On the eve of October 3: Unification Day of Germany
E-GOVERNMENT
BY MICHAEL ZIPF
Have you ever spent hours waiting in gloomy corridors, faced irritated public
officials surrounded by dusty files, or found that the government agency you wanted to
visit is closed by the time you finally managed to find a parking space? Johann bauerlein
had experienced all these things many times before he moved from private industry to
public administration in 1997 when he became full-time mayor of Memmelsdorf.
The industrial engineer had already come to appreciate the positive aspects
of personal computers in his capacity as association chairman. Then, soon after taking
office, he discovered I-kom, a Bamberg-based business startup. Its IT specialists did more
than modernize the data processing system at Memmelsdorf's town hall; they presented the
small Franconian community of 8,300 inhabitants with an offer that the self taught
computer expect found difficult to refuse. Memmelsdorf, I-kom personnel promised, could
have Germany's first functioning online town hall; the town's inhabitants would then be
able to apply for dog licenses, seek approval to open a restaurant, and modify their
income tax records from the comfort of their own homes-quickly and with complete data
security. Without hesitation, the people of Memmelsdorf took up the idea and the small
town is now "Germany's model community in the field of e-government", according
to a test of German towns and cities published in Chip, a popular computer magazine.
" At least, we are among those at the forefront of this development in Germany,"
says Mayor Bauerlein modestly. He knows that great advances have been made in the field of
e-government over recent months.
"For two or three years now, the Internet has been at the very top of
towns agendas," says Dr.Busso Grabow of the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu)
in Berlin. Today, he explains, an attractive website is considered an important element id
developing a positive image. And increasingly, too municipal. Authorities are also
beginning to realize that the internet can enable them to offer their customers-in other
words, their citizens- better services, greater transparency and more convenience –
without the disadvantages of limited opening hours or long waiting times.
NEW LAW WILL BOOST INNOVATION
Along side Mnuremberg and Esslingen, Bremen is one of the winners of the MEDIA@Komm multimedia competition organized by the federal
government. The Hanseatic city now enables its citizens to complete the administrative
formalities associated with moving house over the internet using a digital signature.
House builders can also submit applications for planning approval online and have them
sent simultaneously to all the offices involved in the administrative process. Bremen's
city parliament authorized the use of digital signatures in a specially enacted "
test statute". According to a Difu survey conducted in December 2000, 40% of all
German towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants now plan to set up virtual town halls.
Moreover, 72% of the communities surveyed intend to accept digital signatures once the
legal issues have been clarified. Undoubtedly, the lack of new signature legislation- and
the poor state of public finances-has been a major obstacle to the establishment of
virtual town halls. Although being able to download official forms from the internet and
then fill them out at home is a significant step forward, virtual visits to authorities
only really begin to make sense when you no longer need to sign them by hand and send them
back to the relevant office by post. Fortunately, the new signature legislation enacted by
the Bundestag in February 2001 will soon come into effect. " When digital signatures
have the same legal status as handwritten ones, we'll immediately offer all administrative
procedures online", says Stefan Westner, I-kom's chief executive. Memmelsdorf's mayor
is already anticipating substantial advances in the development of his online town hall.
" This will become the normal way of doing things," believes Bauerlein, even if
all older people will not necessarily accept it. "But anyone who has had contact with
PCs will immediately appreciate the advantages."
Experts estimate that approximately half of all the administrative services
offered by local, state, and federal authorities, tax offices and jobs centers could be
provided on the internet. At the federal level, Federal Interior Minister Otto Schily
intends to offer more than 1,200 services online by the year 2005. According to surveys,
69% of the German population would like to perform administrative chores on the internet,
emphasizes Schily. " In five years, today's 13 year olds will no longer understand
why they can't apply for a driver's license or a passport online". Bundonline 2005,
the federal government's e-government initiative, is already supporting pilot projects in
this area. Graduates can submit online applications to repay their student loans, and
tax-payers can send in annual tax returns over the internet.
Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroder launched Bundonline 2005 at the CeBIT
computer in Hanover. The initiative is part of the Internet for all program (Internt for
all), with which the federal government aims to make the internet accessible and
affordable to all sections of society. At the same time, Bundonline 2005 also builds on
Moderner Staat-Moderne Verwaltung, a program established by the federal government in 1999
to promote the modernization of government and public administration. Essentially, this
involves a redefinition of government responsibilities. The state system of the 21st
century, believe the politicians, will have to see a redistribution of duties and
responsibilities between government, business and society. The guiding principle is the
idea of the "empowering state", which leaves more space for society and
individual commitment. The internal structures of government administration should also
become part of this developmental process. The heart of the program is the introduction of
modern management techniques in the federal administration ministries-with quality
control, budgeting and cost-benefit analyses. In the future, public authorities are meant
to be results-oriented and will also face competition. " Modern management and
e-government are two central means of achieving fundamental changes in public
administration," says Brigitte Zypries, state secretary at the Federal Interior
Ministry. The goal is " a federal administration that does more and costs less".
All the services provided by approximately 350 federal agencies are to become
accessible through a federal government internet portal by 2005. The www.bund.de website, which was opened at the CeBIT fair,
already offers numerous links to archives and database and also refers visitors to advice
pages of various ministries and agencies. The judiciary could also go online here at some
time in future. The federal government recently agreed on a reform of German civil law
that would make it possible to institute legal proceedings online.
