1.2 - M. Conducive environments for e-government

The presentation by Mr. Johnathan Kushner, Law and Corporate Affairs Department, Microsoft Asia Limited, provided an understanding of the policy issues which had an impact on e-government and explored the optimal environment for e-government.

Mr. Kushner said there were a number of surveys that had assessed the environments and readiness for e-government. Two of them that received a great deal of attention were the Networked Readiness Index of the World Economic Forum (WEF) which measured the readiness of preparation of nations and communities to participate in and benefit from ICT development, and the United Nations survey discussed in the previous presentation. The two surveys provided a snapshot of where Governments were in terms of readiness. The WEF Survey provided an Environment Component Index (ECI) and also had sub-indexes for government readiness and usage. In the ECI, the United States topped the list, with Singapore and Taiwan Province of China in the top ten. In terms of government readiness, Singapore, Malaysia and the Republic of Korea of the ESCAP region were listed in the top ten, ranking first, sixth and ninth respectively, with similar results for government usage. Those ratings demonstrated that some Asian economies had made great progress in preparing for e-government.

Mr. Kushner said that conducive environments for e-government could be broken down into the following:

• Investment environment
• Social environment
• Business/tax environment
• Technology and policy environment
• Security and online safety
• Network security
• E-commerce
• Intellectual property
• Encryption, authentication and contracting
• Protection of personal information/privacy

Hand-in-hand with the above categories, interoperability was a key component of e-government initiatives. It enabled important social and policy solutions such as accessibility, user identification, privacy and security. Further, it promoted choice, competition and innovation as well as access to information, while reducing costs and addressing compatibility issues. It also increased efficiency, flexibility and value of the system. Some of the challenges faced were multiple technology platforms, productivity and efficiency demands, information access, agency integration, digital divide and security.

Mr. Kushner encouraged Governments to promote the use and voluntary development of open standards. Those, he said, allowed Governments to take advantage of innovations and the diversity of choice. Open standards supported in all types of software were necessary for Governments wanting interoperable products and services and multiple sources for products and services. He also stressed the difference between open source and open standards; open source did not necessarily embrace open standards more than any other type of software. He stated that if Governments demanded interoperable products and services and multiple sources for products and services, then open standards needed to be supported in all types of software.

The defining characteristics of open standards were as follows:

• Transparent development and maintenance processes
• Publicly available specifications
• Objective criteria for conformance and testing
• Documented rules of membership
• Reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing

Mr. Kushner also emphasized the importance of an enabling environment to encourage private-public partnerships at multiple levels, including policy, technology and society. An example given of successful partnership was in the area of network security. Network security facilitated dialogue among industry leaders and Governments to increase cross-border cooperation to address computer crime. Public-private partnerships were also evident in the areas of e-commerce and intellectual property.

Open source and standards featured prominently in the discussion following the presentation. Mr. Kushner said that Governments should consider all options available to them, whether open source or commercial software, and select software based on its merits. Open source software would be appropriate in some cases, whereas commercial software would be more appropriate in others. For emerging countries focused on building their own IT industry, intellectual property rights protection was very important. Open source and commercial software had a variety of licensing models that should be studied and understood as they had an impact on the ability to build a vibrant business or software industry.

During the plenary, training issues were also discussed. A question was raised on whether it was possible to develop a standardized curriculum to reduce the amount of time needed to train national or local trainers on new technology. Mr. Kushner said the concept of training and curriculum was very broad and there was a need to be specific about the desired result. He agreed that in terms of skills, that could be an expensive process. He said Microsoft was currently designing an open application sharing portal which could be used and hosted by Governments and across borders. The facility would enable Governments and international organizations to share and learn from their collective knowledge base.