News
International e-Gov Update
USA: One-stop Cloud Source
The United States government launched Apps.gov, a website intended to be a storefront for approved cloud computing applications in the country. The initiative is designed to simplify application adoption at federal agencies to provide better service delivery. The overall objective is to create a more agile federal enterprise, where services can be provisioned and reused on demand to meet business needs in US.
Apps.gov is dedicated to the federal agencies for quickly browsing and at the same time purchasing cloud-based IT services for increased productivity, alliance and effectiveness. The objective of the website is to help US government continue its initiatives to lower the cost of the federal government various operations. It also focuses on increasing innovation within US federal agencies.
Apps.gov is managed by US Government's General Service Administration. Four categories of applications and services are offered i.e. Business Applications, Cloud IT Services, Productivity Applications and Social Media Applications. The simple breakdown is expected to make life easier for users who are not necessarily technical.
For more info - https://apps.gov/
Canada: Online Consultation on a Digital Economy Strategy
In Canada, governments, private sector, academia and the Canadian public are being asked for their thoughts and suggestions online on a national digital economy strategy. This has been initiated as part of a federal government consultative process leading towards new regulation and legislation. It aims at building consensus in developing a digital economy strategy for the federal government of Canada.
Online consultation will position Canada at the forefront in the global digital economy in changing economic scenario of the world. In fact, government of Canada actively uses digital media as a means to promote public discussion on a topic of significant importance not only for economic reasons, but also for social, legal, and cultural reasons as well.
The Consultation discusses five key challenges in developing a digital economy strategy: Canada's capacity to innovate using digital technologies, building a world-class digital infrastructure, growing the Information and Communications Technology industry, creating a digital content advantage through a strong and competitive digital media industry, and building digital skills for all Canadians. Interested parties can participate in two ways: through an online Open Forum or by sending a formal submission.
For more info -http://de-en.gc.ca/en/home/
Singapore: Health Ministry Connects with Citizens on Social Media
Online engagement via social media tools has been regarded as a good example for interacting with citizens. In this connection, Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) in its unique initiative to connect with citizens on health issues has set an example of using social media to engage with citizens, especially on issues related to healthcare policy making.
Increasing expectation of the citizens of Singapore for more transparency and even some form of ownership in formulating health policies has proved to be the driving force towards the initiative. Active engagement of the public to feedback and discuss healthcare policies is the prime focus of the portal. The Health Minister blogs personally about healthcare issues of topical interest, as well as challenges in policy making. The blog has attracted lot of visitors.
New media tools e.g. Blog, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube facilitate Health Ministry of Singapore to interact with the citizens of Singapore. It gives the citizens an opportunity to engage them on healthcare issues. On the other hand, it also allows the ministry to elucidate their thinking-process to the citizens. Explaining policy underlying principle to the citizens is another concept behind this portal.
For more info -http://www.moh.gov.sg/ http://mohsingapore.blogspot.com/
Norway: Online Unwanted Personal Information Removal
Personal information on internet sometimes proves to be a bane. Removal of unwanted personal information becomes inevitable at times. In this connection the Norwegian Data Inspectorate's service 'Slettmeg.no' ('deleteme.no' in English) provides online advice to the citizens to remove unwanted personal information on internet. It suits best for the people who find unwanted and offending material about themselves on the internet.
'Slettmeg.no' is a low-threshold service for Norwegians who experience violation of privacy rights on information that they have posted themselves online and later want to remove. Sometimes they wish to remove the material posted by others.
Keeping neutral attitude to various enquiries is the essence of the online advice. It avoids any moralizing tone concerning the published materials. It also provides information about relevant laws and regulations, practical assistance in order to get in contact with web services and those responsible for offending material published on the Internet. Not only this but assistance in filling out complaint forms, using the self-service removal services (e.g. from a search engine's webpage removal request tool) are few online assistance the Norwegian Data Inspectorate has come up with.
For more info - http://www.slettmeg.no/31-english