E-Government

What is E-Government?

E-Government is a deceptively simple concept. At it's most basic level, it describes stream lining the process of Government by taking advantage of new technologies and platforms such as the internet. However it can also mean so much more.

E-Government can be thought of as one of the largest and most complex online collaborative projects to be developed. You aren't just enabling different departments within a business to work together, instead you are creating a pathway for the Government and the people to talk to one another and work together in a way not possible before.

At the local level, E-Government allows councils to work closely with the people living within their areas. From the development of streamlined Development processes, through to improved community consultation, E-Government projects create opportunities, not only to increase community participation in the process of Government, but also the ability to extend the resources of the Council through the sharing of information and services with other local councils and organisations in the region.

Local Governments in Europe and the United States have been moving towards collaborative models, with a focus on the development of online services. Through this collaboration the Local Government bodies are able to both reduce the cost to each individual member organisation and increase their ability to build new services to meet the needs of their constituents.

Local Government collaboration efforts can be broadly defined in two groups: