|
Volume 5 Issue 2 Special Issue: ECEG 2007 Den Haag
Governmental Collaboration and Infrastructural Standards in Belgium
Alea Fairchild and Bruno de Vuyst,
Vesalius College, Vrije Universiteit, Brussel, Belgium
|
 |
|
The Belgian federal government’s June 2004 decision to promote the use of open standards have been reinforced by the launch of BELGIF [BELgian Government Interoperability Framework], launched by the ICEG working group of the Belgian government in May 2005, and the 2006 decision to mandate ODF as the standard office document exchange format by September 2008.
For e-government, the concept of interoperability goes beyond the notion of just technical standards for data exchange, and includes issues such as legal constraints, inter- and intra-organizational workflows amongst disparate organizations, and an understanding of the data ontology.
The need for integration of the public services requires an adaptation of the information systems. Interoperable systems working in a coherent way and without barriers through all the public sector are impossible to circumvent to provide better services, meeting the needs for the citizens and the companies and with lower cost.
BELGIF has been noted as unique in its approach to the open standards process (via a Wiki), its active participation in using standards in e-government, and the participation of Belgian governmental groups in the process.
The Federal Council of Ministers proposed in June 2006 to establish ODF as the standard for exchanging office documents such as texts, spreadsheets, presentations within the Civil Service as soon as the format is definitively approved by ISO.
This paper discusses the issues surrounding the BELGIF implementation and ODF mandate and the challenges still to overcome, given that interoperability defines how technical systems, people and organisations work together, in a country with three languages and five layers of government.
Keywords: e-government, collaboration, standards.
Download FULL PAPER
Back to Contents
|
