Re: Multi-Channel Section . Reinforced the re-use of government information

Miguel, attaching this version to ISSUE-20 to integrate it into the  
doc before next Group call. Hope this will let us resolve the issue on  
the call next Wed.

-- Jose

El 22/04/2009, a las 13:56, Miguel A. Amutio Gómez escribió:

> Hi,
>
> In this version, the re-use of government information has been  
> reinforced with some references.
>
> Changes are shown in light blue.
>
> Best regards,
> Miguel A.
>
>
>
> Multi-Channel Delivery
>
> The objectives of this issue are as follows:
>
> Identify ways to facilitate the deployment, delivery and  
> availability of multi-channel services by governments: Identify any  
> gaps to be filled in creating a complete suite of standards to  
> enable services that can be located, accessed and consumed by all  
> potential users, through different networks, terminal devices or  
> platforms and interfaces, satisfying quality and security conditions.
>
> Gather information about best practices in multi-channel delivery of  
> public services.
>
> What is Multi-Channel Delivery?
>
> Channels are different means used by service providers to interact  
> with and deliver services to their user community. Multi-channel  
> service delivery is the provision of services through different  
> networks, terminal devices or platforms and interfaces, in an  
> integrated and coordinated way, with comparable levels of usability.
>
> Governments, like other sectors, also interact with citizens through  
> different channels, from the traditional ones such as the counter or  
> face-to-face and postal delivery to the electronic channels such as  
> Internet web-sites, e-mail, SMS-messaging, fixed phone, mobile  
> phone, interactive voice response systems, digital television, fax,  
> self-service terminals (ATMs), etc. Governments also have challenges  
> in relation to the elimination of barriers in the access to their  
> services and in relation to the provision of choices about how to  
> access their information and services.
>
> Mobile devices, digital TV and others are opening new ways of  
> interaction between citizens and governments, so that electronic  
> services are no longer limited to the PC. This is possible thanks to  
> the evolution of terminal devices with better features in terms of  
> processing capacity, memory, power autonomy, screen size and  
> quality, on one side and to the improvement of networks, protocols  
> and mark-up languages on the other side.
>
> Industry and citizens are getting used to these new electronic  
> channels taking advantage of their possibilities and of new services  
> and there is an expectation that governments may be able to do the  
> same.
>
> These new electronic channels require the adoption of new  
> architectures and systems able to provide the maximum of their  
> functionalities.
>
> The Web is a main channel to access government services permanently  
> available and it should be possible to offer the citizens such  
> services through any device incorporating Internet access. This  
> would allow a significant increase in the usage of government  
> services by means of any kind of widespread channels such as PDA,s,  
> smartphones, WAP, WebTV, or even Bluetooth and others; in this way  
> the access to government services would really be anyhow, anywhere,  
> anytime through mobile devices.
>
> Governments should take into account distribution, access options  
> and accessibility aspects to avoid creating new barriers which could  
> limit the amount of information or services provided. Consideration  
> to socially disadvantaged users, users without high bandwidth and  
> high cost devices, as well as devices, platforms and websites with  
> smaller audiences should be taken into account.
>
> What Public Policy Outcomes are Related to Multi-Channel Delivery?
>
> Multi-channel policies developed by governments generally address  
> the following goals:
>
> Facilitating e-Inclusion, avoiding digital divide and reaching the  
> disadvantaged citizens. For instance, the Lisbon Ministerial  
> Declaration [MD-LISBON] refers to multi-channel delivery in relation  
> to inclusive eGovernment. Also, the ICT PSP work programme 2009 [EC- 
> CIP] focus the multi-channel service delivery to the socially  
> disadvantaged and opens this entry explaining that one third of the  
> European population is currently considered socially disadvantaged,  
> most of it suffering from multiple difficulties leading to social  
> exclusion (economic, physical, cultural, geographical factors etc.).
>
> Making available egovernment services and information to large part  
> of the population. This is specially interesting in countries with  
> low computer penetration as explained in the case of the “Multi- 
> channel Citizen Service Centers in Greece”[EV-PAPA]. It has to be  
> taken into account the world wide expansion of mobile networks and  
> the forecast that by the end of 2010 there may be four billion  
> people in the world with access to a mobile phone.
>
> Expanding citizen´s choice, extending and providing citizen centric  
> and personalized services; also referred in [EC-CIP].
>
> A closer government to the citizens, providing transparency and  
> openness and expanding citizen participation in public policy  
> decision making. The Obama administration's memo on Transparency and  
> Open Government [OB-MEMO] emphasizes these questions. Also it is an  
> issue in the the Lisbon Ministerial Declaration [MD-LISBON].
