E-government

E-government

E-government is anything that is to do with the government through online capabilities. Also adding on from that if the URL has ‘.gov’ this means that it is controlled by the government and is then classed as a form of e-government.

Some of the aspects of e-government will be discussed during this section that includes:

1)   Taxes.

2)   Voting.

3)   government policies/party policies.

 The first of these aspects that I am going to discuss is taxes.

Taxes

The particular branchy of online taxes that I am going to discuss is car tax however a specific points I will highlight other examples for your reference. Normally you would have to apply for a car tax disc through the use of the phone being asked a series of questions about you, your car and other questions that are needed for you to be given a tax disc. However now we can access the DVLA (driving vehicle licensing agency) through their website and applying for a car tax disc through this. Through the online means you will need to confirm a few statements before you precede to the next stage also it should be reminded that if you haven’t received your log book from DVLA then you shouldn’t use this service as the greens slip is not enough. Here is the menu that you will be presented with if you choose to apply for a tax disc online.

 This is a screenshot of the menu that you are first presented with when applying for a tax disc online. From this screenshot you can that there are a series of questions that need to be confirmed before you proceed to the next stage.

Advantages of online taxes

Low amount of stages involved- By applying for a tax disc online there are a low amount of stages online which is an advantage as many people when applying for something prefer to have a minimum amount of time spent applying for that. In addition to that not having a lot of stages in the process will entice people to use that service again which is a key aspect in assuring that the service is a success. I personally think that by applying online you are in a more comfortable environment that having to phone up to apply, and these minimum amount of stages ensure that you are more engaged to the service that you are receive reducing any tedium that may be induced during this process.

 This screenshot shows that by applying online for a tax disc you are ensuring that there are less stages to this process compared to phoning up to apply for that tax disc.

Saving money and time- Firstly you are saving time because the internet forms take less time to fill out because it is usually down to either typing in information or clicking a few buttons for example. The advantage of this is that you are creating for yourself more leisure time to do whatever you choose to do and filling out forms and the filling out of forms on the internet can be done in an environment that best suits you compared to phoning up when you are put under pressure to answer questions very quickly. So the overall advantage is that by filling out the forms online you can self pace yourself. I think that because you can self pace yourself it reduces the stress associated with the filling out of forms which has been experienced with many family members when filling out forms the normal way. The saving of money comes from you having access to a cost free service unlike when you actually ring up the tax service e.g. HMRC which builds up a phone bill.

 This screenshot shows that filling out forms online requires just a few boxes to be filled in compared to writing out an application form sent by the DVLA.

Reducing errors- With most online taxing services you can reduce the amount of errors that you make through a ‘check system’. What this check system enables you to do is when you make a mistake for instance not confirming one of the questions asked at the start of applying for a tax disc for example an error message/image will appear next to the mistake you have made. This is as major advantage as when you write out a form normally it is a easy to make a mistake, by using this method you can drastically reduce the amount of errors you make reducing the amount if frustration that comes with making a mistake. I personally believe in my experience that this is a very good feature because when I make mistakes on forms |I get highly frustrated and begin to feel like not wishing to complete the form this method ensures that that stress is relieved significantly enough to make me feel better about making a mistake.

 This screenshot shows an example of an error message/image that appears when you make a mistake.  From this screenshot you can the see the image presented as an exclamation mark with a red triangle surrounding it to symbolise a mistake has been made.

 

Disadvantages

Security of personal details- some taxpayers will question the security of their personal details and rightfully so because in 2001 General Accounting Office reported that there was a lax in the security of personal details in the system. No hacking evidence was found, however officers were able to gain unauthorised access to tax payers details. In addition to that although steps have been taken to improve security we can never 100% guarantee that it be effective and stop hackers when new ways are being developed for example with the AVG anti-virus system hackers have cloned tax login pages making it exactly identical and seem genuine as the actual site.

This screenshot shows the continents and countries that are most at risk of having personal details exposed.

Rejections- Many tax payers have had their signatures rejected for some reason. For example IRS came up with a statistic that about 10% of all online tax payers couldn’t tax online. Overall what we can concluded from this is that if you are a tax payer looking to e-file online you should be wary of the fact that your signature may be rejected and thus should look for Alternative ways of paying your taxes.

Tax software – to e-file online the taxpayer must be wary of the fact that some tax software requires an additional fee to use that service. This is not uncommon to be required to pay an additional fee so the taxpayer should check the box of the tax software to find out whether an additional fee is required to access that software. This is a major disadvantage because if you are required to pay an additional fee this could end up costing you more than sending off the paperwork the normal way just for the convenience of filling out the forms online.

This screenshot is an example of tax software. From this screenshot you can see that tax software requires an additional cost to run the software, this shows this as a disadvantage because the cost of having this product could be far more than sending the documents of by post for example. Although this is in American dollars the general idea is that tax software can cost so you as the tax payer should be wary of this fact.

