Access-eGov: Accessible eGovernment embracing the Semantic Web

(PRLEAP.COM) Access-eGov (Access to e-Government Services Employing Semantic Technologies) is an IST project partially funded under the IST Programme of FP6 (eGovernment research). A consortium consisting of eleven partners from five countries (Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Greece, and Egypt) led by the Technical University of Kosice will carry out the project between January 2006 and December 2008.
Access-eGov aims at increasing the accessibility of public administration services for citizens and business users by supporting the interoperability among existing electronic and “traditional” government services. For citizens and business users, Access-eGov will provide two basic categories of services. Firstly, Access-eGov will identify -depending on the needs and context situation (location, etc.) of the user- traditional and/or e-government services (if available) relevant to the given life event (of the given citizen) or business episode (in case of businesses). Secondly, once the relevant services have been identified, Access-eGov will generate a “scenario” consisting of elementary government services. In most cases these scenarios will be probably of a “hybrid” nature –i.e. a combination of elementary traditional and e-services- which will lead to a requested outcome (e.g. to get a building permit, register a new company, etc.). Access-eGov will also provide a virtual personal assistant, who will guide the user through the scenario (reminding him/her of deadlines, providing support information, initiating e-services, etc.).
Special attention will be paid to the e-Inclusion criteria to guarantee that Access-eGov will be accessible also to disadvantaged groups of users, for which the system can be considerably beneficial. In this respect, e-ISOTIS will bring in their (web) accessibility expertise.
Access-eGov will also provide services for the public administration, i.e. service providers, and this on all levels: local, regional, national, and European. As such it will enable the easy introduction of a (new) e-service to the world of e-government interoperability.
3 distinct pilots of the Access-eGov system will be implemented and evaluated in three EU countries. The Slovakian pilot will be specified and implemented by the Kosice Self-Government Region and municipality of Michalovce City. This pilot will be focussed on the land-use and -planning and building permit, and aims at making this rather complicated process more transparent, efficient and easier to understand, hence saving time (and thus also money) for citizens and businesses. The Polish pilot will be implemented in the Silesia Region in cooperation between the Cities on Internet and City Hall of Gliwice. This pilot will focus on the registration processes of a company. The German pilot will be implemented by the State Government of Schleswig-Holstein, which will upgrade and field test an existing good practice, the so-called “Zustaendigkeitsfinder” ("Responsibility Finder"), by introducing a semantic layer (securing semantic interoperability between national and local governments). As a result, the quality of services to citizens and businesses will be improved when they will be looking for a service provided by national and/or local governments.
In addition, the German University in Cairo, thanks to its location in Egypt, will arrange a challenging test case: for example, a person with an Egyptian citizenship searching for e-government services or wanting to obtain a work permit in a EU country. It will include all tasks of an intra-European scenario plus additional challenges of language and cultural differences.
The Project consortium, in addition to the partners mentioned before, includes also the University of Regensburg, Germany; Intersoft, a.s., Slovakia; EMAX S.A., Poland; and e-ISOTIS, Greece.
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For More Information, please contact:

Access-eGov Project Coordinator:
Assoc. Prof. Tomas Sabol
Tel.: (+421 55) 602 32 59
Fax: (+421 55) 602 32 58
Faculty of Economics
Technical University of Kosice
B. Nemcovej 32, 042 00 Kosice, SLOVAKIA
contact@accessegov.com


The Access-eGov project started on 01/01/2006 and will end on 31/12/2008. For extra details, you can also visit the project’s website: www.accessegov.org.

e-ISOTIS (Information Society Open To ImpairmentS) is a non-profit making organisation founded in December 2002, working with People with Disabilities, Elderly, their spouses as well as members of the ICT (Information Communication Technology) community, worldwide. Currently, its associated members represent 350.000 people with impairments, located in European countries.
e-ISOTIS’ scope is to ensure that people with disabilities, elderly and their families are fully involved in the preparations and activities in line with the slogan "nothing about people with disabilities without people with disabilities". By supporting People with Disabilities and elderly, e-ISOTIS aims at assisting its members in overcoming the existing barriers and experiencing an Information Society that opens up new opportunities for development, prosperity and quality of life.

For More Information, please contact:
Mrs. Zoe Apostolopoulou
e-ISOTIS
40 Klitaimnistras
Athens 131 22
Greece
Phone:+30 210 2693760
Fax:+30 210 2693775
info@e-isotis.org


Date of release: 24/02/2006
This press release was brought to you by Access-eGov (www.accessegov.org)

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