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Mobile Government: 2010 and Beyond White paper

Authors: Rain Rannu, Siim Saksing, Triin Mahlakõiv; Editor: Bernadett Koteles

European Union Regional Development Fund, January 2010

The paper introduces the emerging need for m-government, classifies m-government services, provides a list of existing m-government services worldwide, analyses their potential in the public sector, evaluates the needs of the public, discusses researches about m-government, and presents a discussion of challenges and benefits for m-services and recommends actions for all stakeholders.

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to understand the mobile phone as a value-adding device in government services.

In this report we use theories such as the priority matrix, long tail of social mobile etc. to develop a framework for understanding mobile technology and its engagement for m-government applications.

The report explains the purposes of m-government, classifies m-government services, provides a list of existing m-government services, analyses their potential in the public sector, evaluates the needs of the public, discusses researches about m-government, and presents a discussion of challenges and benefits that m-government carries within.

It also highlights the results of a survey about mobile technology in Estonian education system where 90 per cent of the parents rated M-Teacher service to be a useful intermediary between home and school.

Our intention is also to achieve a paradigm change in government services: from the current paradigm, wherein governments manually collect and accumulate knowledge, to a paradigm consisting of "humans," "information," and "technology," where government procedures are more transparent, engaging and fostered by integrating several levels of services.

Mobile Government: 2010 and beyond is a discursive reasoning for public sector organizations, NGOs and individuals who are planning to improve their services by applying mobile technologies.

Therefore, the report builds a framework for them to evaluate and to realize the potential of the technology in m-government.

Conclusion

Recent years have seen explosive new trends in communication, where technologies are changing the capacity and extent of contact between people.

This paper has presented in theory and statistics the value and effect that mobile devices enable for government services.

Mobile services are indeed useful to improve government, encourage citizen's empowerment and build democracy.

Trends in the world and mobile penetration support the idea that mobile phones need to be used for a change.

Global mobile penetration grew 10 fold in the last 10 years (1998-2008) and is likely to reach almost 100% by 2018. This is especially notable in China and India who will account for the most number of subscribers and will add a total of approximately 1.6 billion new subscribers in the next decade. This increase illustrates how mobiles have transformed from niche to the masses. Also Africa, were the level of progress compared to developed world can sometimes be many times lower, is approaching mobile technology more like a lifeline rather than a luxury.

As it has been stated in the report, the functions of m-government allow to reduce previous barriers and therefore, to offer equal communication to every member of the community.

Mobile phones are part of the solution to digital divide because they have several benefits over PCs, e.g., the lower cost, ability to be always on, Internet features etc.

Also, as already noticed there will be a significant shift in mobile revenues from voice to data. It is already happening in Japan and similar trends are starting to emerge in Western Europe, Korea, and North America. As we detect from the previous data, mobiles are becoming an elementary part in people's as well as government's working.

As the trend shows, the humankind is getting older, with a low birth rate, the productivity of health system is dependent on information and communication technology.

Thus, mobile technology has become an inseparable tool in the health care system. Especially in Africa mobiles are part of the medical revolution - data gathered and information transmitted with the help of SMS, not only raises awareness, prevents diseases, but saves lives. Also developed countries such as US, UK, Canada and Netherlands have noticed the benefit that mobile technology enables in the public sector.

Time-efficiency is one characteristic of mobile phones that makes it a valuable tool in such occasions where information needs to be distributed to large amount of recipients and fast reaction is crucial. Thus, mobile phones have been used during security and emergency situations all over the world, e.g., to avoid chaos SMS or GPS systems are involved during catastrophes.

As with the improvement of technology, the public area where mobiles are used is widening, this leads to a solo device where different communication devices are integrated into one.

Designers and technology specialists won't think of these things as 'phones' either - these devices will be simply lenses on the online world. Future mobile phones will function more as computers than phones. As Steve Jones, co-founder of the Association of Internet Researchers and associate dean at the University of Illinois-Chicago, has sad "By 2020 I don't think it will be so easy to distinguish between a mobile phone and a laptop. These will blend into a general 'mobile computing' category of device (for which we probably don't yet have a name)."

As the report emphasized mobile services must be created with the end user in mind. Mobile future is not about hype, it is based on the real need and purpose. The example of M-Pesa illustrated how the initial idea of the project (to provide a service that would allow borrowers to conveniently receive and re-pay loans using the network of Safaricom airtime resellers) was adopted by customers for a variety of alternative uses. (M-Pesa was re-focused and launched with a different value proposition: sending remittances home across the country and making payments.)

Mobile communication industry is still at the beginning, so the transformation is yet to come. Although a lot has been achieved, the abilities of mobile phone remain vastly underused by the average owner and evidently by the government.

Mobile applications have yet to really entrench in our lives. The report not only named reasons but explained in evidence why mobile government is essential for creating a strong public sector. We have seen before that the public appreciates new technological improvements for their everyday procedures - thus, the awareness of the benefits of mobile technology should be raised. We could read from the report that the technology life-cycle model has divided the people and organizations into early adopters, pragmatics, conservatives and laggards.

In case of both Internet and mobile technologies, governments should follow the trend of the youth and act more courageous in adopting new technologies. We can see that eventually mobile phones are less about technology and more about people, change and chance to improve personal well-being and public communication.

Recommendations:

Public and private sector together should open and develop user-centric efficient services and background for service provision

There is an increasing number of online services that are offered by public and private sector together. The public sector information and data protection, privacy and security issues have to be solved from a legal and technical perspective as well. User-focused services and service provision is needed whereas it is cost-effective together with administrative burden reduction. Whereas it is needed and possible, international standards have to be developed with a common effort of governments and private NGOs.

The type of services offered through mobile phones should be identified on the basis of cost-efficiency and public good

Some cases show that the unique advantage offered by mobile devices, mobile phones (as a technology anytime easily accessible also without specific IT skills) could be used in urgent cases (e.g. emergency) or for the convenience of the people (e.g. education, weather forecast SMS).

There has to be a clear distinction what is appropriate to be offered by the public sector and to what extent, as tax-payers money is used.

Nevertheless, it is equally important that the public sector actively uses mobile devices for public good, especially if this solution brings a change in a quality of service important for the humankind (e.g. saving lives, health care). Before introducing a new service, it is important to research, measure and evaluate the character of the service with the user-centric approach in mind.

The increase in mobile penetration can be seen as a solution for the digital divide in the rural areas and a tool for offering services for disadvantaged groups (SMS for deafs). Common actions, share of good practices and solutions could bring change.

For governments a cooperation is needed in order to identify relevant cross-border services, sharing good practices at national, regional and local level.

Active communication and interaction with the citizens (with the end users) is essential in order to introduce and implement effective policies.

Using international experiences from m-services provided by private sector and finding collaboration opportunities for the public good is a key challenge where all stakeholders have a responsibility.

Practice and theory has to be brought together with further practical and academic work to learn more about opportunities hidden in m-government.

Further Information

The Complete White Paper is available in pdf format (1379kb) from mobisolutions.com. (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Last updated: 18 May 2011

Reviews (1)

• Review By: nodo  [24/01/2011]
  A good look at the use of mobile technology around the world. While hardware and software providers are working on the newest and next gen technology, this document shows that existing technologies such as sms can contribute a great deal to society, especially from a government to citizen perspective.

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