The project aims to turn local governments into stronger players in the local economy. On the one hand by improving internal processes. On the other hand by strengthening their relations with particularly local companies (government to business relations) and with other governmental levels (government to government relations). The focus will be on how to use ICT to: · Improve local government processes (e-administration) · Improve service development and distri-bution (e-services) · Improve public-private interaction (e-society)

Login will improve the information exchange between local and regional governments, as well as enhance the knowledge within local governments about the possibilities of modern IC-technologies. Furthermore, the information exchange between local governments and local enterprises will be improved. A government-to-business network model will support better relationships between and services to SMEs.

Expected Outcomes

The project will improve the connectivity of local governments using an assessment toolkit for checking and monitoring. It will build a generic and lasting technical information system for communication both between governments and between governments and businesses. Finally, it will improve both physical and virtual front offices to facilitate the communication between local governments and local enterprises. Better accessibility of local government to the community can efficiently boost the local economy.

Activities

Five major modules make up the project. They are: - Researching the performance of local governments in communicating with local business; this module will result in a generally applicable ?barometer? with indicators, including ICT penetration. - Building a generic information infrastructure; this module will result in data formats, GIS-standards and other technical building materials for government to business communication. - Sharing experiences and knowledge by exchanging experts; this module focuses on both intergovernmental communication and government to business communication and comprises for example innovative front-office ideas. - Implementing best practices; this action module covers both technical integration of data, training officers in new ways of working and promoting the new working methods within local administrations. - Disseminating experiences and best practices; all outcomes, lessons learned and gained knowledge will be spread within the participating regions, throughout the North Sea Region and across the European Union.

Reported Outcomes

The main goal of the Log-In project is to improve the information exchange (in particular within the field of e-Administration, e-Services and e-Society) within local governments and between local and higher government levels, on the basis of which local authorities can develop swifter and more efficient services that bridge the gap between the worlds of governments and business. Much of the project?s budget is devoted to the joint development of an information technology infrastructure that supports the inter-action between businesses and government services and between various government levels. It reduces costs by spreading the investment between the partners, giving each of them access to techno-logy they would have been stretched to afford alone. Its applications include a Geographic Information System publication toolkit; an integrated companies database; an online communication platform for local governments and businesses; and a secure online network linking government bodies. The Log-In website sprang to live in spring 2005 and reached 10 000 visitors during its first year. By the end of 2006, the level of media attention acquired by the project had exceeded initial expectations. Some of the media magnets within the project have been the launching of the unique integrated (eID-RFID) library system in Avelgem (Leiedal) and the launch of the business services webpage Norfolk Shaping the future. In addition, between July - December 2006, the project had over 40 articles or news items published or broadcasted in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the U K. Log-In has been added to the European e-Government Good Practice Framework. The partnership has built up strong stakeholder structures in the regions. Lead partner Leiedal for example have held meeting and correspondence of the project on a provincial- and the federal administrative level. The GII theme of the LoG-IN project will be at the core of operations of the authorities involved and will therefore become a central if not critical system for each participating organisation. Some of the regional activities are as follows: Avelgem (Leiedal) library introduced a system of combining eID cards (which replaces the library card) with RFID (Radion Frequency Identification) tags on the books. The two technologies have earlier only been used separately in local government projects. Due to the success of the system, the eID-RDIF system will be adopted by 63 other municipalities in West-Vlaanderen. Through federal-regional cooperation, a businesses geodatabase with over 44.000 businesses and organisations will be created in Leiedal. Rotenburg-Wümme pilot E-car Application have been introduced and the region will probably save 100.000 km a year in transport in letting local authorities handle car registration. A successful private-public partnership with fibre optic broadband connection has been introduced where several municipalities within Rotenburg-Würme have decided to connect to the fibre optic system and thereby also have access to the GII technologies. In September 2006, the Landkreis commenced negotiations with Landkreis Osterholz-Scharmbeck and with the University of Oldenburg (Region GmbH) to grant them access to GII. Norfolk have created interactive map based sites named the Data Observatory and Norfolk Census Explorer which contain a complex set of information for businesses about social and economic life in the county. A survey have identified that culture is an area where ICT could have large advantages for the county, and henceforth an Events database have been created with potentially inline ticketing as a future application. In July 2006 Norfolk became one of the ten regional winners from a total of 79 entries in the U K?s Digital Challenge competition. To realise this, a new shared arvhitecture will be developed which will include the GII as a key element. At translational level, work progressed on the LoG-IN Generic Information Infrastructure (GII). Based on regional surveys and workshops, the partners brought with them their specific requirements for ICT and after several rounds of negotiations a common ground for the GII was agreed upon in early 2006. This was followed by an open international tender for the provider of the GII system, all according to EU standards. In September 2006 it was announced that the tender have gone to a consortia representing all the project countries. The implementation is taking place as planned. The first phase was delivered in December 2006. The final delivery is scheduled for the 30th of April 2007. The project is closing on the 31st of August 2007. All three planned international E-Government Academies, as well as a number of local and regional e-government workshops/ training sessions, have taken place. The international E-Government academies, which all took place in Kortjik (Belgium), have drawn a number of international participants and speakers. The main themes have been introduction of ICT within public administration, best practices of ICT solutions, and the use of geo-services for local governments.