The UNeGov.net - Community of Practice for Electronic Governance initiative was established in 2005 in order to transfer the experience gained through the e-Macao Project to other parts of the world, particularly to developing countries. The aim is to build a global Community of Practice, comprising experts and practitioners interested in developing, sharing and applying concrete solutions for Electronic Governance.
The initiative established an activity framework comprising: (1) a community portal to document all activities of the community, coordinate its work and maintain a repository of resources relevant to Electronic Governance, (2) a series of network-building workshops around the world, (3) a series of capacity-building schools and courses on various aspects of Electronic Governance, (4) a community-wide practice in collaborative problem-solving based on the common repository of resources, (5) a series of state-of-the-art and stateof-practice reports about Electronic Governance in various countries, (6) a curriculum for training public officials in planning, development and management for Electronic Governance, (7) projects promoting Good Governance through Electronic Governance, and (8) an International Conference on the Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance.
Within this framework, community actions are carried out in the scope of various thematic areas including: legislation, financing, organization, planning, coordination, human capacity development, e-readiness, e-participation, e-procurement, software infrastructure, public services, interoperability, standards for Electronic Governance, and others.

The UNeGov.net initiative collaborates with a large number of institutions world-wide such as:

• Center for Technology in Government, University of Albany, New York
• Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao (IFT)
• Microsoft Corporation
• National IT Development Agency, Government of Nigeria (NITDA)
• National e-Government Strategy Limited, Nigeria
• University of the South, Bahia Blanca, Argentina
• ICT Authority, Government of Mongolia
• ICT Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Macau University of Science and Technology.

Since its inauguration at the World Symposium on Information Society in Tunesia in 2005, an array of events have been carried out under the UNeGov.net initiative, such as:

• Workshops in Argentina, China, Colombia, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Nigeria, Palestine, Tunesia, and USA.
• Schools in Argentina, Colombia, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Nigeria, and North Korea.
• Other events, such as invited talks at conferences, in Austria, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Ghana, Singapore, Vietnam, and USA.

In addition to these events, four thematic areas were developed:

• Strategic Planning - a project on Strategic IT Planning for Public Organizations is currently executed to develop experience and a methodology for carrying out strategic IT planning in the context of public-sector organizations. The first planning exercise has been conducted for Macao Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT), a government institution of higher education specializing in hospitality and tourism studies. Funded by IFT, the exercise was carried out between September and December 2006.

• Semantic Interoperability - a project on Semantic Interoperability for Electronic Government was established to develop foundational and technical solutions to the problem of semantic interoperability, particularly for public organizations, and disseminate the findings among e-Government practitioners. The project is a collaboration between UNU-IIST and Microsoft and is jointly funded by both institutions.

• Software Infrastructure Development for e-Government - this thematic area is a direct follow-up of the infrastructure-building tasks carried out by the e-Macao project. The objective is to build a formal foundation - from models, to specifications, to reference implementations - for rigorous development of infrastructure software for e-Government. Underpinning the delivery and rapid development of Electronic Public Services, the infrastructure comprises five main components: (1) Front-Office Framework, (2) Back-Office Framework, (3) Workflow Infrastructure, (4) Messaging Framework, and (5) Infrastructure Management Services.

• Software for Communities of Practice - this thematic area is a consequence of the efforts to build a portal for UNeGov.net, generalized to support communities of practice in any domain. The objective is to build a formal foundation - from models, to specifications to reference implementations - for rigorous development of software that enables the launching, growth and sustained operations (indeed, the whole lifecycle) of online communities of practice.

• UNeGov.net - Community of Practice (2008)

During 2008, the UNeGov.net initiative was present in: Africa - one workshop and two schools organized in Nigeria and Cameroon; Asia - three workshops and five schools organized in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia; and South America - one workshop and four schools organized in Colombia and Ecuador. The community currently comprises 630 members from 52 countries.