>
> Re-use of governments´ information: Governments produce, collect and  
> share vast amounts of information with high commercial potential for  
> re-use as the basis for new added value products and services, such  
> as e.g. car navigation systems, weather forecasts, insurance and  
> credit rating services and legal databases, as explained in [PSI].  
> Following the same source, a survey made in 2006 showed that the  
> overall market size for public sector information only in the EU is  
> estimated at € 27 billion. The EU adopted the PSI Directive in 2003  
> [PSI-Directive] to overcome barriers that limit the re-use of  
> government information; this Directive deals with how public sector  
> bodies should make their information available for re-use, and with  
> key issues like transparency of what is available and under which  
> conditions, fair competition and non-discrimination between all  
> potential re-users. The transposition of this Directive into  
> national legislations in the EU includes the promotion of the re-use  
> through multi-channel platforms as, for example, in the case of the  
> national law of Spain.
>
> Multi-channel delivery of government services in support to the  
> process of combined service delivery across different  
> administrations, also referred in [EC-CIP].
>
> Re-using data and applications independently from the channel,  
> reducing the costs of providing services, included in policies  
> oriented to efficiency, effectiveness and transparency.
>
> What are the Main Benefits of Multi-Channel Delivery?
>
> Main benefits of multi-channel delivery may be both for the user  
> community and for the service provider:
>
> An increase of flexibility in terms of anytime, anywhere, anyhow and  
> access options for the user.
>
> An increase of the choice according to the user´s preferences;  
> access to the same information and services through different  
> channels.
>
> Wider usage and impact of government services; a higher population  
> or user community reached by government services.
>
> Cost savings along the delivery chain for the service provider.
>
> Quicker deployment of services through new or additional channels  
> which may provide easy, accurate and personalized content delivery.
>
> Integration of government services in the front-office.
>
> How Can Multi-Channel Delivery Be Achieved?
>
> Developing a multi-channel strategy.
>
> As a starting point governments develop strategies so that the  
> access to their Web sites may be available through a range of  
> digital platforms offering more choice to citizens. More global  
> approaches design strategies which combine face to face offices,  
> call centers and web sites, as in the case of the multichannel  
> initiative consisting in a website (www.060.es), a network of  
> offices (more than 1.600 in March 2009), and a telephone number in  
> Spain [Red060] and the Multi-channel Citizen Service Centers in  
> Greece [EV-PAPA], with equivalent experiences to this one in other  
> countries. Transport Direct[Transport] in the United Kingdom offers  
> travel information beyond the PC platform including PDAs or mobile  
> phones and digital TV which gets to a segment of the population who  
> do not have ready access to the internet through a PC.
>
> The study about “Multi-channel delivery of government services”  
> elaborated by the Program IDA of the European Commission [EC-MCD]  
> elaborates on how to develop a multi-channel strategy; this study  
> includes a list of possible channels with their main features,  
> proposes a channel selection framework and provides implementation  
> guidelines of the multi-channel strategy. This implementation may  
> require a number of steps such like the following:
>
> Identify candidate services for multi-channel delivery.
>
> Investigate whether the service can be divided into distinct steps.  
> Given one service, sometimes one specific channel can satisfy the  
> full transaction; in other cases the full transaction could take  
> several steps which might involve different channels. For instance,  
> in order to renew the citizen´s ID card in Spain an appointment can  
> be made through a web site, the citizen may receive a confirmation  
> with an SMS message through the mobile and then the last step is  
> made face to face in an office of the administration.
>
> Carry out research and segmentation of the target user community.
>
> Analyze organizational changes including business processes, back  
> end and front end applications, staffing.
>
> Analyze technical solutions.
>
> Determine the channels to be implemented.
>
> Quantification and evaluation. Statistics of access through the  
> different channels enabled.
>
> Using standards, principles and best practices.
> W3C technical specifications: URI, XML technologies, WML, XHTML,  
> CSS, XPATH, ...
>
> Web Accessibility [W3C-WAI]. Using the guidelines developed by the  
> Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) for the different components:  
> Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG), Web Content  
> Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG); User Agent Accessibility Guidelines  
> (UAAG).
>
> Mobile Web: using Device Description Repository Simple API, Device  
> Description Repository Core Vocabulary ; and the the Mobile Web Best  
> Practices 1.0 [W3C-MOBILE].
>
> Device Independence principles [W3C_DEVIN] set out some principles  
> that can be used when evaluating current solutions or proposing new  
> solutions, and can form the basis of more detailed requirements and  
> recommendations.
>
> What are the Main Issues and Limitations with Multi-Channel Delivery?
>
> General requirements of the user and of the provider
>
> General requirements of the user, as pointed out in [EC-MCD]:  
> flexibility, access options, accessibility, usability (easy to use),  
> quality, security.
