ICTs Government
E-Government has been defined by the UN as aPermanent commitment by government to improve the relationship between the prvate citizen and the public sector through enhanced, cost-effective and efficient delivery of services, information and knowledge a and generally it is the use of ICT to improve the quality of service from public authorities to the citizen. Citizens can be offered service or information in minutes or hours, versus todays common standard of days or weeks.
To achieve this, major initiatives have been launched in the US (Presidents Management Agenda for E-Government, 2002) and by the EU (the Lisbon decision with follow up, e.g., the European eGovernment Conference July 2003). Smaller countries as the Nordic countries and Singapore have, however, achieved more in this area. Singapore started its initiatives in 1981 with a National Computer Board and National Computerization Plan. The IT 2000 Blueprint for Intelligence Island from 1997 was, however, the strategy that moved Singapore into a top-position in the e-world. It had the objectives to create an electronic network linking all libraries in that country; secure infrastructure for e-commerce: expert system for checking all building plans in the country and above all to establish Singapore ONE, one network for everyone in Singapore. The efforts have continued with Connected Singapore from 2003 with the aim of the total realization of all e-government possibilities through the Infocomm project of the country. The basic philosophy of the government is Whatever services that can be delivered electronically must be delivered electronically.
Many developing countries are finding it difficult to follow this route and divert scarce resources towards ICT applications. It is this disparity between opportunity and feasibility that could lead to a deepening of the digital divide. But others have formulated ICT policy programs as, e.g., Ghana with its ICT Policy and Plan Development for Ghana. This includes the WIRING GHANA PROJECT under which the government intends to develop and build appropriate infrastructure to reach all the district capitals in the country. This program is anticipated to improve efficiency of government, increase transparency in governance and financial management, boost local economy and above all bring government to the doorstep of the citizenry.

From: ICTs Internasional N edited by Khidi.

ICT LITERACY AS AN INDICATOR OF EGOVERNMENT READINESS

ABSTRACT

Egovernmnet is an adoption of information and communication technology by government to improve eficiency and efectiveness of public services. Ereadiness is a prerequisite for succesfull egovernment implementation. ICT literacy of human resources is one of e readieness aspect. This paper will present ICT literacy as an indicator of egovernmnet readiness.

Keywords:ICT Literacy, Egovernment, Ereadiness

1. INTRODUCTION

The commitment of Governmen t of Indonesia for using information and communication technology in public services sector has formed by Inpres no 3 Tahun 2003. Egovernment is an effort to improve public services quality using information and communication technology. Inpres no 3 2003 present e readiness as an important aspect to support the successfull of egovernment implementation. Ereadiness include :

a) Eleadership

b) Telecommucation network infrastructure

c) Information manajemen

d) Bussiness environment

e) Society and Human resources

There is a similar concept of ereadiness in Inpres no 3 tahun 2003 with other concept by international organization like United Nations, Mcconnell International, or Bridegs. Human resources e readiness atribute defined by Mcconell International include:

a) Quality of and participation level in the education system, with an emphasis on efforts to create and support knowledge based society

b) Penetration of ICT in schools and ability of educator to use and teach in accordance with the technology

c) Culture of local creativity and information sharing in the society

d) Skills and eficiency of the workforce, and strength of efforts to retain skilled manager and technologist

Human resources is an important aspect of sucessfull egovernmnet implementation. In the egovernment implementation context, human resources is subject for adoption of information and communication technology at govermental work place. Adoption of egovernment need human resources skill that can identified problems and propose solution using information and communication technology. These skills consist of technical skills and cognitive skills and social or ethical understanding.

ICT literacy is not an indicator in ereadiness model by Mcconenl International, United Nations and Bridges. Most of government official in Indonesia don’t know about Information and communication technology. They don not have enough skill to operate digital technology. This is one of main factor that cause the egovernmnet adoption failures. This is our consideration to take ICT literacy as an indicator for egovernmnet readiness. The objective is getting data and information about ICT literacy of government official, analyze and propose solution to improve it.

This paper will present about concept of ICT literacy as an indicator of egovernment readiness. It is difficult to define correlation of ICT literacy and official government job description. So, this concept focuses at ICT literacy in government general context. This means this concept do not describe ICT literacy for every position or function in government organization. Definition of ICT literacy in this paper refers to definition presented by Educational Testing Services.

