Improving Access to Government through Better Use of the Web

According to the Abstract: "This document is an attempt to describe, but not yet solve, the variety of issues and challenges faced by governments in their efforts to apply 21st century capabilities to eGovernment initiatives. Detail and useful examples of existing, applicable open Web standards are provided. Where government needs in the development of eGovernment services are not currently met by existing standards, those gaps are noted."

This World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Interest Group Note describes effective eGovernment as requiring openness, transparency, collaboration, and skill in taking advantage of the capacities of the World Wide Web. The potential for two-way dialogue between citizens and government requires, as stated here, promoting existing open web standards, noting the challenges external to the web and technology, and facilitating web development, including vetting of new open web standards needed by governments.

According to the document, the web working groups are currently processing and addressing several trends and activities requiring evolution of tools, thoughts, and strategies on the following:

1. "Global: Issues related to content, information, and services that are tailored to the individual's needs and consumption to include multilingual formats and take into account cultural sensitivities.
   
2. Connected: User and community connectivity resulting in content/information available via API [application programming interface - a set of routines, data structures, object classes, and/or protocols provided by libraries and/or operating system services in order to support the building of applications] and desktops (without browsers) and content/information that centers on online communities and is distributed across many sites, platforms, and repositories. Content and information should be able to be shared, manipulated, and packaged as the user or groups of users see fit honoring all rights and restrictions and where they interact and spend their time.
   
3. On the Go: Content/information availability via mobile devices [MWI] that takes into account a variety of delivery methods and accepted practices, industry standards and applications.
   
4. Accessible: Content that conforms to W3C accessibility guidelines [WAI-GUIDES] so that all people, including people with disabilities and senior citizens, can find the same information and perform the same functions as other users. Information architectures and navigation are relevant to and usable by a diverse worldwide audience.
   
5. Readily available: Content and information that are available and discoverable; searchable via quick and simple applications; complete and relevant to promote an experiential gain of knowledge and growth; and is presented to allow programmatic combinations (mash-ups) for a hyper-personalized experience....

Within the key trends there are three modalities that exist for governments' use of the web by governments:

• to deliver public services to citizens, businesses, and other governments and levels of government (providing information or transactional services).
• to engage with citizens through the use of social media on government websites or through engagement with online communities elsewhere on the Web.
• as infrastructure, to enable others to retrieve and manipulate government provided data."

The document further points out that the paradigm for government use of the web is one of broadcast for mass communication and transaction of government services. Government development of its web use is often connected to departments that can be transient, which is problematic for building essential infrastructure and archives that are both lasting and updated, as well as for accountability of access. "In this context 'link rot' is not just an inconvenience of the information consumer, it undermines public accountability as documents cease to be available. Inability to persist resources and manage URLs inhibits willingness to link between government agencies. This is a loss for information consumers who want a seamless government Web site experience and do not care which government agency hosts the information they seek. Government departments need to deep link more and with minimal risk consideration."

As stated here, many governments have devised a "channels" (routes to information dissemination) strategy without a data management strategy of an engineered basic information infrastructure. "The reality is that not many officials responsible for commissioning or managing government websites are familiar with the basic principles of the Web‚ for example Architecture of the World Wide Web [WEBARCH]. Unfortunately, lacking a government context and being aimed at a more expert audience, the W3C guidelines and specifications are almost impenetrable to many Web decision makers in government."

Further, the document cites needs for participation and engagement of citizens in public policy with the web as a possible platform in five spheres: social policy, economic policy, security policy, regulatory and legal policy, and international relations. This may include the functions of:

1. contextualising and humanising information in the context of dialogues with people that encourage and support the development of new social norms.
2. citizens helping each other in discussion forums in ways that achieve public service outcomes.
3. encouraging citizens to discuss their impressions and experience of the public services they use, potentially star rating those services, facilitating citizen choice, and introducing a new incentive mechanism for improving public services.

Guidance to governments for achieving participation and engagement includes:

• giving public servants access to the websites that citizens are using in order for them to be able to access networks - removing the "lockdown" on social networking and interactive sites (often done for security reasons, which might be addressed otherwise).
  
• setting clear and simple rules for public servants to follow so they can be confident about engaging online without risking their career.
  
• training and supporting public servants in the use of appropriate tools and techniques to use the web to engage, particularly for the development of public policy.
  
• fielding the resources to consider electronic messages and petitions and using technology standards to help ease the burden of communicating on the part of citizens and on government civil servants.
  
• presenting policy documents in formats which allow for comment and discussion in a granular way (the ability to address specific sections of concern to a member of the public). The relationship between the questions for discussion and the proposals to which those questions refer needs to be made explicit. The RDFa [RDFA-PRIMER] -based Argot Consultation [UK-ARGOTC] which was developed for the United Kingdom government is an example, according to this document, of the type of technology required for publishing consultation documents in ways that enable engagement.

The document also includes a discussion of open government data, interoperability, multichannel delivery, identification, and authentication and concludes with the working group's next steps to addressing open and transparent governance through the use of the internet.