OECD releases new recommendations on PSI

(Open Access News)
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development released a new Recommendation of the Council for Enhanced Access and More Effective Use of Public Sector Information at its recent Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy (Seoul, June 17-18, 2008).

Labels: E-government

US - Website judge dropped from trial

(BBC)
A US judge has removed himself from an obscenity trial he was overseeing after it emerged that his own website featured sexually explicit images. Federal appeals court judge Alex Kozinski, 57, earlier suspended the trial of a businessman accused of distributing obscene videos. Mr Kozinski said he was not aware the explicit photographs and videos on his website could be seen by the public. Public access to his site has since been blocked. Mr Kozinski is a high-ranking and highly respected judge, and is chief judge of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. See also The Kozinski messbu Larry Lessig.

Labels: Content_Regulation, E-government

EU - Public Sector Information - On-line Consultation for review of the PSI Directive

(Europa)
The purpose of this online consultation is to gather information from as many sources as possible, including public sector content holders and commercial and non-commercial re-users (universities, NGOs) on their views on different aspects related to the implementation, impact and scope of the PSI Directive. The results of the online consultation will feed into the debate regarding the review of the PSI Directive. We are inviting interested parties to send us comments, suggestions and replies to the enclosed questionnaire by 31st July 2008 at the latest. More information(PDF).

Labels: E-government

OECD - How can the internet make this world a better place?

(OECD)
This is the question OECD is asking the public on YouTube at www.youtube.com/futureinternet. YouTube users can share their opinion with the leaders and opinion shapers attending the OECD Ministerial meeting on the "Future of the Internet" in Seoul, Korea on 17-18 June 2008. The OECD is organising the Ministerial Meeting. Government ministers from more than 40 countries, global business and civil society leaders, academics and technical experts will meet with more than 1000 participants to forge broad principles that can provide an enabling policy environment for the Internet Economy.

Labels: E-government, Information_society_and_Internet_policy

EU - Towards a European strategy on e-Justice

(RAPID)
The Commission has adopted a Communication to the European Parliament, Council and the EESC presenting ideas for the use of Information Society tools in the field of justice. The Communication deals with current and future initiatives which will help promote the European Justice Area. The objectives of e-Justice, which encompass both criminal and civil justice, are: The creation of a European portal designed to facilitate access to justice by citizens and businesses across Europe, and the reinforcement of judicial co-operation, on the basis of existing legal instruments. See also Questions and answers on the adoption of the e-Justice Communication

Labels: E-government

EU - European Criminal Records Information System

(RAPID)
The Commission has adopted a proposal for a Council Decision on the establishment of the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS). The proposal aims at giving concrete tools to all 27 Member States for the exchange of easy-to-use information between Member States with different criminal legal systems, different languages, as well as different alphabets. ECRIS is a system based on decentralised information technology architecture, where criminal records data will be stored solely in databases operated by Member States. The system aims at making sure that the recipient receives information in a form which is immediately understandable.

Labels: E-government

EU - Electronic Identity: easy access to public services across the EU

(RAPID)
The European Commission unveils a pilot project to ensure cross-border recognition of national electronic identity (eID) systems and enable easy access to public services in 13 Member States. Throughout the EU, some 30 million national eID cards are used by citizens to access a variety of public services such as claiming social security and unemployment benefits or filing tax returns. The Commission's project will enable EU citizens to prove their identity and use national electronic identity systems (passwords, ID cards, PIN codes and others) throughout the EU, not just in their home country. The plan is to align and link these systems without replacing existing ones.

Labels: E-government

US - Internet key to Obama victories

(BBC)
With Barack Obama moving close to victory in the Democratic presidential primary campaign, the internet has proved one of the key tools to his success. And it may well give the Democrats a big advantage during the Presidential race itself. The internet favours the outsider, and gives them the ability to quickly mobilise supporters and money online. The more nimble use of the internet by the Obama campaign in its early stages helped him overcome the huge initial lead of Hillary Clinton in the presidential nominating race.

Labels: E-government

FR - Les gendarmes lancent leur premier appel à témoins sur Internet

(01net)
La gendarmerie nationale met en ligne un site consacré à une affaire criminelle, afin de recueillir de nouveaux témoignages ou indices. Une première en France alors que cette pratique a déjà cours à l'étranger, en Allemagne par exemple. L'opération a reçu l'aval du juge d'instruction chargé de l'enquête, et le ministère de la Justice finance l'opération.

