Delivery of Effective E-Government Systems: The Case of Oman - Research Proposal Example

? Project Specification For Delivery of Effective E-Government Systems: The Case of Oman By Candi s OF ___________SCHOOL OF INFORMATICS Contents Outline of the Project Environment 1 The Problem to be Solved 4 Breakdown of Tasks 7 Project Deliverables 11 Requirements 12 Legal, Ethical, Professional and Social Issues 17 Facilities and Resources 18 Project Plan 19 Bibliography / References 23 List of Tables Table 1: Table illustrating project plan 20 List of Figures Figure 1: Chart illustrating an approximate timeline for the Proposed Research Project 21 (This page intentionally left blank) Outline of the Project Environment According to Sideridis and Patrikakis (2010), democracy has proven to be an exceptionally adaptive form of government through the ages. Democracy refers to a government of the people, by the people and for the people for dealing with problems and concerns that arise when individuals live in an organised society. Paivarinta & Saebo (2008) suggests that a democratic government depends on effective and participatory decision-making about public issues with an emphasis on participation by all citizens. Because democracy requires effective participation by all citizens, it is important that citizens and groups with interests are able to communicate effectively and efficiently with their representatives in a parliament, with various government departments and with those in a government who oversee administrative and governance functions. Efficiency in interactions with government is important because if citizens have to endure great hardship presenting ideas to their elected representatives or when lodging applications or petitions with government departments, then it is likely that a desire to participate in the government will disappear. Thus, it makes sense for organised societies to ensure that citizens and interest groups are able to communicate effectively and efficiently with their elected representatives and government agencies. In the present day and age, proliferation of computers, Information Technologies (IT) and advances in electronic communication technologies have made efficiency in communications and interactions a reality. Thus, it is no longer necessary for individuals to travel over long distances to meet in person with their elected representatives or government officials. Advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) now render it possible for individuals to transmit messages over vast distances in a fraction of a second and text, audio and video interactions as well as retrieval of information over the Internet, and the World Wide Web is now a reality. ICT is now widely deployed around the world to enhance governance, improve on participation in a democracy and to assist with transactions between government departments and with organisational entities. Within the context of application of ICT to enhance governance and interactions with government in a country, e-government is an enabler that makes it possible for all those within the jurisdiction of a government, and beyond, to interact electronically with a government. Transactions for e-government may take the form of citizen-to-government (C2G), government-to-business (G2B), government-to-employee (G2E) or government-to-government (G2G) transactions. E-democracy refers to electronic interactions between government and the electorate, while e-governance is about simplifying and improving democratic, government and business aspects of governance. It makes sense for a government to try to enhance e-democracy, e-government and e-governance but because e-democracy is about interacting with the elected government, this is essential for the progress of democracy in a country. Many countries in the Middle East and around the world, both developed and developing, now present efforts to enhance democracy and governance by implementing e-government and e-democracy. Clark (2002, Chapter 1) states that involving the public in decision-making is not something new, but it is important to try to enhance public education about responsibility that democracy brings, about enhancing public capacity for political and democratic responsibility and about enhancing a capacity for taking on responsibility in the individual. Thus, participation in a democracy is not a one-way process, but it is, in fact, a two-way process, and it is clear that a need exists to capitalise on the IT infrastructure in a country to promote effective governance, participation, interaction between government and citizens and democracy itself. Elected representatives of the people should remain connected with the electorate because they should know about the problems that confront the people, remain aware of the trends in perceptions of their electorate and be in a position to present feedback to the people to educate them or to seek the advice of the electorate to assist with decision-making. The Sultanate of Oman is an Arab Gulf country in the Middle East with a population exceeding 3.1 million (Ashrafi and Murtaza, 2008). This country presents a substantial coastline with the Arabian Sea and it borders the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Oman is a developing country and an oil-producing nation that is neither rich nor poor, but diffusion of IT in Oman has progressed at a rapid pace, with expectations that expenditure on IT will increase to more than US$ 400 million beyond the year 2012. According