IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Back in 2002, Gloucester College of Art and Technology (GLOSCAT) faced the challenge of improving ICT and Internet skills across the county, as part of the Government’s drive to bridge the digital divide. Operating in a very rural part of the UK, the college looked at how to deliver computing facilities and Internet access to its outlying communities.

The output of e-Government services will be a focus of the Centre.

"[It] will play a central role in driving towards better measurement of government output and productivity. It will enable us to respond strongly to the challenges posed by Sir Tony Atkinson's report, "said Len Cook, the National Statistician.

This report gives a valuable and detailed picture of how council websites in England provide support to businesses. The survey was commissioned by the Working with Business national project and was carried out by the Socitm Insight team this summer.

he London Borough of Newham and Milton Keynes Council have received prestigious European awards for their pioneering use of telehealthcare solutions to improve the quality of life for older people and those with long-term conditions.

Newham and Milton Keynes were two of only seven winners from 469 entrants across Europe to receive the 2008 European e-inclusion award, which were presented at the e-inclusion Ministerial conference in Vienna on 2nd December, the concluding event of the Commission’s ‘Be Part of it!’ campaign.

The Triptimes service will provide all the details needed to make a journey, including walking information, which bus or tram to catch and interchange information to enable people to create their own door-to-door travel plan.

Local Authorities will receive their share of the £170 million of PDG, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Planning Minister Yvette Cooper announced today.

The national mapping agency reports encouraging market growth in the take-up of data, particularly in the private sector, with partner channels showing a 14% rise.

Telehealth enables patients with long-term conditions to measure their vital signs in their own homes, reducing the need for them to travel to health centres for routine checkups. It also enables doctors and nurses to make fewer visits to the patients, and therefore enables better use of health resources. This is of particular importance in a rural area like the Orkney Islands, since many journeys there need to be done by ferry.

He published the Care Record Guarantee, setting out the rules governing information held in the NHS Care Records Service - a nationwide patient health record system - which will begin rolling out across England next year.

The BMA survey was conducted by YouGov via their online Omnibus survey between 21-24 June. 1,993 adults in Great Britain were questioned to find out their views on the new electronic health record system, which is currently being developed by NHS Connecting for Health.

The investment follows a review of the city council’s information and communications technology (ICT) services and publication of Sir Peter Gershon’s Spending Review, which sets local government a target of achieving £6.45 billion savings through improved efficiency by 2007/08.

The project, which will be jointly run by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Cabinet Office, aims to identify and evaluate consent regimes - where councils need to ask Government permission to take key decisions on local issues - with a view to reducing burdens on local authorities.

It concludes that government has prepared the UK well for the 21st century but remains seduced by vague notions of a “knowledge economy” and is too often driven by innovation for its own sake.

The survey shows that to achieve the twin desires of greater customer-centricity and streamlined business processes, public sector IT decision-makers will be investing heavily in business process management (BPM), customer relationship management (CRM) and service-oriented architecture (SOA) technology.

His argument is simple but compelling - putting a human face to an e-government service will in crease take-up. Though it may sounds like a sales pitch for video-conferencing, the message is an important one to heed for e-government service marketing. The public have greater trust and usage of a service if there's a face attached to its marketing and communication - so videoconferencing or avatars could make a real difference if enbedded in the front end of an e-gov service.

It's a sensible site which acts as an advisory service - basically linking its users to the various services which anyone in the Royal Navy might need. As an e-government service targeted at a specific user group it looks spot-on, though will need to raise its profile and generate usage - which will take some strong marketing.

Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark councils are looking at council service areas, among others, as areas that could be shared, in a bid to absorb the effect of funding cuts from central Government.

The merging of services is likely to mean thousands of job cuts across the three councils.

Designed to be the first port of call for over 240,000 residents, the new site provides a wealth of information from details of local GP’s, Dentists and Opticians to a latest news and job section.