e-Government, e-Society and Jordan: Strategy, Theory, Practice and Assessment

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e-Government, e-Society and Jordan Strategy,
Theory, Practice and Assessment

• Michael Blakemore
• And
• Roderic Dutton

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e-Societies and e-Governments

• Expectation is they will lead to improvements in
  areas such as governance, democracy, efficiency,
  and economic competitiveness.
• e-Government strategies are based in expectations
  that process will lead to outcomesenabling a
  nation to participate in the process of
  globalization rather than to be subservient to
  globalization.

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Theoretical expectations

• Government to citizen (G2C)
• Government to government (G2G)
• Government to business (G2B)
• A spaceless and inclusive society with friction
  of distance no longer a problem

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Resistance in the Third World

• Just more colonialism?
• Power struggles

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Democracy and Locality

• Annexation of local identity?
• Global language.
• if e-democracy is to develop into an integral
  part of representative democracye-democracy
  should not be seen as a recipe for direct
  democracy or techno-populism. (Hanserd Society
  2002)

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Education, children, gender, and ethics

• In Jordan, illiteracy up to 15 and 24 in rural
  and urban areas respectively
• Children politicized rather than objectivized in
  new media?
• How to participate in e-commerce?

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Education, children, gender, and ethics

• Turkish womens names
• Turkish women do not trust Internet relationships
• Access to taboo

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Community and Culture

• Technology as a means, not an end.
• A new, scary global audience
• Outcomes and planning
• Distance is different than PLACE

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Policy, Rights, and Obligations

• E-Government mantra of joined up and
  integration
• "The future of privacy will be determined not by
  the inherent nature of the Internet, but by
  social choices about how much privacy we as a
  society think it is reasonable to demand"

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Security and Trust

• Transition from physical information to identity
  systems
• Two-thirds dont feel safe
• Citizens need to feel safe with the government

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Benchmark Targets

• Emerging A government Web presence is
  established through a few independent official
  sites.
• Enhanced Content and information is updated with
  greater regularity.
• Interactive Users can download forms, contact
  officials, and make appointments and requests.
• Transactional Users can actually pay for
  services or conduct financial transactions
  online.
• Seamless Total integration of e-functions and
  services across administrative and departmental
  boundaries.

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Conclusion

• The world is uncertain
• Cant turn back the clock
• Cultural change and cultural identity
• Reducing cultural myth instead of enforcing
  radical cultural change
• Developing skills

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Conclusion

• Without a clear research agenda linked to the
  strategy, and which focuses not just on the
  nation-level measures against targets, but also
  involves locally-based survey and ethnographic
  study, any e-Government initiative will run the
  risk of evolving less by access to useful and
  relevant information and more by political
  expediency.

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Discussion Questions

• 1. From your experience, what do you think are
  the strengths and drawbacks of e-government?
• 2. What kind of problems can you see in the
  future with e-government?
• 3. As a society, how do we create a delineation
  between effective and helpful e-Government and
  Big Brother?