European Integration studies 2008.indd
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ISSN 1822-8402 EUROPEAN INTEGRATION STUDIES. 2008. No 2
E-CITIZEN’S CONCEPT AND INITIATIVES IN KAUNAS REGION
Ligita Valalyt
K stutis Kriš i nas
Kaunas University of Technology
Institute of Europe
Abstract
This paper aims to answer the question “What does a concept of the e-Citizen consists of in Kaunas
region and why?” Generally the concept of the e-Citizen is directly related to the vision of eEurope, i.e.
with all to the development of eEurope directed actions, which are highly attended of European Union
in recent years. Analyzing the e-Citizen’s subject, it is essential to examine the issue of e-service, because
the e-Citizen’s vision is shaped by using e-service concept, which aims to involve every citizen, family,
school, enterprise and administration in the digital era. The research problem includes e-Citizen’s
concept and the initiatives in Kaunas region, thus highlighting the interaction between dimensions of
e-Services and e-Citizen, also both why those initiatives are required and what is an outlook in this range
for Kaunas region.
The main task is to answer the question concerning e-Citizen’s concept by analyzing the e-Initiatives
in Lithuania and Kaunas region. These e-Initiatives are underlying goals of eEurope and i2010. The aim
of the research is to module the picture of Kaunas e-Citizen and show a value of mentioned initiatives for
the inhabitants of Kaunas region by analyzing the implemented and continuing e-Region’s projects.
Keywords:
e-Citizen; Kaunas e-Region; the Strategy plan of e-Kaunas; e-Europe; i2010; e-service;
e-Government; e-learning; e-health; e-security; e-culture.
Introduction
Today nobody has a doubt about wide spread
of IT to all areas of social life, infl uencing the
interactions between citizens and government, legal
and political processes between them (O. Bar kut ,
A. Mikalauskien , R. Skyrius, 1999). Today‘s
government is oriented to the society that successfully
applies available resources of information and
knowledge. The development of electronic services
(hereinafter – e-Services) is one of the aspects
revealing such a situation. The topic of e-Services
is analysed by both, Lithuanian and foreign authors,
widely. R. Gudauskas (2000), T. Talandis (2004), J.
Aleknavi ius (2001; 2003), K. Andrijauskas (2007),
D. Dzemydien , R. Naujikien , (2007) wrote about
e-Services. In his research M. Asgarkhani (2005)
emphasizes the worth and effi ciency of the public
e-Services, inducting social, cultural and ethical
impact on the citizens. A. Ancarani (2005) widely
studied the quality of e-Services paying attention
to the increasing of transparency, productivity and
effi ciency of e-Services in the public sector mostly.
While A. Sahai, J. Ouyang, V. Machiraju, K. Wurster
(2000) examined the creation of e-Services’ system
for meeting demand of business sector. S. Croom,
R. Johnston (2003) analysed the issue of e-Business
development. R. T. Rust and P. K. Kannan (2003)
analysed e-Services as the development of business
opportunities. G. Piccinelli, C. Preist, C. Partolini
(2001) highlighted “business-to-business” (B2B)
interactions, where e-Services were analysed as
the decision of implementation of the new services
of business. Whereas L. Aversano and G. Canfora
(2002) designed models for the introduction of
e-Services to the business processes, i.e. models the
processes, services and composition of processes,
and on the basis of IT generates models of labor fl ow
and interaction with available services. R. T. Rust,
K. N. Lemon (2001) analyzed the critical aspects
of e-Services for the effi cient interaction with the
consumers. J. M. Field, G. R. Heim, K. K. Sinha (2004)
oriented to the development of the model of quality
assessment and management of e-Services. D. Gefen,
D. W. Straub (2003) highlighted the most important
differences between B2C e-Services and traditional
services provided to the customers online. Moreover,
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ISSN 1822-8402 EUROPEAN INTEGRATION STUDIES. 2008. No 2
consumer confi dence in e-Services was investigated.
An assumption can be made that analyzed topic is
multidisciplinary, because it is an object of interest
of the researchers of social and technical sciences.
Rapid globalization processes and the creation of
information society have a new weight on information
and innovations (especially technical). Technology
progress is one of the most signifi cant factors on
the economical growth at the moment. Scientifi c
problem: what are the most important initiatives
creating the e-Citizen concept in Kaunas region?
What perspectives could be supposed? Novelty of
the problem is revealed through the development
of e-Services initiatives, which determine structural
changes, competitive advantage and economic growth
in Kaunas region.
