IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Irrespective of the result, many of us hope that we can continue to enjoy the benefits of democratic processes which aim to provide our society with both social and economic stability.

But one area where change should and will occur is in the way people are able to have a direct input to those processes online.

The public sector has a bad reputation when it comes to IT. Frequent project failures have led to central government being lambasted in the press, and yet with the emphasis now on driving efficiency in government, tightening up public sector IT becomes more important than ever.

The length of Upper Street, Islington, has been blanketed with free wireless internet access, courtesy of the local council. It is London's biggest hotzone, and typical of things happening around the world - though there is less agreement about who should pay for them. In a US city, for example, Islington's launch would cause political outrage, but in other countries, it would pass unnoticed. Finland, for instance, has hundreds of square kilometres of continuous Wi-Fi coverage in its major cities.

The unveiling of a government strategy to install wireless hot spots in public areas across Britain has been put on ice until at least October.

The initiative to wirelessly enable public places and buildings access was due to be launched at the British Library on Tuesday. But organisers were forced to pull the event on Monday -- citing the government reshuffle earlier this month.

Wigan Council is looking forward to making savings totalling £250,000 after automating its purchase invoice process.

The council was struggling to pay suppliers within 30 days and needed to automate the process to meet e-government targets. It struck a deal with Graphic Data Online (GDO) to scan past and present invoices and capture the data alongside the scanned image.

As the second largest borough in the Greater Manchester conurbation, Wigan Metropolitan Borough serves over 300,000 citizens. E-government drivers have provided the spur to improve accessibility to council and local information for citizens of the Borough and boost their adult and community learning initiatives.

The beacon and other pilot projects have been and gone. Many of the national projects are in their final stages. The guidance frameworks and advisory and co-ordinating bodies are established…

The cash will be made available to local authorities over the next three years as part of the government's existing £675m Local e-government programme, which aims to get all local authority services online by 2005.

University College London Hospitals (UCLH) NHS Trust is creating what is said to be the UK's largest wireless network covering 7,000 users across eight sites, it was announced on 15 September 2005.

Bridgend County Borough Council in south Wales is to set up a WiFi network (which operates under the WiFi Alliance) aimed at meeting the objectives set out in the government's action plan to tackle the digital divide.