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THE 'BARCELONA MODEL' OF EGOVERNMENT:
ADOPTION AND INSTITUTIONALISATION
José Ramón RodríguezBarcelona City Council
Article published in "UOC Papers" (issue 3, 2006)
http://www.uoc.edu/uocpapers/3/eng
- 1 -
THE 'BARCELONA MODEL' OF E-GOVERNMENT:
ADOPTION AND INSTITUTIONALISATION
José Ramón Rodríguez1
Abstract
In June 2004, the professors Manuel Castells and Esteve Ollé published, within the framework of
the Project Internet in Catalunya (PIC) from the Open University of Catalonia and the Regional
government, a study about the implementation of the Electronic Government in the city of
Barcelona. From the conclusions of the study, the emergence of the city's own model of
administration can be deduced, focused on the institutional and conscious use the awareness of
Internet "to increase the efficiency of the Local Administration (….), the improvement of the public
services and the reformulation of the processes of governance of the city".
The study by these authors is framed within the sociological approach of the theories of Manuel
Castells about the 'information era' and the 'network society', uses different instruments of analysis
of the organisations and the provision of services on the website and is based on statistical
information of the City Council, a large number of interviews with municipal staff, and the
observations of the authors themselves.
This article proposes a similar methodological approach regarding the analysis of the supply, and
a different approach for the analysis of the demand, based on Rogers' theory of the diffusion of
innovations, and in particular the diffusion of ICT within organisations, as presented by various
authors.
In the article we examine the evolution of the phenomenon for the period between the second
semester of 2003 and the first semester of 2006. From the point of view of methods and sources,
we have mainly used statistical information and documents of the City Council of Barcelona, most
of them being public, and the author's own observation and experiences, as an executive of the
City Council during this period, which allows us to have a broad longitudinal base complementary
to and consistent with that of Castells and Ollé, and an approach to a certain extent close to that of
"action research" in the field of information systems.
We conclude that in the period studied, Barcelona has entered into a new cycle of development of
its model of e-Government, characterised by two main features: on the one hand the social
adoption by a majority, both of the information services as well as those of transaction, which are
already producing the substitution of the traditional channels of communication by Internet; on the
- 2 -
other hand, the integration and institutionalisation of the e-Government within the Municipal
Administration, by means of organisational, technical and legal changes, and of a new offering of
services that correspond to the most advanced level of developments in e-government. In the
process, there appears to be a move towards some of the components suggested by Castells and
Ollé, although there are still weaknesses and contradictions which had already been mentioned in
the previous study.
1 José Ramón Rodríguez is Deputy Managing Director of the City Council of Barcelona, and Managing
Director of the Municipal Institute of Information Technology. He is a collaborating professor in
Information Technology, Telecommunication and Multimedia Studies from the Open University of
Catalonia.
- 3 -
THE 'BARCELONA MODEL' OF E-GOVERNMENT:
ADOPTION AND INSTITUTIONALISATION
José Ramón Rodríguez1
I. APPROACH TO THE CASE
The intensive use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and in particular the
Internet, for carrying out the activities of the Public Administration with the aim of improving or
transforming the relation with the citizens, the relation between administrations, the provision of
public services, internal efficiency and political participation2, is known as e-Government (e-Gov),
or Electronic Administration3.
In this sense, e-Gov should be able to offer an integral service to the citizens and businesses by
means of a unique points of contact despite the organisation of the public administrative
departments, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, accessible independent of disabilities or
technologies4. This service should include the transparent publication of the information available
to the Administration, the easy and secure carrying out of procedures, paperwork, requests,
consultations and of all the faculties that the legal regulations give to the citizens5. E-Gov should
foster the participation in the decision-making processes that affect the public, be they executive or
political in nature6. Finally, the e-Government should allow the different Administrations to share
data, information and processes, so as to offer the citizens better services7.
This initial characterisation of e-Gov as a service leads in a natural way to the conception, more
and more extended, of e-Gov as a subjective right, as a core part of the new "citizens' rights" in the
information and communication society, along with other social rights related to access, availability
and training in the use of new technologies to bridge the so-called 'digital gap' or the rights in
terms of data protection and personal communication8.
Stress has also recently been given to the importance that innovation through e-Government has
on the economic development of the nations, the increase in productivity and employment9.
Finally, some authors argue that the use of Internet by the public sector can play a leading role in
the articulation and development of social movements and networks10 and new ways of
'governance'11.
The introduction of e-Gov in different contexts has been analysed and evaluated in accordance to
different 'models' that tend to describe states or phases of 'maturity' in terms of the quantity and
- 4 -
quality of the services offered online, from just 'being present' on the website to advanced services
of 'transformation' and 'participation'. This type of analysis is an adaptation to the world of
Administration of the models of analysis of e-business from some years ago12. Each phase tends
to be characterised by means of a combination of elements, that, once turned into indicators, allow
the carrying out of comparative exercises or benchmarking13. In this line of research the rankings
of public websites, which have become popular in recent years, should be included14.
In terms of the revision, it can be concluded that the theory and research on electronic Government
has been mainly based on the analysis of the provision of information and services online. The
process of spreading, and the adoption of e-Gov among users (citizens, businesses and public
employees), has however been less studied15 and only recently has it been accepted that the
demand and real use of the services of e-Gov is a key indicator of the success of e-government
and a condition for computing the benefits of effectiveness and efficiency16. Some people have
spoken about a 'new wave' of e-Gov where the integration of e-Gov in the ordinary Administration
is beginning to be produced, and benefits are being achieved in terms of social impact, substitution
of channels and transformation of the organisation, or put in another way, where the e-Gov won't
be more a channel or separate service, but the natural way for the Administrations to perform and
to relate to the citizens17.
The 'Barcelona Model'
In June 2004, the professors Manuel Castells and Esteve Ollé published, within the framework of
the Project Internet in Catalunya (PIC) of the Open University of Catalonia and the Regional
government, a study about the implementation of the Electronic Government in the city of
Barcelona. From the conclusions of the study, the emergence of the city's own model of
administration can be deduced, focused on the institutional and conscious use of Internet "to
increase the efficiency of the Local Administration (….), the improvement of the public services and
the reformulation of the processes of governance of the city”18.
It is suggested that this 'model' should appear alongside and parallel to the urban planning and
socio-economic transformation model of the city, belonging to the 80s and 90s of the last century
(for this reason, already in the title of the research, it talks about a 'Barcelona Model 2', that of the
e-Government, continuing on from, and parallel to, the first 'Barcelona Model' of industrial and
urban transformation). This study, exploratory in nature, mentioned the appearance of the
phenomenon and left for subsequent studies the confirmation (or not) of its evolution and maturity
and a more precise characterisation.
- 5 -
The study by these authors is framed within the sociological approach of the theories of Manuel
Castells about the 'information era' and the 'network society’19, but made up mostly of the
methodological contributions that we have revised, such as the analysis of the maturity stages
based on indicators and even a small part of the analysis of the social adoption of the online
services provided by the City Council. The research is based on statistical information of the
Council, a large number of interviews with municipal staff, and the observations of the authors
themselves.
Castells and Ollé define the new 'Barcelona Model' in four interrelated components or dimensions:
1) A new model of public management (called 'administrative reconstruction' by the authors)
characterised by the business and territorial decentralisation, by the outsourcing of services and
by the separation of the political authority and the executive authority, that extensively adopts
management models and intensively uses information technologies.
2) The use of ICT, and in particular Internet, to increase the transparency and communication with
the citizens, by means of new information services and online procedures (what the authors
call 'informational accountability').
