European project providing e-government services through a single point-of-access is completed

Greece (SANEPR.com) March 17, 2009 -- • Is your organisation interested in offering online public services?
• Do you want to increase the value of your electronic or non-electronic government service for service consumers, e.g. citizens and businesses?
• Are you working in a public administration or are you providing public administrations with e-government services?

If you answered yes to any of these questions there is a high probability that you will be interested in the products of Access-eGov.

Access-eGov (Access to e-Government Services Employing Semantic Technologies) is a project co-funded by the European Commission under FP6. The project has contributed answers the above questions and developed tools to approach a one-stop e-government shop. For example, if you want to get married, build a house, establish an enterprise or receive some other complicated service from the government (or more usual from several government institutions), you will have to pay attention to quite a few administrative requirements that need to be met in advance: you have to get and fill in different forms from different offices, obtain and hand in the required documents and certificates. But what is the process you need to follow? Where do you need to go? Whom should you contact? Which documents and forms are needed for each step of the process and where can you get them? How much does it cost?

Access-eGov is an online e-government platform supporting the integration of government services, including frequently occurring “hybrid” scenarios in which a citizen is offered some services online while others are only available offline. Access-eGov guides the user through the process in a step-by-step manner in order to complete the desired action. It directs each step to a service and always takes into account the “context” and the personal needs of the user (e.g. place of residence), while it provides useful information (e.g. responsible officer, fees, required documents).

The project has carried out research and developed products in order to achieve the e-government platform. After two successful pilots in three different countries, the users’ feedback gathered was mostly positive, with citizens (the end users of the products) congratulating the approach. During the past three years, reports, IT architectures and software products have been developed. All outcomes are now offered to any interested party within the wider public. Access-eGov software products are free to use and are provided as open source products licensed under the General Public License (GPL). The products can be used or extended by any interested party, while the Access-eGov consortium can provide useful guidance on employing the Access-eGov approach based on its extensive experience.

Links to the three pilot applications:

1. Building permit (in Slovak and English)
http://esprit.ekf.tuke.sk:8080/aeg-client2/static/sk/index_sk.html
http://esprit.ekf.tuke.sk:8080/aeg-client2/static/sk/index_en.html
2. Getting married (German & English)
http://www.persoenlicherassistent.de/
3. Establishing a company (Polish and English)
http://147.232.5.49:8080/aeg-client2pl/static/gli/index.html
http://147.232.5.49:8080/aeg-client2pl/static/gli/index_eng.html

For more Information, please visit the project website www.accessegov.org where you can find all public project deliverables and more information about the project. Should you wish to find out more about the project, do not hesitate to contact:

Alexis Gizikis
info@e-isotis.org
ICT Consultant
e-ISOTIS (Main Office)
61 Aiantos & Athinas St.
Athens 131 22
Greece
Phone: +30 210 2693760
Fax: +30 210 2693775