Current state of e-services in Saudi Arabia: the case of intermediaries in facilitating government services in Madinah city

The government of Madinah has launched ‘Khdamatec’ electronic Offices (e-Offices) concept under their national electronic Government (e-Government) modernisation agenda to facilitate service delivery to citizens and seamless interaction to communicate their needs. By offering e-Offices around the government departments, Madinah government hopes to increase accessibility of e-Government services and make steps forward to electronic age, encourage Medina' citizens to participate and use e-Services and bridging digital divide. However, the empirical findings illustrate that the adoption and diffusion of the e-Office concept and e-Government in the wider context at a lethargic pace. This paper highlights some of the challenges faced by the Madinah city in implementing the e-Office concept and e-Government

An Approach to Using Non Safety-Assured Programmable Components in Modest Integrity Systems

Programmable components (like personal computers or smart devices) can offer considerable benefits in terms of usability and functionality in a safety-related system. However there is a problem in justifying the use of programmable components if the components have not been safety justified to an appropriate integrity (e.g. to SIL 1 of IEC 61508). This paper outlines an approach (called LowSIL) developed in the UK CINIF nuclear industry research programme to justify the use of non safety-assured programmable components in modest integrity systems. This is a seven step approach that can be applied to new systems from an early design stage, or retrospectively to existing systems. The stages comprise: system characterisation, component suitability assessment, failure analysis, failure mitigation, identification of additional defences, identification of safety evidence requirements, and collation and evaluation of evidence. In the case of personal computers, there is supporting guidance on usage constraints, claim limits on reliability, and advice on “locking down” the component to maximise reliability. The approach is demonstrated for an example system. The approach has been applied successfully to a range of safety-related systems used in the nuclear industry

City Open Data Policies

The capture and analysis of data is transforming the 21st Century. As society becomes more data driven, data has the ability to drive the bottom line for private companies and help the public sector to define where and how services can best be delivered. In City Open Data Policies: Learning by Doing, the National League of Cities identifies how cities can take advantage of the opportunities presented by open data initiatives.SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONSLeadership: Political support stands out as one of the key requirements to implementing a successful open data project.Appropriate Legislation: Enacting legislation or formal policies is a crucial step toward ensuring the growth and sustainability of open data portals. Funding: Open data initiatives do not require high levels of funding. It is, however, important that the programs have their own budget line items where resources are specifically allocated. Technical Approach: Leading U.S. cities rely on commercial platforms that facilitate the implementation of open data initiatives, provide technical expertise, and ensure 24/7 customer support, often at a lower cost than providing these services in-house. Stakeholder Involvement: Open data is a two-way process. It is, therefore, essential to encourage participation and engagement among multiple stakeholders including: community members; non-profits; universities; the press; businesses; city departments; and other levels of government. Many cities adopt a flexible, and usually informal, approach to interact with the stakeholders. Measuring Success: Developing evaluation tools should be an integral part of any future open data policies

Usability dimensions in collaborative GIS

Collaborative GIS requires careful consideration of the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Usability aspects, given the variety of users that are expected to use these systems, and the need to ensure that users will find the system effective, efficient, and enjoyable. The chapter explains the link between collaborative GIS and usability engineering/HCI studies. The integration of usability considerations into collaborative GIS is demonstrated in two case studies of Web-based GIS implementation. In the first, the process of digitising an area on Web-based GIS is improved to enhance the user's experience, and to allow interaction over narrowband Internet connections. In the second, server-side rendering of 3D scenes allows users who are not equipped with powerful computers to request sophisticated visualisation without the need to download complex software. The chapter concludes by emphasising the need to understand the users' context and conditions within any collaborative GIS project. © 2006, Idea Group Inc

The CPTPP and Digital Trade: Embracing E-Commerce Opportunities for SMEs in Japan and Canada

One of the most innovative features of the CPTPP is its material on digital trade, especially its chapter on e-commerce which contains a number of provisions aimed at enhancing this vital sector of the economy by eliminating distortive trade barriers such as restrictions on data transfer and data localization requirements. Such provisions should be important to the CPTPP’s two largest parties: Canada and Japan, both of which are highly advanced economies seeking to enhance their digital trade capacity across the Pacific Rim. This paper explores the main features of the CPTPP concerning digital trade from the perspective of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Canada and Japan. Such businesses have a poor track record of e-commerce uptake and may be disadvantaged relative to their larger competitors which enjoy dominance in the online marketplace. Whether or not the CPTPP will assist these businesses while striking the right balance between an open internet and safeguarding of issues such as privacy is a matter of some debate

Transaction stage of e-Government systems: identification of its location & importance

All e-Government maturity models identify a Transaction stage along the pathway to full systems integration. The evidence suggests that a significant number of project failures occur at this stage and thus frustrate the endeavour to achieve a coherent uniform means of access to Government. Clearly, research to identify and overcome the challenges presented at this stage is critical. In this paper the Transaction stage is clearly delineated as the point at which online technology ceases to be peripheral to the agency’s activity. Hence, it presents the first real organisational challenge and an appropriate research strategy is defined to uncover the problems that arise at this point

Heal-link: using NILDE to provide Public Organizations in Greece with articles from HEAL-Link’s electronic subscriptions

This paper is about the collaboration and cooperation in both software and policies between NILDE, Library of CNR and HEAL-Link. Moreover is about the need of HEAL-Link to acquire and use software in order to fulfill its requirements to setup a document delivery service for the Greek Public Organizations (Hospitals, City Libraries, etc.). HEAL-Link was founded 15 years ago with the aim to provide electronic resources to the members of HEAL-Link. Main goals of HEAL-Link are: −− The collaboration among its members, by establishing common policy on journals subscriptions, to promote rational growth of journals’ collections among members, and achieve both savings and access to a greater number of electronic sources in order to meet the educational and research needs of the users of the participating institutions. −− The joint subscriptions and the management of remote access to electronic resources and information services, including electronic journals. For many years a large number of Public Organizations have been consistently expressing their wish to become active members of HEAL-Link in order to have full-text access to the subscribed electronic resources. But this is very difficult and the main reason is their limited budget to contribute to the cost of the electronic subscriptions of HEAL-Link. Therefore, under the NSRF (National Strategic Reference Framework) 2007–2013, we decided to take advantage of the interlibrary loan terms of the agreements we have with the publishers and setup a document delivery service. After research for software that is used among libraries internationally, we have decided to use the NILDE software. With the great cooperation of the people at CNR, together we managed to make all the necessary changes and modifications in the software so that it can be used for HEAL-Link’s document delivery service. An agreement was signed between CNR and HEAL-Link describing the terms under which NILDE will be used and the terms of collaboration. After signing the agreement, we had a one-week training in Bologna on learning NILDE fundamentals and its source code, and also made most of the changes needed to implement the HEAL-Link version. We were very careful with each needed change in the software so as not to affect the total functionality of the software. As an example of the changes needed in our version only HEAL-Link acts as a lending library. The Libraries of the Public Organizations, that are not allowed to access directly the full-text of the electronic journals, can make a “Document Delivery Request” through NILDE. HEAL-Link sends a copy of the electronic scientific article to them according to the clauses included in the HEAL-Link license agreements with the publishers