2013年6月18日 星期二

Dubai eGovernment ready for smart government

Dubai eGovernment Department (DeG), has announced its readiness for transformation into a smart government in line with the initiative of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Ahmad bin Humaidan, Director-General of Dubai eGovernment, announced the department's commitment to the instructions of Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council.

He said: “Shaikh Mohammed’s initiative is based on the leadership’s keenness on customer satisfaction through round-the-clock government services using the latest technologies based on a clear understanding of their needs, while leveraging the mobile phone; which has become one of the most widespread devices in the RFID tag.”

According to the latest Google study, he said the UAE is in the lead worldwide with 62 per cent smartphone penetration rate and 18 per cent growth rate annually.

Bin Humaidan added: “We hereby confirm our full readiness to respond to the requirements of the new stage, which is an extension to the eTransformation of eGovernment that we began 13 years ago. Together, with our government partners, we have already developed many applications that represent a starting point for the provision of more creative applications, thanks to our unique experience of leading the first eGovernment in the region.

We will support our partners with a modern infrastructure, a secure unified government information network, sophisticated platforms and government resources planning systems that are currently being used by 42 Dubai government entities for managing their internal resources in a highly efficient manner. In addition, we have shared services that are optimised by these entities for providing their services to the public. These services are enablers that will inevitably integrate with the requirements of achieving the smart government’s objectives.”

The coming stage will witness a creative competition for providing smartphone applications, Bin Humaidan continued, noting that the most successful of these applications would be those which provide integrated and easy to use eServices to customers, enabling them to implement these services via their mobile phones without the need to visit the concerned government entities, thereby easing their daily transactions with the government.

Customers will be satisfied only if these apps provide integrated services so this will require further coordination between government entities and the private sector.

Bin Humaidan urged the government entities to provide applications that have easy to use features and to focus on meeting customers’ needs by arranging homogenous services in one application instead of focusing on increasing the number of applications and repeating the information contained in them.

As for implementing the transformation into smart government, he said: “We have recently launched My ID initiative, which will allow customers a unified access to all the eServices provided by Dubai government entities via smartphones or the Internet by means of only one identification that eliminates the need for customers to register with each government entity separately. The initiative, which makes use of the ID card issued by the Emirates Identity Authority, will actually be put into operation in October this year.”

Dubai eGovernment has begun to implement Sheikh Mohammed’s initiative using three major tracks; namely: activating all eServices via smartphone apps; creating new mGovernment services and finally inviting government entities to devise unified mobile strategies for transformation into smart government.

Dubai eGovernment currently has a package of smartphone apps and mobile services including mPay for mobile payment of government services and fees; mDubai for most used government services, eComplain tracking, government news and information; and SMS Dubai for SMS based services between customers and Dubai government.

From web-connected TVs, child-monitoring systems and medical gear to smart cars, clothes and store sensors that track customers, billions of gizmos -- collectively dubbed "the Internet of things" -- already routinely gather and share information on people, often without their knowledge.

Some experts fear we are fast approaching a technological tipping point, where it's becoming impossible to hide from snooping devices. Essentially we are being watched all the smart card, by everyone from the corner coffee shop to retailers to insurers to Internet companies. And they can use that data to stitch together a detailed portrait of you.

"Consumers already are able to use their mobile phones to open their car doors, turn off their home lights, adjust their thermostats, and have their vital signs, such as blood pressure, EKG, and blood sugar levels, remotely monitored by their physicians," the agency noted in a news release.

The transmission of that data, or for example, electronic banking and credit card statements, could easily be intercepted or monitored, many experts say. Hackers, who can rifle through the data on other people's computers and turn on their computer cameras to spy inside their homes, are another concern.

The Washington Post and Guardian newspapers disclosed last week that the National Security Agency has been collecting Internet data under a top-secret program dubbed PRISM. While federal officials insist it wasn't aimed at anyone in the U.S., others fear that information from people in this country could have been scooped up in the surveillance effort.

One of the biggest worries is what happens to the massive amount of data retailers clandestinely gather on customers, through devices that monitor everything from their buying habits to their movements in stores. Some of that information can be highly personal. The New York Times reported last year that Target assigns women shoppers "a pregnancy prediction" score based on their purchases, which is used to guess if they're expecting and how far along their pregnancy is, so that appropriate products can be marketed to them.

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