Continuing a program of International Government Fellows established in 2007, two government officials from Maldives and India visited the Center for two months as Fellows. They conducted research and project development in the areas strategically important for the development of Electronic Governance in their countries: a framework for readiness assessment in support of Electronic Government planning for Maldives, and a model for policy interventions in support of sustainable development of Electronic Governance for India. The results were published in the proceedings of ICEGOV2008.

During 2008, UNeGov.net organized 16 workshops and schools:

1. 10th UNeGov.net School on Electronic Governance - Foundation, Abuja, Nigeria, 7 - 8 March 2008 - The school was co-organized by the National IT Development Agency, Federal Government of Nigeria; Federal Capital Territory Administration, Abuja, Nigeria; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. Around 30 people attended the school, mostly government officials from various ministries and academics from Nigeria.
2. 12th UNeGov.net Workshop on Electronic Governance - Network-Building, Yaounde, Cameroon, 12 March 2008 - The workshop was co-organized by the National Agency for IT Development, Government of Cameroon; University of Yaounde I; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. It was attended by about 100 participants from government, academia and industry in Cameroon, and comprised several presentations by local speakers.
3. 11th UNeGov.net School on Electronic Governance - Foundation, Yaounde, Cameroon, 13 - 15 March 2008 - The school was co-organized by the National Agency for IT Development, Government of Cameroon; University of Yaounde I; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. Around 70 participants attended the school, mostly government officials from various ministries and academics from different universities in Cameroon.
4. 12th UNeGov.net School on Electronic Governance - Foundation, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 19, 22 - 23 May 2008 - The school was co-organized by the National IT Center, Kyrgyz Republic; e-Government Department in Prime Minister's Office, Kyrgyz Republic; UNDP Kyrgyzstan; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. Around 60 government IT managers from various ministries of Kyrgyz Government attended the school.
5. 13th UNeGov.net School on Electronic Governance - Leadership, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 20 May 2008 - The school was co-organized by the National IT Center, Kyrgyz Republic; e-Government Department in Prime Minister's Office, Kyrgyz Republic; UNDP, Kyrgyzstan; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. The school was attended by 10 Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament and around 50 government officials including heads of government agencies from Kyrgyzstan.
6. 14th UNeGov.net School on Electronic Governance - Leadership, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 21 May 2008 - The school was co-organized by the National IT Center, Kyrgyz Republic; e-Government Department in Prime Minister's Office, Kyrgyz Republic; UNDP, Kyrgyzstan; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. The school was attended by 10 Deputy Cabinet Ministers and around 70 government officials including heads of government agencies and staff of the Presidential Administration.
7. 13th UNeGov.net Workshop on Electronic Governance - Network-Building, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 24 May 2008 - The workshop was co-organized by the National IT Center, Kyrgyz Republic; e-Government Department at Prime Minister's Office, Kyrgyz Republic; UNDP, Kyrgyzstan; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. The workshop was attended by around 100 participants from government, academia, industry, and non-governmental and international organizations in Kyrgyzstan. It produced a joint declaration drawing a vision for further development of Electronic Governance in Kyrgyzstan.
8. 14th UNeGov.net Workshop on Electronic Governance - Network-Building, Kabul, Afghanistan, 30 June 2008 - The workshop was co-organized by the Ministry of Communications and IT, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (MCIT); ICT Institute, MCIT; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. The workshop was attended by around 80 participants from government, academia, industry, and non-governmental and international organizations in Afghanistan, and comprised several presentations by local speakers.
9. 15th UNeGov.net School on Electronic Governance - Foundation, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1 - 3 July 2008 - The school was co-organized by the Ministry of Communications and IT, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (MCIT); ICT Institute, MCIT; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. The school was attended by around 80 participants from government, academia, industry and non-government organizations in Afghanistan.
10. 16th UNeGov.net School on Electronic Governance - Implementation, Bogota, Colombia, 28 - 39 August 2008 - The school was co-organized by the Observatory for Society, Government and Information Technology, Externado University of Colombia; Program Government Online, Ministry of Communication, Colombia; and UNU-IIST-EGOV.
11. 17th UNeGov.net School on Electronic Governance - Foundations, Santa Marta, Colombia, 1 - 3 September 2008 - The school was co-organized by the Observatory for Society, Government and Information Technology, Externado University of Colombia; Program Government Online, Ministry of Communication, Colombia; and UNU-IIST-EGOV.
12. 18th UNeGov.net School on Electronic Governance - Foundations, Cucuta, Colombia, 4 - 6 September 2008 - The school was co-organized by the Observatory for Society, Government and Information Technology, Externado University of Colombia; Program Government Online, Ministry of Communication, Colombia; and UNU-IIST-EGOV.
13. 15th UNeGov.net Workshop on Electronic Governance - Network-Building, Loja, Ecuador, 8 September 2008 - The workshop was co-organized by the Under-Secretary for Information Technology, Government of the Republic of Ecuador; Universida Tecnica Particular de Loja; and UNU-IIST-EGOV.
14. 19th UNeGov.net School on Electronic Governance - Foundation, Loja, Ecuador, 9 - 11 September 2008 - The school was co-organized by the Under-Secretary for Information Technology, Government of the Republic of Ecuador; Universida Tecnica Particular de Loja; and UNU-IIST-EGOV.
15. 20th UNeGov.net School on Electronic Governance - Implementation, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 11 - 13 November 2008 - The school was co-organized by the ICT Authority, Government of Mongolia, and UNU-IIST-EGOV.
16. 16th UNeGov.net Workshop on Electronic Governance - Network-Building, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 14 November 2008 - The workshop was co-organized by the ICT Authority, Government of Mongolia, and UNU-IIST-EGOV.