to Ashrafi and Murtaza (2008), IT spending in Oman ranges from 2% to 4% of the GDP compared to 8% of the GDP for the developed world. According to Ashrafi and Murtaza (2008), Oman presented 12.22 Internet per 100 users, 5.06 PC per 100 users, 69.6 Cellular subscribers per 100 users, 10.65 main telephone lines, and 0.58 broadband per 100 users for the year 2008 and the proliferation of ITC in Oman will continue to increase in the future. Thus, it makes sense for Oman to make the effort to incorporate effective e-government systems within its governance infrastructure to benefit further from its ITC infrastructure in order to establish the right foundations for a democratic society of the future. The elected representatives of the people of Oman conduct their business in the Consultation/ Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman, which maintains a website. However, this website currently lacks a capacity for optimally enhancing participation in democracy by the people of Oman. The Problem to be Solved The Consultation/ Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman already maintains a website depicted on Majlis A’Shura (2010). However, this web interface for an e-democracy system presents shortcomings, and it is not yet possible for members of the public either to contact their elected representative using email or to receive any feedback from this e-democracy system. No voting is possible on the current e-democracy system for the Majlis A’Shura of Oman, and it is unlikely that elected representatives of the people are in a position to present information or issues to the people for discussion or consultation. Thus, the electorate of Oman may learn about the function of the Majlis A’Shura of Oman by pointing their browsers to the URL for its web interface, but it is not possible for them to participate in e-democracy with the current interface. In addition, it is unlikely that on incorporation of email on the present web interface for the Majlis A’Shura of Oman that elected representatives will be able to cope with the huge volume of email that may potentially emanate on this e-democracy web interface, let alone respond to it or learn from it. Thus, a clear need is evident for improving the e-democracy system for the Majlis A’Shura of Oman to bring this e-democracy system in line with the more modern systems in developed countries to establish the right foundations and traditions for e-democracy in the Sultanate of Oman. The aim of the research project described in this research proposal is to decide about needed improvements for e-democracy system for Majlis A’Shura of Oman in line with e-democracy in developed world, aspirations of the electorate of Oman and needs of the elected representatives. In addition, after deciding about what functionality should be best for an e-democracy system for Oman, a requirement exists to decide about the architecture for the system and how best to implement this system in practice using various tools available for implementing e-government or e-democracy systems. Furthermore, it may be possible to construct a working prototype of the desired Majlis A’Shura e-democracy system based on the desired architecture and web interface or e-democracy software development tools decided on in this research. Thus, the aim of the proposed research project is to give effect to the right e-democracy system for the Majlis A’Shura of Oman and its web interface after having studied carefully democracy, e-democracy and systems for e-democracy. Many developed nations, including the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Australia, France, Switzerland, etc. have now implemented effective systems for e-government and e-democracy. In addition, regional neighbours of Oman have also stepped up efforts to try to implement effective systems for e-government and e-democracy. Thus, it is only right that the government and people of Oman make the effort to establish the foundations for e-government and e-democracy in Oman to prepare for the future and to enhance the effectiveness of their government. It makes sense to examine the efforts of other nations to learn about their systems for e-democracy and e-government to decide about what is best for Oman, keeping in mind the unique culture of Oman and its unique situation. The proposed research project will try to present a framework for the Consultation/ Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman website, evaluate the proposed framework and decide about the e-tools for enhancing participation in democracy and interaction between elected representatives and members of the electorate. Constraints may exist on the project due to lack of time, funds and skills, which will prevent full implementation of a desired framework and it may be necessary to acquire necessary software skills. Breakdown of Tasks The following tasks and subtasks envisaged for this proposed research project are important to the success of this project: 1. Preparation of a research proposal in a systematic manner for examining deployment of effective e-government systems for Oman, especially the Consultation/ Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman, its web interface, a framework for the Consultation/ Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman and desired e-tools. 1.1. Examine other parliament websites. 1.2. Investigate software tools. 1.3. Examine available literature. 