IGI Global Book on Interoperability

The structure of the book "Interoperability in Digital Public Services and Administration: Bridging E-Government and E-Business" to be published by IGI Global in May 2010 has been finalised. You may download the detailed table of contents, including chapter titles and summaries here: http://bit.ly/7wTDqq

Book wordle (top 50 words)

MOMENTUM eParticipation Conference

The MOMENTUM FP7 project, aiming to deliver a unified view of the 20 European Commission eParticipation Pilot Projects, held the "eParticipation Conference: Current State of Play and Future Directions" in Brussels, on the 15th December 2009.

More than 100 participants exchanged opinions and new ideas, at the European Parliament premises in Brussels. Find more at http://www.ep-momentum.eu

AMCIS 2010 Interoperability Minitrack - Call for Papers

You are invited to consider submitting a paper in the eGovernment Interoperability Minitrack, which I am chairing in AMCIS 2010 Conference. The Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), one of the most prominent conferences on Information Systems worldwide with a strong eGovernment track, will be held in Lima, Peru on August 12-15, 2010. Myself and the other co-chairs of the Minitrack will be happy to receive your submissions and host you in Peru !

Mini-track Co-Chairs Yannis Charalabidis, University of the Aegean (Corresponding Chair) Ulf Richter, Centrum Católica, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú Ricardo Goncalves, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal Ralf Klischewski, German University in Cairo, Egypt

Key Dates: • One-Page Abstracts Due: January 20, 2010 • Full Papers Due: February 26, 2010 • Notification of Acceptance: April 12, 2010 • Camera Ready Copy Due: April 26, 2010 For more information please look at the attached CfP, at http://bit.ly/4IMTCx

The Conference Site is at: http://www.amcis2010.org/home/

Book on Interoperability from the Greek Interoperability Centre

A new publication was issued with the support of the Greek Interoperability Centre. The book "Worldwide Interoperability Advances for Businesses and Administrations" edited by Yannis Charalabidis and Dimitris Askounis sums up several approaches in eGovernment and eBusiness systems Interoperability in a global level.

The chapters are as following: CHAPTER 1 Interoperability Practices for Enterprises and Administrations CHAPTER 2 Realising the Perspective Inter-Domain Interoperability: The Practical Power of Hybrid Architectural Approaches in Integrating Processes, Data and Services Between Businesses and Administrations CHAPTER 3 Designing Generic Municipal Services Process Models towards eGovernment Interoperability Infrastructures

CHAPTER 4 Achieving Cross-Country Electronic Documents Interoperability with the help of a CCTS-based Modelling Framework

CHAPTER 5 Towards Standardising Interoperability Levels for Information Systems of Public Administrations

CHAPTER 6 Interoperability Registries in eGovernment Authors of the chapters include Herve Panetto, Evripidis Loukis, Kai Mertins, George Gionis, Sotiris Koussouris, Anastasios Tsitsanis, John Psarras, Fenareti Lampathaki, Spiros Mouzakitis, Till Janner, Christoph Schroth, Volker Hoyer, Demetrios Sarantis, Dimitris Askounis and Yannis Charalabidis. Find more information at: http://www.iocenter.eu/

ORACLE Day on Public Sector Information Systems

ORACLE Hellas organised a succesful event on Public Sector Information Systems, on 24th November 2009, in Athens. Interesting cases were presented by the Ministry of Finance (see: http://www.taxisnet.gr/ and http://www.mou.gr/), the Greek Cadastre Service (see http://www.ktimatologio.gr/). and the Ermis governmental portal of the Ministry of Interior (see http://www.ermis.gov.gr/). The event was attended by more than 200 participants from Public Sector Organisations, ICT Industry and the Research and Practice Community. Yannis Charalabidis of the Greek Interoperability Centre (GIC) presented the advances and outlook in Interoperability Infrastructures, the Greek Interoperability Framework (www.e-gif.gov.gr) and the relevant work done in GIC. Find the slides in the link below (500K): http://pithos.grnet.gr/pithos/rest/yannisx@aegean.gr/files/2009_Interoperability_ORACLE_Day.pdf

