The term eGovernment describes the simplification and execution of information, communication, and exchange processes between public admnistrations, public administrations and citizens, respectively private organisations, to provide electronic public services.

For citizens, these include access to the  tax systems, social security, career support, official documents.
For organizations, these services are access to the tax systems, business formation, statistics services, customs services, environmental protection, government procurement, etc.).

eDemocracy enables citizens, through the use of information and communication technologies, to exercise their rights and fulfill their obligations in the information and knowledge society in a time and place independent way: The citizen is involved in the clarification and planning of the public authorities, improved and customized information and discussion policies, customized to e citizen's need, barrier-free web access for electronic polls, building communities in various areas of the society, exercising their rights at every communal level as well as improving political controlling through adequate archiving and documentation systems.

eGovernment Framework of the University of Fribourg

The Information Systems (IS) research group at the University of Fribourg developed, in collaboration with other domain experts, a process oriented stage model. This model differentiates between the following tree process levels, with a total of eight different topics:

Process Level I - Information and Communicastion

The lowest level provides information and communication facilities for  eGovernment (eAssistance). It focuses on the design of communal web portals, respectively more extensive eGovernment portals, as well as the usage of Web 2.0 technologies. For a barrier-free web access, compliance with the Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is imperative.

Process Level II - Production

The  process level in the middle  consists of the actual public services that are required for the options A2A (Administration to Administration), A2C (Administration to Citizen) and A2B (Administration to Business). These services are in in the first place  management services for electronic procurement (eProcurement),  traditional services such as taxation, residents' registration, identification acquisition, etc. (eServices), contracts based on digitally signed electronic documents (eContracing) and processing such as electronic shipment, electronic payment and the  assurance of data security and safety (eSettlement).

Process Level III - Participation

Notably the participation possibilities are to be emphasized at the third process level. They highlight a progressive and responsible knowledge society. In addition to electronic voting (eDemocracy) ,  communication concpets must be analysed, processes to build communities (eCommmunity) established and a development model for the online citizen implemented. Virtual forms of collaboration (eCollaboration) including the utilization of Web 2.0 technologies respectively social software and to enable the further development of the knowledge society.

Publications

• Andreas Meier: Electronic Services – NPO go for WWW (in German). Fachzeitschrift für Verbands- und Nonprofit-Management, 26. Jhrg., Nr. 3, 2001, S. 54-63
• Andreas Meier (ed.): eGovernment (in German). dpunkt Publisher, Heidelberg 2002,
  http://hmd.dpunkt.de/226/index.html
• Stefan Hüsemann: A Web-based Information Exchange Platform for International Humanitarian Projects (in German). DUV, Wiesbaden 2003,
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• Andreas Meier: Citizen Relationship Management – A Online Communication Modell for Citizens (in German). In: Hildebrand K. (ed.): IT-Solutions in Commerce. dpunkt Publisher, Heidelberg 2004,
  http://hmd.dpunkt.de/235/index.html
• Andreas Meier: Informationsmanagement for NPOs and NGOs (in German), Springer Publisher 2006.
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• Peter Haas, Andreas Meier: Electronic Services – NPO go for WWW (in German). Fachzeitschrift für Verbands- und Nonprofit-Management, 26. Jhrg., Nr. 3, 2001, S. 54-63
• Andreas Meier, Heinz Sauerburger (eds.). eHealth (in German). dpunkt Publisher, Heidelberg 2006,
  http://hmd.dpunkt.de/251/index.html
• Andreas Meier: eVoting and eElection (in German). To appear in: Hofmann J., Reich S. (eds.): eGovernment. dpunkt Publisher, Heidelberg 2008,
  http://hmd.dpunkt.de/265/vorschau.html

The Book

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