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/