Intelligent Agents and the Teaching of E-Government

Over the last years, the public sector in Europe has proved to be extremely active in the implementation of information and communication technologies both in its internal activities and in its relationships with its interlocutors. Several pilot initiatives and projects have been started and the legislator has provided an effective support, especially as regards the regulation of electronic signatures and documents, electronic procurement, electronic protocol, and so on. Therefore, a need is strongly felt in order to enable civil servants and decision-makers – as well as the citizens and the industry to reach a common level of awareness and knowledge in relation to the new technologies, their applications in the Electronic Government and the legal consequences they imply. However, this should not only take into account consolidated tools, but also innovative ones, such as, for example, intelligent agents. The relationship between the teaching of E-Government and agents can basically be seen as twofold: on the one side, agents can be the subject of teaching; on the other side, they can be used as a sophisticated teaching tool. A particular area of interest on which teaching should be focussed is that of electronic public procurement, that is the on line purchase of goods and services by public administrations.