Labels: E-government

IT - Publish and be taxed

(Economist)
At the end of April, without warning or consultation with the data-protection authority the Italian tax authorities put all 38.5m tax returns for 2005 up on the internet. The site was promptly jammed by the volume of hits. Before being blacked out at the insistence of data protectors, vast amounts of data were downloaded, posted to other sites or, as eBay found, burned on to disks.

Labels: Data_protection_privacy, E-government

FR - Le ministère de l'Intérieur boucle son système de dépôt de plainte par internet

(ZDNet France)
Le système de dépôt de plainte par internet permettra à une victime de faire une déposition en ligne, qu´elle devra ensuite aller confirmer au commissariat ou à la gendarmerie. Le service ne gèrera, dans un premier temps, que les plaintes contre X pour des affaires mineures. Le ministère de l'Intérieur ne veut pas être accusé de mettre en place un système de délation en ligne ; il a donc prévu la parade : la victime souhaitant déposer plainte devra s'identifier, en donnant notamment son numéro de carte d'identité nationale. Cette fiche sera ensuite transmise électroniquement au commissariat le plus proche. La victime y sera convoquée pour confirmer ses dires, puis valider complètement la plainte.

Labels: E-government

UK - Queen launches YouTube channel

(BBC)
The Queen has launched her own channel on the video-sharing website YouTube. The Royal Channel will feature her Christmas Day message, and has recent and historical footage of the monarch and other members of the Royal Family. The launch marks the 50th anniversary of the Queen's first televised festive address in 1957.

Labels: E-government, Social_networking

Wiki-Government

(Democracy: A Journal of Ideas)
by Beth Simone Noveck. How open-source technology can make government decision-making more expert and more democratic. The article argues that ordinary people possess extraordinary expertise that can improve the quality of government decision making; it also describes how democratic institutions can be reshaped.

Labels: E-government, Social_networking

UK - Government offers reward in hunt for lost data

(Guardian)
The government has offered a £20,000 reward for the safe return of two missing CDs containing personal details of half the British population. The Metropolitan police, which has been heading the search for the data, has asked thousands of government workers to check their desks and homes "in case the package or discs have turned up".

Labels: Data_protection_privacy, E-government, Security_and_encryption

UK - Police target rubbish tips in hunt for missing data discs

(Scotsman)
POLICE hunting for the two missing data discs containing sensitive data about millions of people have searched rubbish tips in London, Scotland Yard said. The discs, containing 25 million child benefit claimants' personal details, went missing when a junior official sent them by courier in the internal mail from the Child Benefit office in Washington, Tyne and Wear, to the National Audit Office in London on October 18.

Labels: Data_protection_privacy, E-government

UK - SatLav text service finds nearest loo

(vnunet.com)
Westminster City Council has launched an SMS service to inform users of the nearest public toilet. Users text 'toilet' to 80097 and the service determines their location and automatically finds the nearest public toilet. The 'SatLav' system charges 25p for each text.

Labels: E-government

UK - Watchdog: Protecting data is not 'rocket science'

(ZDNet.co.uk)
In the wake of the largest-ever data breach to hit the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office has criticised the apparent lack of technological safeguards in government departments and called for "privacy-enhancing technologies" to be built into future projects.

Labels: Data_protection_privacy, E-government, Security_and_encryption

UK - Ministers under fire over records

(BBC)
The UK government's "basic competence" has been questioned by the Tories after the loss in the post of computer discs with 25m people's personal details on them. The child benefit data on them includes names, ages, bank and address details.

Labels: Data_protection_privacy, E-government, Security_and_encryption

UK - Lawmaker blasts government on Microsoft policy

(CNET News)
A member of Parliament of the United Kingdom has launched a stinging attack on the U.K. government's IT strategy, saying that it has given Microsoft too much control.

Labels: E-government, Health, Information_society_and_Internet_policy

NZ police let public write laws

(BBC)
New Zealanders have been given the chance to write their own laws, with a new online tool launched by police. The "wiki" will allow the public to suggest the wording of a new police act, as part of a government review of the current law, written in 1958. Police say they hope to gain a range of views from the public on the new law before presenting it to parliament. The wiki, one of the first of its kind in the world, is open to any internet user, police say.

