About a year ago, I predicted that the 2004 eGov challenge would be digital identity management. According to Digital ID World Magazine, digital identity management did indeed hit the fast track. That it’s been a “hot” issue became clear when the Gillmor Gang got geeky with Phil Windley over it. Also in eGov, we have seen a growing interst in the field, but it has not been singled out as much as I had expected in the eGov domain. I’m sure it’ll come in 2005.
To round up 2004, here is my personal list of highlights in e-government and enterprise architecture, and a few more general ones:
eGov question(s) of the year
Are leaders of governments losing interest in e-Gov and its government to citizen, government to business, and government to government objectives. Is the job so complex that it will take another 20 years to reach the end state; and, if so, who has the staying power? Is the energy of the last six years escaping like the air in a leaky balloon? From Frank at i-gov
Good questions, Frank.
eGov programme of the year
Canada’s Business Transformation Enablement Program (BTEP), which does not brand itself as an eGov programme per se, but is exactly the kind of programme that takes us from eGov to iGov. Well done, Gary and Neil and all.
As much as I like the Canadian GSRM, however, I take advantage of the fact that I do this list, and give my office and the Danish e-Government the prize for the eGov reference model of the year with our Interoperability Framework.
eGov memorandum of the year
Swedish Statskontoret’s Public administration in the e-society, a shortened version of Den offentliga förvaltningen i e-samhället.
eGov advertisement of the year
FirstGov.gov’s Uncle Sams TV Public Service Announcement
Boldest move by a new EU member state
Poland and Wlodzimierz Marcinski, the Polish Minister of Science and Information Technology, for standing up against software patents. Thank You, Poland.
eGov survey of the year
The UN Global E-government Readiness Report 2004. Denmark comes in second (to the US) in overall readiness, and enters the top 10 on e-participation (whatever brings us there, I wonder). Other suveys during the year are also noteworthy: Accenture, that said that Denmark has reached a plateau, and IBM/Economist, where Denmark is also found to be the e-readiest.
EA book of the year
Jane Carbone‘s IT Architecture Toolkit is my new favorite book on enterprise architecture.
IT governance book of the year
Peter Weill and and Jeanne Ross brought us IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results.
EA article of the year
Ruth Malan and Dana Bredemeyer: Guiding Principles for Enterprise Architects.
Best EA-student blog
Signe Wagner. I’ve suggested all my students to run blogs. Signe has taken up this challenge, and has created a beautiful blog.
Takeover of the year
There were many mergers and acquisitions in 2004. To close the year up, Gartner buys META Group.
Browser of the year
I’ve rediscovered the web with Firefox.
Email service of the year
Gmail. Google’s email service is not only a killer app in itself, but also a taste of what we can expect in terms of rich web environments.
News aggregator of the year
Bloglines. My subscriptions.
Most annoying trend on the internet
Spam. Blog comment spam takes the special prize. It is sad that innovations like Trackback are suffering.
I have reopened for comments here in the blog, but have taken several measures to avoid spam. Let’s sse if it works.
2 Comments.
Enterprise Architecture lost?
Lesson: Outsourcing cannot solve putting the chicken before the enterprise architecture egg.
Times learned: Too few to bother counting.
Are buyers of computer books idiots?
Most authors of computer books write for their enjoyment, love to share their ideas with others and give back to the community. The vast majority of authors in the computer book field hold down day jobs and write at night…