1 November, 2003
© Beep Knowledge System and case owners, 2002-2003
eGovernment
eVienna (Austria)
Executive summary
of the case:
Timing of case
The egovernment project started in January 2001 and is ongoing
Geographic setting
This is an egovernment project set in Vienna Austria.
Background
eVienna, the current umbrella project for e-government of the Municipal
Administration of the City of Vienna has started at the beginning of the
year 2001 with the goals of "citizen orientation, support for the
economy, and administration simplification”. It is a practical framework
for implementation of e-government solutions and is the follow-up project
of WELCOM - Wiener (Viennese) Electronic Commerce, the former umbrella
project for e-commerce and e-government applications and services. This
project had been created as a basic platform for innovative e-government
and e-commerce transaction services during the time period from January
1999 to December 2000 containing all single projects of transaction services
of the Municipal Administration of the City of Vienna (MDI Wien 2000).
Online transaction services provided for citizens include, for example,
the electronic order of a voting card and a parking sticker (the annual
parking allowance for residents of certain Viennese districts), purchasing
digital maps, and dog registration.
This web site's offerings include a far reaching social inclusion concept by providing also special content for teenagers and women as well as for people with special needs, like the handicapped and elderly. Additionally, wien.at contains an English edition, especially created for and used by tourists and English speaking international residents. To reach even a larger number of citizens, about 50 Public Access Points, public kiosks, are offered on public places within the Viennese city area operable via touch screens. The terminals were awarded a European prize for their design in 1999.
Activities
A fundamental part of eVienna is www.wien.at, the main web portal of the
Municipal Administration of the City of Vienna. By 1997, it covered about
3000 pages and by July 2001, already about 9500. The virtual administration
guide, which can be accessed from wien.at's homepage, entails "administration
procedures”, PDF forms for download as well as electronic forms
and contact links to administration departments. In the near future, over
30 applications are planned to be implemented, a dozen of these is online
already and about 15 will be completed within the year 2001. Especially
of importance is the planned online registering of residence.
Lessons and conclusions
eVienna is especially outstanding in its realisation of multi-channel
delivery. To allow access to eVienna to people who cannot afford such
access, a multi-channel-delivery approach is especially important to assure
the social inclusion of such “special” user groups. eVienna
can indeed offer a far reaching multi-channel delivery concept. The access
to the single eVienna services is provided through
Public Access Points (kiosks),
One to two call centre/s shall be built up,
One-Stop Shops of district municipal departments,
De-centrally established Citizen Services,
Different electronic media – phone, fax and e-mail to contact the
municipal departments, municipal district departments and other institutions
of the Municipal Administration.
Case description:
Background
According to international studies, Vienna is one of the most attractive
business locations in Europe. These location-related qualities are based
on several factors: generally speaking, the educational levels of universities
and research institutes is very high. Vienna's workforce is considered
well qualified. The economic structure is characterised by a high share
of future-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises in the service sector.
These factors combine two seemingly contradictory tendencies: one the one hand, the opening-up of the Eastern and Central European states and their reforms to establish a market economy have placed Vienna in the immediate vicinity of particularly dynamic markets. On the other hand, the city continues to benefit from a socially, legally and politically very stable society which inspires confidence in investors. For these reasons, many worldwide corporations and international industrial enterprises have chosen Vienna as their European headquarters.
This specific geographic position and the body of know-how concerning the economies of the CEEs is to be used increasingly to boost the city's own economy.
Due to the positive results obtained so far, protecting and developing Vienna as a business location in a Europe of cities and regions remains a central task. The main points of emphasis for future development lie in three areas of sectoral specialisation: an active policy to attract enterprises will establish an industrial and research cluster in the field of telecommunication, biotechnology and medical technology. The development of urban and environmental technologies, which have already met with great international acclaim, will be speedily continued. Last but not least, the City of Vienna relies on its outstanding reputation as a centre of tourism and venue of numerous conferences.
Today cities and urban regions are fighting for relatively location-independent investors. All players have understood that urban and regional development is only possible on the basis of a prospering economy. However, this can only be achieved through a long-term, systematic strategy. The best possible qualification of the workforce, well-planned and regionally fine-tuned marketing measures and effective co-operation structures in the cities are essential to attain this goal.
The e-government projects of the Municipal Administration of the City
of Vienna, Austria's capital with 1.6 million inhabitants, have been shown
by the PRISMA project to be a good case for best practice on several levels:
two successive strategic programmes to implement e-government services
(WELCOM and eVienna),
advances in real applications of innovative service delivery,
the user centred design of its web portal wien.at,
special achievements in social inclusion, among others through multi-channel
delivery by offering Public Access Points (kiosk system).
