Background
The W3C eGovernment Interest Group was chartered in June of 2008 recognizing that governments throughout the World needed assistance and guidance in achieving the promises of electronic government through technology and the Web.
The group and its efforts fill a distinct gap in the Web and technology standards space focusing on the unique and diverse needs and issues that governments throughout the developed and developing World face in enabling electronic service and information delivery and providing opportunities for discovery, interaction and participation.
Charter and Activity Plan
The charter of the group sets forth three areas of focus:
- Usage of Web Standards (Government Websites and use of best practices and standards)
- Transparency and Participation (Enabling discovery, communications, and interaction)
- Seamless Integration of Data (Use of data standards, Semantic Web, XML)
The first year of the Interest Group’s work is focused on:
- Collaborating and partnering with governments and other organizations (The World Bank, EC, OECD, OAS, ICA, CEN, OASIS)
- Identifying, validating, and documenting existing applicable standards.
- Identifying gaps in the open standards that currently exist.
- Working collaboratively on having open standards developed, validated, and tested.
- Creating, evaluating, and testing use cases.
- Compiling and communicating issues papers (called Group Notes) that will offer governments the opportunity to learn what exists to aid them in their endeavors.
- Creating the outline and work plan for years 2 and 3 of the eGovernment activities at W3C.
Throughout the Group activities and actions, the Chairs and other Group members will be working to communicate with governments and those in the private sector who are technically focused on the importance of open standards to achieving electronic government and the access and availability of information it promises.
Issues and challenges
The eGovernment Interest Group faces many challenges on the road ahead:
- The demands for government services and information via the Web are increasing while government funding is decreasing.
- World events including the challenging economy are taking attention and focus away from opportunities the Web offers to improve government service and interaction.
- Technologies and systems in place in some areas are antiquated.
- Access to the Web remains a challenge for many populations.
- Policies, codes, and laws need to be changed or amended to allow information to freely flow.
eGovernment Activity Participants
eGovernment Interest Group Chairs
- Kevin Novak, Vice President, The American Institute of Architects (formerly The Library of Congress) (USA)
- John Sheridan, Head of eServices, The National Archives (UK)
- Jose M. Alonso, CTIC Foundation (Spain) (tbc)
eGovernment Interest Group Participants
Adobe Systems Inc. (USA), Asturias State Government (Spain), Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br) (Brazil), Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) (USA), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) (Australia), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) (Italy), CTIC Foundation (Spain), DERI Galway (Ireland), Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) (DoD) (USA), Ecole Mohammadia d'Ingenieurs Rabat (EMI) (Morocco), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (USA), Federal Web Managers Council (USA), General Services Administration (USA), ICTU (Netherlands), International Webmasters Association / HTML Writers Guild (IWA-HWG) (Italy), Ministry for Public Adminitration (MAP) (Spain), Oracle Corporation (USA), State Services Commission (New Zealand), Sunlight Foundation (USA), The American Institute of Architects (AIA) (USA), The National Archives (UK), The World Bank, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) (USA), Université de Versailles St-Quentin (Labo. PRiSM) (France), University of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Other government agencies Members of W3C
Applied Information processing and Kommunications (IAIK) (Austria), Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) (Australia), Brazilian Federal Agency of Information Technology (SERPRO) (Brazil), Department of Information Technology - Government of India (India), Korea Institute of Science & Technology (KIST) (Korea), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA), Library of Congress (USA), Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA), MIMOS (Malaysia), National ICT Australia (NICTA) (Australia), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) (Japan), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (USA), National Research Council (NRC) (Canada), National Agency for the Development of the Information Society (RED.es) (Spain), Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) (Hong Kong SAR, China), Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri (Italy)
eGovernment Activity Lead
- Sandro Hawke (W3C/MIT) (USA)
More Information
- eGovernment Activity: http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/
- eGovernment Interest Group: http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/
- Current issues document (Group Note) (under development): http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/Group/docs/note
- Current use cases (under development): http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/wiki/Use_Cases/