Oncoming: Workshop on eProcurement in Rome, 4/12/2009

Have a look at the "eProcurement for SMEs" Workshop which will be held in Rome, Italy, on 4 December 2009. An event organised by CONSIP in cooperation with the eProcurement Forum of ePractice, the workshop aims to present some European eProcurement best practices to facilitate SMEs access to public eProcurement, in line with the European Commission's recommendations that are contained in the 'Code of Best Practices' and in the'European Small Business Act' (SBA). Registration is free-of-charge and can be performed on the workshop's page: http://www.epractice.eu/en/workshops/eprocforsmes.

Oncoming: IDABC EIS Info Day - 1st December 2009, Brussels

IDABC organises the European Interoperability Strategy information day, on December 1st, in Brussels, Belgium. The European Interoperability Strategy (EIS) is an initiative of the IDABC programme that aims to provide direction and to prioritise the undertaking of actions to achieve improved interaction, information exchange and cooperation among public administrations across borders and sectors for the years 2010-2015. The EIS aims to contribute to achieving cross-border and cross-sector interoperability for better and more efficient delivery of electronic public services all around Europe, the so-called "European Public eServices". It moreover complements the European Interoperability Framework. Find more info here: http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7828

Greek Interoperability Case among the best 3 eGovernment Solutions in European eGovernment Awards 2009

The Greek Case ERMIS - "Interoperability Standards and Infrastructures for Service Transformation" was among the 3 Nominees for the 1st Prize in the category of administrative efficiency and effectiveness. In the ceremony held on 19th November 2009, in the Finals of this year European eGovernment Awards, in Malmoe Sweden, 3 cases made it to the final round in category 3, among 27 finalists and more than 180 submitted cases from all over Europe. And the nominees are:

- The Portuguese Case (Licenses an Permits through ATM Networks) – Winner of the 1st Prize - The Greek Case (Interoperability and Service Transformation) - The Austrian Case (Electronic Procurement Systems) The Greek case was presented by members of the Ministry of Interior, Decentralisation and Electronic Governance, the Greek Interoperability Centre / National Technical University of Athens and Unisystems SA.

The selection was made by a jury of independent experts coming from all over Europe and presenting a variety of backgrounds, to ensure the broadest possible coverage in terms of specific knowledge. Key selection criteria to assess the projects were: the level of innovation; the impact and relevance in relation to the objectives of the Awards (increasing mobility and improving access to public services for businesses and citizens in the EU, making public services and administrative processes simpler and more efficient); the potential for good-practice sharing; the management and communication approach outlined.

Next eGovernment Awards Organisation is bound to take place in Poland, in 2011. You may visit the Greek Case at http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/ermis

Find more information for eGOV Awards at http://www.egov2009.se/

Ministerial Delegations from Greece and Cyprus at eGOV 2009

The Greek and Cyprus Ministerial Delegations visited the 2009 eGovernment Awards Exhibition, in the 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference, in Malmoe Sweden.

The delegation visited the booths of eDialogos (eParticipation case in Trikala), ERMIS (Interoperability case in Ministry of Interior), SPOCS (Services Directive Pan-European Pilot) and MOMENTUM (the eParticipation Action).

In the photograph, from left to right: - Costas Agrotis (Director IT Services, Ministry of Finance, Cyprus) - Stefanos Gritzalis (Secretary General of Electronic Government, Ministry of Interior, Decentralisation & Electronic Government, Greece) - Yannis Charalabidis (Ass. Prof. eGovernment, University of the Aegean, Greece) - Antonis Stassis (Project Manager, ERMIS Governmental Portal, Ministry of Interior, Decentralisation & Electronic Government, Greece) - Yannis Ragoussis (Minister of Interior, Decentralisation and Electronic Government, Greece) - Michalis Tamilos (Mayor of Trikala, Greece) - Daniel van Lerberghe (Politech Institute, Belgium) The Greek delegation also included G. Karounos (IT Advisor to the Prime Minister), Lilian Mitrou (Ass. Prof. University of Aegean), Dimitris Giantsis (General Manager, ICT Observatory) and representatives of public sector organisations and enterprises.