As a result of the interest raised by the schools and based on collaborations established with local co-organizers, the slides of the courses taught in the "UNeGov.net School on Electronic Governance - Foundation" were translated to: Russian by UNDP Kyrgyzstan, Spanish by the Observatory for Society, Government and Information Technology, Externado University of Colombia, and Arabic by the ICT Institute, Ministry of Communications and IT, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Besides workshops and schools, the major event organized by the Center in 2008 was ICEGOV2008 - 2nd International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, Cairo, Egypt, 1-4 December 2008, www.icegov.org. Taking place under the official patronage of the Ministry of State for Administrative Development, Government of Egypt, ICEGOV2008 is co-organized by UNU-IIST-EGOV and the German University in Cairo. Like last year, the conference brings together practitioners, developers and researchers from government, academia, industry and non-governmental organizations to share the latest findings in the theory and practice of Electronic Governance. By design, the conference creates ample opportunities for close interactions between these three categories of participants, so that each could benefit from the interaction with others.
In the tradition established by ICEGOV2007, ICEGOV2008 provided a rich networking and capacity building program comprising: (1) Three invited talks to present government, academia and non-government perspectives on Electronic Governance by distinguished experts and practitioners in the area; (2) 15 Invited Sessions by the institutions - governments, universities, companies and international organizations - to present their work related to Electronic Governance; (3) Six half-day "horizontal" tutorials covering a range of cross-cutting topics related to Electronic Governance - Theory, Technology, Information, Organization, Value and Policy; (4) Six half-day workshops with presentations of accepted papers and case studies on the same topics as horizontal tutorials; (5) Four "vertical" tutorials covering applications of Electronic Governance to various application domains - Education, Health, Environment, Transfer; (6) Nine discussions panels on: Post-Conflict Countries, Implementation Frameworks, Interoperability Frameworks, Rural Communities, Environmental Governance, Citizen Journalism, Dispute Resolution, Electronic Governance in Europe and Progress Assessment; (7) 12 sessions to present accepted papers and case studies; and (8) One poster session.
Regular paper sessions comprised presentations of the papers and case studies accepted for the conference. A total of 127 submissions were received from 46 countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Benin, Cameroon, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Macao, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, Taiwan, Turkey, UK, USA and Uzbekistan. Among 127 submissions, 80 papers originated from academia, 21 from government, 15 from industry, and 11 from non-governmental and international organizations. After the review process (3 reviews per paper - 2 academic and 1 non-academic) involving 72 experts and practitioners in the ICEGOV2008 Program Committee, 32 submissions were accepted as papers (8 pages), 35 as case studies (6 pages) and 16 as posters (2 pages). The proceedings of ICEGOV2008 were published by ACM Press in the International Conference Proceedings Series [72].

