Fergus Cassidy

Goodbye e

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I GOT the above message last week on, of all things, the main website of the Irish government (irlgov.ie), which I was indeed hoping would bring me to 'Information on eGovernment Projects'.

These things happen from time to time and are generally known as a 404 type error (sounds like police-speak: all units - 404 in progress). Errors like this are an accepted, if annoying, part and parcel of machines and their minders, except of course for, ahem, voting machine software, which is apparently without fault.

Which is more than can be said for the government's first big test of its e-government strategy, not to mention the unspoken concept of e-democracy.

As the row over electronic voting rumbles on, it has now become very clear that the government's attitude to it confirms that it has dropped an e or two along the way.

I'm not talking about the delivery of services to the public using the web or online procurement, driving licenses or such other worthy achievements. Greater hands than mine have slapped the government on the back for poll-topping delivery of services online, and who am I to disagree.

But with electronic voting and the way it is being dealt with, the Irish government better get the L plates back out when it comes to e-government and e-democracy.

Because so far these seem to be just concepts. Lofty notions left over from the good old dotcom days when the European Commission prefixed everything in sight with an e.

What other conclusion is there, considering the government's inability to engage in civic discourse? Civil wouldn't go amiss either.

Instead it's business as usual: shadow boxing and jousting with the opposition (who don't get it either) and seeing conspiracy theories behind every lamp post. Never mind about the rest of us, haven't we got our driving license applications to be getting on with?

Opting for electronic voting offered the first real opportunity to show some intent toward using information and communications technologies to involve and broaden citizens' input in real policy-making.

It could have been a marker - even an experiment- in e-democracy. Now it's just lip service and there's plenty of that around these days. The government blew it and now that hill will be even steeper to climb.

As recently as last September the EU Commission restated its views on e-government: "They [the citizens] also demand more transparency of decision-making and democratic involvement in all phases of policy development [my emphasis]. 'Democratic deficit' has become an election theme: a sense of democratic ownership is expected to be reinstated amongst voters".

In the same document the Commission went on to provide a definition of e-government and included the following: "it enables the public sector to maintain and strengthen good governance in the knowledge society. This means: a public sector that is open and transparent; governments that are understandable and accountable to the citizens, open to democratic involvement and scrutiny". (Source: The Role of eGovernment for Europe's Future).

At least we now know where we stand: it's pump up the e-democracy volume in the corridors of Brussels but continue with the parish variety when the first big opportunity arises at home.

Why? Well that's how it's always been done. But electronic voting is different because most of the informed and reasoned analysis is coming from non-governmental bodies and individuals with computer and technological competence and by its inability to bring them on board in a positive way, the e-government ball has been shamefully dropped.

What does it really say about Ireland's e-government strategy when individuals like Joe McCarthy [pdf 196k] have to spend Euro1200 from their own pocket to prize information out of a fact-shy administration?

What a waste, because chances are that more involvement by committed people in the process might well have avoided potentially costly mistakes.

At a conference titled 'Reinforcing eDemocracy' held in Brussels recently, Erkki Liikanen, the EU commissioner for the information society, spoke of an online consultation to test the workability of plans to modernise the way chemicals were regulated in the EU.

He said: "We asked people to focus on whether the new system would work in practice, including whether the system would provide the right scientific and technical input. By the time the consultation closed we had received around 6,500 contributions.

"All replies were published on a commission website, so that everyone could see who had said what and which amendments had been proposed.

"The consultation revealed important flaws in the legislation, which we were able to put right before our proposal was finally tabled. The changes resulted in savings of several billion euro in costs associated with the system."

Then again, at the same conference Stephen Coleman, professor of e-democracy at Oxford Internet Institute, was of the opinion that governments have been slow to accept that e-democracy will fundamentally change the relationship between themselves and the public.

"Technology always changes institutions. If you don't want to change the role, don't use the tools".

But if all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.