To ensure that the work of R4eGov meets the known and anticipated needs of end-users, a number of User Groups have been set up. In addition, the project provides input to special fora already established, which have invited the contributions of the project to their own work and proposals.
Aim
Through the creation of User Groups, our intention is to reveal and share practically the applicability and advantage for end users that our research results in the field of e-Government can offer. Equally we aim at soliciting feedback from the organisations that could benefit from this project in order to identify areas in which our research could be enhanced to be better exploitable for the end-users of e-Government before we reach the end of the project.
A number of User Groups and networks have therefore been consulted so that real-world practical issues can be understood, where technology is one of the overall factors of successful change management in processes involving cross-border and cross-administration interoperability and security.
Sectors
The sectors represented in the R4eGov User Groups, stem from those that are dealt with in the case studies of the project, namely:
- Judicial and law enforcement cooperation between EU agencies - Europol and Eurojust and EU Member States - Federal Ministry of ICT and Belgian Federal Police
- Mutual visibility and understanding of legal processes, evidenced by pioneering work done by the Austrian Government
- Electronic procurement schema for European public administrations to reach the i2010 objective
- Secure but loose collaboration by the German Supreme Court
- Interoperability of data management of student migration between EU and non-EU states.
The User Groups’ members are also informed by the generic lessons and models derived from the project’s Master Cases, represented by the two demonstrations, more specifically:
- An interoperability gateway rendering completely electronic the lifecycle of legal texts in Austria organised by the Federal Chancellery of Austria (BKA)
- An interoperability gateway for cooperation and electronic exchange of information between Eurojust, Europol and the Belgian Public Service Information Technology and Communication (Fedict).
Alliance with Users
The project has also stimulated in partnership with public authorities a network called the eGovernment Ambassadors Alliance, bringing the results of this and other relevant European Commission R&D projects to the desks of senior administrators in key Ministries across the EU, with particular focus on Foreign Ministries with their responsibility for their citizens abroad.
Users within Other Projects
R4eGov also shares ideas and good practice with projects also focussing on eGovernment user-centricity, interoperability and security. These include other EU supported projects like SecurEgov, Challenge, Modinis, FIDIS, and eGovernet as well as relevant research and end-user communities.
R4eGov User Groups
From alliance with Users, the next phase of the R4eGov User Groups takes awareness-raising and consultation to the next level, where the technical approaches and solutions from the project can be considered by, in particular the ICT specialists within public authorities across the EU.
In this context, we envisage a series of activities that would enable the User Groups, namely end-users, to follow the project’s progress as well as to share with us their experiences with e-Government and offer feedback or suggestions for improvement with the proposed solutions. Input from end-users is essential since it will help us increase the usability of the project results in real life organisations.
For this, apart from dissemination of our results to User Group members through newsletters, we are planning a series of Master Classes and workshops with the aim of brining together R4eGov results and end-users so that there is integration with known and anticipated needs at EU, Member State and sub-national levels.
You are invited to send us your comments on user needs and expectations to the following address: usergroup@r4egov.eu
