eGovernance and eAccessibility in Norway

The International Conference on Technology for Participation and Accessible eGovernment Services  (T4P) opened with a keynote on eGovernance and eAccessibility in Norway, held by State Secretary Wenche Lyngholm at the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform.

 

Foils from the speech in pdf

Check against delivery Translated from the Norwegian

First of all I would like to thank Agder University College for hosting this conference.

I am glad to see that you have been able to attract so many distinguished guests and speakers from all over the world. This proves that the topic of the conference, Technology for participation, is important, relevant and on the agenda for many sectors and actors. This is truly promising in terms of further outcomes and future development. 

I will use this opportunity to describe, on a general level, some important aspects of the Norwegian Government’s policy for ensuring participation and access in the information society. And I would like to add the following: ICT policy is an important political focus area in Norway; for many reasons:
-Firstly, ICT is the most  important driver for economic growth and innovation. ICT, and the Internet especially, have brought enormous economic and social changes world-wide.
-Secondly, (unlike professor Nicholas Carr) I believe that “IT matters”. It definitely matters what political initiatives we take in this field.
-The title of our recent white paper on ICT policy is “An information society for all”, and we really mean what the title says: We have to work actively so that everybody can be included in the information society.
This means that there is truly a need to keep ICT-policy high on the national agenda in order to reap the benefits of ICT.

eGovernance and eAccessability
There are two main points that I want to develop in this presentation:

• eGovernance
• eAccessability

The governance and development of the information society should be founded on effective cooperation between public and private sectors, between citizens and authorities and between individuals with differing abilities and resources. Good cooperation is how we boost each other, generate economic growth, create new jobs and ensure the security that most of us take for granted.

The Government’s goal is that everyone who wants to shall have the opportunity to participate in the information society. Services shall be available, at all times, for all, according to the individual’s needs.

There is a need to strenghten our role as ICT-coordinator for the public sector. As of October 2004, the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform will have the responsibility for the Government’s coordination of ICT-policy. Our Minister therefore announced, some weeks ago, the establishment of a new public agency. This agency will be an important instrument for us in reforming the public sector, with special focus on information technology.

Citizen-centric services
Modern citizens expect government services on the net, just the same way as they do their banking, their e-commerce and other information services.
We want the citizens to be met by an open, accessible and coherent public sector offering integrated and fully digital services through sound electronic self service solutions.
We must make provisions for round-the-clock electronic public administration, entailing far more extensive interorganisational cooperation.
So what does this mean?
Government agencies and services must not be presented to the citizens as silos. We need a holistic view. Cross sector cooperation is the key phrase.
We also want to free up resources and reduce administrative burdens through the use of ICT.

In order to achieve this, we need common standards and architectural principles for ICT solutions in the public sector.
We are developing particularly one very important instrument to deliver electronic public services to the public: MyPage. The citizens’ portal, MyPage, launched in December 2006. The idea is that instead of remembering a billion web addresses, user names and passwords for different public services we need only one access point, at least that is the goal. On “Mypage”, each citizen can have public services performed through one portal, gain access to information about him or herself in public registers and a secure electronic mailbox for messages to and from the government authorities.

We have a similar web-portal, targeted at the businesses, AltInn (“AllIn”). Instead of submitting forms and information through often very different public information systems, the businesses have one access point, one standard and – that is the goal – submitting the same information only once.

Norway is working hard at implementing ICT in the public sector and in some areas we are in the international forefront. But there is more ground to cover. The public sector is large with many actors and there is ample room for improvement. On the other hand, this means that the potential benefits are vast.

Open standards - open software
Through our white paper “An Information Society for All”, we have made a clear commitment to the use of open ICT standards in the public sector.
But: Standardization is a tricky area. Everybody seems to want standards as long as their standards are the preferred choice.
(For example: When we send out information from our ministry we have committed ourselves to send the documents in an open format, for example the PDF-format. That should satisfy the “open”-supporters. But it does not satisfy the blind. They could find their way through the newest version of PDF, but they seem to be much more comfortable with Microsoft Word.)

We are working very seriously on this. We are preparing a reference catalogue of administration standards which is now out on a public hearing.

Open source software is here to stay and we take it seriously.  Therefore: An open, accessible and coherent public sector requires a focus on open source software.  It can facilitate the re-use of solutions across, and between, public bodies. This is especially important in the municipal sector, since all municipalities should offer the same type of services to their citizens.

During a recent visit at Nokia in Finland, Vice President Veli Sundbeck had one clear challenge to the Norwegian Minister/to us: “Norway”, he said,  “should take a leading role in pushing open standards, both nationally and internationally”. We will continue our efforts on open standards.