2. EGOVERNMENT READINESS DEFINITION

There are new social order of society and value as an impact of information and communication technology. There are new challenge and opportunity in this era. Impact of information and communication technology influence government sector especialy in public services sector. Indonesian government aware to transforming it self to egovernmnet model. Accountablity and transparancy to be an foundation of government.

E-government is defined as the use of ICT and its application by the government for the provision of information and public services to the people. The aim of egovernment therefore is to provide efficient government management of information to the citizen; better service delivery to citizens; and empowerment of the people through access to information and participation in public policy decisionmaking.[16]

Based on this definition there is prerequisite for succesfull egovernmnet implementation. This prerequisite is ereadiness. Ereadiness include eleadership, network infrastructure, bussines environment, human capital and society. There is different method for describing ereadiness. The best methos depend on the context of measurement and the definition of ereadiness.

Position of human resources is subject of adoption of information and communication technology in egovernment implementation context. Human resources that have ability to adopt information and communication technology is needed by egovernment. This criteria of human rosurces is human resources that have ICT literacy. ICT literacy can support the implementation of egovernment.

Human resources who have ICT literacy can think critically to information and communication technology and using information to solve problem. There are problems that need information to solve it. Information and communication technolgy is media for getting and presenting information.

egovernment therefore is to provide efficient government management of information to the citizen; better service delivery to citizens; and empowerment of the people through access to information and participation in public policy decisionmaking.[16]

Based on this definition there is prerequisite for succesfull egovernmnet implementation. This prerequisite is ereadiness. Ereadiness include eleadership, network infrastructure, bussines environment, human capital and society. There is different method for describing ereadiness. The best methos depend on the context of measurement and the definition of ereadiness.

Position of human resources is subject of adoption of information and communication technology in egovernment implementation context. Human resources that have ability to adopt information and communication technology is needed by egovernment. This criteria of human rosurces is human resources that have ICT literacy. ICT literacy can support the implementation of egovernment.

Human resources who have ICT literacy can think critically to information and communication technology and using information to solve problem. There are problems that need information to solve it. Information and communication technolgy is media for getting and presenting information.

3. ICT LITERACY DEFINITION

Concept of ICT Literacy consist of ICT and literacy term. Information and Communication Technology(ICT) is combination of computer technology and telecomunication technology. Literacy is an individual ability for learning and improve his or her capacity. ICT proficiency is the ability to use digital technology, communication tools, and /or networks appropriately to solve information problems in order to function in an information society. This includes the ability to use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information and the possession of a fundamental understanding of the ethical / legal issues surrounding the access and use of information[1].

There are three dimension focuses in this definition. First, technical skills, second is cognitive skills and third is social or ethical understanding issues. Technical skills refers to ability for use information and communication technology. Cognitive skills refers to think citically about information and problems. Cognitive skills include ability to create solution using information. Furthermore, people manipulating information in any technological context need to be aware of the constraints—ethical considerations, legal restrictions, institutional policies, and the like—that govern and limit what we can access, use, and communicate in given situations[15].

While the proficiency is an important aspect of ICT literacy skills but it lacks a road map for determine assesment task. We can define the assesment task by describe process that is a part of adoption of Information and Communication Technology. This table describe these process and definition.

Tabel 1. ICT Proficiency.

Thus, the proficiency model encompasses key components of ICT proficiency within the context of cognitive and technical skills and social/ethical considerations.

3. DEVELOPMENT OF MEASUREMENT TOOL FOR INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL

This paper do not present specific model for measure ICT literacy. This paper only present concept of propose model of ICT literacy measurement tool. Theoritical concept that can use for foundation to develope this model are:

1. This tool can use for measure ICT literacy government official in Indonesia. This tool base on egovernment implementation context.

2. Defintion of ICT literacy that use for this model refers to ICT literacy definition by educational testing services.

3. The test for this measurement tool is a scenario base on egovernment context. This scenario represent technical, cognitive skills and social or ethical understanding. Process in the scenario represent all of component in ICT literacy ;define, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create and communicate; This tool is an simulation software that can represent real condition in technological environment workplace.

4. Simulation software can represent menu like file[save, save as, exit],combobox,windows expolorer, websearch, office apllication. This simulation software can represent user interface as in the real condition.

Simulation software represent real condition at government workplace. The impact of this principle is the test have government problem context.

