aims to analyse the m-government initiatives carried out by a specific public institution: the City Council of Zaragoza in Spain. More specifically, this chapter concentrates on the relationship between the citizen and the public sector (one of the most important and difficult that the public sector has to deal with) as m-government initiatives can be used as a bridge to reduce the perceived gap between the public sector and the citizen. First, the study has been conducted in a country like Spain due to the fact that the Internet penetration rate is relatively low while mobile telephone usage is widespread. Specifically, only 37.5% of Spaniards are frequent Internet users (National Statistics Institute; INE, 2005), while 90% of the Spanish population uses a mobile telephone (RED.ES, 2005). Thus, it is reasonable to suppose that in a country with these characteristics, it will be easier for the public sector to reach the citizen and establish a relationship via mobile telephone than through the Internet. Second, local government level has been chosen to analyse m-government initiatives due to the fact that it is at this level where the citizen participates most in the relationship with the public sector. Indeed, Parry et al. (in Phillips, 1996, p. 26) point out that it is at this local level where people feel most competent and become most immediately involved. Thus, it is reasonable to suppose that success in m-government initiatives will be more feasible at a local government level. Finally, there were two basic reasons for choosing to analyse the m-government initiatives implemented by the Zaragoza City Council: (1) we can easily access to the institution and the services offered by the City Council, which is a crucial aspect when conducting a case study (e.g., Rowley, 2002), and (2) the pioneering role played by the Zaragoza City Council in Spain with regard to the offer of services via mobile telephone, for which it received the 2004 e-mobility award2 due to the development of mobile applications which help to improve the life conditions for its citizens. Specifically, Zaragoza is situated in the Northeast of Spain and is one of the country’s largest cities; it boasts a population of over 650,000 inhabitants (Zaragoza City Council, 2005), and it is a major business centre. However, mention should also be made of m-government initiatives being implemented by other



Spanish public institutions, such as the City Councils of Jun (province of Granada) and Barcelona. Thus, the main objectives of this article are: (1) to describe the initiatives implemented by the Zaragoza City Council; (2) to analyse the benefits associated with these initiatives; (3) to examine the relationship between the Zaragoza City Council and the public via the mobile telephone; and (4) to analyse the future perspectives of m-government in this city and suggest the actions needed to bring about a successful implementation of these initiatives. To this end, we shall conduct a qualitative study based on the observation of the m-government services offered by the Zaragoza City Council and in accordance with the opinions of those in charge of the City Council’s Web site and the ciudad movil (mobile city) project, which gathers all the m-government initiatives carried out by the Zaragoza City Council. Taking into account the previous considerations, this chapter is structured as follows. First, there is an exhaustive review of the bibliography regarding the concept of m-government. Second, we analyse the m-government initiatives carried out by the Zaragoza City Council. Finally, we present the basic conclusions of the study and analyse the main implications of m-government for public sector management.

M-Government: A Subset of E-Government The concept of electronic government (e-government) is very broad and because it is in its early stages (Choudrie, Guinea, & Weerakkody, 2004), there are plenty of definitions for it (Casaló, Flavián, & Guinalíu, 2005a). In general, e-government may be defined as a broad concept that covers all the various applications of new technologies to public sector operations (Holliday & Kwok, 2004). Obviously, the most frequent form of supplying e-government services is through the setting up of a Web portal (Casaló, Flavián, & Guinalíu, 2005b; Kokkinaki, Mylonas, & Mina, 2005) as this may be used to provide not only updated public sector information, but also various government services. However, the public sector has begun to supply these public services using other technologies (e.g., the mobile telephone). In this respect, we may define m-government as a subset of e-government. Specifically, Lallana (2004a) points out that in m-government the use of new technologies is limited to mobile and/or wireless technologies like cellular/mobile phones, and laptops and PDAs (personal digital assistants) connected to wireless local area networks (LANs). Nevertheless, m-government also enables the citizen to access administration services online—for example, through a PDA and a wireless connection. In general, it is reasonable to say that m-government is the use of mobile devices such as mobile telephones, PDAs, or laptops in public Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


sector operations. Therefore, it is important to note that m-government can be useful in order to increase the number of channels through which the public sector offers its services. In the same way as with e-government, a distinction may be made between two possible applications in m-government: •

Those applications that affect the internal management of the public sector (G2G relationship): One of the main objectives of these applications is to bring about efficiency and communication within the public sector. For example, health or safety inspectors might gather information on a company during a visit by using a PDA, without the need to write up a report and return to their work station to enter this information in a computer (Sharma & Gupta, 2004).

•

Those applications that affect the external relationships of the public sector: This group might include interactions between the public sector and the citizens (G2C relationship), companies (G2B relationship), or non-profit organisations (G2NPO relationship). For example, these m-government applications might help to reduce the distance between the public sector and all different citizens and organizations.

Among these relationships that the public sector has to deal with, the relationship with the citizen is a very important and difficult one. More specifically, Santesmases (1991) states that the public sector maintains a very complicated and subtle interchange relationship with the citizen. Indeed, it is very hard to define the main characteristics of this interchange as it is often based on intangible aspects. At the same time, the costs for the citizen are not only monetary payments; for example, citizens must also spend time and effort if they want to interact with the public sector. Moreover, each citizen may have different needs when they interact with the public sector, and it could be difficult to satisfy all of them. Thus the setting up and long-term orientation of the relationship between the public sector and the citizen is a highly complex process which needs to be carefully analysed. For this reason, this chapter concentrates on the m-government initiatives that have a repercussion on the relationship between the public sector and the citizen. In this respect, m-government is an opportunity to promote and strengthen this relationship. Indeed, several authors have considered that the implementation of m-government is associated with lots of benefits for the public sector as well as for the citizen. For the public sector, the major benefits are as follows: •

First, mobile devices can be used by the administration to reach the public in an easier and more direct manner (Lallana, 2004b). For instance, with m-gov-



ernment, public institutions can quickly disseminate general information to a large number of citizens. Indeed, m-government helps to reduce the distance between the public sector and the citizen since public institutions can reach specific citizens directly through their mobile phones in order to satisfy their demands. Therefore, as Montagna (2005) explains, with this gap reduced, it will be easier for the public sector to respond to the citizens’ needs. •

Second, the implementation of m-government can help to reduce costs and ensure that services are carried out more efficiently (Sharma & Gupta, 2004). Public sector employees could increase their productivity by being able to access their e-mail and government databases anywhere and at any given moment (e.g., the police could check a detainee’s file without needing to make contact with the police station). Consequently, the efficiency in their work could be improved.

•

Furthermore, the public sector’s reputation could be enhanced thanks to the use of new technologies, as an image of modernity in the public sector would be projected. In addition, the increase in reputation could promote the citizen trust and commitment to the public sector (Casaló, Flavián, & Guinalíu, 2005a), which are two key factors in order to maintain successful long-term oriented relationships between them (e.g., Anderson & Narus, 1990; Morgan & Hunt, 1994).

•

Finally, with the implementation of the m-government, the public sector can bring about an improvement in the citizens’ commitment to their environment, as they do not need to physically visit any government agency to give their opinions or take part in the various government activities.

For the citizen, the major benefits arising from the implementation of m-government would be as follows: •

First, with the development of m-government, the cost for the citizen in terms of time and effort when interacting with the public sector would be reduced (Sharma & Gupta, 2004) as he would be able to access government electronic services anywhere and at any time using their mobile phones or other mobile devices.

•

Similarly, m-government would mean that the government and citizens could interact instantaneously and directly 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Thus, the gap between citizens and the public sector would be reduced as the citizen would no longer need to visit a government agency in order to deal with the different public institutions.

•

In addition, m-government can also allow for citizen activism (Sharma & Gupta, 2004).



•

There would be an increase in the variety of services offered by the public sector to the citizens. For example, citizens could receive information about public sector employment vacancies on their mobile phones and voting could even be permitted via mobile phone.

•

Finally, in view of the fact that the main objective of m-government is to make public information and services accessible to citizens wherever they might be, and at any time, the greatest benefit afforded to the public by the mobile technologies is mobility: the possibility of accessing this information and services at any place and time (Sharma & Gupta, 2004). Thus, although people do not go around with their laptops on them, m-government allows them to access electronic information and public services via, for example, their mobile phones, thereby providing interaction between the government and travellers or people on the move (Banerjee & Chau, 2004).

Thus, the benefits of m-government may be summarised in Table 1.

Table 1. Benefits associated with the implementation of m-government BENEFITS FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR

BENEFITS FOR THE CITIZEN

The public sector can reach citizens more easily and directly (Lallana, 2004b). Consequently the gap between the public sector and citizens is reduced.

The cost for the citizen in time and effort when interacting with the government is reduced (Sharma & Gupta, 2004) as the gap between the two is decreased.

It could be possible to carry out the public services more efficiently (Sharma & Gupta, 2004). There is an enhancement of the image and reputation of the public administration.

The citizen can interact with the public sector 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Public activism is promoted (Sharma & Gupta, 2004). The variety of services offered by the public sector to the citizen can be increased.

Citizen mobility is enhanced: the opportunity of accessing government Citizens’ commitment to their environment and to the public sector information and services regardless of location or time is increased is increased. (Sharma & Gupta, 2004).



In addition, the potential of m-government is very high because of the large number of mobile phone users and the growing number of technologies that enable the exchange of information at any location and at any time (e.g., Wi-fi). Indeed, one of the main advantages of supplying public services via mobile phone lies in the fact that there are more regular mobile phone users than Internet users. As Sharma and Gupta (2004) point out, there are more citizens that could afford to own a mobile phone than a personal computer with access to the Internet. For this reason, m-government can be used as a complement to e-government, particularly in countries where the Internet penetration rate is low, but mobile phone ownership is relatively high and constantly growing. Thus, a large number of public institutions have begun to develop these practices in order to provide services in a more efficient manner and to reach a greater proportion of the citizenship. For example, the Austrian government launched its mobile identification service for e-government, which enables Austrians to digitally sign documents and carry out transactions safely using their mobile phones (European Communities, 2004a). Similarly, the Finnish government is developing its Finnish Mobile Citizen Certificate, an electronic identity card guaranteed by the government, which enables mobile phone users to access electronic services wherever they are at any given moment (European Communities, 2004b). However, it needs to be pointed out that m-government also has certain limitations when compared with traditional electronic government. For example, SMS text messages are restricted to 160 characters, while e-mail allows a much larger number of characters, and the possibility of including multimedia content (Lallana, 2004a). Similarly, Sharma and Gupta (2004) consider that m-government cannot replace e-government since many of the mobile devices we are talking about (particularly mobile phones) are not capable of transmitting complex or large-volume information. Furthermore, it should be pointed out that m-government is not so useful when the need for the service is not urgent and the need for interactions is very high, since the cost to the citizen of using m-government would outweigh the benefits arising from its use (Roggenkamp, 2004). For all these reasons, m-government should be considered as a complement to e-government and not as a replacement for it. Nevertheless, it is possible that the future of e-government lies in providing public services via the mobile phone, particularly in countries where the Internet penetration rate is low but the mobile phone ownership rate is high. Thus, with the implementation of m-government, it would be easier to ensure that public information and services were available to the large majority of the public anywhere and at any time. However, to attain a successful implementation of m-government, it should be borne in mind that the services offered need to be relevant and of interest to the public as a whole (Roggenkamp, 2004). For this reason, it would be useful, first, to conduct a study to find out the needs of the public. Besides, it would be also valuable to observe the ability of the public to make use of this technological innovation and their readiness to do so.



M-Government Initiatives in Zaragoza As we said before, Zaragoza is situated in the Northeast of Spain and is one of the most important cities in the country, as it is the geographical hub and meeting point of the hexagon formed by Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Bilbao. Consequently, it is a nerve centre in the Southwest of Europe that contains a major business nucleus. Zaragoza has a population of over 650,000 inhabitants (Zaragoza City Council, 2005), making it the fifth largest city in Spain as far as population is concerned (INE, 2004). In addition, Zaragoza is the capital of the Autonomous Community of Aragon, one of the 17 autonomous regions in which Spain is territorially and politically organised. The importance of Zaragoza lies in the fact that it is the geographical centre of an area with a radius of 350 kilometres that accounts for 60% of the Spanish population and 80% of its GDP. The development of the supply of administrative services via mobile phone by the Zaragoza City Council began in 2003 with the implementation of the ciudad móvil (mobile city) project, which received the 2004 e-mobility award for the development of mobile applications that have helped to improve the life style of the public. To find out more details regarding the supply of mobile city services and their aims, we contacted those in charge of the project and of the Municipal Web site. Mobile city started as a set of municipal information services via mobile phone whose aim was to give the public access to the electronic services offered by the Zaragoza City Council. Specifically, the Zaragoza City Council’s ultimate objective is to guarantee accessibility to 100% of its services, regardless of the platform used by the public to access them. In this project, the Zaragoza City Council concentrates on providing services via the mobile phone mainly because of the high number of mobile phone users in Spain (approximately 90% of the population), thus making mobile telephony a technology that is widely accepted by society. At the same time, the mobile phone is relatively easy to use and, therefore, the public in general is technologically prepared to adopt Zaragoza City Council m-government initiatives via mobile phone, which is a key factor for the acceptance and success of these initiatives (Roggenkamp, 2004).

M-Government Services offered by the Zaragoza City Council The Zaragoza City Council based its choice of public services to be offered via mobile phone on the degree of usage of its electronic services on the Municipal Web site. In other words, the Zaragoza City Council decided to offer via mobile phone the services that were most requested on the Municipal Web site. Basically, these services were as follows:



1.

Guided walks around Zaragoza: The service enables members of the public to reserve a place on one of the theme-based walking tours around the city organised by the Zaragoza City Council (the Romans, Mudéjar architecture, Goya, La Cartuja monastery). The applicant is required to send a message to 5010, price €0.30, the day before the tour. However, the price of the tour (€4) cannot yet be paid by mobile phone.

2.

Zaragoza information: With this service, the public can be informed of all the services offered by the Zaragoza City Council via mobile phone. The citizen has to send a text message, price €0.30, to 5010. The public can also have access to what is going on in the city via any WAP device. This information consists of:

3.

•

The latest news concerning the city drawn up by the Zaragoza City Council Media Unit;

•

Agenda Zaragoza, highlighting the main cultural events in the city;

•

Street closures and roadworks in Zaragoza;

•

Water supply cuts in the city; and

•

Links with all the other services, which are as follows:

Request for electoral roll certificate: This service enables members of the public to ask for their electoral roll certificate to be sent to their homes. They need to send an SMS, price €0.30, to 5010, requesting this certificate. They then have to fill in a WAP form, giving the following details: •

Personal details (name; National Identity Number; full address as it appears on the roll; telephone number); and

•

Reason for the request.

4.

Subscription to pollen information alerts: The aim of this service is to inform the public, if requested, of the city’s pollen levels during the pollen season. The cost to the citizen is €0.30 at the moment of subscription. However, there is no charge for the pollen information alerts received via mobile phone. To subscribe, the citizen has to send a text message to 5010.

5.

Access to pollen information on a specific occasion: This service complements the previous one and is used to obtain information on the pollen level of a particular plant at a specific time. Citizens are required to send a text message specifying which type of plant’s pollen level they are requesting information about.

6.

Situations vacant alerts: This service is designed to inform members of the public who request it of employment vacancies in the Zaragoza City Council, including competitive exams, internships, or temporary jobs. The public can subscribe to this service by sending a text message to 5010. The cost of



subscription is €0.30, but once subscribed, there is no charge for receiving employment alerts via mobile phone. 7.

Planning permission notifications: With this service, anyone who has requested a planning permission certificate can receive a message from the Zaragoza City Council on his mobile phone to advise him when the permit has been granted. To subscribe to this service, the applicant can send an SMS to 5010, price €0.30, specifying his application number. Similarly, the applicant can ask to be notified of the granting of permission by mobile phone using two other ways: (1) by filling in a form on the Municipal Web site; or (2) in person, by filling in the form and presenting it with the planning application in the Planning Office.

8.

Suggestions: With this service, the public can send any suggestions or complaints to the Zaragoza City Council. This involves sending an SMS, price €0.30, to 5010 with the text of the complaint or suggestion to the City Council.

To sum up, anyone subscribing to one of these services will receive a mobile phone text message with up-to-date information on the topic chosen. Those in charge of the mobile city project say that the Zaragoza City Council has set up a group of services via SMS because of technological requirements, since the SMS option is to be found on all mobile phones, and knowledge of how it works is widespread. Moreover, it is important to note that citizens only have to pay when subscribing a service, as once they are subscribed, there is no charge for receiving the required information in their mobile phone. Finally, the services via mobile phone offered by the Zaragoza City Council can be grouped into three different categories, depending on the requirements to be met: 1.

Information Services: Where members of the public can obtain information on various topics of interest. These would include, for example, employment or pollen alerts.

2.

Communication Services: In which the public can send their opinions on various topics of interest to the City Council. This group consists of the complaints and suggestions service via mobile phone offered by the City Council.

3.

Transaction Services: In which the public exchanges data with the City Council. Here we might include services such as the request for an electoral roll certificate.

It should also be pointed out that the services most readily accepted by the public have been the situations vacant alert service and the planning permission notification service, according to those in charge of the mobile city project. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Finally, mention should be made of the fact that all the mobile phone services offered by the Zaragoza City Council are also available via other channels (e.g., the Municipal Web site, in person). Thus, it seems obvious that the City Council’s main objective has been to increase the number of channels through which the public can deal with the Council, thereby improving public accessibility to municipal services.

Benefits Associated with M-Government Initiatives in Zaragoza With the development of the supply of services via mobile phone, the Zaragoza City Council aims, first, to make it easier for the public to access to the administrative electronic services, since the number of mobile phone users is very high. In addition, mobile telephony enables these services to be accessed from any place, something which is not always possible when the services are supplied online. Indeed, once the services are available via the Internet, the public is not subject to time restraints when dealing with the Zaragoza City Council, as it can contact the administration at any time without the need to visit a government agency in person. However, to access these online administrative services, inhabitants of Zaragoza need to log on to the Internet, which means that a spatial restraint comes into play as the majority of the Spanish logging on to the Internet do so via a PC, using a traditional telephone line or broadband (INE, 2005). Their spatial mobility is therefore limited. Thus, with the services being supplied via mobile telephone as well, the public can interact with the Zaragoza City Council anywhere and at any time, and their mobility is thereby increased. However, it is not only the public that benefits from these m-government initiatives. Thanks to the implementation of the mobile city project, the Zaragoza City Council, as those in charge of the project state, hopes to obtain the following benefits: •

To improve efficiency in the implementation of services. For example, giving citizens information via an SMS text is more efficient than ringing them up, as in order to ensure that the information has been given, the council employee often has to call several times before the information can be given personally. Indeed, in many cases, the citizen does not answer the phone, or does not have an answering machine, and so the employee has to try several times to ensure that the citizen receives the information correctly. This takes the employee more time than if he were to send a text message.

•

To improve the Council’s image and reputation thanks to the greater modernity displayed by the institution due to the use of the new technologies and the exploitation of the benefits they provide.



•

To promote the relationship between the City Council and the public, since there are more channels through which the public and the government can interact. In addition, through improved accessibility to electronic municipal services, the City Council can show more concern about meeting the needs of the public, thereby seeking to boost the trust placed by the citizen in the public institution. In fact, trust has traditionally been considered a key element in the long-term orientation of relationships (e.g., Andaleeb, 1991; Anderson & Narus, 1990; Dwyer, Schurr, & Oh, 1987; Morgan & Hunt, 1994), and therefore an increase in the citizen’s trust can lead to the setting up of long-term relationships between the citizen and the public sector.

•

To reach a larger number of citizens, as with the mobile phone the Zaragoza City Council can transmit a certain amount of information to most of the inhabitants of Zaragoza almost instantly.

However, it is possible that in order to materialise these benefits, the number of citizens using these services needs to be high. In the case of the mobile city, as those in charge of the project point out, the project is in its initial stage and therefore the number of citizens using municipal services via mobile phone is still a small one, although it is growing. Thus, to bring about a faster increase in the number of citizens adopting m-government initiatives, the Zaragoza City Council needs to run advertising campaigns to promote these services among the public and encourage their usage. However, the Zaragoza City Council has not run an advertising campaign yet, which could be a serious mistake as it delays the adoption en masse of the m-government initiatives by the inhabitants of Zaragoza.

Relationship between the Zaragoza City Council and Its Citizens If we look now at the relationships of a city council with its citizens, it should be mentioned that the interaction between the two parties can vary depending on the role played by the citizen in the relationship. Thus, some citizens might be interested in interacting actively with the government, others might be interested in interacting with the government only sporadically, while others might not be interested in interacting with the government. In this respect, Steyaert (2000) suggests that the citizen can play three different roles in his relationship with the government. The roles are as follows: •

The Role of Voter: The citizen as voter aims to be aware of the actions carried out by the public sector, which makes him a seeker of political information. In addition, the voter aims to take part in the political decisions of his country,



community, or city. In this respect, m-government can be used to find out the wishes and demands of the inhabitants of a region in order to be aware of them when decisions are taken. •

The Role of Client: This is the main role played by the citizen (Steyaert, 2000). Here, the citizen interacts with the public sector in order to carry out various administrative transactions and services (e.g., renewing permits, filling in forms, etc.), or to make any type of enquiry. To meet these needs, the citizen will ask for a great deal of information and the opportunity to carry out plenty of administrative transactions and services easily via various mobile devices. The main objective of citizens as clients when they use m-government is to save themselves the time and effort involved in visiting a government agency in person.

•

The Role of Active Citizen: In this case, the citizen maximizes his interaction with the government. He behaves as an active citizen and demands the opportunity to express his opinions to the public sector and to carry out electronic transactions anywhere and at any given moment. At the same time, the active citizen is also an information seeker. In short, the role of active citizen is an extension of the other two roles of the citizen.

Thus, the government can deal with different types of relationships depending on the role adopted by the citizen in the relationship. Therefore, to implement a complete m-government strategy from the point of view of the government-citizen relationship, it will be necessary to meet the needs of all the types of citizens who have dealings with the administration. To achieve this, it will be necessary to establish an m-government strategy in which all citizens can find a response to their demands, and which will consequently encourage them to have dealings with the government. As far as the previously-mentioned is concerned, it is fair to say that the Zaragoza City Council is trying to meet the needs of the three types of citizens, and therefore its strategy may be considered to be relatively complete. In fact, the citizen-as-voter can access political information through the Zaragoza information service, and can express his opinions using the complaints and suggestions service. Similarly, the citizen-as-client can carry out various administrative transactions using the mobile phone (e.g., obtaining planning permission) and receive information about the city (e.g., pollen alert, cultural activities, etc.). Finally, the active citizen, as a combination of the other two types, can also have his needs met. However, to achieve a fully effective strategy, many more services need to be offered by mobile phone. The mobile city project is still in the development phase and only the most representative services for the public have been set up. Specifically, the services set up were those that were most in demand and used on the Municipal Web site. Nevertheless, different results might have been obtained if the Zaragoza Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


City Council had gone straight to citizens to find out their needs and asked them what services they would like to receive via the mobile phone.

Future M-Government Initiatives in Zaragoza As we have said before, the mobile city project is currently in an initial pilot phase during which its use is being tested. However, the recognition it has received with the 2004 e-mobility award has been a major boost. Thus, a start has been made on suggesting and analysing the main initiatives to be carried out in the near future. First, the Zaragoza City Council aims to significantly increase the number of services on offer via mobile phone. Specifically, the ultimate aim of the City Council is to guarantee the citizen access via any mobile device (e.g., mobile phone, PDAs, etc.) to the same services as those available on the Municipal Web site. Second, the Zaragoza City Council is setting up various Wi-fi hotspots throughout the city so that the public can access the Internet using various mobile devices (e.g., PDAs, etc.) anywhere in the city. The city of Zaragoza currently has one Wi-fi hotspot in the Plaza del Pilar, in the centre of the city. However, it should be pointed out that Internet access here is restricted to the Council Web site. Finally, the Zaragoza City Council is developing a service to enable the public to make secure payments via mobile phone. To this end, the council is negotiating with Mobipay3, an organisation formed by the mobile phone operators, banks, and credit card companies that gives its clients a way of making secure payments via mobile phone. In other words, with this service the Zaragoza City Council aims to enable the public to make payment authorisations using their mobile phones, thus enhancing mobility when monetary transactions are entered into with the council. In short, all these future m-government initiatives aim to constantly increase the access to electronic public services while at the same time the citizen mobility is enhanced.

Recommendations Although the Zaragoza City Council is spearheading the supply of services via mobile phone in Spain, the mobile city project is in its infancy and certain aspects need to be improved. First, the Zaragoza City Council needs to promote these m-government initiatives in order to increase the citizen’s awareness of the services on offer and the benefits to be gained from using them. Indeed, although the number of users of these mobile phone services is growing rapidly, those in charge of the project state that the percentage of the public using the services is still small. In our opinion, the Zaragoza



City Council should devote more resources to the promotion of these services, in view of the importance and potential shown by m-government. Second, the Zaragoza City Council should ask the public what services they feel are most relevant for them. One way of doing this might be to conduct a survey among the public to find out their opinions, needs, and demands. Although at the moment the services selected are the ones that were most used on the Municipal Web site, the public may prefer to use other services via mobile phone than the ones they use online. For example, those in charge of the mobile city project state that the number of people using the mobile phone complaints and suggestions service is much lower than the number using it on the City Council Web site. One possible explanation for this is the fact that there is no restriction on the number of characters when somebody is expressing his opinion via the Internet, while with the mobile phone the user is limited to 160 characters. It is also easier to send content other than text (e.g., photographs) to the City Council via the Internet, something which is not always possible via mobile phone. Finally, when writing a suggestion via the Internet, members of the public can take all the time they want to compose the text correctly, something which is not always possible with a mobile phone because of its immediacy, and at the same time, the perceived risk is lower because people feel that their anonymity is maintained to a greater degree when they write to the public sector via the Internet, thereby avoiding possible comebacks. More importantly, it should be borne in mind that the percentage of the public using the Municipal Web site is fairly low and may not represent all the sectors of the population. For these reasons, it is fair to suggest that although there are services that are extensively used via the Internet, they may not be of interest to the public when offered via mobile phone.

