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Daily Archives: January 8, 2008

UN E-Government Survey 2008: From E-Government to Connected Governance

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UN E-Government Survey 2008: From E-Government to Connected Governance (257 pages, PDF)

  • “The results of the global survey indicate that governments are moving forward in egovernment development around the world. However, given the high demands placed by e-government on a multitude of foundational pillars which include prerequisites of infrastructure, appropriate policies, capacity development, ICT applications, and relevant content that need to be in place to fully implement e-government services, progress is slow. Only a few governments have made the necessary investment to move from egovernment applications per se to a more integrated connected governance stage…This year Sweden (0.9157) surpassed the United States as the leader. Three
    Scandinavian countries took the top three spots in the 2008 Survey, with Denmark (0.9134) and Norway (0.8921) in second and third place respectively. The United States (0.8644) came in fourth. In this year’s global e-government readiness rankings, the European countries made up 70% of the top 35 countries while the Asian countries made up 20% of the top 35. A large part of the success of the European countries has been their investment in infrastructure and connectivity, most notably in broadband infrastructure. It is worth
    noting that in this year’s Survey, there were no countries in the top 35 from the African, Caribbean, Central American, Central Asian, South American, and Southern Asian regions.”

    • Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis

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    “In a Commonwealth Fund-supported study comparing preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries, researchers found that the United States placed last. While the other nations improved dramatically between the two study periods—1997–98 and 2002–03—the U.S. improved only slightly on the measure.” “In Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis (Health Affairs, Jan./Feb. 2008), Ellen… Continue Reading

    Magistrate Judge Rules White House Must Answer Questions About Missing White House E-mails

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    Follow up to postings on missing White House E-mail, from the National Security Archive: “In an Order issued today, Magistrate Judge Facciola of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the White House to answer questions about over 5 million missing e-mails generated between 2003-2005. Noting that the need for information… Continue Reading

    Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Reports U.S. Health Care Spending Growth Accelerated in 2006

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    Press release: “Health care spending growth in the United States accelerated slightly in 2006, increasing 6.7 percent compared to 6.5 percent in 2005, which was the slowest rate of growth since 1999. Health care spending, however, continues to outpace overall economic growth and general inflation, which grew 6.1 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, in 2006.… Continue Reading

    New GAO Reports: IRS Information Security, Improving Freight Mobility

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    Information Security: IRS Needs to Address Pervasive Weaknesses GAO-08-211, January 8, 2008: “IRS made limited progress toward correcting previously reported information security weaknesses. It has corrected or mitigated 29 of the 98 information security weaknesses that GAO reported as unresolved at the time of its last review. For example, IRS implemented controls for user IDs… Continue Reading

    Human Rights Watch: Iran’s Broadening Clampdown on Independent Activism

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    “Individuals from an ever widening range of groups in Iran are subject to arrest on security grounds for political activism and peaceful dissent against the government. Those arrested are frequently detained in facilities operating outside the regular prison administration, most notoriously in Section 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison, where they may be subjected to torture… Continue Reading

    United States and Libya Sign Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement

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    Fact Sheet: U.S.-Libya Science and Technology Cooperation: Bilateral Framework Science and Technology Cooperation Agreements State Department Media Note: “The United States and the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya [January 3, 2008] signed a bilateral Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement during a ceremony at the U.S. Department of State. Under Secretary of State for Democracy… Continue Reading

    DOT OIG Aviation Industry Performance Report

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    Aviation Industry Performance Report (58 pages, PDF): “On December 27, we issued the ninth in a series of our periodic updates to our Aviation Industry Performance Report. The report graphically identifies trends in aviation demand and capacity, aviation system performance, airline finances and service to small communities. This edition of the report focused on the… Continue Reading