Research aim – to highlight e-Citizen‘s concept
and initiatives in the Kaunas region, in purpose
evaluating the perspectives.
Research tasks:
To defi ne the term of 1. e-Services;
To give 2. eEurope vision;
To evaluate the situation of 3. e-Services in Li-
thuania and Kaunas region;
To characterize the impact of 4. e-Citizen‘s ini-
tiatives and perspectives in the Kaunas regi-
on.
Research object: e-Citizen‘s concept and
initiatives.
Research methods: analysis of the EU legal
acts and specifi c literature, and contemplation of the
perspectives of initiatives of the Kaunas region.
The term of electronic services
T. Talandis (2004) notices wide spectrum of
e-Services and proceedings, including new business
models, public administration methods, new media
types and new economical and political relationships.
According to the legal website EUROPA (2002),
E-Service is a service or resources online, improving
communication among citizens, business and
European institutions. J. Aleknavi ius (2001) notices
that e-Service is a service which fulfi ls targets, deals
with the problems or transfers data and is provided on
the web. Citizens, businesses and other e-Services can
use e-Services. They can be provided through various
devices of information. (J. Aleknavi ius, 2001).
Public service includes communication of
citizen or business unit with public institution. (e.g.,
inquiry and answer to the question, fi lling of various
documents, submission, accounts...) (J. Aleknavi ius,
2003). Public e-Service gives an opportunity to
perform various needed operations and get information
digitally to a person in the place of his occurrence and
trough the public networks of computers. Provision
of public e-Services is evaluated on the basis of
maturity models (K. Andrijauskas, 2007). Services
of the fi rst phase – mean a provision of information
(D. Dzemydien , R. Naujikien , 2007). Second phase
includes original information and explanations, and
the help on any public e-Service online. In virtual
setting document forms, which could be printed
and fi lled, are accessible. When transferring public
e-Services to the third and fourth maturity phase, the
problems of natural and legal persons’ identifi cation
in the government’s information systems should be
solved and the connection of the public administration
redesigned. Such a strategy is scheduled of the
development of the public administration till the year
of 2010 (D. Dzemydien , R. Naujikien , 2007).
Picture1. E-Services classifi cation and users
(formed by L. Valalyt , 2008)
Vision of electronic Europe
Recently, the EU institutions pay attention to the
development questions of information considerably. In
March in the year of 2000 European Council confi rmed
the initiative “Electronic Europe – information society
for everyone (e-Europe)” (eEurope 2005 Action Plan,
2005). The aforementioned eEurope initiative is
designed on the basis of nowadays policy. The initiative
purpose is to reduce the differences of access to the
internet and its usage of the member sates, and to fi nd
common decisions of problems as well. The main aim
of e-Europe is to involve every citizen, family, school,
enterprise and administration institution to the digital
era; to create computer sophisticated Europe that is
sponsored by cultured, ready to fund and develop
ideas business; to ensure that process will be socially
attractive, encourage consumer confi dence and
strengthen social cohesion. In order to eliminate or
reduce the barriers, the directive INSPIRE (2007/2/
EC), which aim is to develop essential spatial data, was
initiated; to harmonize data according to the common
standards; to create metadata and administration; to
exchange national spatial data between governmental
institutions in the territory of Europe (Commission
Communicate…, 2008). The aforementioned directive
is valuable, because allows reaching information for
the society and other stakeholders; equalizes formats
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ISSN 1822-8402 EUROPEAN INTEGRATION STUDIES. 2008. No 2
of spatial information and it’s presenting; establishes
periodicity of updating of spatial information;
implements the means of spatial information analysis
and it’s presentation in various layers; due to the
occurrence of the coordination of common actions
(K. Andrijauskas, 2007). According to the USA
experience, new technologies can accelerate growth
and create new job places, because of the fact that in
the companies providing internet services work about
2.3 million direct employees, apart the impact to the
non-direct employment that is 1.6 million (eEurope,
2005).
The main parts of E-Europe that form the picture–
vision of eEurope are the following:
E-Learning is a mean for organization of internal and external trainings for the workers,
providers, business partners, pupils or students. The following method extends the organization
opportunities of trainings, saves working hours and reduces the training, administration and
communication costs.
E-Business – is a purchase and sale online. E-Business could be divided into two parts – a
purchase and a sale. B2C is sales, while B2B includes electronic transfer of data (purchase
and sales). Systems of B2E exist as well. Many companies are looking for the decisions for
all three types of transactions.