Background - Key Factor: improved accessibility
and usability of ICT
This initiative aims to provide government services accessible to all
citizens.
Background - Key Factor: improved opportunities
for women
Some specific information is available for women eg information related
to violence and sexual abuse.
Background - Key Factor: improved support for the
elderly
Some facilities on line are available in a larger font to aid the elderly.
Background - Key Factor: improved support for the
disabled
The design of some of the services on line have taken account of the needs
of disabled people.
Background - Key Factor: improved support for ethnic
minorities
Some web pages have been offered in Serbo-Broation and Turkish.
Objectives
eVienna, the current umbrella project for e-government of the Municipal
Administration of the City of Vienna has started at the beginning of the
year 2001 with the goals of "citizen orientation, support for the
economy, and administration simplification”. It is a practical framework
for implementation of e-government solutions and is the follow-up project
of WELCOM - Wiener (Viennese) Electronic Commerce, the former umbrella
project for e-commerce and e-government applications and services. This
project had been created as a basic platform for innovative e-government
and e-commerce transaction services during the time period from January
1999 to December 2000 containing all single projects of transaction services
of the Municipal Administration of the City of Vienna (MDI Wien 2000).
WELCOM also started to offer rather early transaction services for businesses,
especially for SMEs, like electronic municipal tax return filing for trustees
of commerce, electronic business licensing, procedures for e-procurement
or billing and the delivery of forms for other business-oriented services.
Online transaction services provided for citizens include, for example,
the electronic order of a voting card and a parking sticker (the annual
parking allowance for residents of certain Viennese districts), purchasing
digital maps, and dog registration.
A fundamental part of eVienna is www.wien.at, the main web portal of the Municipal Administration of the City of Vienna. By 1997, it covered about 3000 pages and by July 2001, already about 9500. The virtual administration guide, which can be accessed from wien.at's homepage, entails "administration procedures”, PDF forms for download as well as electronic forms and contact links to administration departments. In the near future, over 30 applications are planned to be implemented, a dozen of these is online already and about 15 will be completed within the year 2001. Especially of importance is the planned online registering of residence.
This web site's offerings include a far reaching social inclusion concept by providing also special content for teenagers and women as well as for people with special needs, like the handicapped and elderly. Additionally, wien.at contains an English edition, especially created for and used by tourists and English speaking international residents. To reach even a larger number of citizens, about 50 Public Access Points, public kiosks, are offered on public places within the Viennese city area operable via touch screens. The terminals were awarded a European prize for their design in 1999.
A study conducted by an institute of the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration together with Unisys Austria among 300 businesses that was published in February 2001 showed that 65% of all Austrian businesses know the web site wien.at (IMM 2001). Current usage evidence shows that the percentage of citizens using the information service offered by wien.at is high and there is some reason to expect also a gradual increase of interest in communication and transaction services.
eVienna is especially outstanding in its realisation of multi-channel delivery. To allow access to eVienna to people who cannot afford such access, a multi-channel-delivery approach is especially important to assure the social inclusion of such “special” user groups. eVienna can indeed offer a far reaching multi-channel delivery concept. The access to the single eVienna services is provided through:
- Public Access Points (kiosks),
- · One to two call centre/s shall be built up,
- One-Stop Shops of district municipal departments,
- De-centrally established Citizen Services,
- Different electronic media – phone, fax and e-mail to contact the municipal departments, municipal district departments and other institutions of the Municipal Administration.
Resources
Public Access Points
The public Access point initiative was founded to offer free Internet access to e-government services of the Municipal Administration in public. At this moment four generations of such access points can be distinguished:
- First Generation: ELWIS (Electronic Housing
Information System)
In 1993/94 the Municipal Administration of the City of Vienna started offering public terminals for information on housing offers (ELWIS: Electronic housing Information system). - Second Generation: i4U
These terminals were developed in the framework of Infosond. Therefore, a browser had been developed by the Municipal Administration, which was sold to the private providers of the access points. This Browser had been created before the invention of the Internet Explorer. - Third Generation: Public Access Points
The Public Access Points initiative was founded in 1998. Altogether 50 Access Points have been implemented until now. Of these, by the beginning of 2001, three terminals for handicapped people (with wheel chair) were opened (by providing a trackball or a radio-mouse) and are still to be tested. All Public Access terminals are positioned in public departments, hospitals and schools, and offer voice and touch screen commands. There is also the possibility to send e-mail. The user gets the response to the e-mails through personal e-mail address or traditional mail. The service is free for all citizens. The use of a printer is only possible at the EDP-Department of the Municipal Administration, but not in other locations. The information services on these public kiosks systems are wien.at, Help.gv, job information through search function , housing offers through ELWIS, the electronic phone book of Vienna, electronic city map search and senior.online. The public access points have been developed by the joint venture APC (a Phillips and LB-data joint venture who provides the software and hardware) in cooperation with the Municipal Administration. The Public Access Points will stay as they are now for a while. Perhaps in the future they will be integrated with the City Terminals (see below). - Fourth Generation
Now there are three kinds of terminals placed in the area of the city of Vienna, all provided by the joint venture APC:- City Terminals: a private-public
partnership between the Municipal Administration and the joint venture
APC and GEWISTA. APC provides the software and hardware, and GEWISTA
provides the shell. The same Web technology as with the former generation
access points is used here. These new interactive postal pillars
are free of charge and financed through advertising (classic-outside-advertising
and out-of home -dvertising) and about 20% content partnerships,
for example with Tiscover and Wiener Einkaufsstrassen (Vienna City
Malls). The first interactive poster pillar was located on the Mariahilfer
Street, a highly frequented shopping street in the City of Vienna.