Conclusions Although the concept of m-government is in an initial stage, its potential is obvious because of the large number of mobile phone users and the wide range of benefits to be obtained from its implementation. Specifically, m-government’s biggest advantage is making information and services accessible to the public anywhere and at any time. In other words, m-government provides the public with greater mobility when accessing electronic government services. It is also important to emphasise that mgovernment initiatives bring about increased efficiency in public sector operations and help to reduce the perceived gap between government and the public. However, it is necessary to point out that m-government is not a replacement for, but a complement to, e-government. In fact, m-government cannot replace e-government because many of the mobile devices we are talking about (particularly mobile



phones) do not allow for the transmission of large-volume or complex information. Thus, in spite of the many benefits of m-government, e-government has some advantages over m-government. For example, with SMS texts, the length of the message is limited to 160 characters, while e-mail allows for messages with many more characters plus the possibility of including multimedia content. Furthermore, we have to point out that m-government is not so useful when the need to use the service is not urgent and the need for interactions is very high, since the cost to the user would outweigh the benefits. Nevertheless, m-government can be particularly useful in countries where the Internet penetration rate is low but mobile phone ownership is high and constantly growing, as is the case with Spain. Finally, an important aspect is the fact that the mobile phone is a technology that is widely accepted by society. Consequently, m-government initiatives can be readily adopted by most of the public due to the large number of mobile phone users and the ease of use of the mobile phone. In fact, in the case of Zaragoza, where approximately 90% of the population uses a mobile phone, the number of operational problems with regard to mobile phone services offered by the Zaragoza City Council has been zero, according to those in charge of these initiatives.

Managerial Implications The development of m-government initiatives by the public sector has a set of implications for public sector management. First, m-government helps to improve efficiency in the implementation of government services. For example, in the case of the Zaragoza City Council, those in charge of the mobile city project state that it is more efficient to contact a citizen via SMS than to telephone him. Second, m-government has made it possible to close the gap between the public sector and the citizen. For example, the government can send certain information almost instantly to a large section of the public via mobile phone. In addition, by reducing the gap with the public, the government can respond more rapidly to the needs of the public. Furthermore, the development of a full m-government strategy can help to meet the needs of all types of citizens (voter, client, and active) who have dealings with the administration. For these reasons, it should be possible to boost the citizen’s trust in the institution, since the citizen will feel that the public sector is showing more concern for their needs. In addition, the administration would be able to promote its relationship with the citizen, since m-government provides more channels through which the public and the administration can interact. Finally, the development of m-government initiatives could serve to improve the public sector’s image, thanks to the greater modernity displayed by the institutions due to the use of the new technologies.



Nevertheless, it is possible that in order to bring about all the benefits provided by m-government, the number of people using these services needs to be high. In the case of the Zaragoza City Council, the mobile city project is still in its initial development stage, and therefore the number of people using the municipal mobile phone services is still low. For this reason, those in charge of the mobile city project state that only two benefits derived from the mobile city project has been already achieved: (1) there is an increase in efficiency when government employees and citizens interact through mobile phones; and (2) m-government helps to know the citizen needs. Therefore, to increase the demand of m-services and bring about other benefits associated to the m-government implementation, the Zaragoza City Council should run an advertising campaign to promote these services to the public and encourage their use. Similarly, in order to implement m-government successfully, the number of services provided via the mobile phone should be high and, at the same time, of interest to most of the public. Thus, when deciding on m-government services, the public institution should approach the public directly to find out their needs and the types of service they require. It will then be easier to meet their needs, increase their trust in the public institution, and favour the long-term orientation of the relationship between the citizen and the public institution.

References Andaleeb, S. S. (1991). Trust and dependence in channel relationships: Implication for satisfaction and perceived stability. AMA Summer Educators Conference Proceedings, San Diego, CA, August (pp. 249-250). Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association. Anderson, J. C., & Narus, J. A. (1990). A model of distribution firm and manufacturer firm working partnerships. Journal of Marketing, 54(1), 42-58. Banerjee, P., & Chau, P. Y. K. (2004). An evaluative framework for analysing e-government convergence capability in developing countries. Electronic Government, an International Journal, 1(1), 29–48. Casaló, L. V., Flavián, C., & Guinalíu, M. (2005a). The role of accessibility and commitment in the development of an e-government strategy. Proceedings of the eGovernment Workshop ‘05, September 13. London: Brunel University. Retrieved October 1, 2005, from http://uxisweb1.brunel.ac.uk/iseingsites/ egov/eGOV05/proceedings.htm Casaló, L. V., Flavián, C., & Guinalíu, M. (2005b). El papel de las comunidades virtuales en la estrategia de e-government. Proceedings of the IV International Congress of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, May 26-27 (pp. 141-150). Jerez de la Frontera, Spain: University of Cadiz. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Choudrie, J., Guinea, G., & Weerakkody, V. (2004). Evaluating global e-government sites: A view using Web diagnostic tools. Electronic Journal of e-Government, 2(2), 105-114. Dwyer, F. R., Schurr, P. H., & Oh, S. (1987). Developing buying-seller relationships. Journal of Marketing, 51, 11-27. European Communities. (2004a). Mobile identification scheme launched for Austrian e-government services. Retrieved October 3, 2005, from http://europa. eu.int/idabc/en/document/2426/331 European Communities. (2004b). Mobile citizen identification gains ground in Finland. Retrieved October 1, 2005, from http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/4500/194 Holliday, I., & Kwok, R. C. V. (2004). Governance in the information age: Building e-government in Hong Kong. New Media and Society, 6(4), 549-570. INE. (2004). Instituto Nacional de Estadística. Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://www.ine.es/inebase/cgi/axi. INE. (2005). Instituto Nacional de Estadística. Retrieved October 15, 2005, from http://www.ine.es. Kokkinaki, A. I., Mylonas, S., & Mina, S. (2005). E-government initiatives in Cyprus. Proceedings of the eGovernment Workshop ‘05, September 13. London: Brunel University. Retrieved October 1, 2005, from http://uxisweb1.brunel. ac.uk/iseingsites/egov/eGOV05/proceedings.htm Lallana, E. M. (2004a). mGovernment definition and models page. Retrieved October 15, 2005, from http://www.egov4dev.org/mgovdefn.htm Lallana, E. M. (2004b). mGovernment applications and purposes page. Retrieved October 15, 2005, from http://www.egov4dev.org/mgovapplic.htm Mobipay. Retrieved November 30, 2005, from http://www.mobipay.es/ Montagna, J. C. (2005). A framework for the assessment and analysis of electronic government proposals. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 4, 204-219. Morgan, R. M., & Hunt, S. D. (1994). The commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing. Journal of Marketing, 58(3), 20-38. Phillips, A. (1996). Why does local democracy matter? In L. Pratchett, & D. Wilson (Eds.), Local democracy and local government (pp. 20-37). London, UK: McMillan. RED.ES. (2005). Observatorio de las Telecomunicaciones y Sociedad de la Información: Evolución del número de clientes de telefonía móvil y del número de líneas de telefonía móvil en España. Retrieved December 14, 2005, from http://observatorio.red.es/indicadores/areas/tic/infraestructuras/telefonia_ movil.html Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Roggenkamp, K. (2004). Development modules to unleash the potential of mobile government: Developing mobile government applications from a user perspective. Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on e-Government, Dublin, Ireland, June 17-18 (pp. 857-866). Rowley, J. (2002). Using case studies in research. Management Research News, 25(1), 16-27. Santesmases, M. (1991). Marketing. Conceptos y Estrategias. Madrid, Spain: Ed. Pirámide. Sharma, S. K., & Gupta, J. N. D. (2004). Web services architecture for m-government: Issues and challenges. Electronic Government, 1(4), 462-474. Steyaert, J. (2000). Local governments online and the role of the residents. Government shop versus electronic community. Social Science Computer Review, 18(1), 3-18. Zaragoza City Council. (2005). Estadística de la población. Retrieved September 26, 2005, from http://www.ayto-zaragoza.es/estadistica/

Endnotes 1

Faculty of Economics and Business Studies (University of Zaragoza), Gran Vía 2, 50005 Zaragoza (Spain). Email address [email protected], cfl[email protected], and [email protected] Authors are grateful for the financial support received from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (SEC2005-4972; PM34); the Aragón Government (S-46; B151/2005) and Fundear.

2

Since 2002, the annual e-mobility prizes have been awarded during the “International Mobile and Wireless Technology Conference” (http://www.foroemobility.com/), organised by Tech Events.

3

Further information at http://www.mobipay.es/


252 Yildiz

Chapter XIII

The State of Mobile Government in Turkey: Overview, Policy Issues, and Future Prospects Mete Yildiz, Hacettepe University, Turkey

Abstract This chapter presents the current state and future prospects of, and policy issues related to the mobile (m-) government in Turkey at both national and local government levels with a special emphasis to mobile phones. To this end, first, the historical development and major actors of Turkey’s mobile technology market are examined. Following this framework, the current state of government information and services provided by the help of mobile technologies (m-government) is analyzed. Third, several issues related to m-government policy such as health problems that are thought to be caused by mobile phone use and the proximity of mobile phone masts to housing units; the risky behavior of talking via mobile phones while driving and the problems caused by this reckless behavior; problems related to stolen and unregistered mobile phones; and finally, the blurring of public and private spheres because of mobile phone use in public places are discussed. Proposed and enacted national legislation on these topics are summarized and discussed. The final section evaluates the future prospects of m-government and integration of electronic government and mobile goverment efforts in Turkey. This section also assesses the possibility of using m-government as a tool for bridging the digital divide in Turkey.


The State of Mobile Government in Turkey 253

Introduction Increasing use of information and communication technologies for the delivery of government information and services, and for enriching democratic practices is known as electronic or e-government. E-government enables the providers and receivers of government information and services to have access to this system at any time. Adding mobility via mobile technological devices as another factor to this equation, mobile or m-government not only transcends the limitations of time as e-government does, it also frees the provider and receiver of the government information and services from the constraints of being at a constant location. Using mobile technologies in government is also expected to help the government in cutting costs and increasing citizen satisfaction. This chapter explains the nature and development of mobile government in Turkey, with special emphasis on mobile phones. On the one hand, such an emphasis on mobile phones is inevitable, since other types of mobile devices such as PDAs and laptop computers have very low penetration rates in Turkey as can be seen in Table 1. On the other hand, it should be noted that mobile phones suffer from limited richness in Turkey. The chapter opens with the discussion of the historical development of mobile technologies such as mobile phones and mobile government in Turkey. To this end, household technology ownership is analyzed; the nature of and the players in the Turkish mobile phone market is presented to the reader. The next section summarizes the mobile government projects at Turkish central and local government agencies. Then, the attention turns to the m-government-related public policy issues and related legislation in Turkey. These issues are about the health care implications of mobile phone use and mobile phone masts, use of mobile phones in public places, the issue of stolen and unregistered mobile phones, and finally, mobile phone use in traffic. It must be noted that these issues should not be confused with the challenges to m-government development in Turkey, since they are merely possible areas of concern associated with the use of mobile phones, the only vehicle of m-government implementation in Turkey. The major challenges to m-government are also mentioned in the chapter, however in a limited way, since a richer discussion necessitates the conduct of empirical research and production of empirical evidence about m-government projects’ implementation, neither of which exist in the Turkish-public-administration-policy-e-government literatures. The final section of the chapter discusses the future of mobile government in Turkey. Convergence in technological devices, the role of mobile phones in bridging digital divide in Turkey, introduction of new technologies such as Wi-Fi and Wi-Max, democratic political applications of m-government such as electronic voting are some of the issues, which are analyzed within this last section.


254 Yildiz

Background The use of information and communication technologies for providing government information and services, and for opening new channels of political communication and participation is called e-government. Mobile (m)-government—the use of wireless/mobile technologies for accessing government officers and offices, and using government services—can be considered as part of the bigger system of e-government. As Cilingir and Kuschu (2004, p. 1), and Ghyasi and Kuschu (2004, p. 3) point out, some m-government applications are presenting new ways of implementing e-government; thus, they, most of the time, complement, rather than substitute e-government applications. However, m-government is not just an extension of e-government. There are instances when m-government applications create a completely new and unique added benefit and value, almost independent from e-government (Cilingir & Kuschu, 2004, p. 8). Turkey is a promising country for widespread use of mobile technologies and high levels of mobile phone penetration. Strategic planning for mobile technology use is done by the State Planning Organization. The third item of the E-Transformation Turkey 2005 Action Plan, prepared by the State Planning Organization, explicitly states the importance of mobile technologies. The item reads, “The strategy, which will support administrative, economic and technical steps, necessary to provide the latest generation mobile technology services will be determined”.1 Mobile technology use is not just a strategic choice at macro level, but the technology is increasingly used by millions of Turks. As seen in Figure 1, mobile phone lines have been out-

Figure 1. Diffusion rates of regular and mobile phone subscriptions in Turkey

Lines per Thousand People

400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0

Regular Phone Lines Mobile Phone Lines

1990

2002 Years

Source: UNDP, 2004; Yildiz, 2006, p. 247.



growing regular (land) phone lines since the late 1990s. Such a development gives developing countries such as Turkey a leapfrog in adopting new technologies, as underlined by Ghyasi & Kuschu (2004, p. 4). Table 1 clearly shows that mobile phones, owned by 72.62% of the Turkish households, are a close second, only to the household television ownership (97%) in the country. Such a high level of ownership/penetration is more interesting when low GDP per capita (about $6.700 in 2005, according to 2005 UNDP Report)2 is taken into consideration (Suner, 2001, p. 115). According to Ozcan and Kocak (2003), Turkish users see mobile phone not only as a status symbol, but also as a leisure device (SMS, game-playing) and a practical tool for satisfying sociability and security needs. According to Suner (2001, p. 128), on the other hand, mobile phone use provides a symbolic escape from the realities of Turkey to a better place that the phone users are not able to go physically in their real lives. As of early 2006, 44 million mobile phones are estimated to be owned in Turkey. Ten years ago, this number was only 0.8 million (See Figure 2). There are currently three mobile phone service providers in Turkey, as seen in Table 2. Turkcell is the oldest service provider, with the biggest market share. Telsim and Avea are competing for the second place. The owners of both Turkcell and Telsim (Mr. Mehmet Emin Karamehmet and Mr. Cem Uzan) experienced financial difficulties during the past few years, and currently their shares are either controlled or sold by a government authority, named Savings Deposit Insurance Fund, in order to pay their debts to the Turkish Treasury due to the bankruptcy of their commercial banks. Telsim, for example, was sold to Bitish company Vodafone for $4.55 billion in December, 2005. A significant portion of Turkcell is expected to be sold soon. Avea,

Table 1. Household technology ownership in Turkey (%) Percentage of Households Owning a Technological Device

Percentage of Households Having a Device that Connects to the Internet

2004

2005

2004

2005

Television (including satellite and cable TV)

92.19

97.74

0.13

0.05

Mobile Phone

53.64

72.62

2.08

3.21

PC

9.98

11.62

5.86

5.86

Game Console

2.85

2.9

0.24

0.02

Laptop PDA

0.85 0.13

1.13 0.14

0.55 0.06

0.74 0.08

Technology Year

Source: State Statistical Institute, 2005; Yildiz, 2006, p. 250.


256 Yildiz

Figure 2. Diffusion of mobile phone ownership in Turkey 43,4

45 40 35 30 Number of 25 Subscribers (Millions) 20 15

27,9 19,6 8

10 5 0

23,4

0,8

1,6

1996

1997

3,5 1998

2000

2001

2002

2003

2005

Years

Sources: Avea, Turkcell & Telsim Web sites; International Telecommunications Union, 2005; Ozcan & Kocak, 2003.

Table 2. Turkish mobile phone service provider market NAME OF THE SERVICE PROVIDER

NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS (MILLION)

MARKET SHARE (%)

ENTRY TO THE MARKET

OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE

Telsim

9.7

22.4

May1994

Vodafone (TMSF**)

Turkcell

26.7

61.5

February 1994

TeliaSonera Holding- Finnish-Swedish Firm (37,09%), Çukurova Group (TMSF***) (27.05%), Open to the Public (16,55%), Alfa Telecom Turkey (% 13.22), M.V. Group (% 6,07) and other shareholders (0,02%)

Avea*

7

16.1

June 2004

Turkish Telecom (%40), Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) (%40), İş Bankası Group (%20)

Sources: Telsim, Turkcell and Avea Websites, December 15-16, 2005; The Economist Intelligence Unit: Turkey Country Profile, 2005; Yildiz, 2006, p. 252. *

Avea was established as a result of the merger of two mobile phone firms, Aria (Türkiye İş Bankası- TIM partnership) and Aycell (Turkish Telekom) on June 23, 2004.

**

Shares of Telsim was sold to Vodafone, a British firm, for $4.55 billion US on December 13, 2005 by Savings Deposit Insurance Fund.

***

Shares are controlled by Savings Deposit Insurance Fund and they are planned to be sold to TeliaSonera.



the last entrant of the market, is making steady progress in increasing its market share amidst the troubled times of its adversaries, by using aggressive promotion campaigns, especially targeting government employees. The mobile government infrastructure supports 2.5G services as of January 2006. 3G licences are expected to be available in a year or two (The Economist, 2005, p. 29).

Mobile Government in Turkey Mobile government applications in Turkey are described recently in detail by Cilingir and Kuschu (2004, p. 3-6). Here, it will be sufficient to briefly review the most recent developments and provide an update to their list. At national government level, Cilingir and Kuschu (2004, p. 4-5) described two major projects—MOBESE (Mobile Electronic System Integration) and TBS (Traffic Information System)—both of which are G2G (government-to-government) law and traffic enforcement projects. Both projects can be considered as mobile intranet systems, aiming at increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of law enforcement efforts, and better communication between mobile units and the central command equipped with a database. One can add two more major national government level m-government projects to this list. The first one is called Mobile Information Project, implemented by the Ministry of Education, together with the Avea Mobile Phone Service Provider Company.3 Part of the project is a G2C (government-to-citizen) application, as it enables the students and their parents to connect to the ministry database via a mobile phone, and browse information such as the students’ attendance records, exam dates and grades, and the school curricula. The other part of the project is a G2G application, which serves as a mobile intranet that enables the Ministry personnel to access the current information about their promotion and/or placement. The second addition to the list at national level is the use of mobile technologies in the National Judicial Network (Ulusal Yargı Ağı, UYAP) Project. The project aims to integrate all the courts and other organizations in the judicial system in Turkey with an electronic network, and ease the transfer of judicial information among them, in order to create a streamlined, more efficient and transparent judicial system, which works better, faster, and cheaper (Yildiz, 2004, p. 3). Although the project itself is not based on mobile technologies, courts will soon be able to send official notification to the mobile phones of attorneys and parties of a lawsuit as an SMS, including a digital signature (Kuran, 2005, p. 152). At local government level, Cilingir and Kuschu (2004, p. 5-6) provided a detailed list. According to the authors, in addition to the Earthquake Monitoring and Information System implemented by the Kandilli Observatory of Istanbul, the municipalities of Şişli, Kadıköy, Bahçeşehir, and Usküdar (all in Istanbul) provide m-government


258 Yildiz

applications such as enabling citizens to enquire and pay taxes via a mobile phone, transmitting municipal information receivable by mobile phones, and sending messages and reminders to citizens’ mobile phones. In Bahçeşehir, there is even a pilot study for mobile e-voting. Municipalities located in the countryside such as Çorlu4 (in Tekirdağ province), Yozgat5 and Eskişehir are also transmitting municipal information received by mobile phones. Finally, Turkish Ministry of Education, together with Intel Corporation, works on a pilot project to implement Wi-Max technology (explained below, in the future trends section) to the Boğazlıyan Municipality in the Yozgat Province of Turkey, by connecting five primary public schools to the Internet via wireless network technology.6

Mobile Phone-Related Public Policy Issues There are four public policy issues, which are related to mobile phone use. These issues are: (1) health problems that are thought to be caused by mobile phone use and the proximity of mobile phone masts to housing units; (2) the illegal trafficking, trade, and theft of mobile phones; (3) the use of mobile phones by drivers; and (4) problems related to mobile phone use in public spaces. The first issue is the health problems that are thought to be caused by mobile phone use and the proximity of mobile phone masts to housing units. It is argued that electromagnetic waves caused by frequent mobile phone use and/or living close to mobile phone masts causes health problems, such as cancer, sleeplessness, and attention deficit. According to the World Health Organization, these electromagnetic waves might even keep medical aids such as heart pacers from working (Glazer, 2001, p. 209). Scientific research has not come to an absolute conclusion either ways (Glazer, 2001; TUBITAK-BILTEN, 2001, p. 4-5). Glazer (2001, p. 215), however, argues that mobile technology firms try to control the outcomes of the scientific inquiry, and minimize the circulation and impact of studies that demonstrate adverse health effects. Although science has not spoken its last word on the subject, U.S. Supreme Court ruled on October 2005 that class action lawsuits can be opened against mobile phone companies and service providers. Any serious health problems related to mobile phone use and/or living nearby mobile phone masts takes years to develop and some more years to be detected. Many people use mobile phones only for a few years in Turkey, so any serious health problems related to mobile phones might not have occurred yet. In the meantime, governments should both encourage more scientific research about the possible adverse health effects and prepare the necessary public policies in order to deal with this problem. The disadvantage of such a precautionary approach is that any government policies designed to deal with this problem will increase the risk perception of the public,



and people might think that mobile phone use is harmful for their health without the proper scientific evidence (Burgess, 2002, p. 186). The second set of public policy problems, which are related to mobile phone use, are the problems directly related to the maintenance of public order and security, such as the illegal trafficking, trade and theft of mobile phones. Many snactching incidents, for example, are snatching of mobile phones, either from the hands or purses of mobile phone users. Between April 12 and August 1, 2005, approximately 15.000 mobile phones were stolen from their owners, according to the Turkish police (Personal Interview with Police Headquarters Personnel, Ankara, 2005). In order to solve the problems caused by such illegal activities, the Turkish legislature passed Law Number 53927 on July 2, 2005. The law orders the mobile phone service providers to disconnect any stolen mobile phones. Failure to do so promptly is punished heavily by imposing monetary fines and jail sentences on the service providers. Such legal action seriously decreases the profits that can be made from stealing or trading stolen mobile phones. The law also orders all unregistered (phones which were not bought from legal sellers, i.e. phones which were smuggled into Turkey) mobile phone users to register to a national database by December 2005. Such a measure also limits the number of illegally-acquired mobile phones to a great extent. The authorities argued that the registration process worked smoothly and almost every mobile phone in Turkey is registered in a central database by January 2006. Of course, the presence of such a database, together with the disconnection of any stolen or unregistered mobile phones by service providers is an important deterrent against illegal activities. The third problem is the use of mobile phones by drivers while they drive their vehicles. Traffic accidents already constitute a big problem that causes the loss of lives and destruction of property in Turkey. Using mobile phones while driving may alleviate the problem by directing the drivers’ attention somewhere other than the road. The issue is a global problem.For example, Glazer (2001, p. 203) reports that 85% of the drivers in the U.S. use their mobile phones while driving. It can be argued that mobile phone use during instances such as traffic jams may increase productivity. Responding to emergencies, either in or outside the vehicle, may be another excuse for such use. However White, Eiser, and Harris (2004, p. 324) contend that drivers who use their mobile phones while driving experience loss of steering wheel control, delayed reaction time, and inability to adjust travel speed according to road conditions. White et al. argue that, even after finishing the conversation, it takes some time for the driver to redirect his or her attention to the road, depending on the complexity of the converstation topic. Similarly, according to Maclure and Mittleman (1997), talking while driving creates conditions similar to drunken driving and increases the possibility of having a traffic accident fourfold. There are two important points that lawmakers should consider while making a decision regarding this problem. First, using mobile phones is not the only distrac-


260 Yildiz

tion that keep drivers’ attention away from the road. Attending to a baby in his/her carseat, putting on make-up, tuning the radio, inserting a CD into a CD player, and eating or drinking something while driving are also serious distractions. Lawmakers should consider the fairness of adopting a rule for a distraction, but not for others (Kanallakan, 2001, p. 17; White et al., 2004, p. 332). Second, new technologies such as voice-mail, voice over IP, computer-assisted road maps, and driving directions are available to drivers either as part of their mobile phone services or as car accessories. If a legal action is to be done about driving distractions, it should be more inclusive and apply to these new technologies as well (Kanallakan, 2001, p. 18; White et al., 2004, p. 332) Table 3 presents six different solutions to the problem of mobile phone use while driving. The first solution is, as the discipline of public policy studies always argue, doing nothing. In this case, the mobile phone user is responsible for any problems that occur. The worst case scenario is the happening of a traffic accidents due to loss of driver attention. The second solution is to depend on the ability of the driver to use common sense and exercise self control. Similar to the first option, there is no burden on the lawmaker or the body which controls/implements the law (usually the police) and the user is responsible for any negative outcomes. The third option is using mobile phones only during traffic jams. Although such a solution may enable the driver to satisfy any delayed communication needs, it is not feasible to determine the violators of the rule. The fourth solution, using mobile phones only during emergencies also seems like a common-sense solution, but it is difficult to control, and the definition of what an emergency situation might be is subject to debate. The fifth solution is to implement a complete ban for mobile phone use while driving. However, such an action requires high levels of administrative control cost, and it may not be flexible enough for proper response to emergencies. Finally, technical means can be used for blocking mobile phone use in roads and highways. Again, such an action is difficult and costly to implement, and people may need emergency access to their mobile phones. Glazer (2001) reports that some states in the U.S. banned mobile phone use while driving. There is no legal arrangement in Turkey regarding this problem as of January 2006, but if the police provides more data about the negative role of mobile phone use in traffic accidents, calls for legal regulation can be heard. A fourth problem is the use of mobile phones in public spaces. Public spaces are the locations which are used not exclusively by the owners of a private property, but by the members of a community together with the other members. Examples of public spaces are public hospitals, libraries, schools, community centers, and public meetings. People may be irritated by loud ringing of and/or loudly talking via mobile phones in these areas, especially if being quiet is the norm, such as a library or a meeting. In other words, use of mobile phones causes a disturbing blurring of public and private spaces.



Table 3. The problem-solution matrix for mobile phone (MF) use while driving OPTION 1. Doing nothing

RESPONSIBLE ACTOR Mobile phone user

2. Self control

Mobile phone user

3. Using MFs only during traffic jams

Lawmaker and implementing body

4. Using MFs only during emergencies


5. Complete ban for MF use while driving

6. Technical Blocking Measures on Highways



GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION

PROS

CONS

None

-No additional burden on the lawmaker and the implementing body

-Loss of driver’s concentration and possible traffic accidents

None

-No additional burden on the lawmaker and the implementing body

-Loss of driver’s concentration and possible traffic accidents

Yes

-Decreasing possible traffic accidents due to loss of concentration during driving

-Minimizing productivity gains via MF use while driving -Difficult to control

Yes


-Minimizing productivity gains via MF use while driving

Yes


-Loosing emergency access to MFs -Minimizing productivity gains via MF use while driving

Yes


-Loosing emergency access to MFs -Minimizing productivity gains via MF use while driving

Source: Adapted from Yildiz, 2006, p. 259.