3) The enlargement of the daily life of the citizens by means of the social use of ICT, in a dynamic
relation mode between physical space and virtual space (that the authors call the 'construction
of the cybercity').
4) The influence and leadership of Barcelona in the networks of European and Latin American
cities that promote and exchange advanced experiences in the use of ICT.
Castells and Ollé identify synergies and contradictions within each dimension and among them,
that derive from their opinion about the strengths, interests and substratum of thought (the 'logics')
of the different actors the 'political logic', the 'technocrat', the 'hacker ethic' of website
innovation, the bureaucratic 'logics', etc. The evolution of the phenomenon over time should
resolve or opt for these contradictions.
The aim of this article is not to revise or strictly update the work of Castells and Ollé. Neither is it
possible, due to the length of the article, to deal with all the components presented in the previous
work. Our methodological approach does not follow in a lineal way the proposal of the authors. Our
hypothesis here is that the City Council of Barcelona has in recent years entered in a new stage or
cycle of development in its e-Gov that in part confirms the trends and contradictions outlined before
and also in part introduces new elements20.
The characteristic features of this new cycle would be as follows:
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1) We would find ourselves at the start of the phase of integration and institutionalisation of the e-
Government within the Municipal Administration and in the relation with other Administrations,
by means of organisational, technical and legal changes and a new provision of online services
that have the characteristics of the most advanced states of the development of e-Gov. We
include this point in the following section of the article ('Institutionalisation of the e-Government')
2) We would find ourselves at an advanced phase of social adoption of the services of e-Gov
among the population and the substitution of the traditional channels by Internet. This cycle
would affect all the public services, but has different speeds for different segments of public
(citizens in general, businesses and professionals) and services (information vs. e-services or
procedures, and different sub-groups within these groups). This point refers to the third section
of the article ('Adoption of the municipal website').
Therefore, with regard to the dimensions presented by Castells and Ollé, we study here the
provision of online services (the 'informational accountability'21) and the social adoption (the
metaphor of the 'construction of the cybercity'22), mentioning in this way, as they do also, the
organisational and technical elements that support these dimensions, that is to say, by wich
structural elements of organisation, systems and people the Electronic Government in the
municipal organisation is being constructed.
From the point of view of methodology, at the start of each section we present more thoroughly the
approach that has been followed, as well as the methods and sources, and the relation with the
research of Castells and Ollé. We say here that for the description of the institutional model and
the new provision of services, we follow in an eclectic way the characterisation of the 'levels of
maturity' of e-Gov as they are usually stated23 and the idea of the 'fourth wave' presented by Booz,
Allen and Hamilton24. For the production of the indicators and rankings we refer to the latest
university studies of the municipal websites25.
For the analysis of the social adoption, we follow the hypothesis that the behaviour of the citizens
with regard to the adoption of the municipal internet services is similar to the process of adoption of
innovations, described by Rogers26 and that has been extensively applied in the marketing of
products and services27 and also in the use of ICT in general28. According to this theory, those who
adopt an innovation are distributed in time in a grouping that goes from 'early innovators' to
'laggards' and takes the form of a normal curve. In terms of the process of individual adoption, it
follows a pattern that goes from lack of knowledge to repeated purchasing and has a relation with
the characteristics of the product and the attitudes of the consumer29. With suitable information, we
can know the moment of adoption of an innovation, make forecasts, and establish suitable product
and promotion strategies when carrying out the process.
- 7 -
With regard to the substitution of channels, our hypothesis30 is that the majority of information and
administrative services produced by the municipal government can be given out through the
internet, with the advantage of convenience and cost both for the users and for the Municipal
Administration. That should produce, in societies (and segments of users) with a high penetration
and experience of internet a process of substitution of the delivery channel, not very different from
that produced in an electronic bank or in the travel industry, if we act taking into account the
variables of marketing (access and distribution, incentives, user trust, investment in different
channels, etc.).
In terms of methods and sources, we have mainly used them statistical information and documents
from the City Council of Barcelona, most of which being public. In recent years, the municipal
organisation has made a great effort in terms of normalisation and measurement of the use of the
public services by different channels, particularly Internet. Likewise, in 2005 and 2006, it has been
carrying out quite extensive research, both about the Internet market, and more specifically about
the demand for administrative services online. This allowed us to have a broad longitudinal base,
complementary and consistent with that of the authors of the study of 2004, although in general
much bigger and more precise31. The projects and experiences of the period are documented in a
website housed in the municipal site32. Finally we cannot avoid mentioning the observation and
experience of the author, executive of the City Council during this period, in an approach to a
certain extent close to that of the 'action research', with its opportunities and biases33.
- 8 -
II. INSTITUTIONALISATION OF THE E-GOVERNMENT
According to that which we presented in the previous section, the usual analysis of the e-Gov has
been carried out in terms of supply, and mainly by means of the evaluation of the quantity and
complexity of the services offered online. There exists a certain agreement about the least complex
phases, where the Administrations put basic information on the website (Phase 1, or 'Presence'),
more complex information, such as access to general databases and dynamic applications (Phase
2, or 'Interaction'), and online transactions or procedures, with access to protected individual
information (Phase 3, or 'Transaction'). On the other hand there doesn't exist unanimous
agreement about the characterisation of the more advanced phases, which seem to respond to the
generic 'what goes beyond' and that includes considerations of technology (interactive games,
access from mobiles or TV, audio, video, delivery and follow up of multi-channel or intermodal
services, digital authentication, personalisation, proactiveness, etc.), of contents (management of
personal accounts, sharing of information between departments of an Administration or between
various Administrations, services of electronic participation, etc.), or of organisation (massive
reengineering of processes and complete transformation of the Public Administration)34.
In our opinion, what is characteristic of this phase and what makes its characterisation so difficult,
is that the e-Gov is diluted into the ordinary running of the Administrations that have managed to
integrate the new technologies and the website channel into their work processes and relations
with third parties, and therefore the reference to an 'e-Government' stops being useful35.
Our hypothesis in this section is that the City Council of Barcelona has in recent years entered a
new phase that we could call the 'institutionalisation' of e-Gov characterised by the offering of
advanced services and by the integration of the internet in the heart of the Municipal Administration
and with other Administrations by means of organisational, technological and legal changes. In the
development of this new phase, there has been a major municipal investment in ICT, and in
particular in the Internet, and new structures have emerged for the management of online services.
Finally, without renouncing innovation and a certain 'hacker ethic', the municipal management has
fostered criteria of effectiveness and efficiency and more managerial approaches.
The foundations of the 'model'
According to the thesis of Castells and Ollé36, there would exist in the foundations of the 'model' a
rooted common information management structure for the different channels (the "integrated multi-
- 9 -
channel system of information for citizens", or MISS), an expansive strategy of offering as much
information and services as possible through all the different channels, in particular Internet, and a
strong individual and collective substratum of innovation, supported from the Mayor's office (the
'municipal super-hacker', as stated by the authors), and led mainly from the department of
Barcelona Information.
The centralised management structure of the main databases of information for the citizens, the
integration, as far as it is possible, of the corporate and departmental back offices, the structure of
the model of applications in separate levels, the excellence of the geographical information and its
integration with the alpha-numerical information, and the quality of the 'base information' (which
relates to the people and the territory) have been characteristics of the municipal information
systems and technology for some time, well embedded within the municipal organisation.
