A few developments appear to be bubbling up in E-Government, starting with the Adam Smith Institute publishing a report critical of UK efforts to date:

“The UK’s e-government strategy is fragmented and producer driven, says Andrew Lomas, and will never deliver its full potential benefits to the public. By contrast, tiny Estonia has re-thought its government systems around the new technology – resulting in much higher online access to government services and great public satisfaction.” It calls for an IT minister to be given Cabinet level status.

Secondly, I understand that Tony Blair is going to grasp the E-Government nettle this month and launch a major policy initiative.

Of course all this gets covered in comprehensive detail in William Heath’s www.idealgovernment.com/ site.

Just came across this interesting snippet on Kablenet on Tony Blair’s webcast:

Tony Blair wants to follow up on his ‘day in the life’ website broadcast with similar online projects despite criticism that the video amounts to a propaganda exercise.

The video, released on the Number 10 website at the beginning of January 2006, was put together by an in-house production team which followed the Blair around “for some days”, a spokesperson for the prime minister told Government Computing News.

The slick three and a half minute film is claimed to offer the public an insight into the prime minister’s daily routine, but opposition MPs have criticised Blair for using a government website for issuing a political statement.

Among the clips, the video shows Blair holding a mug of tea as he addresses reporters, standing next to various world leaders and listening to home secretary Charles Clarke during a Cabinet meeting.