In addition to the events organized by UNeGov.net, 15 contributions were provided to the events organized by partner organizations:

1. What Constitutes Excellence in Electronic Government Research? Or Defining Our Domain Ten Years Later, Hawaii, United States, 07 January 2008 - Co-organization of the Global Electronic Government esearch and Practice Symposium at the 41st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-41), along with the contributed panel presentation and discussion.
2. Government-Academia Partnership to Advance Electronic Governance Research and Practice in Africa , Kampala, Uganda, 05 March 2008 - Invited talk at the "African E-Gov Forum 2008 - Utilizing ICT for More Efficient, Effective and Inclusive Governance", organized by the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Republic of Uganda.
3. Electronic Governance at United Nations University and Programmable Messaging for Electronic Government, Albany, United States, 20 March 2008 - Two presentations and a discussion at the Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York.
4. Electronic Governance and UN University - Connecting Research, Practice and Development, Tokyo, Japan, 24 March 2008 - Seminar presentation at UNU.
5. Contributing to Global e-/m-Government Repository: UNU's Perspectives, Shanghai, China, 27 May 2008 - Presentation and panel discussion at the Capacity-Building Workshop on Back Office Management for e/m-Government in Asia-Pacific Region, organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the Regional Cooperation Office for City Informatization (RCOCI).
6. Public Sector Innovation through Electronic Government, Amman, Jordan, 11 - 12 June 2008 - A half-day course taught as part of the Training Programme on Design and Evaluation of Innovation Policy in Developing Countries, organized by The Royal Scientific Society (RSS) of Jordan, the Jordan Innovation Centre for Engineers and Industrial Enterprises at RSS and the United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Center on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT).
7. Developing Electronic Governance – Government-Academia Partnership Models, 26 September 2008 - Keynote lecture at the 1st Seoul Conference on Innovation Strategy Collaboration and Networking across Boundaries, Seoul, South Korea, organized by the Seoul National University.
8. Building a Foundation for Sustainable Electronic Governance - Experience, Lessons, Framework, 24 October 2008 - Invited talk at the Asia e-Government Forum 2008, Seoul, South Korea, hosted by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security and the National Information Society Agency. Also moderated a panel discussion on Delivering Seamless e-Government Services at the conference.
9. Building a Foundation for Sustainable Electronic Governance - Experience, Lessons, Framework, 6-7 November 2008 - Invited talk at the 3rd Conference on Global e-Governance, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. Also moderated a concluding session.
10. Government, Citizens and Their Relationships in 2020 - Scenarios for the EU and the Developing World, 11-12 November 2008 - Invited talk at the EU-China Information Society Project Annual Conference 2008, Beijing, China, November 2008. Also co-moderated the workshop on Integrating Informatization and Industrialization.
11. Electronic Governance at United Nations University - Theme, Implementation, Institution, 17 November 2008 - Invited talk at the Inter-University Institute of Macao.
12. UNeGov.net - From Community Building To Capacity Development, 25 November 2008 - Presentation at the Strategic UNU Workshop on Innovative Capacity Development through E-learning with a Special Focus on Africa, Bonn, Germany.
13. Increasing Trust in Public Service Delivery - Contract-Based Software Infrastructure for Electronic Government, 27-28 November 2008 - Invited talk at the 2nd Workshop on Formal Languages and Analysis of Contract-Oriented Software, Malta.
14. Electronic Governance at United Nations University - Theme, Implementation, Institution, 18 December 2008 - Invited talk at e-Government Workshop, Japan Advanced Institute for Science and Technology, Kanazawa, Japan.
15. Government, Citizens and Their Relationships in 2020 - Knowledge Society and UN Millennium Development Goals, 19 December 2008 - Invited talk at JEITA - Japan Electronic Industries Technical Association, Tokyo, Japan.

