E-Government

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1. Why do we have E-Government?

Government refers to government's use of information and communication technology (ICT) to exchange information and services with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.

e-Government may be applied by legislature, judiciary, or administration, in order to improve internal efficiency, the delivery of public services, or processes of democratic governance.

source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGovernment

The benefits or rationale for the existence of e-government can be summarized as follows:

More Convenience:

Everyone expects more services online. You don´t want to wait in a line for an hour to spend five minutes at a counter. We can save you time and energy by putting those services on the Internet. You don´t have to miss work to do business during "government hours." You can do business anytime you want, anywhere you want.

Better Customer Service
You rarely need help with routine transactions. E-government lets agencies focus on things you usually need help with. These include:

Explaining complex policies
Translating English for people who don´t speak it well
Providing assistance for disabled or otherwise challenged people
Providing up-to-date news.

More Information Access
Not all decisions are made between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. during a weekday. If you are looking for a house, you may want information about an area during a weekend. E-government gives you 24-hour access to this and other information.

Using the Internet also makes finding the information easier. By using a standard look and feel, you know where to find specific types of information on a Web page, such as contact information.

If you have a question and you don´t know which agency to ask, use our new and improved search function. The search function will find state Web pages that have information about your question. You can look through just those Web sites to get your answers. You don´t have to wade through thousands of items that have no relevance to what you want to know.

Lower Costs
E-government saves companies money. Whenever your employees must drive to a government office or wait in a line, you lose productive time from them. Lost productivity is spent money. If your employees need more than one trip, then each trip is spent money. Putting services on the Internet gets rid of the driving time and time spent waiting in a line.

Increased Efficiency
Online transactions are faster than face-to-face transactions. Paper processing is automated, reducing time and the risk of clerical errors. This allows state agencies to focus on providing better service for the customer.

Increased Esteem
E-government makes the state more responsive to everyone´s needs. This will help the public see the government as a positive force in their lives.

source: http://www.das.state.or.us/DAS/EISPD/EGOV/benefits.shtml

2. In general what are the benefits to e-learning and other asynchronous modes of learning have over traditional learning models? ...