From: ICTs Eroupe and edited by Khidi

WHAT IS E-GOVERMENT???

What is e-government?

In the general sense, e-government can refer to such mundane uses of electronics in government as large-scale use of telephones and fax machines, surveillance systems, tracking systems such as RFID tags, and even the use of television and radios to spread government-related information. In this sense, e-government is not a new phenomenon by any means. The use of radio waves to spread disaster warnings, or to give information on voting, is a facet of e-government that has been in use for many years. In many countries with state-operated media, the entire media becomes a form of e-government, helping to spread pro-government messages.

Newer non-Internet applications of e-government offer the promise of streamlining government procedures and improving functionality. Government tracking systems of citizens, omnipresent surveillance and biometric identification are some e-government applications that have many privacy advocates concerned about the growing role of e-government.

With the growing pervasiveness of the Internet, new opportunities are becoming available for managing the business of government online. The disbursement of social security, the handling of government works projects, and providing information on representatives online are all examples of e-government in action.

In addition to the Internet, mobile phones offer an even more convenient channel through which to distribute government information. By utilizing text-messaging, governments are able to send out region-wide and specific emergency warnings, provide up-to-the-minute information upon request, and in essence make government accessible to the people no matter where they may be, at any time.

One area of e-government under much discussion and debate is finding a way to implement electronic voting on everything from public measures to the election of representatives. Security concerns and a lack of universal access to technology have slowed the implementation of e-voting, but many advocates hold that it is simply a matter of time before these concerns are sufficiently addressed and e-voting becomes a standard.

E-Government is the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve the activities of public sector organisations.

Some definitions restrict e-government to Internet-enabled applications only, or only to interactions between government and outside groups. Here, we do not - all digital ICTs are included; all public sector activities are included.

In our definition, then, governments have been practising e-government for more than 50 years: using that first mainframe in the Statistics Office was "e-government". We just didn't give it that name 50 years ago.

B. What Does eGovernment Cover?

There are three main domains of e-government, illustrated in Figure 1 (adapted from: Ntiro, S. (2000) eGovernment in Eastern Africa, KPMG, Dar-es-Salaam) :

• Improving government processes: eAdministration

• Connecting citizens: eCitizens and eServices

• Building external interactions: eSociety

Respectively, these particularly address the problems that government is too costly, too inefficient and too ineffective (e-admininstration); too self-serving and too inconvenient (e-citizens and e-services); and too insular (e-society).

B1. Improving Government Processes: eAdministration

eGovernment initiatives within this domain deal particularly with improving the internal workings of the public sector. They include:

• Cutting process costs : improving the input:output ratio by cutting financial costs and/or time costs.

• Managing process performance : planning, monitoring and controlling the performance of process resources (human, financial and other).

• Making strategic connections in government : connecting arms, agencies, levels and data stores of government to strengthen capacity to investigate, develop and implement the strategy and policy that guides government processes.

• Creating empowerment : transferring power, authority and resources for processes from their existing locus to new locations.

B2. Connecting Citizens: eCitizens and eServices

Such initiatives deal particularly with the relationship between government and citizens: either as voters/stakeholders from whom the public sector should derive its legitimacy, or as customers who consume public services. These initiatives may well incorporate the process improvements identified in section B1. However, they also include a broader remit:

• Talking to citizens : providing citizens with details of public sector activities. This mainly relates to certain types of accountability: making public servants more accountable for their decisions and actions.

• Listening to citizens : increasing the input of citizens into public sector decisions and actions. This could be flagged as either democratisation or participation.

• Improving public services : improving the services delivered to members of the public along dimensions such as quality, convenience and cost.

B3. Building External Interactions: eSociety

Such initiatives deal particularly with the relationship between public agencies and other institutions - other public agencies, private sector companies, non-profit and community organisations. As with citizen connections, these initiatives may well incorporate the process improvements identified in section B1. However, they also include a broader remit:

• Working better with business : improving the interaction between government and business. This includes digitising regulation of, procurement from, and services to, business to improve quality, convenience and cost.

• Developing communities : building the social and economic capacities and capital of local communities.

• Building partnerships : creating organisational groupings to achieve economic and social objectives. The public sector is almost always one of the partners, though occasionally it acts only as a facilitator for others.

From: directed e-learning American's and edited by Khidi