Web2.0과 컨버전스 환경특성을 반영한 I-Government 구축방안 연구 = A Study on I-Government as the Next e-Government Model, Reflecting the Characteristics of Web 2.0 and Convergence

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Ⅰ. Research Background and Purpose □ Background Web 2.0 and Convergence have together emerged as buzzwords with the advance of the Information Age, and many countries, including advanced nations, are making an all-out effort to reflectthese trends within the context of e-Government strategies in order to improve national competitiveness. Up until now, Korea`s national informatization strategy has achieved outstanding success due to the Korean government`s clearly-drawn goals and its road map for each stage of e-government development. It is no exaggeration to say that Korea is leading the global e-Government movement. However, Korean e-Government has been too focused on constructing hardware and infrastructure for the sake of government efficiency, revealing its limitations in terms of realizing its democratic values such as citizen participation. Hence, some argue that perhaps it is time to transform the existing e-Government development strategy that is very government focused, into a more citizen-based style. The recent incredible transformation in information and communication technologies has brought about a variety of changes throughout politics, government administration, social movements, and private sector management. This also makes it hard to draw a line between customers and producers, as their roles are increasingly becoming blurred via ever-growing interactions between these two groups. Given this backdrop, government requires a new e-Government strategy to reflect these social and technical changes. The current government that launched its administration under the flag of national advancement needs to recognize current ICT-enabled socio-political changes, and it needs effectively to address these issues. In order to achieve this objective, the current Lee Myung-bak government ought to implement a new e-Government strategy that embraces the features and associated values of Web 2.0 and Convergence technologies. In other words, the government should take advantage of the tenet of Web 2.0, i.e. participation, openness, sharing, cooperation, communication and so on, in order to realize the de facto partnership between government and civil society. It also needs to identify appropriate roles and tasks for the diverse actors involved in Korean e-Government in accordance with its governance philosophy. □ Research Purposes In this context, this study attempts to put forward a policy orientation and recommendations for e-Government in the age of Web 2.0 and Convergence. The next e-Government model that this study proposes is a so-called `Intelligent Government (I-Government)`. This study further aspires to offer wide-ranging policy agendas and strategies for I-Government. II. Main Research Questions and Analysis Results The course of this research is divided into four stages. The first stage entails a rigorous literature review in relation to the next e-Government model and I-Government. The second stage investigates current e-Government conditions and reviews international e-Government trends. The third stage encompasses a Delphi survey and an in-depth interview that was conducted with government officials, experts, and people who work for e-Government related business sectors. The final stage uses research findings to outline policy implications for the future of Korean e-Government and national informatization. For empirical studies such as the Delphi survey and in-depth interviews, it develops three new perspectives, the self-styled 3-I`s:Interactive Government, Informative Government, and Integrated Government. It then outlines I-Government policies such as advanced future models of e-Government based on these 3-I`s that encompass Web2.0 values of participation, sharing and cooperation. The methodology utilized in this study includes a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, including a literature review, expert-brainstorming, in-depth interviews, and a Delphi survey, plus a number of seminars. It sketches a series of future e-government strategies and policy agendas for enhancing public confidence in government and outlines the next model of e-Government, that is, I-Government. The primary findings from Delphi and in-depth Interviews of IT Professionals may be summarized as follows. First of all, the issues and limits of the current e-government are identified (see Table 1). Findings from the analysis of the current government`s level of reflecting values of Web 2.0 and convergence are as follows: (a) Participation and sharing is around the same level; (b) Cooperation among governments has been evaluated as relatively poor (c) Legal regulations have been generally evaluated as lacking convergence. Next, possible obstacles in the way to I-government are identified via expert Delphi analysis as follows: ㆍ Integrated government perspective: conflicts over the leadership for integrating departments, imbalance in the subjects of federal/local project and budgets, absence of integration with private systems, unnecessary process and inefficiency of administration ㆍ Interactive government perspective: conservative attitude of the government toward participation and openness, decline of citizen participation due to real-name policy for information protection reasons, limitation in legally protecting identity of those who report ㆍ Information government perspective: absence of trust between government, public and companies, insufficient information sharing and lack of standardization across government departments Findings from the in-depth interview of experts imply that there are two different views with regard to the future orientation of e-Government. Some experts believe that e-government should be consciously managed as a major government agenda, whereas others believe that it should be managed as an ordinary project into its normal track. However, they are in agreement with regard to the visions and objectives of future e-Government;that is, future visions of the next electronic government could be epitomized as `an intelligent government` that provides citizen-centered and integrated public services. This intelligent government calls for an acknowledgment that there should be no discrepancy between offline and online governments and that there should be integration of the system by strengthening via standardization andrestructuring government organizations in terms of efficiency of services and the creation of values. In addition, it is necessary to manage and improve policies that reflect the changes led by Web 2.0 and convergence within law and policies. As for the level of current e-Government from 3I perspectives, the results are as follows: first of all, integrated government marks 2.7 points, interactive government marks 3.9 points, and information government and intelligent government marks 3.7 points. Therefore, the current e-government gets its highest score in “interactive government” and its lowest in “integrated government”. The experts who participated in in-depth interviews point out the significance of government endeavors in order to realize the visions and objectives of future I-Government; i) fostering and expanding incentives to encourage public participation, strengtheninggovernment feedback to enhance efficacy of participation, and obliterating regulations that hinder citizen participation ii) reviewing and reorganizing the classification system of civil administration to achieve customized service for the public; iii) integrating the scattered information system operated by each department; iv) facilitating wider private and public partnerships v) improving thenational database structure for seamless information flow across the nation. In this regard, future I-government should be carried out in the framework of “cooperative governance” between government and civil society. Ⅲ. Policy Implications and Recommendations Based upon the research findings andresults of analysis, this study draws policy implications and recommendations for I-Government. In a nutshell, implementation strategies for I-Government are described in detail. As for “Interactive government”, the government needs to improve the participatory channel between citizens and government. In addition, it also needs to set up a public service strategy to represent the voices of citizens in the government decision-making processes, along with a well-built protection mechanism for personal information. As for “Informative government”, it calls for delivering customized information services and extensive information sharing across the government and the society as awhole. In order to strengthen cooperation among government departments, the integration of on/offline channels should be in place in order to invigorate “Integrated government”. This study is significant in that it attempts to delineate the future e-Government model that epitomizes characteristics of Web 2.0 and Convergence technologies and to offer policy strategies for putting the model into practice. By doing so, one might argue that a major contribution of the study is that it broadens the scope of existing e-Government studies.