Table 4 presents five alternative solutions to the problem of mobile phone use in public spaces. Doing nothing is always the first option. A second solution is to trust the common sense and self control of the mobile phone owner. According to this view, a sensible person knows when and how to use his/her mobile phone. The third solution is to warn the mobile phone user either orally or in writing, depending on the situation. Administering a fine or imposing a ban on mobile phone use is a fourth solution, depending on the seriousness of the disturbance. Finally, employing a blocking mechanism to technically stop people from using their mobile phones


262 Yildiz

Table 4. Problem-solution matrix for mobile phone (MF) use in public space OPTION

RESPONSIBLE ACTOR

SANCTION

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION

POSSIBLE TIME OF USE

POSSIBLE PLACE OF USE

1. Doing nothing

MF user

None

None

Always

In all public spaces

2. Self control

MF user

None

None

Always

In all public spaces

3. Oral or written warning

Public space administrator (i.e. hospital administrator, librarian, head of the meeting)

Removal from the public space

Limited intervention

When necessary

In quiet public spaces (public libraries, public and/or professional meetings)

4. Ban and/or Fine


Monetary Fine and/or removal from the public space

Yes

When MF use disturbs aor endangers someone else

When the MF user is driving

When MF use disturbs or endangers someone else

-When the MF user is driving - On airplanes and buses -In hospitals when MFs negatively affect the medical machinery

5. Technical screening/ blocking


Not being able to use the MF

Yes

Source: Developed from Wei & Leung, 1999, p. 23-25; and adapted from Yildiz, 2006, p. 260.

may be necessary when the use of mobile phones present a clear and present danger to the people in the public space.

Conclusion: The Future of Mobile Government in Turkey Ours is the age of convergence in technology. Different functions performed by different instruments are increasingly converge into a single device (Glazer, 2001, p. 213; Van Dijk, 1999, p. 31). Mobile phones, for example, which were designed to Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


be a mobile version of land phones are increasingly performing multiple additional functions, such as sending faxes, connecting to the Internet, recording voices, and taking pictures (Wei & Leung, 1999, p. 14-16). By the help of technologies such as Bluetooth, mobile phones might be used to control other electronic appliances within a radius of 100 meters (Glazer, 2001, p. 213). Mobile phones are even becoming electronic wallets as they enable people to deposit money and make purchases (Glazer, 2001, p. 203, 213). Many countries such as England, Finland, Germany, Austria, and Holland are already in the process of integrating mobile phone services to their e-government efforts, by enabling their citizens to connect to government information and services, making purchases, and using their digital signatures via mobile phones (European Union eGovernment Observatory, 2005). A Turkish Bank began to let its customers apply for a loan by sending their national ID numbers and the amount of the loan via SMS, beginning from December 2005.8 The convergence of functions in a mobile phone, together with the ease of use and high penetration of mobile phones in the country, makes it a suitable device to help government bridge digital divide in Turkey, as well as in other developing countries. Table 5 provides a typology of the Internet access, classified according to the provider of access (government, private sector, or civil society organizations), and level of access (individual or group). When evaluated together with the data provided earlier in this chapter, especially technology diffusion numbers provided in Table 1, such as low levels of PCs and laptops compared to levels of use in the U.S. and European countries, and the availability of third-generation networks in a year or two; individual level, private sector-oriented Internet access via mobile phones seems to be the most promising way to bridge digital divide and provide e-government and m-government services.

Table 5. Categorization of Internet access options INTERNET ACCESS LEVEL OF INTERNET ACCESS Individual Group PROVIDER Government

Example: Individual government employee using his/her office PC

Example: Public access points/ terminals in public schools and libraries

Private Sector

Example: Access via one’s private PC or mobile phone

Example: Access in an Internet cafe, use of one mobile phone by a group

Civil Society Organizations (NGOs)

Example: Individual NGO employee using his/her office PC

Example: Public access points/ terminals in NGOs and community centers

Source: Adapted and developed from Yildiz, 2002, p. 232-254.


264 Yildiz

It should be noted that, as seen in Table 1, although 72.6% of Turkish household owns a mobile phone, only 3.21% connects to the Internet via a mobile phone. One major problem is the limited richness of mobile phones in use in Turkey. However, if the number of mobile phones with Internet connection capability increase in the future, the digital divide bridging argument might become more relevant. A promising area of development for mobile government is the use of Wi-Fi or WiMax (Ghyasi & Kuschu, 2004, p. 2) by governments in order to increase Internet penetration. Since such technologies can easily make use of the existing network of mobile phone masts, the additional cost that needs to be spent for the infrastructure goes down to a minimum. The cost advantage of such an option would be an excellent opportunity to increase Internet penetration with minimum infrastructure expenditure. An underutilized value-adding area of opportunity for mobile phones in Turkey is in the area of electronic voting. As Kuran (2005, p. 151-154) argue, the Turkish government spends about 100 million new Turkish Liras (about $75 million) on a single general election. A considerable part of this money can be saved if these elections can be made via mobile technologies. In order to do this, however, the mobile phone system should be made more reliable and secure so as to minimize the occurrence of any repeated or fraudulent votes. As explained previously, municipalities such as Bahçeşehir are already beginning to experiment with the practice of mobile voting. Such experimentation at local level will hopefully enable public administrators to learn from experience and incrementally prepare a secure national system for mobile e-voting. As Cilingir and Kuschu (2004) emphasized, m-government applications are complementary to those of e-government. Therefore, another topic that needs to be discussed is the integration of m-government services with existing e-government services. The final drafts of the Information Society Strategy Document, prepared by the Peppers and Rogers Group (2005) under the guidance of the State Planning Organization, which is expected to be made public shortly, recommends the establishment of a central “mobile services platform” that will enable such an integration. A mobile services platform will be part of a much bigger digital government platform that would also include call centers, emergency response centers, and the Turkish e-government portal. One concrete integration effort is a service provided by the Telsim Company, described earlier, which enables mobile phone users to connect to ministries, local government units such as municipalities and universities via their Web sites, and access to government information and services.9 Mobile technologies in Turkey have the potential to bridge digital divide, to enable mobile electronic voting, and to make interactions with governments easier, faster, and cheaper. For the mobile technologies to fulfill its potential in Turkey, several critical steps have to be taken. In other words, the following are the possible areas of development for mobile government in Turkey. First, the infrastructure should be



updated so as to enable the highest levels of data exchange possible (such as third- and fourth-generation networks). Second, cutting edge technologies such as Bluetooth and Wi-Max should be used to increase access and minimize costs. Third, people’s readiness for using mobile services should be improved (Ghyasi & Kuschu, 2004, p. 3-4) by offering education and more citizen-centered m-government services. Fourth, mobile communication should be made more secure and reliable. Fifth, as is recommended in final draft of the Information Society Strategy Document, different tax rates for land and mobile communication lines/services should be changed into similar tax rates. Finally, national and local government level e-government projects should integrate a mobile component to their strategic plans. Developing countries that have similar conditions with Turkey may benefit from a similar coordination action plan for promoting their mobile government efforts.

References Buke, M. (2005). Avea ile MEB ‘Mobil Bilgi’ Donemini Baslatti. Retrieved August 9, 2005, from http://turk.internet.com/haber/yazigoster.php3?yaziid=12992 Burgess, A. (2002). Comparing National Responses to Perceived Health Risks from Mobile Phone Masts. Health, Risk & Society, 4(2), 175-188. Chang, A. M., & Kannan, P. K. (2002). Preparing for wireless & mobile technologies in government. Arlington, Virginia: IBM Endowment for the Business of Government Report. Cilingir, D., & Kuschu, I. (2004). Transition to mobile government in Turkey. Retrieved August 12, 2005, from http://www.mobilegovlab.org European Union eGovernment Observatory. (2005). eGovernment in the Member States of the European Union. Retrieved August 8, 2005, from http://europa. eu.int/idabc/egovo Ghyasi, A. F., & Kuschu, I. (2004). Uses of mobile government in developing countries. Retrieved August 13, 2005, from http://www.mobilegovlab.org Glazer, S. (2001). Cell phone safety. CQ Researcher, 11(10), 201-224. International Telecommunications Union. (2005). Cellular phone statistics 2001-2003. Retrieved August 8, 2005, from http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ Kanallakan, J. (2001). Cellular phones: Policymakers consider the effects of highway usage. Spectrum, Winter, 17-18. Kuran, N. H. (2005). Turkiye icin E-devlet Modeli. Istanbul: Bilgi Universitesi Yayinlari.


266 Yildiz

Maclure, M., & Mittleman, M. A. (1997). Editorial. New England Journal of Medicine, 336(7), 501-502. Ozcan, Y. Z., & Kocak, A. (2003). Research note: A need or a status symbol. European Journal of Communication, 18(2), 241-254. Peppers & Rogers Group. (2005, December). Information society strategy document. Final Draft, Ankara: State Planning Organization. Personal Interview with Police Headquarters Personnel, Ankara. (2005, August 10). State Statistical Institute. (2005). Turkish Household Technology Ownership Studies 2004 & 2005. Retrieved December 1, 2005, from http://www.die.gov. tr/TURKISH/SONIST/HHBilisim/hhbilisim.html Suner, F. A. (2001). Bir Baglantı Koparma Aracı olarak Turkiye’de Cep Telefonu: Kriz, Goc ve Aidiyet. Toplum ve Bilim, 90, 114-130. The Economist Intelligence Unit. (2005). Turkey country profile. Retrieved July 29, 2005, from http://www.eiu.com TUBITAK-BILTEN. (2001). Elektromanyetik Dalgalar ve Insan Sagligi: Sikca Sorulan Sorular ve Yanitlari. Retrieved August 5, 2005, from http://www. biltek.tubitak.gov.tr/gsm.pdf UNDP. (2004). United Nations development programme report. Retrieved August 3, 2005, from http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004/ UNDP. (2005). United Nations development programme report. Retrieved January 3, 2006, from http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/pdf/HDR05_HDI.pdf Van Dijk, J. (1999). The network society, London: Sage Publications. Wei, R., & Leung, L. (1999). Blurring public and private behaviors in public space: Policy challenges in the use and improper use of the cell phone. Telematics and Informatics, 16, 11-26. White, M. P., Eiser, J. R., & Harris, P. R. (2004). Risk perceptions of mobile phone use while driving. Risk Analysis, 24( 2), 323-334. Yildiz, M. (2002). Bir Kamu Politikası Araci olarak Internet Kafeler. Amme Idaresi Dergisi, 35(2), 232-254. Yildiz, M. (2004). Peeking into the black box of e-government policy-making: The case of Turkey. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. Public Affairs Program, Indiana University-Bloomington. Yildiz, M. (2006). Kamu Siyasaları Açısından Cep Telefonu Teknolojisi ve Mobil Devletin Değerlendirilmesi. Hacettepe Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi, 24(1), 241-263.



Endnotes 1

State Planning Organization Web site. Retrieved August 3, 2005, from, http://www.bilgitoplumu. gov.tr/2005EP/2005EylemPlani.pdf.

2

Retrieved from January 3, 2006, from http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/pdf/HDR05_HDI. pdf.

3

For detailed information about the project, see Buke (2005).

4

Retrieved August 9, 2005, from http://turk.internet.com/haber/yazigoster.php3?yaziid=9988.

5

Retrieved October 5, 2005, from, http://www.yozgat-bld.gov.tr/main10.htm.

6

Retrieved January 8, 2005, from http://www.intel.com/cd/corporate/pressroom/emea/tur/247707. htm.

7

The law is available at http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/kanunlar/k5392.html (July 23, 2005).

8

Retrieved January 2, 2006 from, http://www.akbank.com/bireysel/index.asp?page=2991& mcat=310.

9

Turkcell Government Transactions, Retrieved June 7, 2006 from, http://www.turkcell.com. tr/index/0,1028,300692,00.html.


268 Abu-Samaha & Abdel Samad

Chapter XIV

The Prospects of Mobile Government in Jordan: An Evaluation of Different Delivery Platforms Ala M. Abu-Samaha, Amman University, Jordan Yara Abdel Samad, Ministry of Information & Communication Technologies, Jordan

Abstract This chapter aims to assess the viability of mobile governmental services in Jordan as a precursor to embracing mobile government as a complementing medium of communication. Reflecting on Jordan’s experience with electronic governmental services, it is evident to say that the first wave of electronic governmental services was delivered through the Web as the sole communication channel. Despite the success of a number of governmental entities to utilise such a communication channel, the penetration of the Internet in the Jordanian society is very low which dampens such limited cases of success. Currently, the e-government initiative is considering mobile phones for the future waves of its electronic service delivery on a multichannel platform. This chapter articulates the concerns and issues surrounding the viability of mobile government in terms of availability of bandwidth and reach. The chapter will provide a number of statistics and other qualitative reviews concerning previous experiences in the Jordanian electronic government initiative.


The Prospects of Mobile Government in Jordan 269

Introduction It is evident to say that the past few years have witnessed the emergence of many communication channels and media based on information and communication technologies and networks as an alternative to the more “traditional” face-to-face, phone and fax modes of business conduct. The most prominent of these channels and communication media were the Internet and the Mobile/Cellular network. The Internet started as a distributed system for information and knowledge interchange, and evolved to become the medium for several crucial applications, such as ecommerce, e-banking, e-government, e-business, and so forth, that share business processes and connect different organisations. Abu-Samaha (2005) points out that contents delivered via such channels, that is, digital libraries, electronic markets, virtual stores, electronic business, and electronic commerce, are primarily perceived as electronic replacements to the traditional modes of conducting trade, business, and transactions; that is, converting such transactions into a stream of electrons representing data, products, services, and payments. Such move from physical, face-to-face to electronic modes and channels is expected to provide organisations with many benefits; some of these include: expanding market reach (global availability, small compete with large organisations), generating visibility at very low cost, strengthening business relationships (EDI and B2B using XML), offering new services online; reducing cost (through paperless inter- and intra-business activities; that is, exchanging e-mails to support conducting daily activities within and across organizational boundaries), shortening time to market and expediting time to respond to changing market demands, improving customer loyalty, real-time training and conferencing; personalization of goods; enabling employees to carry out tasks internally and externally, reducing cost of creating, processing, distributing, storing, and retrieving paper-based activities, reducing inventories and overheads, saving time to look for resources; obtain useful expertise from the Internet, savings in communication costs; promoting current and future products and/or services, and disseminating information (Abu-Samaha, 2005; Amor, 2002, p. 17; Lawrence, Corbitt, Tidwell, Fisher, & Lawrence, 1998; Simpson & Swatman, 1998; Turban, Kuy Lee, & King, 1999, p. 15). Conducting business electronically is believed by many professionals and academics to be the “most promising” innovation of the future. Turban and Potter (2001) explain that a highly sought business strategy is “a multifaceted concept, ranging from electronic transfer of funds between buyers and suppliers, to Internet-based marketing, to intranet- and extranet-based information networks for both inter- and intra-organizational support”. Electronic government can be perceived as an implementation of electronic business/commerce (EB/EC) within governmental domains from an operational point of view. Though e-government concept possesses a number of distinguishing features when compared to electronic business, such as strategic and operational reasons for investment, expected benefits and outcomes, and targeted audience (citizens, Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Table 1. Categories of Web-based applications (Ginige & Murugesan, 2001) Category

Examples Online newspapers, product catalogues,

Informational

newsletters, service manuals, online classifieds, online electronic books.

Interactive (user-provided information

Registration forms, customised information

or customised access)

presentation, online games.

Transactional Collaborative work environments

Online communities, marketplaces

Electronic shopping, ordering goods and services, online banking. Distributed authoring systems, collaborative design environment tools. Chat groups, recommender systems that recommend products or services, online marketplaces, online auctions.

Web portals

Electronic shopping malls, online intermediaries.

businesses, and other governmental and non-governmental entities). Ginige and Murugesan (2001) propose a classification of Web-based applications, where these applications are grouped into seven categories (Table 1). Based on Table 1, it can be said that electronic governmental systems/services can provide a variety of services, information and application to its beneficiaries—that is, information, interaction, transaction, collaboration, and Web portals. As well, it is evident to note that electronic government applications and services are one of those applications/services that do not fit exactly into a specific category/class; on the contrary, they seem to span many different categories/classes. Reflecting on Jordan’s experience with electronic governmental services, it is evident to say that the first wave of electronic governmental services was delivered through the Web as the sole communication channel. Despite the success of a number of governmental entities to utilise such a communication channel, the penetration of the Internet in the Jordanian society is very low which dampens such experiences of success. Currently, the e-government initiative is considering mobile phones for the future waves of its electronic service delivery on a multi-channel platform using mobile/cellular phones/network as a complementary medium of communication and delivery. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


This chapter will articulate the concerns and issues surrounding the viability of mobile government in terms of availability of bandwidth and reach. The chapter will provide a number of statistics and other qualitative reviews concerning previous experiences in the Jordanian electronic government initiative to establish different future scenarios in terms of viability and willingness to incorporate mobile government. The chapter is structured into a number of sections—each with it own domain of interest. The second section introduces Jordan’s Strategic Initiative REACH (Regulatory Framework, Enabling Environment (Infrastructure), Advancement Programs, Capital & Finance, and Human Resource Development) and a synopsis of the Jordanian telecommunication industry/market. The third section provides a detailed description of the Jordanian electronic government initiative including its aims, constituent ingredients, and stakeholders. The fourth section provides a number of quantitative and qualitative assessments of the first wave of Jordan’s electronic governmental services, while the final section provides the emergence of mobile phones and networks as an alternative or a supplementary medium of communication to the established electronic services. The chapter provides a number of conclusions and recommendations for the future waves of the e-government initiative.

Background to REACH and TRC Background to REACH Jordan’s strategic IT initiative (REACH) was intended to lay out a clear plan of action to bolster the country’s nascent IT sector and maximize its ability to compete in local, regional, and global markets. Jordan’s strategic initiative came to life as a response from the local IT industry to His Majesty King Abdullah the 2nd’s directive to the private sector to formulate a realistic strategy and action plan that would launch Jordan’s Information Technology sector. The result was a comprehensive IT plan that was called REACH. REACH 1.0 was available to the public in March 2000; REACH 2.0 followed this in January 2001 and REACH 3.0 in 2003. REACH stands for Regulatory framework, Enabling environment infrastructure, Advancement of national IT programmes, Capital and finance, and Human resource development. These five areas of concern are perceived to be the most vital and important to the success of such an initiative (REACH 1.0, 2000). The long-term goal of the Jordanian strategic initiative is to position Jordan favourably within the knowledge economy. The Jordanian strategic initiative is foreseen to be led by the private sector in partnership with the government. The government role is perceived to be of a supporting nature in legal and national senses. On the short to medium terms, the Jordanian strategic initiative (REACH), aimed by the end of 2004 to create 30,000 IT and IT-related jobs, generate a revenue of $550 million Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


per year in export, and attract $150 million in foreign direct investment (REACH 1.0, 2000). Twenty thousand of these jobs were expected to be directly related to IT, ranging from software/system development to IT consultancy. And, 10,000 jobs will be indirectly related to IT as supporting jobs, ranging from lawyers to intellectual right property experts (REACH 1.0, 2000). The figures of INT@J (The Information Technology Association of Jordan) for the year 2001 showed that at least 10,000 Jordanians are currently recruited in the IT services and software sector. The reported annual revenue from local and foreign sales in 2001 was estimated at $106,586 million. The total size of the industry is estimated to be $176,959 million (REACH 2.0, 2001). INT@J’s estimates showed that this number would rise to $270 million by 2002 in both domestic and export revenue. Six areas of concern are identified by the strategic IT initiative to realise the projected figures and to aid in achieving the stated objectives and aims. Here follows a summary of the most significant facts of each area of concern (REACH 1.0, 2000; REACH 2.0, 2001): 1.

IT Industry Development

2.

Regulatory Framework Strengthening

3.

Human Resource Development

4.

Government Support

5.

Capital and Financing

6.

Infrastructure Improvement

The strategic initiative has called upon the Government of Jordan to build on the recent successful liberalization and reform efforts to establish Jordan as the most competitive country in the Middle East in terms of IT policies and regulatory systems. The IT plan has identified a number of actions, these being: to reduce indirect taxes on all IT-related products; to streamline customs clearances procedure; to continue and formalise policy of no censorship of IT media and products; to adopt more competitive taxation policies; to enhance access to Investment Promotion Incentives (IPI); to remove constraints to employee’s stock ownership plans; to sign information technology and customs valuation regulations of the World Trade Organisation; to develop Electronic Commerce legislation; to enforce intellectual property rights; and to amend labor law (REACH 1.0, 2000). The REACH initiative identified 25 laws, bills, and articles of urgent need for amendment or ratification by the Upper and Lower Houses of Representatives of the Jordanian House of Parliament. The Government of Jordan has succeeded in getting 11 of these 25 pieces of legislation to be ratified amongst of which labor law, electronic commerce legislation, electronic signature legislation, private corporation, and stock option law. According to these laws, computer print-outs and e-mails electronically signed can be held as legal evidence in a court of justice.



The Government of Jordan is the largest employer and the largest consumer of IT products in the Jordanian local market. The action plan is designed to focus government support efforts in appropriate areas that will stimulate private sector IT development while improving the delivery of government services. The plan identifies the following actions: to establish a high-level body for the Jordanian software and IT services industry; to initiate electronic government initiatives; to focus export and investment promotion efforts to the IT sector; and to develop and implement an IT incubator program (REACH 1.0, 2000). The high price of both hardware and telephone calls and the low quality of telecommunication services are perceived to be one of the major reasons for the lack of IT proliferation in both households and businesses. The IT plan had identified a number of actions to establish Jordan as a regional leader, these being: to provide high-speed lines to software developers and IT service companies on a priority basis; to provide competitive pricing on highspeed telecommunication connections for software developers and other IT service firms; and to plan and develop information technology park (REACH 1.0, 2000).

Infrastructure Liberalization and the Establishment of TRC National infrastructure in the form of computers and public and private networks plays a pivotal role in the realization of any strategic IT initiative. Tapscott (1996) compares the significance of computers and networks of the digital economy to steel, automobiles, and roads of the industrial economy. Tapscott (1996, p. 15) indicates that “Just as the highway system and electrical power grid were the infrastructure for the industrial economy, so our information networks will be the highways for the new economy. Without a state-of-the-art electronic infrastructure throughout organizations, no country can succeed”. In terms of national infrastructure, Jordan has one telecommunication company, fully owned by the private sector. As well as four mobile network operators mostly owned by the private sector and an extended number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) all of which are owned and operated by the private sector. The Jordanian government to meet the increasing demand for high quality, high bandwidth Internet connectivity has issued 21 more ISP licenses (Arab Advisors Press Room, 2005; Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 2005a). The de-regulation of the telecommunication market in Jordan started as early as 1992, which led to the establishment of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) in the year 1995 (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 2005b). The vision of TRC is “A telecommunications environment that is competitive, advanced, regulated and available to all” (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 2005a). While, the mission statement of TRC is “To ensure the availability of advanced and high quality Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services to all users at just, reasonable, and affordable prices by working with all stakeholders



in an independent, open, and transparent manner to create a regulatory environment that promotes fairness, competition, and investment, thus assuring fulfilment of the Kingdom’s long-term ICT needs” (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 2005a). TRC’s scope includes the following services/products: Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN), Public Mobile Telephony (Cellular), Public Mobile Telecommunications, Radio Trunking, Paging, Data Communications Services, Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS), and Pre-paid Cards Services (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 2005a). Regarding Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN), TRC regulates the service providers (Jordan Telecom (JT)) who operate and manage a fixed public telecom network that provide local, national, and international fixed telephony services and leases lines and BATELCO Jordan who were granted a class license in May 2005 to provide PSTN services in the near future (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 2005a). Regarding Public Mobile Telephony (Cellular), Jordan Mobile Telephone Services (Fastlink), which is partly owned by Motorola Co., has been providing this service since 1995 through a countrywide GSM900 cellular network. Moreover, JT has been granted a license to provide this service through an affiliate (MobileCom) to compete with Fastlink providing such service since September 15, 2000. The two companies had dual exclusivity (duopoly) for providing GSM900 public mobile telephony service until the end of 2003 when a license to operate public mobile telecommunications service was granted to (Umniah) on the 9th of August 2004 (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 2005a). The New Generation Telecommunication Company (Xpress) is the sole provider of Radio Trunking service where a license was granted from Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) on April 6, 2003, and the company launched its services commercially in June 2004. This service provided by Motorola’s iDEN technology which allows push-to-talk radio access in addition to full access to mobile telephony services including short messaging services (SMS) and data services. In addition to the main services, operator services (24 hours) numeric, e-mail notification, Internet paging, and voice-mail service. The number of Radio Trunking subscribers reached 7,300 subscribers by mid-year 2004 (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 2005a). The provision of the data communication service is fully liberalized in Jordan. The data communication service has developed substantially in Jordan over the last few years. The service is licensed through a class license of a 10-year duration. Prices are completely liberalized while quality and standards of service are underscored in the license. There are 21 data communications licensees as of June 30, 2004. The total number of subscribers increased from 3,146 in 1996 to 91,566 in 2003. The subscribers’ penetration rate for the year 2003 equals 1.7% while users penetration is 8.1%. The estimated number of users until the end of 2003 is 444,000 users (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 2005a). Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Regarding Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS), this service is provided by the Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Company (Thuraya), as a system operator, and by the Middle East Communications Co., as a service provider for Thuraya. The provision of the service, whether as system operator or service provider, is fully liberalized through class licenses. The number of subscribers is 2,300 until the end of 2003 (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 2005a). Regarding Pre-paid Cards Services, this service started in Jordan in 2001. There are four providers for this service: Jomotel, TeleCard, Weinak, and Swiftel. The number of sold cards reached (137,597) from all different categories by mid-year 2004, with a growth rate of (2%) when compared with the first quarter in the same year, where the number of sold cards reached (134,849) (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 2005a). Most network accesses are provided via dial-up connectivity, while most recently ISPs have introduced ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) and ASDL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) access to the Internet, which is expected to increase bandwidth, and fastens access to the net. On the other hand, mobile network operators have introduced Internet services over mobile phones (Arab Advisors Press Room, 2005; Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 2005a). Despite limited affordability of personal computers and network access, Int@j estimated that Jordan had 42,000 Internet users, 50% of whom surfed the Internet via Internet Cafes (REACH 1.0, 2000), while Abu-Ghazaleh & Co. Consulting (2005) estimated the number of Internet users in Jordan in the year 2004 at 111, 054 users up from 62,242 Internet users in 2002—a penetration rate of almost 2% of the population. Sixty-seven percent of who used the Internet via pre-paid Internet cards while only 1% used the Internet via a leased line. This can be attributed to “relatively expensive [Broadband connection]…why dial-up connection is popular among Citizens but still it has its limitations: high cost, limited time and low speed” (MoICT, 2005a).

