The European Commission’s eGovernment Action Plan considers innovations in eIdentification, interoperability and Open Source Software to be eGovernment’s key enablers. Will these initiatives make possible the efficient and correct operation of public administration eServices? What does the evidence suggest? The European Journal of ePractice looks contributions on eID, Interoperability and Open Source. The deadline for submissions is 1 October, 2008.

The developers of eGovernment services are placing increasing resources on eIdentification, or Electronic Identity Management (eIDM), in facilitating the provision of high impact services on regional, national and international levels. Successful eIDM in turn requires advances in interoperability, security, authentication and the protection of the privacy of personal data, demanding significant investment in software and systems.

There is therefore much optimism about Open Source Software (OSS) complementing proprietary solutions. It is argued that OSS can provide flexibility, collaboration, customisation and cost effective solutions. European public administrations have been among the early adopters of OSS and have been running OSS-based systems and applications since the late 1990s. What has been learned by these early initiatives? Has an evidence-base developed for guiding public choices?

Against this background, the European Journal of ePractice invites contributions that marshal empirical evidence, such as case studies, surveys or ethnographic studies of the effectiveness of OSS and other approaches to eIdentification, authentication, security and interoperability.

Have these initiatives been key enablers of eGovernment? If not, what lessons have been learned? The submissions should provide points of view of usefulness and impact as well as interesting insights into the services and their success factors. One submission may address one or several key enablers.

The following topics are given as an example:

eIdentification:

• Interoperability of eID systems;
• Authentication and eSignature mechanisms;
• Security and privacy: how to prevent the misuse of personal data;
• Mobile IDs;
• Transnational eIdentification systems.

Interoperability:

• Key success factors and/or key barriers of local and regional interoperability;
• Technical, semantic and/or organisational interoperability;
• Political, legal and structural conditions relevant for developing and using interoperable applications;
• Open Standards (usage, policy, compliance).

Open Source:

• OSS and interoperability;
• OSS impact on choice of solutions;  
• Socio-economic consequences of OSS;  
• OSS vs. proprietary software;
• Open source and custom built software;
• Open source as part of the software ecosystem.

Further information:

• European Journal of ePractice – Call for papers “Key enablers for eTransformation? eID, Interoperability and Open Source”