ERMIS Interoperability Case at the 2009 eGov Awards

The Greek Case ERMIS - "Interoperability Standards and Infrastructures for Service Transformation" was presented on 18th and 19th November 2009, in the Finals of this year European eGovernment Awards, in Malmoe Sweden.

The Greek case was represented by members of the Ministry of Interior and Electronic Governance, the Greek Interoperability Centre / NTUA and Unisystems SA.

In the picture below, the ERMIS presentation team in front of the Greek Delegation booth.

CEN - Global Interoperability Test Bed (GITB)

The third Open meeting of the GITB (Global Interoperability Test Bed), project took place in Istanbul on 22 October, during the eChallenges conference.

In this meeting, the Greek Interoperability Centre presented views on eGovernment Interoperabilty Testing and Certification.

The following presentations were made:

First Part – motivation of the global eBusiness interoperability test bed - Why testing matters – the need for eBusiness testing, Christine Legner, GITB Project Manager - Testing the interoperability of UBL/NES based applications, Tuncay Namli, SDRC - Towards a Global Test Bed for International Supply chain integration, Hyunbo Cho, Korbit/Postech

Second part – Testing requirement and capabilities - Testing from the eBIZ TCF perspective (eBusiness in textile/clothing and footwear sectors), Nicola Gessa, ENEA - eGovernment and geospatial information, Giuseppe Conti, Fondazione Graphitech - eGovernment Interoperability, Yannis Charalabidis, Greek Interoperability Centre - Interoperability of the Open source domain, Alicja Ciemniewska, Poznan Supercomputing and Network Center

Find more information on this interesting standardisation attempt in www.eBusiness-testbed.eu

The GIC presentation is available here.

Open Government in Samos Prefecture

In a fresh and innovative approach, the Prefecture of Samos is putting its plans for Tourism, Culture, Environment and Recycling on line. Citizens of Samos, Ikaria, Fournoi can now deliberate and exhange ideas, vote on issues and browse related material. After browsing and commenting on the core policy issues of the prefecture, you can say your opinion on questions like: - What could be the most succesful way to promote our cultural sites ? - What is your experiences from Natura regions, in Samos, Ikaria and worldwide ? - Should we change plastic bags to recyclable ones ? - What do you think of various types of "alternative" tourism, offered in Samos ? The system has been developed by the Prefecture of Samos, supported by IMC SA, Ventris SA and the University of the Aegean. You can take part in the discussion (in Greek), here: http://www.samos-dialogos.gr/

eParticipation Projects Meeting

Momentum project held the 3rd eParticipation Projects Concertation Meeting in Athens, on 27th October 2009.

Joined by European Commission representative Dr. T. Chrissafis, the MOMENTUM team and representatives of more than 15 electronic participation projects in European Union, the meeting served as a forum to exchange ideas on the status and further activities of projects.

Also, the next eParticipation Conference and the presence of MOMENTUM in the oncoming eGovernment Ministerial Meeting in Malmoe, Sweden, were discussed.

A view of the concertation meeting, at Electra Palace Hotel, Athens

See more at http://www.ep-momentum.eu/

3rd International Workshop on Interoperability for Administrations and Enterprises

The 3st International Workshop on Interoperability was held in Istanbul, in the context of 2009 eChallenges Conference, on October 22nd, chaired by Y. Charalabidis (on-site), R.Goncalves and M.Missikof (off-site), supporrted by the Greek Interoperability Centre. During the workshop titled “Interoperability Infrastructures and Standards for Administrations and Enterprises” the following presentations were made:

- “Interoperability of UN/CEFACT CCTS based Electronic Business Documents”, Asuman Dogac, Software Research and Development and Consultancy Ltd., Turkey

- “Enabling the Next Generation Interoperable and Easy to Integrate Software Products of the European SMEs with a Semantic Service-oriented Private Adaptation Layer”, Stelios Pantelopoulos, SingularLogic S.A, Greece.

