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Public
Administration and E-Commerce in Europe (PACE): Project Summary
The PACE project (IST-1999-13041) is dedicated to promoting the
effective use of electronic commerce technologies by European Public
Administrations (PAs). E-Commerce promises to profoundly change the
way PAs work with their citizens, business communities, and other
public sector organisations – as well as new forms of service
provision, it enables increased productivity, new job creation, and
control of public spending. However, many PAs are unsure on how to
best exploit the potential of e-commerce technologies, and have been
lagging behind the private sector, even though they have a major role
to play in stimulating the wider e-commerce rise in Europe. The
public sector is responsible for over 40% of the European GDP; by
creating a critical mass of users, raising awareness, and spreading
effective demand, Pas are central to the successful use of
e-commerce. The CEC itself believes that “public administrations
will have a key role to play through their procurement power and
their early implementation of key electronic commerce technologies
... strong synergies between ‘electronic commerce’ and
‘electronic administration’ should be actively encouraged
to develop, for the benefit of all involved” (A European
Initiative in Electronic Commerce).
Aims and Methods
PACE aims at enhancing and accelerating PAs’ e-commerce
learning processes by the formation of an integrated learning
environment for the benefit of relevant target users: public
administrations, companies, e-commerce R&D projects and
policy-makers. PACE consists of a series of measures targeted on
these key audiences. Specific studies feeding into PACE’s
learning environment include trend mapping reports and newsletters
(on technological, market, and legal themes), surveys of European PA
e-commerce, and best practice case study reports. The sharing and
dissemination of knowledge is pursued in PACE’s active
involvement in working groups and conferences. Working group
workshops are aligned with the Telecities programme – the
main European association of local authorities – so as to
facilitate synergies, high participation, and relevancy to the
project’s target audience.
Knowledge sharing and dissemination
also takes place through both physical and virtual training. Physical
training is hosted by Europe’s largest centre for e-commerce
demonstrations, Echangeur, where training and tutorial
packages specifically dedicated to key staff in PA e-Commerce are
being offered. Virtual training and support is available through the
PACE website, www.pace-eu.net.
The website provides remote access to the project’s studies and
reports, a Virtual Resource Centre (a reservoir of up-to-date
information/knowledge, products/services and good and bad experiences
in PA e-commerce), a Virtual Campus (an online training environment
allowing the teaching of knowledge produced in the project), and an
e-mail operated helpdesk facility aimed at satisfying enquiries and
providing advice.
For more information on PACE
please visit our website, or contact: Mark Winskel at TechMaPP,
Technology Management and Policy Programme (TechMaPP), Department of
Business Studies, University of Edinburgh, 50 George Square,
Edinburgh EH8 9JY, UK
Tel: + 44 131 651 1560 Fax: +
44 131 651 1778, Mobile: 0779 981 2043, E-Mail: M.Winskel@ed.ac.uk
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