Finally, six UNeGov.net thematic areas were developed during 2008 through various projects: human capacity development, semantic interoperability, software infrastructure development, information technology governance for public administrations, e-readiness assessment and sustainability of Electronic Governance.

During 2007, the UNeGov.net initiative was promoted in: Asia through events organized in Nepal, Mongolia, South Korea, North Korea and India; South America through events organized in Colombia; and Africa through event involvement in Ghana. The current number of members is 520 from 35 countries.

During 2007, UNeGov.net organized 10 workshops and schools:

1. 8th UNeGov.net Network-Building Workshop on Electronic Governance in Developing Countries, Kathmandu, Nepal, 12 February 2007 - The workshop was co-organized by the National Information Technology Center (NITC), Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MoEST); High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT); and UNU-IIST-EGOV. The event was attended by around 120 representatives from government, academia and industry in Nepal.
2. 4th UNeGov.net School on Foundations of Electronic Governance, Kathmandu, Nepal, 13 - 15 February 2007 - The school was co-organized by the National Information Technology Center (NITC), Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MoEST); High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT); and UNU-IIST-EGOV. Around 80 people attended the school, mostly government officials and academics from Nepal.
3. 5th UNeGov.net School on Foundations of Electronic Governance, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 1 - 3 May 2007 - The school was co-organized by the Information and Communication Technology Authority, Government of Mongolia, the World Bank, and UNU-IIST-EGOV. Around 85 people attended, mostly government officials, academics and members of non-governmental organizations in Mongolia.
4. 9th UNeGov.net Network-Building Workshop on Electronic Governance, Bogota, Colombia, 27 August 2007 - The workshop was co-organized by the Observatory for Society, Government and Information Technology, Externado University of Colombia; Agenda for Connectivity, Government of Colombia; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. The workshop was attended by around 250 participants from government and academia in Colombia.
5. 6th UNeGov.net School on Foundations of Electronic Governance, Bogota, Colombia, 28 - 30 August 2007 - The school was co-organized by the Observatory for Society, Government and Information Technology, Externado University of Colombia; Agenda for Connectivity, Government of Colombia; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. The school was attended by around 120 participants, mostly government officials from the national- and local-level governments across Colombia.
6. 10th UNeGov.net Regional Network-Building Workshop on Electronic Governance, Incheon, South Korea, 8 October 2007 - The workshop was co-organized by the Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (UN-APCICT), part of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), and UNU-IIST-EGOV. The workshop was attended by 36 government officials from 19 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
7. 7th UNeGov.net Regional School on Foundations of Electronic Governance, Incheon, South Korea, 9 - 11 October 2007 - The school was co-organized by the Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (UN-APCICT), part of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), and UNU-IIST-EGOV. The school was attended by 36 government officials from 19 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, responsible for the implementation of e-Government and ICT projects in their respective countries.
8. 8th UNeGov.net School on Foundations of Electronic Governance, Pyongyang, North Korea, 28 - 30 November 2007 - The school was co-organized by the State Academy of Sciences of DPR Korea and UNU-IIST-EGOV. The school was attended by 62 participants from 12 government and academic institutions from North Korea.
9. 11th Network-Building Workshop on Electronic Governance, Bhubaneswar, India, 21 December 2007 - The workshop was co-organized by the Kalinga Institute for Industrial Technology, KIIT University; Orissa Government; the Union Government of India; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. It was attended by about 100 participants from academia and government.

