The US, Taiwan, Australia, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Israel, Singapore, Germany and Finland lead the way in providing government services and information over the Internet, but smaller countries such as St. Kitts and the Bahamas also placed in the top 20 in a recent survey.

The survey, by World Markets Research Centre (WMRC) and Brown University, found that global e-government is still in its infancy.

Of the 2,288 government websites in 196 nations surveyed this summer only eight percent offered services that are fully executable online. The most frequent services provided are ordering publications online, buying stamps and filing complaints.

"In general, we found that e-government is falling short of its true potential," researchers said. "While some countries have embraced e-government, a number of other countries have not placed much information or services online, and are not taking advantage of the interactive features of the Internet."

What's interesting in the survey are the recommendations to governments as they proceed to develop their Internet sites, such as Bermuda is attempting to do at www.bdagov.bm.

Government sites fail to follow the basics of providing navigation and design intended to help their citizens, the survey's researchers found.

Many sites did not have phone numbers for government agencies or have not been updated for several years. Only one-third of government websites have search engines to help citizens ferret out information.

"Aside from publications and links to other sources of information, few countries offer online services, describe their privacy and security policies, or provide any type of disability access," they say.

Interactive features allowing better communication between citizens and government agencies are also lacking. Another feature that has proven successful is the creation of "one-stop" web address for online services. A number of countries have adopted portals and put services for citizens, businesses and government agencies in one place.

"This is a tremendous help to citizens interested in making use of online resources," the researchers said. "Portals are helpful from the citizen standpoint because they offer more uniform, integrated and standardized navigational features."

One of the weaknesses of many national websites has been their inconsistency in terms of design features. This is mainly due to a lack of co-operation between government agencies, which tend to guard their autonomy very carefully.

Going on the Internet and providing more consultative tools, also For small jurisdictions, the issue focuses on how to pay for the technology and keep it running and current. Start-up costs of e-government are extensive, and small or poor countries have difficulty reaching the economies of scale necessary to pay for the technology, the researchers note.

Some sites have commercial advertising or user fees to help cover some of the costs, but the danger is commercialising e-government so that its credibilty comes into question. User fees turn away the people who could most benefit from better access to government.

"Our view is that e-government is a valuable part of the public sector and needs to be supported with tax dollars," the researchers stated. "In the long run, a flourishing e-government offers the potential for improved service delivery with enhanced accountability."

Unfortunately Bermuda and some other UK offshore territories were not rated in the survey. But some of the tenders put out by the Computer Systems and Services Department indicate that there is some ramping up of Bermuda's so far slow effort.

The tender closed in January this year for a "system for the electronic filing of tax returns to interface with both its existing back office systems and planned methods of electronic payment" for the Ministry of Finance's Office of the Tax Commissioner.

Tenders closed last year for a case tracking system for the Ministry of Human Affairs Department of Consumer Affairs. The Ministry of Human Affairs' Commission for Unity & Racial Equality (CURE) also placed a tender "to provide local businesses a simple method of collecting and filing CURE data electronically".

Last month government announced that it had selected QuoVadis as the certificate authority for the evolving e-government programme. Digital certificates are a form of "electronic ID" that may be used in e-mail, networks, and Internet websites. These will be essential for citizens to have as more specialized and personal services are used over government's web sites. There are some useful government services developing around the www.bdagov.bm portal, including those provided by the Registrar of Companies, the Tax Commissioner, and H.M. Customs, so keep a watch to ensure that access to e-government services is being built the way you want.

*Computer technicians, software designers - get ready to climb out of your caves and take over the world. At least the world according to Peter Drucker, consultant guru to the business masses. Drucker predicts that "knowledge technologists" like computer technicians, software designers, analysts in clinical labs, manufacturing technologists, and paralegals will rise to dominance socially, and perhaps politically, in what he calls the "next society".

Drucker separates this group of knowledge workers from the brainier types, such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, and chemical engineers and says they will get to the top in a highly competitive knowledge society where their talents are in demand.

"Just as unskilled manual workers in manufacturing were the dominant social and political force in the 20th century, knowledge technologists are likely to become the dominant social-and perhaps also political-force over the next decades," he writes in a survey in the Economist.

lTech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. You can contact Ahmed at editoroffshoreon.com or (33) 467901474.