The co-existence between different structures (the information and service providers of the
departments, the central structure of co-ordination of the website, the people in charge of the
Municipal Institute for Information Technology, the managers of the common information
databases, etc.) and an effort of 'relational management', with not much hierarchy, which the
authors also refer to, have probable been the key in terms of the functioning of the internet in the
City Council since about 1999 (after the initial period of what we could call 'autonomy').
In the phase studied by the authors, a period of expansion of information and services put on the
Internet was effectively undergone, with a political and administrative logic of transparency and
responsibility (the 'informational accountability' of Castells and Ollé) that led Barcelona to climb up
to the top positions on the ladder in the development of online Administration, not only in Spain, but
also at a European level, where Barcelona stands still.
In 2001, there was a strategic reflection about the future of Internet in the City Council from which
arose, among others, the project of content management, that determined the model of
government and production of the municipal website from that moment. Since then, the website of
Barcelona has responded to a functioning that we could call a horizontal or 'federal' portal, made
up currently of 139 websites of different municipal programs and services, that allows the re-
utilization of contents and validates the process of production by means of a workflow manager37.
The central structure, apart from establishing the common regulations for the whole system,
directly manages the corporate services of online information and procedures.
Finally, Castells and Ollé identify that the hacker ethic’38 of innovation can be found in the
individual and collective substratum of this transformation, especially within the group of Barcelona
Information. The characteristics of this 'ethic' would be creativity, active internal and external
relational attitude, the self-organisation of work time, the vocation for public service, to establish a
- 10 -
certain competitiveness with other Administrations and a feeling of belonging to a 'community' of
practitioners. This ethic would co-exist, according to the authors in a dialectic, contradictory and
complex relation with other more 'protestant' municipal ethics (the democratic model of municipal
public management, based on efficiency, cost saving and introduction of management and
business systems, or the public servant hierarchical rules-based model).
Institutional commitment and management model
The current phase that started at the end of 2003 with the new political period, would be
characterised in our opinion by the effective expression and fulfilment of an institutional
commitment in support of the e-Gov, that is reflected by the range of a combination of policies and
plans, a major boost to the investment in ICT and the putting into practice of new structures
(organisational, technological and legal) for the management of the online services, that would
facilitate the integration of the online Administration within the ordinary Administration of the City
Council. The main challenges for the period are the Strategic Plan for Information Systems and the
Regulatory Ordinance (bylaw) for the e-Government. We will revise next the main components and
the most significant challenges in this new cycle.
In this new stage the political reference of the municipal website is the fourth Deputy Mayor, José
Cuervo, President of the Treasury Commission, and President of the Executive Committee, that is
to say, the political person responsible for the municipal management machinery. An e-
Government Committee has been formed, that he also presides, made up of councillors and
directors from the different municipal areas, and the Editorial Commission for the website has been
revitalised. The position of Deputy Managing Director, under the Municipal Managing Director, has
been created, to oversight the new Department for Citizen Attention, the Department of
Organisation of Systems, the Municipal Institute of Information Technology, and also a new
'Technical' Department for Internet; although the management of the contents, also a new
directorate in the organisation chart, remain under the Department for Corporate Communication.
An ordinary Internet committee, led by the Deputy Manager, 'co-ordinates' the functioning of the
website by means of fortnightly meetings, trying to preserve the spirit of the old Barcelona
Informació for years responsible for the municipal Internet, and now divided into different
structures.
Although the disappearance of Barcelona Informació opened up a reasonable series of unknowns
at the start of the mandate, we believe that it can be said three years afterwards that the new
structures of governance and management have better integrated the internet into the rest of the
municipal structure, placing it in a more central position and closer to the decision-making and
- 11 -
boosting its managing power although it is possible that in the process, visibility has been lost,
as well as a direct support from the Mayor's office and a more 'political' vision of the development
of Internet. The breaking up of the area has inevitably led to inefficiencies and co-ordination costs,
that are compensated by a positive culture of staff relations and shared objectives.
The new team prepared a Strategic Plan of Information Systems and later a Plan of e-Government,
that is included in the Municipal Action Plan and the Municipal Investments Plan. An investment of
50 million Euro for Information Technology was approved, representing an increase of 75%
compared with the previous mandate. 20% of this investment is dedicated to the e-Government
and Citizen Attention, defined as one of the four strategic lines of the mandate, with the main aim
of increasing the supply and demand of online transaction (electronic procedures) in all the
municipal fields. In this sense, two Government Measures were presented to the City Council
Plenary. New online services have been produced and put in place (described in the following
section) and the whole technological infrastructure for the management of contents, development
and production, have been renewed. The evolution of the technological architecture of the
Municipal Institute of Information Technology towards a SOA model (Service Oriented
Architecture), with new components of integration and web services, facilitates the development of
the e-Government applications. Internet has become a 'VIP customer' of the Municipal Institute of
Information Technology, for which it has signed a demanding agreement of service levels. The
whole program gives the new Internet area a technical, economic and managerial solidity it didn't
have before, and allows it to assume the enormous expansion of services and frequency that it has
undergone in this period39.
As with the rest of the projects of the Strategic Plan of Systems, those of the Internet are subject to
mechanisms of qualification and evaluation of the return on investment, project planning,
management and control, that put special emphasis on quality, time and cost, favouring the
contracting out of certain services. The transition towards this type of dialogue hasn't always been
easy, given than the development in Internet, not only in the Municipal field, is subject to most
complex and iterative process of innovation and there are few external references. This has led to
some delays in the setting in motion and delivery of some projects. The international literature of
project management and omplamentation of information systems has recognised the peculiarities
in the development of Internet and the need to adapt the structures, plans and work processes40.
Neither the 'ethic hacker' nor the lineal construction engineering are the likely solution.
In this period a challenge has been produced which we believe is central to the construction of e-
Government in the City Council of Barcelona and possibly in Europe41, The approval of a
Regulatory Ordinance for e-Government, a sort of municipal 'law' that establishes the rights of the
citizens in this field and the principles of action of the Municipal Administration, and regulates the
- 12 -
legal procedures for publishing administrative information and for carrying out online procedures,
transposing for the first time the state regulation of common administrative procedure into the field
of Internet42. What is relevant here is the evolution from a concept of informal and voluntary
accountability (transparency and responsibility) in which the Administration places information and
services online, to a concept of legal accountability made up of a series of subjective rights that the
citizens can demand and therefore a series of guarantees that the Administration needs to
safeguard. It refers, combined with other actions mentioned above, to the 'socialising' and
'legalisation' of the e-Government within the Municipal Administration, still accepting the risk that
this may slow down or bureaucratise to a certain extent the 'expansive logic that defines online
services’43 in the previous phase.
The last feature that, in our opinion, characterises this phase is a cultural evolution from the
subjective aim of being a 'service to the citizens' that the previous phases characterised, to a more
business concept of 'giving value to the customers'. Both have been little explicit, and can only be
understood from an analytical observation or based on experience. In the current phase, the aim of
gaining audience or social use of the municipal Internet, especially for e-services, is a very
important driver. As a consequence, the figures and ways of use and trends are continually being
analysed. Surveys and qualitative studies are carried out so as to understand better the needs of
the customers and to involve them in the development of the new services. Promotional strategies
and tactics are tried out which are different from the institutional communication of the public
administrations themselves, and often far from the mass media. New projects are analysed from
the point of view of the market and the return of the investment, and the initiatives that only
contribute novelties or experimentation are assessed thoroughly before being approved. The
transition isn't obvious, as one could imagine, or without difficulties, mistakes and 'areas of
uncertainty' (using the words of Crozier, as quoted by Castells and Ollé), which probably should be
preserved.