2. Preparation of a literature review that examines themes related to effective e-government and e-democracy systems for deployment in government and parliaments in democratic countries, functionality and framework of various parliament websites, e-tools and available tools for designing e-government and e-democracy systems, etc. A detailed literature review should emphasise functionality and specifications for e-democracy and e-government systems, tools for e-democracy, system architecture for e-democracy, software tools for designing and implementing e-democracy and e-government systems, etc. 2.1. Examine literature related to e-government and e-democracy. 2.2. Examine literature related to architecture for e-government and e-democracy. 2.3. Examine literature related to software for e-government systems. 3. Deciding about methodology for research, expectations for research itself and the deliverables expected from the research project based on insights from a review of literature. 3.1. Examine various methodologies available. 3.2. Examine project reports for similar projects. 4. Collection of primary data based on semi-structured questionnaires for deciding about the aspirations of the electorate of Oman and its elected representatives to decide about specifications for e-democracy system. 4.1. Collect data from survey of electorate. 4.2. Collect data from survey of elected representatives. 4.3. Analyse and interpret data. 5. Combining themes that emerge from a review of literature with results made available from an analysis of primary date to decide about specifications for effective e-democracy system for Oman. 5.1. Check what is desirable from an Omani perspective. 5.2. Check what is desirable on other parliament websites. 6. Using selected software tools and tools for constructing e-democracy system and e-government systems to implement an e-democracy system for Majlis A’Shura of Oman and the web interface for this system. 6.1. Think about constructing the HTML website based on desired framework. 6.2. Use various software tools to add systematically functionality. 7. Testing of the system implemented for bugs and the removal of these bugs. 7.1. Test for correct operation of interface. 7.2. Check for correct operation of any e-tools. 8. Preparation of a report and other deliverables, including relevant software codes, implementation instructions for the realised e-democracy system for Majlis A’Shura of Oman and the web interface for this system, instructions for deployment, operation, maintenance, etc. 8.1. Prepare literature review. 8.2. Prepare analysis of primary data. 8.3. Prepare discussion and conclusion for project. Project Deliverables The project deliverables will include the following: 1. A report on the research undertaken for the proposed research project described in this project specification, including a literature review, the methodology selected for the research, results derived from primary research for the aspirations of the people of Oman about what e-democracy system they want and the requirements presented for the e-democracy system by the elected representatives of Oman. The report will include a specification of what functionality ought to be available on the proposed Consultation/ Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman website and what e-tools are included. In addition, the report will describe the architecture of the e-democracy system in general terms and mention any software-development tools needed for the development of the e-democracy system for the Consultation/ Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman e-democracy system. In addition to a discussion about e-tools, the software tools for developing software for the e-democracy system for the Consultation / Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman website, the research report will include system specification for the e-democracy system. 2. A framework or description of what the Consultation / Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman website should look like. Requirements Requirements are important because citizens and the electorate that are users of e-government and e-democracy systems as well as those that they interact with present a need for satisfaction, and it is important that the e-democracy system meets with the needs of a particular culture or country. Clearly, all cultures and nations present unique needs and it makes sense to try to understand better expectations from the e-democracy system for the Consultation/ Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman. The electorate will have its own expectations about what they can do with the e-democracy system and what they expect to be able to learn from such a system in terms of information and feedback. However, the elected representatives will want a capacity for displaying information for their electorate, a capacity for gleaning knowledge from any e-mail communication sent to them and a capacity for seeking votes on matters of interest, including possibly electronic voting. Thus, a semi-structured survey for a sample of the electorate and the elected representatives from Oman will present insights about the precise expectations from the e-democracy system. However, a survey of parliamentary websites from various countries from around the world will also serve to decide about what features are best for the e-democracy system for the Consultation/ Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman. Thus, a clear and concise specification of requirements for is only possible after making progress with the research proposed in this