By now, there are ten city terminals located in the Vienna City
area. At the end of 2002 realisticly there will be between 150 and
200 in the area of the Vienna City. The usage of the postal pillars
works through touch screen. A mixture of content and communication
services are offered: E-government information, communication and
transaction services are offered through the services of the Municipal
Administration (wien.at) again. There is also a button for e-mail
and SMS messages. Depending highly on the location, about 90-100
users are using one city terminals per day, about 50-70 e-mails
per days are sent through one terminal. The number of SMS are even
a little bit higher.
- MultimediaStations: These are payphones
cells provided by the joint venture APC and Telecom Austria. At
the moment they are placed at nine locations within the area of
the City of Vienna: four of them within the first district (the
centre of the city), and the others on the 6th district (Mariahilfer
Straße), three in other Vienna districts, and one at the Vienna
Schwechat Airport. In 2002 the number shall grow to 30 stations.
Besides traditional telephony, other communication forms are possible:
Net surfing, e-mail, SMS, and video conferencing with simultaneaus
audio and video transmission. Further services avaialble are Internet
shopping and games. Besides “simple Internet searches”,
there are “current local establishments of local ticket odering,
including automatic account debits”. E-government services
are offered through wien.at and Help.gv. Besides the transmission
of sports events through ADSL/ISDN connection, “and integrated
Webcam makes live video telephone transmission between multimedia
stations. Another favorite feature is the taking of digital photos,
which may be sent to friends and e-mail” . The usage of these
stations costs 1 Austrian Schilling per minute. Payment can be made
by cash or credit card.
- Techno-Points: are a joint venture
between post offices and APC. The current stage is a pilot project
running with about 10 such Techno-Points.The first Post-Box, a new
integrated store at highly frequented places allowing to recive
post and fincial services by passing by, started on the Vienna Mariahilfer
Straße. By now especially for post products and service delivery,
like sending letters electronically and to be received through traditional
mail. This means that official letters can be sent via e-mail and
are then received by the addressed person by traditional mail.
Other services are: Internet information services concerning tourism and business, and e-government (wien.at), online transactions and electronic communication tools. Payment is pursued through debit card.
- City Terminals: a private-public
partnership between the Municipal Administration and the joint venture
APC and GEWISTA. APC provides the software and hardware, and GEWISTA
provides the shell. The same Web technology as with the former generation
access points is used here. These new interactive postal pillars
are free of charge and financed through advertising (classic-outside-advertising
and out-of home -dvertising) and about 20% content partnerships,
for example with Tiscover and Wiener Einkaufsstrassen (Vienna City
Malls). The first interactive poster pillar was located on the Mariahilfer
Street, a highly frequented shopping street in the City of Vienna.
By now, there are ten city terminals located in the Vienna City
area. At the end of 2002 realisticly there will be between 150 and
200 in the area of the Vienna City. The usage of the postal pillars
works through touch screen. A mixture of content and communication
services are offered: E-government information, communication and
transaction services are offered through the services of the Municipal
Administration (wien.at) again. There is also a button for e-mail
and SMS messages. Depending highly on the location, about 90-100
users are using one city terminals per day, about 50-70 e-mails
per days are sent through one terminal. The number of SMS are even
a little bit higher.
Activities
eVienna for Special Groups
Special groups had not been an extra focus at the beginning of the development and implementation of the Web portal wien.at. Between the re-launches of 1998 and 2000 there was very much progress in this regard: like, providing a special service for senior citizens. Now on wien.at’s home page there is the link “Vienna for handicapped people, women, youth and senior citizens”: ·
Senior Citizens
The special user group of senior citizens is slowly enlarging and especially
important to wien.at. There is also a certain senior link on wien.at already.
