Paul F Burgueño

ICT in local government of the future

On Thursday I attended the launch of the report on ICT in local government's future in the building Telefónica Gran Via, Madrid. At the end of the ceremony, those present gave us a copy of the report, which will now comment briefly.

Through 4 different parts of detailed study, the Telefonica Foundation provides an overview on the current status of ICT in local government and the challenges of these entities, future trends and input from the public authorities. Also in the fourth paragraph, the report details which would be the ideal map for good practice in the application of ICT in local governance in Spain.

The book launch, which took place in the auditorium of Telefonica, located just above what will be the new (and spectacular, we have been promised) Telefonica Store will open its doors on July 11 with the output of iPhone 3G, was presided by Cesar Alierta-Chairman of Telefónica, SA, and have participated in it Javier Nadal Ariño Executive Vice President of Fundación Telefónica, Gabriel Alvarez Fernández-Secretary General of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) -- and Emilio Ontiveros, Professor of Economics and International President of Financial Analysts.

All interventions were similar in content and form, highlighting the virtues of the report and emphasizing the difficulties and challenges faced by small municipalities that are required to adapt to ICT with a tiny budget compared to the few major municipal seat. Thus, it became clear that the average spending per capita in ICT is no more than € 13.26, which multiplied by 500 inhabitants (the number on the 50% of the 8,000 municipalities up Spain) or 100 (as is the case with nearly 1,000 municipalities in Spain), gave poor investment in Information Technologies and Communication in Local bodies with ridiculous and discordant development policy since the government wants boost.

On the other hand we see an upward trend in the use of multi-channel, ie in communication and information through new media, non-traditional (planks, missives, letters, etc..) Such as mobile telephony, Internet or DTT.

Regarding the presence "virtual" or online from city councils and municipalities, it is not only poor but content and services they offer are limited and insufficient. In any case, we can say that there will be no real and effective eGovernment until the small municipalities are able to offer its residents the same services and benefits as the larger municipalities.

Finally, the Minister for Public Administration, Elena Salgado Méndez, closed the event with an address weak and "ethereal", much discussed in the wine later. From it, many attendees we get the conclusion that, perhaps due to economic recession, the Government did not want to commit to anything and wants to continue the current momentum of development of information society ... Next came Spanish and greetings in the lobby .

From the website of the Fundación Telefónica can download the book in digital format, images of the event, videos, etc. [Thursday links not work for them, but patience, which are an SME and are not dedicated to Internet, right? I guess you have fixed the]. I've uploaded to Scribd's document release with Main Indicators of "ICT in local government of the future". Also Thursday the legal journal published in an article entitled Law 2.0 Telefónica presents the first major study of ICT in local government with the first lines of the press release I picked up at the exit of the act.