[Sigiii-l] Fwd: Virtual conference on e-Government for All

[Michel J. Menou]

Not sure if this was passed already
Sorry for duplicate/multiple posting
Best regards,

Michel


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Announcing E-Government for All:
A Virtual Conference on E-Government and the Digital Divide
November 3-14, 2003
http://www.egov4all.org

Sponsored by the Benton Foundation, the New York State Forum and
GroupJazz.com

In conjunction with the American Library Association Office of Information
Technology Policy, the Association for Community Networking, Athena
Alliance, BytesForAll.org, the Council for Excellence in Government, CTCNet,
the Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center
(ITTATC), La Sociedad de Información de las Américas, One Economy
Corporation and Thinkofit.com.

About the conference:

There has been much interest in the US and abroad in utilizing the Internet
to improve communications between governments and citizens. The Internet has
great potential in giving individuals greater access to their governments,
while at the same time improving efficiencies and cutting bureaucratic red
tape. But the reality is that a sizeable portion of society lacks both
access to the Internet and the skills to use it effectively.

As state, local and national governments expand their e-government
activities, millions of underserved citizens fall further behind,
effectively becoming cut off from the people and institutions that serve
them. Governments, in conjunction with the private sector and civil society,
must develop sustainable strategies for ensuring that all citizens can reap
the potential benefits of e-government. We must also work to ensure that
public information and services remain accessible to all, especially people
with disabilities, understandable to low-literate citizens and readable for
non-English speakers.

E-Government for All will convene key stakeholders in government, research,
business and civil society to tackle the challenge of implementing
e-government while simultaneously addressing the digital divide.
Participants will interact via the Internet over the course of the
conference, participating in virtual keynotes, panel sessions and community
forums.

Goals of the conference:

- Raise awareness and spark engagement among policymakers of the importance
of tackling the digital divide while pursuing e-government activities

- Convene and evaluate a first-ever virtual gathering of experts and
practitioners to develop strategies to expand the relevance and
accessibility of e-government in underserved communities

- Develop a set of guiding principles that can be used as a "call to action"
for better e-government policies in the context of bridging the digital
divide and the need to ensure access to government information and services
for all

- Publish a post-conference report to summarizing the activities the
conference and the collective wisdom of participants

Issues to be covered at the conference:

- E-government best practices
- Access to government information, services and decisionmaking
- Latest research from leading experts
- Citizen's panel: underserved community experiences with e-government
- Partnerships between government, the private sector and civil society
- Government website accessibility
- E-government and importance of 21st century skills
- International perspectives of e-government
- and more!

A detail agenda for the conference, including a list of speakers, will be on
the egov4all.org website soon.

How to participate:

E-Government for All is free and open to the public. Participants can
register online here:

http://www.egov4all.org

Simply click the Registration button on the homepage and fill out the form.
You'll then be registered to participate in the conference, which begins
November 3.

For more information, please feel free to email us at
egovinfo at groupjazz.com.

***********************************
Andy Carvin
Senior Associate
Benton Foundation

acarvin at benton.org
http://www.benton.org
http://www.digitalopportunity.org
http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org
*********************************** 

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