>
> Some of them are specially relevant like security providing trust,  
> and simplicity so that the content may have a similar appearance  
> from any device, providing transparency from the point of view of  
> the user.
>
> Many people uses the mobile phone only for phone calls and are not  
> aware of the rest of possibilities of the device, because its  
> operation may result difficult for them. This inhibiting factor  
> decreases the usage of the offered services. For instance, trying to  
> write an URL in a mobile may be a difficult task because certain  
> characters (“@”, “/”, “?”, “&”, “:”, …) are hard to find and the  
> writing task is generally troublesome. The user usually has to  
> remember a crowd of short numbers, key words, URLs, while using  
> impulsively a mobile device with low help capabilities and requiring  
> a quick answer to solve an specific problem.
>
> General requirements of the service provider, as pointed out in [EC- 
> MCD]: efficiency, effectiveness, security.
>
> Limitation of mobile devices and adaptation of information and  
> services provided
>
> Limitations of mobile devices, as listed in [WIK-MB-LIM]: Small  
> screen size, Lack of windows, Navigation, Lack of Javascript and  
> cookies, Types of pages accessible, Speed, Broken pages, Compressed  
> pages, Size of messages, Cost - the access and bandwidth charges,  
> Location of mobile user, Situation in which ad reaches user.
>
> Adaptation to the access to the Web through mobile devices, which  
> may require, between others, the reduction of download traffic and  
> the processing consume, because of the need to keep the battery,  
> reduce the cost by traffic and the time response perceived by the  
> user when used intensively or when downloading contents.
>
> The ideal scenario is that introduction of new electronic channels  
> would be as non-intrusive as possible; for instance without having  
> to modify content managers used for the production of information  
> for the Web.
>
> This may require the deployment of intermediate elements which adapt  
> or format the content taken out from the web appropriately according  
> to the kind of device involved in the transaction.
>
> Management of contents that can not be showed in a mobile device,  
> have a large size very costly to download and memory consuming  
> (images, PDF documents).
>
> Coordination and integration of different channels
>
> Coordination and integration of different channels is necessary to  
> provide a focus on the user, a consistent approach to data and  
> databases available or shared by all channels and consistent look  
> and feel.
>
> Interoperability, discussed above in this note.
>
> Access to eGovernment services and information
>
> In relation to the multi-channel access to eGovernment services and  
> information there are several main issues to be considered:
>
> Web for everyone: so that it may be available to all people,  
> whatever their hardware, software, network infrastructure, native  
> language, culture, geographical location, or physical or mental  
> ability. It has to be considered that services should be  
> satisfactory according to the context where they are used.
>
> Accessibility: so that people with disabilities and others,  
> including older people with changing abilities due to aging, can  
> perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that  
> they can contribute to the Web.
>
> Digital divide: as explained by Wikipedia [WIKI-DD], it “refers to  
> the gap between people with effective access to digital  
> andinformation technology and those with very limited or no access  
> at all...It is the unequal access by some members ofsociety to  
> information and communications technology, and the unequal  
> acquisition of related skills.” This gap or unequal access includes  
> the imbalances in physical access to technology and disability, as  
> well as the imbalances in resources and skills needed to effectively  
> participate as a digital citizen. The digital divide may be  
> classified based on gender, income,disability and race groups, and  
> by locations.
>
> This means that when deployment multi-channel delivery of services a  
> certain knowledge of the environment is needed in terms of the  
> availability of different devices and bandwidth, and of the target  
> population, social preferences and user profiles including access by  
> persons with disabilities.
>
> Interesting information may be about the proportion between mobile  
> phones to PCs or preferences of channel in relation to specific  
> services. Depending on how simple or complex is the service, the  
> user may prefer making a phone call, browsing with the mobile,  
> receiving or exchanging information by e-mail or using a website  
> with a computer.
>
> Governments use different strategies to get this kind of  
> information; for instance, studying user profiles, user groups and  
> heuristics of navigation.
>
> For instance, Directgov [Directgov] in the United Kingdom is  
> available through its website, through any Internet enabled phone  
> and through digital TV; they have found that users of the Directgov  
> TV service are more likely to be older (63% over 35, 40% over 45,  
> 17% over 55 respectively), the majority not working (67%) and half  
> (48%) rarely or never use the internet.
>
> Other strategies include facilitating free Internet enabled  
> computers at libraries and kiosks or ATMs, widely available to  
> citizens for free at public locations; targeting the lower cost  
> devices and the lower cost access; providing some information in  
> text form for mobile access; announcing multi-media information and  
> making it searchable through text based services so that users who  
> have limited access to multimedia enabled workstations can find out  
> about resources they need and go to a kiosk or library with access  
> available.
>
> The MC-eGov Study on Multi-channel Delivery Strategies and  
> Sustainable Business Models for Public Services addressing Socially  
> Disadvantaged Groups [MC-GOV] includes a good number of good  
> practice examples.