E-Health includes means with main purpose to facilitate communication between patients
and doctors; to improve the level of health services in the member states. The bigger part of
electronic means is initialized in order to tackle with the existing problems (e.g. long queues
near reception desk, lack of information on some illness) (A. Rapolevi i t , 2007).
E-Government can be understood as the government that is available in the electronic space,
and its government function is implemented trough IT. E-Government is one of the means
used to improve the quality of society and government communication; to modernize a
governance; to implement the reform of state while adapting to the requirements of knowledge
society successfully (M. Kiškis, A. Kraujelyt , 2006).
When creating E-Europe, a few problems
were found: expensive, insecure, slow connection
of the internet and E-Commerce; citizens’ lack of
information for the usage of ICT; lack of the dynamic
business and services provided; unsatisfactory active
governmental sector that could give new opportunities
for the development of the new programs and services.
In June of the year 2002 European Commission
formulated the action plan “E-Europe 2005:
information society for everyone”, according which
an access to the infrastructure of broadband network
and development guidelines of provided E-Services
is given for everyone (e-business, e-learning;
e-inclusion; e-health) (eEurope 2005 Action Plan,
2005).
In June of the year of 2005 the i2010 umbrella
EU strategy of ICT development, which extended
the initiatives of E-Europe, was confi rmed. i2010
is concentrated to the convergence of the industry
of telecommunications, providers of the internet
services and content industry, e.g.: media’s depolarize
(Commission Communicate ...., 2005). The most
signifi cant EU documents related with E-Europe are
showed in the 2nd fi gure.
eEurope 2002
eEurope +
2003
eEurope 2005 i2010
Accent:
access
Accent:
content
Aim:
knowledge/
availability
Aim:
motivation,
skills, trust
Accent:
transformation,
convergence,
competitiveness
Measurement:
readiness,
quantity
estimation
Measurement:
intensity,
quantity
estimation
Measurement:
impact, scatter of
good practices
Figure 2. EU policy when developing information
society (Strategy on the creation of information
society, 2005)
Situation of e-Services in Lithuania and
Kaunas region
LR Home Offi ce research (2008) indicated that
maturity index of public E-Services for citizens –
51 %. Only 5 of 26 services are provided maximally:
tax return and consultation on incomes and property;
search of free work places, etc. The Committee of
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information society to the LR Government (2007)
presents data revealing that 66 services are transferred
to the electronic space in Kaunas region, i.e. 45 %
of all services. LR Home Offi ce research (2008)
indicated that the common maturity index of the public
services to business is 62 % and exceeds the common
maturity index of public services to citizen, which is
51 %. Only 6 of 16 public services are provided to
business maximally (taxes declaration; pay back and
pay customs, etc.). It is obvious that most of public
services are not provided in an ultimate level and only
a few of them meet the requirements of the fi fth level.
When comparing the transfer of the public services
for business, European tendencies predominate in
Lithuania – the public services for the business are
transferred much faster than for citizens. Only 5 of
20 public services for business and citizens scheduled
on the EU directives are transferred to the electronic
space. Today, in Lithuania about 70 % of public
sector services are transferred to the E-Government,
average of EU – 75 %, Estonia – 90 %. It is scheduled
that till the year of 2010 all the member states
provide 12 e-Government services for citizens and 8
e-Government services for business.
Electronic declaration system (lt. - EDS) – the
project of the State Tax Inspectorate was awarded
with the “Good practice” label of the year of 2007 (the
ePractice.eu Good Practice label is only given to 10%
of the cases published on the web portal). Lithuanian
Labor Exchange website was awarded in the year of
2007 in the category of e-Government as “The best
e-content project” in Vilnius (IVPK, 2007).
Good conditions and necessity to implement
e-City project are in Kaunas region. In the Kaunas
strategic plan (2004) the main accent is given to
the intensive education of information society and
development of the knowledge based economy,
ensuring the competitiveness of Kaunas region. All
the aforementioned actions will make public life of
city much more effective and convenient. All the
conditions for e-City development are in Kaunas
region – citizens’ abilities to use IT; strong intellectual
potential of IT and telecommunications, mechanics,
electrotechnics and pharmacy in the universities,
structures of business; compact city; developed
infrastructures of IT and telecommunications. The most
signifi cant factor stopping e-City development is the
absence of e-Content (e-Content consist of e-Banking,
e-Business, e-Communication, e-Government;
e-Information, e-Health and e-Transport sectors).
