Announcing OASIS E-Government Member Section

["Scott McGrath" <scott.mcgrath@oasis-open.org>]

The consortium is delighted to announce the formation of the OASIS
eGovernment Member Section [eGovMS]. This new group will work to promote the
development, adoption, and implementation of open standards to facilitate
interoperability and the sharing of best practice among public sector
agencies, and to serve the needs of all OASIS constituents - enterprises and
civil society as well as individual citizens.

The eGov Member Section welcomes members from local, national, and
international administrations and oversight agencies as well as technology
providers, systems integrators, and all those concerned to encourage more
efficient use of new technologies to deliver better quality and more
citizen-centric government.

The OASIS eGov Member Section will work with the many already-established
OASIS Technical Committees with interests in the Law and Government Sector,
including, for example, the Election and Voter Services TC, the Emergency
Management TC, and the Tax XML TC. The eGov Member Section will also seek to
cooperate with those OASIS Technical Committees dealing with issues of
significant concern to public administrations, such as, Identity Management,
Access to Information, Public Procurement, Long-Term Archiving, and
promoting a more Open Standards Environment.

The eGov Member Section will serve as a focal point for discussions of
public sector open standards requirements and the exchange of use cases and
best practices. It will promote government-oriented interoperability
demonstrations  and will work with other standards consortia, including W3C
and Liberty, and with the major international Standards Development
Organizations to facilitate cost effective liaison and encourage the re-use
of data and standards in an open environment.

The Work Programme is under development, and OASIS members are encouraged to
join the eGov Member Section and contribute to the process. Currently, the
Work Programme foresees focus on three areas:
1.	Assessments of Interoperability Frameworks of relevance to the
government sector
2.	Measures to leverage investments already made by governments through
the exchange of information and  demonstrations of best practices
3.	Activities to promote more inclusive and citizen-centred eGovernment
initiatives through the adoption and  implementation of open standards.

The Steering Committee currently includes members from the public sector in
Belgium, Canada, New Zealand and from the World Bank (tbc), together with
major enterprises working closely with government agencies in China, UK and
USA and with the European Union institutions.

All interested parties are invited to participate in the OASIS eGov Member
Section.

It costs OASIS members nothing extra to get involved in this work. Please
review the MS web site or contact member-services@oasis-open.org  for more
information.

OASIS eGov Member Section: http://www.oasis-egov.org/ 

Join the MS: http://www.oasis-egov.org/join/



Scott McGrath
Senior Director of Member Services

Tel +1 978-667-5115 x202 
Fax +1 978-667-5114
scott.mcgrath@oasis-open.org

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