>
> Conditions about the reuse of government information
>
> Conditions about the reuse of government information by the public,  
> as explained in [GSA-TRAN].
>
> Multi-Channel Distribution Standards.
>
> Standards, principles and best practices are needed to facilitate  
> the provision of multi-channel services and to satisfy requirements  
> such as efficiency, effectiveness, integration, quick response to  
> policies, priorities and social needs and the delivery of services  
> that offer a sustainable value to society.
>
> Fair distribution.
>
> Fair distribution refers to the issue if government distributed  
> content through selected websites, platforms or devices creates an  
> unfair advantage for a particular device, platform, distribution  
> network, or website. This question has close connection with the re- 
> use of government information discussed above in this document.
>
> It may be also interesting for governments and for the users of  
> their services and information to consider, for instance widely used  
> instruments such as Web 2.0 services, as an additional channel for  
> distribution of multimedia information. Also they could consider the  
> use of social networks as a mean to increase interaction and citizen 
> ´s participation taking due care of privacy, reliability and  
> accessibility barriers they may present.
>
> In relation to these questions, governments are considering and  
> putting in practice the idea of being present in main Web 2.0  
> services and similar instruments and thus reaching large  
> communities, instead of just remaining outside and waiting for users  
> to come to their traditional websites. An example is the use made by  
> town council of the city of Zaragoza of some of this kind of  
> services [ZARAGOZA].
>
> Multi-media central feed.
>
> Strategies in relation to the distribution of multi-media government  
> content may include approaches to facilitate the access to content  
> provided through social media channels, in a searchable way, in  
> freely accessible, playable and downloadable formats, allowing  
> tagging or preserving hyperlinks.
>
> References:
>
> [Directgov]
>
> Directgov http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
>
> [EC-CIP]
>
> European Commission, COMPETITIVENESS AND INNOVATION FRAMEWORK  
> PROGRAMME (CIP) ICT POLICY SUPPORT PROGRAMME ICT PSP WORK PROGRAMME  
> 2009, http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/ict_psp/index_en.htm
>
> [EC-MCD]
>
> European Commission – Program IDA, Multi-channel delivery of  
> government services, June 2004,http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/3119
>
> [EC-MCEGOV]
>
> European Commission, 'MC-eGov: Study on Multi-channel Delivery  
> Strategies and Sustainable Business Models for Public Services  
> Addressing Socially Disadvantaged Groups', http://www.epractice.eu/community/InclusiveeGovernment
>
> [EV-PAPA]
>
> Evangelos Papanikolaou (Ministry of the Interior, Public  
> Administration & Decentralization) Multi-channel Citizen Service  
> Centers in Greece, http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/csckep
>
> [GSA-TRAN]
>
> GSA Office of Citizen Services and Communications, Intergovernmental  
> Solutions Newsletter, Transparency and Open Government, Transparency  
> in Government,http://www.usaservices.gov/events_news/documents/Transparency.pdf
>
> [MC-GOV]
>
> MC-eGov Study on Multi-channel Delivery Strategies and Sustainable  
> Business Models for Public Services addressing Socially  
> Disadvantaged Groupshttp://www.mcegov.eu/media/156/mcegov%20project_study%20report_good%20practice%20examples_edited.pdf
>
> [MD-LISBON]
>
> Ministerial Declaration, approved unanimously in Lisbon, Portugal,  
> on 19 September 2007,http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/docs/lisbon_2007/ministerial_declaration_180907.pdf
>
> [OB-MEMO]
>
> Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on  
> Transparency and Open Government, B. Obama,http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment/ 
> .
>
> [PSI]
>
> Europe´s Information Society, Public Sector Information – PSIhttp://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/index_en.htm
>
> [PSI-Directive]
>
> DIRECTIVE 2003/98/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL  
> of 17 November 2003 on the re-use of public sector information
>
> http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/docs/pdfs/directive/psi_directive_en.pdf
>
> [Red060]
>
> Red 060 (Network 060), http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/red060
>
> [Transport]
>
> Transport Direct http://www.transportdirect.info/web2/home.aspx?repeatingloop=Y
>
> [W3C-DEVIN]
>
> Device Independence Principles http://www.w3.org/TR/di-princ/
>
> [W3C-MOBILE]
> Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/
> [W3C-WAI]
>
> Web Accessibility Inituative http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php
>
> [WIK-MB-LIM]
>
> Wikipedia, Mobile Web, Limitations, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Internet
>
> [WIKI-DD]
>
> Wikipedia, Digital Divide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide
>
> [ZARAGOZA]
>
> http://twitter.com/zaragoza_es , http://www.youtube.com/webzgz
>