The European Commission defined "Making efficiency and effectiveness a reality" as one of the key policy objectives of the i2010 eGovernment Action Plan. The aim is to reduce by 2010 administrative burden and increase efficiency in public offices. Key words are high transparency, accountability and user satisfaction. In order to achieve this goal, public agencies across Europe should: a) improve their internal processes and organisational structures leveraging the potentiality of ICT and thus providing at the same time more efficient and effective services, and b) provide tangible and reliable demonstration that such impact has been produced. After several years of large public investments in ICT, in fact, the benefits must be demonstrated at organisational level.

What progress has been made both in making services provision efficient and effective and in measuring and demonstrating impacts? In the August issue of the European Journal of ePractice we want to reflect on what has been achieved and what still needs to be done. We therefore welcome different sorts of contributions: examples of good practice which may be quite descriptive (at local, regional, national and international levels); examples of initiatives which have failed (as learning from failure is often more productive than learning from success); reflective pieces which draw attention to general concerns, and theoretical essays which explain relevant concepts to understand the nature of efficiency and effectiveness in eServices.

As a general rule, all contributions should try to address both the organisational and ICT actions undertaken to improve efficiency and effectiveness in service provision, and the measurement and possibly economic valorisation of achieved impact. Contributions on measurement methodologies are naturally welcome, but their application to concrete cases would be a plus.

The issue-editor is Cristiano Codagnone.

The deadline for article submissions is 22 April, 2008.

Further information:

• European Journal of ePractice 
• Submission guidelines 
• Editor-in-Chief: Trond Arne Undheim 
• Editorial Team and article submission: Elina Jokisalo, editorial@epractice.eu 
•  i2010 eGovernment Action Plan