If they wish to clear the way for online administration for ordinary
citizens, federal, state and local authorities will also have to increase the level of
networking among themselves. Memmelsdorf, the e-government pioneer, always faces serious
obstacles when it has to work with other authorities. The citizens of Memmelsdorf can
complete official forms on the internet and return them to the municipal authorities.
Following the forthcoming legal changes, they also will be able to do this encrypted form
using a digital signature. "However, when someone changes their place of
residence," explains Ralf Pfisteer, the head of the department responsible for
resident's records, " we have to send a carbon copy to the state statistical office.
And they demand a handwritten signature. That's why we can't extend our online service to
include this area".
Itj is not only administrations that have to adjust, says Mayor Bauerlein,
but also their staff. Users of his virtual town hall, for example, can always check
whether an application is still in "pending" basket or is already being
processed. In Bauerlein's experience, "transparency also makes new demands on
personnel. It doesn’t only reduce work loads." In any event, the enterprising
mayor doesn’t need to worry about job losses yet. Nonetheless, it is absolutely clear
that the modernization of Germany's financially hard-pressed public authorities will
entail reductions in labor costs. If inquiries to record offices can be processed by a
database management system and the relevant fees automatically debited from inquirers'
smart cards, the number of staff required will inevitably fall. Only then, however, will
citizens be able to move nearer to a vision that Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schrodeer
described with the following words: The data should travel, not citizens".
The Traveling Eye, On show in Paris
The huge open-air exhibition, covering eight hundred meters around the French
Ministry of Foreign Affaires and the National Assembly buildings, has been organized by
Hubert Vedrine, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs and Raymond Forni, the president
of the National Assembly. It is the photographic event of the summer.
For three months, Uwe Ommer, a German photographer, and Frederic de La Mure,
the official photographer of the French Foreign Ministry, are exhibiting their work on the
railings and the walls surrounding the adjacent buildings of the two French
administrations. Until the end of September, the ministry and the Assembly, known as Quai
d'Orsay and the Palais Bourbon, offer locals and tourists the possibility to admire 300
photographs on the theme of the inhabitants of the world. It is an original way of going
"round the block" and motorists and strollers discover large size pictures taken
in 150 countries. The two photographers present two different approaches. Uwe Ommer places
his subjects out of context by putting all kinds of families against a white background.
Frederic de La Mure takes more subjective photographs. He shows as human attitudes and
scenes from life taken in action.
For five years, the German photographer Uwe Ommer traveled all over the world
to create the family album of our planet. His portraits, showing families from 150
different nationalities, of all colors, all kinds of compositions and all clothing
traditions, had been exhibited at the Photokina in Cologne last year. They have also been
put together in a book called "1,000 Families: the Family Album of Planet
Earth", brought out by the German publisher Taschen, under the patronage of UNICEF.
For the National Assembly, Uwe Ommer has selected 250 160 by 125 cms color photos, which
will be exhibited outside the Palais Bourbon, opposite Corconde Bridge. On this occasion,
Uwe Ommer's book will be published in three languages, French, English and German.
Since 1982, Frederic de La Mure has been the official photographer of the
Ministry. On the occasion of his trips all over the world, in the side lines of his
diplomatic missions, he is interested in life "behind the scenes of history" and
all the ordinary people whose life goes on a few steps from the official palaces. During
his trips, Frederic divides his time between diplomatic interviews of ministers and heads
of state and his anonymous strolls in the surrounding streets, rural locations and public
areas. This photographer is the privileged witness of French diplomatic events which were
very active at the end of the 20 th century and the great changes of our planet such as
the fall of the Berlin Wall, the creation of new states, the Gulf War, the end of
apartheid and the crises in the Balkans. In whatever country he happens to be, during the
official meetings, Frederic takes advantage of his free time to present us with an
anthology of more subjective pictures, giving priority to what, in the haste of his first
glance, seems to him to be most fascinating. All over the world, between protocols and
diplomatic interviews, he goes out in the streets to observe and capture scenes from life.
So Frederic has a dual viewpoint. "Each one complements the other, Both of them make
history, the diplomats as well as the people in the street. These two sides of history are
parallel and complementary"', the photographer points out, adding "I go just
anywhere. I don't look for a particular place and I take whatever presents itself. It is
completely unexpected. I love mingling with the locals. I don't look for sensational
things". Yet, all his photos tell a story. Sometimes is it an unexpected and moving
story and sometimes it just shows universal but unfamiliar everyday life. Frederic
exhibits the scenes from everyday life and these individual or group portraits in black
and white taken in 90 countries on the railings and walls of the Ministry in Paris this
summer. 16 very large size photos have been hung on the railings along Quait d'Orsay and
95 medium sized pictures are exhibited in Rue Esnault de la Pelterie and Rue de
l'Universite, surrounding the official building. On the occasion of this event, Frederic
is bringing out a book containing the photographs of the exhibition and other pictures,
which have not been exhibited before. The book is called "Autor du Quai, Autor du
Monde", published by Edition Liana Levi. This photographer, who won the
"Decouverte du Japon" prize in 1978, awarded by the France-Japan Press
Association." He has held numerous exhibitions in France and in Europe. Uwe Ommer and
Frederic offer two complementary ways of viewing the inhabitants of our planet with their
similarities and differences. Through this international scope and its message of
tolerance and by the place given to the family and the childhood, this open-air exhibition
appeals to a vast public of all ages and from all walks of life. The exhibition is
especially intended for all those who, at some time or the other, spend the summer in
Paris, a delight for tourists and locals alike. |
