The sorry tale of government IT project fiascos is well chronicled in the press and parliamentary reports. Rather less is known about the take up of e-government and services by citizens. Now the e-citizen National Project (http://www.e-citizen.gov.uk/) has been set up to work with local authorities to look at ways of promoting e-services to citizens. Local governments are working to some tight deadlines about the availability of e-services, but the issue of take-up has remained rather vague.
Only widespread take-up can justify the billions that are spend on e-government. At the moment, it seems more like a case of the government not wanting to be left behind. The Internet has allowed thousands of informal networks of individuals and groups to be established. It has empowered individuals to share their thoughts and opinions (through web logging for example!) Perhaps government feels threatened by this.
The result has been a labyrinth of public sector websites, offering various information and services but not much information about take-up and usefulness. In my opinion, the Directgov site (http://www.direct.gov.uk/Homepage/fs/en) does very little to rectify this. I think the number of non-departmental site should be culled and further investment should depend on evidence of take-up. No doubt the government’s spending spree has helped rejuvenate the IT industry after the slump of the late 90s and earlier part of this decade. But tax payers’ money should be handled prudently.
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