Common Public Sector Digital Communication Campaign (DK0039)

A comprehensive common public sector digital communication campaign will be launched in November 2013 with a view to supporting the effort to bring everybody on board the “digital express”. The idea of the campaign is to place focus on the fact that help is available. The website of “Learn more about ICT” (lærmereomit.dk) provides contact information about the many organisations, e.g. libraries, organisations representing older persons and adult education associations that offer ICT courses for special target groups. Instruction videos and other help and support are also available to citizens.
Danes will experience the campaign in the press and mass media, and all public authorities will have material at their disposal to be able to communicate the messages directly in the encounter with citizens.

Commitments 4, 5, and 6: Digital communication and inclusion

Commitment text

4: User friendliness requirements regarding digital self-service solutions

Up to 2015, there will be more and more areas where citizens are to encounter public authorities by going digital. […] The Government will facilitate the encounter with public authorities to maximum extent. Therefore, work is in progress to make self-service solutions as user friendly as possible - among other things by creating conditions for better data quality and by establishing coherence in the systems. […]

For this purpose, the Government has drawn up a development guide for self- service solutions with 24 minimum requirements regarding user friendliness and accessibility in public self-service solutions when suppliers are to develop or revise a solution. […] All self- service solutions that become mandatory […] must meet all the requirements listed in the development guide regarding user friendliness and accessibility.

5: Plan for inclusion during the transition to digital communication

Public authorities’ plan for inclusion covers a broad spectrum: from ensuring that help is integrated in the public self-service solutions to preparing and training the employees who encounter citizens on a day-to-day basis. The citizens who need help will find that it is provided at citizen service centres, at libraries, and in readily accessible data rooms nationwide that provide computer assistance to senior citizens.

Focus is at the same time also placed on stimulating citizens to explore the digital tools by showing examples of how digital technologies can open up an altogether new world of opportunities. The effort is planned and implemented in collaboration with e.g. the organisations representing older persons and the libraries that contribute to extending the reach of the work.

6: Common public sector digital communication campaign

A comprehensive common public sector digital communication campaign will be launched in November 2013 with a view to supporting the effort to bring everybody on board the “digital express”. The idea of the campaign is to place focus on the fact that help is available.

The website “Learn more about ICT” (laermereomit.dk) provides contact information about the many organisations, e.g. libraries, organisations representing older persons and adult education associations that offer ICT courses for special target groups. Instruction videos and other help and support are also available to citizens.

Danes will experience the campaign in the press and mass media, and all public authorities will have material at their disposal to be able to communicate the messages directly during encounters with citizens.

Responsible Institution: None specified for any commitment

Supporting Institutions: Commitment 4: None specified

Commitment 5: Senior Citizens Associations;

Commitment 6: Senior Citizens Associations and organizations having ICT courses for special target groups

Start date: Commitment 6 - November 2013                    End date: Not specified

Editorial Note: The full text of the commitment can be found in the action plan

Commitment Aim:

Commitments 4, 5 and 6 are part of the national IT strategy.^{[Note 8: The national IT strategy for 2011-2015, AFD, http://www.digst.dk/Strategier/Digitaliseringsstrategi-2011-15 ]}

These commitments aim to improve the quality and user experience of self-service solutions in public IT. This is particularly important as more and more services can only be done online.

Status

Commitment 4:

Mid-term: Substantial

The government published the user friendliness requirements and the guide on the open government website. However, the Agency for Digitisation (AFD) recognized that more work needed to be done for all mandatory self-service solutions to meet the minimum requirements stipulated in the guide and in the commitment language. For further information, please see the IRM mid-term progress report.^{[Note 9: Denmark IRM mid-term report 2014-15, http://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/01/Denmark_IRM%20Progress%20Report%202014-15_Final_eng.pdf]}

End of term: Substantial

No additional progress on this commitment has been made since the midterm progress report, but Denmark’s initial IT strategy named eGovernment 2011-2015 has been replaced with a new strategy named Digital Strategy 2016-2020. The new strategy also sets out a goal to develop a “user friendly and simple digital public sector.”^{[Note 10: Focus Area 1, A user friendly and foreseeable public sector, AFD, http://www.digst.dk/Strategier/Initiativer/Let-hurtigt-og-god-kvalitet/Fokusomraade-1]} According to the government, this new strategy is the next logical step of user- friendliness and designing the services to fit the needs of citizens and companies. One of the commitments in the new strategy is to develop more cohesive user journeys, which will provide more user-friendly and coordinated online-services to citizens and companies. Another commitment seeks to promote better and more cohesive welfare services, which will provide citizens with more cohesive service when responsibility is split between authorities.