10. 9th UNeGov.net School on Foundations of Electronic Governance, Bhubaneswar, India, 21 - 23 December 2007 - The school was co-organized by the Kalinga Institute for Industrial Technology, KIIT University; Orissa Government; the Union Government of India; and UNU-IIST-EGOV. It was attended by about 80 participants from academia and government.

    Besides workshops and schools, the major event organized by the Center in 2007 was ICEGOV2007 - 1st International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, Macao, 10-13 December 2007, www.icegov.org. Taking place under the official patronage of Macao Government, ICEGOV2007 was organized by UNU-IIST-EGOV, jointly with the Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York, USA (CTG); and United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (APCICT), Incheon, South Korea. The conference brought together practitioners, developers and researchers from government, academia, industry and non-governmental organizations to share the latest findings in the theory and practice of Electronic Governance. By design, the conference created ample opportunities for close interactions between these three categories of participants, so that each could benefit from the interaction with others.

    ICEGOV2007 created a rich program comprising invited talks, tutorials, workshops, panel discussions and regular paper sessions, by leading international experts and practitioners in the field. Invited speakers - Sharon S. Dawes, USA; Olu Agunloye, Nigeria and Elia Armstrong on behalf of Guido Bertucci, United Nations - represented academic, government and non-governmental perspectives on Electronic Governance. In addition, a series of six tutorial-workshop events was organized on various aspects of Electronic Governance: (1) Formal Engineering Methods for Electronic Governance; (2) Interoperability in Electronic Government; (3) Knowledge Management in Public Administration; (4) Electronic Governance and Organizational Transformation; (5) Policy Development for Electronic Governance; and (6) Economics for Electronic Governance. Tutorials, held on Monday 10 December, provided the audience with general foundations and basic understanding of the area, while the workshops, held on Thursday 13 December presented state-of-the-art research and applications.
    Regular paper sessions comprised presentations of the papers accepted for the conference. Altogether, 159 abstracts and 130 full papers were submitted from 53 countries. A total of 97 papers were received from 27 developing countries: Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia and Vietnam, and 61 from 26 developed countries/economies: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Macao, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, United Arab Emirates and USA. Among 159 submissions, 63 were research papers, 74 were practice papers and 22 were solutions papers. After review, 33 submissions were accepted as long (10 page) papers, 38 as short (4 page) papers, and 20 as posters (2 pages). Regular paper sessions covered a range of topics from e-Participation, Diffusion and Implementation, through Innovative Applications, Development and Rural e-Government, to Cases, Research and Applications.

    ICEGOV2007 is planned to continue annually at different locations: Africa (2008), America (2009), Europe (2010) and Asia (2011), returning back to Macao in 2012.

    Finally, six UNeGov.net thematic areas were developed during 2007 through various projects: human capacity development, semantic interoperability, software infrastructure development, south-south cooperation, standards and best practices, and strategic planning.

UNeGov.net organized four events during 2006:

1. Discussion panel "eGovernance and Free Software: How They are Changing Developing Countries" was organized with UNU-ONY and the Global Desktop Project in the UN Headquarters in New York in March 2006. The event was attended by about 100 members of permanent UN missions and other international organizations.
2. The 6th UNeGov.net Network-Building Workshop on Electronic Governance was organized in Abuja, Nigeria in July 2006, jointly with the National IT Development Agency (NITDA), Federal Government of Nigeria. The workshop comprised presentations by the speakers from government, industry and UNU-IIST, and many discussions. It was attended by close to 100 senior officials from most ministries, and academics from universities across the country.
3. A three-day School on Foundations of Electronic Governance was organized following the Abuja Workshop, jointly with NITDA. The school comprised six modules: (1) Introducing e-Governance, (2) Strategic Planning for e-Governance, (3) Developing Technical Solutions for e-Governance, (4) Engineering Structures and Processes for e-Governance, (5) Sharing Best Practices in e-Governance and (6) Building a Community of Practice for e-Governance. The modules were developed during the period from April to June 2006. The school was attended by close to 100 senior officials from most ministries, and academics from universities across the country. Following intensive discussions, a communique was agreed upon to document the issues, challenges and ideas considered important by all participants for the development of Electronic Government in Nigeria as a tool for better government.
4. The 7th Network-Building Workshop on Electronic Governance was organized in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in December 2006, jointly with the ICT Authority of the Government of Mongolia. The workshop comprised presentations by the speakers from government, industry and UNU-IIST, and three discussion sessions. It was attended by about 80 participants.

