ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT IN THE AGE OF UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING

1st Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Schrader

2nd Supervisor:Prof. Dr. Techn. Maria Wimmer

This thesis aims to investigate the feasibility of a possible future scenario for egovernment – ubiquitous government. Background study of u-government area provides insights into state-of-the-art technologies and u-government solutions. Additionally, the overall necessity of u-government and its future potential are discussed. Based on the analysis of present e-government systems and their limitations, prospective u-government solutions are proposed and their technical, economical and operational feasibility evaluated. The three proposed ubiquitous scenarios suggest that there are a few technical limitations that hinder large-scale deployment of ubiquitous services. Furthermore, financial issues are present in most u-government solutions. The results of the user acceptance survey imply that generally people are more or less positively minded about using possible ubiquitous government services and believe such services would provide them with more comfortable and faster functionalities – suggesting that user acceptance towards u-government is rather positive and thus, u-government solutions operationally feasible from the user-centered aspect. However, concerns about personal data manipulation in ubiquitous services and the general easiness of privacy invasions through ubiquitous technologies were expressed, pointing out the importance of privacy in ubiquitous systems design. As a general recommendation, it is suggested that the implementation of u-government solutions should follow the timeline of technological maturation as more mature technologies also tend to ensure the financial and technical feasibility of u-government solutions.