The Stockholm Challenge began five years ago as a competition among European cities and regions to celebrate their use of ICT in making government, education, and society more open, democratic and accessible. This latest competition evaluated more than 700 projects from around the world, and today the Stockholm Challenge announced its finalists for the 2003-2004 Stockholm Challenge. E-Gov finalists were selected by a six-person international jury on the basis of innovation, user need, accessibility and transferability. All finalists will be invited to the events in Stockholm on May 10-13
where awards will be presented to the winners. The program includes
study visits, networking activities, conference and exhibition programs
and an awards ceremony in the Stockholm City Hall, site of the Nobel
Prize awards.
E-Government Finalists
Following are the finalists in the e-government category. The complete list of finalists are available on the Stockholm Challenge Web site.
- Australia
- Communities Online of Brisbane, Australia,encourages groups to use an integrated suite of tools and content to build online communities.
- Smart Service Queensland(Australia) A statewide government initiative to deliver integrated services to over 3.7 million citizens.
- Canada
- Land Information Ontario(Canada) assists the public and private sectors to easily find, access and use geographic information about Ontario for such things as emergency response, precision farming and planning school bus routes.
- Smart Capitalof Ottawa, Canada, is defining, developing and delivering online services to city residents, public institutions and businesses through collaboration with community partners.
- Chile
- Public Electronic Procurement Platformis a tool that enables communication and assistance for the overall purchase/sale of goods and services to public organizations and supplier companies for the Chilean State.
- Egypt
- Egypt 's Free Internet Project,provides everyone in Egypt with easy and affordable access to the Internet at the cost of a local call and with no additional
- India
- Rural Eseva(e services) is a tool to bridge the digital divide and provides access to government and other services to the people living in rural areas of India
- The Vijayawada Municipal Corp. of Andhra Pradesh, India,is helping poor and middle-class families access e-governance through interactive television.
- Ireland
- Dublin' s dublin.ie web portalis an information gateway for Dublin City, Irelandwhere residents can access city services, obtain information, establish their own Web presence and influence policy decisions.
- Malaysia
- The biometric passport and border control systemof Malaysia, is a biometrics-enabled E-passport based on IRIS smart-card technologies, combining microchip, RFID, and biometrics to secure travel documents.
- Mexico
- The Citizen Portal of Mexicois a government-wide portalthat organizes information and services around citizen needs, in a thematic rather than institutional fashion, and concentrates more than 1,500 informative and transactional services from over 100 government institutions.
- Portal e-MexicoA project in Mexico to bring citizens into the Information Society.
- Singapore
- Singapore 's BizFileis a radical shift from a manual form-based company filing and registration system to a fully electronic system without the need for signatures.
- Solomon Islands
- People First Networkis a rural networking project that transmits e-mail by short-wave radio to promote rural development and peace-building across the Solomon Islands.
- Spain
- CAT365 of Barcelona, Spain,is a technological platform for e-government solutions for local, county and provincial governments, from digital signatures to e-payment.
- Sweden
- The Swedish Virtual Customs Officeoffers businesses and citizens free supportive Web services in order to facilitate day-to-day business and strengthen Swedish competitiveness.
- Uganda
- Village Phone Uganda, created new partnerships to provide low-cost telecommunications services to poor rural Ugandans.
- United Kingdom
- eDemocracy in Sheffieldis a three-year UK election modernization program that uses technology to make it easier and more convenient for citizens to engage with government.
- United States
- COMPASS, the COMmonwealth of Pennsylvania Access to Social Services, (United States) provides online screening and applicationsfor the commonwealth' s social service programs. New York City 's 311 Citizen Service Centerprovides New York City residents, visitors and businesses one telephone number to reach all non-emergency government services.
- New York City Registerprovides management and public access of all property (real and personal) records for the four boroughs of New York City.
- Oregon Helps(United States) is a multilingual Web-based tool that checks eligibility for 12 Oregon social service programs simultaneously. It assists citizens who want to privately and confidentially check their potential eligibility before doing the application paperwork.
- Washington, D.C., comprehensively expanded and redesigned its government Web portalto provide the District' s 575, 000 residents, 95, 000 businesses, and 19 million visitors faster access to the district 's wealth of information and services.
- West Virginia' s inroadsis a Web-based system that extends social services with self-service applications.