document. It is possible to suggest after an examination of the websites of Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, United States of America and Switzerland that the following are essential for a website: It makes sense to present a description of the history and function of a parliament. A section that presents news related to a parliament, bills and other matters in front of the parliament, workings of any committees, etc. This will require a content management system for the parliament website that will enable staff to update news daily. The website for the parliament of Oman should include a section that presents a list of elected representatives for various districts of Oman, including their public details together with the email for their office and their official telephone numbers. A list of services that members of the electorate may request from an elected representative, including assistance with a government agency, assistance with speeding up of public procedures for services such as grant of a passport, assistance with getting a visa for another person residing outside of Oman, etc. A web form that is useful for sending a petition to an elected representative for each district or for sending comments / suggestions about various public matters. A section of the website that maintains downloads for reports, notifications or minutes of the parliament or other documents of interest to members of an electorate. The website of a parliament should maintain a search engine that will enable users to search the parliament website for various words and phrases. A form that will enable those wanting to visit the parliament to apply for visits to the parliament by presenting an electronic petition to the clerk of the parliament. A section of the website should present issues on which members of the electorate may want to vote, and it should be possible for citizens to present their vote on issues presented for voting by either presenting their unique National Identification Number or their official name and address held by the government. At present, such voting arrangements are available for the parliaments of certain Benelux countries, including Switzerland. A section of the website should present visitors with information about election results for various candidates for various districts of Oman for various years of elections. A section of the website should maintain podcasts and other audio-visual material of interest to the electorate for downloading and public dissemination in various formats, including MP3, JPG, PDF, etc. It should be possible for a visitor to a website to send complaints or to record their feedback about various matters pertaining to the website with website administration or for transmittal to the most relevant authority. It should be possible for elected representatives of the people and other members of the staff of a parliament to log into their parliamentary website account to examine any mails and summaries of voting trends on issues presented for public votes. In addition, it should be possible for elected representatives to communicate with other government officials or elected representatives, view summaries of mails they have received based on text search using a keyword of their mail or send SMS text messages to fellow elected members on their listed mobile numbers. It should be possible for elected representatives of the people of Oman to ask the website maintenance staff to add to content for their district or to put issues of interest in front of the public for voting using a content management system for the website. The website of the parliament should present a library and statistics section in which various documents maintained on a searchable database are available to those that visit the website. These include speeches by various members of parliament, statistics of interest, reports, articles, etc. It is clear that the requirements for the parliament website will present a need for interfacing databases with the web interface, incorporation of search engine, a content management system, voting interface, email and SMS interface, etc. Presenting the required or desired functionality will involve the use of various software tools, including database systems for interfacing with websites, web-authoring systems, content management systems, voting systems, text mining systems, etc. Examples of tools suited to the requirements include IBM or Oracle database systems with their text or data mining additions, Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 (Now Adobe) or Microsoft FrontPage 2003, WordPress, Drupal, Joomla or similar for content management, etc. Alternatively, it will be useful to try to locate a tool for creating an e-democracy system that already has all functionalities stitched together to enable the creation of the e-democracy system for the Consultation/ Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman with a minimum of additional software tools. However, identification of specific tools to give effect to requirements for users will proceed further as the research unfolds during the research phase for the dissertation. Legal, Ethical, Professional and Social Issues Considerations related to ethics are important for any project that will incorporate attempts to interview members of the electorate in Oman, members of the elected representatives and place information about elected members of the Consultation/ Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman on a website