European Telework Development (ETD)

ETD and Public Services Provision

ETD seeks to support the development of public services provision at European, national and international levels by providing useful information and resources for civil servants and other practitioners on the development of the Information Society and especially the main ETD focus applications, telework, teletrade and telecooperation.

Public service provision in Europe has been undergoing dramatic transformation for a number of years as a result of new political and economic agendas as well as acute pressures caused by the swelling demand for both existing and new types of public services. On top of these changes, new information and communications technologies are now opening up significant new opportunities, as well as posing new challenges, to the public sector and the provision of public services.

The applications of the Information Society provide opportunities to significantly increase public sector efficiency and to offer many services to the public electronically and thereby make substantial budgetary savings. These savings can either be ploughed back to provide resources for increasing the scope, range and quality of services, or to reduce taxes and the public sector finance requirement. Similarly, those engaged in promoting economic development, competitiveness and employment find in such applications powerful new instruments which are changing the parameters by which our societies operate. For citizens who have ready access to online communications, the new services can dramtically enhance access to public information and the citizen's ability to obtain support and positive responses from Government.

On the down side, there are dangers ranging, for example, from the loss of jobs as labour productivity increases to the potential de-humanisation of contact between service agencies and citizens which could be particularly acute and damaging for the weakest members of society, such as the elderly, the disabled and the very poor.

All these and similar issues require wide ranging and open debate and coordination. ETD can assist this process in four main ways:

The ETO website - http://www.eto.org.uk - provides a "first and last stop shop" for information about telework, teletrade and telecooperation:
: Look here first in order to find lists of useful information sources as well as information stored at the website itself. Look here last - when you cannot find what you want, post a question publicly in the eto online discussion list or privately by mail to eto-info@eto.org.uk. In the public list your question will be read by several hundred people and most questions get several responses within a day or two. If you post your question to eto-info@eto.org.uk it will receive attention from the ETD teams. Wherever you post your question make sure to say clearly what you information you need and why you need it.
ETD also supports policy forums:
: Online discussion points where interested parties can exchange information and views about particular aspects of the Information Society. Policy forums can be either private or public. If you would like to know about current and future forums and have the opportunity to join please complete the ETD Registration of Interest form, so we will know which topics interest you most.
ETD provides a sounding board for public policy issues:
: ETD maintains an active network of connections with a very wide variety of companies, institutions and individuals and can rapidly assemble and provide feed back on proposals for Information Society policies, initiatives and programmes. If you have launched or plan to launch an initiative or a policy proposal or anything similar, let us know whether you are looking for comments on a private or a public basis - write to eto-info@eto.org.uk.
ETD can provide online support to public policy formation, for example by provision of WWW pages and response mechanisms at the ETO website.
: If you have an initiative and feel you could benefit from independent advice on how best to use the online media, please contact us at eto-info@eto.org.uk.

ETD welcomes additional suggestions or requests from policy advisers and policy makers - please send us a message at info@eto.org.uk.

Examples of ETD Support Activities

Here are some activities that ETD has recently supported:

Support to the presentation to the Italian Parliament of a proposed new framework for legislation affecting teleworkers.
Support to the development and launch of the UK Citizens Online Democracy initiative (UK COD), and collaboration with the European Parliament and the Scarman Trust to support its launch debate on the subject of Economic and Monetary Union, as an exemplar of enhanced interaction between Government and the Citizen.
Support to a London workshop on the management of payments and transactions online, including public services applications.
Input to the European conference on Regional and Rural Development and the Information Society.

To be fully informed of developments in telework world wide and especially of activities of the ETD initiative, please join the eto discussion or eto announcement lists.


Return To: ETD: Who can get involved and how will they benefit?

ETD is supported by the European Commission (DGXIII) as part of the Advanced Communications Technologies and Services (ACTS) programme. ETD's central web pages are hosted at the European Telework Online website.

Page address http://www.eto.org.uk/etd/public/public01.htm
This page last updated 29 November 1996.
Page owner: Jeremy Millard
Please send your comments and suggestions about the ETO site and pages to eto-info@eto.org.uk