The Press and Information Service is planning to conducting a study on
senior users, e.g., what do they criticise on wien.at, what seems too
difficult to them to use wien.at, etc. Concerning the usability, for senior
citizens there exists a larger font on wien.at. There is also the already
mentioned EDEN-project SeniorOnline that is based on Web for Groups groupware
and community tools, which were adapted to the needs of senior citizens.
Online classes for senior citizens, handbooks for PC and Internet, etc.
are offered here.
Youth and Children
Wien.at’s average users are between 30-39 years old, and therefore,
one generation above the average Internet user (20-29 year olds). But
wien.at also wants to provide a service that is children and teenager-friendly.
As wien.at is especially an information service, they cannot reach so
many teenagers. What is planned are meetings with youth organisations
to have a look what the wien.at team can do for teenagers within the wien.at
responsibility. For teenagers wien.at offers under “Youth Internet
and CO” links to “understanding the Internet”, an “Internet
handbook”, information on “producing web pages”, “HTML-introduction”,
“searching tools”, as well as “Viennese schools on the
Internet”.
Also, the initiative “Wiener Bildungsnetz - Jugend ans Netz”
(Viennese Education network - Youth to the Net”) within the eVienna
project realised that by the end of 2000, 402 Viennese schools had a broadband
data network and over 6000 PCs. Until the end of 2001, 194 other youth
organisations, libraries and schools for further educations (Volkshochschulen)
were networked. In the first step in each primary class two PCs and one
colour printer were established and in secondary and other schools pro
12 classes one EDP class. In September 2000, 350 schools of the City of
Vienna had Internet access and the necessary hard- and software. This
meant that about 94.000 pupils and 9.400 teachers had access to the Internet.
Also important is here, that the administration of schools is linked
through this Viennese Education Network. There are four focuses:
School administration,
Further education for teachers (“Lehrernetz”),
Kidsnet,
Elternweb (Parentweb).
Women
For women several links are provided directly to institutions of the Municipal
Administration of the City of Vienna, like to the Women’s Office
of the Municipal Administration, and the Office for Equality, and other
departments dealing with violence or sexual violence against women or
children, women’s health, etc. Additionally, there are especially
virtual (external) links listed, like “CeiberWeiber women’s
online magazine, frauenweb.at the field of the Internet for women only
for women and other women’s networks. Finally, there are search
engines listed for special women’s concerns: FeMiNa and WWWomen!.
·
Handicapped People
Besides that wien.at offers a list of links that can be helpful for handicapped
people, with the new W3C directives for optic accessibility that will
have to be realised by wien.at, too, handicapped people are becoming even
more a special target group. For blind people, the problem of not being
able to read wien.at can be solved through the writing of the adequate
programme that is able to be read by a so called screen readers that reads
the text allowed to the user. Such screen readers are “user agents
(e.g. browsers and assistive technologies such as (as said already) screen
readers, Braille displays, etc.) to present the information to the user…Non-text
equivalents of text can also be helpful to non-readers. An auditory description
is an example of a non-text equivalent of visual information. An auditory
description of a multimedia presentation’s visual track benefits
people who cannot see the visual information”. Wien.at fulfils already
a main part of the W3C criteria explaining “how to make Web content
accessible to people with disabilities” also including the coding
rules that blind people can also “read” such content. The
new style guide that had been introduced in autumn 2001 includes all points
that had been missing before. Important is that as many browsers (1-2
earlier generations) can be covered as possible. If Web products are made
too complicated, less information for people with optic disabilities are
given. Well-done pages mean here pages with few or no graphic elements,
and navigation made not through graphic design, but through text elements.
The problem is that this is not so easily to be achieved because many
technical municipal departments tend to develop more playful and funnier
texts. As a result, the implementation of such a style guide entails a
potential of conflicts. ·
Foreign Citizens
Pages that are especially important to foreigners shall be offered in
Serbo-Croatian and Turkish. Just when this will happen is unclear. Overall,
it must be said that this group, though it is a large and growing group
living in Vienna, is still neglected.
Output and Results
The world's first interactive advertising pillar
Among the latest innovations in Vienna are Access Points, user-friendly
and easy-to-service public Internet terminals provided at 300 locations
in all parts of Vienna. Citizens can use Access Points to send e-mails
or SMS messages, order tickets or submit applications and requests (e.g.
for parking permits) to municipal authorities. Thanks to an e-cash payment
system, it will even be possible to pay the municipal fees for these applications
and services directly via the Access Point. Based on this technology,
Vienna is now introducing interactive outdoor advertising pillars. To
this end, the City of Vienna has launched a public-private partnership
with apc, the developers of the new application, and GEWISTA; a Vienna-based
media and advertising enterprise.
