Interview to session Leader:
Gianluca Misuraca,
Research Associate, College of Management of Technology, EPFL, and Vice President of KITE

Session on Exploring the future of e-Government: Knowledge Engineering for Results
Organized by KITE (Knowledge, Innovation, Technology, Empowerment)

First of all, I wish to thank the Session’s Speakers, and in particular Dr Pierre Rossel, for having accepted the invitation to participate in the session and for their valuable contribution and inputs.

Q1: Knowledge Engineering, Knowledge 2.0 - exciting topics from your GK3 Session! Could you explain on these concepts and relate them to the future of e-Government?

Knowledge2.0 is a concept based, by analogy on the forces that are shaping today the Web.20. It is by no means an exact copy or a part of it, but a converging trend belonging to the same cultural evolution and concerning the specific area of knowledge constructions and interactions. Finally, although encompassing a specific set of dynamics, Knowledge2.0 is partially supported by Web2.0 processes insofar as ICTs are helping communication, processing and storage of knowledge.

Knowledge2.0 makes use of the same driving forces as Web2.0, such as social networking, virtual community-anchored knowledge sharing and reputation-based evaluation systems. Altogether, it is important to stress that just as in Web2.0, what matters is not the circulation of information, but the predominantly user-centered construction of specifically relevant and possibly operational knowledge. In this sense, Knowledge2.0 addresses more the kind of issues that will shape the Knowledge Society of tomorrow than being a pure product of the Information Society, as it is recognized today.

At the same time, one can observe, in a quite similar manner as with Web2.0, that new business models are also emerging, with both disintermediation and re-intermediation trends, corresponding to direct and indirect forms of marketing, both capable of triggering expectations and economically meaningful behaviors. What is at stake, basically, is the emergence of a new cultural paradigm, more open (a variety of innovation patterns are underpinned by this essential philosophy), reactive and defined to a great extent by the users –intermediate as well as end-users- in a multiplicity of ways.

This whole new field of opportunities is quite complex and generates all sorts of knowledge engineering patterns and options, and to cope with that, we need to create, enable or support the conditions for new forms of intermediaries to emerge, the knowledge broker and the knowledge entrepreneur. In this perspective, the future of eGovernment is therefore not so much linked to how we will make the administration more electronic, which seems to be a trend of its own and well underway, but how more sharable and adaptable knowledge options and creative interactions become possible between government agencies and their various representatives on the one hand, and the citizens, users of the administrations of various kinds (individuals, enterprises and civil society organizations) on the other hand, so as to really innovate and solve incoming problems.

Web2.0 types of knowledge processes involved in eGovernment as it nowadays develops, to enhance the administrative sphere of activities, are not meant to be a substitute of existing procedures, but on the contrary, enriching and complementary to, sometimes corrective of such procedures. In the case of Citizen to Government communication, however, it can be quite innovative, adding potential to the existing channels and modalities. In general terms, and although we must still learn to make the best out of it, by expressing and consolidating reputation in a user-centered manner, through the evaluation and social-network- or community-based opinion-building forms of citizen to government relationships, we are getting increasingly closer to a knowledge2.0 leveraging capability of eGovernement developments.

Q2. Mobile phones are the single fastest growing technology in history with 2.7 billion users
worldwide. Your GK3 Panel will discuss the relevance of mobile technologies in government services. What types of mobile applications do you think will drive innovation in public services?

Mobile technologies belong to the opening trend and tend to accelerate (more users and more places for more types of applications) and reinforce this process, involving in addition a strong proximity-based set of options, propitious to local development projects and forms of knowledge. In the above-mentioned concept, we have emphasized the need and possibility to support a true “multicasting” construction of relevant skills, key partnerships and meaningful choices for a suitable and sustainable society. Mobile Internet-based services, in principle, can push this claim even further, for the quantity of users, as well as the diverse territorial and sectoral anchoring of their activities. Mobile internet services, which can pass through portable devices of various kinds, but mostly mobile telephony, are undoubtedly closer to the user, their relevant environment and reactivity potential on a day-to-day basis, especially in emerging countries. Several experiments have been initiated worldwide to make best use of mobile and wireless technologies towards better service delivery, including eventual co-production of solutions.

For example, with the launch of 3rd Generation technologies (and the future envisaged 3.5 and 4 generation mobile technologies), mobile devices are going to be equipped with additional features of larger computing power for the taking care of voice, text and multimedia content. This emergent behaviour enabled by the convergence of personal communications and publishing technology with massive private and government data sources could empower individuals in their relations with governments. This provides a potential opportunity for government agencies to explore the ways to enhance the outreach of e-Government services with the use of mobile and wireless technologies. But this remains to be verified by actual observations and facts.

Q3. Can social networking, wikis and associated Web 2.0 tools lead to better decision-making, communication and innovation within government and in government-to-citizen services? How?

