The eGovernment activities are one of most visible and fast grooving activities in Russia at the present time. These activities publically announced and supported at all levels – President, Premier Minister, federal, regional and municipal and by all braches (ministries) of the government. The Russian business community, first of all ICT vendors, is also extremely focused on these issues. There is also a tremendous trend in the attention given to these matters by broad public – citizens of Russia, who is desperately looking at this activity as a hope to reduce bureaucratic burdens of their day to day life.

On the other hand, eGovernment is a new issue and not just for Russia. Governments over the world are short of experience of eGov implementations and services and ICT vendors are also just entered this promising market. The best way is to improve quality of introduced services and to reduce their price is wide sharing of best practices over the country and even over the world. First of all, government officials will be looking at similar services already implemented in the other countries and regions. Also, ICT vendors will be eager to share their success stories. The project goal is to create a meeting point and a comprehensive and easy to use knowledge portal for all eGov stakeholders and participants:

·     to look for a necessary solution,

·     to share their experience and successes and

·     to communicate with eGov best known practitioners, vendors and experts in Russia and EU

The fast-growing Russian eGovernment community - citizens, businesses, and governments (at all levels - federal, regional and municipal) - desperately need a focal point to find and share information on a broad spectrum of eGovernment issues.

Creation of the G2C Knowledge Networking Portal (Portal) is one of the most important and visible activities of the G2C project according with the original EC Tender RFP and TOR prepared by the consortium, led by GDSI. The Web-based Portal will be a comprehensive and trustworthy source of information for all stakeholders of eGovernment activities in Russian, free of interests of particular commercial firms and beyond the restrictions of government agencies. 

Best international practices, including the EU portal www.epractuce.eu, demonstrate the importance and necessity to have such freedom for all web-based resources in an order to increase the spectrum, quality and efficiency of eGovernment services developed and implemented in Russia. The Portal will provide free and unrestricted access to the most important information regarding eGovernment activities in Russia and EU, including:

·     A Best Practices Catalogue (BPC) - a collection of the best eGovernment cases (solutions) implemented in Russia and the EU,

·     profiles of the best eGovernment ICT firms,

·     eGovernment practitioners and experts,

·     information about eGovernment events in Russia and abroad,

·     a comprehensive library of all eGovernment-related documents, including new governmental laws and decrees,

·     useful links to other eGovernment Internet resources,

·     a FAQ section,

·     a special eLearning section,

·     information about G2C project.

 

Policy Context

The Russian government has significantly increased work on eGovernment issues in recent months.

Several high level initiatives have started under the close watch of both Russian President D. Medvedev and Premier Minister V. Putin.

The EU funded project "Support to e-Government in the Russian Federation" (G2C) and its beneficiaries, the Russian ministries of Economy and Communications, play an important role in this new strategic initiative of the Russian government.

Description of target users and groups

The main objective of G2C project Portal's activities is to assist the Russian community (citizens, businesses, and government) to face unprecedented changes and challenges posed by the introduction of eGovernment in the Russian Federation.

Another important role of the Portal is to organise knowledge exchange between the Portal and similar EU portals. This should significantly reduce informational deficits for mutually important eGovernment activities in the EU and in Russia.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

The portal is built using the Web 2.0 approach, which means that content will be provided by the active participants of the portal.

The portal information is structured in terms of important eGovernment issues: 

• 1. Best eGovernment practices in Russia and abroad
• 2. Success stories
• 3. Information about commercial firms and eGovernment specialists
• 4. Marketing materials sup[plied by the firms and organizations
• 5. Conferences' documents
• 6. Governmental decrees and regulations
• 7. Mass media materials, Internet resources, and others

Everything is in one place! 

Technology solution

CMS Drupal

Technology choice: Open source software

Main results, benefits and impacts

The G2C portal has become an important focus point for all the Russian eGovernment community to find, share and learn information on a broad spectrum of eGovernment issues.

Also,  in a few months the G2C portal will provide access to eGovernment eLearning programmes for the general public and special eTraining courses for government employees.

Track record of sharing

The G2C project, funded by the EU, has two beneficiaries - the Russian ministries of Economy and Communication. The project's plans and activities are coordinated with the ministries' work and all the project's results, including the portal, will be incorporated by the beneficiaries at the end of the project.

Lessons learnt

 

Many countries around the world are attempting to revitalize their public administration and make it more proactive, efficient, transparent and especially more service-oriented. To achieve this transformation in public service delivery, governments are innovating in their use of human, technological and financial resources. In particular, the application of ICTs, through e-Government solutions, has been making increasingly striking contributions to public administration reform processes and to public service delivery.

 This is especially true for Russian Federation, with its vast territory. The “common” access to government bodies and government officials may not be an issue in the small and medium countries but simply unavailable or extremely difficult for many Russian citizens. For many of them e-Government solution is the only way to get appropriate service from authorities. Another issue is a fight with corruption and transparency, which one of the main goal of Russian government at the present time.

The “Digital Inequality” is a big factor for the Russian Federation as well. The strategic central /federal/ based initiatives and portals should be carefully integrated with the regional information - local regulations, practices and portals. The G2C project is not only involved in the work with the federal ministries but actively working with the pilots regions e.g. Kaliningrad region, Karelia republic, Vologda region and others. Also, G2C project has a significant training component. 

 

Scope: International, National