A summary of the characteristic elements of this phase are presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Institutionalisation of the e-Government. Characteristic features.
Integration in the area of Presidency and Treasury and the Managing Director Office.e-Government Commission.Strategic Plan of Information Systems.e-Government Ordinance.Strengthening of the management structures.Model of project management.Culture of 'value for the customer'.
- 13 -
New services
At the time of the study of Castells and Ollé, the areas rightly highlighted were the applications
based on the municipal systems of geographical information (the Barcelona Guide, the
cartographic and urban planning information, or the services of mobility and traffic), the services
aimed at specific target groups (such as the Canal Cultura, the website of Libraries, or the services
for businesses such as Infopyme, for SMEs), the first virtual communities (such as Barcelona
Activa, the Local Development Agency, or the Open Education Project) as well as some pioneering
initiatives in terms of participation, although it was already pointed out that these last areas of
development seemed minor and still needed to take off. The field of electronic procedures was also
highlighted, although in this period few procedures could be fully completed by Internet. Aspects
such as accessibility or compatibility with open source software were not evaluated, which in
recent years have seemed to become highlighted topics in the evaluation of public websites.
In recent years the publication of online services has continued, perhaps with greater intensity and
speed, the Internet has become generalised as a vehicle of communication for all the municipal
services, some of the information services used most by the public have been enlarged and
improved, the e-Government has been widely developed in terms of services that allow the
completion of procedures in the website, the management of personal accounts and electronic
authentication, agreements for the exchange of information with other Administrations have been
signed and carried out, and more sophisticated technical settings have been entered into such as
applications that allow changing the channel, mobile applications, interactive games and audio and
video applications (although this is yet to include interactive television). Participation has been
developed somewhat more (not however including blogs, virtual communities or the more
advanced forms of e-democracy), and advances have been made with the compatibility of open
source software and to a lesser extent accessibility. We will examine critically the most highlighted
features and challenges of this cycle as follows.
From summer 2003 to summer 2006, more than 40 new websites have been created ('completed',
apart from the large number of isolated or opportunist websites) that give all the services and
municipal programmes a basic level of presence, information and interaction, and the new contents
manager has been introduced, to which 35 existing websites have migrated. Some very advanced
municipal programs, that had developed their own solutions (such as the website of the Institute of
Culture, or that of Libraries) are in the process of moving over to this solution. The conglomerate
bcn.es (now also bcn.cat) currently groups together 139 completed websites, that contain 80,000
static pages and 120 applications.
- 14 -
The City Guide, the authentic star application of the municipal website, has been totally renovated
with a new application in flash and with new sophisticated services, such as a virtual flight over the
city or tourist itineraries. The services of the agenda and the directories have been improved,
although to a lesser extent and it has suffered from the loss of quality of the information about
companies and businesses that was obtained through the former National Economic Activities Tax.
In terms of public administrative information, it is not as yet compete and its inclusion was not
obligatory until the approval of the e-Government Ordinance which is still at the early stages of
introduction.
In this period 24 procedures (Figure 2) have been incorporated or improved. Currently 21 can be
carried out completely by Internet. These figures mean that 90% of the potential volume of
procedures of the City Council can be carried out by Internet, and 65% can be totally completed.
The aim for the end of the mandate is that between 80% and 85% of the potential volume of
procedures will be able to be completed by Internet.
Figure 2. Procedures by Internet44
2003 2006
P1 633 791
P2 27 28
P3 22 20
P4 11 21
Total P2-P4 60 69
Procedures eliminated 4New procedures 13Improved procedures 11
Source: City Council of Barcelona.
As well as the procedures available on the portal, the City Council has agreements with different
professional groups so as to be able to carry out procedures by means of secure extranets. With
regard to the commitments of the European Union, with a view to using the e-Government for the
benefit of the competitiveness of the companies45, it should be noted the lack of development in
Barcelona of the solutions for electronic contracting and purchasing, beyond that the service
(advanced at the time) of the 'Supplier's Portal' that allows the visualisation of the state of their
invoicing and payment process.
Services which allow the personalisation of part of the contents ('My agenda') have been
developed, as well as access to specific information of individuals and businesses (the 'Citizen
folder', and the 'Businesses and entities' folder'), along the lines of the management of accounts
- 15 -
that some private websites and electronic banks use, although the possibility still doesn't exist of
configuring a portal according to the wishes of the user (like a 'My portal'). It is possible to access
these services through different levels of secure access, of a user-password that the Citizen
Attention offices of the City Council give out, and of the most extended digital certificates. The
possibility to fully complete procedures and the personalised services require a very high level of
integration with the back offices and legacy applications. For example, the 'Citizen folder' gains
access to 24 million registers and a large number of applications and databases. However, these
services still tend to be associated with an information provider (generally the Municipal Institute of
Treasury, or Tax Office, and the sector of Urban Planning), and it is difficult to include information
and procedures from other municipal services.
With regard to indicators of 'maturity' that appear in literature, it should be pointed out that in
Barcelona it is still not possible to complete complex administrative procedures that require a
public formal seal of entry, supplying online documentation or electronic notification.46.
The aspects of integration of information and processes, within the organisation and with other
administrations and companies, are probably one of the most advanced signs of development of e-
Government, although they require an effort in terms of functional and technical standardisation, a
certain level of reengineering and the construction of technological platforms for inter-operability. In
this period the City Council has reached agreements and operates extensively with the Tax
Administration of the State, the Department of land and property registry, the Official Bulletin and
other services of the Generalitat de Catalunya (the Government of Catalonia), in a bilateral way.
The evolution during this same period of the Consortium of Open Administration of Catalonia as a
platform for multi-lateral inter-operability between Catalan Administrations and the State, has also
facilitated the development and introduction of agreements related to the census and electoral
register, that allows the local Administrations to exchange information of residence and
cohabitation. However, the level of assimilation of these uses by the State Administration and
some of the services of the Generalitat de Catalunya are still insufficient.
With regard to participation, during this period, advanced services like electronic voting have not
been developed47, nor has the announced portal of associations48. However two initiatives should
be highlighted, of highly popular acceptance. The first was to submit to public scrutiny and
consultation the Municipal Action Plan for the mandate, a process in which a large number of
entities and citizens took part, and in which it was notable to the fact almost half of the
contributions were received by Internet.
The second is the new application for the management of incidents, complaints, claims,
suggestions and consultations (IRIS), housed in the website under the heading 'The City Council
- 16 -
listens to you'49. The application annually processes around 300,000 contacts for more than 1,600
different thematic concepts. The most accepted channel is the new free-of-charge telephone 900
226 226, ‘the telephone of civic behaviour', with only 11% of the contacts being made by Internet.
The application allows the immediate communication with the back office responsible for solving
the problem reported by the citizen, and the follow up of the procedure by means of different
channels. The inter-modality (the possibility of changing from one channel to another) is an
authentic provision of a multi-channel attention system, one that Barcelona at the moment only has
available for this application and for the new procedure for reporting minor building works (OROM).
In this period, the City Council has entered into the world of mobile applications, making available
to the public the most requested services of the website, i.e. those relating to information about the
city (the map, the directories, the agenda and 'how to get around') which also have an even greater
potential for service and use due to the fact of being mobile. The applications are developed for
electronic agendas such as 'e-pocket' and for conventional mobile telephone equipped with WAP
access (in practice, the majority of the handsets available at the marketplace). It is interesting to
point out the fact of having available unique and well integrated information databases, which
allows a relatively economical adaptation of the services for new channels and with very low costs
of maintenance and management of contents.