E-Government Initiative Electronic government can be defined in many different forms. The adopted definition of e-government in the Jordanian initiative is “the ability to submit [governmental] transactions on-line and make payments electronically where they are required” (MoICT, 2000). Such a definition indicates the need to coordinate information from a variety of different governmental sources presented in an easily navigable format (MoICT, 2000). The use of electronic services and channels to provide governmental transactions has been considered to be a powerful tool for the improvement of internal managerial efficiency and the quality of public service delivery to citizens as well Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


as enhancement of public participation (Moon, 2003). Lawrence et al. (1998, p. 8) show that “the Internet and intranets give businesses the opportunities to improve their internal business processes and customer interfaces to create a sustainable competitive advantage”. The eEurope 2002 Action Plan indicates that “eGovernment could transform old public organisation and provide faster, more responsive services. It can increase efficiency, cut costs, increase transparency and speed up standard administrative processes for citizens and business” (eEurope, 2000). The overall objectives of e-government can be summarised as: improve the quality of governmental service delivery, increase transparency, improve responsiveness, save time, money, and other resources, and create a positive spin offs (MoICT, 2000). On the other hand, mobile government can be seen as a supporter of one-stop government services, where one-stop government refers to “the integration of public services from a citizen’s- or customer of public services-point of view. Online onestop government allows citizens to have 24-hour access to public services from their home or even on the move” (Tambouris, 2001). It is highly believed that information and communication technologies (ICT) can provide a more pro-active action to handle the causes of the chronic decline of public trust in governments (Moon, 2003). Moon (2003) indicates that “IT appears to offer a useful opportunity to government to enhance public trust and citizen satisfaction by improving procedural transparency, cost-efficiency, effectiveness, and policy participation. IT provides positive opportunities as well as many challenges to governments and the public”. A conclusion emphasised by Vélez-Rivera, Díaz, Fernandez-Sein, Rodríguez-Martínez, Núñez, & Rivera-Vega (2005), “Electronic government systems have an unprecedented potential to improve the responsiveness of governments to the needs of the people that they are designed to serve. To this day, this potential is barely beginning to be exploited”. The electronic government of Jordan was conceived and established as a national program in the year 2000 (Jordan eGovernment Initiative, 2003). Jordan’s e-government vision is to be a major contributor to Jordan’s economic and social development by providing access to government e-services and information for everyone in the kingdom irrespective of location, economic status, IT ability, and education (MoICT, 2000). A number of challenges to e-government in Jordan has been encountered; these can be summarised as: low level of Internet penetration (1.9% Internet users of the Jordanian population), infrastructure constraints (high cost and inadequate), digital divide, privacy and security concerns, limited IT skills, limited public sector reform efforts, lack of an enabling legal framework, and lack of awareness (MoICT, 2000). To overcome those challenges, eGovernment in Jordan was based on five major building blocks: electronic services, the technology infrastructure to enable the delivery of electronic services, the regulatory framework to provide the legal coverage and acceptance of electronic services, the educational reform and skill development to ensure effective and efficient services, and the organizational Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


reform to ensure inter-government cooperation and coordination to required by egovernment (MoICT, 2000). The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MoICT) was assigned to take the lead role in implementing the e-government pProgram. MoICT’s mission towards e-government is to provide support and capability to coordinate the management, implementation, interoperability and benefits of the National eGovernment Initiative for the Government of Jordan. The program objectives can be summarised as follows (Jordan eGovernment Initiative, 2003): •

Develop and support the e-government strategy to be implemented across government entities.

•

Participate in the planning and coordination of a sustainable national portfolio of e-government initiatives.

•

Maintain technological integration and interoperability of e-government initiatives, and encourage the re-usability of application components, to achieve consistency among ministries/departments for technical solutions.

•

Plan and implement security policies and a secure network environment for e-government initiatives.

•

Promote and monitor a systematic method of planning, developing, and implementing e-government initiatives.

•

Promote and monitor organizational transformation (change management) at the ministry/department/organizational level necessary to establish effective e-government.

•

Educate Government of Jordan employees and transfer the knowledge in order to have consistency in the level of skills and competencies among the GoJ employees.

•

Establish a common understanding of e-government program across government and to the public.

•

Deliver successfully e-government initiatives and projects that are managed by dedicated project managers.

•

Provide analysis and information on the status of e-government initiatives and projects to sponsors and major stakeholders (to maintain buy-in).

Over the past five years, the e-government program has been involved in developing and implementing major e-government initiatives. This included scanning and analysing the business operations at each of the first wave government departments (Income Tax, Sales Tax, Drivers and Vehicle Licensing, Lands and Survey, and Borders and Residency). Subsequently, drivers and vehicle licensing, income tax e-services, and land registry e-service were launched in January 2006. Furthermore, Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


a Secure Government Network (SGN) providing connectivity for Internet and e-mail services to 18 government entities was implemented and hosted at an Operation Centre established by the e-government program. An e-Government Contact Centre was also established. Currently, the contact centre provides technical support to SGN administrators while it is envisioned to provide business and technical support to different categories of e-government services’ users. A comprehensive information security roadmap for the Government of Jordan was produced and the e-Government Information Portal was launched in November 2006. The bilingual (Arabic/English) Information Portal will provide a single official access point on the Internet to government information required by different categories of users, including citizens, businesses, and government entities and employees.

Government Services Delivery Channels Assessment (2000-2005) This section presents the findings of a number of surveys conducted by the MoICT to evaluate the e-government initiative as Jordanian governmental institutions have invested both in technology and personnel to provide electronic governmental services to both citizens and businesses. This post-implementation review will aid in conceiving future scenarios for both Jordan’s citizens and institutions to embrace alternative communication medium, that is, to embracing mobile government as a medium of communication. The survey of national outlook and expectations about the e-government program plays a critical role within the e-government initiative as it is an important source of information about the priorities of the main stakeholders (key national figures, citizens, companies, and government employees) and their expectations related to strategic direction of the program. At the same time, the survey is also concerned with issues directly related to the expectations of stakeholders of about how the selection, implementation, and operation of new e-services will look like, which allows to set a stage for set a stage for the evaluation of access and delivery channels of electronic governmental services. The survey included 21 interviews with key national figures, 142 focus groups with government employees, 53 focus groups with companies, 48 focus groups with citizens, 395 questionnaire surveys of government employees, 254 questionnaire surveys of companies, and 409 questionnaire surveys of citizens. Arthur Business Consulting carried out the assessment under the supervision of the e-government program team. The findings of these interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires can be summarized as follows:



•

Implementation of a new set of e-services will face many issues of which resistance to change, technical weaknesses, and budgetary constraints are perceived as the largest threats and obstacles. The new e-services are expected to bring benefits like time-savings, simplification of processes, and fewer number of mistakes.

•

Internet and phone should be considered as primary channels for implementation of new e-services.

•

Effective project and change management as well as communication are singled out as the most important success factors.

•

Shared services are perceived as good idea that can however meet with many practical implementation problems. (MoICT, 2005b)

As mentioned earlier, the MoICT survey included a questionnaire survey of 395 government employees, 254 companies’ representatives, and 409 citizens. This questionnaire included a number of companies and governmental employees covering a number of industries and governmental entities. The demographics of these participants are shown in Figures 1 and 2. Where Figure 1 shows the demographics of companies representatives split into two groups small/medium and large organizations. Where any organization with less than 250 employees is considered as a small/medium enterprise (SME) and any organization with greater then 250 employees is considered a large organisation. While Figure 2 shows the demographics of governmental employees grouped in terms of education (primary or lower, secondary or intermediate diploma and bachelor or above) and location (central, north, and south).

Figure 1. Companies questionnaire survey (MoICT, 2005b) Industry

Grand total

Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing

2

Manufacturing

36

Construction

7

Wholesale & Retail Trade, Restaurants and Hotels

60

Transport, Storage & Communications

36

Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Business Services

65

Public, Community, Social and Personal Services

48

Grand total

254



Figure 2. Citizen questionnaire survey (MoICT, 2005b) Education

Age

Grand total

15-29 30-44 45-59 60+

Primary or lower

13

19

11

6

49

Secondary or intermediate diploma

46

99

21

15

181

Bachelor or above

51

86

24

18

179

Grand total

110

204

56

39

409

The assessment of the 21 key national figures interviews shows agreement on the importance of the e-government initiative. In terms of communication channels, the interviewees were unanimous that the Internet should be selected as the primary contact channel of both citizens and businesses in terms of governmental relationship/contact whether via personal computers, kiosk, or local school computer center. However, a need to maintain traditional methods of contact should be supplemented by phone (mobile and fixed) while the more traditional channels such as fax or traditional post were rather deemed obsolete and not worth investing in. Hence most interviewees stressed that the traditional methods of contact with the government must be kept as an alternative to indirect channels (MoICT, 2005b). Regarding the focus groups, there is a feeling that the e-government program will bring numerous advantages, like improving the quality of services provided by the government. Furthermore, the Internet was ranked as the most preferable channel for e-services while telephone comes second regarding number of users and frequency of usage (MoICT, 2005b). Regarding the questionnaire, traditional face-to-face contact remains the most popular way of contacting the government but alternative solutions are already in use. Eighty-two percent of companies’ representatives and 87% of citizens contact the government in a traditional way (face-to-face). Thirty-nine percent of respondents used the Internet, 55% used the telephone or post, more than 60% sent documents via fax. Frequency of usage of the alternative channels among citizens is much lower, usage of the Internet accounts for 14% only, and the most popular channel—voice—has been used by 36% of respondents (MoICT, 2005b). Figure 3 shows the distribution of preferred communication method where the first bar refers to business while the second bar refers to citizens. On the other hand, the Internet is the most preferred by respondents for getting and providing information. Figure 4 shows the distribution of preferred information distribution channel where the first bar refers to governmental entities, the second bar refers to business, and the third bar refers to citizens.



Figure 3. Preferred way to contacting the governmental agency (MoICT, 2005b)

Figure 4. Preferred information distribution channel (MoICT, 2005b)



Figure 5. Preferred Interactive communication channel (MoICT, 2005b)

The Internet got the highest rating from all groups (government employees, companies, and citizens) in terms of the most preferred interactive channel, while the telephone got a high evaluation from all groups of respondents. On the other hand, citizens strongly prefer traditional face-to-face contact for interactive communication with service providers. On the other hand, the Internet and the telephone are widely accepted channels for interactive communication between services’ providers and services recipients. Figure 5 shows the distribution of a preferred information distribution channel where the first bar refers to governmental entities, the second bar refers to business, and the third bar refers to citizens.

Mobility Telephony Jordan has embarked upon a progressive reform of its telecommunications and postal sectors. This process commenced in 1995. Progress has been made in establishing some measure of competition in specific markets, and enabling regulatory structures have been established through the TRC (Telecommunication Regulatory Commission). In certain instances, however, prevailing legislation, commercial agreements and the WTO (World Trade Organization) and other international obligations demand that further reform measures must be implemented. In others, the perceived needs



of the market, the Jordanian economy as a whole, and social development factors are the drivers of further action (MoICT, 2003). Many local and regional policy makers and planners consider Jordan as one of the regional pioneers in the full liberalization of the communications market in the Middle East. The Jordanian legislators and regulators have embarked upon a liberalization of the fixed Public Switch Terrestrial Network (PSTN) and International Long Distance (ILD) services and started the licensing process of new operators. By September 2005, the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) has granted a total of 29 licenses, Jordan Telecom was the sole operator with an individual license until May 2005, when BATELCO-Jordan was granted its own individual license in addition to the class license it had before. The remaining 26 licenses are all class licenses. There are only two categories of licenses according to TRC: the individual licenses and the class licenses. The individual license “is for the operation of telecommunication networks and/or offering telecommunication services using scarce resources, such as radio spectrum, public rights of way and numbering” (Abu-Ghazaleh & Co. Consulting, 2005). While a class license is “for any other licensed services, which would include public telecommunications networks operators and public telecommunication services providers not using scarce resources” (Abu-Ghazaleh & Co. Consulting, 2005). A total of five new licenses were granted in 2005; one individual license was granted to BATELCO-Jordan, while the other four were class licenses granted to “Sirat Telecom Technology”, “LaSilkee Virtual Connection Company Ltd.”, “Pella”, and “Jordan Bell Telecom”. On October 21, 2004, the Council of Ministers in Jordan approved the TRC’s proposed licensing program, which has fully opened the fixed telecommunications sub-sector to competition as of January 1, 2005 (Arab Advisors Press Room, 2005). Jordan’s cellular subscribers grew at a rate of 46.8% between 2000 and 2004. Reduced rates, per second billing, extended validities and special offers, are expected to introduce the market with a healthy growth rate of over 46% in 2005. Between 2006 and 2009, the Arab Advisors Group projects the Jordanian cellular market to grow at a rate of 10% to exceed 3.43 million subscribers by 2009, a penetration rate of more than 57% (Arab Advisors Press Room, 2005). The figures of the Department of Statistics and Ministry of Information and Communication Technology show that telephony penetration in Jordan is high, especially when compared with other communication medium like the Internet. The Department of Statistics indicates that the percentage of Jordanian households who own a telephone line is 54.4%, while percentage of Jordanian households who own a mobile telephone is 47.4% (Department of Statistics, 2005). While MoICT figures indicate that 87.4% of households have either a fixed or mobile phone (MoICT, 2005a). The MoICT’s figures indicate that almost all households with a monthly income above 350 Jordanian Dinars (500 US$) have a fixed or mobile phone (MoICT, 2005a). Moreover, the number of mobile phones rose with monthly income where



a majority of households with over JD350 per month have more than one mobile phone (MoICT, 2005a). The number of telephone subscribers, fixed lines, has gone down to 623,000 in 2004 from 629,000 in 2002, while at the same period of time, the number of mobile subscribers has gone up to 1,624,000 in 2004 from 1,219,000 in 2002 (Department of Statistics, 2005). And, Abu-Ghazaleh & Co. Consulting (2005) estimates the penetration rate of cellular/Mobile phone at 30.9% in 2004 with a total number of mobile owner population of 1,801,100.

The Prospects of Mobile Telephony Despite the continuous liberalization of the Jordanian Telecommunication market and the existence of a number of competitive service providers whether wireless or wirefull, the unaffordable prices of both hardware and telecommunication devices as well as the high cost of telephone calls are perceived as the major constraints on the proliferation of ICT in Jordan. The Jordanian IT strategic plan (REACH) has called upon both the private and the public sector to provide preferential access to the high-speed lines and permit private up- and downlinks, as well as to provide competitive pricing on high-speed lines. The current IT infrastructure of Jordan can be described as primitive in comparison to leading countries in the IT and Telecommunication sectors. For Jordan to become a regional leader in the Middle East, Jordan needs to work out its local infrastructure both in the technical terms as well as in the economic terms. There are two major indicators to assess any communication channel or medium: reach and richness. While Evans and Wurster (1997) define reach as “the number of people, at home or at work, exchanging information”, they define richness in terms of bandwidth, customisation, and interactivity. Bandwidth refers to the “amount of information that can be moved from sender to receiver in a given time”; customisation refers to the “degree to which information can be customised”; and interactivity refers to “dialogue” (Evans & Wurster, 1997). Evans and Wurster (1997) explain that this trade off between reach and richness shapes “how companies communicate, collaborate, and conduct transactions internally and with customers, suppliers and distributors”. In terms of reach, as explained earlier the penetration of the Internet, whether at home or at the workplace, is very minimal in Jordan, estimated at 2% of the population in 2004, up from 0.7% in 2000. Furthermore, the affordability of a personal computer coupled with the high tariff of telecommunication has created a great barrier to overcome. While the penetration of the mobile/cellular phone is much higher, currently estimated at 47.4% of the population (Department of Statistics, 2005) and



expected to reach 57% of the population by the end of 2009 (Arab Advisors Press Room, 2005). Furthermore, the figures of MoICT show that 39% of businesses and 13% of citizens used the Internet to contact with governmental entities, while 55% of businesses and 35% of citizens used the telephone to contact the governmental entities (MoICT, 2005b). These figures indicate the higher percentage of phone contacts compared to Internet-based contacts. Furthermore, MoICT (2005c) confirms such a conclusion stating that this low penetration of the Internet in Jordan is concentrated in few large urban areas, while the technical infrastructure “is insufficient to support high-speed connection on a mass scale”. On the other hand, the increasing competition fuelled by the de-regulation of the telecommunication industry “results in decreasing prices for final users, higher quality, new investments and development of new services...Fixed line phone penetration is high and spreads over the region; mobile telephony is rapidly growing and is expected to develop further in coming years” (MoICT, 2005c). In terms of richness, currently the Internet can provide a far larger amount of information that is easily navigable in many formats while the current wireless infrastructure is incapable of competing with such advantage. The display of the mobile phone is still cumbersome and very much limited in space. Furthermore, the figures of the MoICT show that the Internet is the most preferred channel by businesses, citizens, and government employees for interactive communication and information distribution (MoICT, 2005b). These indicate that the Internet is preferred to the phone in terms of interactivity, bandwidth, and more importantly customization and personalisation. This makes the Internet a better option when it comes to richness. On the other hand, face-to-face is considered by the majority of citizens and businesses as the preferred way to contacting governmental agencies. The penetration of mobile phones is much higher in Jordan when compared to personal computers which make such a medium more accessible and widespread when compared to PCs. This section articulates the concerns and issues surrounding the viability of mobile government in terms of availability of bandwidth and reach. The section includes statistical data and interviews with top strategy makers at the Ministry of Information and Communication and Technology in Jordan to establish Jordan’s willingness to incorporate m-government on the technical, human, organisational, infrastructural, and legislative levels. The high penetration of mobile phones in Jordan makes the mobile service provision a much better opportunity especially when compared with the low penetration figures of the Internet. Though the limited display space and the cumbersome interface makes such a communication medium unfavourable for service providers. Until such issues are resolved in the near future, the usage of mobile phone would be limited to alerts and as a payment gateways for micro-payments with an exchange value of less than 10US$ (Amor, 2002). Based on the surveys conducted in 2005 by Arthur Business Consulting, the belief at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is that the Web Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


seems to be an appropriate channel for most of the governmental e-services where e-mail is usually suggested as a channel supplementing Web since the majority of electronic services usually require either large amounts of data or legal enforcement. On the other hand, SMS channel can be used for notification about the status of the transaction (MoICT, 2005a). Though, the figures of the MoICT indicate that the majority of companies’ employees use fixed telephone lines and mobile phones for business purposes while the Internet comes in second place using either broadband Internet connection or dial-up (MoICT, 2005a). In order to assess the viability of m-governmental services in Jordan, the authors carried out two major interviews with two prominent figures in the e-government program. They are e-government Program Director (Mr. Khaldoun Naffa) and egovernment Program Chief Technology Officer and Head of Operations (Mr. Hasan Hourani). These interviews aimed to assess the viability of mobile government from a strategic point of view. The interviews lasted for one hour each both held on Thursday, November 24, 2005, at the e-government program headquarters in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology. The interviews started by assessing the past experiences on electronic governmental services. Both interviewees agreed on the utter importance of electronic governmental services and explained concerns regarding many implementational/operational obstacles. These obstacles included: education, awareness, preparedness, public sector reform, organisational and technical change management, and transformation management. The interviewees agreed on the successful implementation so far in terms of systems, technology, and infrastructure but lacking attention toward the softer human aspects of the change process. The interviewees indicated that the e-government program is perceived as a tool of public sector reform in terms of becoming more customer centric, that is, improve governmental entities/employees performance, increase cost effectiveness, and increase transparency. In terms of successes so far, the interviewees pointed out that the internal surveys show a fluctuation in usability of electronic governmental services. This fluctuation in service usability can be attributed to many factors, mainly: over sensitivity of users toward information confidentiality and security, lack of proper change management during the transition process, the need for more than one sponsorship promotion and support, loss of key staff during the change process, and ulterior/personal motives of both enthusiasts and resistors to change. Regarding mobile government, the interviewees indicated that it should be used to provide a complementary delivery channel to the already established Internet/Webbased services delivery to make use of the high penetration (reach) of such a medium. Though the interviewees raised concerns regarding richness of such medium, these concerns addressed the following issues: limited bandwidth and capacity in terms of intensive data services, lack of maturity in terms of devices, limited data presentation/display capacity, challenges of security/confidentiality of private data over public networks, and lack of display capacity of the device itself. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Regarding the liberalization and de-regulation of the local telecommunication market, the interviewees indicated that this pushes the whole initiative toward providing alternative delivery option in addition to the existing Web-based delivery. The interviewee’s vision for the future is that mobile lines will take over fixed lines based on increasing cost reduction of call tariffs, increasing bandwidth, and mobility of the device. Though, one of the most neglected areas of the liberalization effort is legislation, where a new legal road map is needed to cater for the differences in delivery mode and contents. The interviewees indicated the need for electronic legislative enablement to be led by involved stakeholders.

Conclusions This chapter has presented and described the different aspects of the Jordan’s Electronic Government Program based on the published material of the Jordanian governmental as well as non-governmental organisations in Jordan. The chapter presented the findings of a number of quantitative and qualitative assessment projects to the past few years of electronic services provided by a number of governmental entities. In addition, the result of a limited number of interviews with key decision makers was provided in order to augment the results of the carried surveys. Jordan’s local IT and Telecommunication sector can be described as evolving rather than developed. Currently, Jordan has one national telecommunication operator, one licensed PSTN provider, four mobile phone operators, and an extended number of Internet service providers. Accessibility to both private and public networks is provided via dial-up connections, which is regarded as slow and expensive. More liberalization from the government and more participation from the public sector both locally and internationally are needed to enable Jordan to become a regional leader. While current figures of IT usage and proliferation in Jordan shows a great advancement in the past five years, several issues are needed to be taken into account like the affordability of computers and phone calls as well as the different laws, bylaws, and pieces of legislation needed to be endorsed by the House of Parliament. Lack of advanced and secure technical infrastructure, lack of high-volume of Internet users, and limited use of credit cards in Jordanian society remain the main reasons why most organizations and individuals in Jordan refrain from using the Internet to exchange products/services and funds online. To justify investment in online technologies and processes, high velocity of Internet traffic is needed. REACH 2.0 (2001) shows that despite the sharp fall in subscription fees, affordability of personal computers remains the main hindrance to engaging in online activities for individuals. These issues need to be resolved on national and regional levels rather than on national level only. Regarding payments methods, whether physical



or digital, the limited spread of credit cards makes the use of online experiences to exchange digitized and physical products and services for funds a true nightmare. It is becoming evident that more creative mechanisms should be used to overcome such a hurdle, like cash exchange at delivery time or using pre-paid cash cards or even using automatic teller machine (ATM)/debit cards as an alternative to credit cards. The chapter provided an analysis of the possibility of using mobile governmental services as supplementary and as an alternative to Web-based services. The analysis relayed on validating the richness and reach of the mobile network in comparison to the Internet. The analysis showed that while mobile networks enjoy a higher level of penetration, these networks and mobile devices provide an inferior service in terms of display, interactivity, and customisation specially when compared to Web-based services. Generally speaking, in order for mobile phones to surpass the current position used mainly for alert services and micro-payments, the mobile phone networks need to provide more richness coupled with higher bandwidth.

References Abu-Ghazaleh & Co. Consulting. (2005). Market brief on telecommunications sector in Jordan. Retrieved February 1, 2005, from http://commercecan.ic.gc. ca/scdt/bizmap/interface2.nsf/vDownload/ISA_2665/$file/X_8404815.DOC Abu-Samaha, A. (2005). Strategic and operational values of e-commerce investments in Jordanian SMEs. In S. Kamel (Ed.), Electronic business in developing countries: Opportunities and challenges (Chapter 16) (pp. 315-335). Hershey, PA: Idea Group. Amor, D. (2002). The e-business (r)evolution: Living and working in an interconnected world. New York: Hewlett-Packard Books. Arab Advisors Press Room. (2005). Retrieved November 12, 2005, from http://www. arabadvisors.com/Pressers/presser-181005.htm Department of Statistics. (2005). Retrieved November 12, 2005, from www.dos. gov.jo eEurope (2002). An information society for all action plan. Retrieved February 1, 2005, from http://europa.eu.int/comm./information_society/eeurope/documentation/index_en.htm Evans, P. B., & Wurster, T. S. (1997). Strategy and the new economics of information. Harvard Business Review, September-October, 71-83.



Ginige, A., & Murugesan, S. (2001). The essence of Web engineering: Managing the diversity and complexity of Web application development. IEEE Multimedia, 8(2), 22-25. Jordan eGovernment Initiative. (2003). The e-government status update. Retrieved December 1, 2005, from http://moict.gov.jo/MoICT/downloads/e-Gov_Intaj_6102003_v1.0.ppt Lawrence, E., Corbitt, B., Tidwell, A., Fisher, J., & Lawrence, J. (1998). Internet commerce: Digital models for business. Brisbane: John Wiley. Ministry of Information Communication and Technology, MoICT. (2000). Launching e-government in Jordan: Readiness and approach. Retrieved December 1, 2005, from http://www.MoICT.gov.jo Ministry of Information Communication and Technology, MoICT. (2003). Statement of government policy. Retrieved December 1, 2005, from http://www. MoICT.gov.jo Ministry of Information Communication and Technology, MoICT. (2005a). Universal service/access ICT policy and fund mechanism: Market research study. Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, MoICT. (2005b). National outlook and expectations. Retrieved December 1, 2005, from http://www. MoICT.gov.jo Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, MoICT. (2005c). Detailed study and recommendations on the access and delivery channels for e-services implementation. Moon, G. J. (2003). Can IT help government to restore public trust? Declining public trust and potential prospects of IT in the public sector. In the Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. REACH 1.0. (2000). IT forum. Retrieved December 1, 2005, from http://www.reach. jo/Downloads/R1/R1_report.pdf REACH 2.0. (2001). INTAJ. Retrieved December 1, 2005, from http://www.reach. jo/Downloads/R2/R2_report.pdf Simpson, P., & Swatman, P. (1998). Small business Internet commerce experience: A longitudinal study. In the Proceeding of the 11th Bled International Electronic Commerce Conference, Bled, Slovenia, June 8-10 (pp. 295-309). Tambouris, E. (2001). An integrated platform for realising online one-stop government: The e-GOV project. In the Proceedings of the DEXA International Workshop “On the Way to Electronic Government” (pp. 359-363). Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society. Tapscott, D. (1996). The digital economy: Promise and peril in the age of networked intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill.



Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC). (2005a). Retrieved November 12, 2005, from http://www.trc.gov.jo/Static_English/market.shtm Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC). (2005b). Retrieved November 12, 2005, from http://www.trc.gov.jo/Static_English/telecomss.shtm Turban, E., Kuy Lee, J. ,& King, D. (1999). Electronic commerce: A managerial perspective. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Business Publishing. Turban, E., Jr., & Potter, R. (2001). Introduction to information technology. USA: Von Hoffmann Press. Vélez-Rivera, B., Díaz, W., Fernandez-Sein, R., Rodríguez-Martínez, M., Núñez, M., & Rivera-Vega, P. (2005). Multidisciplinary e-government research and education as a catalyst for effective information technology transfer to regional governments. DGO, 133-134.



Section IV Technology and Trends for Mobile Government


292 Germanakos, Samaras & Christodoulou

Chapter XV

Multi-Channel Delivery of E-Services in the Light of M-Government Challenge Panagiotis Germanakos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus George Samaras, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Eleni Christodoulou, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

Abstract During the last decade, users have become accustomed to new means of service delivery in the private sector. Nowadays, users expect the same level of variety from the public sector: they want their interactions to be convenient, and they prefer to be online rather than in-line. New developments in ICT along with the growth of mobile communication allow the involved sectors to meet these challenges by reengineering their front-end and back-end office. They have developed new ways of interaction through a variety of channels allowing users to consume their services anytime, anywhere, and anyhow, restructure services that accommodate their users’ needs, and re-organize processes within and between separate administrative bod-


Multi-Channel Delivery of E-Services 293

ies. This chapter will examine the interaction requirements regarding a friendlier and more effective multi-channel services environment, the mobility challenges, and their apt implementation in the governmental sector placing emphasis on the technological constraints of an m-government open interoperable multi-service delivery infrastructure and the impact of its single-point of access functionality across the borders of the new digitally integrated Pan-European reality.

Introduction E-government has been on the international agenda for several years. The development in Europe and the rest of the world suggests a potential for more efficient and user-centered ways to deliver public services. Thus, awareness by users of these services, their willingness to use them, ease of use, and delivery of benefits with the services are important factors in the developments of e-government (SEC, 2003) and ultimately of the m-government. E-government services have been launched or implemented by most of the European Member States and the rate of initiatives is continually evolving. Two different strategies for improvement of services are identified: process integration (back-end) and service delivery (front-end). The first one refers to the degree to which the service is re-engineered by the responsible authority in the transformation from an off-line service to e-service, while the second refers to the channel and distribution strategies in the provision of government services (Top of the Web, 2003). Relevant channel and distribution strategies are critical for future advancement of e-services to achieve accessible, customer-focused and responsive services. Following the growing user demands and requirements as well as the rapid development of the technological advancements and infrastructure capabilities the development of e-services should not only focus on making the service available on the Internet, but also examine the different delivery platforms (Germanakos, Christodoulou, & Samaras, 2005a). A multi-channel (WAP, MMS, SMS, Web, Satellite, etc.) and a multi-device (PC, mobile phones, PDA, tablet PC, Satellite handset, etc.) access mix will improve the e-inclusion and the access of the services offered, since will be available anytime, anywhere, and anyhow through a single point of access entry (one-stop government). Indisputably, this is the vision of an interoperable, transparent, and secure continent whereby multi-channel service delivery integration is considered fundamental. “Two new developments will have a major impact on the further development of the Internet: multi-platform access/convergence and broadband” (COM, 2002). Broadband stimulates the use of the Internet and enables the usage of rich applications and services. Its benefits are emphasized in the areas of e-business, e-learning, e-health, and e-government, improving the functionality and performance of those services, and further extending the use of the Internet. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


The aim of this chapter is to analyze and present concepts and arguments that will have to work in a coherent and cohesive way toward the provision of e-government services via multi-channel mediums without loosing their integrity or quality of their content. Extensive reference will be made to the broadband and mobile advancements since are considered vital elements to the successful implementation of the “anytime, anywhere, and anyhow” notion advancing at the same time the m-government research dimension. The aforementioned two could be characterized as the major enablers of the re-engineering process and methodologies toward an integrated, interoperable, and transparent open multi-channel service delivery architecture.

The Role of E-Government at a Glance E-government is a central element in the eEurope 2005 Action Plan. It is defined as “the use of information and communication technologies in public administrations combined with organizational change and new skills in order to improve public services and democratic processes and strengthen support to public policies” (COM, 2003). It aims to deliver better quality public services through “single point of access” portals (IDA, 2001), that are accessible for all, to increase the productivity in the public sector, so that services can be provided at a lower cost and less time for more personal interaction. It can also enhance participation in public policy development and thus reinforce democracy, as well as help increasing the transparency and accountability of the public sector. In short, e-government is a means to achieve a more productive, inclusive, and open public sector in Europe. However, it can only deliver its full benefits if investment in information communication technologies (ICT) is accompanied by re-organization of administrative processes and improvement of skills in the public sector. Many European government agencies, administrations, and private parties are re-organizing their service delivery and access to take account the ICT and multi-platform capabilities as well as the new service channels available that can either completely replace traditional ones or supplement them, that is, phone and fax, Internet, kiosks, WAP, mobile, digital TV, and so forth (PRISMA, 2002). Potential barriers to the latter actions might include the lower penetration of Internet in some countries, limited service availability, and the lack of user-friendly access for people with disabilities or less IT literacy. A tentative solution to the persisting problems of that nature could be the application of the “Design for All” principles enabling even more the broadening of e-participation and e-inclusion as well as the transition of narrowband to broadband networks reinforcing that way the richer and more informative interaction to public services. An extensive reference to these notions and their implications will be made in the following sections. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Service Requirements and Service Delivery “To struggle against the amplification of the digital divide and therefore to think ‘user interaction’ whatever the age, income, education, experience, and the social condition of the citizen” (Europe’s Information Society, 2004c). This specific theme reveals exactly the need for user-centered service development and delivery. In many ways, the new technology, as mentioned in the introduction, provides greater opportunities for access, for example, by people in remote locations, those who work unsocial hours, or those who are immobile and thus cannot attend offices in person. However, there are important problems in determining precisely what citizens want and need, and how to provide e-government services in user-friendly and effective way.

General User Requirements To get the right information at the right time and the right place is not so easy for the users, especially via mobile channels whereby the presentation and nature of information are restricted from the capabilities of the devices. User needs are always conditioned by what they already get, or imagine they can get. The involved sectors, both private and public, working at their front or back office, have encountered the particular problem several times and on several occasions. Users’ interaction with the services has to be improved, and a serious analysis of user requirements in the area of e-government has to be undertaken and documented and furthermore examined taking into consideration their multi-application to the various delivery channels and devices providing them consequently personalized and adaptive services depending on their preferences (Germanakos, Mourlas, & Samaras, 2005b). Based on studies conducted (CAP Gemini Ernst & Young, 2004; IDA, 2004; PRISMA, 2002; Top of the Web, 2003), some of the user requirements and arguments anticipated, could be clearly distinguished into: (a) general user service requirements (flexibility: anyhow/ anytime/anywhere, accessibility, quality, and security), and (b) requirements for a friendly and effective user interaction (information acquisition, systems controllability, navigation, versatility, errors handling, and personalization). However, the convergent perception seems to be that users are different in their perceptions, reactions, and demands. In addition, it is almost universally accepted that, “where misunderstandings in a human-machine interaction are possible, then misunderstandings will occur” (Europe’s Information Society, 2004c). Therefore, a consistent optimized approach incorporating all the positive and negative outcome viewpoints is considered vital for the most optimum fulfillment of user needs. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Multi-Channel Service Delivery As can be observed from the users’ requirements previously-mentioned, it is difficult to draw a clear line between a service (product) and the means of service delivery (channel). A channel can change the users’ perception of a service; when a user has a free choice between different channels to access a service, they will choose the channel that realizes the highest relative value for them. Furthermore, to increase the value of its service, a provider should have its service processes more integrated, that is, by re-organizing its organizational structure or by a more intensive cooperation between its internal and external departments, while to increase its service provision, it should increase the level of integration of its delivery channels. If channels are integrated, the introduction of a new channel is not merely an additional channel but a new opportunity to improve service delivery, that is, by offering the user more flexibility. To the user, the integration of channels means more accessible and more flexible service delivery (which leads to better services). Separate development of different channels for a single service (multi-channel delivery) can lead to inconsistencies such as different data formats or interfaces. To overcome the drawbacks of multiple-channel service delivery, the different channels should be integrated and coordinated. To enable this, the common data that are used by the front-office applications should be stored centrally so that they can be shared by the applications. Storing data centrally means that they need to be collected only once and that they can be accessed by back-office applications. When data are stored centrally, users can also access the services they want from the location(s) and medium they want (desktop or mobile), as all the relevant information retrieval is taking place from the same databases. When back-office processes are also integrated, full-service integration becomes possible (as different data formats or interfaces, or parallel workflow steps) which raises the quality and number of services significantly.

Channel Selection A channel could be defined as “a means for users to contact public administrations (inbound) or for public administrations to contact their users (outbound) with the aim of acquiring or delivering public services. This includes the use of Web-based technologies, telephony, paper media or face-to-face contacts; applications of these technologies such as the Internet, e-mail, SMS, call centers or the counter; and devices to access the applications such as a personal computer, mobile phone, kiosk or digital TV” (IDA, 2004). Services can be delivered through a wide variety of channels (the term “channels” is often used as a concept that includes “channel type”, “technology”, “platform”,



“media”, “device”, and “touch point”). As in previous sentences have briefly been mentioned, certain channels are more suitable than others for meeting particular user requirements. Factors such as cost and management make it impractical for an organization to implement all channels. A realistic set of channels must, therefore, be selected from the available range of potential channels. Since success in service delivery depends on a vast range of parameters, there is no single formula or solution that fits all situations. However, in time, there have been reported particular steps that could guide a provider throughout the channel selection process (IDA, 2004). Ultimately, it should be mentioned that the suitability and usefulness of channels depends on a range of factors, out of which technology is only one element. Additional features that could affect the service channels assessment could be: directness, accessibility and inclusion, speed, security and privacy, and availability. To realize though their potential value, channels also need to be properly implemented and operated.

Channel Limitations The Internet is today one of the most important information retrieval resources affecting directly the ongoing people’s quality of life. The demand for service consumption anytime, anywhere, and anyhow has emerged the evolvement of the wireless networks (wireless Internet) and mobile devices adding not only even more value to the specific medium but increasing at the same time the number of channels liable to convey the requested information. Since the number and variety of these channels (networks and devices) is really huge, with different capabilities and limitations, the design and implementation complexity is rising significantly. With regard to the networks, some of the added issues and concerns are the low bandwidth, the unreliable connectivity, the lack of processing power, the limited interface of wireless devices, and the user mobility. The mobile devices have nowadays been proliferated dramatically, and they are usually used to keep the users to a continuous interaction with the rest of the “world”. In parallel to the wireless networks evolvement, they are also used to provide users with information and services on demand. Nevertheless, many restrictions and limitations characterize them not only because of their restricted computational power but of their small size as well. More specifically, one mobile device could be distinguished from a desktop one because of its small size, limited processing power, limited memory and storage space, small screens, high latency, and restricted data entry.



The Development of the Mobile Communication Sector: The M-Government Emergence Having therefore presented in previous sections all the multi-channel characteristics and peculiarities along with the service requirements and how these associated to egovernment, and in many cases to m-government, in this section it will be examined the closer correlation of this new research area. Even if it is quite clear so far the reason of its “birth”, it would be considered fundamental to emphasize more on its imperative existence, since in the future statistically the related channels will take over as the most sustainable mediums of services provision. Mobile e-government could be considered as a new kind of front-end access to public services with specific capabilities of delivering on demand real-time information. Nowadays, as an integral part of e-government, many governments start to offer egovernment services via a variety of service delivery channels apart from the Web. One of this mobile service delivery channels is mobile telephony. This channel becomes more relevant considering the much faster growth of mobile penetration rate compared to desktop-based Internet access. Moreover, the growth of mobile communications has had a profound economic and social impact in Europe and beyond. The mobile phone is now pervasive and is used in every human activity—private, business, and governmental. While penetration levels are likely to continue to increase, the most significant future development will be the growth of mobile broadband services, as the potential provided by third generation mobile (3G) and its enhancements, as well by other wireless technologies, including RLAN, satellite and others, is realized. The dissemination of these technologies represents a paradigm shift that will enable the emergence of new data services, combining the benefits of broadband with mobility (COM, 2004). Over the past year, European 3G mobile operators have launched commercial services in 10 member states, and more networks are expected in the following months. Looking forward, the convergence of telecommunications, broadcasting, and Internet will result in the proliferation of high-speed multimedia services delivered over mobile networks. The 2.5G/3G and R-LANs will co-exist by giving a broader technology base from which new innovative services could develop to the benefit of all. Hence, users can benefit from the high-speed wireless access when near a hot-spot, and receive 3G services over a wider area. Eventually, since global standards and platforms for the development of innovative and high-speed mobile broadband services, it is essential for creating an integrated global market and for enhancing competition, ETSI has adopted (since 1998) the UMTS standard for 3G (UMTS Forum Report 31, 2004), changing dramatically the continuous evolving environment.



Principle Drivers of an M-Government Open Service Infrastructure The deployment of an m-government open service platform that could be shared by networked private and public authorities and institutions could be a promising approach with further insights on maintaining wireless service provision sustainability in a long-term perspective. Wireless technology is about extending the availability of an e-government infrastructure to mobile and wireless channels. It becomes more fully developed and as bandwidth increases with the availability of “always on” connectivity, next generation applications and entirely new practices will arise different from those delivered over existing static networks (Caldow, 2001). The large array of new communication technology opportunities, the rapid emergence and change of standards as well as the variety of mobile channels, offer different technical capabilities for sustainable architectures and technology frameworks in order to meet critical requirements like broadband, interoperability, scalability, transparency, personalization, privacy, and security. For a more concrete understanding, following, the chapter makes a reference to the aforementioned critical aspects of an m-government open service platform in an attempt to highlight the re-engineering imposition (Germanakos, Samaras, & Christodoulou, 2005c).

Broadband Along with the multi-platform access/convergence, broadband is considered a new initiative that will have a unique impact on the further development of the m-government channels and infrastructure. There is no universally accepted definition of broadband, but its key characteristics are high speed and always-on functionality. Currently, broadband access is mostly offered over legacy infrastructures, in particular over the telephone network using ADSL technology, and over cable TV networks using cable modems. These technologies require the upgrading of existing networks as such, and therefore are expected to remain the dominant platforms in the short- to medium-term driving the transition to a more pervasive deployment of new infrastructure. Thereafter, it will appear the next generation of service delivery relying on these features. If fully exploited, broadband technologies will improve the effective use of networks, and thereby increase service quality and sustainability. Having anywhere, anytime, anyhow access to information will contribute to greater multi-channel delivery effectiveness and efficiency.



Interoperability Interoperability is critical for the deployment of mobile broadband services. It is a multi-faceted issue and is necessary at various levels: device-to-network; deviceto-device; network-to-network; and between content and/or applications. Without appropriate interoperability between different infrastructure and terminal solutions, the 3G reality could remain fragmented. Different services and terminals should be available for different types of users. The significance of interoperability will be revealed in the ability of a network and a terminal to support reliably the functions required for a given service or content. Users mostly prefer to have services and information tailored to their needs and requirements, while knowing that their right to privacy is protected and services themselves are secure. In converging environments, new challenges to achieving interoperability emerge. Converging technology means that new systems and services are developed with inputs from multiple industries where the meaning of and reliance upon standardization and interoperability differ. However, agreement on common standards and specifications is essential to support information sharing e-government services over a universal interoperability framework. Most member states are already addressing this challenge by adopting national “e-government interoperability frameworks”. This is being complemented at European level by the development of the European Interoperability Framework “in support of pan-European eGovernment services to citizens and enterprises” (COM, 2003). These services could be distinguished in three different levels: organizational (application interoperability), semantic (semantic interoperability), and technical (enterprise architecture).

Transparency and Scalability The provision of a public service may cross the boundaries of numerous different authorities or governmental departments, which necessitates the integration of their offered services (conventionally, users were required to complete related to the service tasks by visiting various departments), thus dealing for example with public administration as a whole, without knowing what department or agency provides the desired information or service, how it can be discovered and used. This involves the sound co-existence and operation of interoperability mechanisms and processes amongst the diverse back-offices or different administrations. The service providers have to dynamically build and follow the workflow of these services, discovering and using semantics and supporting civil servants with knowledge management techniques (Europe’s Information Society, 2004a). Moreover, toward the interoperability reality, new enterprise business requirements and constraints affect the design of software applications and systems taking into



account parameters, like the number of concurrent clients that access the application, response times, transparency issues, transaction throughput, and so forth. Therefore, changes of these requirements are reflected in the actual design of the applications. As a result, in order to ensure the requested running efficiency and effectiveness, it is considered necessary to grow with the business requirements adopting simple techniques that would keep the basic application architecture intact but would provide the desired scalability (i.e., through the use of clustering techniques, by simply adding or removing servers).

Personalization: Access Segmentation It is an indisputable fact, that user population is not homogeneous, nor should it be treated as such. To be able to deliver quality services, they should be tailored to the needs of individual users providing them personalized and adaptive information at the requested moment. Although one-to-one service provision may be a functionality of the distant future, user segmentation is a very valuable step in the right direction. User segmentation means that the user population is subdivided (ideally per service or group of related services), into more or less homogeneous, mutually exclusive subsets of users who share an interest in the service. The subdivisions are based on one or more user characteristics. These could be demographic characteristics, socio-economic characteristics, psychographic characteristics, or individual physical and psychological characteristics (Germanakos, Tsianos, Mourlas, & Samaras, 2005d). The issue of personalization is a complex one with many aspects and viewpoints that need to be analyzed and resolved. Some of these issues become even more complicated once viewed from a moving user’s perspective, in other words when constraints of mobile channels and devices are involved (Panayiotou & Samaras, 2004). Such issues include, but are not limited to, the following: what content to present to the user, how to show the content to the user, how to ensure the user’s privacy, or how to create a global personalization scheme. Eventually, as clearly viewed so far, user characteristics, determining user segmentation and thus provision of the adjustable service information, differ according to the circumstances, and they change over time. This is one of the reasons why users should be offered a choice of channels when they access services.

Privacy and Security The emergence of mobile broadband channels and services include corporate and consumer applications involving personal and sensitive data. For these transactions, a trusted and secure identification and authentication process may be needed. A



common interoperable authentication framework is needed to ensure general purpose authentication throughout private and public service providers across Europe. More specifically, the following areas are identified with respect to mobile privacy and security research: trusted platforms for mobile security and privacy, mobile network/transport security and privacy, mobile application security and privacy, mobile privacy and identity management, basic security and privacy technologies for mobile environments, mobile application security framework, and user-centric mechanisms allowing controlled release of personal information (Europe’s Information Society, 2004b). Mobile communication-based authentication is well placed to serve as a basis, as it is already assisted by the universal availability of GSM networks and terminals across Europe.

The Re-Engineering Process “Integrated eGovernment will come to the fore when it is feasible and desirable to build a new architecture of ‘seamless government’, consisting no longer of range of ‘stove pipe’ organizations but of networks connecting ‘one-stop’ front offices to the back offices of services providers” (Leiner, 2003). To achieve this integration and interoperable process across Europe through a single-point-of-access to personalized services anywhere, anyhow, and at anytime the involved private and public sectors should unquestionably progress to the re-organization of their processes and methodologies extending to the re-establishment and re-configuration of their front and back-offices. Re-design of processes is defined as re-engineering of processes. In business literature, business process re-engineering (BPR) has been defined by the originators of the concept as the “fundamental rethinking of and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed” (Hammer & Champy, 1993). This fundamental strategy (process re-organization or re-engineering) applied to the private and public organizational functionality is driven by the need to increase efficiency and effectiveness providing a more flexible, collaborative, integrated, higher quality service delivery engaging at the same time more citizens. The ICT acts as an enabler allowing organizations to work in radically different ways, to share information, to break old rules and not only to create new processes but change existing ones simultaneously, being supportive to decentralization by means of, for example, flexibility and customization. Moreover, there is a clear and strong link between re-organizing government back-offices and the electronic public



services available to the people, in other words, between the front and back-office. The key to e-government and m-government success lies in integrating front and back-office systems and service delivery channels, but also in integrating services across organizational boundaries and across layers of government and other public institutions. The rationale behind re-organization of back-offices does not come from the belief, that simply replicating the old manual paper-based processes will optimally make use of the technology. On the contrary, it might even lead to increased costs. To fully make use of the technology, processes must be re-engineered, checking what steps in the process are necessary, what steps could be changed or merged, that is, “changes in work flows or changes in the structure of one or more agencies involved” (Millard & Jonas, 2004). Pan-European eGovernment services are meant to be cross-border public information and interactive services. The re-engineering and development of a pertinent multi-channel approach for the delivery of mobile e-government services require further and continuous investigation examining thoroughly the feedback and impact constantly accumulated. The substantially progressing new technologies, services channels, and communication methodologies have to be incorporated to the existing architectures enhancing openness, directness, efficiency, speed, and security and thereafter attracting more users online. The outcome of several studies conducted (IDA, 2004) provide an accurate guidance for the services to be implemented and the opportunities and technologies (wired and wireless) of a multi-channel approach for delivering such services.

An Open Interoperable Multi-Channel Architecture This section presents the identification of an open, integrated, and interoperable infrastructure model enabling the secure delivery of customer-centered and multichannel services in the area of e-government and m-government. The definition of such an infrastructure includes the identification of processes and mechanisms supporting the application and opening of current government infrastructures to transmit speedily and cost effectively information between governments (G2G), government and businesses (G2B), and government and citizens (G2C) as well as the type of applications installed for the interactive and efficient communication between the participating actors. Reference to latest technologies incorporated, formulating the structure and the communication of the various infrastructure components will also be made.



Introductory Infrastructure Approach: The Mobility Problem In the new European socio-economic, governmental, and mobile reality, a common technological infrastructure that could link all the governmental and business organizations as well as the public, not only inside a country’s borders but within the community as well has become a necessity. Therefore, systems and architectures that can work together have to be developed enabling apt communication at all levels. A major problem identified is that, huge economic investments have been made to legacy systems that are standalone providing a particular service not being structured in a way that could be incorporated with others. The main concern is not only to identify ICT technologies that could be ideal for separate systems, but since there is the major need for intercommunication (G2G, G2B, and G2C), to build the technological base that those systems could be attached to and with some necessary alterations to become interoperable and integrated. On top of this, noteworthy are also the different problems that mobility applications suffer today, such as local mobility, limited mobility, closed mobility, and interrupted mobility (Germanakos et al., 2005a) The proposed technological infrastructure is designed to comply with a general legal and procedural framework as well as with a number of principles, rules, and regulations (Finger & Pecoud, 2003) at a European level such as delivery of all the services 24 hours a day and seven days a week; improvement of online public service delivery for citizens and businesses by making it faster, more convenient, less constraining, more transparent, and more user friendly; simplification of administrative procedures and reduction of bureaucracy for citizen and business; share and exchange of data and information across governmental sectors; interoperability and cooperation between all public administration agencies or bodies to provide integrated services across organizational boundaries; establishment of standards for interfaces between departments that permit efficient and transparent communication with the outside world; back-office integration; protection of personal data; and so forth. Moreover, the architectural design and its further construction used all the necessary technologies (wired and wireless), mechanisms and procedures that will best satisfy the strategic guidelines mentioned previously and furthermore all the e-government and m-government objectives and purposes. More broadly, the particular infrastructure is composed of three main parts: 1.

A user interface (front-end), providing a single point of access to informational, interactive and transactional public and business services.

2.

An integration middleware, based on XML (Greunz, Schopp, & Haes, 2001), messaging and Web services. The middleware layer represents the nervous



system of public and business service delivery, enabling service/user requests and data to be assembled from across governments and dispatched accordingly, and enabling related transactions to be conducted. 3.

The back-end layer, whereby the actual internal and external services are stored and related requested information retrieved.

Vital needs/challenges this infrastructure is covering, providing additionally an easy-to-use support for desktop and mobile content management and maintenance, are focused upon: any network (combining both wired and mobile, i.e., GSM/GPRS/ UMTS, wireless LAN, PSTN/ADSL), any channel (i.e., Web, WAP) or device (i.e., mobile phone, PDA, PC), any user (i.e., any age, any culture, any expertise), any place (i.e., local, regional, national, European), any service (i.e., platform that can be tailored to any specific vertical application), and any situation (i.e., governmentto-government, government-to-citizen, government-to-business).

Multi-Tier Architecture Overview Since the current infrastructure is based on a multi-tier architecture, an overviewed reference to the specific architecture is considered necessary and is further presented in this section. A multi-tier architecture builds separate layers into applications so that maintenance and development concentrates to a particular layer. In essence, multi-tier architecture allows the distribution of components across multiple servers and access of data that is stored in multiple databases. There are no specific rules as to how many tiers to use or what each tier should actually do, but are specific to particular system design and implementation according to various user requirements. However, there are some principles that should be satisfied if a multi-tier environment is implemented: (a) scalable architecture and location transparency (it should be possible for each application layer to be located (distributed) on a physical different piece of hardware (server)); (b) information exchange (each layer should exchange information only with its lower or upper one); and (c) communication interface (each service within a layer should have a clearly defined way of invocation. This means that a communication interface should exist to exchange data between layers). In further support and enlighten of the general flow of the proposed infrastructure, an insight regarding the main parts of such a system design is given in the following: •

Client Tier: Receives HTML, WML, XHTML, and so forth, and delivers a friendly user interface (e.g., a standard Web browser) or receives an XML-



like data structure in the case of desktop clients, external systems, and so forth, for further processing. The client tier obtains the content from the lower layer utilizing HTTP/HTTPS, SOAP (Box et al., 2000), UDDI (2000), XML exchange, and so forth. •

Presentation Logic Tier: It handles requests/responses from/to multiple clients. This is where HTML, WML, and so forth, are rendered and delivered for the presentation in the client tier. It can also use XML data to communicate with desktop clients, third-party applications, and so forth.

