Pressure builds for national campaign to spur demand for eGovernment
The Government is likely to be asked to fund a large-scale marketing campaign to promote online public services, eGov monitor has learned.
At present only around 15 per cent of the public are using eGovernment services, say government sources.
Figures such as this have led senior officials to come to the view that in order to boost the current low levels of take-up, the Government must give financial support to a dedicated marketing drive for e-services.
However recent government-funded research indicates that while marketing campaigns do make the public more aware of eGovernment services, they are not necessarily effective in increasing actual take-up.
The same research, produced for the e-Citizen National Project on Take-Up and Marketing, suggests that 46 per cent of adults in England are willing to use online public services.
Despite promising growth in the take-up of some e-services, the need to drive up public usage across the board remains a major concern for the UK's eGovernment programme.
Earlier this month an official from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister reportedly gave an eGovernment conference in Washington, DC, his thoughts about a possible UK e-Government marketing campaign.
Julian Bowrey, the ODPM's local eGovernment divisional and programme manager, is reported to have told delegates that a campaign needed to target two key groups of potential users.
One of these was "grumpy young men who want to pay their parking fines online and want to complain, preferably at three in the morning". The other was women who have an interest in local community services.
Reaction
"An interesting item, but some extraordinary suggestions from ODPM's Julian Bowrey. Does he really think that the way to make a real difference to e-government take-up is via young men's parking fines and community-concerned women? The major users of public services are "the old and the poor"; these are at the same time the least likely to have the means or the skills to access the internet. Ultimately these groups have to be engaged effectively if e-government is to become anything other than a sideshow for an enthusiastic minority."
Roger Hook, Silver Surfers Project, Nuneaton
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