By Ernst & Young, 2011.

Smart technology offers the promise of remote access to health care and education, while blurring boundaries between industries. The power of the individual will grow and new competitors will emerge, disrupting industries and creating new business models.

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The rush by government agencies worldwide to embrace the associated technologies collectively known as Web 2.0 has opened up a number of dazzling new ways citizens can participate in the public sector. Prodded by this private-sector groundswell and by the successful use of these technologies in election campaigns, local, regional and national governments are now focusing on Web 2.0 as they develop more accessible services and an array of participatory public platforms

Försäkringskassan, the Swedish government’s social insurer, provides financial protection to citizens in the forms of housing assistance, family aid, pensions, and sickness and disability benefits. Taking advantage of new online connectivity options, the agency launched a new service strategy to increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs by delivering service that better reflects the evolving needs of its customers. To achieve this, Försäkringskassan conducted extensive segmentation analyses, defining 17 discrete customer clusters based on citizens’ life events and the complexity of their needs. The agency then used information such as the service channels and preferences each segment favored to develop detailed customer insights. These insights enabled public managers to align each customer segment with the three primary contact channels—self-service, customer service centers or personal case workers.

The new approach is intended to decrease paper-based interactions, minimizing the use of complex forms, and eliminate unnecessary one-on-one meetings by moving more customer service cases to online self-service channels. Today, the organization delivers better outcomes, enjoys increased citizen satisfaction levels and uses resources more effectively, providing people with flexible, personalized customer service.

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eGovernment unit
DG Information Society and Media,
European Commission, 2007

Citizen-centric governments deliver cost-effective, personalised and relevant e-services that simultaneously enhance democratic dialogue. From our study over 24 months for the European Commission eGovernment Unit1 we assessed the ways in which organisations are changing to deliver eGovernment services, and found that a simple focus on the organisation was not sufficient – it is the way in which the organisation mediates a critical relationship between government and citizen that matters. We found that it is not enough just to implement organisational change. Change in itself will not guarantee delivering services that deliver public value. You can make progress in eGovernment through modernisation and the effective use of IT. You can also work on processes that improve the trust of citizens in government. To make real progress on transforming government services you should aim to positively transform the relationship between government and citizens.

Attachments:

Handbook_Final_031207.pdf

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John H. Barton
International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development
Issue Paper No. 18, 2007

This paper describes how technology is today transferred to developing countries and the barriers that affect that transfer. It then identifies policy approaches that might overcome those barriers. It covers (1) the flow of human resources, as through international education, (2) the flow of publicsector technology support, as through research and licensing by international organizations, and (3) the flow of private technology, as through the sale of consumer products (e.g. medicines) that may incorporate embodied technologies through licensing, and through foreign direct investment. After an introduction, the paper looks at these three areas in turn. It concentrates on policy approaches directly associated with technology transfer, thus avoiding issues of the overall investment, legal or political climate in specific developing nations.

Attachments:

new-trends-in-technology-transfer.pdf

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Calestous Juma and Jayashree Watal
Center for International Development at Harvard University, 2000

Technology plays a major role in economic and human development and can help the poor in the developing world. The most important decisions taken by the international community are taken within intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). By definition, IGOs are comprised of the representatives of nation states. It is the nation state or groups of nation states that are the most important actors in the global governance of technology.

Attachments:

Global_governance_tech.pdf

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