•

Application Middle Tier: It connects to any data repository (database, LDAP, file system) and gets data, which it manipulates and transforms according to business rules. The middle tier receives requests from the client application over the presentation tier, and retrieves data from the data repository. Business logic is the code that processes retrieved data according to the requests received from the client application. The presentation and application middle tier are usually encapsulated in the server components.

•

Application Back-End: Usually it consists of the various data repositories (database, files system, LDAP), which exist separately from the client and the middle tiers.

The basic advantages in comparison to the traditional two-tier approach are in the performance and scalability. Multi-tier architecture performs substantially better than the two-tier architecture and is much more scalable. The performance and scalability improvements are a result of moving the business logic from the client to the server where it is possible to perform tasks in parallel, thus getting the most out of server and network resources. Moving the business logic to the servers has also considerable security advantages. Local communication between servers is more secure than communication with the client workstations. Furthermore, it is much easier to control access to sensitive data since requests originate from known sources. Consequently, critical business processes that handle sensitive data are run on the server. An additional advantage of the multi-tier architecture is that modifications to the business logic require minimal or no changes at all to the user interface or the database. The most dominant platforms suitable for multi-tier application development currently in the market are .NET (Microsoft .NET Framework Developer Center) and J2EE (An Overview of the J2EE Connector Architecture).

The Multi-Channel Architecture Description Holding the thoughts presented earlier, a presentation of the proposed multi-channel infrastructure is given (Germanakos et al., 2005c) trying to convey the essence and Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


the peculiarities of this design, answering to the question why it could be proved most appropriate and integrated for the satisfaction of the citizens’ and business’ needs and requirements on the services level. The current architecture depicted in Figure 1 is composed of three interrelated parts/ tiers. Each tier for the purpose of the infrastructure functionality may be composed of components and each component may be broken down into elements, as detailed in the following sub-sections:

Front-End It is the primary part and user access interface of the system directly communicating with the middleware exchanging multi-purpose data. It consists of four components each one assigned for a different scope: •

Multi-Device: Enables the attachment of various devices on the infrastructure, such as mobile phones, PDAs, desktop devices, and so forth, identifying the characteristics of the device and the preferences as well as the location of the user (Personalization/Location-based).

•

User Customization Layer: This component comprises of all the access-control data (for security reasons) and all the information regarding the user profile. It is based on LDAP standards. The type of information that is associated to the user concerns: preferences, geographical data, device model, age, business type, native language, context, and so forth.

•

Multi-Service Access Point: It is the entry point for the user enabling the login to the gateway. This component is directly communicating with the authentication and authorization component of the middleware where the actual verification for the user is taking place. Through this single point, the user has access to any service.

•

Multi-Channel: Due to the variety of multi-channel delivery, that is, over the Web, telephone, interactive kiosks and so on, this component consists of the elements that will make use of the different characteristics of the channels and will be the components in charge of handling requests of the services associated to each of the applications.

Middleware This is the main part of the architecture. At this level, all the requests are processed. This processing varies from security, to authentication, to integration, to interoperability and so forth. This tier accepts requests from the front-end and after the



necessary processing—either sends information back or communicates with the next tier (back-end) accordingly. The middleware is comprised of the following components: •

The first component is made up of eight elements, each one responsible for executing a different job. These elements are: o

Identity Management: It is responsible for the management of a user’s identity entering the system and what resources that person has access to. The backbone of identity management is a system of directories and directory-enabled applications.

o

Personalization/Location-Based: It is responsible for the custom tailoring information to the user. To Web-based applications, it returns a page that has been customized for the user, taking into consideration their habits and preferences. The personalization may be done by the user, the system, or both. The notion “location-based” is referring mostly to mobile systems that support user identification based on its location.

o

Session/Transaction Control: This element analyzes and controls all the parameters associated with every link opened between the platform and a user. It is responsible for resuming sessions and contexts when necessary and establishing adequate communication with other components such as multi-device and multi-channel residing at the front-end.

o

Routing and Messaging: It is a broker that works with existing messaging transports in order to add routing intelligence and data conversion capabilities. A rules engine analyzes the messages and determines which application should receive them, and a formatting engine converts the data into the structure required by the receiving application.

o

Authentication and Authorization: The verification of a user’s identification number or password that is used to gain access to the system granting them the right or permission to use the assigned system resources (direct communication with the multi-service access point component of the front-end).

o

Security and Certification: On the infrastructure level, it is the protection against unauthorized access to the system and the assurance that programs or routines running will be inaccessible for unauthorized users. On the application level, various security levels could be assigned for different users depending on the rights they have to use specific information or perform specific activities. Some data accessible for one user might not be for another.

o

Forms Engine: Responsible for the structure presentation of the data with the creation of on-screen data forms for entry, update, and so on.



o

Workflow Services: Responsible for the automatic routing of documents regarding particular services assigned to a user. Workflow combines rules, which govern the tasks performed by the user, and coordinates the transfer of the information required to support these tasks.

•

Services: The second component in the infrastructure is the services component. It is responsible for providing information with regards to the internal services of the infrastructure and refers to the specific domains of e-administration, e-business, and e-citizen. It can communicate with the back-end tier of the system, through the process automation layer, and the integration layer components, with the third-parties services to extract required data. The services component communicates directly with the first infrastructure component described previously.

•

The third component communicates with the services component and the elements of the first infrastructure component. It is made up of the following elements: o

Cross-National Service Provision: This element is responsible for increasing the feasibility and efficiency of cross-national services. It may be based on a multimedia distribution platform, that makes possible the replication of data between several Application Service Providers (ASP) in a network (WAN, using, i.e., frame-relay or satellite technologies).

o

Content Management: When a user enters the system, it manages/allocates the corresponding information based on their personalization profile.

Figure 1. Multi-channel open interoperable infrastructure



o

Platform Management: It manages the current status of the platform controlling, that is, the number of transactions to the server, activities/ tasks priority, performance issues, usability, communications, backup services, users monitoring, and so forth.

•

Process Automation Layer: It is responsible to provide automation of workflows, managing the sequence of activities, and invoking resources.

•

Data Communication Layer: Responsible for the smooth data communication within the infrastructure. This component is of great importance since it enables the integration of data using mostly XML. The data communication layer component and the process automation layer component make up the middle layer between the middleware and the back-end tiers.

•

Business Integration Layer for Third-Parties Services: This component refers to third-parties business services (services that are external to the infrastructure either they are new or they are legacy systems). It is responsible for the integration of the business processes, the identification, and the apt communication of those services with the middleware applying specific XML schemas, metadata, ODBCs, and so forth. It communicates with the process automation layer component and the network transport layer component of the back-end tier.

Back-End This is the last part of this architecture design, and it contains transition and integration mechanisms with the external business parties as well as the databases of all the services’ systems (external and internal). More particularly, it consists of: •

Network Transport Layer: It is responsible for the smooth transition of the external networks to the current infrastructure. It enables the communication of two or more inhomogeneous architectures. It is found between the business integration layer for third-parties services component and the access control layer component of the third-party services.

•

Third-Parties: This component represents the external business parties to be attached on the infrastructure. It communicates with the network transport layer component and consists of three elements: o

Access Control Layer: It gives access to the identified service onto the external network and furthermore to the various business systems.

o

External Knowledge Repositories: These are the databases containing the data of the external business systems.



o

•

Third-Party Business Systems: These are the actual external business systems. Such systems might be customer relationship management system, funds system, business budget system, employee development system, managing resources system, business accounting system, business inventory control system, and so forth.

The last component refers to the internal services, communicating with the data communication layer component, and it consists of the following two elements: o

Access Control Layer for Internal Services: It gives access to the internal services. At this point, no intermediate component is needed, like the third-parties component does, since these services are included into the infrastructure itself and no further alternations or interoperability procedures are needed.

o

Internal Knowledge Repositories: These are the databases of the internal services systems containing all the necessary data retrieved upon request.

The proposed multi-channel open interoperable infrastructure described earlier will allow the government and all related actors to provide online information and services through a single point of access to all the citizens and businesses increasing the effectiveness and quality while at the same time cutting the cost and saving time.

A System Design and Process Flow A practical implementation, based on the aforementioned architecture, of a mgovernment system design along with the related process flow is described in the following sections.

The Design The particular system has been applied successfully in the medical sector for home care treatment (Pitsillides, Pattichis, Pitsillides, & Kioupi, 1997; Pitsillides, Pitsillides, Samaras, Georgiades, Andreou, & Panteli, 2003; Pitsillides, Samaras, Dikaiakos, & Christodoulou, 1999a; Pitsillides, Samaras, Dikaiakos, Christodoulou, & Olympios, 1999b), but its design is customizable for other e-government service solutions. Its main aim is to support medical professionals for providing efficient and effective home care treatment through the use of mobile/wireless devices. The medical staff is equipped with a variety of mobile devices and has access to the patient information from anywhere and at anytime. The system is making use of important parts of the Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


architecture. It uses the multi-device, user customization layer, and multi-channel functionality of the front-end of the described architecture. It also makes use of the identity management, authentication, personalization/location-based, security and messaging functionalities of the middleware. The back-end of the system consists of access to the database. Multi-mobile devices were a necessity since most medical team members are mobile workers, visiting the patients at home, or need to be accessible from anywhere at anytime. Authentication, identity, and security may be used by accessing the system. The location and personal characteristics are recognized and managed for each user thus improving the performance of the service provision.

Implementation Technologies The design and development of the system is based on commonly available technology, Internet, and GSM/GPRS connectivity, integrating: •

Mobile agents for the implementation of flexible communication infrastructure in the middleware for the support of mobile users;

•

Relational database with Java database connectivity (JDBC) for the backend;

•

Tele-cooperation system for sharing of information, team communication, coordination of team activities as part of the middleware;

•

Adaptive intelligent interface for database access from a variety of access units, such as MCUs with GSM/GPRS Internet connectivity, and fixed units with Internet access supporting tele-cooperation for the front and middleware; and

•

GSM short message service (SMS) to enable push and pull of data and alerts for the middleware.

Potential Impact for Pan-European Services Delivery Pan-European eGovernment services are meant to be cross-border public information and interactive services. The development of a multi-channel approach for the delivery of Pan-European Mobile eGovernment services require further and



continuous investigation examining thoroughly the constant feedback and impact accumulated. The outcomes of several studies conducted (IDA, 2004) provide an accurate guidance for the services to be implemented and the opportunities and technologies (wired and wireless) of a multi-channel approach for delivering such services. Some broad predominant current impact results of related applications implementation are summarized in the following: •

Direct access to Web-based services information for a significant number of persons from multiple access points (i.e., kiosks, PCs)

•

Improved government services and image of public and private sector.

•

Because of the widespread use of mobile phones, most citizens are able to access the multiple services. The SMS medium is seen viable for the delivery of information and consequently conductive to a better quality of life for citizens.

•

Since SMS, in most countries, is a more cost-effective medium with respect to conventional media such as mail and fixed line telephony, the cost of delivering information is lower.

•

The citizens save time and do not have to go to the local offices within limited office hours to request a particular service. The online service is available round-the-clock, independent of office hours and without media breaks.

•

Ease of use thanks to personalized, in some cases, services.

•

Citizen satisfaction, accessing several governmental departments through a single portal provided with information on-demand.

•

Submission of information in a structured format, by means of online forms with a considerable reduction of the turnaround time between the moment of submission and the response time (in many cases, it has succeeded real-time transmission of information).

•

Just-in-time information: Information is possible to be communicated immediately to the citizens after it has become available in a cost effective manner.

Unquestionably, since the research and quality of findings are substantially progressing, new technologies, services channels, and communication methodologies have to be incorporated to the existing architectures enhancing openness, directness, efficiency, speed and security and thereafter attracting more users online.



Conclusion This chapter seized the opportunity of the rapid wired and wireless technological advancement and expansion as well as the indisputable need for multi-channel services delivery to investigate and further explore the related opportunities and challenges undersigned with the combination of these two standpoints. Primary objective was to examine whether the new ICT technologies could enable the involved services providers to re-engineer their front and back-offices so to adopt a flexible multi-channel open interoperable architecture increasing the services provision sustainability and consequently the citizens’ quality of life, not only locally but across the European reality as well. Key questions and arguments converging to the requirement for multi-channel service provision through a single point of access anywhere, anytime, and anyhow, re-enforcing this way core functionality issues related to mobility, interoperability, integration, transparency, scalability, and security struggled to be enlightened. Furthermore, the prime considerations and constraints (technological and not) with regards to the transition from e-government to m-government have been comprehensively described. More specifically, it seems that nowadays two contradictory objectives direct the private and public services providers: •

To improve the methodologies in which they serve the users, incorporating new channels for services delivery; and

•

To reduce the costs providing their services.

To meet these objectives, the involved parties have to thoroughly analyze the requirements of the users (i.e., be able to access services anywhere, anytime, and anyhow, through e-channels and mobile devices, be able to have direct interaction with a service provider when this is needed, the services provided to be of certain quality, findable, usable, and affordable, and delivered efficiently in terms of response time), and balance the efficiency improvement with their organizational requirements (i.e., cost savings can be realized by e-channels that require little or no staff involvement, efficiency can be improved by the redesign of processes, back-office integrations and component re-use, improving at the same time e-inclusion). All the aforementioned activities, related to e-services and e-services delivery, should be trustworthy and confidential always aligned to the users’ perceptions and requirements (IDA, 2001). As a final vital point, a proper selection and use of the services delivery channels must be encountered. Special emphasis should be placed to the smooth transition or integration of the wireless components to traditional platforms, emerging the



incorporation of new more advanced services delivery techniques and mediums such as e-mail, instant messaging, SMS, interactive voice response systems, digital television and so forth. These channels, primarily, must ensure to the citizens directness, accessibility and inclusion, speed, availability, and security and privacy, hence intensifying services delivery sustainability while improving their quality of life.

References An overview of the J2EE connector architecture. Retrieved November 20, 2006, from http://java.sun.com/j2ee/connector/ overview.html Box, D., Ehnebuske, D., Kakivaya, G., Layman, A., Mendelsohn, N., Nielsen, H., F., Thatte, S., & Winer, D. (2000). Simple object access protocol (SOAP) 1.1 Official Specification. W3C. Retrieved May 8, 2000, from http://www. w3.org/TR/SOAP Caldow, J. (2001). e-Gov goes wireless: From palm to shining palm. Institute of Electronic Government, IBM Corporation. CAP Gemini Ernst & Young. (2004). Online availability of public services: How is Europe progressing? European Commission DG Information Society. COM. (2002). eEurope 2005: An information society for all. Communication from the Commission, An Action Plan presented in view of the Sevilla European Council, COM(2002) 263 final, Commission of the European Communities, June 21-22. COM. (2003). The role of egovernment for Europe’s future. Communication from the Commission , COM(2003) 576 final, Commission of the European Communities, September 26, Brussels. COM. (2004). Mobile broadband services. Communication from the Commission, COM(2004) 447, Commission of the European Communities, June 30, Brussels. Europe’s Information Society. (2004a). eGovernment interoperability and PanEuropean services. Retrieved May 29, 2006, from http://europa.eu.int/information_society Europe’s Information Society. (2004b). Mobile services in egovernment. Retrieved May 29, 2006, from http://europa.eu.int/information_ society Europe’s Information Society. (2004c). User interaction. Retrieved May 29, 2006, from http://europa.eu.int/ information_society Finger, M., & Pecoud, G. (2003). From e-government to e-governance? Towards a model of e-governance. Electronic Journal of e-Government, 1(1), 1-10.



Germanakos, P., Christodoulou, E., & Samaras, G. (2005a). An overview description of a multi-channel egovernment open interoperable architecture – Communication technologies and constraints. In the Proceedings of the Workshop on “Architectures for Government Systems and Services” of the EGOV 2005 – International Conference on E-Government (EGOV05), Copenhagen, August 22-26 (pp. 78-85). Linz, Austria: Trauner Verlag. Germanakos, P., Mourlas, C., & Samaras, G. (2005b). Considering the new user requirements for apt mobile Internet services delivery. In the Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference on WWW/Internet 2005, Lisbon, October 19-22 (pp. 148-152). Lisbon, Portugal: IADIS Press. Germanakos, P., Samaras, G., & Christodoulou, E. (2005c). Multi-channel delivery of services – The road from egovernment to mgovernment: Further technological challenges and implications. In the Proceedings of the First European Conference on Mobile Government (Euro mGov 2005), Brighton, July 10-12 (pp. 210-220). Brighton, UK: Mobile Government Consortium International LLC. Germanakos, P., Tsianos, N., Mourlas, C., & Samaras, G. (2005d). New fundamental profiling characteristics for designing adaptive Web-based educational systems. In the Proceeding of the IADIS International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA2005), Porto, December 14-16 (pp. 10-17). Lisbon, Portugal: IADIS Press. Greunz, M., Schopp, B., & Haes, J. (2001). Integrating e-government infrastructure through secure XML document containers. In the Proceeding of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, USA, January 3-6 (p. 10). IEEE. Hammer, M., & Champy, J. (1993). Reengineering the corporation. A manifesto for business revolution. New York: Harper Business. Interchange of Data between Administrations, IDA. (2001). Benchmarking of electronic service delivery in the public sector. Executive report. Retrieved May 10, 2006, from http://europa.eu.int/idabc/ Interchange of Data between Administrations, IDA. (2004). Multi-channel delivery of egovernment services. Retrieved May 10, 2006, from http://europa. eu.int/idabc/ Leiner, C. (2003). eGovernment in Europe: The state of affairs. Presented at the eGovernment 2003 Conference, Como, Italy, July 7-8. Microsoft.NET Framework Developer Center. Retrieved May 15, 2006, from http:// msdn.microsoft.com/ netframework/ Millard, J. I., & Jonas, S. (2004). Reorganization of government back offices for better electronic public services – European good practices. Final report to the European Commission. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Panayiotou, C., & Samaras, G. (2004). mPERSONA: Personalized portals for the wireless user: An agent approach. Journal of ACM/Baltzer Mobile Networking and Applications (MONET), special issue on “Mobile and Pervasive Commerce”. Pitsillides, A., Pattichis, C., Pitsillides, B., & Kioupi, S. (1997). Tele-homenursing: A cooperative model for patient care in the home. Comprehensive Cancer Care: Focus on Cancer Pain, Limassol, Cyprus, May 28-31 (p. 48). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier. Pitsillides, B., Pitsillides, A., Samaras, G., Georgiades, D., Andreou, P., & Panteli, N. (2003). DITIS: A collaborative system to support home-care by a virtual multidisciplinary team. 8th Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care, The Hague, Netherlands, April. Pitsillides, A., Samaras, G., Dikaiakos, M., & Christodoulou, E. (1999a). DITIS: Collaborative virtual medical team for home healthcare of cancer patients. Conference on the Information Society and Telematics Applications, Catania, Italy, April 16-18. Pitsillides, A., Samaras, G., Dikaiakos, M., Christodoulou, E., & Olympios, K. (1999b). DITIS, Collaborative virtual medical team for home healthcare of cancer patients. Re-engineering Cyprus for the Digital Age, December. PRISMA. (2002). Pan-European changes and trends in service delivery. Deliverable D2.2. Retrieved May 20, 2006, from http://www. prisma-eu.net/pages/index. htm SEC. (2003). The role of egovernment for Europe’s future. Communication from the Commission, 1038. Top of the Web. (2003). Survey on quality and usage of public eservices. Retrieved May 15, 2006, from http://www. idt.unisg.ch/org/idt/ceegov. nsf/0/1ae4025175a16a90c1256df6002a0fef/$FILE/Final_report_2003_quality_and_usage.pdf UDDI. (2000). UDDI Technical White Paper. Retrieved May 15, 2006, from http:// www.uddi.org UMTS Forum Report 31. (2004). UMTS next generation devices. Retrieved May 15, 2006, from http://www.umts-forum.org


318 Macumber & Cheung

Chapter XVI

A Secure Wireless Data Access Service for the Government of Canada1 Howie Macumber, Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), Canada Bing Cheung, Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), Canada

Abstract This chapter examines work conducted by Public Works and Government Services Canada, a department of the Government of Canada (GoC), to assess the potential for a Secure Wireless Data Access Service (SWDAS) that is envisaged to be provided as a common service to departments and agencies of the GoC. The main focus of the work has been on Wi-Fi, especially the IEEE 802.11b standard, and its application. Areas examined include technology, security, spectrum management, user surveys, applications, business, finance, service trial, future trends, and recommendations for the implementation of Wi-Fi in government. It is demonstrated that the application of Wi-Fi technology in the GoC would be beneficial for the government workforce from both a financial and a technological perspective.


A Secure Wireless Data Access Service 319

Introduction Over the past two decades, cellular telephone technology has been booming, providing people with the ability to communicate with voice virtually ubiquitously. At the same time, data communications has come to the forefront with the explosion of the personal computer and Internet markets. As a result, people want to communicate wirelessly not only with voice but also with high-speed data. In this information technology environment, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) networks were born. As this technology comes of age at the beginning of the 21st century, it is bound to affect not only the general public and private sector business but government as well. The application of Wi-Fi services based on IEEE 802.11 standards is an imminent issue facing many government organizations. Equipment manufacturers, such as Intel and Cisco, have published business cases to demonstrate the advantages of using Wi-Fi in workplaces for both private and public sectors (Cisco, 2004; Intel, 2004). There are already many Wi-Fi hotspots on trains and in coffee shops, hotels, airports, train stations, stadiums, and educational institutions all over the world. Like the service industry and private sectors, many governments would like to have access to Wi-Fi services for their workforces in support of the m-government mobility concept. In fact, many governments around the world are undertaking Wi-Fi pilots and trials to demonstrate their competence and leadership in using this technology. For example, in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has installed a public access point in its building in Washington DC (FCC, 2003). In Britain, the UK e-commerce minister has plans for all libraries in Britain to have Wi-Fi access (BBC, 2003). In Australia, the Queensland Government has Wi-Fi hotspot trials in the Central Business District of Brisbane (Australia, 2003). The Government of Canada (GoC) is likewise assessing the opportunity to apply Wi-Fi in a federal government environment. One such initiative involves a collaborative effort between the Information Technology Services Branch (ITSB) and the Real Property Branch (RPB) of Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC).2 As part of this initiative, PWGSC has conducted a series of projects over the last few years aimed at assessing the potential of providing a secure wireless data access service (SWDAS) as a common service to departments and agencies of the GoC. The work, which is the focus of this chapter, started with the assessment of Wi-Fi technology in the laboratory, progressed to a series of service trials and pilots of increasingly more complex service scenarios, included a survey of users to determine their mobile computing business needs, and involved studies of technical, security, and operational issues, as well as a business case analysis. Although the service has not advanced beyond the pilot stage, many valuable lessons have been learned from the efforts to date. Following this introduction, the next section describes the service concept for SWDAS. The third section discusses the technical aspects of Wi-Fi technology, covering the



different types, features, and characteristics. The fourth section addresses security issues as an important concern for the transmission of protected information over government networks, focusing on the types of attacks and the appropriate security measures which are recommended. The fifth section examines policies and management practices required to minimize interference and maximize the proper use of resources. The sixth section provides a user perspective on the benefits of using Wi-Fi in government. The seventh section presents a business case and a financial analysis on the service trial carried out by PWGSC. The eighth section describes a six-month service trial conducted by PWGSC in Canada’s National Capital Region. The process and issues encountered during the trial and the user feedback from the trial are covered. The ninth section provides some predictions on the future trends of Wi-Fi technology and its application. Finally, the last section summarizes the conclusions of our work.

The Service Concept for SWDAS The secure wireless data access service (SWDAS) is envisioned to be an enterprise Wi-Fi service that would enable government workers to connect in a secure manner to their departmental applications and services from virtually anywhere, be it from the premises of their own department or those of other departments, as well as from public Wi-Fi hot-spots and through Wi-Fi access points at home. This concept is in contrast to deploying Wi-Fi services on an individual departmental basis, which would mean that only users authorized by the individual department operating the particular network would be able to use it. Under the departmental deployment scenario, government employees would likely have access to Wi-Fi services only while on the premises of their own department but not when they visited the premises of another government department. By having PWGSC deploy the service as a Government of Canada enterprise solution, access could be provided to any government employee at any location where an SWDAS access point has been established. The enterprise deployment scenario also reduces or eliminates issues of managing interference between Wi-Fi systems and the allocation of Wi-Fi channels across departmental boundaries that would exist under a departmental deployment scenario in cases where multiple departments share a single building. From a security perspective, the SWDAS is designed to carry information that the Government of Canada designates “Protected B”, that is, information that is sensitive but not classified. While the service uses the security mechanisms built into the Wi-Fi protocol, it does not rely on them exclusively. Recognizing that these built-in security mechanisms are relatively weak, the service overlays other, more powerful, security mechanisms to provide the level of security required.



The SWDAS is intended to provide mobile access to any service or application to which an employee would have access from their office computer. The principal target market for the service is mobile government workers equipped with laptop computers or powerful personal digital assistants (PDAs) who need access to a broad range of departmental services and applications beyond simply e-mail and calendaring. The SWDAS service could also be used to provide restricted access to government services and applications for contractors working on government premises or to suppliers or members of the general public visiting government buildings.

Technology Wi-Fi, also often referred to as wireless local area network (WLAN), is a promising short-range high-speed wireless access method using the IEEE 802.11 standard for mobile communication. With Wi-Fi technology, users can use mobile devices, such as appropriately-equipped laptops and PDAs, to roam about buildings, or any other location where coverage is available, to stay connected to the Internet or a local area network (LAN) without Ethernet wiring.

IEEE 802.11b The most commonly encountered Wi-Fi version, IEEE 802.11b, provides a data rate of up to 11 Mbps in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band. It uses the Ethernet protocol and carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) for path sharing. The encoding scheme is direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) with complementary code keying (CCK) and, as an option, packet binary convolutional coding (PBCC) in the physical layer. Due to the relatively narrow spectrum of this 2.4 GHz ISM band, only three non-overlapping channels can be supported.

IEEE 802.11a A second Wi-Fi version, IEEE 802.11a, operates in an unlicensed band at 5 GHz (called the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure band in the U.S.). It has a higher data rate of up to 54 Mbps supported by orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technology and is similar to the HIPERLAN/2 technology used in Europe. Due to the relatively wider spectrum at 5 GHz, up to eight non-



overlapping channels can be supported. As a result of its higher frequency, it offers more limited geographic coverage than IEEE 802.11b and therefore more access points are required to serve a given area. This consequently makes it more expensive to deploy than the IEEE 802.11b approach. IEEE 802.11a devices are also unable to interwork with IEEE 802.11b devices.

