Two surveys show State at forefront of Net interaction

Ministers this week were preening over two surveys that place the Republic at the forefront of European nations in the area of e-government.

A little preening was in order - the surveys do reflect a level of accomplishment that should be publicly acknowledged. The top ranking also represents the commitment of at least some parts of Government to promote the internet as a major tool for easing the interaction between State and citizen or business.

Kudos really go to the handful of hardy and determined high-level civil servants who have driven the process, despite encountering the difficulties that can be expected when a slow-moving and settled bureaucracy meets an unyielding demand for major change.

Following much hard work by teams at Comhairle and at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, two good Government websites now serve as portals to Government services for citizens and business.

The Oasis website (www.oasis.gov.ie), developed by Comhairle, is a central source for Web information on public services for Irish people.

The Basis website (www.basis.ie), developed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, connects businesses to State information and services.

The Basis site is particularly attractive and well-designed - very simple at the home-page level - and allows users to drill down through its various layers for further detail.

The Oasis site is quite basic in appearance - one hopes that the text-based interface might soon evolve into a less cluttered and more easily navigated visual interface - but is also a good start on a complex and far-reaching project.

Other Government sites of note include Revenue - where one can now download forms and file taxes - and some of the Government department sites, such as that of the Department of Public Enterprise (DPE).

Among departments, DPE has certainly led in this area, and early on had comprehensive archives of relevant policy documents, press releases and division information.

I'd wager they were also the first to offer downloadable PDF files - back in 1997 they placed the Advisory Committee on Telecommunication's full report online in this format.

However, let's keep these two aforementioned surveys in context.

One, by Accenture, is not an external evaluation but a survey of national opinions across 25 European states.

In this study, 65 per cent of Irish executives said they felt the Republic was taking a strong stance on e-government initiatives.

This was the most optimistic response by any of the countries surveyed.

Of course, it is a quite subjective response and Irish people have repeatedly proven to be among the most positive in their responses on pan-European surveys in general. Remember the one in which the Irish were declared to be the happiest in Europe?

I'm not really sure where that comes from, given the amount of moaning one hears down in the pub on a Friday night.

Perhaps it is simply a manifestation of determined national pride when required to compare ourselves to the rest of the EU community (we're damned if we are going to let the Belgians be seen as happier than we are and especially not the British, even if they get their own e-commerce envoy).

I also wonder what those Irish executives would give as examples of our e-Government fortitude, if asked to provide evidence. I think most would probably get as far as mentioning Revenue's tax forms before sputtering out.

The other survey, by Cap Gemini, is released today and was completed at the EU's request. However, much of its content was leaked to the Wall Street Journal last week.

The survey looks at 20 areas of government service and ranked countries in how advanced they were for each area, in the context of being able to handle a full caseload.

The Republic topped the list overall, with an average of 68 per cent across all areas. That's not bad at all.

On the other hand, Europe is hardly a leader in the area of getting government processes and services online, lagging far behind the United States, Canada, Australia and Singapore, for example.

It is crucial that these surveys not be taken as verification of a fait accompli, and even more, that they be taken with a grain of salt.

There's an overwhelming "to do" list facing the public sector in the e-government area, and there's no room for complacency.

Meanwhile, back on everyone's favourite topic of broadband infrastructure, it is interesting to see calls this week in the US for more government involvement in and regulation of that nation's broadband networks.

The suggestion that perhaps it is time to adopt some degree of nationalisation follows the collapse of broadband provider Excite@home, which has 4.1 million customers facing cut-off.

Most of those are in large urban regions known for cutting-edge access, including Silicon Valley.

Mr David Coursey, the main columnist for tech news site ZDNet, argues: "If the Internet really matters - if it's that essential to whatever remains of the 'new economy' - then it needs to be regulated to prevent precisely what happened: a messy legal situation in which customer needs were forgotten, as giant corporations feud over their self-interests, not ours."

Gee, that sounds kind of familiar.

More seriously, I do not see how we, in a State with a smaller population than the Silicon Valley region, can possibly imagine that a free market will ever bring competitive broadband to the State.

We are at the point where high-speed internet connections should be considered as much a part of the public infrastructure as roads or electricity and, therefore, subsidised as a national service.

That doesn't mean that Bertie.com should become your ISP.

It means that the State could create a highly competitive market for services over broadband - rather than simply for getting fibre in the ground - by building a public access network. One hopes the powers that be over here are taking note of the Excite@home meltdown and considering creative alternatives.

klillington@irish-times.ie

Accenture report: www.accenturecom/xdoc/en/ideas/eeurope2001/Full_Survey.pf