In Kaunas city, like in all the country, e-Banking
services expand widely and the number of the users
of these services grows as well. E-Business segment
developed services for the citizens incompletely but
between enterprises e-Business is used on a mass
scale. E-Communication is one of the reasons for
the usage of the internet. In Kaunas city, like in other
Lithuania’s municipalities, e-Government sector has
made a signifi cant progress during the last several
years. E-Information is rapidly spreading part of the
e-Content. It can be simply uploaded to the internet
and is frequently searched of citizens. Kaunas has
perfect conditions to be the e-Health leader, because
medical services for the citizens of all the country
are provided in Kaunas, moreover, it has a strong
potential of medicine and pharmacy. E-Transport
sector has done a progress – an e-Ticket, which is
the fi rs step to the presentation of the city’s e-Citizen
card, ensuring the effi ciency and practical services
of the public transport for citizens, was presented.
Due to the universality of the city’s e-Card, private
sector’s integration to the development of the e-City
can be reached and education of information society,
and attractiveness of the city ensured.
Since the year of 2003 under the triangular
agreement among Kaunas municipality, Kaunas
city and Tampere city (Finland) the project “Kaunas
e-Region” has been started to be implemented by the
municipalities. R. Gatautis and V. Pukas (2007) notice
that this program was developed due to the support
of Phare 2001. The results of the aforementioned
support were the research of the viability of e-Kaunas
region; current situation analysis and planning of
the most signifi cant future goals in six areas (see
Figure3). Tampere model was used as the guidelines
of developing program of Kaunas e-Region.
Picture 3. The complex of projects that were
implemented in Kaunas region (Partnership
Program of Information Society, 2004)
The general objectives of the project are to
enhance the process of Lithuania’s integration to
the EU (eEurope dimension); to create a partnership
between Kaunas and Tampere regions for the strategic
development of Information Society (eTampere); to
contribute to the sustainability of the development
of Information Society in the whole Baltic region
(eNorth dimension). The main results of the projects
are the following: Feasibility Study of Kaunas
eRegion; Partnership Program of Information Society
of the Kaunas region; Subroutines of implementation
model of the Kaunas eRegion (see Table 1).
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A. Andr nas (2003) notices that Kaunas
municipality has started the fi rst transaction of
electronic self-government implementation in
autumn of the year of 2001 (Pilot project “Interactive
map of Kaunas investment” (http://www.kaunas.lt/
kim); “Model of spatial consulting-room”; e-self-
Government conception; analysis of public services
provided by Kaunas municipality). A. Lukoševi ius
(2004) notices that Kaunas using available potential
and experience of international partners has a chance
to be the leader of e-Health (e-cluster of e-Health is
noticeable). Kaunas territory map of business is made
and supervised by the park of high-technologies of
information of Kaunas and funded by the Kaunas
municipality as well. The aforementioned website is
an interactive online system of the search and analysis
of the geographic and objective information, including
whole the areas of the performance of enterprises and
whole enterprises of the Kaunas region (LR Ministry
of Economy, 2007).
Table 1. Objects of the initiatives of Kaunas
eRegion (L. Valalyt , 2008)
E-Democracy E-Business e-Infra
To strengthen
the processes
of democracy
by providing
information of the
decision making
processes via the
Internet to the
public and increase
interactivity
between decision
makers and
citizens.
To improve
business skills of
the information
society,
especially
between SME-
companies,
and create the
ecosystem for
the support of
innovations.
To create the
infrastructure
that supports the
development of
the information
society. It must
be reliable,
easily accessed,
speedy and low
cost.
E-Health E-Municipality E-Abilities
To improve health
care and make it
more cost/effective
by utilizing ICT
in all the levels of
healthcare system.
Public services
should be
provided
electronically
and together
with the private
sector. The
aim is the
quality and cost
effective service
production.
To make sure
that all the
citizens have
skills, access
and motivation
in order utilize
the services of
Information
society fully.
Schools
should utilize
eLearning
possibilities
whenever it is
appropriate for
the learning and
instruction.
According to the e-Kaunas strategic plan for the
period of 2006 – 2015 (2006), e-Kaunas is defi ned as
the competitive European and global world city, where
IT usage is associated with daily actions, giving much
bigger benefi t to the society and business. In the end of
the year of 2007 the idea of introduction of e-Citizen
card in Kaunas was pronounced. This card is one part
of e-Kaunas project. The aim of the aforementioned
initiative is to facilitate settlements that are less than
200-300 Lt. A. Ba ili nas (2007) notices that Kaunas
inhabitants have had an e-Ticket for the settlements
of public transport (initiative was completed) in the
fi rst phase. In the second phase much wider packet of
services is introduced i.e. more settlement functions
are incorporated into the card. The authors of the
project work with the Kaunas website as well, i.e.
the internet portal about the events of Kaunas region,
provided various services, business institutions and
private sector, science institutions, etc. The project
e-Kaunas includes municipality and the transfer
of the municipality companies to the e-Space. This
eKaunas project would get near 300 mln. Lt hopefully.
EKaunas (ID, e-Signature; e-Commerce, e-Tickets in
transport, theater, e-Public utilities (data of accounts,
settlements), e-Studies book, driving license, e-Social
insurance. The competence centre of the e-Services
project of Kaunas public company “Technopolis”
that main aim is to create the public infrastructure
enabling the development of e-Services for the small
and medium enterprises and public sector is between
15 best implemented projects of the EU.
Today, projects related with the e-Citizens concept
are implemented in Kaunas region. The creation of
the system of electronic ticket for the public transport
and passengers’ information. One of the project
partners is Kaunas municipality (19 494 850.80 Lt).
Vytautas Magnus University is implementing the
project “Mean of information translation online” (5
585 600.00 Lt). The aim of the project is the creation
of means for online machine translation from English
into Lithuanian and the exploration of the service of
free machine translation in the websites by invoking
available specialists of the Lithuanian language,
cumulating Lithuanian resources and “know-how”
from the international hegemonic, and IT companies in
range of machine translation. The project “The system
of patient registration in advance” (7 350 378.00 Lt),
despite the fact that this project is implemented by the
public company Santari k s clinic of the Hospital of
Vilnius University, the main partners of the project
are from the Kaunas region (6 partners). The main
purpose of this project is to create the system of
patient registration in advance, which integrates the
separate registration system of the medical institution.
The project “Broadband network of information
technology of rural area RAIN” (73 676 946.15 Lt)
is implemented in all the territory of Lithuania. The
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main object is to provide the broadband access for all
the rural public administration institutions, hospitals,
laboratories, schools, museums, libraries, public
internet access points and also for the rural residents
and business companies. The project “E-Health
services” (19 077 834.00 Lt) is implemented as well,
despite the fact that this project is implemented by
the LR Ministry of Health, one of the most important
partners is Kaunas Clinic of Medical University in
this initiative.
Table 2. Number and support sum of the projects
in Kaunas region (LR Finance Ministry,
2008)
Funding projects 269
Implementing at the
moment:
184
Finished: 85
BPD support 233 962 978.18 Lt
Kaunas University of Technology is the most
active institution in creation of e-Citizen concept
and initiatives in Kaunas region. This university
implements the project such as “The creation of
academic e-publishing system of Lithuania” (3 367
000.00 Lt) that aim is the creation of e-publishing
system of science and studies, including e-documents’
arrangement, storage, search and presentation to
the users invariant manners. The aim of the next
project “Remote learning network grounded by the
ICT development in Lithuania” (3 508 529.00 Lt)
is to create the infrastructure of distance studies
and create suitable conditions for the Lithuanian
science institutions to provide high quality distance
studies in all Lithuanian regions by creating the
dynamic knowledge society, reducing rural areas and
urban exclusion. The main aim of the project “The
creation of science, information system of studies
and experimental implementation in Lithuania”
(2 855 600.00 Lt) is to create LieMSIS academic
infrastructure, which would increase the availability
of LieMSIS services and ensure effective usage of the
resources of science institutions. Due to the project
“Integral education activity of the system of distance
learning in Lithuania” (4 129 986.00 Lt), institutions
of Lithuanian science and studies can provide
distance learning in Lithuania’s regions. Due to the
project “The creation of Lithuania’s virtual library
and full text database” (3 655 900.00 Lt), the process
of life long learning is complemented by innovative
learning manner, Lithuania’s virtual library and
VDDB is created too. The project “Lithuania’s
e-documents accumulation of science and studies
and presentment to the readers” (3 267 486.00 Lt)
empowers organization, keeping and presentation of
e-documents of science and studies to the academics,
students and to the society later. “L A” implements
the project “The elements of the computer license
for the Lithuania’s e-Citizen” (8 538 588.00 Lt) that
allows getting skills and abilities of the computer
license and increase the level of computer skills. The
aforementioned skills empower an employee to be
competitive in the labor market and improve the access
to the work information. This project is implemented
in all the territory of Lithuania. The Association of
the Lithuanian Chambers of Commerce, Industry
and Crafts implements the project “The development
of basic education and career education systems,
and creation of suitable conditions for the life long
learning in the e-education fi eld” (2 878 658.00 Lt)
aiming to train shape abilities of all the schoolmasters
to use the ICT means in the education process. One of
the successful projects is Kaunas municipality project
“Education of computer literacy for the economically
active citizens in Kaunas region” (525 730.00 Lt).
