e-governance and citizen information - Universitat Oberta de ...
e-governance and citizen information - Universitat Oberta de ...
e-governance and citizen information - Universitat Oberta de ...
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E-<strong>governance</strong> <strong>and</strong> Citizen Information 92 Structure <strong>and</strong> Organisation<strong>de</strong>partments: “a moment comes when it costs the <strong>de</strong>partments less to purchase fromthe private sector” (P32). But, more recently, the increase in the importance of the CitizenInformation Department has gone h<strong>and</strong> in h<strong>and</strong> with the growth of both its areas ofresponsibility (<strong>de</strong> facto) <strong>and</strong> the central position that has been acquired by the Telecommunications<strong>and</strong> Information Technology Centre within the whole Generalitat. Thus the<strong>de</strong>partments continue to have power <strong>and</strong> <strong>de</strong>cision-making capacity with respect to <strong>information</strong>management; however, progressively these questions have been <strong>de</strong>legated tothe Telecommunications <strong>and</strong> Information Technology Centre. In this way, “if somebodyis opposed to the recommendations of the Telecommunications <strong>and</strong> Information TechnologyCentre, they don't have the ability to veto them, however, they can certainly putobstacles in their path” (P10). As in the case of the Citizen Information Department, thisstrategy has also led, amongst other actions, to the consi<strong>de</strong>rable increase in the numberof people in this unit.The centralisation of Telecommunications <strong>and</strong> Information Technology Centre <strong>de</strong>cisionmaking has translated, principally, into the adoption of common technological solutions forthe whole Autonomous Administration, but also with respect to <strong>information</strong> organisation.One of the main consequences of compartmentalisation in <strong>information</strong> policy is the redundancyof workers' tasks. In parallel with this, technological <strong>and</strong> organisational difficultieshave ma<strong>de</strong> the integration of databases very difficult (with different <strong>and</strong> normally non interoperablest<strong>and</strong>ards). There has also been an effort in this direction to overcome the situation:“the current situation is that each <strong>de</strong>partment has its sources of <strong>information</strong> <strong>and</strong>puts them in its portal; that's how it's worked until now. The i<strong>de</strong>a is to create a common<strong>information</strong> <strong>de</strong>posit where there is global access to the entire contents. In this way thecontents will be shared <strong>and</strong> it will give them a general coherence” (P72).The centralisation of <strong>information</strong>, apart from the rationalisation of finances <strong>and</strong> efforts,should permit improved <strong>information</strong> organisation towards the exterior. In some cases, however,the situation in which <strong>information</strong> is found in the <strong>de</strong>partments does not allow one toconsi<strong>de</strong>r even actions of this scope: “we are not even trying, for the moment, to integrate thedatabases <strong>and</strong> connect them. The current priority is to normalise them, for example, establishingformats <strong>and</strong> applications, types of common data, etc.” (P60). We will come back tothis question later on.The situation outlined above presents, then, a substantial change as far as the structureof function <strong>and</strong> access, <strong>and</strong> the treatment of <strong>information</strong> is concerned. It is not simply acase of the transfer of areas of responsibility between units. Rather what we observe is aten<strong>de</strong>ncy towards cooperative working, but marked by greater control based on the centralisationof <strong>de</strong>cision-making in specific units. The horizontalisation that in this sense wehave observed in other spheres, does not, then, take place.http://www.uoc.edu/in3/pic