As we have stated before, in recent years there has been a predisposition on the part of
international organisations, social sectors and the ICT industry, as well as academic sectors to
facilitate access to the public websites for people with different types of disabilities. It is a topic of
enormous debate and complexity, particularly for websites as extensive as the one of Barcelona. In
this period, the municipal teams of Internet have established regulations as regards brand new
developments and have some pages accessible with the regulation AA of the W3C, such as its
own main home page or a specific website for people with disabilities50, although we are still a long
way from the standards that these sectors are demanding. However, there have been very fast
advances in the adaptation of the website so that it can be accessible and can be browsed with the
most usual open source applications, that, at least for surfing the Internet, almost 10% of the users
of the municipal website use.
In that period, have been developed services of radio (Radio Scan), television (broadcast of the
Plenary of the Council) and many video applications. The RSS systems for news sindication has
been included as well.
And last, but not least, the interactive services should be highlighted, such as games and
experiences in which the participation of the user is necessary. These are purely entertainment
services, although the thematic contents refers to the city or the experience of a Barcelona citizen
- 17 -
and in the case of games the aim has been to achieve a didactic or pedagogical approach of civic
behaviour. The production during these years has been huge, with very sophisticated applications
such as 'Dedicate a star', the 'beach game', the 'Agora', the 'Barcelonagramas' or the game 'Do
you know Barcelona?'. Some authors have pointed out the proximity and use of these types of
applications for advanced experiences of democratic participation, although for the time being it
seems exaggerated to consider the case of Barcelona within these examples51.
In Spain the e-Gov rankings have become very popular, particularly those that compare the
municipal websites with a long list of indicators about the quantity and complexity of the services.
Since the first edition in 2001 the City Council has come top in the studies by the Fundación Auna
(now, Fundación France Telecom) with the University Carlos III, as well as those of the Municipal
Website magazine with the University Pompeu Fabra and those of the Instituto de Empresa52.
Finally the Spanish and European acknowledgements and awards received during this period,
seem to confirm Barcelona, despite weaknesses we have mentioned, as one of the world
experiences of reference in the development of net services for the Goverment53.
- 18 -
III. ADOPTION OF THE MUNICIPAL WEBSITE
We believe that the phenomenon of the e-Government can be studied as one more example of the
processes of diffusion of innovations, and in particular, the ICT within the value chain and social
relations. According to the theory of Rogers54, any innovation suffers a process of social adoption
that goes through a series of states in which different proportions of the target public assimilate
and use the innovation, until its adoption is almost complete by the social system to which it is
aimed. According to this model, it is possible to identify five groups of adopters (the innovators, the
early adopters, the early majority, the late majority and the laggards) who are distributed in a
certain proportion of frequencies similar to a normal distribution. The slope of the curve is
determined by the speed (rate of adoption) in which the process of adoption is produced. A critical
mass of users is obtained as of 50% of the demand (Figure 3).
Figure 3. The adoption curve of innovations
Source: City Council of Barcelona.
In terms of the individual process of adoption, this depends mainly on the aspects related to the
product, the situational context and the relation with other purchasers55. The studies about the
advanced use of Internet, as for example, electronic purchasing, highlights the fact that adoption is
linked to the perceptions of usefulness and security and the individual experience of the user (for
example, older and intensive users of Internet tend to purchase more by Internet than others56).
The process of adoption follows a cycle that goes through the stages of (1) knowledge of the offer,
(2) development of interest and predisposition to trying out, (3) acquisition or trying out the
purchase, and (4) repeated or loyal purchasing. Rogers' model has been used extensively in the
world of marketing57 and more recently also for the study of the spread of ICT, socially and in the
heart of the organisations58. However the phenomenon of the social use and adoption of the e-Gov
has been less studied, probably because until very recently, according to what we have seen, the
- 19 -
evaluation models used have been based on theoretical stages of supply. Only recently has it been
recognised the importance of analysing the demand and real use of the services, as an indicator of
the success of e-Gov, in terms of efficacy, effectiveness and return on investment.59. From their
standpoint, the Public Administration haven't either been inclined to publish extensively, and
certainly not in a critical way the results of these processes, specially the figures of use by the
public.
Also in this the previous study by Castells and Ollé about Barcelona is innovative, and contains a
small piece in which they analyse the positive relation between the use of certain online services of
the City Council and the characteristics and interests of the Barcelona Internauts60.
The studies that the City Council of Barcelona currently carry out are aimed at understanding the
process of adoption of the different services of Internet, in particular the electronic procedures, and
to design the product and marketing actions to accelerate the process, within the trend of the 'user-
focused e-government' which is beginning to be more common in Anglo-Saxon countries61.
The City Council of Barcelona incorporates in the studies of usage and satisfaction with the
municipal services (Omnibus quarterly and six-monthly studies62) questions related to the
penetration of internet in the city, the use of citizen attention services and the municipal website.
Online surveys are also carried out and there is a section of the homepage that collects the opinion
of the users63. The figures of use were audited not long ago by a national private audit agency and
published on the website64.
In recent years broader and more specific studies have been carried out about Internet in the city,
the use of bcn.es and electronic procedures65. The systems for recording and classifying of the real
use have been improved and standardised, which allows us to have a longitudinal comparative
history. Finally a follow up has been done about the use of bcn.es in relation to the main city
websites around the world, using an international measurement system of the relative position.
All of the above has allowed us to observe the evolution with regard to the results published in the
research by Castells and Ollé, and about the process of adoption of the public website and its most
advanced services, with a precision that didn't exist at the time; although there are still some
inconsistencies in the methods of recording, measurement and counting that the City Council
should correct for its internal management and in the interest of the users and researchers.
For the following analysis, the opinion studies that have been used that are shown in Figure 4. For
the real use of the different services of the website, the count that the City Council carried out by
means of 'webtrends' software has been used, as well as the application of registration of the
municipal procedures through all the channels (RAT). For the comparison with other city websites,
- 20 -
the analysis carried out by the Technical Department of Internet of the City Council was used,
making use of the information gained from the Alexa benchmark66.
Figure 4. Market research. Sources used.
‘Internet in the city' survey (In person. December 2004 - January 2005)
Users of Barcelona website survey. (Internet. July - December 2004)
Qualitative study about www.bcn.es (Gabinete Burgos Mestre. January 2005)
Ómnibus Municipal. (Telephone survey. Six-monthly)
Online procedure survey. (Gabinete DYM/Ogilvy. April 2006)
Online procedure survey. (Internet. Gabinete Multiplica. June 2006)
Qualitative study of usability. (Gabinete Arquinauta. May - June 2006)
Penetration of the municipal website
According to previous studies, in June 200667 60.9% of the households of Barcelona had an
Internet connection, of which nearly two thirds had braodband connections. Few households where
there is a computer do not already have an Internet connection.
In the major survey of January 200568, 58.9% of the Barcelona citizens stated that they use the
net. Of the 'internauts' (net users) 55% stated that they connect for more than 10 hours a week.
The majority of the net users connect from home (74.3%), and from work (39.7%), and the use is
mainly personal (93.4%) and professional (56.5%). Not surprisingly, the majority of users connect
with Internet to look for information and communicate by e-mail (Figure 5), but there are also
relatively advanced transactional services, such as booking trips, electronic banking and carrying
out procedures with the Administrations (27.5% of the users).
- 21 -
Figure 5. Uses of Internet
Source: Internet and the Website of Barcelona, January 2005.
46.8% of the net users say they have visited the website of the City Council of Barcelona69.