My thoughts on taxing online- even though I can say I haven’t used online taxes I can feel when researching into this topic that I think I have a mixed view on it, it is good if you are applying for tax discs online because it saves time and money compared to filling out a form on paper and sending it off. However if you look at the security risks of trying to buy free tax software for those certain countries like the U.S.A then it’s bad; viruses can easily be obtained this way along with spyware that will invade your personal security so in the end as it is I feel there is no strong market in online taxes so to be critical it fully would be unfair as not many people especially in the UK will use it. In 5-10 years time it could be an option in the UK providing there is direction towards it and people are willing to pay extra for the convenience but for now I find that it is an undeveloped system at this precise time.

Online voting

About it

E-voting refers to any type of voting online through use of computer equipment. One of the main online voting systems used in online voting is called DRE (direct-recording electronic voting machine) which is where the voter has to physically use a keyboard and mouse to transmit their vote. Using this system means the voter’s choice is who they are voting for is automatically tallied to the total number of votes associated to that person/group. However there are many different forms of online voting which are:

‘Poll site’ which is where the voter goes to a polling place and transmits their vote to a central system that tallies all the votes from each terminal voted from.

‘Regional poll site’ which is where the voter can go to  any poll site in a particular city/town to cast their vote, the main computer system keeps a record of all the people who have cast their vote and sends the correct ballot paper to that region.

‘Kiosk’ this is where the computer terminals have been set up by the voting authorities in a convenient place for instance the post office. These terminals are monitored by the polling workers and can allow voting up to 7 days.

Picture shows a typical kiosk form of voting in a supermarket shop,shows convenience of this type of voting as you can vote in teh most obscure places.

‘Remote systems’ this is where the person can cast their vote from any system that is connected to the internet including gaming machines.

Advantages of online voting

Increases voters?-voting authorities have argued that online voting would increase the amount of people that turn up to vote because at the moment it is very lax and there is a view to this appealing to the younger generation of voters. However to balance this argument only 30% of computer users have access to the internet so is this really going to have a massive impact on the amount of voters? In addition to that I can counter-argument that by saying that having voting predominately internet based will reduce the queues which appeals to more people as sometimes people won’t have the time to vote until very late after work at a time where its not very convenient considering you’ve just finished a hard day’s work. The main point I’m saying here is that online voting can be fit around a time that is best suitable to an individual’s needs.

Costs of printing- In a bad economic climate keeping costs down is must isn’t it so printing less paper and use of ink to print on those cards keeps cots down, saves paper and ink and contributes to a more sustainable country. It’s quite funny when you consider the government tells us that we should be encouraged to be more sustainable and when it comes to voting they don’t seem to think that applies to them, so does our government really have the best interests for us? Reducing these costs means the government can invest more money into the things that matter.

Saved ballet templates- Having a pure online voting system means that templates that are made from scratch can be saved instead of having one without any real organisation involved. This is a more efficient way because over subsequent years only people’s names will need to be updated on the system as more vote reach the required age to vote. Also in turn this also means that fewer resources are used when a mistake is made so this is also a way of saving money.

Validation- The voting authorities can check the validity of the voters by checking their email address to see if they are who they claim to be. The main criticism of this could be that even though they have internet access they may not have an email address but to counter argument this voters should be required to have their email address clearly printed for checking.

E-mail- For those that actually have had their email address registered on their voting card may find that if they haven’t yet voted they will receive an email telling them to do so. I think that this is a good idea because when you consider that a lot of people check their email on a regular basis they will notice this email faster than a piece of paper in the post as it will generally have a title in bold, underlined and at the end an exclamation mark may be used to represent high importance.

Disadvantages of online voting

Validation

It is difficult to actually determine whether a voter is actually who they say they are. Passwords and ID numbers can be shared among people, so the only real way of identifying if a person is who they actually are is finger printing Id which may raise privacy issues and will cost quite a lot of money to do this in large quantities. I think when I look at this a way to counter effect this claim is the voter is using a remote compute can only vote from a registered computer assigned to that user.

Technical issues- We all know that if too many people access the system at any one time we won’t be able to access it, when looking at the problems of why this is happening with online voting the same reason can be applied. The only way to counter this issue I think is holding the voting on several days however that same problem will occur so the normal way to me seems better despite the problems face with it. I think that until someone has made applications accessible in mass quantities at any one time online voting will still have the same problems for years to come.

Security issues- I’ve considered this issue and have come to conclude that if employees are using employer’s computers or one infected by viruses is the balloting safe to access knowing that someone is watching the voter vote? I don’t think it is if the person has spyware on their computer someone is watching that vote being preceded and can use that to influence the voting in some way, shape or form.

