Until recently, information and communications technology (ICT) was mainly used by local authorities to increase administrative efficiency. Now, however, aspects such as “improving the quality of services for citizens” and “interaction between the state and citizens” are clearly growing in importance. Bertelsmann’s international network, “Cities of Tomorrow,” has gathered good examples showing how local authorities from all over the world use ICT. They range from systems that offer citizens a kind of “one-stop shopping” for different services, to forms of “teledemocracy” that make it possible for interaction to take place between citizens and their local authority.
This book presents all possibilities for making strategic use of ICT and is targeted above all to decisionmakers in local government, who must not allow the technology experts to make all the decisions on this topic.