Labels: E-government

UK - Facebook row spurs ban on official ads

(FT)
The Central Office of Information (COI) which co-ordinates advertising for the British government has ordered its internet campaigns to be kept off user-generated pages on social networking websites to avoid marketing next to contentious or offensive content. The policy is designed to spare the British government the fate suffered by several large companies who pulled advertising from Facebook, the popular networking site, after their corporate campaigns were discovered running next to a page with details for the far-right British National party.

Labels: E-government, Electronic_commerce

UK - Study: Tech for tracking offenders is flawed

(Kablenet.com)
A study commissioned by the Ministry of Justice has revealed that the signal for satellite technology for tracking offenders could be lost and that offenders could remove their ankle tags and leave them behind. The report says that, in ideal conditions, the technology is capable of finding the exact location of a tracked offender. But the signal could be distorted if an offender enters a building or a street with tall structures.

Labels: Computer_crime, E-government

UK - Halt e-voting, says Electoral Commission

(ZDNet UK)
Trials of electronic voting and vote-counting should be halted until the government can come up with a good reason for using the technology, the Electoral Commission has said. E-voting has been undergoing a series of trials in local elections across the UK, but the Electoral Commission, in a report, said that no further trials were necessary for the moment. The Electoral Commission suggested that the security of e-voting systems needed to be beefed up in any future implementations, and reiterated its support for a system of individual voter registration as a prerequisite to further trials.

Labels: E-government

EU - Steamy YouTube Clip Riles Lawmakers

(AP)
The European Commission has posted a montage of sex scenes from European films on a video-sharing Web site, drawing criticism from some lawmakers who described it as "soft porn". The Commission launched its own channel on YouTube last week called EUTube, saying it wanted to spread messages about topics such as climate change and human rights. Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr said the sex scene clips - drawn from award-winning films such as "Amelie" and "Bad Education" - highlighted Europe's tradition of rich cinema.

Labels: E-government

EU Tube - Sharing the sights and sounds of Europe on YouTube

(RAPID)
The European Commission has launched a dedicated channel on YouTube to make its audiovisual material more widely available to the public. "This initiative reflects the Commission's commitment to better explain its policies and actions on issues which concern citizens across the EU - such as climate change, energy or immigration" said Margot Wallström, Vice-President for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy.

Labels: E-government

UK - Electronic vote 'threat' to UK democracy

(BBC)
British democracy could be undermined by moves to use electronic voting in elections: the risks involved in swapping paper ballots for touch screens far outweigh any benefits they may have, says the Open Rights Group report.

Labels: E-government, Security_and_encryption

UK - Bank claims deluge legal service

(BBC)
The government's Money Claim Online small claims service (MCOL) is being overwhelmed by claims for bank charges. So many people are using the website to reclaim overdraft charges that at times it has slowed almost to a standsti

Labels: E-government

UK - Call to open up public data use

(BBC)
Government must do more to embrace Web 2.0 tools and communities, says a report. Commissioned by the Cabinet Office, the report looks at the novel ways the web helps people use information and how government can get involved. The report said that some public data, such as post codes, was already widely used but much more could be done to open up access to official information.

Labels: E-government

UK - 'What is a Web site?' judge says he's fully computer literate

(Reuters)
A British judge who said he didn't really understand the term "Web site" is fully computer literate and was merely trying to clarify complex evidence for the benefit of the court, the judiciary said. The remark by Judge Peter Openshaw during a trial on Wednesday made headlines around the world. "The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a Web site is," he told a London court during the trial of three men accused of inciting terrorism via the Internet. In a statement, the Judicial Communications Office did not dispute that Openshaw had been accurately quoted. But it said the remark by the judge, now in his fifth week presiding over the trial, had been taken out of context.

Labels: Computer_crime, E-government

UK / FR - Tony Blair félicite Nicolas Sarkozy de sa victoire

(YouTube)
Tony Blair félicite Nicolas Sarkozy de sa victoire aux éléctions françaises (en français). See also PM congratulates Sarkozy on French election win.

Labels: E-government

UK - Blair launches YouTube 'channel'

(BBC)
Tony Blair has launched a Labour Party 'channel' on the YouTube website to communicate directly with voters. In a minute-long video on the channel the prime minister says the website will enable voters to receive 'unmediated' information. The channel also carries messages from Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt. Last year Tory leader David Cameron launched his own video weblog to try to get his message to young people.

Labels: E-government