Introduction
E-governance is the application of information and communication technologies within the government to enhance information dissemination and service delivery with the need to foster transparency, accountability and effectiveness. In this regard, the adoption of web-enabled services for citizens in Orissa would improve service delivery efficiency.
This implies that the expected form of e-governance is the government-to-citizens governance. Its introduction in Kalahandi district will demand an appropriate analysis of various citizen needs inclusive of the service providers’ demands and the efficiency generated. Considering these critical factors, web-enabled service planners should reflect on the features of an effective form of e-governance structure that meets the needs of both the government and the citizens (Garrett 2003, p.24).
The design of the website should meet high standards to demonstrate the roles specified by the planners and limit the chances of failure or operation costs. Classically, the web-enabled service should cut across the design infrastructure and reality of the services derived from it. Therefore, a planner should evaluate analytically and critically the design that has been set up before it is implemented and tested in the public domain as to derive its intended functionality.
Background
The success of any web-enabled services necessitates the considerate evaluation of the necessary features of the design that optimize its efficiency after implementation. Initially, some of the crucial factors that need evaluation are the relevance of the website to the citizen’s needs, the ease and friendliness of the user-interface and availability of finance to run the website.
Having satisfactorily complied with the basic elements of the project, other crucial elements require evaluation. The core responsibility of the planner is to determine whether the relevant expertises are available. This crucial element will give him or her a clue as to whether the conduct of the design project by skilled and knowledgeable individuals has occurred (Garson 2006, p.42).
Since the whole project involves expertise effectiveness, they will determine its success during its implementation and utilization. The team will maintain and continuously access the project to ascertain that it operates as anticipated. In addition, in the event that further upgrading is required, the team will offer insight into its design structure and the possible options to adopt in order to facilitate the upgrading process.
Linkage of the case study to E-governance
The Orissa case study is related to the E-governance in that the government is intending to offer web-based services to Kalahandi district citizens. In this regard, the government’s efforts demonstrate how the adoption of the online-programmed services will improve service delivery to the citizens.
Through these measures, the E-governance importance as well as its weakness is portrayed. Nevertheless, the desired needs of e-governance will necessitate the government to take counter-measures to reduce the prevalent problems in the services.
Questions and answers
The website’s content is the major part that the planner should determine before the website design. After analyzing the citizens’ needs of the website and the government service delivery through the website, a proper judgment of the website content is crucial.
Some of the website’s key elements would include the background nature, information presentation, colors used and means of navigating from one page to another based on the information needed (Norris 2001, p. 131). The planner should select the most convenient content of the website that would enhance the users chance of deriving the services needed and government provision of the appropriate information and services.
Similarly, a planner will have to determine the capability of the web enabled service to meet any traffic intensity. Considering that the project’s development intends to meet certain specific operations, a planner should evaluate the project’s ability to handle any traffic load and provide the expected efficiency. In this regard, the implemented project should take into consideration the consistency expected from the service provider and the ability to enhance the smooth flow of information in a faster manner unlike in manual systems.
Security is another crucial element of e-governance systems. Since the system will be used to conduct crucial government’s roles to the citizens, it is essential to maintain high security standards. For the information undergoing dissemination from one point to the other, it is necessary that it remains unaltered or inaccessible to intruders (Garson 2006, p. 122).
In addition, all the information available within the system should serve the intended purposes that enhance service delivery to the citizens by the government. At times, because information is available on the cloud, it is convenient that foreign materials or systems do not enter into the system and distort its operation capability.
Ethics and other generally accepted codes of conduct are crucial elements to consider. Considering that the planner plays a critical role in the process of website design, it is compulsory for him or her to observe the computing ethics and other general codes of conduct. These forms of regulation seek to ensure adherence to all the parties’ rights involved in the design process.
Similarly, the website undergoing development should comply with the standards of software or system development (Garrett 2003, p. 145). Having this concept in mind will guide the planner to design the website in a manner acceptable to the regulators of system development and the users.