Commitments 5 and 6 were completed at the time of the mid-term evaluation.

As described in Denmark’s self-assessment regarding Commitment #5, the AFD established a National Network for Digital Inclusion in 2015 that outlines citizens’ challenges with digital communication. The government organized events for target groups - including senior citizens, the disabled, youth, and immigrants – to inform the inclusion plan.  As part of the inclusion plan, citizens now have access to online training to get better acquainted with the portal (borger.dk) and self-service solutions.^{[Note 11: Online training in borger.dk: https://www.ekurser.nu/kursus/185]}  More details about this commitment’s implementation can be found in the IRM Progress Report 2014-15.^{[Note 12: Denmark IRM Progress Report 2014-15 http://www.opengovpartnership.org/country/denmark/irm]}

Fulfillment of Commitment #6 was a large-scale digital communication campaign between August 2014 and January 2015, as reported in the IRM progress report 2014-15.^{[Note 13: Denmark IRM mid-term report 2014-15, http://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/01/Denmark_IRM%20Progress%20Report%202014-15_Final_eng.pdf]}  The government worked in close cooperation with local authorities on this comprehensive media-based campaign (online, press and outdoor advertising) as well as conducting Generation Rallies to encourage digital communication with public authorities.

Did it open government?

Commitment 4

Access to information: Did not change

Several stakeholders emphasized that this commitment, along with several other commitments in the Danish action plan, conflates eGovernment with open government. This commitment aims to improve user services, but not to make them more open or transparent. A better or user-friendlier service does not ensure better access to more information. The commitment’s relationship to open government is thus not clear and as a result there is no change with respect to opening government.

Commitment 5

Access to information: Did not change

Echoing the previous commitment, this commitment is part of Denmark’s national IT strategy spanning 2011-2015. The inclusion plan, aimed at bringing stakeholders into the digitization process to improve individuals’ access to technology, was meant to ensure that the elderly are not left behind - that would worsen the intergenerational “digital divide.” The information and services in question were available offline before the introduction of e-government, but are now only available online - there is no additional information and the level of access is the same, thus there is no change in access to information.

As stated in the IRM progress report,^{[Note 14: Denmark IRM mid-term report 2014-15, http://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/01/Denmark_IRM%20Progress%20Report%202014-15_Final_eng.pdf]} various groups opposed to e-government (including the DaneAge Association, the senior citizens group Ældresagen, and leading Danish newspapers) had argued that making government services available only online would exclude some citizens from accessing important government information.

Commitment 6

Access to information: Did not change

Civic Participation: Did not change

Public Accountability: Did not change

The digital communication campaign to increase awareness of the importance of ICT and ICT training represents a laudable effort to reach out to stakeholders, but is not relevant to OGP values and did not change government openness.

Carried forward?

User friendliness of public IT infrastructure is part of Denmark’s next national IT strategy, including the following focus areas:^{[Note 15: Focus Area 9, Digitization for everyone, AFD, http://www.digst.dk/Strategier/Initiativer/Tryghed-og-tillid/Fokusomraade-9]}

• Focus area 9.2, “digitization for everyone,” outlines strategies for educating children in the use of ITC as well as increasing knowledge of ITC to citizens and companies. The focus area is part of a ‘security and trust’ track within the IT strategy.
• Track 2 of the national IT strategy ^{[Note 16: Track 2 of the national IT strategy, AFD, http://www.digst.dk/Strategier/Initiativer/Gode-vilkaar-for-vaekst]} characterizes public ITC as a motor for growth, and aims to improve the ITC-environment for the business community, increase  efficiency within the supply sector, and use public data as a motor for growth.