The first interactive advertising pillar has already been set up in Mariahilfer Strasse. The new terminal boasts touchscreen technology and bilingual software.
INFOSCREENS in underground trains
Public transport passengers in Vienna have already got used to the 33
INFOSCREENS provided in 8 underground stations throughout Vienna. So far
the screens have shortened the wait for passengers on underground platforms,
but now the new information medium is also entering the trains.
Every underground compartment is to be equipped with 6 screens. The 15-minute programme is updated continuously and features daily news, previews of cultural events, information on public transport in Vienna, short cartoons, weather forecasts and advertisements. By the end of 2001, more than 1,200 screens will be provided in the trains of underground lines U1, U2, U3, and U4.
The first library accessible via WAP
In a spectacular and unprecedented initiative, the Vienna City Library
has opened its doors to WAP technology. WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)
is a standardised protocol developed to provide a wireless Internet connection
for cell phones and similar portable devices. Since May 8, the Vienna
City Library has been the first library world-wide that can be accessed
from any WAP compatible cell phone or palmtop. More than 300,000 titles
have been made accessible. Under wap.wstlb.at/, users may search for books
and magazines in the library's catalogue and even reserve books they wish
to read at the library, although WAP does not support e-mail to date.
The Vienna City Library offers more information on the Web than most other Austrian libraries. The poster collection, comprising some 43,000 titles, and even pamphlets from the 1848 revolution have been added to the library's comprehensive catalogue of books and magazines. The catalogue of hand-written historical documents is currently being prepared for Web access. Additionally, 2,800 pages of summaries have been made available, including 17 complete exhibition catalogues, in full-text and with all pictures.
The Vienna City Library constitutes the official public library of the City and Province of Vienna. In 1999 it launched an initiative for the creation of a joint Internet platform of provincial libraries in Austria. As a result, the catalogues of all provincial libraries can be searched under www.lbb.at/. Soon this joint catalogue will also be available via WAP.
Integrating disabled persons in Vienna
Integrating disabled persons is a first priority in Vienna. Vice-Mayor
Grete Laska underlined that ATS 37 million are spent on early support
in Vienna. There are 88 inclusive nursing schools in the city and 535
schools where special needs children are included in the regular classroom.
10 specialised schools for pupils with disabilities aim at integrating
non-disabled pupils. Wiener Linien (Vienna Public Transport) policies
relate to the integration and mobility of disabled persons via the provision
of accessible busses, elevators for all underground stations and special
guiding systems. In 1999, Wiener Linien furnished more than 80 per cent
of underground platforms in Vienna with a tactile guiding system for blind
and hard of seeing passengers.
The City of Vienna will also implement special employment measures for disabled persons and aims at employing a total of 700 persons with disabilities.
Lessons and conclusions
As the fourth generation public access points ie City terminal, multimedia Stations and Techno-points are all pilot projects or projects in their starting phase no clear conclusions can be drawn by now. One lesson is that multiple public-private partnerships and joint ventures are able to develop a more far-reaching multi-channel-delivery approach. Also, the combination of different kinds of services - information, communication and transaction services – not only regarding e-government, but other areas, like entertainment, tourism, media, etc seem to be attractive. SMS as communication form seems to be especially promising. So, the traditional 3rd Generation Public Access Points by offering besides e-mailing not only, but above all e-government content is transformed into the fourth generation muli-channel delivery also meaning multi-technology and different kinds of payment, multi-service (information, communication and transaction) and multi-content approaches. Which of the newer forms of these multi-channel-delivery approaches will survive will be seen in the nearer future.
References and links
Regina Sperlich (from the PRISMA project)
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Strohgasse 45/5
Austria
A-1030 Vienna
Austria
Tel: +43 1 710 25 10/6594
Fax: +43 1 710 98 83
Email: regina.sperlich@oeaw.ac.at
References
http://www.wien.gv.at/english/
Binder E 2001, eGovernment – Activities in the City of Vienna, Vienna
MDI Wien (Magistratsdirektion der Stadt Wien EDV und Informationsmanagement), 2000, eVienna: Der Wiener Weg in die Informationsgesellschaft - Zwischenbericht, Vienna.
IMM (Abteilung Internationales Marketing & Management, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien), 2001, e-Government Studie, Vienna, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.
Further information
Best Practice - eVienna.doc - Best practice description including pictures