An important design aspect is filling the gap between designing and the reality. For a planner, it is essential to ensure that the design simulates the problems that occur in reality. Since some design projects may be too complex and impractical, it is necessary for the planner to compare properly the design with real life events.
One element of design is the content of the website, which influences user flexibility. For a website to be convenient and appropriate to all users, it is essential that the content be presented in a clear and precise manner. These elements will allow users from different backgrounds to derive the government’s service efficiently (Norris 2001, p. 186).
The component of traffic intensity handling is crucial in minimizing the gap between the design and reality. One of the most crucial factors during design is the selection of a web provider that can handle and maintain traffic of any size of a geographic region with consistency and accuracy.
With this concept in mind, the design will formulate and implement a website easily powered by the service provider and all the users will easily access it. Moreover, the users will be able to obtain the government services at their own appropriate times without any restriction.
For continuous supply and availability of specialized individuals in the maintenance and upgrading of the website to meet up-to-date needs, it is essential to undertake a rigorous campaign to educate and train adequate staff.
In matters that the website may demand external service providers, the sponsor of the project will have to outsource the skills required to ensure that all the system components are operational. In addition, this form of maintenance will increase efficiency among the citizens and thus boost their loyalty and respect for the government. Therefore, the gap between the design and reality will narrow.
Since security is one of the crucial elements that require safeguarding, it is crucial for the website to remain free from any internal and external threats. Internally, the website can suffer manipulation by the users or the government representatives thus altering its objective of providing transparency and accountability.
The forms of threats can cause things such as the distortion of information, altering the targeted recipient of information or destruction of the whole service (Garrett 2003, p. 75). Meanwhile, externally, the website faces challenges like illegal hacking or the introduction of software that will harm the website effectiveness. Similarly, crackers can use the website to rely unimportant messages and their own self-interest information ruining the website’s effectiveness.
In order to reduce the design-reality gap, it is essential to adopt the best techniques and practices in the website development industry. These concepts outline the expected ethics and codes of conduct that require significant consideration in order to achieve the desired results in any website development project.
Concerning ethics, it defines what should be included in the website and what requires avoidance. The adoption of these measures will guarantee the designer the possibility of the website applicability and acceptance. In addition, the website would not contravene any regulation set by the governing body regarding website development (Garson 2006, p. 210).
Some of the techniques that will minimize the design-reality gaps are the adoption of up-to-date technologies in website development. Since technologies are dynamic, it is always essential to emulate the latest technology as it encompasses all the vital latest concerns.
In this regard, the adequate addressing to the technology concerns will boost the website’s significance. Similarly, the consideration of the codes of conduct during the designing period is significantly essential as it defines the boundaries as well as the crucial points that require incorporation in the website development.
In my opinion, the new website of UOS is comparably magnificent in relation to the previous one. Concerning efficiency and effectiveness, the new website has considerable diversity and can handle multiple tasks that meet a variety of users’ expectations.
Similarly, since the website addresses the needs of certain individuals within a certain geographical location, the new website will enable the customization of services and information in a precise and clear manner. Meanwhile, as the website provides high standard services with minimal time wastage, geographical movement and on-time services, the new system is a significant improvement from the old one.
Based on the diverse needs of the stakeholders, the new website is better than the previous one. Since the new system has been significantly scrutinize and tested according to the current user needs, its performance rating is much better than the previous one.
In addition, the services that it offers the citizens, as well as the government have undergone accurate synthesizing and accounting during specifications in the designing level. As a result, the new website capabilities are sophisticated and diverse boosting its advantages to the previous one.
Conclusion
E-governance plays a crucial role in the delivery of services to the citizens. This can be explain by the fact that through e-governance, resources have been made easily available by the ease with which citizens can access information and use it based on the regulations requirements. Therefore, e-governance contributes significantly to the service delivery to the citizens of a country.
References
Garrett, J J 2003, The elements of user experience: user-centered design for the web. American Institute of Graphic Arts, New York.
Garson, G D 2006, Public information technology and e-governance: managing the virtual state. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Raleigh, N.C.
Norris, P 2001, Digital divide: civic engagement, information poverty, and the Internet worldwide. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.