- “eGovernment Interoperability Standards and Infrastructures: Initiatives, Issues and Challenges”, Yannis Charalabidis, NTUA / Greek Interoperability Centre..

Discussion focused on initiatives to promote interoperability at technical, semantic and enteprise levels and exchange of information on standardisation bodies for eGovernment and eBusiness.

S.Pantelopoulos, Y.Charalabidis and A.Dogac at the Interoperability Workshop

For more information, or a copy of presentations please contact yannisx at epu.ntua.gr

International Workshop on Digital Cities

The 1st International Workshop on Digital Cities was held in Istanbul, in conjunction with the 2009 eChallenges Conference, on October 21st. During the workshop titled “Digital Cities: Bringing Digital Public Services to the Local Communities”, chaired by Y. Charalabidis, T. eL Masri and G.Karaseitanidis, the following presentations were made:

- “Digital Cities for the Next Generation: Research Challenges from the Field”, Yannis Charalabidis, National Technical University Athens / ICCS, Greece

- “Building Digital Infrastructures and Services in Municipalities: the Case of Trikala City” Olivera Djordjevic, e-Trikala, Greece

- “Developing Digital Cities in the Context of the Knowledge-Based Economy: Towards an Integrated Approach”, Emmanouil Ergazakis, National Technical University of Athens / ICCS, Greece

- “Developing Digital Cities Best Practices: The Case of Almere”, Tamer el Masri, Almere Kennisstad, Netherlands

Ergazakis, Charalabidis, El Masri and Djordjevic in Digital Cities Workshop

For more information or a copy of presentations please contact yannisx at epu.ntua.gr

Governments Change Fast - Portals Still Struggle

An alarming example of the challenges of Web-based Service Portals appeared after the latest government change in Greece: After the Sunday 4th October national elections in Greece, the new prime minister announced and performed a rapid change in the government structure, merging ministries and establishing new ones. Although very swiftly announced as a presidential decree in the Government Gazette on the 7th October, and effective on the same date as the new ministers assumed power, the change will still need many days (or weeks) to be propagated in Governmental Portals. As one of the hundreds of examples try the central government gateway (http://www.ermis.gov.gr/) where new and old ministries still appear in a mixed picture, on the 10th October(see picture with not existing ministries underlined in red). The situation gets more complicated when diving into the vast numbers of general secretaries and supervised organisations, maintained two and three times in different governmental portals.

The above situation is just the tip of the iceberg, in a process of changing service forms (for the more than 2,000 services and more than 10,000 governmental documents maintained in multiple sites). Hint: Content Syndication is the answer to issues like that. As the National Interoperability Framework (http://www.e-gif.gov.gr/) indicates, information should be maintained by the owner only and automatically propagated in multiple, content “consuming” sites.

OpenGov in Greece: Apply for Secretary General positions

In one of the very first times for Europe and certainy for the first time in Greece, the new government announced a web-based open process for the staffing of more than 80 General Secretary positions. Applicants are invited to submit their CV through a set of web pages, stating their education, experience, social activity an more. Built in record-time after the announcement of the new ministers, the site is an innovative step in the direction opening the selection process for chief secretaries of state. Hint for improvement: Most of the information is entered as unstructured text, limiting the ability to screen applicants via automated tools. Visit www.opengov.gr

Vote for the Greek eGovernment Case in the European Awards

You now can visit the ePractice Web Site, see all the eGov Awards Finalists and vote for the best case. Do that, by visiting http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/ermis