As you all know, Norway is not a member of the EU. But as a member of the European Economic Area, we actively follow up EU initiatives in the ICT area. We take actively part in in the international discussions, and the European Commisson’s policy is very important for our work. We follow EU’s work with regard i2010 – the action plan for the information society very closely.
We are also very honoured and pleased of being invited to the 4th Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Lisbon in September, where our Minister will present the Norwegian eGovernment ICT initiatives. Later this week, the Minister and myself will discuss this further with commisionair Margot Wallstrøm. 

eAccessibility - access
When our Storting (Parliament) discusses ICT, broadband is always a favourite topic. Broadband access for all by the end of 2007 is the challenging political goal – especially for a country divided by deep valleys and fjords.

By October 2006 broadband coverage in Norway was 95 %, an increase of approx. 14 percentage points during the last two years. The last five percent will be very expensive. But we are determined to reach our goal. We can not afford not to!

In the second quarter of 2006, seven out of ten Norwegian households had Internet access. Of these, 80 percent were connected by broadband. Generally this is good, but still, families with children and high income families have better access to the net than other population groups.

While we notice a high take up of broadband connection throughout the society we are seeing a trend in which access to content services is not just a question of having a broadband and computer connection. Other channels for mediating information and services are multiplying, as there are receivers such as mobile phones and digital-TVs. It will be important that perspectives surrounding ICT-policy also comprise these channels.

eAccessibility - universal design
Universal design is a focus area in our white paper to the Storting. The Government’s objective is for all technological development within ICT to be based on the principle of universal design.
We plan to include universal design of ICT systems and products under a new law against discrimination. Right now we are preparing a hearing in this field.

Many people feel that there is a gap between the design of ICT solutions and their chances of utilising the technology satisfactorily. For years there has been a focus on buildings and transport systems. Now we also focus on internet services and solutions like ticket automats and ATMs.
The concept of universal design is to some extent already incorporated in legislation, regulations, action plans and in many political documents, but we have felt that the regulations have not been strong enough. We have recommendations for web sites, e-services and equipment, that universal design and WAI-criteria should be considered, but no clear mandatory regulations. This is about to be changed now.

As I mentioned we are preparing a new law to the Storting, making universal design mandatory for ICT and transport. One of our most prominent academic institutions, The NTNU, the university for technology and science has examined the consequences of incorporating ICT into this act, and this paper now serves as a basis for the public hearing.
I am not a great expert in universal design, but I have been told that the remote control for the TV that everyone of us now take for granted was designed as a special tool for those who could not easily access the TV buttons. There are, obviously, many examples of interface solutions designed for people with special needs that makes technical solutions easier to use for everyone of us.

It is a great challenge to think of universal design as something that concerns all of us – something we all will benefit from. Take this washing machine as an example. For those of us with first-hand experience with washing machines, this one seems far more user-friendly and easy to handle than the traditionally one.
The Government can and will do its utmost in making the framework-conditions as good as possible to facilitate this development. But in the end, the real effort lies in the hands on the buyers, product designers, researchers and developers, and businesses. 

General knowledge about how people with disabilities manage in the information society is generally low. We often meet people, who should be expected to have some insight in these things. Even so, many seem to express astonishments when told that people with, for instance, sight disabilities can manage the Internet. This tells us that there is a need for better information. Maybe we need to focus more on showing good examples, telling the stories of the positive economic impacts instead of the focusing on expenses and problems.
In this respect it is important to promote R&D-programmes like ”IT-Funk” which is the next topic on the agenda.

The road ahead
We are truly living in interesting and challenging times! ( I know that people through out the history have anticipated revolutions and new ways of living and interacting from the introduction of the telegraph and the development of the steam engine – but still)
We are constantly witnessing new phenomena and new social arenas growing rapidly and taking new forms. Just think about what has happened the last few years with the emergence of Wikipedia, YouTube, mySpace or Facebook. (And who remember today what it was like searching for information before Google?)
The development and use of ICT is not something we can leave to the market forces alone. We need cooperation, organisation and standardisation in order for the solutions to work – and for benefits to be reaped.

We need international and cross-sectoral cooperation and dialogue. I would finally like to congratulate the host, Agder University College, for initiating and coordinating this project. We look forward to learning more about your results from the evaluation of European public on-line services. I hope these results will serve as an inspiration to us all in our future work.

ICT by its very nature transcends boundaries and penetrates all sectors and areas of society. ICT offers great opportunities for bringing together and making the most of society’s common resources given there is a commitment to coordinate the ICT-processes involved.
I think this captures the meaning of eGovernance. It is about utilising the potential benefits, making it work to fit our different needs, and, in the end, make our everyday-lives a little bit better.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I wish you all the best for the conference. I do hope you will enjoy the conference and your stay here in Kristiansand.