Compared with the general internaut of the city, the users of bcn.es have been users of the
Internet for longer and make more intensive use of the web, both for personal reasons and
especially professional (Figure 6). 70% connect for more than 10 hours a week.
Figure 6. Aims for the use of Internet.
Source: Internet and the Website of Barcelona, January 2005b.
Comparing these figures with the study about Internet and Catalonia in 2002 and with the
metropolitan survey of 2003, quoted by Castells and Ollé, and despite the differences in method,
one can conclude that the growth in the share of bcn.es in the Internet market of Barcelona has
been very significant. In 200370, 44.5% of the population stated that they used Internet, of which
21.7
22.0
27.5
28.1
36.8
36.9
38.4
38.4
44.4
48.2
86.8
95.1
To work (Teleworking)
To download / watch films
To do procedures with the Administrations
To study / do homework
To inform about / do bank transactions
To surf (without a specific aim)
To chat (messenger, others
To download, listen to music
To make reservations (trips, flights, etc.)
To consult the press
To receive/send e-mails
To look for/receive information
93.4 94.4
56.5
69.9
31.135.4
0
20
40
60
80
100
%
Personal Professional Academic
Internauts Users of web in BCN
- 22 -
24.3% used the municipal Internet. Furthermore, the website of the city seemed to gain more as
the use of Internet increased, is more varied and surpasses the initial share of innovative users.
In the survey of 2005, the interviewees were asked about the type of consultations they made in
the website of the city. The results are shown in Figure 7, and seem to confirm that between 75
and 80% are uses for information, among which should be highlighted the wide use of the city
map.
Figure 7. Types of consultations of the website of Barcelona
Map/Cartography 30.3%
Cultural/leisure/history information 20.0%
Administrative procedures/information and taxes 12.1%
Infrastructures and amenities (telephones/addresses/timetables) 11.2%
Information about transport/mobility 9.6%
Public admin exams /job offers 4.2%
Information about Barcelona, neighbourhoods… 3.7%
Information in general 3.6%
Information about housing 3.4%
Source: Internet and the website of Barcelona, January 2005c.
All these figures confirm the conclusions by Castells and Ollé and other studies, that coincide in
the sense that the social use of Internet is linked to its usefulness for daily life of the people. In the
case of Barcelona, an additional effect is produced, something not so common in the websites of
the cities around the world, and it is the fact that the most requested services compete successfully
with other sources of public and private information. Effectively, according to another survey71, the
municipal website appears as a place of reference for obtaining information about the city in
Internet, in the same way as the City Council's 010 telephone service is for users of telephone
information.
The real figures of usage, obtained from the municipal records, continue to confirm these
conclusions but introduce some new elements that we will examine later on.
The study by Castells and Ollé provided a series of basic indicators of use as at December 2002.
In 2002, the website received something more than 12 million visits. In 2003 a certain stabilisation
of these figures of use was produced, which took off again from 2004 onwards, with a spectacular
new upturn which has been produced throughout 2006. If we project lineally the figures of use for
the first six months of 200672, the municipal website will end up receiving some 37 million visits,
- 23 -
approximately 100,000 visits a day, and around September 2006 will have reached the magical
number of 100 million visits since its creation, 11 years ago.
It also seems possible to deduce that a process of substitution of channels is taking place, or at
least, the net growth of the demand for services of information and citizen attention, that are
habitually expansive, are being produced in favour of Internet and at the cost of the traditional
channels, much more expensive. It is foreseen that if the trend is maintained, during 2006 the
demand for onsite and telephone services will have dropped to the levels of four years ago (Figure
8).
Figure 8. Use of the different channels
Source: City Council of Barcelona.
It is not easy to make comparisons with other private or public websites, except for those subject to
homologated controls such as those of the spanish OJD, that have recently changed their counting
system. On the other hand, one can get a relatively valid approximation comparing the position in
the traffic rank carried out by Alexa, a company of the Amazon group. According to the same
source, the website of Barcelona would be the best placed website among the European cities,
moreover occupying a very good position at a world level, in a group which includes Tokyo, Sao
Paulo, Sydney, New York, Melbourne, Brisbane and Osaka (Figure 9). This fact is even more
significant if we consider that the majority of these cities are much bigger than Barcelona and have
figures of penetration and use of Internet also higher. In Barcelona's favour is the fact of having a
unique URL address, that includes all the addresses of the municipal websites.
3,943,5973,347,199
4,091,3093,800,000
2,073,8591,621,682 2,000,0002,385,791
12,327,193
3,037,208
23,530,991
37,000,000
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 forecast
2006
Telephone
In person
Web
+200%
-7%
-4%
2003-06
- 24 -
Figure 9. Comparison of the traffic rank of the municipal websites of cities around the world.73
Source: www.alexa.com, 31st May 2006.
Use of the municipal Internet services
If we examine the use of the provision of services of bcn.es, we can observe, with more precise
counting than that which we had at the time74 and with the enormous growth in recent years, that
there is a clear trend towards the use of the most useful and practical services linked to daily life.
Three quarters of the visits are those of the services such as the map and street maps of the city
(the authentic star application of the website), the guide of amenities (the 'Yellow pages'), and the
agenda of the city (a sort of 'Leisure Guide'). The sections of tourism, traffic and culture also
occupy highlightable positions (Figure 10).
Figure 10. Ranking of services
Source: City Council of Barcelona.
Méx
ico D
F
Toron
to
Osaka
Barce
lona
Brisba
ne
New Y
ork
Sidney
Sao P
aulo
Perth
Melb
ourn
e
Riode
Jane
iro
Pequí
n
Tokio
0
2.000
4.000
6.000
8.000
10.000
12.000
14.000
9,000,000
655,000
724,000
734,000
818,000
1,135,000
1,500,000
1,525,000
9,600,000
10,600,000
Home News
Statistics
Urban Planning
Culture
Traffic
e-Services
Tourism
Diary of Events
City Guide
Amenities
2004 2005 projection 2006% 05-06
77%
59%
86%
31%
14%
28%
102%
73%
47%
40%
- 25 -
We have maintained this classification so as to be able to make consistent comparisons with
previous years. The Technical Department of Internet of the City Council of Barcelona is
constructing a new system for counting, that collects directly the visits to the sections just as they
are presented in the website without subsequently reclassifying them and for which we have the
results for 2005. (Figure 12).
Figure 11. Monthly visits to the different sections of the website in 2005
Source: City Council of Barcelona, January 2006.
It is very interesting to observe various phenomenon that were not present some years ago. On the
one hand, the appearance of 'communities' of certain importance that use specialised individual
websites (schools, libraries, urban planning, statistics, culture, youth, etc.). On the other hand the
success of the entertainment sections, such as experience or interactive games: according to this
count, the 'Beach game' (related to the civic use of the beaches of the city) would have been the
second most visited section throughout 2005, with almost 2 million visits, and the games and
experiences overall reach nearly three and a half million visits. These sections don't have a
practical or professional use, and do not usually appear in any of our studies and in almost none of
the literature. In fact, with regard to the research of Castells and Ollé, throughout recent years,
these sections and those of procedures are the ones which have emerged with a significant
importance, both in terms of volume and growth.
The experience of use seems in general to be satisfactory, with ratings higher than seven points
out of ten in recent years. In the biggest survey placed on the homepage in January 2005, the
users rated the website with 3.5 points out of 5, and 93.8% said they would use it again. The most
highly rated attributes were information, usefulness, look and clarity, with answers of over 80% in
agreement. The most highly rated services were the map of the city, the directory of amenities and
procedures, with more than 7 points out of ten.