The aim of this project is to fasten the processes of
information society and to create the knowledge based
economy in Kaunas region, to strengthen human
resources and their integration to the labor market, and
reduce the exclusion in Kaunas region. This project
is the continuing of the fi nanced project of PHARE
2001 “Kaunas e-Region: IV partnership program”/
subprogram e-Skills/ www.kaunaseregion.lt (European
agency of social fund, 2008).
Summarizing all implemented initiatives that
form and infl uence e-Citizen concept in Kaunas region,
the conclusion can be made that many initiatives
are designed for the development of infrastructure,
technical preparation, development of IT skills and
for the instrument (e-library …) creation. Those
indicators allow upstarting the new initiatives. The
e-Kaunas vision is being implemented in reality.
Effect and perspectives of the e-Citizen’s
initiatives in Kaunas region
The Kaunas region E- Region projects are the
way for the implementation of e-Kaunas vision.
Citizens get signifi cant benefi t – comfort, time
saving, easy access, reduced corruption, development
of skills. Kaunas experience could be a good example
of practice for other regions.
Technical setting. E-Citizen’s concept
implemented in the Kaunas region improved public
access to the internet and paid much attention to
the computer literacy. In order to make signifi cant
infl uence, the aforementioned moments should
be presented as substantial for the initiatives, but
the created infrastructure isn’t the ultimate result.
This infrastructure could be non-functional without
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e-Content (e-Skills, e-Services), therefore, the
necessity is to improve and develop e-Infrastructure.
Economic setting. E-Citizen’s initiatives
infl uence competitiveness and investments of Kaunas
region directly. The projects noted in this article
were initiated by the science institutions and city
municipality. Such a situation shows that business
initiatives are limited but the perspective of science
and business collaboration could be the solution.
Growing science and technology park “Technopolis”
is one of the perspectives for the implementation
of this solution. The mission of “Technopolis” is to
encourage collaboration among the higher education,
research institutions and innovative enterprises of the
state. This action should encourage wider business
involvement to the creation process of e-Citizen
concept in Kaunas region. The creation of e-Citizen card
promotes business integration into the development
of e-City as well. In the e-Transport sector the need
for noticing the development of infrastructure of the
transport information is. At the moment, the modern
integrated system of traffi c control is being prepared
to introduce. All aforementioned and forthcoming
initiatives would allow citizens of Kaunas region to get
public and business services, exchange information
and communicate rapidly and handily; business would
have possibility to optimize business processes and
increase the productivity and competitiveness; state
institutions would have possibility to provide services
coming up the expectations of citizens.
Table 3. Perspectives of the e-Citizen‘s concept
Side effect:
Growing info exclusion;
Health problems;
Psychological problems;
Data security problems.
Expected effect:
E-Citizen’s concept set;
Openness;
Competitiveness;
Investment.
e-Business e-Learning e-Health e-Government
Creative initiatives
Skills, abilities/ Empowerment
Infrastructure
Social setting. Every new initiative infl uences
many running processes in the society. E-Citizen
initiative could infl uence social setting as well. The
basic problem is the increasing rates of info exclusion
or digital exclusion; psychology, heath (related
with the usage of IT devices) and data protection
problems.
In conclusion, impact of the e-Services can be
not only positive. One negative impact is discomfort
due to the lack of skills or technical problems, which
are highlighted, when the vision is going to be
implemented into reality. But good practices develop
positive solutions to the e-Citizen’s vision.
Conclusions
E-Service – all services, which easier communication •
among three institutions (government, citizens and
business) and are required through ICT.
eEurope• vision creation with the help of three
documents. In the latest strategy the convergence
and content is accented.
Implementation of the public • e-Services in Lithuania
and Kaunas region gets behind the EU average;
however, it made a big progress comparing with
previous year. KTU implements the biggest part
of the projects related with e-Citizen’s concept.
All the initiatives could be included to the phase
of infrastructure preparation in the Kaunas region.
The aforementioned initiatives are the basis for
further initiatives.
E-Citizen initiatives perspectives: increase of •
science, business and public collaboration of
the state with the e-Citizens initiatives; further
development of existing infrastructure.
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The article has been reviewed.
Received in March, 2008; accepted in April,
2008.