Use of IT by small city councils in the region of Brittany

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Use of IT by small city councils in the region of
Brittany
Nicolas Jullien Assistant professor Coordinator
of M_at_rsouin

• Jocelyne Trémenbert
• Statistician
• Survey manager (OPSIS)

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Who are we ?

• The Breton Association of Social Science Research
  Centres for the Study of Information Society
• Our goals
• To pursue scientific investigation on new
  services and uses provided by Information
  Technologies
• To investigate the political impact of IT
  (location of firms, emergence of a knowledge
  society)
• To inform policy making in Brittany but also
  private deciders
• Our area of investigation
• Firstly Brittany
• But to improve our work, we are also introduced
  in national and European collaborations
  (benchmarks, methodologies, good practices )

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Teams and Partners

• Our organization
• a network of 6 universities and research centres
  in Brittany
• project teams from different laboratories working
  on specific domains, problematic or contracts.
• gt 50 permanent researchers involved in the
  network.
• Financing support
• An initiative supported by the Breton Regional
  Council, which also works with us on public
  policy issues
• scientific consulting contracts and scientific
  projects funded by national of European networks.
  

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Main areas of investigation / our competencies on
the field

• Communication of the cities which goal(s) for
  the Web site ?
• E-inclusion / E gov regarding low income/socially
  excluded citizens
• Our main area of investigation
• Surveys on the use of ICT by city council
  administration and representatives.
• What we are going to present today.

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Goals of the survey, hypothesis and aims

• A quantitative survey addressed to Breton city
  halls
• To explore the reality of the implementation of
  ICT in local governance
• To go further than rates of equipment analysing
  real uses
• to monitor the emergence of new services (if
  possible)
• Our hypothesis
• Size effect, localisation effect (tourism, urban
  area),
• But also human effect (age of employees and
  representatives), network effect (internal
  organisation, partners relationship), place of IT
  (viewpoints, feeling of prescription, ICT
  networks)
• Aims
• State of usages for the Region and other regional
  public institutions (Mégalis and its e-market
  platform, the association of French mayors,
  groups of councils)
• To highlight already observed uses and emerging
  needs.

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Methodology

• Mailing (not e-mailing) of a questionnaire to all
  Breton municipalities (1269)
• Possibility to answer by mail, fax and Web
  (online questionnaire)
• Data collected in November and December 2007
  (third edition)
• Return rate 38 (and only 38 of them had
  already answered in 2005)
• Answered predominantly by the DGS / secretary
• A sample representative of both the main
  administrative areas and the size of the cities

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Organisation of Breton cities

• A mayor, deputy mayors, elected members by
  sectors
• (sports, childishness, educational, economy ICT)
• A director of services , a secretary general or a
  simple secretary
• The communal officers (administrative and
  technical) around
• 1 per 100 inhabitants
• More than 98 belong to Communities of councils
• ICT a shared competency, for a part

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First results during the data collect

• An easier re-contact by e-mail than for past
  editions
• All the cities not connected in 2005 have access
  now
• An online return of 29 (9 in 2005)
• 72 had left their e-mail to obtain results
• gt An appropriation of the network of
  communication?

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Equipment

• Not a problem of access
• All except one connected to the Internet (92
  before)
• Permanent connexions in general (ADSL)
• 1.5 at low speed, rare areas without
• In 2005, only 50 had equipped almost all their
  officers with computers, more than 90 in 2007,
  but
• Different positions for administrative and
  technical officers
• Well equipped with computers and Internet but not
  with individual e-mails addresses.

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Factors of equipment

• Factors within the survey to explain the
  different behaviours
• Characteristics of the city
• Size, location (department, rural / urban),
  tourist city, households income, links to a
  community
• Human resources in the city hall
• Number of officers, age bracket of officers,
  mayor and deputy mayors
• Investment in ICT
• Driving force behind, human resources
  (department,webmaster, ICT deputy mayor ), ICT
  project
• !!! obvious links between these factors,
• but not only between them
• and causalities are hard to determine (if any).

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Equipment
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Equipment (mayor, deputy mayors)

• A lack of access within the city hall for
• Mayors a third in 2007 (27 equipped in 2005)
• Deputy mayors a high proportion of shared
  computers
• Does it mean that
• they use private access?
• they do not access at all?
• We will see it further in the question of use
• They have a decision making role regarding the IT
  policy but
• services modernization is conducted by the DGS
  and officers

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Equipment (application software)

• 27 report to be equipped with free software, 1
  intend to
• Functions in the activity of a council assisted
  by software
• Software organised by modules
• Necessary / advanced modules
• Do they share just to reduce costs or do they
  intend to enhance usage ?

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Internal uses

• At first glance, a quite good appropriation for
  the staff (all the administrative 88) but
• Different levels/needs of usage (administrative /
  technical)
• Few usage at organizational level
• A third uses e-mails between administrative
  officers (20 for the smallest / 73 for the
  biggest)
• 9 use shared calendars (4 / 18)
• 24 use Intranet or shared spaces with
  directories or databases (11 / 42)
• and do not intend to in the next 12 months
  (less than 6)
• Not means of communication
• The staff dont communicate by e-mail with the
  mayor (only for 35)
• whereas 54 of mayors use the Internet 13 for
  the interviewed doesnt know
• Nor with part of deputy mayors (33)

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Examples of internal uses

• Digital preparation of the next town council
• Digital presentation during committees
• Slides are used by 24 of DGS, 13 of mayors, 16
  of some deputy mayors
• Main factors (all characteristics remaining the
  same)
• Size of the city, existence of human resources, a
  touristy city, a driving force behind the use of
  ICT

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Uses between partners

• Examples of uses
• online tax declaration,
• online financial transactions (Helios)
• Among city halls not equipped with Helios 29
  hope to be, 21 are apprehensive, 30 are
  indifferent, 20 dont know / dont answer
• Examples of partners
• Firstly state administration
• Community of councils ()
• Direction of equipment to ask for building
  permits ()
• Management Centre ()
• Few relationships with local environment
• Other communal sites (schools, technical sites )
• Communal associations
• Not exactly the same factors than for internal
  usage
• only the size, human resources
• and the age bracket of the mayor

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Services to citizens

• E-mailing communication with citizens
• A digital answer when it is possible (65)
• But no automatically receipt (15 do it)
• Website
• Stable diffusion 40 have their own (37 in
  2005)
• A lot of Information
• about the city hall (contacts, organisation ),
• for outsider citizens (tourism, economics
  development, town planning ),
• for citizens (schools, bulletin, agenda )
• but not very interactive
• E-democracy
• 19 give the possibility to question a deputy
  mayor
• 3 have forum about policy
• Download of administrative papers 13
• Interactive tools
• RSS feeds 9
• SIG 17
• 25 change contents at an interval superior to
  the month

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Needs and impact

• Would they like to have more information or even
  assistance ?

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Usage typology. 4 clusters.

• E-government users
• Rural areas

• Internal information processing
• Big, urban areas cities
• IT competencies
• Over equipped

• E-administration, not e-democracy
• Big cities
• Mayor better equipped

• Individual appropriation
• Small cities

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Conclusion

• Depends on the size but also on the importance
  given to ICT into the council
• An individual appropriation but not an
  organisational one
• More within the administration than deputy mayors
• An adoption under constrain
• To communicate with state administration,
• Not to communicate with citizens
• Tools non adapted to these organisations? Fears?
  Generation? Learning effects?
• Thank you
• M_at_rsouin Website www.marsouin.org