City Guide 504,726 Municipal Schools 41,464Beach Game 399,84 Culture 40,947Tourism 97,059 Urban
Pl i38,957
Fotoweb bcn 2006 93,029 ICUB. Gaudí2002
37,533Diary of events 92,953 Department of Statistics 35,390General Library 87,036 Noise
G33,653
Traffic 73,909 The BCNSk
32,710Publications 69,197 BCNPI
C28,852
Internal browser 61,515 CIAJ (Information CentredAdvice for youth)
27,309
City Councilti
57,557 Leisure 25,425Presentation ofB l
46,162 Mercè festivities 22,030Directories 45,870 News in catalan 21,813Do I love 43,345
- 26 -
e-Services
Finally, we will examine the process of adoption of e-procedures or electronic administrative
services among the users of the website. According to the survey of 200575, 27.5% of the users
say that they carry out transactions with the Administrations, an answer that initially seemed to us
to be courtesy or that it included under this epigraph the consultations of information about
procedures and processes76. In their study, Castells and Ollé did not have data about the
phenomenon and the researchers carried out a field study taking the information from some weeks
obtained from the municipal citizens' attention service.
In June 200677 a series of quantitative and qualitative studies were carried out to look in depth into
the use of e-procedures with the City Council of Barcelona. According to one of them, carried out
jointly with the municipal Omnibus to 1,300 citizens, 69.2% of the interviewed people said that they
had carried out procedures with the City Council of Barcelona by any of the channels in the last
four years. 40.3% stated doing so once or more times a year, and 28.9% once every two, three or
four years. Of this market, made up of approximately 900,000 people, 70.8% say that they know of
the possibility of carrying out procedures by Internet, 32.22% say they are interested or
predisposed to doing so, 19.5% (some 180,000 people) say they have done so, and 10.87% state
that they do so habitually.
Figure 12. Cycle of adoption of the of the procedures by the citizens
Source: City Council of Barcelona, 2006.
The experience is satisfactory in the majority of the cases: 70.6% have completed the procedure
and the service was rated with between 7 points (in this survey) and 7.2 (in the study about
Internet and Barcelona 2005 that we have commented on). The main reasons for not carrying out
procedures by Internet are lack of knowledge (9.4% of those surveyed) or the fact of being unable
Sample: 1,300,000 citizens
Do proceduresdirectly with the
Council
Know the optionto do procedures
online
Are open to doingonline
procedures
Have done onlineprocedures with
the Council
Always do onlineprocedures with
the Council
69.2% 899,600
70.8% 636,917
32.22% 289,851
19.65% 176,77110.87% 97,786
- 27 -
to complete the whole procedure by Internet ('in the end I have to go in person to complete it' was
the answer in only 6.27 of the cases).
A second survey was carried out with a group we call 'not citizens', that is to say, businesses,
business agents and professionals. This is a survey carried out in person with 753 people who
represent a market of 175,000 businesses and professionals. According to the results, 84.8% of
this groups state that they carry out procedures with the City Council, although only 59.5% say that
they do so directly (the others do so by means of agents or representatives). Of these, 61.2%
seem to know about the possibility of doing procedures by Internet, 33.90% show interest or are
predisposed to do so, and 56.70% (approximately 69,500 entities) actually do so. The most
intensive users are the agents or representatives of the property (49.99% say they do more than
three procedures a year) compared with the companies and the rest of the professionals (34.02%
of whom do so). (Figure 13)
Figure 13. Cycle of adoption of procedures by the non-citizens and companies
Source: City Council of Barcelona, 2006b.
During recent years, the process for counting municipal procedures has been normalised by
means of the different channels, which is not exactly simple. Figure 14 shows the historical series
since 2001. In that year 188,320 procedures were carried out by Internet, which reached 1,317,692
in 2005, with an inter-annual growth of 144%. The star service was an urban planning application
(called BCNPIC) that allows downloading of the plan or land registry information of any plot of land
in the city, without the need of a personal identification. During 2005, 1,101,399 of these
procedures were carried out, which are nearly all done exclusively by Internet. Effectively, the most
requested procedures are those of Urban Planning and Treasury (the Tax Office) which confirms
the majority of use by professionals, which already appeared in the study by Castells and Ollé.
Sample: 206,262 companies
Do proceduresdirectly with the
Council
Know the optionto do procedures
online
Are open to doingonline
procedures
Have done onlineprocedures with
the Council
Always do onlineprocedures with
the Council
84.8% 174,910
61.2% 75,108
33.9% 41,604
56,7% 69.58649.99% of agents34.02% of companies
- 28 -
Figure 14. Evolution of the number of procedures by Internet
Source: City Council of Barcelona.
In recent months and for the study of municipal procedures by Internet, an effort has been made to
refine the information, so as to obtain a more valid basis for analysis and forecast. According to
this recent analysis, the total number of municipal procedures carried out during 2005, was
3,783,031, of which 35% were done by Internet. If we discount the effect of BCNPIC, the total
would be 2,681,632, of which 9% were done by Internet. For the group of companies and
professionals, the share of the online procedures reaches 33.4%. The share of the Internet
channel increases rapidly, above all in relation to the increase of availability of the services of
higher potential and that the citizens have systems of electronic identification. The share of
procedures by Internet for the first quarter of 2006 is situated at 13%, without the PIC, and 43% if
the PIC is included. On confirming this trend, that seems to repeat itself for the second quarter, at
the end of 2006 the number of procedures carried out by Internet will be similar to the number of
procedures done in the municipal offices, and in the case of the professional public, the Internet
channel will become the preferred channel for carrying out procedures (Figure 15).
Figure 15. Evolution of the demand for procedures by channel78
Source: City Council of Barcelona.
50 ,6%
18 ,7%
45,0%
12,8%
3 3 ,3%
16 ,1 %
41 ,3%40 ,0% 42,2%
Web In pers on Telephone
2004
2005
2006
1,500,000
1,317,692
1,132,478
983,520
591,947
188,320
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 forecast2006
- 29 -
With the analysis we have presented up to here, we can conclude that the services of e-
government in Barcelona can be found in an advanced state of adoption mostly among the net
users, or internauts, of the city (given that they represent half the number of citizens). The adoption
of the information services by Internet is very advanced (representing more than 40% of the
potential users, and therefore reaching the level of 'critical mass'), and is substituting the traditional
channels. The use of e-services is at a very advanced level for the groups of companies and
professionals (almost 60% are customers) although the process for citizens in general is still
somewhat slower.
All in all, the level of knowledge of the services and the predisposition for purchasing let's us augur
the fact that the process of social adoption of e-procedures will continue, if suitable product and
marketing actions are produced, and it will be even bigger if digital ID is extended among the
citizens and companies.
- 30 -
IV. CONCLUSIONS
From the previous analysis, we believe it is possible to reach some conclusions, or at least, the
initial confirmation of some hypotheses of work, that should be agreed on for subsequent research.
1. In the period analysed (2003-2006) the continuity and sustainability of the 'Barcelona Model' for
e-government seems to be confirmed, both in the use of Internet by the Municipal
Administration, and due to its acceptance and adoption by the citizens. The characteristic
features can also be confirmed, as described in the work of Castells and Ollé, at least clearly
the two that we have studied in the article (the 'informational accountability' and the
'construction of the cybercity').
2. In this stage, a new cycle has begun of 'institutionalisation' of e-government in the Municipal
Administration, characterised by the extension and adoption of Internet by the majority of the
municipal services by means of organisational, technical and legal changes, and particularly two
instruments: The Strategic Plan of Information Systems, and the Regulatory Ordinance for e-
Government.
