Plenary meeting on the results of the CEN/ISSS eGov-Share Workshop

It is often considered axiomatic that eGovernment will be a major cost saver for governments across Europe as well as a key competitive factor. Less obvious is how existing eGovernment resources - services, documentation, standards, processes, etc. - can be used and re-used with maximum benefit for the common good, particularly across politico-administrative boundaries. Discovery of and access to services is often difficult, often for sheer lack of classification, correct terminology or missing descriptions of services (in a wide sense), but also for lack of language or other semiotic skills.

Current obstacles to widespread access to and re-use of eGovernment resources include:

• Lack of a comprehensive, yet easy to use standardized metadata schema for their description;
• Lack of easily accessible administrative terminology for use in these descriptions;
• Lack of awareness of cultural diversity issues including users' language skills and other semiotic faculties.

In consultation with experts working on European directives like PSI and INSPIRE or in IDABC projects, the CEN/ISSS eGov-Share Workshop has prepared open, vendor- and application-neutral specifications for sharing information on eGovernment resources across institutions and borders; the draft CWA on “Sharing eGovernment resources: a practical approach for designers and developers”.

Comments on the draft CWA should be sent by 19 January 2009 at the latest to the eGov-Share Secretary. After the period for public comments, eGov-Share will organise its plenary meeting in Brussels on 3 February 2009 to present its results.

During this open event, practitioners and stakeholders from all levels of government and industry will have the opportunity to discuss the specifications with the project team, to learn from the experiences of early adopters, and to give their input.

Participation in the meeting is free of charge. Registration is to be performed by sending an email to Paul van Rijsinge.

Additional information on the activities CEN/ISSS eGov-Share Workshop (including the draft CWA) may be found in the related ePractice news item at: www.epractice.eu/document/5313

Event email: Paul van Rijsinge