This case describes the experience of the University of Murcia in the design and development of electronic government infrastructures and applications. The students, teachers and staff of the University of Murcia can use the government services face-to-face, from a desktop computer or from a mobile device, with the same efficiency and security characteristics. These services are developed with the aim of improving the internal management, offering add-value services to the university community and interoperating with other governments. The most important applications developed are the electronic registry and the electronic marks certificates.

Policy Context

There is a diversity of governments in countries, regions, cities and public organizations that have been developing electronic government services to improve their citizens’ quality of life since the beginning of the new century. In Spain the development of the new electronic national identity card (DNIe) is expected to motivate a great impulse of the information society and the electronic services offered to the citizens. The “Plan Avanza” is other important initiative supported by the Spanish government with the aim of promoting the research, the development and the innovation (I+D+i) in enterprises, civil society and public administrations through different types of financing and subventions.

Description of target users and groups

Students and staff of the University of Murcia, the tenth oldest university in Spain. The majority of its facilities and buildings are spread over two campus: La Merced, situated in the town centre, and Espinardo, just 5 km to the north of Murcia. A third campus for Medical and Health Studies is currently being built 5 km south of the city.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

The University of Murcia has been working in different lines for the last years. On the one hand, several registry offices were opened to distribute electronic certificates to the university community. This action is feasible thanks to the agreement with “Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre” (FNMT), which is the main certificate service provider in Spain. Another important administrative action is the technical improvement of the University of Murcia’s smart card. This card is now able to store cryptographic credentials, enabling the use of electronic signatures. On the other hand, multiple technological developments have been performed in order to secure the exchange of electronic documents, store and preserve these electronic files, and facilitate the use of mobile devices.

Technology solution

The infrastructure has been designed on the basis of web services and a service-oriented architecture (SOA), and accommodates interoperable web services, supporting their extensibility and integration into existing distributed applications. Furthermore, this design reduces client’s software complexity because some functionality could be transferred to the web service. This approach is especially appropriate for devices with reduced processing capabilities, such as mobile devices or Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). One of our main goals is to guarantee the access to our service independently of the client device used. We have considered that this client can be a desktop PC or a mobile device (PocketPC, PDA, Smartphone, etc). We have adapted our desktop services to mobile environments, which the access to them in a ubiquitous way. The basis of the architecture design is the FACTO project, which is developed in collaboration with Telefónica Móviles España. One of the examples of mobile applications is the electronic marks certificates service with digital signature. This service can also be used since a mobile device, with the same security characteristics than a PC (see additional document “Electronic marks certificate service with mobile digital signature”).

Main results, benefits and impacts

- Infrastructures for securing the electronic transactions and handling the electronic documents. These infrastructures are based on the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) concept and are developed using web-services technologies and cryptographic standards like PKI, WS-Security, XMLSig and PKCS#7. - The use of the smart card of the University of Murcia as the main security element to perform electronic authentication and signature inside the university. - The results of the FACTO project in collaboration with “Telefónica Móviles España” (TME) as the infrastructure that provides security in mobile transactions. - Important electronic government services. Some of them are for internal management, like the validation of financial electronic documents. Other applications are offered to teachers and students, like the electronic registry or the electronic signature of marks certificates. We are also working in some interoperable services that provide the sending of marks certificates or large family certificates to other electronic governments. Further information at additional document “The building of a ubiquitous government in the University of Murcia”.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

Several Spanish universities and public regional governments have valued the experience of the University of Murcia in the development of secure applications based on chip card and electronic government services with digital signature processes. Furthermore, different iniciatives have been developed in collaboration with these organitazions. - There are a big group of universities that are using the same chip technology and services than the University of Murcia. Some of them are the University of Navarra, the University of Extremadura, the Pontifical University of Salamanca and the University of Oviedo. - Other group of projects has been performed with other public governments, like the Regional Assembly of the Region of Murcia (www.asambleamurcia.es), the Hydrographic Confederation of the Segura River (www.chsegura.es) and the Autonomy Region of Murcia (www.carm.es). - Other cases are the DARFE Project (http://rica.carm.es), developed with the Information Technologies General Management of the Region of Murcia and the MOTECAL project, with the Local Governments General Management of the Region of Murcia. Both of them are projects that introduce practices of electronic government processes in the public administration, like the interoperability between electronic local censuses and the introduction of electronic signature in workflows.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - This case represents the first steps of a road that has just started, and now the university has the experience and determination to continue working in this field. It has to be in mind the objectives of strengthening the advances performed, suppressing the use of paper and, therefore, getting a full eGovernment service. Lesson 2 - Another important learned lesson is that the university must improve the technical interoperability with other public eGovernments. In this sense, it should try to discover common ideas and shared systems between all the participants as well as obey the personal data protection laws. Lesson 3 - Finally it is very important to get better accessibility in the eGovernment applications developed for the university community, offering the same opportunities to all the people. The search of proper solutions for resolving these problems is essential for the development of a global electronic government scenario which covers different types of organizations. Scope: Regional (sub-national)