E-participation means the use of ICT to broaden and deepen political participation by enabling citizens to connect with one another and with their elected representatives. This is a concept which is much more difficult to implement than it is to understand. With the development of the TID+ project, citizens and officials are handed a tool which is based on seven years of practical experience.

The Secretariat of Special Assignments Minister for Electronic Government Affairs of Latvia is continuing the implementation of a pilot project aimed at ensuring a greater availability of electronic services from state and local government institutions. This is part of a project known as the �E-Government Portfolio�, and it, in turn, is part of the national programme �Development and Improvement of the Infrastructure of E-Government�. The project has received co-financing from the European Union. This year, as part of the pilot project, 28 E-services will be developed in all. Centralised access to them is available at the www.latvija.lv portal.

The public sector is by far the largest producer, collector and processor of information. Public sector information (PSI) is a valuable source of information which the private sector can use to develop added value products and services. Another benefit is an improved flow of information from the public sector to the citizen. Public sector institutions must be open, transparency and fair in processing applications for the reuse of PSI. A combination of high quality PSI and the latest information and communications technologies is creating a multitude of opportunities in the exploitation of PSI.

Estonia�s Tax and Customs Board was one of the country�s first government institutions to create a user-friendly and rapid electronic communications channels for its clients. Most taxpayers in Estonia handle tax and customs business on the Internet, and it can now be said that all of the tax and customs obligations which relate to a broad user base can be fulfilled via E-channels.

Second Life is a three-dimensional interactive environment in which users are represented by avatars. This is one of a number of virtual worlds that can be accessed via the Internet and offers a glimpse at what the Net will look like in the future. Second Life was launched by Linden Lab in 2003, and it has become a popular social environment with a user base of more than 12 million people.

This case study focuses on a project financed by the European Commission, �Information System Integration with the HR-XML Standard and Development of Electronic Job-Search Services on the Internet.� The project partners included the Slovenian Employment Service and the Swedish Employment Service. Technical documentation and software modifications for application of the HR-XML standard in the relevant information system were handled by outsourced service providers. The results of the project include modifications to the software of the Labour Exchange�s information system. It is now compatible with the HR-XML standard. The agency�s public Web site has been restructured to add new electronic services which are ready to import and export data structured in accordance with HR-XML.

When ensuring public order and security, the police today can offer services to people which are made possible by modern information technologies. This helps to enhance public trust in the police, and it also improves the effectiveness of police work. The police need information from the databases of government institutions and the European Union�s information systems for crime prevention and investigation. This article focuses on how police information systems are interfaced with online systems through E-services and mobile E-police solutions.

Everyone needs geographic information � maps, property border plans, geodesic data, various kinds of communications and road infrastructure maps, etc. It is very important to make sure that such information is available in a single location � as an electronic service on a special Internet portal. The Secretariat of Special Assignments Minister for Electronic Government Affairs is working hard on creating such a portal, and Minister Ina Gudele is an active participant in the process. In this interview, she talks about what has been achieved and what remains to be done in creating a unified portal for geospatial information.

The Department of State Information Systems of the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications has just released a document that is called �Instructions and Methodology for the Semantic Description of Databases and Operations Performed by Databases.�

When companies grow, they usually face higher IT infrastructure expenses. Today, however, this no longer need be true. The process of virtualisation allows organisations to use their existing servers in new ways, as opposed to needing to buy new ones.