Leader: Cheerleaders for e-government needed fast

Many councils have already completed all the work they need to do to get their e-government systems in place by the end of the year as demanded by the government.

But we'll have to wait for the report on that next year to see how all councils have faired. It's too early to say yet, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has said.

But putting bureaucratic box ticking aside, it seems that for all the money being spent on e-government, relatively few people understand what it is, or whether it's even there.

The servers have been plugged in and the applications loaded up but that's no good unless people start using it.

Councils really need to start publicising the fact they've entered the digital age.

A silicon.com poll taken earlier this year found only 21 per cent of readers had noticed a change in their council's approach to how they communicate with them. Something has to be done. Councils need to find the cash to advertise their services.

Otherwise it would seem they've simply wasted taxpayers' money meeting government demands and leaving people out of the loop.

One of the aims of e-government is to include more people in public sector affairs.

To get the chicken and egg effect in balance however, there needs to be a better level of education for people who would want to use the internet. This would mean spending more money but it's all part of the publicity campaign. And there's no better publicity than word of mouth.

Some groups have criticised the government for excluding minority groups from the e-government scheme.

Accessibility for all walks of life is high on the agenda for the government but what good is having the functionality for those people if no one knows how to find the website in the first place?