Multiple voting- If the system is to be successful it needs to be designed in a way so the voter can only vote once. I think this is an obvious priority but it needs to be considered and designed in that way so the voting can’t be tampered/altered to assist another person. I think that if this is achieved then online voting may have a chance providing people are willing to use the system , if not then obviously it’s going to fail.

What I think- Online voting has some really good positives and I personally feel that in about 5 years or so online voting will be very big in the technological industry. However there are some major cons that I have researched into and I can conclude from these cons is that they are easily manageable and yes they are a major disadvantage to online voting being a success but in 5 years or so these issues will have be mostly likely looked at and focuses on and from this online voting will most likely replace the normal way.

Party Policies online- This is where we as a computer user providing we have internet access can access government policies. In most cases you will find that as the party are trying to be professional that each of their policies will be split down into sub sections for you to access.

 This screenshot shows that you can access your arties policies online. The example I am showing you the conservative party’s policies. And from this screenshot you can see that each of the policies are split into different sections, each in alphabetical order to make it easier for the reader to see them. I think this entices people into voting for them because it shows that they care if they are offering people a professional designed webpage  to look at.

Advantages of online policies

Alphabetical order- With looking at a party’s policies online you will find that their policies are in alphabetical order. This is an advantage as people will be able to look at a specific sub heading according to what they are looking for. Also this shows that the party have a professional view on the design of their webpage and thus will entice people into voting for them as they seem organised. I personally feel that this is good if it is in alphabetical order because as a young person nearly being allowed to vote being able to see a party’s policies in order will make me feel that that party is organised and will benefit the country.

 This screenshot shows the conservative party policy homepage. From this screenshot you can see that the policies are in alphabetical order.

Saves paper- Many people like to be aware of the party they are voting for and quite right naturally, however many people sometime fail to understand how much paper is being used to give people access to that party’s policies. By looking online there is no paper being used and with that saves money and saves resources. We know how bad the economy actually is at the moment so saving money is the upmost priority so by looking online at policies this is being achieved.

 From this screenshot you can see that there is no paper involved with looking at party’s policies online saving money and resources from this.

More accessibility- Providing you have internet access to a piece of hardware you can access the party’s policies. Because you can access it through the internet as well as a booklet you might be given you can immediately notice that viewing the party’s policies is more accessible. By having a larger accessibility more people can find these policies for example a disabled person might not be able to get out very often and as a result has a piece of hardware connected to the internet. By increasing the accessibility also you might also being increasing the amounts of vote’s for your party because the website can give a more detailed perspective on what your party is trying to achieve. I think this is good not only because of the example I have given but because the internet has the key to the future I believe and because of that in a few years time the internet will dominate society at a rate larger than it currently is, so having this larger accessibility will possibly mean that the professionalism in the design of party policies could be better.

  This screenshot shows that looking at your party’s policies can be done through internet means making it more accessible to the public.

Disadvantages to looking at party policies online

Trust? - I think the main disadvantage with looking at party policies online in general is can we really trust a party just because they say they are going to do this? I think that people have to consider this before looking at the policies and look at previous experiences to make a judgment on that party. I also believe us as the public should look at the realistic potential of offering promise that a party makes because if we look at the economy the liberal democrats want to invest 7bn into education but is this feasible?

 This is a screenshot of the liberal democrat’s party policies online. What my point is when showing you this screenshot is can we really trust a party just because it states a topic as a main priority.

Internet/broadband access- The main disadvantage with viewing online party policies is that you have to make sure you have internet/broadband access to be able to view the policies. This leads me to believe that we should not make party policies predominantly online because only 30% of all computer users in the UK have broadband/internet access. I also believe that the less dominant party’s are failing because they are predominantly promoting their party online which isn’t reaching many people. This is also a counter-argument statement to one of my advantages about online being more accessible with that statistic I have given you can see that yes it does make it more accessible but not as sufficient rate to increase support for that party because of the requirements of having to have internet access. Many of you may say I don’t just have to have a computer to access this data which is true but you still need internet access which costs so is it just better to have the booklet of the parties policies?

 This screenshot I have used to emphasise my point that you need to have broadband access/internet access to look at party policies. Having a better broadband means you can look at the party policies quicker as you navigate through the pages.

My experiences- I personally feel that after researching online party policies that it is a good idea. The advantages clearly out way the disadvantages which we know is the case as this is cost benefit to the party. One of the disadvantages I have mentioned is an obvious one which we are all pretty much aware of however the one the first disadvantage I have stated was an interesting one in that not many people are aware of it, most people will read the information and feel that it is a definite which is achieved through the use of imperative verbs like “we will” for example. This is a persuasive technique that I am making people aware of when reading texts like these and because of this I personally feel that if it is used I recommend questioning it further. My overall experience of using this system were positive as it saved money and resources which I feel is good in this economic climate.