Smart Society: From E-Government to E-Governance
Smart Society: From E-Government to E-Governance
  • Myeong Seung-hwan(shmyeong@inha.ac.kr)
  • 승인 2015.08.05 20:41
  • 댓글 0
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Myeong Seung-hwan, professor of Inha University

The current SNS society suggests the beginning of a post-information society. Although information society can make people’s lives more efficient and convenient, it may fail to address technology-driven initiatives sufficiently where government-driven ICT policies often ignore individuals’ creative and cognitive processes in response to the government’s actions.

A smart society focuses on the process of mutual communication and the incorporation of each individual’s thoughts into some social agreement. There are four major attributes of a smart society. First, mobile users deal with their mobile environments freely, facilitating environments that are “always connected” through mobile devices. Second, personalized social networks facilitate communication between individuals anytime, anywhere as a result of many smartphone users and activated social networks.

Third, ethics, trust, and fairness are some of the major values floated as new norms to dominate social activities because the public’s rights can be strengthened from large corporations to netizens, groups to individuals, and producers to consumers. Finally, a smart society can foster smart workplace environments where people can work without being limited by time or space through advanced ICT applications.

With the rise of smart society, “smart e-government” has been proposed as a new model for government in a smart society. Smart e-government is a system where cooperative governments strengthen the partnership with the private sector. Intelligent governments provide administrative services that better meet national requirements.

Transparent governments facilitate public communication, participation, and trust. People in a smart society are more active than those in an information society. As in the case of smartphones and social media, smart technologies facilitate people’s participation in their environments. In the past, it was difficult to disseminate people’s voices in spite of their ICT use. However, a smart society enables faster, real-time, and personalized communication. In particular, personalized services are one of the most representative characteristics of smart society. Not only enterprises but also governments can focus more on the provision of personalized services.

In a smart society, based on a model of future government, e-government is connected to Government 3.0 (Gov 3.0). Gov 3.0 is a national administrative system that strengthens the role of individuals by redesigning administrative methods and processes based on highly intelligent ICT applications and social connections. In Gov 3.0, the government shares information and knowledge with firms, citizens, and global communities and provides common platforms that can produce democratic value added by exchanges between members of society.

Figure 3 shows the change of e-government from Gov1.0 to Gov3.0 from the perspective of governance including the role of each actor, the goal of e-government services, and the environmental changes to ICT and demand. In the era of Gov3.0, the Internet and SNS have already established their influence as the most powerful information-sharing media in history, playing immeasurable roles in globalization, in the spread of democracy around the planet, in economic growth, and in education. Information society-style e-government systems, based on Gov2.0, constitute the phase in which the main progress consists in enabling active participation by citizens in the affairs of the government and their open communications with it. These systems are expected to upgrade gradually to Web 3.0-based Government 3.0 systems, espousing the new e-government paradigm for the next-generation society.

Figure1.  E-Governance Perspectives and Changes toward E-Governance (Gov 3.0)

 

Gov1.0

(System-Government)

Gov2.0

(E-Government)

Gov3.0

 (E-Governance)

Goal of E-Gov.

Efficiency of System

Info. Sharing & Connectivity

Open Big Data

Individual-oriented Service

E-Gov. Services

Internal & Info. Provide

Gov. Reform & Single

Portal

Platform Based My Gov. Services

Ecology of ICT

Gov. Driven & Outsourcing

Gov. Driven & Outsourcing

Gov.-Private-Citizen Partnership, Deregulation

Role of CIO

System Management

BPR, Intergovernmental

Project

Initiator of Reform

Communicator

Decision Making Initiatives

Political Elites & Gov. CEO

Gov., Professional, Public Officials

Individuals, Citizen, NGOs

Governance Process

Demand & Method for Decision Making

Political Needs

Policy Needs

Participation & Communication based on Big Data

Role of Central Government

Initiator

Contractor

Mediator

Role of Local Government

Dependent upon Matching Funds

System Building

Matching Funds

Constructing Local Gov. Portals

Local/Community Demand-based Personalized Services

Role of Entrepreneur

System Provider

New Tech. & System Application Develop

Convergent Services

Creating New Services

Role of Citizen

Info. Service User

Partly Participation

Active Participation & Voting

 

Decision Maker

Top Down Budget Allocation

Policy/Budget Control based on Performance Evaluation

Focusing on Problem Solving

Data Analysis & Vision

Demands by Paradigm Shift

Gov./National Informatization

Gov. Reform

Local Autonomy

Cooperative Partnership & E-Governance

E-governance is Organic

The traditional bureaucratic model may not be an appropriate perspective for looking at networks. Instead an anarchist orientation may adjust the way we look at governance networks. It should include a shifting the focus from static structural elements to dynamic processes, recognition of collective action as part of human nature, moving from individual networks to social ones, viewing network stability as a function of the linkages in a network, and robust ties within a network. A network is organic rather than mechanical. E-government is already organic and bureaucratic government is only one of the entities in the governance network.

E-Governance as a ‘Science and Art’

In the era of governance, e-governance should not fall in the dichotomy between ‘science’ and ‘art’. It should entail both consensus building and effective implementation, while selecting a leader good at conducting with a good governance orchestra for good performance. The management-oriented and bureaucratic e-government models are declining in popularity because of their narrow and managerial perspectives while ignoring differences among philosophies, histories, cultures, politics, and governments among countries. Advocates of e-government in the future need the capabilities to predict and analyze in a timely manner, the abilities to dialogue with and moderate between local and global clients, and philosophies for balancing democracy and efficiency.


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