M-governance

From Shareideas

M-government has the possibility to extend the reach of e-government. Mobile devices, always with the user, enable government information to be reached from more places, extending the reach of the Internet. Also, in most countries, mobile penetration is at least equal to or exceeds Internet penetration, which enables government services to be reached by more people.

M-government services are complementary to e-government services in two key areas: electronic information-based services to citizens (m-administration) and new forms of electronic participation (m-democracy).

A list of m-government services includes both m-democracy services, which enhance the citizen participation in government, and m-administration services, which improve the efficiency of government agencies:

M-Democracy services

• Possibility to request information from government databases while on the move.
• Use mobile devices for access to government portals.
• Giving ideas, feedback and policy recommendations to authorities through a mobile device.
• Mobile voting and opinion polling, m-voting.

M-Administration services

• Use of mobile devices by government officials working in the field to improve their communication with the office.
• Provision of location-sensitive emergency and other time-critical public information to citizens via mobile phones.
• Provision or request of traffic information and police information about runaway criminals and stolen cars.
• Reminders to mobile about payment of government fees and possibility to pay the fees with the mobile payment system.
• Using mobiles for identifying the users of e-citizen, giving digital signatures portals (mobile public key infrastructure) etc.