Here is a slash dotish thread documenting anecdotal experiences with UK eGov initatives. It is one thing to see surveys and reports, but to read personal experiences provides another interesting glimpse into why take-up of services hasn't been higher.
The Electoral Reform Society, an independent organization concerned with, well, electoral reform, published their report of the UK's recent voting trials and the news is not so good. Their report on the various alternative voting pilots found that none significantly increased voter turnout. The pilots tested in the recent elections included postal, SMS, internet, and digital TV.
All in all, there were 56 pilots tested on 6.5 potential voters. The report found that, on average, turnouts increased about 15%, but total turnout in districts running the pilots still didn't reach desirable levels. Most of the increase came through the postal pilots, and the numbers are much worse for the technology pilots. Only 3 of 10 districts running tech pilots saw increases, and the those distrcits only saw single digit increases. On average, in those districts with eVoting pilots, less than 10% of those voting choose to use the technology option.
I'll wait to see some kind of official report from the Office of the e-Envoy, but I must say this doesn't bode well for the UK's ambitious eVoting goals.
In the UK eGovernment costs outstrip savings. Most of the deficeit is made up of the start-up costs of these initiatives, but savings wont catch up to costs until at least 2012, it is estimated. One of the big selling points for eGovernment is the potential cost benefits of reduced staffing, beuracracy, etc and if these benefits aren't visible for another decade, and I'm worried that legislators might cool on their support because eGovernment, and the Internet in particular, isn't just a fad, but a tool that will be a crucial element in the operation of every organization in the future. I'm sure it was quite expensive to have telephones and electricity installed in government facilities a hundred years ago, but it was unqestionably worth it and necessary. I hope people realize that when it come eGov.
Digital access to the UK's government art collection. Link via Experimental Space, who asks why the US doesn't have a similar digital archive. Good question. They may very well have one, somewhere, but the American Memory a digital archive from the Library of Congress, contains an extensive collection of pictures, sounds, text, and movies.
At the end of 2002 the UK had made 63% of public services available online. While lower than the 73% projected 3 years ago, this seems like an overwhelming success to me. I'd like to see figures for the US, Canada, Singapore and other nations deemed to be at the high end of the eGov spectrum, but even 63% strikes me as a higher than expected figure. Despite being lower than projected, the UK's Office of the e-Envoy still expects to have 100% of services online by the end of 2005.
Here is access to the official report.
Interesting article about England's eVoting pilots, and the hope for increased voter turnout. The last local elections in the UK attracted only 1/3 of registered voters. And while the various (smaller scale) pilots that ran last year all saw increased turnout, most people are unconvinced that these new iniatitives will make much of a difference. "Some people would say that these new measures will increase turnout fairly substantially the first time round," sayd Dennis Reed, director of thinktank Local Government Information Unit thinktank, "then people will get just as used to it as the ordinary type of voting and get concerned about whether their vote really matters."
I'm not going to get into a whole debate about apathy and democracy, but the actual technology and execution seems very well thought out. Registered voters were sent two smart cards in the mail, one with an identification number and the other with a passcode. Both must be used, and each were mailed seperately, which is a simple, but relatively effective security measure. The cards can be inserted into kiosks, or the numbers on each card entered online, or via wireless text messaging. The voting begins officially tomorrow, and will continue for several days.
The UK is preparing to enact nation-wide eVoting by 2006. Toward that goal, they'll be offering 17 pilot eVoting schemes include Digital TV, wireless text messaging, touch-tome telephone, internet, and kiosks. All in all, the government will be testing more than 40 different voting methods, with the opportunity for 1.4 people to participate in the pilot programs for the upcomming May elections.
England has a pretty comprehensive effort to e-enable their government services. I haven't read through the entire strategy document, but it seems that, while the US federal government's strategy involves consolidating activities to a few central departments, the UK policy enourages more activity at the local level.
I suppose that has something to do with the way our constitution was written, what with state's rights and decentralized government and all that, but it will be interesting to contrast the effectiveness of a top-down vs. a bottom-up development strategy. It seems like the UK has an immediate edge, because concentrating on local iniatitives will allow them to deliver new services more quickly (for example, they speculate that the elements for eVoting could be in place as early as 2008), but the US strategy has a long range benefit in creating a stable platform to support more ambitious future expansions. We'll see.