IEEE 802.11g IEEE 802.11g is an extension to IEEE 802.11b. Operating in the ISM band (as does IEEE 802.11b), it achieves the same top speed of 54 Mbps as IEEE 802.11a, using OFDM multiplexing technology in combination with CCK-OFDM and (optionally) PBCC coding technology. It is backward compatible with IEEE 802.11b and thus IEEE 802.11b air cards can interwork directly with an IEEE 802.11g access point at 11 Mbps and vice versa, provided that the IEEE 802.11g devices are configured to support both modes. The disadvantage is that if any IEEE 802.11b device is active on the network, all devices on the network must fall back to IEEE 802.11b mode of operation.

IEEE 802.11i To provide stronger security and privacy, IEEE 802.11i is being developed. It is not a new transmission protocol, but rather an enhancement applicable to any of the existing IEEE 802.11 transmission protocols (i.e., IEEE 802.11a, b, and g). It is intended to provide extra authentication, authorization, and encryption capabilities. Instead of having a static WEP key protocol for security as used in basic IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11i uses dynamic key protocols such as robust secure network (RSN),3 extensible authentication protocol (EAP), counter mode with cipher block chaining message authentication code protocol (CCMP), and wireless robust authentication protocol (WRAP) to ensure better privacy for wireless data transfer.

IEEE 802.11e For wireless multimedia applications requiring a better quality of service (QoS), IEEE 802.11e is being introduced to provide for the prioritization of data, voice, and video transmissions. Like IEEE 802.11i, this is an enhancement applicable to any IEEE 802.11 transmission protocol. IEEE 802.11e enhances the media access control (MAC) layer with a coordinated time division multiple access (TDMA) construct and adds error-correcting mechanisms for delay sensitive applications



such as voice and video. It supports full-motion video, high-fidelity audio, and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).

IEEE 802.11n The wireless industry is on its way to developing the next connectivity technology, called IEEE 802.11n. It is aimed at delivering 100 Mbps throughput at the MAC layer service access point (MAC SAP). This high data rate can be achieved through use of the multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO) technology, which is based on smart and diverse antennas. However, IEEE 802.11n is still in its infancy and commercial products are not expected to be available until 2007 at the earliest. To date, the work of PWGSC has primarily concentrated on Wi-Fi technology that uses the IEEE 802.11b standard. Therefore, the rest of this chapter will focus on findings from studies, pilots, and service trials on IEEE 802.11b conducted in PWGSC.

Security One of the main concerns in deploying Wi-Fi technology is security. It is especially true in government because of privacy and confidentiality considerations and the need to transmit protected information over government networks. Wireless networks, such as Wi-Fi, have long been characterized as being more vulnerable to security risks as compared to wireline networks. However, implementing proper security measures and employing sophisticated authentication and data encryption technology can make Wi-Fi networks as secure as wireline networks.

Types of Attacks There are a number of security risks associated with Wi-Fi (Deganutti & Kolasa 2003; Gort, 2002). Before examining the viable solutions, it is important to define and understand the threats. For instance, spoofing attacks can occur when an intruder configures his or her wireless device to appear to have the same MAC address as an authorized access point or wireless terminal. When spoofing an access point, the intruder’s terminal appears as the authorized access point, with the intent to associate with an authorized wireless terminal and access the data on that terminal. On the other hand, when spoofing a wireless terminal, the intruder’s terminal appears as the authorized terminal, with the intent to gain unauthorized access to the wireless network. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Availability attacks (also called denial of service) can occur by accident or through intentional actions. Since many other types of wireless equipment use the 2.4 GHz frequency band, an attacker operating in the same band can “jam” the spectrum and thereby disrupt or block communications. The attacker can flood an access point by sending a continuous stream of meaningless information, causing it to become unusable by authorized users. On the other hand, the attacker can also flood a receiving wireless terminal, thereby forcing it to deplete its limited battery power. War-driving attacks usually occur when an intruder using an application such as NetStumbler drives through business districts of cities listening for a strong RF signal in order to detect an access point of any nearby Wi-Fi network. NetStumbler is a Windows utility, which can detect any unprotected IEEE 802.11b wireless network by scanning for broadcasting access points. If a Wi-Fi network is detected and it does not have any security protection, little effort is required to attack and penetrate it. Man-in-the-Middle attacks require sophisticated analyzer and sniffer tools such as AirMagnet, Airsnort, Fluke Waverunner, Kismet, NetStumbler, Sniffer Pro, Sniffer Wireless, WEPCrack, Yellow Jacket, and YBT-250 (Visoso, 2003). Table 1 provides a brief description of each of these tools. While many of these are legitimate network management tools, they can equally be put to use by hackers to facilitate system attacks. These products can be used to monitor the wireless data flow to sniff the service set identifier (SSID) for the devices in the system and crack the encryption key so as to break into the networks. The intruder inserts the tool within range of an access point and a wireless terminal to capture packets in transmission while the authorized devices (both the access point and wireless terminal) fail to detect the intruder and continue to transmit information. The intruder can then capture legitimate information, collect transaction information, inject false data, or even hijack the session. Last but not least, Wi-Fi equipment may be disabled due to weather conditions or vandalism. For example, outdoor access points can be obstructed by snow and ice or be knocked askew by winds. As for vandalism, visible antennas located in public places such as sports stadiums and schools are susceptible to physical attacks. Wi-Fi equipment can also be an attractive target for thieves.

Security Measures To counter these attacks, the 802.11b specification itself provides some measure of protection. The wired equivalent privacy (WEP) protocol built into 802.11b provides a common way to encrypt data and authenticate users. WEP technology provides a 128-bit encryption technique with RC4 random number generator and CRC-32 cyclic redundancy code that scrambles data before it goes over the air and an authentication algorithm called shared key authentication to authenticate the client. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Table 1. A sampling of Wi-Fi network management and cracking tools Tool

Description 

AirMagnet

Airsnort Fluke Waverunner Kismet

NetStumbler

Sniffer Pro

Sniffer Wireless WEPCrack Yellow Jacket

YBT-250

                       

used for Wi-Fi administration, installation surveying, security assessment, connection troubleshooting and performance management functions runs on pocket PC passively monitors transmission 5 to 10 million encrypted packets required to be collected before computing the WEP key detects rogue access points Linux powered HP iPAQ PDA Wi-Fi detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system used for rogue access point detection, war-driving and site survey passively collects packets Windows utility for war-driving sniff rogue access points and detect Wi-Fi networks ministumbler (pocket PC version) network analyzer with a built-in traffic generator real-time and historical traffic display used to maintain, troubleshoot and fine-tune Wi-Fi networks network analyzer detects rogue access points and mobile devices software-based (runs on laptop) an open source tool for breaking WEP key software-based in Perl language real-time spectrum analyzer measures packet error rate, multi-path, RSSI works with Compaq iPAQ PDA handheld interference analyzer measures power and verifies signals of GSM/GPRS, EDGE, W-CDMA/UMTS, cdmaOne, CDMA2000 1xRTT, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, TDMA and analog base stations

However, WEP alone is not secure enough to provide the level of protection needed for government networks. WEP uses a static key protocol, it is shared among all stations and access points in the system, and it is cumbersome to change. As a result, it can be fairly easily cracked when ample time is provided. Fortunately, other security technology is available which can be used in addition to WEP to protect government wireless 802.11b environments.



IEEE 802.1x offers an effective framework for authenticating and controlling user traffic to a protected network (not limited to wireless networks) and dynamically varying encryption keys. It employs a protocol called EAP (as mentioned in the IEEE 802.11i section) that allows only EAP packets to be transmitted during the authentication process. As a result, no other overhead traffic is transmitted before the client is verified. In addition, unlike the static key in WEP that necessitates the manual reconfiguration of each access point and network interface card (NIC) when it is changed, users of IEEE 802.1x can change their dynamic keys as often as they want. Therefore, IEEE 802.1x provides much stronger security than WEP alone. Virtual private network (VPN) is an IP security (IPSec) protocol that was developed to enable client systems to securely connect to servers over the public Internet. VPN employs strong authentication and encryption mechanisms, such as public key infrastructure (PKI), that have proven to be extremely robust over the past several years. It uses secure 3DES MD5 encryption and is authenticated by a PKI server. Cracking the VPN tunnel is unrealistic because of the strong encryption. In addition, VPN is able to create a tunnel between two end points, protecting the end-toend connection against intrusion for packets traversing the Internet. As a result, it is recommended that VPN technology plus IEEE 802.1x authentication should be implemented in addition to the WEP protocol built into IEEE 802.11b to provide adequate security for the corporate Wi-Fi networks in government. In addition, careful and proper management is required to ensure security. Encryption can be broken if hackers can sniff out the keys. Likewise, if attackers can gain access to trusted clients, such as workers’ home PCs, they can use them to enter government networks. The deployment of Wi-Fi should be backed up with ample employee training regarding password management and PC use. In addition, the account termination process should be quickly invoked when required so as not to allow any terminated employee access to government networks. Physical protection and security measures are necessary to protect Wi-Fi equipment from the weather as well as from theft and vandalism. Proper monitoring and maintenance is also important. Non-visible antennas, which are often installed behind ceiling tiles, are a better choice for Wi-Fi equipment where theft and vandalism are a concern. Moreover, intrusion detection systems, such as closed circuit television, may be used to monitor remote or exposed assets. In addition, users should be educated on the importance of protecting their Wi-Fi equipment from theft, damage, or misuse.



Spectrum Management Policies and Practices The deployment of a wireless data access service requires that a policy for managing the frequency spectrum utilized by Wi-Fi in government buildings be put in place and enforced (Ranger, 2002). Since there are only three (3) non-overlapping channels that an IEEE 802.11b access point can use, the channel assignments need to be carefully planned and implemented. An effective spectrum management policy ensures that channels are assigned to the network of access points in a manner that minimizes interference and maximizes the performance and coverage for end users. Moreover, to minimize interference, this policy must apply to any radio-emitting device that utilizes the IMS band (Gagnon, 2002; Hoch, 2002). Apart from Wi-Fi equipment, Bluetooth wireless devices, cordless phones, microwave ovens, wireless cameras, wireless headphones, and even certain fluorescent lighting utilize or emit in this same IMS frequency band, and these devices can cause interference with each other. The spectrum management policy and practices must ensure that all these devices optimally utilize and share the frequency band. More importantly, since Wi-Fi technology is inexpensive and simple to set up and use, if a spectrum management policy is not enforced, an employee could easily set up his or her own access point without proper site planning or approval from the network security and information management groups. Without adequate security measures for this access point, it can become an entry point for intruders into the government network even though authorized access points are secure and protected. An intruder can easily attach to the network through this insecure access point and access internal government information. In addition, an access point that is installed without proper authorization may interfere with authorized access points (or other wireless equipment) in the vicinity. As a result, the performance of all the affected authorized access points will be negatively impacted.

User Perspective In December 2002, prior to the start of the SWDAS trial (discussed later in the chapter), PWGSC surveyed a group of users within the department to determine their feelings about a range of mobile solutions that could potentially enable employees to better perform their jobs. PWGSC hoped to gain insight into, among other things, whether they perceived a need for mobile high-speed data access technology such as Wi-Fi.



Employees’ Expectations and Requirements A questionnaire designed to measure expectations of and need for mobile telecommunications solutions was distributed to 74 professional/managerial employees, of whom 58 responded. The survey results (Morin, 2002, 2003) identified that respondents fell into one of three levels of mobility. Members of the first group, dubbed Road Warriors, spent more than a half of their time away from their offices and represented a quarter of employees. Members of the second group, Corridor Cruisers, spent between one quarter and one half of their time away from their offices and represented a third of the respondents. Finally, the Desk Jockeys, who work almost exclusively in their office, made up the remainder. Table 2 shows the level of mobility and the percentage distribution of employees in the survey group. Respondents were asked to rank a number of communications applications based on their need for the application. While the rankings varied from group to group, when averaged across all three groups, the five most highly-ranked items were the capability to: (1) receive phone calls anywhere at any time; (2) access e-mail anywhere at any time; (3) access voice messages, e-mail messages and faxes using only one device; (4) receive voice mail notifications anywhere at any time; and (5) place/receive phone calls, access the intranet, receive short text messages, and verify e-mail and personal agenda using only one device. While not in the top five for the overall group, the need to access work files and other information on the departmental LAN with a laptop or other devices from other government buildings was among the top five requirements for Road Warriors. From this survey, government employees definitely perceive a need to have access to business applications during periods when they are away from their offices. In many cases, this access either would have to be provided or could most effectively be provided through wireless services, whether they be cellular data or Wi-Fi services. These findings were seen as supportive of PWGSC initiatives to assess wireless services, including the Wi-Fi service trial discussed later in this chapter.

Table 2. Level of mobility for employees

Road Warriors Corridor Cruisers Desk Jockeys

Level of Mobility (% of time away from the office) > 50% 25% - 50% < 5%

Percentage of Employees 26% 33% 41%



Benefits According to PWGSC studies (Cheung, 2004; Ranger, 2003), Wi-Fi literature contains numerous examples of intangible or soft benefits that have been attributed to implementing Wi-Fi. They include convenience, flexibility, time savings, productivity gains, improving communications, reducing errors, saving office space, reducing stress, higher employee satisfaction, and improving the government’s image (Cisco, 2003; Intel, 2002, 2003; NOP, 2001; Sage, 2001). In the PWGSC research on Wi-Fi, it is clear that some segments in the GoC would benefit more than others from Wi-Fi applications. The key segments benefiting most from Wi-Fi would be workers requiring a high level of mobility at work for specific business applications. Typical characteristics and requirements of these groups include frequent travel, working from home on a regular basis (telecommuting), frequently attending meetings, attending conferences away from their office, visiting different offices and sites within the same corporation or in public locations where Wi-Fi is available, working in a large warehouse or factory, and taking inventory of supplies where access to server-based information to process transactions is a business requirement. In terms of job positions, these characteristics tend to apply to the functional areas of information technology, executive management, inspectors, sales, and customer service. As a result, the implementation of Wi-Fi in government should be prioritized based upon these segments that could make the most effective use of the technology and its benefits.

Financial Aspects The wireless project has encompassed several activities, including lab tests, engineering studies, and the pilot in PWGSC. Human resources costs have accounted for 78% of the total cost, while infrastructure, equipment, and software costs make up the other 22%. The initial setup cost was found to be an average of CDN$299 per seat (Cheung, 2002). PWGSC conducted a business case analysis on the implementation of Wi-Fi for the GoC (Cheung, 2004) using the WLAN Benefits Calculator from the Wi-Fi Alliance (2003). This tool is an Excel spreadsheet financial calculator for preparing a Wi-Fi business case. For the study, PWGSC used the calculator with GoC scenarios, assumptions, and data. The study considered two options. The first option (in-house) assumed that internal GoC resources would install, operate, and maintain Wi-Fi for all government buildings. The second option (outsource) assumed that the government would contract with a Wi-Fi service provider (WSP) to install, operate, and maintain the Wi-Fi Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


service within government buildings. The options were compared on the value of the productivity gains produced—net of the cost of providing the service. However, one must acknowledge that productivity gains are often considered to be soft savings (i.e., intangible or subjective in nature) with forecasts of such savings frequently being viewed with skepticism by senior decision makers. Both options showed positive values on the return on investment (ROI) for the GoC. When comparing the options, the monetary gain for the outsource option (CDN$2,613 per user per year) is about 15% higher than for the in-house option (CDN$2,280). The outsource option, moreover, reduces the initial risk to the GoC, as the sunk installation costs would be borne by the WSP. The payback period for the outsource option is estimated to be four months, which is shorter than that for the in-house option at 11 months. In addition, the outsource option can provide extra connectivity for GoC employees in public areas outside government buildings, such as hotels, restaurants, airports, and train stations that are serviced by the governmentcontracted WSP, either directly or through roaming agreements with other WSPs. Last but not least, the WSP would be expected to plan for and include in its rates the cost of Wi-Fi technology changes and upgrades in the future. Thus, the outsource model deserves serious consideration as an approach to implement Wi-Fi. Though studies conducted by PWGSC have shown that Wi-Fi applications are perceived by employees to be beneficial, and the business case indicates that deployment would be positive financially to the government, persuading government departments to implement Wi-Fi is proving to be a challenge. Departments foresee additional expenses being added to already over-stretched IT budgets in return for the promise of soft savings to be reaped later. The cost would need to be absorbed internally, especially if departments were to offer Wi-Fi applications to provide value-added services for the general public, such as tourism and libraries. To facilitate the acquisition of Wi-Fi services by the GoC, an efficient procurement vehicle for these services would also need to be established. Furthermore, one must acknowledge that the potential market for SWDAS is somewhat limited. The prime market for the service—mobile workers with laptop computers—is a relatively small fraction of total government workers. The market is further diminished when one considers the proliferation of PDAs providing e-mail and calendar functions to mobile workers. Consequently, the true market is only those mobile workers who have use of a laptop computer and who require greater functionality than merely e-mail and calendar functions.



SWDAS Trial Between December 2002 and May 2003, PWGSC conducted a trial of the secure wireless data access service (SWDAS). The trial was a collaborative effort between Bell Nexxia, Cisco Systems Inc., and two branches of PWGSC, namely the IT Services Branch and the Real Property Branch (RPB). Bell Nexxia managed the implementation and provided ongoing support for the service trial. Cisco Systems Inc. provided IEEE 802.11b wireless access products and account management servers known as the building broadband service manager (BBSM) that performed authentication services. PWGSC provided on-site technical support and constituted the participants in the trial. The trial accomplished several goals. PWGSC engineering staff gained knowledge in the issues encountered in designing, deploying, and operating such a service. Among these were spectrum management issues associated with determining the placement of access points to assure coverage and minimize interference, security issues, integration issues related to getting SWDAS to work with the PWGSC IT infrastructure and applications, and support issues such as understanding the volume and type of support calls from users. The user groups had an opportunity to experience the impact of wireless mobility on their productivity and job satisfaction. The SWDAS trial was conducted in two building complexes within Canada’s National Capital Region, one located in Gatineau, Québec, and the other in Ottawa, Ontario (Visoso, 2004). This trial provided high-speed broadband wireless access to the Internet and the PWGSC corporate LAN. Access to the Internet from either location was provided through IEEE 802.11b access points. Secure access into the PWGSC corporate LAN was established using the PWGSC secure remote access (SRA) service that is based on VPN and PKI technologies and certified to transport Protected B information. Users who split their time between the two buildings could access LAN services from either location using SWDAS. Figure 1 shows the setup at Place du Portage, Phase III in Gatineau. A similar setup was also implemented at 160 Elgin Street in Ottawa. Access points were installed on several floors of the Gatineau complex (3A2, 5A2, 5B3, 8A1, and 8A2) as well as in Innovatec, PWGSC’s technology showcase centre. These access points were connected via a LAN to a RADIUS server and firewall in the ITSB telecommunications lab that, in turn, was connected to the GoC’s secure channel network (SCNet). SCNet is an intranet that provides connectivity between departmental networks as well as access to the Internet. Devices using the SWDAS were required to have an SRA client and PKI certificate. To access the PWGSC network, SWDAS users would establish a connection between their device and the PWGSC SRA gateway attached to SCNet. Therefore, even though users might be located on PWGSC premises, the connection appeared to the network to be a remote connection. A benefit of this architecture is that users Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


can access the service from any location equipped with an SWDAS access point, which could be from the premises of another government department. In addition, even when they were outside the coverage area of SWDAS, they could use the SRA component of the service to access the PWGSC corporate LAN from a public wireless hotspot or over a high-speed Internet connection from home. The SWDAS trial involved users with laptop and desktop PCs. There were no users with PDAs, though this is an aspect the team would like to include in future trials. All PCs were running the Windows 2000 operating system as this was the PWGSC standard and there would have been technical difficulties in supporting multiple operating systems in the trial. The access points were positioned for optimum coverage based on a site survey that included radio field strength measurements. Participants were required to apply for an SRA account and PKI certificate through standard ITSB corporate network service requisition processes.

Figure 1. SWDAS trial network configuration



Issues Encountered The trial was first and foremost a service development exercise that focused on integrating the Wi-Fi service with the PWGSC corporate network and SRA service and on gaining an understanding of the operational issues involved in providing such a service. These objectives were achieved; however, the trial service was not operated to production standards. Due to the constant tweaking and fiddling by the engineers, the service could be characterized as being somewhat unstable for most of the trial. As would be expected, some technical and administrative issues were experienced during the course of the SWDAS trial (Hoch, 2003). These issues, however, should not be considered as obstacles in setting up and using Wi-Fi since, in all cases, the issues were satisfactorily resolved. The trial showed that even though the Wi-Fi service was being developed as a commercial product, the unique requirements of government departments warranted special consideration. To provide a secure Wi-Fi access to government networks, simply buying a Wi-Fi service from a WSP did not constitute a complete solution. For instance, the WSP initially proposed the use of equipment, including access points, firewalls, NICs, and USB (universal serial bus) devices, that was incompatible with equipment used in the government network. Only when the WSP became familiar with the government networks and equipment, accomplished primarily through trial and error, was the technical support group finally able to find the right mix of equipment. On the government side, administrative issues were encountered with the SRA and PKI account activation process even for this small-scale trial. Government policy currently requires the use of a somewhat complex face-to-face registration process involving a local registration authority (LRA). A large-scale deployment certainly would have severely taxed the account activation resources available to register government employees.

Evaluation of the SWDAS Trial In general, users proved to be tolerant of the experimental nature of the SWDAS trial service and forgave the many instabilities experienced, feeling that they were more than offset by the increased functionality provided. There were 23 participants at the start of trial and 21 at the end. Twenty-two participants completed the pre-trial survey and 14 completed the post-trial survey (Morin, 2003). Twelve participants used laptop PCs during the trial with the remainder using Wi-Fi-enabled desktop PCs.



Of the participants, the majority was in the technical/professional category and was semi-mobile either within the building or outside. Only 5% considered themselves as Road Warriors, meaning that they work away from the office more than half of the time. The majority of the participants had previous experience with WLAN. Participants considered their experience with the trial service to be quite satisfactory even though they sometimes experienced operational impacts—such as slow performance, freezing, or long login procedures. The impairments were relatively frequent even during the latter part of the trial when the service became more stable. Respondents reported unusual occurrences such as losing their connection to the service when the laptop went into sleep mode. In addition, there were a few service outages but they were fairly rare. Respondents experienced a substantial increase in mobility during the trial, and this aspect met their expectations. A few respondents tried collaborative work on documents and were very satisfied that it could be done successfully. Those who used the service with their laptops were enthusiastic about the flexibility and the mobility that the service offered. For example, they could walk to a colleague’s office with their laptops without losing their connection. Experience acquired from a previous trial certainly contributed to the smooth functioning of the present project. In turn, lessons learned from this endeavour will undoubtedly prove invaluable in future initiatives on wireless connectivity. Suggestions for extending the work included: (1) an improved secure remote access service with a streamlined login procedure involving fewer steps; (2) wireless connectivity available in more commonly-frequented “hotspots” such as conference rooms, cafeterias, and food courts; and (3) research be extended to include PDAs and other platforms such as Windows XP and Linux.

Future Trends This chapter would not be complete without a look at future trends in wireless technology. There have been many discussions about whether Wi-Fi will cannibalize cellular networks in the future as Wi-Fi becomes more popular. From the authors’ point of view, Wi-Fi and cellular networks will be complementary to each other. The services are differentiated mainly by coverage and data rate. Cellular networks provide much more ubiquitous coverage than Wi-Fi, but Wi-Fi provides a data rate which is two orders of magnitude greater than that of currently available cellular networks. The choice of service is more one of environment and coverage than one of market segment and application. Table 3 shows examples of typical attributes of these two types of wireless service.



Table 3. Attributes of Wi-Fi and cellular networks Wi-Fi networks

Cellular networks

Users

Wireless fixed users, e.g., at the office, in the cafeteria

Wireless mobile users travelling on the highways or trains

Applications

High speed data transfer application, Web-browsing, e-mails with attachments, video streams, voice over LAN

Real-time voice, push e-mail application, voice-mail, e-mail for WAN

Coverage

Indoor, shopping malls, libraries, schools, LAN

Outdoor, parks, highways, ubiquitous, MAN, WAN

Devices

Laptops, PDAs

Cellular phones, PDAs

For instance, a user may rely on cellular networks to connect ubiquitously for voice and text e-mail, while using Wi-Fi networks within a building to access applications requiring the download of large volumes of data. Cellular networks provide good quality of voice and light rate data transfer, however they currently cannot effectively support high-speed data applications since their maximum data rate—even with 3G technology—is less than 2 Mbps. On the other hand, Wi-Fi networks support high-speed data applications, but generally do not carry voice—although voice over WLAN is beginning to emerge as an option (Vocera, 2004). In the future, one would expect cellular networks to focus on voice and light rate data applications for outdoor or ubiquitous area coverage while Wi-Fi networks concentrate on high-speed data applications and local area voice for indoor or local area coverage. Increasingly, we expect to see dual-mode devices—telephones and PDAs—capable of operating on both Wi-Fi and cellular data networks. Users will be able to choose the most appropriate service based on availability, performance, and cost—and the devices will even seamlessly hand-off a call from one service to another as a user moves into or out of the coverage area of a particular service. Currently, Wi-Fi is capable of providing data rates up to 54 Mbps on LAN, and before long 3G cellular technology will be able to provide voice and data rates of up to 2 Mbps over wide area networks (WAN). As data is predicted to become more dominant than voice in wireless in the future, there is a strong demand for higher data rate technology in WANs. WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), also known as IEEE 802.16, is a new standard for wireless technology that provides a range of about 15 km at a data rate of 70 Mbps on a single channel supporting many users. Originally intended as a fixed wireless service, the technology is now being adapted for mobile application. With the advent of WiMAX, broadband wireless technology will no longer be limited to LANs but will extend



its coverage to metropolitan area networks (MAN), connecting nearby buildings together for high-speed data applications. WiMAX is also envisioned to provide a wireless backbone network to link Wi-Fi hotspots.

Conclusion Work carried out over the last few years by PWGSC has demonstrated that a wireless data access service for government employees is not only technically feasible, but can be provided securely and within the existing user support structure. While there would also appear to be a prima facie case supporting the cost effectiveness of the service, a detailed business assessment is yet to be conducted. The focus has been on Wi-Fi using IEEE 802.11b that offers a data rate up to 11 Mbps in the IMS band. It has been shown that a secure mobile high-speed access solution can be made available to employees in government buildings by augmenting WEP with IPSec VPN technology. Appropriate spectrum management policies and practices need to be put in place to govern the use of wireless services to ensure that the services are secure and make the best use of network resources. Surveys show that government employees believe that Wi-Fi technology will help them to work more effectively and expect this technology to be available in the workplace in the near future. By implementing the service in collaboration with a wireless service provider, users would be able to access the service from public Wi-Fi hotspots in addition to those situated in government buildings. The future will see Wi-Fi LANs being linked by WiMAX MANs to extend wireless coverage for high-speed data applications. Having demonstrated that SWDAS is technically feasible and can be supported operationally, PWGSC must now determine whether a sufficiently compelling business case exists to support the deployment of SWDAS for its clients within the GoC.

Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the members of the PWGSC Wireless Data Project Team for their contributions to this m-government project. The team manager is Bill Ranger, and the team members include Bing Cheung, Richard Drayton, Marek Dziedzic, Adrian Florea, Robert Gagnon, Oswald Hoch, Victor Leung, Maria Morin, and Arturo Visoso.



References Australia. (2003). Popular hotspots go live in CBD trial. Australia. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057, 7205680%255E15318,00.html BBC. (2003). Library could get wireless Web. BBC News, UK Edition. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3099612.stm Cheung, B. (2002). Financial report for the WLAN pilot project. PWGSC internal document. Cheung, B. (2004). Business case for the proposed secure wireless data access service (SWDAS) in Place du Portage Complex. PWGSC internal document. Cisco. (2003). Mobilizing the small and medium sized business. White paper, Cisco Systems Inc. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://www.cisco.com/application/pdf/en/us/guest/netsol/ns314/c714/cdccont_0900aecd800879f3.pdf Cisco. (2004). Cisco Aironet 350 series – Business cases. Cisco. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps458/ products_business_case_list.html Deganutti, D., & Kolasa, M. (2003). Wireless vulnerability assessment. PWGSC internal document. FCC. (2003). FCC goes Wi-Fi. News, Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th Street, S.W. Washington DC 20554. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://www.fcc.gov Gagnon, R. (2002). EITC – 802.11b interference test report. PWGSC internal document. Gort, J. (2002). Security analysis report. PWGSC internal document. Hoch, O. (2002). 802.11b interference report. PWGSC internal document. Hoch, O. (2003). Building wireless data access pilot – Technical report. PWGSC internal document. Intel. (2002). Wireless LANs – Linking productivity gains to return on investment. White paper, e-Business group, Intel Information Technology. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://www.intel.com/business/bss/infrastructure/wireless/wlan_home.pdf Intel. (2003). Microsoft Corporation: 35,000 employees go wireless with WLAN. Wireless Deployment Case Study, Intel. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://www.intel.com/business/casestudies/microsoft.pdf Intel. (2004). Case studies for business. Intel. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://www.intel.com/business/casestudies/index.htm



Morin, M. (2002). RPS’ wireless LAN field trial: Assessment of participants’ feedback. PWGSC internal document. Morin, M. (2003). Building wireless data access trial: Assessment of participants’ feedback. PWGSC internal document. Morin, M. (2003). Users’ requirements for telecommunication applications in the government. PWGSC internal document. NOP. (2001). Wireless LAN benefits study. NOP World – Technology, on behalf of Cisco. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://www.intel.com/business/bss/infrastructure/wireless/roi/productivity_studies_cisco.pdf Ranger, W. (2002). Wireless LAN spectrum management policy proposal. PWGSC internal document. Ranger, W. (2003). Business benefits of the new proposed wireless data access service. PWGSC internal document. Sage. (2001). Wireless LANs: Improving productivity and quality of life. White paper, Sage Research Inc. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://www.intel. com/business/bss/infrastructure/wireless/roi/productivity_studies_sage.pdf Visoso, A. (2003). Network analysis tools for wireless LAN pilot. PWGSC internal document. Visoso, A. (2004). Secure wireless data access implementation plan. PWGSC internal document. Vocera. (2004). Vocera Communications: Instant communications for mobile inbuilding workers. Vocera Communications Inc. Retrieved October 12, 2004, from http://www.vocera.com/pdf/Voc_white_paper.pdf Wi-Fi Alliance. (2003). WLAN benefits calculator. Retrieved November 11, 2003, from http://www.wi-fi.org/opensection/wlan_calculator.asp

Endnotes 1

This chapter is an updated and expanded version of a paper that originally appeared in the Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on e-Government (ECEG), Dublin, Ireland, June 17-18, 2004.

2

PWGSC is a common service agency for the GoC, with ITSB supplying telecommunications and informatics services and RPB managing real estate and providing accommodation services.

3

Also called Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2).


Anonymous Code Lists for Secure Electronic Voting 339

Chapter XVII

Anonymous Code Lists for Secure Electronic Voting over Insecure Mobile Channels Nico Voutsis, Hewlett-Packard, Switzerland Frank Zimmermann, Hewlett-Packard, Switzerland

Abstract A protocol is proposed that would allow electronic voting over channels, which typically are regarded as insecure like short message service (SMS) and cellular phones. Unlike personalized lists of codes, which are typically proposed to secure the vote and to uniquely identify the voter, we propose anonymous code lists, which offer more flexibility and security, in particular with respect to privacy and the anonymity of the voter.

Introduction Back in January 2003, the state of Geneva, Switzerland, performed the first official e-voting over the Internet. In the period before and during the ballot period and also in the subsequent ballots, the solution went through a thorough security analysis and extensive testing (Geneva, 2005). Due to the intense spread of cellular phones Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

340 Voutsis & Zimmermann

and other mobile appliances for data communication, an additional requirement arose, to also enable voting over these channels, which typically are regarded as insecure. This requirement motivated us to develop a communication process and algorithm for “secure electronic voting” over “insecure mobile channels” based on “anonymous code lists”. This chapter discusses the key requirements and proposes a technical solution for enabling the “secure electronic voting”. We regard the electronic voting through any channel as an additional means for voting rather than a replacement for the traditional paper-based solutions, like voting at the poll site or postal voting. Therefore, this chapter does not discuss the political and social context and consequences of introducing electronic voting. The chapter is organized as follows: in the next section, the key requirements are summarized, and the third section discusses how these requirements are addressed by the proposed solution. The fourth section describes in detail the e-voting protocol based on anonymous code lists. The final section contains our conclusions.

E-Voting Definitions and Key Requirements What is e-voting? The so-called e-voting denotes any mechanism used to cast a vote or to participate in elections, by which the relevant data are transmitted over a network (Internet or mobile network). In most cases, e-voting represents an additional voting channel and its use is not mandatory. It underlies the same requirements with respect to security as the conventional voting and election procedures at the poll site or for postal voting (see Warynski, 2003; Zimmermann, 2003). The most critical security requirements are: 1.

Only registered and authorized voters are able to vote.

2.

Each voter has one and only one vote. No one can vote more than once, even if various channels are available.

3.

Voters are protected against identity theft. No third party is able to vote on behalf of an authorized voter.

4.

The votes are secret and not known before the official ballot reading and tallying.

5.

Vote secrecy and anonymity is guaranteed. That is, voting is anonymous, and it is not possible to associate a voter with his or her vote.



6.

It is possible to prove that a given citizen has voted, but the voting is receiptfree—the voter must neither obtain nor be able to construct a receipt proving the content of his vote. This is mainly required to prevent buying of votes.

7.

The tallying of the votes is correct, complete, and verifiable. The number of cast votes is equal to the number of received and counted ballots. Every voter can make sure that his vote has been taken into account in the final tallying.

8.

Votes can neither be intercepted nor modified. To be more precise, no one can change anyone else’s vote without being discovered. No one can duplicate anyone else’s vote. The voting should also be fault resistant in the sense that accidental misinterpretations of votes are prevented. Finally, each vote should reflect the voter’s intention.

9.

The voting system does not accept votes outside the balloting period. Particularly, there are not any (partial) results available during that period, which could influence the voter’s decision. This way, the voting becomes more independent from external influences. However, it still has to be taken into account, that a typical poll site voting is performed in one day, while a typical postal or electronic voting period lasts up to several weeks.

10. The e-voting system is auditable. Furthermore, although in general other voting channels exist as a last resort, the e-voting system should resist any denial of service attack or mass security attack. There might be additional requirements depending on the respective voting regulations. In one state, for instance, it is mandatory to participate in elections by law. Other states allow delegation of votes. Voting procedures that allow multiple votes and require that only the last entered vote is counted are very difficult to manage. One design principle of the protocol described here is to make it as flexible and adaptable as possible such that it can be deployed in various kinds of scenarios with different kinds of security requirements. Furthermore, note that usually the law will require that e-voting has to achieve at least the same level of security as the other voting channels, like postal votes or poll site voting. Finally, a democratic structure of the state, which is organizing the voting, is a pre-requisite for e-voting as well as a respective trust of the voters in the authorities of that state. Those authorities or other trusted representatives have to ensure and audit the correctness of the voting.

Structural Design of E-Voting The structural design of electronic voting is derived from the previously-mentioned security requirements. Some security issues can only be solved via organizational



procedures rather than using technical solutions. The following briefly summarizes how the individual requirements (1) to (10) are addressed: 1.

Each voter is identified by means of a (strong) authentication and the corresponding voting permissions are verified. Usually, this is achieved using a unique identification code or even a token, which is only known to or in the possession of the authorized voter.

2.

It must be possible to check that a voter has already voted by e-voting, at a poll site or during the postal voting process, for example, by means of an online interface to the voter registry. Therefore, when a voter successfully registered and cast his vote into the (electronic) ballot, it is indicated immediately in the (electronic) voter registry and in addition can be logged to a write-only device for auditing purposes. It is also recommended to close the period for electronic voting before the poll stations open. In the Geneva e-voting solution, special identifiers are used that are hidden behind a scratch field (as frequently used in lotteries). Once the scratch field is opened, the voter card can no longer be used to vote on other channels. This way it can be controlled that a voter votes once and only once, not matter on which channel.

3.

Voter cards with unique identification codes are securely distributed to the corresponding voters. Most countries with postal voting already trust their postal systems for a secure distribution of the voting documents to the citizens. The credentials can only be used once and in one channel, be it poll site, postal or electronic voting. This way, any attempt of identity theft should be prevented or at least discovered.

4.

Usually, in order to ensure the secrecy of the votes, the data are transferred and stored in encrypted form during the voting phase. Randomized encryption of the votes and anonymous code lists, which are generated in the initialization phase,—as proposed in this chapter—ensure that the content of the votes is not known before tallying. In addition, it must be ensured that the identity of the voter is not needed to unambiguously decode the vote for counting.

5.

A random distribution of anonymous code lists to voters in the initialization phase and the deletion of any link between answer and code guarantee that it is not possible to associate a voter with his or her vote.

6.

When a voter submits a coded vote with his or her credentials, the coded vote is cast in the electronic ballot box, and the voter registry indicates that she or he has voted. The system confirms the cast of the vote to the voter, but does not return a receipt about the content of the vote. Using anonymous code lists this is implicitly achieved, since votes are coded and encrypted. In order to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, where voters unintentionally connect to a malicious voting system, the e-voting system sends back a unique return code,



which the user could use to reconfirm the counting of his or her vote on any channel. 7.

During the voting phase it can be audited contiguously that the number of cast votes is equal to the received ballots. In case of a discrepancy, an exception could be thrown and the voting could be halted in order to investigate the cause and to prevent further damage. Furthermore, the involvement of two or more independent authorities and their corresponding private keys—as described in the proposed protocol—ensures that every vote is counted in the final tallying.

8.

By using unique codes and code lists, surely any modification of a code will result in an invalid vote and therefore will be discovered. In order to prevent accidental typing or transmission errors the codes contain check bits. It should not be easily possible that the voter’s intention to vote “yes” accidentally turns into a “no”, just because the respective codes are too similar.

9.

The electronic voting system is put offline outside the balloting period and does not accept any votes. A clear separation of the voting phases guarantees that there are not any (partial) results available during that ballot period, which could influence the voter’s decision. In addition, the usage of anonymous codes ensures, that it is not possible to guess and disclose (partial) results, even if an intermediate party, like a network services provider, has access to a certain amount of transferred vote codes and could record them.

10. The concept of the proposed e-voting system using anonymous code lists can be the basis of an auditable solution assuring full transparency of the processes as well as full privacy regarding the content of the votes. For any (technical) solution, the concurrent requirements of authorization and anonymity are the most challenging: the permissions of the voter must be controlled; it must be ensured that the voter just votes once; and it is possible to prove that a given voter has voted, but it must not be possible to associate the content of any vote with a voter. This implies a total separation of the registry of voters from the electronic ballot with the votes and the tallying of the votes. Furthermore, a chronological separation into four distinguished voting processes is necessary in order to achieve these requirements (Figure 1): a.

Initialization Phase: Generation of voter identification codes and code tables, printing of the anonymous code lists with the ballot papers and the voter cards, initialization of the voter registry and the electronic ballot.

b.

Voting Phase: Voting or election on the different channels (electronic, mobile, postal, or at the polling station).



Figure 1. Strict separation of four distinguished voting process phases and corresponding sub-processes

Initialisation

• Activate e-voting • Load voting documents • Load voters registry • Generate e-voting IDs & Passwords • Initialize key pairs and electronic ballots

Voting / Election • Open e-voting for voting/election • Enter votes • Control modules (postal vote, poll site, e-voting), check uniqueness

Tallying

• Open ballots (decryption of data with private keys) • Generate e-voting reports • Generate consolidated report across all voting channels

Clean-up

• Archive anonymous voters registry and electronic ballots • Delete ballots and voters registries • Prepare system for next voting

• Create anonymous code lists • Print voting cards, code lists and ballot papers • Anonymize voters registry

Citizens Authorities

c.

Tallying Phase: Tallying of the votes that were cast through the different channels and consolidation of the results.

d.

Cleanup Phase: Cleanup of the systems, voter and vote registries.

Anonymous Code Lists in the Context of E-Voting In the following, we focus on the description and discussion of the algorithm for the generation and usage of the anonymous code lists, and explain in more detail how the key requirements (particularly requirements (4) through (9)) are addressed. The other requirements, which mainly cover voter identification and organizational procedures, are only discussed if they are relevant to the protocol. Therefore, we also will not and cannot mention all publications in the area of e-voting, but only quote a small selection of papers, which are relevant for the proposed protocol. Because of the importance of the separation of the different voting phases, this section is structured along the earlier-mentioned phases for electronic voting.



Initialization During the initialization phase, the anonymous code lists and the voter’s credentials for the participation in the ballot are generated and distributed. The voter cards are the identification instrument of the voter. Usually, they provide the voter’s personal credentials for all the different voting channels: poll site, postal, and electronic. For e-voting, for instance, an identification code together with an additional password could be used, which can only be used once and is hidden behind a “scratch field” like it is used in lottery scratch tickets (Figure 2). Other implementations are printing unique barcodes on the voter cards, such that it can easily be checked against an online registry at poll site or in the postal voting, if voters already voted via another channel. A sophisticated solution could use electronic identity cards with digital certificates. Due to the requirement for anonymity, the ballot papers and code lists do not hold any personal information and cannot be associated to a voter. Of course, the voter should only receive a ballot paper for a poll that she or he is authorized to participate in. Figure 3 provides an overview of the algorithmic description of the protocol during the initialization phase, augmented by some examples. The details of the various phases will be further outlined in the following sections. The code lists can be directly printed on the ballot papers, but could also be printed and distributed independently (Figures 4 and 5). Exactly one ballot paper is distributed for each voter. The ballot papers, code lists and the voter cards are printed independently. With anonymous code lists—by default—there is no association between the code list and the voter, which could be used to identify a voters vote.

Figure 2. Typical voter card Voter Card

Ballot b - July 2005 eVoting and mVoting eVoting:

Voting Office ABC

www.eVoting.abc

mVoting: SMS „MVOTE“ to “777“ Voter Card ID: 0123-4567-8912 Secret Code:

a1b2 c3d4

Citizen Cyber Cane Cyberadministration Rd 1 54321 Mobile Town

Date of Birth: __ - __ - ____ Signature: ______________



Figure 3. Overview: Initialization phase Ballot paper with poll questions and possible answers

Anonymization by randomized variation of possible answers with obscurity factor L

Encryption with >2 independent public keys to avoid reconstruction of answers during voting phase

Poll questions k (k  1,...,K): q1..q K Choices of answers to qk : akj  Ak , j  1,..., Ak Set of all choices of answers : H   Ak  {hi }, i  1,..., H

Obscurity factor L : i  1,..., H , l  1,..., L hi  {g il }  {(i,ril )}, ril  random up to � bits

Encryption f i  1,..., H , l  1,...,L : gil  eil  f(gil ) where : e  f ( g )  f 2  f1 ( g )

 g � mod( n1 ) mod( n2 ) with RSA public keys f1 : (n1,�), f 2 : (n2 ,�) Default exponent : �  65537 �

k

Example: Ballot paper Ballot b – July 2005 Voting District XYZ Poll question1 : q1  "Jo int the EU ?" Choices of answers:  a11  "yes"  a12  "no"  a13  "blank"

Example:

56

Code table : i  1,..., H , l  1,...,L : T  (eil  cil ) with : cil  ( sil , bil ), sil  random string bil  control character

Example:

h2  "no"  i  2 h2  {g 12 ...g 2L } g 12  ( ¦ A97...1F 0 ¦ 0002 ¦ 2C 3...854 ¦ ) 0

Code generation & assignment with unique, but easier to use codes stored in code table

Ballot paper & code list Ballot b – July 2005 Voting District XYZ

random i random g 2L  ( ¦ 5 E 2...D03 ¦ 0002 ¦ B86...491 ¦ ) 0

56

�

72

in hexadecimal code, e.g. with �  512. {g 12 ...g 2L }  {e12 ...e2L } e12  ( ¦ 93B...6 A2 ¦ ) 0

�

0

�

   e  ( ¦ 0E 2...491 ¦ ) L 2

Code list (m  1,...,M ) : Poll questions k (k  1,...,K): q1..q K Choices of answers : akj  Ak , j  1,..., Ak qk : akj  (akj , cil ) l  {1,..., L} random for each m, and i defined by i : hi  akj .

Example: Print & delete!

�

72

Printing of Ballot paper with code lists and deletion of any links between codes and answers

Default : �  1024.

(c2l  e2l ) with e2l  ( ¦ 93B...6 A2 ¦ ) 0

�

c2l  "2zw75n".

Poll question 1 : q1  "Join the EU ?" Choices of answers :  a11  "yes" n83k2q 2zw75n  a12  "no"  a13  "blank" s953mb

The process of assembling and distributing the voting documents, (voter card, code list, and ballot paper) becomes relatively simple because only the voter card contains personal information and ballot papers and code lists can be mixed randomly. For even better randomness, the generated code lists are shuffled randomly before they are printed and distributed together with the voter cards and the ballot papers. The following paragraphs describe the creation of the code lists in more detail.

Ballot Paper Figure 4 shows a typical example of a ballot paper (still without any codes). For each poll question qk there is a set Ak of choices of answers akj, with j numbering the answers. The set H of all possible choices of answers in a poll is defined by the sum of all answers to each poll questions. Be |H| the number of all possible choices of answers H in a ballot b, then in our example, we get:



Figure 4. Ballot paper without codes

Ballot paper

Ballot b – July 2005 Voting District XYZ

Poll question 1 : q1  "Do you accept to join EU ?" Choices of answers : a11  "yes"  a12  "no"  a13  "blank"  Poll question 2 : q 2  "Next president of the U .S . A.?" Choices of answers : a 12  "Bush"  a 22  "Kerry"  a 23  "Nader"   Poll question K : q K  "Vote for a party ?" Choices of answers :  a 1K  "Labour"  a K2  "Conservative"  a K3  "Liberal" 

Ballot paper for ballot b Poll questions k (k  1,...,K): q1..q K , e.g. q1  " Do you accept the proposal to join EU ?" q 2  " Next president ?" Choices of answers to q k : akj  Ak , j  1,..., Ak , e.g. A1  {" yes" , " no" , " blank "} A2  {" Bush" , " Kerry" , " Nader" ,...} Set of all choices of Ballot : hi  H, i  1,..., H H   Ak  {" yes" , " no" , " blank " , " Bush" , " Kerry" , " Nader" ,...}  {hi } k

If there are several questions qx that can be answered with “yes” and “no”, we recommend including each occurrence of “yes” and “no” separately in the set of choices. Having this 1:1-relationship between a question and its set of choices, each choice (i.e., vote) can be directly associated to the according question during Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


the tallying process. The introduction of H, hi, and i simplifies the arithmetic and underlying processes.

Anonymization and Encryption The possible vote answers hi (e.g., “yes”, “no”, or “blank”) are then represented by a bit-pattern. The simplest way to do so is to index the set of choices and to take the binary or hexadecimal representation of the index. For example:

Choice of answers “yes” “no” “blank” … “uvw” … “xyz”

Examples index binary hexadecimal 1 0000 0001 01 2 0000 0010 02 3 0000 0011 03 … … 11 0000 1011 0B … … 109 0110 1101 6D

Of course, more complex bit representations are applicable. The number of bits can either be fixed for all ballots (e.g., 16 bits allow for 216 – 1 = 65535 possible choices) or vary for each ballot depending on the size of the actual set of choices. We call these the binary and hexadecimal representation of the vote or bit representations of the vote. The bit representations of possible vote answers hi are then made anonymous by adding random bits to the bit representation of the vote and the results are then encrypted with public keys (for cryptographic algorithms like RSA public key encryption see Schneier, 1996). Of course, the authorities have to possess the corresponding private keys, held in a highly protected manner (e.g., on smart card or other tokens). We suggest that at least two independent authorities provide their public encryption keys for the encryption. This ensures that no single authority is capable of decrypting the cast votes that are stored in the electronic ballot box. Note: more sophisticated algorithms exist (e.g., homomorphic encryption), which involve more than two authorities and corresponding public keys. These only require the presence of a minimal set of authorities being present with their corresponding private keys for the tallying (Hirt, 2001). Repeat this step L times for each of the |H| vote representations. The obscurity factor L is a large number, ideally (but not necessarily) as large as the number of eligible voters M (the size of L is discussed next).



Randomized encryption of vote choices Obscurity factor L : i  1,..., H , l  1,...,L : hi  {gil }  {(i,ril )}, where ril  random bits up to � bits. Encryption f with two or more independen t public keys i  1,..., H , l  1,...,L : gil  eil  f(gil ) Using two RSA public keys





�

e  f ( g )  f 2  f1 ( g )  g � mod(n1 ) mod(n2 ) with public keys f1 : (n1,�), f 2 : (n2 ,�) and default exponent : �  65537

There are several ways to group the random bits around the vote representation bits, that is, random bits up to bit 56, 16 bits for the vote representation, and the rest of the bits are random. This process turns one simple answer “yes” or “no”, “Kerry” or “Bush” into multiple random bit representations that represent the same information “yes”, “no”, and so forth. Example : h2  "no"  i  2 Randomize : h2  {g 12 ...g 2L } g 12  ( ¦ A97...1F 0 ¦ 0002 ¦ 2C 3...854 ¦ ) 0

56

72

�

random i random L g 2  ( ¦ 5 E 2...D03 ¦ 0002 ¦ B86...491 ¦ ) 0

56

72

�

in hexadecima l code, e.g. with �  512 or 1024. Encrypt : {g 12 ...g 2L }  {e12 ...e2L } e12  ( ¦ 93B...6 A2 ¦ ) 0

�

0

�

   L e2  ( ¦ 0 E 2...491 ¦ ) with default : �  1024.

Code Generation and Assignment Each encrypted randomized vote answer is mapped to a unique random string of characters and Hamming codes (control character(s)) for error detection are added,



accordingly. The resulting unique 1:1 mapping is stored into a code table T for later use in the tallying process. Code generation & assignment Code table generation & code assignment i  1,..., H , l  1,...,L : eil  cil  ( sil , bil ), where sil  unique random string of characters e.g.. 5 or 7 characters in P  { 2,...,9,a,...,z}, p  P , and an extra bil  control character Store all (e,c)  T in table T  (eil  cil ) :  i  1,..., H , l  1,...,L .





Example : (c2l  e2l )

with e2l  ( ¦ 93B...6 A2 ¦ ) and c2l  "2zw75n". �

0

Each of the M eligible voters has to get a different code list, in order to ensure that every voter has one and only one vote. Therefore, ideally, the obscurity factor L is selected such that L=M. On the other hand, codes with more than 5 or 7 characters might not be user-friendly and are error-prone. This limits the total number of possible unique codes to L|H|

Mobile Government: An Emerging Direction in E-government

M-Health: Emerging Mobile Health Systems

India as an Emerging Power

India as an Emerging Power

Wirtschaftsinformatik 2005: eEconomy, eGovernment, eSociety

Rough Guide Direction Marrakesh

Leasing in emerging markets

Macroeconomics in Emerging Markets

The Direction of Time

Rough Guide Direction Lisbon

Counterfactuals and Temporal Direction

Multinational Companies from Emerging Economies: Composition, Conceptualization and Direction in the Global Economy (International Political Economy)

Macroeconomics in emerging markets

Investing in Emerging Markets

Investing in Emerging Markets

Emerging Infections in Asia

Emerging Wireless Technologies and the Future Mobile Internet

Problems of Film Direction

Tudor Revolution in Government

The Government In Exile

Opportunities in Government Careers

British Government in Crisis

Tudor Revolution in Government

Opposition Government in Mexico

New Parties in Government

Empirical direction in design and analysis

Encyclopedia of E-commerce, E-government and Mobile Commerce

Mobile Enterprise Transition and Management (Advanced and Emerging Communications Technologies)

Mobile Government: An Emerging Direction in E-government

M-Health: Emerging Mobile Health Systems

India as an Emerging Power

India as an Emerging Power

Wirtschaftsinformatik 2005: eEconomy, eGovernment, eSociety

Rough Guide Direction Marrakesh

Leasing in emerging markets

Macroeconomics in Emerging Markets

The Direction of Time

Rough Guide Direction Lisbon

Counterfactuals and Temporal Direction

Multinational Companies from Emerging Economies: Composition, Conceptualization and Direction in the Global Economy (International Political Economy)

Macroeconomics in emerging markets

Investing in Emerging Markets

Investing in Emerging Markets

Emerging Infections in Asia

Emerging Wireless Technologies and the Future Mobile Internet

Problems of Film Direction

Tudor Revolution in Government

The Government In Exile

Opportunities in Government Careers

British Government in Crisis

Tudor Revolution in Government

Opposition Government in Mexico

New Parties in Government

Empirical direction in design and analysis

Encyclopedia of E-commerce, E-government and Mobile Commerce

Mobile Enterprise Transition and Management (Advanced and Emerging Communications Technologies)

Recommend Documents