Five conference presentations and seminars were given by UNeGov.net:

1. A paper and a poster describing UNeGov.net were presented and published in the proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Digital Government Research in San Diego, May 2006.
2. A keynote presentation about e-Macao experience was given at the "Hong Kong and Macao Science and Industry Development Forum (Digital City)" in Guangzhou, September 2006.
3. A keynote presentation about UNeGov.net was given at the "Digital Government 2006" in Singapore, October 2006.
4. A presentation on Software Infrastructure for Electronic Government was given at the 1st Iberoamerican Congress on e-Government in Santiago de Chile, October 2006.
5. A seminar on e-Macao experience was presented at the ICT Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, December 2006.

In addition, four thematic areas were developed during 2006:

1. Strategic Planning - A project on Strategic IT Planning for Public Organizations was initiated to develop experience and a methodology for carrying out strategic IT planning in the context of public-sector organizations. The first planning exercise has been conducted for Macao Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT), a government institution of higher education specializing in hospitality and tourism studies. Funded by IFT, the exercise was carried out between September and December 2006.
2. Semantic Interoperability - A project on Semantic Interoperability for Electronic Government was established to develop foundational and technical solutions to the problem of semantic interoperability, particularly for public organizations, and disseminate the findings among e-Government practitioners. The project is a collaboration between UNU-IIST and Microsoft and is jointly funded by both institutions.
3. Software Infrastructure Development for e-Government - This thematic area is a direct follow-up of the infrastructure-building tasks carried out by the e-Macao project. The objective is to build a formal foundation - from models, to specifications, to reference implementations - for rigorous development of infrastructure software for e-Government. Underpinning the delivery and rapid development of Electronic Public Services, the infrastructure comprises five main components: Front-Office Framework, Back-Office Framework, Workflow Infrastructure, Messaging Framework and Infrastructure Management Services. Two publications were obtained during 2006 about the Messaging Infrastructure and one about the Workflow Infrastructure.
4. Software for Communities of Practice - This thematic area is a consequence of the efforts to build a portal for UNeGov.net, generalized to support communities of practice in any domain. The objective is to build a formal foundation - from models, to specifications to reference implementations - for rigorous development of software that enables the launching, growth and sustained operations (indeed, the whole lifecycle) of online communities of practice. Two publications were obtained so far in this area.

Here is the progress on individual tasks made during 2005:

Task 1 - Portal:
The portal was established and put online at www.unegov.net. It currently includes basic information about the initiative: rationale, objectives, membership, details of each activity area, etc. There is also a page for every workshop organized.

Task 2 - Workshops:
Five network-building workshops were organized:

1. The first workshop took place on 17 November in Tunis, Tunisia, as part of the World Summit on the Information Society. The workshop was opened by Prof. Hans van Ginkel, the Rector of the United Nations University (UNU). The speakers were: Prof. Cleopas Angaye, Director General, National IT Development Agency, Nigeria; Prof. Noshir Contractor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA; Dr. Tomasz Janowski, UNU-IIST; Mr. Hannes Karkowski, German Technical Cooperation (GTZ); and Dr. Adegboyega Ojo, UNU-IIST. The workshop was closed by Mike Reed, Director, UNU-IIST. About 80 people attended.
2. The second workshop took place on 21 November at the University of Bethlehem, Palestine. The workshop was opened by Brother Daniel Casey, the President of Bethlehem University. The speakers were: Dr. Sabri Saidam, Minister for Telecommunication and Information Technology (MTiT), Palestinian Authority; Dr. Jad Ishaq, Director General, Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem; Dr. Tomasz Janowski, UNU-IIST; and Dr. Saleem Zougbi, Bethlehem University. Dr. Saleem Zougbi, former UNU-IIST fellow, organized the workshop. About 40 people attended.
3. The third workshop took place on 1 December at the National University of San Luis, Argentina. The workshop was opened by Dr. Jose Riccardo, Dean of the School of Sciences. The speakers were: Mr. Daniel Blank, Director of QPlus, Cordoba; Dr. Tomasz Janowski, UNU-IIST; Prof. Roberto Uzal, University of Buenos Aires; and Dr. Roberto Verges, former Economy Minister of the San Luis Province. Mr. Daniel Riesco, National University of San Luis, organized the workshop. About 30 people attended.
4. The fourth workshop took place on 5 December at the National University of the South, Argentina. Dr. Luis M. Fernandez, the Rector of the University opened the workshop. The speakers were: Mr. Juan Aiducic, e-Government Coordinator, National Office for Information Technology; Jose Carllinni, Director, Informatics Resources, National Office for Information Technology; Mr. Javier Saenz Core, National University of the South, MuNet Programme; Ms. Elsa Estevez, National University of the South; Dr. Tomasz Janowski, UNU-IIST; and Ms. Elida Rodriguez, Coordinator, Modernization Unit, Government of Mendoza Province. Ms. Elsa Estevez, former UNU-IIST fellow, organized the workshop. About 80 people attended.
5. The fifth workshop took place on 12 December in Kathmandu, Nepal, part of the International Conference on Asian Applied Computing. Mr. Sharad Chandra Shah, Vice Chairman, High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT), opened the workshop. The speakers were: Mr. Atma Ram Ghimire, Member Secretary, HLCIT; Dr. Tomasz Janowski, UNU-IIST; and Dr. Rohit Kumar Nepali, Executive Director, South Asia Partnership International. The workshop was closed by Dr. Mike Reed, Director, UNU-IIST. Mr. Nitesh Shrestha, Kathford International College of Engineering and Management, former UNU-IIST fellow, organized the workshop. About 80 people attended, many from the government.

The range of topics considered at individual workshops varied according to specific concerns present in the host country and interests of the audience. Each workshop provided a forum: to raise particular societal needs, to present government-adopted measures to address such needs, along with the challenges faced, and to discuss possible solutions based on international and local experience in Electronic Government.

Task 6 - Schools:
Three courses were organized following the workshops in Bethlehem (4 hours), San Luis (20 hours) and Bahia Blanca (20 hours), all on "XML Technology and Java" and taught by Dr. Tomasz Janowski. The course presents a technology relevant for developing interoperable e-government applications. About 60 people attended these courses altogether.

Plans for 2006 include:

1. Further develop the UNeGov.net portal, using semantic web technology, to provide effective management of various kinds of web resources collected about Electronic Governance: papers, projects, people, organizations, best practice descriptions, problem descriptions, solution patterns, etc. The portal will also provide member registration.
2. Organize additional workshops in developing countries to further expand, both in terms of geography and diversity, the network. Contacts have so far been established with the relevant national government offices in India, Nigeria, Vietnam and Jordan.
3. Organize capacity-building schools, in cooperation with relevant government offices, on various aspects of Electronic Governance. To attract a larger audience, every school is planned to be organized vis-a-vis a workshop. Consequently, schools are planned for India, Nigeria, Vietnam and Jordan.
4. Organize national working groups to develop status reports on Electronic Governance in respective countries. Initial focus will be on Palestine and Argentina.