GIC selected among European eGovernment Awards 2009 Finalists

The case “Interoperability Standards and Infrastructures for Service Transformation”, developed by the Greek Interoperability centre in collaboration with the Greek Ministry of Interior, was selected among the finalists for the 2009 European eGovernment Awards, in the category 3 “eGovernment enabling administrative efficiency and effectiveness”. The European eGovernment Awards is being organized by the European Commission and is one of the most prestigious eGovernment excellence contests worldwide. The call received a total of 259 submissions from European Member states in June 2009 and finalists were announced in September 2009. The eGovernment Awards finals will take place in Malmoe, Sweden, November 2009. More information at http://www.epractice.eu/awards

GIC in AMCIS 2009 Conference, San Francisco, US

Members of the Greek Interoperability Centre joined AMCIS 2009 (15th Americas Conference on Information Systems) in San Francisco, California, August 6 - 9, 2009, presenting 3 research papers in the core programme of the Conference, within the eGovernment Track (chair: Prof. M.Janssen). In a session devoted to Government Interoperability and Infrastructures, chaired by Y. Charalabidis, R. Goncalves, R.Klishewski and E.Hovy, latest eGovernment Interoperability developments were presented, by researchers and practitioners from Europe, US and Asia.

More information at http://www.amcis2009.org/

San Francisco view from the Coit Tower (Nikon D90)

GIC visits ORACLE Headquarters, in Silicon Value, US

Members of the Greek Interoperability Centre visited ORACLE Corporation Headquarters in San Francisco, California, during August 2009. ORACLE – GIC workshops covered Enterprise 2.0, ORACLE Application Framework, Enterprise Modelling Suites and Business Applications, building on the existing collaboration between the two organisations.

Fenareti Lampathaki, Yannis Charalabidis (GIC Manager) and Christina (Gibb) Kolotouros, ORACLE Product Manager

GIC visits MICROSOFT Research Centers in Redmond, US

Members of the Greek Interoperability Centre visited Microsoft Research Centers in Redmond, Seattle, during August 2009. Following a running collaboration between Microsoft Hellas and GIC, the teams exchanged research ideas and outlook for future interoperability standards and services worldwide, in the area of electronic Government and electronic business.

Yannis Charalabidis, Euripidis Loukis, George Kanellopoulos (MICROSOFT Specialist), Fenareti Lampathaki, Spyros Passas and George Gionis, in Microsoft Redmond

Semantic Week 2009, Amstelveen, The Netherlands

Yannis Charalabidis for the Greek Interoperability Centre served as the Keynote Speaker in the “Semantic Week 2009”, held in Amstelveen, The Netherlands, on June 22-26, 2009. His speech “A Collaborative View on Semantics” stressed the importance of collaborative methods and tools in the creation and formulation of semantics, especially in the age of social media and massive collaboration web sites. The Semantic Week was organised by STASIS and supported by a range of EU projects and initiatives including SOA4All, BREIN, COIN, NESSI, SEMIC.EU, the European Commission and the IBIS Journal.

More information at http://www.semanticweek.eu/

Semantic Week Keynote, June 23, Amstelveen, The Netherlands

Greek Interoperability Days in July 2009

The Greek IC organized the second Interoperability days event in July 2009, where prominent researchers and practitioners had the opportunity to address a selected audience of GIC researchers and members of GIC community in Greece. Prof. M.Janssen (TU Delft), Dr. M. Missikof (IASI-CNR, IT), Prof. R. Goncalves (UNINOVA, PT) and D. Osimo (Tech4i2) delivered several days of academic presentations, case descriptions and organized workshops targeting highly innovative approaches for semantic interoperability, Web 2.0, Future Internet infrastructures and B2B interoperability.

David Osimo (Tech4i2) in a Web 2.0 Workshop in GIC premises, Athens

Semantics Week in the Netherlands

Heading off to Amsterdam, where on Monday and Tuesday 22-23 June 2009 I will deliver a speech to the "Semantic Week" organised by fellow researchers and projects. In parallel to the semantic week, the ICE Conference in Leiden, with important events on Interoperability.