From GovTech.net, a UK story on achieving E-Government for All... -ac
Want E-Gov? Pick Up the Phone
In an attempt to find out which electronic channels work best for local governments -- and what local citizens think of the channels available for using e-government services -- the United Kingdom's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister conducted a study called the e-Citizen National Project.
"One piece of good news is that Britons seem to like the idea of being e-citizens. Few, however, have tried it," writes Michael Cross in The Guardian.
The report highlights two groups of potential users -- the "progressives" include male, high-income earners with access to technology, and the "contenteds," who are happy with local government and comfortable with technology. But the report says these two groups need online government services the least, while the poor, minorities and other disenfranchised groups who need the services most aren't using them. That is partially because this segment of the population simply does not have access to the technology that Britain's local authorities want them to use when it comes to e-services. Nor do they particularly care to use computers to interact with government.
Buried within the report is this fact: The most universal "e" channel in the UK is the telephone, to which 94 percent of the population has access. That percentage is about the same here in America."
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http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php?channel=17&id=93902
-- ----------------------------------- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media & Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com ----------------------------------- _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