Social networking can both exert its dynamic effect at the local level, supporting the activity of specific communities and projects, and more cross-boundary or even global communication and constructions, creating the conditions for a variety of options, with a knowledge tuned in tight relationship with bottom-up social initiatives. It looks like the ideal communication channel for socializing at regional level or at a broader scale when needed, for a variety of specialized socio-economic activities, projects and goals, including SME-level partnering. Attempts to make the citizens closer to the decision-making process are increasing and examples of collaborative platforms and interesting innovative experiences exist in several countries. This type of initiatives is rapidly growing and it is most likely only a beginning. Due the deployment of an overall trend in the building of the Information Society, bottom-up and user-driven initiatives are going to spread in an increasingly pervasive manner. The Web 2.0 trend, playing with light practices, multiplicity of channels, real-time reputation building and informal benchmarking, is likely to force more culturally congruent private-public interaction forms to survive rather than others. This ongoing process is also likely to benefit from upcoming technological convergences, such as the one concerning seamless interoperability between the wireless domain and the mobile telephony one, (the “next generation” leitmotiv, also known as Mobile Internet). However, many questions still remain open and in particular it is not clear yet what the role of government will be, and how government will be capable (or not) to take advantage of its potential.

Q4. Could you please briefly introduce the speakers of your GK3 Panel and tell us what current examples – do you think - they will bring along?

We will have high level speakers in the panel.

Dr Pierre Rossel, Deputy Dean at the College of Management of Technology of EPFL in Switzerland, as well as the President of KITE, has a long-standing experience in technology foresight, regional development and knowledge management, as well as an extensive publishing record. He will introduce us to the future of Knowledge: one major stake is to understand and perhaps help regulate how new business models will also shape new knowledge industries and professions, which we can define as on the one hand knowledge brokers and on the other hand knowledge entrepreneurs.

Samia Melhem, is a member of the e-Government practice group in the Global ICT department at the World Bank. She will provide us with a global perspective of Mobile Internet policies and regulations. The focus and the examples she will bring along will deal with how Mobile Internet will enable effective Government-Citizens interaction, illustrating some concrete cases worldwide.

Mike Pereira, Director of the Global Online Communities (dgCommunities), Development Gateway Foundation, will present us some examples on how to gain the full benefit of the combined expertise, finance, and capacity of multiple stakeholders, the costs of enabling e and m-development programs can be shared through win/win partnership models. He will inparticular presents some examples including the mGovernment Laboratory in China, and the Global Development Commons, as well as the China Poverty Relief Forum, a collaboration between China Development Gateway and the Development Gateway Foundation to provide a knowledge sharing platform in Chinese that addresses China’s key development issues.

Elizabeth Muller, Executive Director of the Gov3 non-profit Foundation, will present some concrete cases of policies and strategies for the development of an effective user-centric e-Government. examplkes will range from OCED countries to Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Elizabeth shall also presents the main findings of the chapter on IT Policy developments and trends for the OECD IT Outlook 2006 she authored for OECD.

I will also provide an introductory address, focusing on knowledge for development, and its relation with eGovernment strategies and programmes in order to ensure effective results through knowledge engineering. An important component of the “local knowledge development equation” I presented also in the background paper written with Dr Pierre Rossel is, in fact, the possibility and desire to design innovative approaches, based on the local diversity and creativity, which would be acceptable in the local contexts and from the local point of view. In this perspective, in the implementation of any e-Government project at local level, it is suitable, since the beginning, to envisage an ad hoc consultation with field stakeholders in order to identify local specificities and strengths that then can be turned into key success factors. This is particularly relevant when it comes to ICTs, due to the potential for innovation that ICTs can generate, but at the same time the various organizational and institutional conditions that are required to dynamically apply ICTs to specific collective issues. Many open issues are still there, I will point them out so to discuss and eventually propose some innovative solutions at the end of the session.

Q5. In your view, what are the key issues that your Session will need to discuss?

Cross-cutting and systemic stakes are dominant, but the workshop’s presentations and exchanges of ideas should contribute to the identification, sharing upon and development of: 1) experiments and learning processes that can further trigger new motivations and innovative collaborations in a variety of local contexts, on issues ranging from the remediation of most acute current societal problems to various forms and levels of economic entrepreneurship; 2) relevant cases typically documenting robust, sustainable problem-solving capacity of local actors, that can be shared and the source of new learning and skills acquisitions.

eGovernment of the future, in this sense, must not be just a logistics arm or legal supervisor for public service delivery or complex but uncertain societal interactions, but also a facilitator of initiatives as well as more routinely yet effective activities taking place in those diverse domains.

Within this context, Global and local actors in development have an unprecedented opportunity to harness networked communication and knowledge sharing to improve outcomes. Mobile information and knowledge sharing have the potential to render traditionally closed institutional boundaries and walls more permeable, facilitate greater collaboration on development policies, products, and services, position development practitioners closer to the action where more accurate observations and measurements can be made, transform dysfunctional bureaucracies into service oriented platforms, and dramatically reduce operating and transaction costs for organizations and individuals alike.

Prospective partners must identify zones of mutual interest in terms of project goals and outcomes, and the tangible and intangible benefits the partnership offers each participant. Trust among partners is earned and maintained by delivering on expectations. Third party affirmation of beneficial outcomes achieved will also strengthen trust among partners, and should be a primary component of ongoing monitoring and evaluation.