ECSCW'99 workshop 'Broadening Our Understanding:
Community Networks and Other Forms of Computer Supported Community Work'
Copenhagen, Denmark, September 12th 1999.

One-Stop Service -
Integrating Local, Regional and National Public Service via Internet

Position Paper

Elisabeth Andersson and Sara Eriksén
Department of Human Work Science
University of Karlkrona/Ronneby
Sweden
Elisabeth Andersson@iar.hk-r.se, Sara.Eriksen@iar.hk-r.se

Blekinge - a county with high ambitions and expectations concerning IT In the spring of 1996, IT-Blekinge presented an ambitious program for strategical and cooperative planning and supporting of the adaptation of IT in the county of Blekinge, in the south-east corner of Sweden. IT-Blekinge was then a newly formed, non-profit association for promoting regional growth through shared responsibility for sensible use and development of modern information technology. The goals were set high:
'A new information society, in which information and communications technology support and strengthen human production, is emerging. […] Artistic, scientific and entreprenneurial creativity must be supported in various ways. […] The purpose of this program is to make the region a model with regard to the utilisation of information technology in regional development.' (IT-Blekinge 1996)

Among the objectives envisaged in the project were the following:

The program was devided into subprograms, in order to administrate cooperative initiatives among the members of the association and with other actors in the county. These subprograms are such that they tend to overlap in real life. Thus the One-Stop Service project which we present briefly in this position paper, could primarily be seen as an initiative taken within the area of the sub-program 'IT and Society', and there under the suplimentary program number 5, 'Democracy and Social Services'. Yet in practice it also involves 'IT and Public Health', 'IT and Infrastructure', 'IT and Rural Development', 'IT and SMEs', 'IT, R&D and Regional Development' - in fact all the subprograms.

Even as the planning and organizing got started on a regional level, the emerging new information society was offering new possibilities to step beyond the boundaries that categorized the organization of the cooperative project and the structuring of the program…

One-Stop Service

The One-Stop Service project in Blekinge is a research and development project that is being co-funded by IT-Blekinge and NUTEK, the Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development. The aim of the project is to explore new possibilities, and develop new forms, for citizens' access to public information and public services via Internet. The project group consists of representatives from Blekinge County's five municipalities, the County Council, the regional Social Insurance Office, the County Tax Authority, the County Labour board, the National Board of Student Aid's regional office and the University of Karlskrona/Ronneby.

We - Elisabeth Andersson and Sara Eriksén - are taking part in the project as researchers doing action research, i.e. we are actively involved in the inter-organizational cooperation aiming to coordinate information and services on-line across and beyond old sectorial boundaries which is a central part of the project. We participate in project meetings and take part in the analysis and design of prototypes for on-line public information and public services. We are also in the process of establishing focus groups and reference groups for the further development and testing of ideas, scenarios and prototypes. During the autumn of 1999, we will be using the One-Stop Service project as a concrete - and complex! - live example for students studying Participatory Design on the third year of our Master's program for systems designers at the University of Karlskrona/Ronneby.

The initial ideas and themes which have developed within the project, as well as the participatory approach on a regional and local level, which, so far, seems to be functioning well, have aroused interest and willingness to cooperate actively from the central Swedish government and its various agencies. So we are faced with a challenging opportunity to do participatory design of public information and service both vertically and horisontally, linking local, regional and national information in ways which will make sense to citizens who are looking for close-to-home help. We call it, metaphorically, designing for 'genius loci' in a global context.

Bibliographies and backgrounds

Elisabeth Andersson is at present finishing her Master's thesis at the University of Karlskrona/Ronneby in southern Sweden. She has studied for four years within a relatively new, interdisciplinary Masters' program called People, Computers and Work (MDA is the Swedish acronym), where the subject areas Computer Science and Human Work Science are combined in educating systems developers for the future. Elisabeth plans to continue her studies and on-going research work in the One-Stop Service project as a PhD student within Human Work Science. She has worked part-time over the past three years in various developmental IT projects for the municipality of Ronneby in Blekinge. In these projects, she has used methods developed within the field of Participatory Design to involve citizens in the community in the continual design and development of public information systems on-line.

Sara Eriksén is a senior lecturer in the department of Human Work Science at the University of Karlskrona/Ronneby. She teaches part-time within the MDA program. Besides the One-Stop Service project described in this paper, Sara is involved in a research project focusing on the use, design and continual support and development of computer support for public administration in one-stop shops, and the on-going integration of such systems with public electronic information systems. This is a research project that is being financed by the Swedish Council for Work Life Research. During the past three years, she has also participated in the EC project ATTACH (Advanced Trans-European Telematics Applications for Community Help, UR 1001, 1996-98), in which the University of Karlskrona/Ronneby was a partner. She is at present involved in the UK-/Nordic Initiative on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which is being sponsored by the Research Councils of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and the UK.

The University of Karlskrona/Ronneby was founded in 1989. It is a young and small, but rapidly expanding university, with approx. 3,000 students and 330 employees. The main emphasis in both research and teaching is on IT in use - i.e. on information technology and how it is used. In teaching, we emphasize problem-based learning. Students work in projects, often in collaboration with businesses and other organizations. Cross-disciplinary course modules and cooperative projects are offered, involving students and staff from different subject areas. Networks and contact points between the University and regional industries, small and medium-sized enterprises and other organizations are also deliberately cultivated and supported. Through research projects as well as student projects, through organized meetings and visits, theories can be put to test; thus they are put into 'real life' proportion by being presented in the context of, and directly related to, everyday worklife experiences and needs.

References

IT-Blekinge (1996): Information Technology in the region of Blekinge. Program document for the association IT-Blekinge, as presented on the World Wide Web. See http://www.itblekinge.se/itblek/engwebbn/dokument/iteng.htm. (Created 1996-10-25, accessed by me most recently 1999-08-16).
Eriksén, Sara (1998), Knowing and the Art of IT Management. An inquiry into work practices in one-stop shops. Ph.D. thesis, Lund, Sweden: Department of Informatics, Lund University.
Eriksén, Sara (1999), Globalization and 'Genius Loci'; From Intentional Spaces to Purposeful Places. Working paper for UK-/Nordic workshop held in Ronneby April 15th-16th 1999 on the theme 'Social Theory and ICT'. See: http://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/virtsoc/nordic/eriksen.htm. (Accessed by me most recently 99-07-15).