A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL LIBERTIES ONLINE
from
THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY
CONTENTS:
(1) CDT and infoDev Publish E-Government Handbook for Developing Countries
(2) Handbook Outlines Three Phases of E-government and Its Transformative Potential
(3) Online Version Highlights E-Government Resources
CDT has published a comprehensive resource on e-government for developing and transitional countries. The "E-Government Handbook for Developing Countries" was funded by the World Bank's InfoDev (Information for Development) group.
The Handbook catalogs key resources on e-government in a format readily useful for policymakers in the developing world. Moreover, almost all of the case studies and models are drawn from developing and transitional nations, showing that e-government is not a tool limited to the richer countries.
As used in the Handbook, the concept of e-government means the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) to transform government by making it more accessible and accountable to citizens. Thus, e-government is not achieved merely by putting computers on the desks of government officials. Rather, e-government involves the relationship between the government and its citizens.
A PDF-version of the Handbook is available at: http://www.cdt.org/egov/handbook/2002-11-14egovhandbook.pdf
The World Bank's infoDev program is at: http://www.infodev.org/
The Handbook was released to coincide with the State Department's Implementing E-Gov Conference -- http://www.marketaccess.org/event_tda_egov.asp -- and infoDev's Symposium 2002 in Chongqing, China -- http://www.infodev.org/symposium2002/
The Handbook is structured around the three phases of e-government:
It has been shown that online accessibility of information and services, wisely implemented, can make government more accountable by making its operations more transparent and thus reducing the opportunities for corruption. E-government projects, if structured around existing infrastructure and responsive to the needs of the population, can also serve other development objectives, especially benefiting rural and traditionally underserved communities.
The Handbook also identifies case studies and models illustrating the way in which e-government can transform government, based on five key elements of successful e-government projects:
Some of the most innovative uses of the Internet in governance are appearing in the developing world, as ICTs are being used to streamline government and connect it more closely with the people it is supposed to serve. Our goal in creating the Handbook was to offer concrete guidance to government officials and others in the developing world, presenting for the first time a comprehensive index of e-government models and resources, focused on success stories in the developing world. The Handbook presents a roadmap - in fact, a compilation of roadmaps - for policy-makers considering electronic government as a mechanism for reform.
In building the Handbook, CDT assembled a host of case studies, best practices and other online resources, and drew recommendations from them to illustrate and guide readers through the ideas and concepts of e-government.
The companion online resource contains links to the useful sites and other resources we identified, searchable electronically and categorized by the three phases of e-government, as well as to the various elements of success, challenges and opportunities.
The electronic version of the Handbook is at http://www.cdt.org/egov/handbook/
For information about e-government in the US, see http://www.cdt.org/righttoknow/
Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be found at http://www.cdt.org/.
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Policy Post 8.26 Copyright 2002 Center for Democracy and Technology