3. Also in this period, we have observed the development of online services that have a number of
characteristics of the most advanced states in the development of e-Government, in terms of
the level of transactionality and internal and external integration, and in the creative use of
technology, and the taking advantage of the possibilities of digital means. Worth highlighting is
the case of the games and experiences of interactivity. However, we have observed limitations
and weaknesses in the e-services area and in the lack of development of e-participation.
4. We have also found in an advanced phase the social adoption of e-Government among the
population and the substitution of traditional channels by Internet. This cycle will affect all the
services and publics. The adoption is mostly for the services of general information about the
city, and for the electronic services aimed at companies and professionals, but as regards e-
services, a critical mass has not been reached yet among the general population.
5. In terms of the individual process of adoption, not only have relevant barriers not appeared so
that the itinerary can be fast, but the level of knowledge, predisposition to purchase, the rating
of experience, and the repeated purchasing augur promising results, if we act correctly in terms
of the variables of access, product and marketing. The reaction of the market towards digital
identification is still an uncertain issue that should be examined with greater attention.
With regard to the method, we have suggested that the process of adoption is an indicator of the
success of e-Government, not only in terms of its acceptance by the public it is aimed at, but also
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because it is the way for fulfilling the promises of effectiveness and efficiency and to better
recuperate the investment. The analysis of the diffussion of innovations are useful instruments for
knowledge and intervention. The phenomenon of Barcelona seems to confirm these hypotheses.
Finally, please allow us to make two observations. Throughout the analysis, there have appeared
for us some doubts about the concept of e-Government in itself and about the theorising of the
states of maturity, that we have not been able to explore here. We suggest that what is called e-
Government is basically an example of the processes of adoption and use of ICT inside and
outside organisations, and not a 'different' type or reality of Administration.
We also have doubts about the term 'model', which has perhaps been used with an excess of
liberty in the case of Barcelona, phenomenon responds to its reality, its history, its time and its
authors. There probably exist phenomenon, realities or practices, that may be worth observing for
different reasons and that respond to the communities of practice and to researchers to codify,
analyse or disseminate.
Therefore, with the above-mentioned limitations, we can conclude that the e-Government in
Barcelona is at an advanced stage of implementation, but maybe we can hardly call it either a
'model' or being-of 'e-Government'.
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Notes
1 José Ramón Rodríguez is Deputy Managing Director of the City Council of Barcelona, and Managing
Director of the Municipal Institute of Information technology. He is a collaborating professor in Information
Technology, Telecommunication and Multimedia studies from the Open University of Catalonia. The
author is grateful for the collaboration of Míriam Alvarado, of the Municipal Institute of Information
Technologies of Barcelona and Marc Garriga, of the Technical Department of Internet of the City Council
of Barcelona.2 OCDE, 2004. Chap. 1.3 Following the OCDE (2004), we use it here as synonyms.4 Cerrillo, 2006.5 Cerrillo, 2005.6 Borge, 2005.7 Sanromá, 2005.8 Eurocities, 2005.9 Commission, 2003.10 Juris, 2004; Castells, 2004.11 Cerrillo, 2005b.12 Turban et al., 2000.13 A very complete revision can be found in Cardona, 2003.14 It can be found in Fundación, 2006. Garcia, 2005. Esteves, 2005. Ciberpaís, 2006.15 Bouwman et al., 2005. Chap. 9.16 OCDE, 2005. Chap. 1.17 Booz, 2005.18 Castells and Ollé, 2004. Chap. 1.19 Castells, 2000.20 A recent description of the so-called 'Barcelona Model' can be found in Rodríguez, 2005 and Rodríguez,
2006.21 Castells and Ollé, 2004. Chap. 5.22 Idem. Chap. 6.23 Cardona, 2003.24 Booz, 2005.25 Fundación, 2006 (in collaboration with the University Carlos III). García, 2005 (in collaboration with the
University Pompeu Fabra) and Esteves, 2005 (Instituto de Empresa).26 Rogers, 2003, specially chap. 5 to 7.27 Kotler, 1997. Chap. 11.28 Bouwman et al., 2005. Chap. 1.29 Rogers, 2003. Agarwal, 2000.30 Kumar, 2000; Liao and Tow Cheung, 2001.31 See main sources in Figure 4.32 www.bcn.es/b-online (July 2006)
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33 Baskerville, 1999.34 Cardona, 2003. We specially follow the characterisation of Brum and Di Maio, from Gartner Group.35 Booz, 2005.36 Castells and Ollé, 2004. Chap. 5.37 Di Maio, 2005.38 Based on Himanen, 2001.39 www.bcn.es/b-online (July 2006). The future continuity of these adhoc programmes and investments
within the Public Administration is always uncertain, especially when these are promoted by specific
people. The suitable consolidation and evolution of the structures created and of the investment and their
impact on running costs would be an initial indication of the continuation and sustaining of the current
strategies in this field.40 McFarlan, 2003.41 De Quinto, 2006.42 www.bcn.es/orae (July 2006)43 Castells and Ollé, 2004. p.14444 The levels of interactivity of the services of the Administration with the citizens through Internet have been
defined by the European Commission in the eEurope 2005 programme in the following way:
Level 1 (T1): online information of the public services.
Level 2 (T2): interaction in one direction, downloading forms.
Level 3 (T3): two-way interaction: processing forms.
Level 4 (T4): complete transaction of the procedure: payment (if necessary), decision-making, etc.
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/2005/index_en.htm
The Procedures Portal incorporates information, and sometimes forms, from around 400 procedures from
different municipal Public Administrations.45 Comission, 2006.46 They will be available in the new 'Procedures Portal' under construction. Up until now Barcelona has
produced an option for the 'automatization' of the most simple procedures. Which as far as we can see
make up the main block of the demand for procedures of the citizens.47 They require legal modofications which are under way.48 Under construction.49 www.bcn.es/ajuntamentescolta/english (July 2006)50 www.bcn.es/accessible (July 2006)51 Bertran and Martí, 2006.52 See note 25.53 Cardona, 2003.54 Rogers, 2003.55 Agarwal, 2000.56 Liao and Tow Cheung, 2001.57 Kotler, 1997. Chap. 11.
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58 Bouman et al., 2005.59 OCDE, 2005; Booz, 2005.60 Castells and Ollé, 2004. Chap. 5.61 OCDE, 2005. Chap. 1.62 www.bcn.es/english/omnibus (July 2006)63 www.bcn.es/english/opinio/enquesta.htm (July 2006)64 ojdinteractiva.ojd.es (July 2006)65 See main sources in Figure 4.66 www.alexa.com (July 2006)67 City Council of Barcelona, 2006.68 City Council of Barcelona, 2005a.69 In January 2005, the latest date that we have information available, the enormous expansion of the use of
services of 2005 and 2006 hadn't been produced. Probably this figure is currently somewhat higher.70 Castells and Ollé, 2004.71 Figures of frequency provided by the Technical Department of Internet.72 Idem.73 To obtain the Traffic Rank the number of different visitors to each website is taken into account, as well
as the number of page requests and the number of websites that have a link to this website. Considering
these three figures, a relative (daily) position is obtained that orders the websites. With these figures a
ranking is produced that orders all the websites in the world based on the most relevant (#1).74 See note 70.75 City Council of Barcelona, 2005b.76 In the same table of multi-responses, the interviewee was shown a question which said: 'to obtain
information and procedures with the banks'.77 See sources in Figure 4.78 Includes BCNPIC figures
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