for public viewing. Ethical considerations demand that individuals presenting opinions know that their participation in presenting their opinions is voluntary and that no coercion is involved in their participation in any exchange of ideas. Thus, informed consent needs communicating to all those that will present their opinions to maintain their confidence. Elected representatives presenting their opinions must receive the utmost courtesy, and it is important to maintain confidentiality for any replies, with only processed results appearing in reports without mentioning any names. It makes sense to seek necessary advice if a need exists for seeking ethics committee approval for survey. It is important to understand that public figures, including elected members of parliament, maintain a public personality and a private personality that remains distinct. Thus, any information about public figures, including telephone numbers, addresses, mobile numbers, emails, etc. that are not official can never be placed on public websites. The culture in Oman is an Arab and Islamic culture, and this means that it makes sense to respect this culture when interviewing those of the female gender and the elderly. Material presented on a website should remain within expectations of Arab and Islamic culture. Facilities and Resources The research project requires access to a personal computer with Internet, access to research library and research databases, funds to cover mailing of interview questionnaires and their return as well as any visits to selected representatives of the Majlis A’Shura of Oman. In addition, a requirement will exist for funds for any software tools that will prove useful for giving effect to effective systems for e-democracy for the Majlis A’Shura of Oman. On acceptance of specifications for the e-democracy system for the Majlis A’Shura of Oman and its web interface, it will be necessary to develop a working prototype using software-development tools and tools for the development of an e-democracy system to test for its efficient, reliable and bug-free operation prior to its demonstration and possible deployment. It is likely that a need will exist for a web hosting account to test the developed e-democracy system for the Consultation/ Shura Council (Majlis A'Shura) for Oman website. Clearly, a requirement exists for funds for various facilities and requirements mentioned in this section. Project Plan Research effort leading to meaningful results for the proposed project shall include initial reading and review of literature, survey for a sample of the electorate and elected representatives in Oman to decide about their aspirations for systems for e-democracy and requirements related to the needs of the elected representatives. In addition, examination of selected implementations of e-government and e-democracy from around the world should present a general idea about specifications for e-democracy systems for Majlis A’Shura of Oman. Further research should decide about implementation of the system using software tools for e-government and e-democracy development and web development. Testing and debugging follows and finally, combining the results of all investigations into a report presents the product of the research effort. A table and a chart illustrating an approximate timeline for the research project are below. Task No. Description Start Date End Date Number of Days 1. Review of literature 04/6/2012 18/6/2012 14 2. Methodology and primary data 19/6/2012 1/7/2012 14 3. Generation of specifications 1/7/2012 15/7/2012 14 4. System implementation 15/7/2012 12/8/2012 28 5. System test and debugging 12/8/2012 19/8/2012 7 6. Preparation of report 19/8/2012 2/9/2012 14 Table 1: Table for Project Plan Figure 1: Chart illustrating an approximate timeline for the Proposed Research Project (This page intentionally left blank) Bibliography/ References AlShihi, H. (2006). Critical Factors in the Adoption and Diffusion of E-government Initiatives in Oman. Strategies. Victoria University. Retrieved from http://wallaby.vu.edu.au/adt-VVUT/uploads/approved/adt-VVUT20060904.154748/public/01front.pdf Ashrafi, R., & Murtaza, M. (2008). Use and Impact of ICT on SMEs in Oman. Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation, 11(3), 125-138. Academic Conferences, Ltd. Retrieved from http://www.ejise.com/volume-11/volume11-issue3/ashrafiAndMurtaza.pdf Bicking, M., Janssen, M., & Wimmer, M. A. (2006). Looking into the future?: scenarios for e-government in 2020. Scenario, 226(1), 392-404. Springer. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39229-5_32 Choudhury, S., Kala, C., Sarwan, J. P., & Kumar, S. (2008). E-Democracy and Citizen Empowerment through E-Governance and Other e-Initiatives in India, Nepal and Bangladesh-A Case Study. Transport, 155-164. Clark, Robin. (2002). New Democratic Processes. Institute for Public Policy, UK. Denzin, Norman K and Lincoln, Yvonna. (2005). The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. Sage Publications, Inc. Majlis A’Shura, Oman. (2010). Website of the Majlis A’Shura of Oman. Majlis A’Shura, Oman. Retrieved from http://www.shura.om/en/index.asp Paivarinta, T., & Saebo, O. (2008). The Genre System Lens on E-Democracy. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, 20(2), 51-82. Sideridis, Alexander B. & Patrikakis, Charalampos Z. (2010). Next Generation Society Technological and Legal Issues: Third International Conference, e-Democracy 2009, Athens, Greece, September 23-25, 2009. Springer. Read More